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Stereo Pony to be the next big artist out of Okinawa?
I’ve seen a few of them come and go but can J-rock girl band Stereo Pony be the next big artist out of Okinawa in following the gigantic footsteps of ORANGE RANGE (OR) and HIGH and MIGHTY COLOR (HandMC)? If history is any indication, the answer should be a resounding yes, they can and that’s…
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Akane Murayoshi releases debut album!
A song that I completely fell in love with in 2006 also happened to be the Miuta Taishou Grand Prix winner of that same year: “Miyarabi nu Hana.” The song—sung by upcoming utasaa Akane Murayoshi of Kumejima Town—also performed at the Okinawan Festival in Hawaii in 2006. The album, unsurprisingly titled “Miyarabi nu Hana,” was…
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And the awesome new releases for 2008 keep coming!
Geez, I’m really going to go broke this year what with all these great CD releases in the 2nd half of 2008 and with my mom’s and big bro’s birthdays this month, Xmas and that shiny new iPod nano. But I digress. Coming on 10/10/08, an artist whom I really, really admire, Suekichi Matsuda, will…
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A trio of upcoming singles to look out for
HIGH and MIGHTY COLOR’s “Remember,” marked for a 10/15/08 release, will be the band’s last single featuring their lead singer Maakii—who, after announcing her marriage to DREAMS COME TRUE’s bassist Masato Nakamura this past June, will retire from the band. O-pop duo Yanawarabaa will be releasing their 9th single, “Present,” on 11/5/08. “Present” follows the…
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Kariyushi58’s new single, “Kibou no Uta,” gets a street date
Popular rock/reggae quartet, Kariyushi58, will be releasing their next single as a Tower Records limited release on 9/24/08. The single, “Kibou no Uta,” is the CM song for Asahi Shinbunsha’s soccer promotion and there will be a special release of 3,000 copies of the single that will contain a secret track. (Via bounce.com.)
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Alan sings “Nada Sou Sou”
OK, I know we don’t normally go outside of our Okinawan pop culture bubble but we had to blog about this J-pop singer that we’re totally excited about: Alan (in keeping with the Japanese infatuation with using lowercase for names, in the J-pop world her name is listed as alan). Alan is a Tibetan/Chinese singer…
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New BEGIN single, “Ichariba Ohana,” gets a release date!
The J-blues trio known as BEGIN have been pretty busy this year with TV appearances (even making an appearance on the popular music show HEY!³ last month), their nationwide “BEGIN no Ichigo Ichie Concert 2008” tour, and they already have a new single set to be released on 10/22/08. The single, called “Ichariba Ohana,” will…
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New Kazumi Tamaki CD to be released on 9/25/08!
Have you heard of the Okinawan word churakaagii? Well, the very handy Okinawan-English Wordbook (Amazon.com link) defines the word as “a beauty; a belle; a pretty girl; a good-looking woman.” All of these describe utasaa Kazumi Tamaki and to top it off, she’s super nice in person too. Anyway, before I go on about Kazumi,…
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RYUKYUDISKO’s new single “Top of the Island” set for release on 10/29/08
Having released a single back in July (“OK Sampler”) RYUKYUDISKO will be releasing their second single for 2008 titled “Top of the Island” which is the current theme song to the NHK show “Top Runner.” The single from the techno band also features a remix of the awesome song “Yume no FUTURE feat. KOTOMI” (featured…
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Toru Yonaha getting back to his Roots
This upcoming release from Toru Yonaha is the perfect companion to his 2007 album “Utage ~party~” which was heavily influenced by J-pop. The 11 track album titled “Roots ~Ryukyu Iwaiuta~ (Best of Okinawan Traditional Songs)” will be released on 9/24/08 in Okinawa. Dude, I am so buying this. (Via 沖縄三線日和.)
Karakui 