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Gackt’s Hollywood debut – Tokyograph
Musician Gackt will act in his first Hollywood film. The movie, titled ‘Bunraku,’ is an action film written and directed by Guy Moshe, starring Josh Hartnett and Demi Moore. The film is named after a type of traditional Japanese puppet theater, but the universe it is set in also draws inspiration from origami, video games,…
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Found while browsing the iTunes Store
While browsing the iTunes Store (waiting patiently for Hikaru Utada’s [a J-pop artist with no ties that I know of to Okinawan pop culture but thought I’d share this information with you anyway 😛 ] latest album to pop-up there) I stumbled on two indies artists — one an utasaa, the other an O-pop duo…
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Quick review of Namie Amuro’s “60s 70s 80s” single
Continuing onto 2008 with a very successful 2007, Namie Amuro’s new Triple A-Side single (to be released on 3/12/08), “60s 70s 80s,” is simply amazing so far. The first song, “New Look,” (PV below) samples The Supremes’ hit song from 1964 “Baby Love” to great effect. Hearing the original on the radio yesterday, I found…
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LINA blogs a picture of MAX
Just to show that yup, they’re still here (what with their last album having been released a zillion years ago, in like 2006), LINA of MAX blogged this picture of them just before a performance. (Btw, she’s quite the blogger.) They still look great — can’t let Amuro take all the thunder — and the…
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Album: HY’s 5th album ‘HeartY’
It’s pretty cool to see a band, in this case HY, remain indie and onto their 5th album. “HeartY,” to be released on April 16, follows the album “Confidence” which was released about two years ago. The title of the new album is a play on the H and Y of their group name and…
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YouTube: U-DOU & PLATY
I first heard about U-DOU & PLATY a while ago but never really gave them a look until they were featured on NHK’s wonderful English-language music program J-MELO (its current VJ is J-pop singer melody.). Their music is a champloo (mix) of Okinawan folk music and J-reggae (dancehall) and I if may add, quite infectious.…
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Music: iTunes Plus (DRM-free) tracks available for select Okinawan artists
Great news! If you’ve been holding off purchasing that Seijin Noborikawa album because it was DRM’d (not to mention that it was also previously available at 128 kbps) now is the time to purchase it. I’ll have to do a more comprehensive search (the tracks I’ve found so far are from Respect Record) for other…
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Music: Gackt’s catalog available at iTunes Store
Whoa. 39 listings of albums, EPs and singles from one of J-rock’s top musicians, Gackt is available at the iTunes Store. Personally, I’d recommend checking out “The Seventh Night – Unplugged” and his singles “Returner” and “Redemption.” Learn more about Gackt at gekka_no_nekko’s wonderful blog over here.
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Music: Teresa Bright’s ‘Hawaiinawa’ a fusion of island music from Hawaii and Okinawa
With yours truly being from Hawaii with ties to Okinawa (Japan and China too), it’s really great to see an album that brings both cultures together and Teresa Bright’s latest album “Hawaiinawa” does just that. From a Honolulu Advertiser interview with the singer (by Derek Paiva): At the beginning of the project, Bright chose to…
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Music: Kariyushi58 to release their 1st full album
Mark your calendars, Kariyushi58, a three-piece band from Okinawa, will release their first full album “Soro soro, kariyushi” on October 23, 2007. The 13-track album, featuring the hit singles “Anmaa” and “Te to Te”, will be an indie music release from LD&K Records. Check out the group’s PVs on YouTube. [Via bounce.com.]
Karakui 