Ongaku: Asian Kung Fu Generation

It is finally time for me to get off my lazy butt and do some actually posting instead of bore you with my daily life. I thought that it had been a long time before I did an Ongaku post so let me get back on track with this.

For starters Asian Kung Fu Generation was one of the first Japanese bands I got into. I used to love the openings and endings to anime, but never quite thought to look into it deeper and listen to more of the bands music. Not until Naruto that is. If you do not know AFK did “Haruka Kanata” for Naruto. I remember hearing this song for the first time (watching the dubbed broadcast on CN) I was so obsessed with it that I went online and got it for myself and put it on my mp3 player. After which I began to dwell further into the genre of music and was not disappointed.

A bit about AFK though, they have been an active band since 1996, so these guys are not new to the business. They only did small venues until the year 2000 when they released their first indie EP of 6 songs sung in Englsh then after the falling year tried to get their first Japanese single “Kona Yuji” onto the indie radio shows.

The most recent full album out at the moment is “World World World” if I am not mistaken. After doing a bit of looking up though i found they have a new one coming out soon, “Surf Bungaku Kamakura” which is to be released November 5th 2008 according to Jpopkpop.net.

If you are interested on more info about AFK check out the full wiki here

A question to the readers. Have you ever heard of this band before? Also was there a certain song that got you into Japanese music in general like me?

Edit: For some weird reason this did not get posted.  I wrote the post out last night but it did not publish for some weird reason.  Oh well, here it is now.

Ongaku: Home Made Kazoku

Interesting Japanese hip/hop band I ran across. The main reason I found these guys was because of the song they did for Bleach “Thank you”. That is the song that originally got me hooked to these guys. I will admit that at first I really did not like the idea of listening to hip/hop. It has never been my taste in music. Though these guys made me have hope for the genre.

I decided to dig deeper and listen to more of their music and began to really like songs like “Home Sweet Home”, “Shounen Heart”, and even “On the Run”. All of these songs I have listened to over 50 times each according to Winamp before my computer issues recently.

Another thing I liked about this band was the happy like tune. A lot of music sounds, mad, depressed, sad and bring out those emotions as you listen, but whenever I hear these guys it tends to make me feel a bit happy XD. Hard to explain I guess, but for those who understand what I mean good job ^^.

I really like this band a lot and hope you will check them out some time, they certainly deserve a quick listen through. Specially if you are feeling a bit down on life.

For more info on the band check out their wiki: Home Made Kazoku Wiki

Ongaku: Maximum the Hormone

Been a while since I have done an Ongaku post….or an Idol post for that matter.  For now though I want to share a band with you that I have really liked for a long time now.  I heard about this band the same way most people did, Death Note.  Remember the second opening and ending, “Zetsubou Billy” and “Whats up People” the crazy metal music and screaming?  Yes, that was these guys.  I am not sure if you are into that type of music, but I did not think I was either till I sat down and really listened to them.

I have only heard one album by them, Buiiki Kaesu!.  Great songs on it though out of the whole thing there is only a few songs I do not like.  One of my favorites and the one that got me really into the band was “Chu Chu Lovely Muni Muni Mura Mura Purin Purin Boron Nururureroero” Super long song name huh?

For some reason that song makes me really happy when I hear it I cannot explain why.  Either way it is still an interesting band to check out if you are into a bit more…screaming rock music.  I hope to see more music from these guys in the future.

Here is a wiki I found about them if you are interested: Maximum the Hormone Wiki

Ongaku: Utada Hikaru

Most people would assume about me that I am more into the rock side of Japanese music.  Not true, I have a bit of a thing for Utada Hikaru and her style of music.  Ever since she released the Kingdom Hearts theme “Simple and Clean” in America everyone knows her name from that.  Though that is a great song of hers, she has MUCH better out there.  Utada is an amazing singer, and has a beautiful voice XD cannot stop listening to her.

Here is a bit of a condensed wiki of her more can be found here if you are interested.

Hikaru Utada (宇多田 ヒカル, Utada Hikaru^?, born January 19, 1983), also known by her fans as Hikki (ヒッキー, Hikkī^?), is a third culture singer-songwriter, arranger and record producer in Japan. She is well-known internationally for her two theme song contributions to Square Enix’s Kingdom Hearts video game series:”Simple and Clean” and “Sanctuary“, ^[1]

Utada’s debut album First Love became the Japan’s biggest selling album of all time with over 7.65 million copies sold in Japan alone to date. ^[2][3] The release of her later works only help her reign as one of Japan’s top artist, with 3 of her Japanese studio albums being ranked in Top 10 best-selling albums ever in Japan (#1, #4, #8)^[4]. She has had 12 #1 hits to date on the Oricon Singles chart, with two record for a female solo or group artist : 5 of them being million-sellers and 4 placing in the Top 100 All-Time Best-selling Singles. ^[5][6].

In addition, Utada has won the Nihon Golden Disk “Song of the Year” award for 14 of her singles since 2000 and has won the Golden Disc “Pop/Rock Album of the Year” award for all her 4 Japanese studio albums.^[7] In 2003, Utada was ranked the #24 Japanese pop artist in its survey of “Top 100 Japanese Pop Artists of All Time” by HMV,^[8] and #10 in HMV’s “Top 30 Best Japanese Singers of All Time” in 2006.^[9]

In 2007, her single “Flavor of Life” reached #2 in worldwide digital download yearly single chart with over 7.2 million downloads^[10] (the only non-American artist to hold such a distinction), and she sold a total of 12 million digital ringtones and songs in that same year, making her the first artist ever to have that many digital sales in a year’s time.^[11]