Archives For Music

Whenever I think about Joseph Kahn, I… well, now I think about stupid Torque, while my friend complained that he paid to watch the film and fell asleep. Yup, Torque’s one of those film I try to block for the sake of the Kahn – because the Kahn is a pretty kick-ass music video director.

Before I ever EVER turned into the teenage girl that knew (and still knows) the lyrics to the Backstreet Boys songs, and before the Kahn blew me away with Everybody (Backstreet’s Back) — which remains my dad’s fave BSB song and  video. MY DAD who rocks xD — before all of that, I was blown away by Brandy and Monica’s The Boy is Mine. Not because I knew the lyrics… I didn’t. I didn’t know English then~ I just looked at them and doing the sing-off which I didn’t understand, and watched the clips of the video on Frecuencia Latina’s Ayer y Hoy. I found it fascinating.

Of course, then I got cable… and I got MTV, and I became a BSB fan and learned English. And Everybody (Backstreet’s Back) is a bloody good pop music video. Of course it’s got tinges of Michael Jackson, that’s why it’s so good. Mind you, Nick’s mummy , Brian’s werewolf, Howie’s vamp and AJ’s Phantom are kinda lame, but Kevin’s Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde more than make up for anything. And that group sync dance, ahh… they don’t make them like that no more.

Watch the HD version (only US), or the regular version.

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Zac is totally playing a Peruvian Cajon, eh?

And Taylor is still so so purty. xD

And Isaac’s grown out of his awkward stage. xD

This is the best type of Hanson.

[iframe width=”480″ height=”385″ src= “https://www.youtube.com/p/A4E82C0BDD3FB09E?hl=en_US&fs=1”]

LOL it reached over 70 comments in just a few hours. It was crazy coming back home and seeing my inbox filled with LiveJournal replies. And here it is, the old article on YAM008 “Where is the CPop Scene Going?”

Check out the LJ discussion here.

What Are Good Lyrics?

October 5, 2010 — 4 Comments

Ah… English, such a direct language. I often have discussions with people about the nuances of the different languages. Friends tell me that French and Italian are great for flirting, and my mom keeps telling me that different dialects in Chinese have so many words to describe food flavors, impossible to describe in Spanish or English.

The Beautiful Language.

However, what about songs?

My favorite songs, my favorite artists in English — 99% of the time, I try not to find the lyrics any longer. Whenever I have enjoyed the songs, looked for the lyrics, 90% of the time I’ve ended up disappointed.

My first language is Spanish, however, I often find myself thinking in English – so, whenever I listen to music in Spanish, my brain begins translating lyrics into English. The repertoire of songs that I actually like in Spanish tend to be songs that are hard to translate literally into English.

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Julz knows I’m not really big on SHINee, even though a lot of people I know have been telling me how much they liked Lucifer… I haven’t listened to it yet – I only need to stream it, but haven’t done it yet. LOL However, since Twitter timeline is filled with Julz tweets and re-tweets, and I saw the SHINee video on my YouTube updates, decided to check it out.

Hello is like… strawberry cheesecake. It’s cheese, it’s sweet like cake, and it has pink/red strawberries. I have no idea why dude is the only in a room, but I dig the whole strawberry cheesecake dancing in the street.

Funny thing, while voting yesterday, I ran into the friend who helped with with the romanization of the lyrics of their Me and your Borderline album. Today I find they’ve come back.

After nearly 2 years and a half, Japanese rock band LAST ALLIANCE will be releasing their new album Keep on Smashing Blue on October 27th. Their new single and video WING is directed by Niwa Takayuki (丹羽貴幸) and features professional boxer Tsuchiyama Naozomi. The band doesn’t even show up in the video, which is unusual in Japanese music videos.

I have a bias against Jrock — but not as bad as against Jpop — It might sound bad for me to say this, but I often find myself saying stuff like “it sounds too much like anime music” which isn’t bad, as some songs are actually quite catchy and/or good enough to add to your iPod. LAST ALLIANCE actually sounds kind of okay… obviously, my friend is a bigger fan.

WING fits that “the song is kinda good”, it certainly has a nice energy to it, and despite the actual concept for the video and trying to do something different and setting LA apart, I think the video’s biggest shortcoming was editing. Believe me, I have the same issues when having upbeat songs – I keep shots for too long, it sucks the energy out of it.

Moi et le funky musique~~~

October 3, 2010 — 1 Comment

So… today it’s voting Sunday. And I’ve also setup my About page… and got rid of my Favorites page because… well, it seemed redundant to have two pages about me. LOL

In case you missed the post in which I talked about my taste in film, this is a similar post that talks about my history… or lack of history with music.

When I was about 7, my dad opened a Karaoke bar (how Asian, non?). But by then, I had already grown up with the likes of the music of La Nueva Ola (the new wave) — you know, the type of Rock n’ Roll from The King… Jailhouse Rock or Houndog but in Spanish. My favorite tunes were probably La Plaga (the plage, the Spanish version of Little Richard’s Good Golly, Miss Molly), and La Mantequilla (the butter, the Spanish version of Cliff Richard and the Shadows’ Move It).

Of course, I was a little kid going to Chinese/Peruvian school, so my repertoire also included the Cantonese Counting Song Yat Yi Sam, as well as the counting Elefantes song… as well as the Sukiyaki song. So from the very beginning… I had a predisposition for all types of music in many different languages.
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I was waiting for the official Leehom upload. UMPH.

There’s nothing wrong with some groping in artsy black and white.

[iframe src=”https://www.yinyuetai.com/video/player/80494/v_0.swf” width=”480″ height=”334″]

Check out the YouTube version, though it might be blocked by Sony in your country.

I don’t know if anyone’s noticed this, but Leehom’s been looking ageless for a few years now. Of course, you can attribute this to the Asian genes – you know we Asians look ageless… at least until we hit 60, or so Lainey says. I am waiting for my aunt to turn 60 in a couple of years, and test her theory.

I met my friend after year and a half, with her new beau. Me and her beau are the same age, and she’s a bit younger – he asked, how old I was and we figured we were the same age to which my friend said “she doesn’t seem her age, does she?” I still get carded, and last time I renew my ID, the woman there asked me whether I was getting a new ID or a minor’s ID. LOL

And alas~~~ I read Lee Hom says he prefers older women, so my cousin has better chances xD

Didn’t love the Britney episode. Heather Morris can dance, but not dance and sing. My fears were confirmed – Brittany’s on-liner awesomeness is too much to handle on one episode. I couldn’t even laugh that her name is Brittany S. Pearce. And despite her having a great performance on Slave 4 U — inlcuding VMA 2001’s Birmanian python, yup I watched a lot of Discovery Kids as a kid — I just didn’t care.

Actually, Brittany and DentistStamos was just… so awkward. LOL Same with Me Against the Music.

My fave of the night was Toxic at the assembly because it was the only song included in the storyline without drug-inducing the characters… and Artie’s Stronger – sound-wise – it was the most like the original song. But yay! Emma and Terry are back!

I didn’t find any particular quotable quote, but here’s the line that reminded me of the WB’s Popular with April Tuna, Emory Dick. I’m pretty sure Ryan Murphy is the only man on American television that’s constantly using the word “frottage” on national/international tv.

Becky: Hey, Coach! The Glee Club is doing Britney Spears for the assembly, I just found out.
Sue: Becky, you’re on Red Alert. If you see any awkward teenage frottage perform that citizen’s arrest we practice.

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I’m taking a wild guess here, I’m really confused with all the nicknames in the comments, but I’m guessing Southsideirish is Bill (you can change your name in the Intense Debate profile, you know xD), so… I finally took time to watch 2NE1’s presentation he recommended – in… Sketchbook?

Plus, I also took some time to listen to their debut album, and like I commented when they released their 3 singles, I’m giving the album a passing grade already. However, I’m doing so just barely. I’m giving them a 3/5, which is more than I could say for the likes of Rain or even Taeyang. xD But why is that? After all, I did love Try to Follow Me and Clap your Hands. I’m all over those two, and I’m partial to Go Away and Can’t Nobody. The rest of the album? It just sort of felt kind of bland, and I’m not counting the remixes. Can’t Nobody is so processed that I can’t even understand what they are saying, and if I give Kanye flack for it, I’m giving 2NE1 flack for it too. LOL

2NE1 defends themselves vocally, but they’d better be prepared when autotune begins wearing out. I am not convinced they could kill it vocally, or in a 100% full-on Michael Jackson-worthy choreography. 2NE1 is cool, it’s fun, but I don’t think I can see them here once Bom and Dara hit 30.

Give me a performance where 2NE1 kills it Acapella style a la Acapella Candy Man from Brown Eyed Girls, and I’ll eat my words. Same with the dudes of Big Bang – I know Daesung can sing – but can all of them kill an Acapella performance together as Big Bang?

And… is it me, or is Minzy the lovechild of Daesung and G-Dragon? There, I said it.