This is so entertaining on so many levels. Watching this was like a rollercoaster ride of respect and laughter. High waisted pant, SNAP juggling hilarity aside Japan was one of the first foreign countries to really "get" hip hop culture. Anyone named GRAND MASTER YOSHI definately deserve some props, but damn! Time has a nasty sense of humour! Thankfully those pants paved the way for shit like this...
For any Brisbane peeps...I'm DJing this Friday (DJ L.A.M.E.) @ the "Step Inn" (ugh.. aka the Shamrock) cnr of St Pauls Terrace & Brunswick St Fortitude Valley.
Should be a really fun night of noizy eclectic craziness... TOXIC LIPSTICK's last show before they return to Japan via several shows accross Europe + ANAL COOKIE, POTATO MASTER & SUCKAPHISH. I'll be playing a ridiculous mix of OLD ANIME THEMES / 8 BIT / BOOTY BASS / GRIME / DUBSTEP / BREAKCORE and whatever else my drunk ass pulls out of the crates on the night.
Just got this vid in an email from MITSURUGI (aka DAN). Starts out as a normal game of Kung Fu Master and then it turns into a mashup of lots of classics. Very cool! Thanks man!!!
More 8-Bit sunshine to brighten up your day. This is YMCK's "Go YMCK, Go!" from their "FAMILY RACING" ALBUM. And here's the "Magical 8-Bit Tour" clip again...
I've been meaning to post about one of my favourite manga /anime titles "GEGEGE NO KITARO" for over a year now and after hearing about the release of a blockbuster live action movie adaptation in Japan I figure it's about that time...
KITARO started as a highly successful children's "YOKAI" manga in the late 50's. At the time, the yokai genre was very popular with the kids in post-war Japan and KITARO was one of many monster manga. YOKAI are basically ghosts & goblins of Japanese folk lore that come in all sorts of crazy variations from one-eyed umbrellas that follow people to beautiful women with hideous monster mouths hidden on the back of their heads. Most of them are more amusing than disturbing.
KITARO is a kind of 1/2 yokai boy who was born in a graveyard. He has a big emo fringe that covers an empty eye socket where his father, MEDAMA OYAJI (Literally "Eyeball Daddy") likes to hang out when he isn't bathing in a rice bowl full of boiling water. KITARO's powers include shooting spikes out of his hair and magical GETTA (Japanese wooden sandles) that he can launch at enemies. He works with his gang of YOKAI friends to stop bad YOKAI from terrorizing the human world.
More often than not, the trouble has something to do with KITARO's mischevious best friend "NEZUMI OTOKO" ("Rat Boy"). His other main sidekicks are "NEKO MUSUME" ("Cat Girl"), who chases Rat Boy at any given chance, and the coolest ghost in the world (besides BOO & the PACMAN ghosts), "ITTAN MOMEN" a really long piece of cloth with eyes and arms who can fly KITARO and friends around on his back.
It's a classic manga with lots of the humour and spooky charm you would expect from a character like author/illustrator SHIGERU MIZUKI. He's like the creepy but loveable, crazy one-armed storytelling Grandpa of Japan.
After the huge success of the manga, an anime series was produced in the 60's followed by another in the 70's, again in the 80's, another in the 90's and according to wikipedia, there's another one on the way this year. KITARO's also starred in a few video game iterations over the years. I managed to pick up a very cute but very freakin difficult SNES game in Akihabara but don't think I ever cleared the 2nd level!!
GEGEGE NO KITARO SNES GAME
Apart from some cult popularity in a few countries like Spain where a dubbed version made it to tv in the 80's, KITARO has never really made it outside of Japan. With it's traditional monsters and Japanese humour it's creator never imagined it would interest foreign viewers and the fact that none of the series or their many spinoff animated features have been released on dvd to date means there isn't alot available online either.
Hopefully, all that is about to change. Following the huge success of TAKASHI MIIKE's excellent 2005 film "YOKAI DAISENSO" ("THE GREAT YOKAI WAR" See poster above left) which featured many of the yokai made famous by KITARO including a cameo by MOMEN, not to mention the fact that KITARO is firmly rooted in Japanese Culture with the KITARO MUSEUM in MIZUKI's hometown of SAKAI MINATO remaining a very popular tourist destination, the inevitable has happened. A big budget live action GEGEGE NO KITARO movie (See poster top right) has been released and apparently it's killing it at the box office.
GEGEGE NO KITAROU LIVE ACTION MOVIE TRAILER (SORRY - NO SUBS) Check out the beautifully put-together film website HERE
Hopefully KITARO Fever will pick up again and we'll finally see the anime come out on DVD. In the meantime, here's one of a few episodes available on YouTube from the 80's anime. It's not the best introduction into the show, but for the curios... check it out. And when you're done, scroll down and grab the mp3 of the themesong from the 60's version. (The best version!)
The man like AOI continues to melt headphones & explode backpacks all over Brisbane with his critical beatdowns. This instrumental jam has been on daily rotation for me lately. Words fail me right now but don't sleep on this kid. Check his myspace at the link above for some more mp3s. Hopefully some of this shit will make it to vinyl in the near future.
I picked up the 7" of "SIRENS"...the first single off DIZZEE RASCAL's new LP "M4THS & 3NGL1SH" about a month ago. If you havent' heard it already, it's a big oldschool sub-bass, guitar stab & (duh) siren filled monster that gets borderline "rage against the machine" (that's not a good thing people!) at the end but manages to escape being too cheezy. I like.
And in the same month, WILEY released his follow up to "TREADING ON THIN ICE". "I've been listening to the promo of "PLAYTIME IS OVER" for a few weeks now and it's sounding real nice. WILEY's production just gets better & better and this album plays great from start to finish. Here's one of the more bangin' tracks, "GANGSTERS". I'm buying this as soon as I can get my hands on the vinyl. It's out on BIG DADA.
Courtesy of the elusive morebetterthanyou blog (I've lost the new link)... Kiiiiiii are two crazy Japanese girls who now how to make incredibly addictive fun noisy melodic music with style. Here's the mp3
