Lots of people have been wondering what’s up with the new Star Wars movie. Some have high expectations; some expect Disney to screw it up!
But, as my regular readers know, I work in the mass media and I have had access to a private viewing of the film ! Yes! I have seen it and Disney doesn’t disappoint!
Welcome friends! It’s time once again for the Cool & Strange Music Countdown!
Today, first up is a song that is definitely on the “Cool” category. It is Hexstatic. Hexstatic is an English electronic music duo that formed in 1997, that consists of Stuart Warren Hill and Robin Brunson. Hexstatic specializes in creating “quirky audio visual electro.” This is MOST definitely quirky. I think this is brilliant art! We will have more from these two in coming episodes!
#3) Hexstatic – Auto https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPrT0Fzzwsg
Next up is a “Cool and Strange Music” classic. It’s by a guy named Stan Freberg. Stan Freberg passed away earlier this year on April 7, 2015. Stan was an American author, recording artist, animation voice actor, comedian, radio personality, puppeteer and advertising creative director, whose career began in 1944. He remained active in the industry into his late 80s, more than 70 years after entering it.
Today’s pick is a Freberg classic. He had a knack for doing quirky and insanely funny TV commercials as well as music. In today’s pick up track, Stan Freberg does both voices of a couple in love who go through difficult times and tragedy as well as making up again…. All with ONLY Stan doing all the dialogue for both our lovers, John and Marsha, AND with only saying names only, he goes through and entire conversation of love, betrayal and reconciliation! The engineers who recorded this when Stan Freberg was in the studio must have either laughed hysterically or thought they were witnessing an insane man. It’s hilarious. Check it out. Listen carefully!
At #1 today is yodeler, Mary Schneider. Mary Schneider is an Australian singer, songwriter and performer, who is a master at the classic Swiss Alpine style, she is best known for yodelling the works of various standards by many a classic composer. Listen to this. There are parts of her yodel where I wonder how it is humanly possible to do this and still breathe? (Especially check at 1:49 and 2:15 and 3:12!)
Incredible!!!!! I’m gasping for air just listening to it.
Today we have a freebie for Cool and Strange Music! It’s two guys known as the “Fancs Brothers.” This is an incredible story. These two guys are NOT professional musicians but they work at an internet company! They just decided one day, “Hey! Let’s make some songs!” and so they did. This video production is by us at Robot55 (Ken Nishikawa did the work… I was snoring on the sofa in the studio!) It blows my mind that two guys, who aren’t musicians, can make such a great (and amusing song)…. Just goes to show how far “just having fun” really can take an artist or a band, no?
ファンコミュニケーションズの柳澤さん＆松本さん（ザ ファンクブラザーズ）の新しいミュージックビデオです！制作はROBOT55のKenとMike(ほとんどKenが働きMikeはソファで昼寝してたけど）ヒット間違いなしの良い曲です！是非みてください。The latest music video from the F@NCS Brothers. Production by Robot55 (Ken & Mike – Mike slept on the sofa – Ken edited) This is a funny parody of 1970s Japanese Folk Music!
ようこそ、渋谷一丁目一番地 〜Welcome to Shibuya, the street number one dash one〜
Time once again for the Top 3 Video Countdown! The Top 3 Indies Artists videos for Dec. 12, 2015.
First up is a band from St. Petersburg, Russia. One of the few bands that can crossover from the Top 3 Videos Countdown to the Cool and Strange Music Charts: Messur Chups (formerly known as Messur fur Frau Muller). This is Messer Chups with Chupacabra Twist. Here is their Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/messerchups/?fref=ts
At #2 is a band from the Midlands in the UK, called Lazyeye. They were introduced to us by Peter118. Thanks Peter. Their FB pages says they “Usually respond within an hour” so go write something to them and see if that’s true. Oh, and don’t bother checking the URL they have listed for the band, it doesn’t work. Here’s the Lazyeye FB: https://www.facebook.com/Lazyeyeonline/info/?tab=page_info
Wikipedia says, “Ringo Deathstarr is an alternative rock band from Austin, Texas, which channels such diverse influences as Fugazi, The Cure, The Smiths, My Bloody Valentine, and The Velvet Underground.” Ringo Deathstarr are currently touring Europe and Japan! Here’s their FB page: https://www.facebook.com/ringodeathstarr/?fref=ts
While we’re at it with the female fronted groups, we’re finally to this week’s Spotlight Artist and it’s my favorite all-girl Japanese Punk trio: Su Ko D Koi (also featured last week!) They just released their second album on Nov. 11, 2015 and have been performing at “In-Store” record shop events all over the place. I love this band! They need more FB likes! https://www.facebook.com/ssttddkk/?fref=ts
This is a classic of theirs from their former album. Both albums are fantastic! This is a video Ken Nishikawa and I made. Scroll down below the video to see the English lyrics! But it doesn’t matter if you don’t understand the lyrics! These girls are awesome!
ARTISTS! SEND ME YOUR NEW VIDEOS! I WANT TO HELP PROMOTE YOU!
These Top 3 Video posts are sometimes getting tens of thousands of hits per week. Need proof? Do a Google Search for “Top 3 Videos” or “Top New Artists Videos” and you’ll see Robot55 on page one! blowing away MTV, Billboard Magazine, Billboard, Niconico Douga and all the rest.
(Photo at top: July 25, 2002. Left to right: George Williams, Jack White, Mike Rogers (me) and Meg White)
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“Your regrets aren’t what you did but what you didn’t do. That’s why you have to take every opportunity.” – Cameron Diaz
“Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
Many years ago, in my wild eyed and bushy tailed youth (was it the late eighties, or the early nineties?) I was the director and co-host of a late-night smash hit radio show in Japan called, “Channel G” on InterFM.
Channel G was a radical radio show that was modeled after the radio shows I loved as a teen. There were three shows that I can really remember that I actually would rush home to listen to (people do that to watch their favorite TV show, but for a radio show?) The three I loved were: Rodney on the Roq on KROQ in Los Angeles (he’s still on today!) The Frazier Smith show, and the The Young Marquis and Stanley also on KROQ. (Click those links to listen to Frazier and Young Marquis!)
Newspaper article about The Young Marquis and Stanley
You can hear snippets of the Young Marquis and Stanley at the link above. Here’s a youtube for Frazier Smith. Hint: You can’t believe anything this guy says. Hilarious stuff!
Anyway… I digress….
This is about a radical radio show I made in Japan called Channel G that was modeled after my favorites when I was a teen and early 20-year-old and it’s about the White Stripes (namely Jack White).
Channel G played radical new music and alternative underground sounds. As with my show today, What the Funday, I believe it is my duty to introduce brand new music and brand new artists to the unsuspecting world way before anyone else does.
To that end, we used to play a new artists that no one had ever heard of at the time. Some of those artists we played became really famous; most just faded to oblivion. One of those artists we did play that became huge, was a guy and girl duo called, “The White Stripes.” We played them constantly.
One day, by some stroke of fate, before they were even remotely famous, the “White Stripes” came to the studio and were guests on the show. They were so thankful that we were playing them and that we allowed them as guests on the show. We were happy to have them!
The White Stripes were Jack and Meg White. Some people said they were married. I thought they were brother and sister. Never was able to clear that up (not that it matters.)
Anyhow, after the radio show interview, I got the chance to talk to Jack.
While chit chatting about the rich and famous Hollywood starlets that we both hobnobbed with regularity, the conversation came to a punk band that I was the lead vocal for in the late 1970s. Jack asked me the name of the band and when I told him, his eyes grew wide and he blurted out, “I bought your record when I was 13-years-old! I love that song! I still have that record!”
I was pleased as punch. Thank god for punk rock! I’ve had several people in my life tell me that sort of thing.
He asked me why we quit playing. I told him about the band and how we were “one-hit wonders” and popular for about six months; we shot up like a rocket to quick fame in early ’79. But, as they say, what goes up must come down; we crashed to oblivion just as fast.
I told Jack of my regrets.
Let me digress again, and relate to you the story of how my band crashed and burned. I told Jack:
“Sometime in the late 1970s, several months before the Sex Pistols came to America, the Nuns – or was the the Avengers? I can’t remember… (anyway the band that opened for the Sex Pistols in San Francisco) contacted us and wanted us to open for them in a big San Francisco show. Of course the guitarist and I wanted to do it… but those two idiots (Er, I mean, the bass player and drummer) said, “Oh, we can’t play that day because we promised our friends we’d go surfing with them.”
Seriously. They said that! Morons! That was effectively the end of our band; I will never forgive those two dimwits for that.
But, I’m the biggest idiot in this scene, though. If I knew then what I know today, I would have kicked their lame asses out of the band right then and there on the spot. Then Phester (the guitarist) and I would have went to S.F. and played by ourselves. I would have stuck a bass guitar in a trash can and we’d have grabbed any drummer.
But we didn’t kick them out and we didn’t go to S.F.
Big mistake. I will always regret that.”
Like it says at the top of this article:
“Your regrets aren’t what you did but what you didn’t do. That’s why you have to take every opportunity.”
Jack White listened to my story intently. Then he said something to me that I will never forget. He said,
“Mike! It’s better to have punked and lost, then to have never punked at all.”
Is that cool, or what? Thanks Jack White! What you told me made everything that had happened finally alright.
Friends! Live without regrets!!!!!
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It’s Dec. 8, 2015! In Japan, and in the USA (it’s Dec. 7 in America), that means today is “Pearl Harbor Day.” The anniversary of the day the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor! So that also means it’s time for me to “drop some real ‘bombs,’ hits and misses,” with the “Cool & Strange Music Countdown.”
Cool and Strange music isn’t just turds on the turntable! Sometimes the Cool & Strange music does include some cool tunes. For example, Dave Brubeck just passed away yesterday (R.I.P.) and his music can definitely be considered “Cool” – Dave Brubeck will be on the countdown someday, I promise! So don’t judge a book by its cover…. So, let’s get into our first song today; and this song is waaaaay cool.
At #3 is Messer Fur Frau Muller. Messer Fur Frau Muller is a duo from St. Petersburg, Russia. The band was founded by well-known guitarist and multi-talented composer and musician, Oleg Gitarkin with Oleg Kostrow. Messer Fur Frau Muller translates into “A knife for Mrs. Miller.” Today they perform as trio known as Messer Chups and they will most certainly be on the Cool and Strange Music Countdown in days and months to come. Go and “Like” the Messer Chups Facebook page. You can thank me later. (https://www.facebook.com/messerchups/)
#3) Messer Fur Frau Muller- Best Girl from USSR https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7ImFwXARf0
At #2 is an Elvis Presley impersonator from Sweden known as Eilert Pilarm. Pilarm is off-key and off-tempo, but could arguably be the most famous Elvis presley impersonator in the world. He released several records imaginatively titled Elvis I, II and III before signing to a label, which issued Greatest Hits in 1996. The world-famous DJ, John Peel, played Eilert Pilarm often and it was something of a Peel favourite. Eilert Pilarm has sold over 1 million records. Listen to this version of Jailhouse Rock. Hilarious… And, after many listens, it begins to sound, “right”… You’ll see.
This week’s #1 is Zlad. Zlad is the brain-child of Santo Cilauro who is an Australian television and feature film producer, screenwriter, actor, author, comedian and cameraman; he is also an author and former radio presenter on the Triple M Network, and achieved worldwide fame with the viral video Elektronik Supersonik. This is pure genius. Check out the tortured English including new lexicon such as”offblast”, “downsplash” and “bestest.” Today, this is the even bestest video of today you will have seen today!
Time once again for the Top 3 Video Countdown! The Top 3 Indies Artists videos for Dec. 5, 2015.
First up is a brand new band from Merthyr Tydfil in Wales (I’d pronounce it for you, but you already got it, right?). Here’s 4 young guys in a band named “Pretty Vicious.” They are hot! Go check their Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/Prettyviciousuk/?fref=ts
At #2 is a band named Beck Black. Their webpage describes them as a “…a Bluesy Punk Rock n Roll experience, based out of Los Angeles, California.” This really reminds me of something that Siouxsie Sioux might have conceived – and that’s a huge compliment! Here’s their Facebook too: https://www.facebook.com/beckblackmusic/
At the top of this week’s chart is another group from Los Angeles. It’s an all-girl group named “No Girlfriends.” Both “No Girlfriends” and the previous “Beck Black” were turned onto us by Kona Cindy. Thanks, Cindy! Yeah, here’s the FBpage for No Girlfriends: https://www.facebook.com/NoGirlfriendsBand/?fref=ts
While we’re at it with the female fronted groups, we’re finally to this week’s Spotlight Artist and it’s my favorite all-girl Japanese Punk trio: Su Ko D Koi (Don’t worry if you can’t pronounce it, nobody else can either). They just released their second album on Nov. 11, 2015 and have been performing at “In-Store” record shop events all over the place. I love this band! They need more FB likes! https://www.facebook.com/ssttddkk/?fref=ts
ARTISTS! SEND ME YOUR NEW VIDEOS! I WANT TO HELP PROMOTE YOU!
These Top 3 Video posts are sometimes getting tens of thousands of hits per week. Need proof? Do a Google Search for “Top 3 Videos” or “Top New Artists Videos” and you’ll see Robot55 on page one! blowing away MTV, Billboard Magazine, Billboard, Niconico Douga and all the rest.
Well it’s the end of the year and that means time for lots of parties and get-togethers. It’s also time for me to ressurect the weekly Cool & Strange Music Countdown… Countup… Whatever.
Why is the end of the year the best time for the revival of the Cool & Strange Music Countdown? That’s easy! Year end means, like I said, lots of parties and get-togethers. And parties and get-togethers means that you are going to have a bunch of people drinking and partying at your house and they just won’t leave!
How do you clear the room and get everyone to go home? Play the Cool & Strange Music Countdown for your party animals and friends and just watch how quick the room clears out! Of course! As soon as they hear the Cool & Strange Music Countdown tracks, they’ll be out of there faster than that slob of a politician Chris Christie signing up for free tickets to an All-You-Can-Eat Butter convention!
Ah! Immediate peace and quiet!
Since this is the first, I’d like to slide dear reader into the marvelous tracks slowly… We’ll get real weird later on. But today, first up is Mrs. Miller! Mrs. Miller is probably one of, if not thee classical “Strange music” vocalist. Mrs. Miller sang in an untrained, Ethyl Mermanesque, vibrato-laden style. Miller’s voice has been compared to the sound of “roaches scurrying across a trash can lid.” Nevertheless, “Downtown” reached the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in April 1966, peaking at No. 82. The single’s B-side, “A Lover’s Concerto,” barely cracked the Hot 100 that same month at No. 95. She has also, by the way, sold more than a million records! So just let that sink in for a minute!
So, OK, you laughed at Mrs. Miller, did you? Ha! I wish I could sell a million records.
The next guy up is another Cool & Strange Music standard. His name is Ray Stevens. Stevens, is an American country and pop singer-songwriter and comedian. He has also won Grammy Awards for two super pop hits he made in the sixties; “Everything Is Beautiful” and “Misty.” But I loved his funny tunes such as today’s “Gitarzan.” Ray Stevens been inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, the Georgia Music Hall of Fame, and the Christian Music Hall of Fame; and received Gold Albums for his music sales. Wow! Listen carefully to the lyrics of Guitarzan. This is hilarious!
Well, folks, don’t get spoiled because usually these Cool & Strange Music Countdown hits will usually never have a proper music video like Guitarzan. But….. are you sitting down? Guitarzan hit #8 on the Billboard Hot 100 Charts in April of 1969! So now you know why there is a video.
Finally, today, we’re at one of the most bizarre songs ever to grace the record books of the Cool & Strange Music Countdown: Barnes & Barnes – Fish Heads. Barnes & Barnes is a fictional twin brothers unit of Art Barnes and Artie Barnes and they are a comedy rock duo based in “Lumania”, a fictional mythological civilization (similar to Atlantis). Does Billy Mumy sound familiar to you? Billy Mumy was Will Robinson in the the classic American sixties TV series, “Lost in Space.”
Barnes & Barnes – Fish Heads? This is some weird stuff! I love it!
We’re back one day early for this week’s Top 3 Videos! The Top 3 Videos for the Week of Nov. 27, 2015. Happy Thanksgiving (if you are doing that sort of thing!) If not, then have a happy Friday!
First up today is a band from Seattle and they describe themselves as a “post-punk trio.” Here is a band called, “Wimps.” LIke it? Go “Like” their FB page! (https://www.facebook.com/thesewimps/?fref=ts)
Next up is a band named “Ringo Deathstarr.” Wikipedia says, “Ringo Deathstarr is an alternative rock band from Austin, Texas, which channels such diverse influences as Fugazi, The Cure, The Smiths, My Bloody Valentine, and The Velvet Underground.” “Fugazi, My Bloody Valentine, and The Velvet Underground?!” Say no more! Ringo Deathstarr are currently touring Europe and coming to Japan soon! Here’s their FB page: https://www.facebook.com/ringodeathstarr/?fref=ts
At #1 this week is one of Japan’s best bands and one of my very favorites! The Neatbeats! I call them the Japanese Beatles and that’s a massive compliment. On Monday, they begin a tour of Spain! Neatbeats into Europe and beyond!
And now this weeks special “Spotlight Artist” and our Freebie tune. Introducing a hot band from Palermo Italy named “Utveggi.” Utveggi’s Facebook page describes this 5-piece group as an “Alternative Rock” unit. I think this is hot! If you do too, go “Like” their FB page: )https://www.facebook.com/Utveggi)
Currently they are touring Japan and you can check them out on my radio show, “WTF?” (What the Funday?) this Sunday, Nov. 29, 2015 from 8 am ~ 11 am on InterFM 897. You can also check them out on www.radiko.jp.
Spotlight Artist: Utveggi – Il Trucco https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_U0go5KvIk
Well, that’s it for today! See you next week!!!!! Have a great weekend! – Mike (in Tokyo) Rogers
ARTISTS! SEND ME YOUR NEW VIDEOS! I WANT TO HELP PROMOTE YOU!
These Top 3 Video posts are sometimes getting tens of thousands of hits per week. Need proof? Do a Google Search for “Top 3 Videos” or “Top New Artists Videos” and you’ll see Robot55 on page one! blowing away MTV, Billboard Magazine, Billboard, Niconico Douga and all the rest.
