Archives For Music

BiBi Bounces Back

BiBi did a rendition of Mavis Fan & 100%’s Who Gives a Damn What Song Is On (管他什麼音樂) [MV] in a mash-up with ABBA’s Thank You for the Music that everyone loved landing her in the #2 position behind GEM.

Frankly, I wasn’t completely feeling her version of the Mavis Fan song, because- DUH! Mavis Fan sings it best. It’s an attitude, nothing about the voice. But I’m sick and tired of people complaining about BiBi- when I love her arrangement to highlight her voice, they say it’s boring. When she delivers this type of performance, they say she can’t sing. Worse yet! They complain her voice is nasal. WTF, BiBi’s voice is the complete opposite of nasal, people generally confuse it with a male’s voice!

Get a grip and take a chill pill.

Posted on March 16, 2014 In Celebrity, Chinese, English, Music, Rants, Sharing, Television , , , , , ,
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Sign Me Up for the Upcoming Shiina Ringo Concert Release

I was catching up with all my ‘to watch’ queue on YouTube which at some point had been inundated with Shiina Ringo thumbnails. After her split from Tokyo Jihen and the celebration of her debut 15 years ago, she’s releasing this gorgeous (and pricey) concert.

I was just marveling myself with the palest of pale queens and thought to myself that if I ever get to see her show live, I would probably cry. When Bjork was here for the first and only time, I remember tearing up a bit- the others I would tear up/cry for would be Shiina Ringo, Faye Wong… and BiBi, for sure.

It’s been ages since I last bought anything on HMV Japan.

Posted on March 9, 2014 In Celebrity, Clips, DVD/BR, English, Japanese, Music, Sharing , , , , , ,
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Kishi Bashi ‘Philosophizes’ for Lighght

March 5, 2014 — Leave a comment

A couple of weeks ago (maybe during the beginning of the year), I discovered Kishi Bashi and the amazingness that is his 151a album. He’s just announced his new album titled Lighght, and has supposedly released this new track titled Philosophize In It! Chemicalize With It! that I think is slightly different to the one included in his Philosophize! Chemicalize! EP last year.

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/131688244″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_artwork=true” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

In English, Fun, Music, Sharing , , ,
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Vidya and Tabu for Urumi

Normally… normally I wouldn’t turn down the opportunity to watch Vidya Balan and Tabu (together!) on a film, which is the case with Urumi (English complete title~ Urumi: The Warriors Who Wanted to Kill Vasco da Gama), but I just can’t shake the feeling that it’s gonna be more than two hours of cringe-worthy cartoon ‘demon-white’ colonialist with random musical numbers. I could maybe take it for two hours sans musical numbers and loads of pumping action fight sequences.

You can try it out even without subs.

Plus, it’s a Malayaman film, so I bet they’ve got their voices dubbed. As an alternative, I found their item songs. Though I’m unsure if Vidya has a more extensive role in the film, Tabu’s credit on IMDb lists it as a special appearance.

The original track song is called Aaranne Aaranne [clip], but the Telugu dub upload is much better for obvious quality reasons.

Vidya’s number after the break~

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Posted on February 27, 2014 In Celebrity, Clips, English, Films, Misc., Music, Sharing , , , , , , , ,
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Se Viene Shakira de la Vieja Escuela con Empire

February 25, 2014 — 3 Comments

I’ve been so disconnected from Shakira for so long. I still listen to her old albums, but that fandom fijacion that would have been is not there- that means I literally don’t know what’s new with Shakira. After the birth of her son, she’s making a comeback. The last single I sort of knew was Loba or She Wolf, so apparently it’s been less time since her last album.

Not a fan of Can’t Remember to Forget You, but her latest single Empire brought back all those Piez Descalzos and Donde Estan Los Ladrones vibes and feelings. Lyrics-wise still not there, but it’s okay.

All of a sudden interested on what’s coming up with her new album.

In Celebrity, English, Music, Sharing, Spanish , , , , ,
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BiBi Brings Back the Black Tangerine

BiBi placed last this episode. WHATEVER. I’ve already explained my opinion on people’s voting and how faulty the democratic system can be (specially on reality television and competitions). All that matters is that BiBi sang a GREAT arrangement of David Tao’s Black Tangerine (黑色柳丁).

It was around 9 years ago when my friend introduced me to David Tao via Ghost (鬼) and Black Tangerine, and I’ve never regretted it since. Then I discovered BiBi via the Beijing Olympics, learned about the Chinese music scene and the rest has been history. My relationship to Black Tangerine is a very strong one, and I’m usually not one for covers of great songs, but that was a great fresh arrangement. It was the song and it wasn’t — both at the same time. It was like listening to it once again and discovering it all over again.

That’s a great feeling to have.

It doesn’t matter if you placed last in this show, BiBi. You can very well go home knowing you did an amazing arrangement of a great song.

Posted on February 24, 2014 In Celebrity, Chinese, Clips, English, Music, Rants, Sharing, Television , , , , , , ,
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BiBi Does It ‘Slowly’

I have far too many audience discrepancy, it seems. For some reason, people believe that the performance I liked the least (an admittedly funny but kinda cringe-worthy latinesque rendition of The Little Tigers (小虎隊) Green Apple Paradise (青蘋果樂園)) has been BiBi’s best performance. Okay.

So far, BiBi’s managed to escape elimination, but she’s been quite inconsistent with her placing. She’s literally been all over. In here she’s in the bottom half with a rendition of Jacky Cheung’s Slowly (慢慢) that almost made people cry… once again.

Posted on February 1, 2014 In Celebrity, Chinese, Clips, English, Music, Sharing, Television , , , ,
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Happy Year of the Horse!

Happy Chinese New Year y’all!

Here’s my Voice of China 2 fave gurl Yao Bei Na singing an epic number for CCTV’s annual Spring Gala Festival, proving (once again) that The Voice of China voters don’t know how to vote. Such terrible exercises on the democratic system as well as the selected democratic system, LOL.

Other notable numbers on the 4hr show:

The performance by Attraction, the Hungarian shadow theater. If you ever wondered where Sophie Marceau was, she was celebrating the Chinese New Year in China with a performance of La Vie en Rose with Liu Huan [1], and the example of what Chinese people think is flexibility.

Also, there’s an official YouTube Channel for the Spring Festival Gala now.

Posted on January 31, 2014 In Celebrity, Chinese, Clips, English, French, Music, Sharing, Television , , , , , , ,
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BiBi for Mavis

Everyone is freaking crying. Tears rolling down their eyes because BiBi is performing a Mavis Fan song called Cried (哭了), and BiBi keeps bringing it vocally despite some fierce competition from Luo Qi (罗琦, dubbed China’s First Rock Girl) and her performance of I Look Forward To (我期待) [clip], as well as GEM’s own interpretation of Mavis’ I Want Us to Be Together (我要我們在一起) [clip].

I obviously have a bias. G.E.M’s performance was pretty good but the song is a rocking one to start. She kept it to the good standard and gave it a spin. People were bawling with BiBi’s performance. Performance-wise, I’ll take G.E.M and vocally, it’s gotta be my gurl.

My dad would’ve approved.

Posted on January 24, 2014 In Celebrity, Chinese, Clips, English, Music, Sharing, Television , , , , , , , ,
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Tabu Ranked

January 23, 2014 — 1 Comment

Two weeks before the end of the year, I was already done watching all the Rani Mukerji movies I could get my hands on [1], and by Christmas I had already devoured about ten movies with Tabu [1], casting her in my Joan Crawford Indian re-adaptations. So I’m pretty much done watching Tabu’s main basic filmography. I might have two or three more that I want to watch (Prem, Border and Khudam Kasam) that I’ve been able to locate with subtitles, while Kala Pani I haven’t been able to find in a subbed version.

Her alongside Rani and Vidya Balan are my current top contemporary Indian actresses. I wish the first two were as eager to get lead vehicles (nowadays) instead of supporting… like Tabu in the last decade! Be it a lead or supporting role, though, Tabu remains interesting and slightly girl-empowering.Ghaath and Hu Tu Tu (and to a degree: Aamdani Atthani Kharcha Rupaiyaa) had Tabu in a tux or sporting a short hair with a tomboy-ish attitude, urging people to be revolutionaries (or terrorists, depending on your POV), and doing all those sneaky subtly sex scenes in things like Maqbool (to a degree -though not hidden- in The Namesake), Ghaath, and definitely Astitva.

I was amazed at how consistently good she was even in poor vehicles like Hawa or Silsiilay. She’s also a straight-forward no bullshit kind of person. Even if you give her the best role to fit her schedule, if she doesn’t like you, she won’t work with you. That means she’ll probably never agree for a Lars Von Trier movie, and that Ang Lee is the best.

Also, there are two new Tabu movies coming up~ Jai Ho with Salman seems like it can be crap because Stalin (the Telugu movie it’s a remake of) was so, and I’m completely unable to stand Salman Khan except for Maine Pyar Kiya. Then there’s Haider by Vishal Bhardwaj, so that’s -at least- some kind of relief. That has got to be somewhat interesting, even if it turns out not superb.

*Updated Apr’16*

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In Celebrity, DVD/BR, English, Films, Misc., Music, Sharing, Torrents & Digital Streams , , , , , , , , , , ,
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