Archives For new music

I’ve seen a better more fun Clap your Hands video. LOL

The Ting Tings is another group that I liked in… 2008? Their debut was one of my fun albums of that year, thought that’s worn out due to overexposure as well. Very much like Maroon 5, The Ting Tings’ suffered from That’s not my Name exposure… with a bit of Shut Up and Let me Go. But “not my name” was  everywhere, the duo was even included in the first few episodes of Japanese drama Sunao ni Narenakute (aka. Hard to Say I Love You) earlier this year. By that time, I was already fed up.

But here they are, preparing for a new album. And their YouTube Vevo page is not letting me stream their videos, so F U. I’m posting some other source. I’m tired of them not letting me stream content.

Ahh, that’s how I like my commercial pop. Slick and spoon-fed to me. It’s super surprising to see 2NE1 releasing 3 singles at a time — with music videos and promotions. From this 3 singles and the early Try to Follow Me, I can guarantee passing marks for the album already without listening to it yet. xD

I have to admit, however, LOVED Clap your Hands as a song. Liked Go Away as a video, and by the third Can’t Nobody, I was beginning to feel tired… but by the middle of the song I was at it again. It’s something about these girls — how old are they anyway? They must be in their 15s it feels — having fun. It’s hilarious to see them playing around.

First impressions~

Clap your Hands, I must admit… gave me a bit of a reggaeton vibe (in the fake forest scene, what’s up with that? Came out of nowhere… xD That’s CL, right? Haven’t learned their names, ha!) – it’s the autotune, the instrumentation, and the whole production – but the fact that I can’t understand what they sing about, and they look completely adorable and cool at the same time, it makes me take in the song in a whole different way. It’s slightly disturbing seeing them saying “let me rock your body” while swinging their hips that way.

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Ah, I knew I had heard about Jiang Yingrong before. And of course, I had. It was that time I was passionately discussing the state of Cpop as commercial pop compared to commercial pop in America, and commercial pop in S.Korea — I don’t think I discussed Jpop.

Anyway, Jiang Yingrong won last year’s Supergirl (yeah, that same contest that found us Chris Lee, BiBi and Jane Zhangthankyouverymuch), and it just goes to show you the changing tides in the cpop scene. In her third single Bad Angel (aka. Hui Tian Shi – but, you know, Bad Angel is so much easier), she looks a little bit Zhao Wei, a little bit Rihanna, and a little bit Natalie Portman on V Mag by Mario Testino — yeah, I just pulled that out because I know a lot of NP’s photoshoots…
plus, you know, it’s Testino. xD

She sounds a little too electronic on it too, so you won’t be able to judge much.

Not really feeling Bad Angel, but I really REALLY dug her first single (was it the first? or second?) titled Ba Wo Ni de Mei… or you know, subbed – Seize your Beauty. It’s really catchy, and the hook “everything” line is funny. Everysing xD Everysing.

If you know me, you probably wouldn’t think that I’d be a fan of Milk@Coffee, why? Because Milk@Coffee is happy poppy simple music. My friends think it sounds like children’s music. Obviously, they have that certain vibe because the female part of this duo, Kiki, sounds like a little kid singing, and the music in itself sounds very playful and catchy. However, looking into the songs, they reveal a certain maturity.

Of course you’ve got catchy favorites like Wo Bu Shi Rock n’ Roll (I’m not Rock n’ Roll), the wacky Curry Coffee, or Burn! Little Universe, and Yi Qi Lai (Together). However, there’s also songs like The Older the Lonelier – you gotta admit that’s a really REALLY sad title – or Accustomed to Loneliness. How about the most off-beat of their songs? The Zhongguo Feng-styled (traditional Chinese sounding) Die Lian Hua.

In this new single titled No Time — the album will be out by September… in a mayor label, so Milk@Coffee is no longer indie –, they seemed to have struck a balance with that maturity and the catchy. Yes, No Time sounds like a kid’s song, but it talks about a thing kids will never mind until they grow up a bit. How many of you keep telling the people you know that you don’t have enough time to do something. It’s a tale as old as… well, time.

The begins with a minute of various celebrities saying what they lack time for.  “I am __” they say, “I have no time for ____”.  These neglected activities include listening to music, dating, losing weight, studying abroad, visiting relatives,  having kids, and so many other commonplace ones that every listener should hear one they too pushed back at one point. The spoken introduction ends abruptly with Laure Shang saying: “My name is Shang Wenjie. I have no time to record whatever this is for you”.

via Cfensi.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOkMEpOQRJg

Hi, guys!

YAM011 is almost done. The Lima Film Fest ends tonight, so I’ll be closing the issue — hopefully on time, for a release on the 15th at 00.00hr. My timezone, not yours. GMT -5, FYI.

While I was writing the editor’s note — and addressing everyone on the Facebook group — I wondered what to call YAM readers. I thought YAMMIES would be nice, but then the Urban Dictionary told me those are tits/knockers. But then again, Penn & Teller said that pretty much any noun in plural can mean knockers. LOL Watermelons, lemons, air bags. There you go, wouldn’t be much of a difference.

So… then I thought about YAMMERS, but that can’t be good, right? So maybe YAMMIES is fine. Sounds a bit like “jammies” because you know… I’m a Spanish speaker. To me, the sound of a Y with a vowel, and the sound of a J with a vowel is the same. When I first moved to Canada, Yellow and Jello were the same to me. Well, I still can’t get it right. Frak.

Anyway, it’s getting late. I just wanted to post the streams to some of the albums we are reviewing and rating in the new edition of YAM. Not all, but most of them~ Thank you, Xiami ;P

* denotes that they have a written review.

Anyway, happy listening! Off to zzzz. Busy day today.

Ahhh… I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with BoA. Why? I know she can perform, I know she can dance… but for the love of me, I can’t stand most her pop music. My friend liked her a lot, and I wanted to like her… but I never could get into her.

Now, if only BoA and Hyori could make up one person. She’d be Queen of the world. LOL

Now, call me crazy and what not, but BoA with this blond hair, and wacky clothing. I swear to god, she looks exactly like Hyori in some of those shots. It’s crazy. I was even thinking to myself that it couldn’t be because “not all Asians look alike,” but GOSH. Anyway, not gonna say that I’m crazy about this video — I mean, compared to I Eat You Up which is a very silly song… Game lacks a bit of HMPH.

Seems like everyone’s making a comeback. What is it? Comeback year?

I’m all messy with my MV post titles – I usually put “original title pronunciation (with English translation)” it’s that way on my iPod anyway… but here, I post English titles sometimes because original titles are complicated, or sometimes just refer to them with their original titles because the English sounds silly.

I’m conflicted with Mad Love or Ai Fang. LOL

Anyway, I’m just posting Mad Love because I wanted to post Fu Xin Han — there you go, another example of naming. I just don’t know how to translate that xD Attached-Heart Man? See, that sounds a bit silly. However, the commercial pop video – I had a big discussion on commercial pop the other day – it looks promising for the cpop scene.

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Thank you, J-Melo – The Oreskaband performance was pretty awesome.

I was zapping, when their sound caught my ear, so I went back to NHK. They sounded like Gwen Stefani had gotten together with the guys of Reel Big Fish, had some extra fun with Swing Girls, and ended up with a lovechild in Oreskaband.

And I’m always game for some Ska. And, OMG PAPAYA! I totally kept hearing “Papa Para Papaya” which in Spanish means “Dad for Papaya” LOL but I think the lyrics go “Papaya ga suki da Papaya” LOL and in their “Shake it up, baby” I keep hearing “Shaking a baby” which is even funnier.

https://youtu.be/4X-AzxiRgM8

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How old is Se7en supposed to be? I feel like he should be contemporary of Bi Rain, but he looks as young as the “younger” DBSK, Big Bang, 2PM, 2AM and every other goddamn K-pop boy band released in the past 3 or 4 years.

Okay, having said that… did anyone else thought of Europop when listening to the song? I mean, the song it’s okay – but okay only. It’s too much autotune from the beginning, and the choreography is okay. I dunno if I’m being too “gay” now, but the women in K-pop are kicking k-pop “boys”  butt lately. Hyori and Narsha alone look so much cooler than Bi and Se7en.

Like I told Julz now, I like BEG. xD Well, I liked GaIn better in the Abracadabra video, which I spent all weekend listening to. However, I also listened to Narsha’s new mini album… which was pretty ok.

This video, however, wow… is this a nominee for Most Use of Hair Styles or what??? xD I’m not gonna say I love it, but I’m probably gonna be caught humming it — just like I say Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Hyori style now.

You know what I like now? I like that the Kpop music scene is keeping the worldwide pop scene in good shape, with loads of style, colors, choreography, well-cut videos and quite danceable pop. Yeah, as much as I could criticize the commercialism, I can sit back and tell all of you, at least I would make an effort to pay for it. The Kpop scene has good quality pop acts… despite the ones whom you could be labeled as “guilty pleasures” *coughGeecough*

Yeah! Take that Miley, Bieber and… are the Jonas still relevant?

*EDIT*

Here’s the English subtitled version.