N°76 GUANO APES - BIG IN JAPAN

If anyone expected to hear Alphaville with Big in Japan I’m terribly sorry but I feel that the Guano Apes cover is way better than the original so here it is:

Guano Apes are a German rockband with a female lead singer (Sandra Nasic) who has a very sharp voice. Apart from Guano Apes she also delivered the vocals fora n Apocalyptica song but I can’t recall which one. I’ll have to go and search for it. All I know is that I think she a pretty good singer. Probably agressive undertone in her voice.

The band itself is a mixture of rap and metal. Sandra joined the band a little later than the still originals members and musicians. 1994 that is and it took them 3 years to create Proud Like A God, their first studio album. Their career got launched after they won a rock contest with their probably best known single Open Your Eyes. Must I say their first album contains the best known songs as there are also Lord of the Boards and Rain.

Later they’d produce a few more albums Don’t Give Me Names (2000), Walking on a Thin Line (2003) and Bel Air (2011) in between followed by two compilation albums. Big in Japan can be found on the second album and Living in a Lie is also on of the beauties.

The Guanos split up in 2005 since all of them wanted to go their own way and do their own thing in music. This is when Sandra caught up with that Apocaplyptica lyrics which I still can’t remember. I’ll get to it. She also release dan album of her own with little succes.

But they missed the band I guess and in 2009 some reunion concerts were given throughour Europe followed by writing on new songs. From this writing came a brand new album last year which already released 2 singles (Sunday Lover and Oh What A night). A third one is foreseen fort his year.

Now enjoy the Guano Apes !

N°75 MAY'N - LION

May'n is a  year old Japanese pop singer with quite some experiance already. At the age of 13 she was selected out of over 35000 candidates at a national talent scout and two years later she released her first single called Crazy Crazy Crazy.

Three years after her selection she lifts her career to the top when singing the end credits for the anime tv show Love Get Chu and after that she's asked to do more anime such as Macross Frontier. The song posted here comes from that anime Tv show and is supposed to be one of her biggest hits. As you probably already thought she's well known amongst anime lovers (not animal lovers !!!) and in Japan this is one of the highest anyones status can reach since Japan is the centre of the world when it come to animated cartoons.

I don't understand a single word she's singing and I don't like tone nor music but hey fuck that. It's cool to have Japanese stuff in the link as well. When the video starts it's also a little bit like Metallica goes Japanese hahahaha.

Again I'm wondering how can I link this further? ... got that one already since May'n is "big in Japan" !!! Later this week folks !!!

Greetz

N°74 MUMFORD AND SONS - LITTLE LION MAN

Been having some login problems lately on my blog and hotmail account so I haven't been posting a lot of shit but finally I managed to retrieve passwords and account details so here we go and Mumford and Sons it is !!!

Formed in December 2007, Mumford and Son are a pretty recent band who piloted themselves into fame almost immediately with their first and so far only album. The band started off as a bunch of musicians behind lead singer Laura Marling but at a certain point in their existence Marcus Mumford decided to go for their own project. Together with Winston Marschall, Ted Dwane and Ben Lovett he started to write his own music and started the Mumford and Sons project. 

Compared to a band like Noah and The Whale they bring mostly poppy bluegrass folkrock songs and Little Lion Man; their debut single; is a pretty good example of what the band stands for.The complete first album (Sigh No More) is an exquisit example of what four brilliant musicians can bring. All four play various instruments which creates a magical and happy sound.

I'd say listen, relax and sigh no more!

P.s.: LITTLE lion MAN = a leprichorn which is English for the Dutch word kabouter !!!

N°73 KABOUTER PLOP - HET SPOOK

A ghost is pretty scary but there are also a few funny ghostly song such as this one. Kabouter Plop is a creation by studio100 ang this production studio is famous in Belgium and The Netherlands since they put their shoulders under almost every act if it's related to children.

Studio 100 started of as a gag when in 1989, Gert Verhulst started to announce children's tv series with a talking  toy dog named Samson next to his seat. The gag worked well and together with Hans Bourlon and Danny Verbist (the voice of Samson), Gert they wrote stories for the childrens series 'Samson en Gert'. In 1996 the studio got a definate liftoff when they started of the 'Kabouter Plop' (translated ad Gnome Plop) series for a commercial tv network. Gert and Hans never looked back. Danny on the other hand quit as Samson's voice in 2005 and he'd later leave Studio100 as well.

Apart from the two shows mentioned they'd also created the girls band K3, the adventure series The House of Anubis, the children's series Piet Piraat, Mega Mindy, Amika and Bumba. Most of their products were exported throughout the world. Also they bought the right to series such as Pipi Longstockings and Wicki the Viking. 

They'd not only stick to television but also start to produce severall musicals and movies using their own brands as a base. The K3 girls played the main role in the Three Little Pigs musical for instance. Also the Pinokkio musical was adapted to the Flemish taste and Kabouter Plop must have about four movies running at the moment.

Finally they started to aim for an even broader audience so Studio100 owns 5 amusement parks at the moment. Plopsa Land in De Panne is probably the best known.

Well enjoy this Plopsong and my dear Ploppertjes I'll have a hell of a job to find a song about a Gnome ....