joudama scribbling

I heard this song, and oh, man, it's taken over my brain because it's gorgeous. It's just gorgeous. Which is why I'm uploading it, so y'all can hear this thing, too.

Chihiro Onitsuka - Infection

ETA - Since I'm sharing pretty songs, here's another gorgeous one.

Lisa Miskovsky - Still Alive

I just realized I haven't done any serious fanpushing lately, and honestly, that needs to change. And seeing as I am kind of stuck in bed (it would be...a very bad idea for me to try to be upright doing things. I pushed myself too hard Thursday trying to find a bloody doctor, and even though the antibiotics I got yesterday are helping, I am not in good shape at all. AT ALL), I figure, hey, might's well introduce y'all to another of my favorite singers--my Big Three for singers are Jay Chou, Youjeen, and the person whose music I'm fanpushing now, Sun Yan Zi (Stephanie Sun).

Part of why I like Stephanie Sun is because a lot of her music is so danged positive. It's all hopeful.

1. 學會 (Xue hui: Learned) - This song has a lot of personal meaning to me. I listened to it a lot, and I mean a lot, in 2006, aka "The Bad Year." It helped keep me sane, honestly--I needed something that was just plain ol' hope, and this song was, because it's about learning that there's pain in life, but also how to move forward--"going against the wind, I learned to fly."

2. 直來直往 (Zhe lai zhe wang: Straightforward) - This song is just kinda quirky, odd, and fun.

3. The Moment 這一刻 (zhe yi ke) - This song is just pretty. I like it. :)

4. 飄著 (Piao zhe: Drifting) - This is another one of those hopeful songs. It starts out kinda dark, and then there is this keychange and the end, and wow.

5. 懂事 (Dong shi: Sensible) - This song proves even Stephanie Sun can be rock out and be bitter. Which is why I love this song.

Bonus! Stephanie sings in (absolutely spot-on) English!

1. We Will Get There - Yeah, this is everything I love about this woman's lyrics. Hopeful without being swarmy. :)

2. Someone - I like this song because it's all about, common thread, finding yourself and being who you are, and how trying to be someone you're not kinda sucks. But with a bitter, crunchy edge to it. :D

3. Tonight I Feel Close To You (duet) - Stephanie Sun can sing in English. Mai Kuraki cannot. You have been warned. Randomly, I'm sure people without slashgoggles see this as a heartwarming song of friendship between two women. ...And then there are those of us with slashgoggles, who see it an entirely different way. XD;;

4. My Story, Your Song (duet) - See above statement. About Mai's English and the slashgoggles.

5. Silent All These Years - Stephanie covers Tori! And wow, bad word choice given the above two songs! *is shot* This was the first song of Stephanie's I heard, when I found her by accident looking for Tori songs. :D

In honor of me finally finishing and posting a big chunk of AHIH, here's a few of the songs I had on the playlist I made especially for the fic. Feeeeeel the depressed angstiness. XD

( My playlist is over 30 songs long. Y'all aren't getting THAT many. XD )

I had been planning this post for a while, since I haven't done a real atm post in a while, and then heard two songs that totally smacked my upside the head and made the music lover in me start fangirling wildly. And so.

1. ...This one deleted because it's going up on fictunes next week. Glee! As a replacement, here, have this COMPLETELY AWESOME song by the same singer as #2, only this is one of his solo work. Holy wow yes.

信 [Shin] - 傷城 [Shang Cheng] City Of Sorrow

2. Shin (Band)(信乐团) - 千年之恋 [Qian nian zhi liang] Love of a Thousand Years
Yes, so, if you want a song guaranteed to make my jaw drop and little stars appear in my eyes, you do everything this song did. The rock lover and the opera lover in me both are waving flags for this song. I mean, it's a rock duet, with these amazing guitars, and then comes this operatic tenor singing "Love for a thousand years" in Italian. *swoon* The leader singer of Shin has the rock singing voice that I love, all rough and gruff and unpolished.

3. Soler - 兄弟 (Brothers)
A different Soler song is going up on fictunes, and I talk about them a bit there, but just for info, Soler is a duo, comprised of identical twin Eurasian brothers, and I heart Soler very much. That said, at first, I was like, "Wow, um, ow!" because they seemed to have some pitch problems at the beginning. Then came a place about a minute from the end where one of the twins went off on this absofuckinglutely amazing vocal riff, and suddenly I was like, "YES, rock on!"

4. Dir en Grey - Glass Skin
I've always liked DeG, but now that they've thrown Kyo sceaming and puking out the window and actually starting showing some musicianship, I love them. This is their newest single, and it's just full of win.

5. Jay-Z - Pray
I...don't like rap. I've always kinda been like, "If I want to listen to sprechstimme, I'll pick up some opera" and that was that. Yeah, there's some rap I like--I love the RZA's soundtrack for Afro Samurai--but in general, I've always been kinda meh. This song? HOLY SHIT. It's got that feel of epic like I love so much in my music. I mean, it's just teeth-achingly awesome. From the first notes, I was like "Aw damn", and never once, and this is rare for me when listening to rap, think, "This is would be great if it was sung." This is a song that could not be anything other than what it is.

OMFG, Jay, I love you, you are my favorite singer, but you really WERE dropped on the head as a baby, weren't you? That is the only way to explain this song.

Lovelorn Frog

Oh sweet baby Jesus, Jay. Someone really did drop you on the head as a child. Oh my god.

*dies*

Oh, and thank you, Internet, for leaked copies of things that can be um acquired. And before any starts, hush, you know Jay will be getting my money as soon as it's out.

It does, yo.

But luckily, I cross-post, so yay, cut and paste!


*death*

Because I am bound and determined to finish the next chapter of TTYNKAP soon and I've been all "Music!!" since I got a new iPod...

I'd been wanting to do this for a while, but couldn't because of computer issues, but now everything is happy and shiny and I have music again and I'm working a bit on TTYKNAP every day now, upload hoooo~!

( Soundtrack here! )

In honor of the earth not getting sucked into a black hole of humanity's own making through hubris, I give you these songs. >XD

Still Alive

Still Alive [Japanese version]

XDDDDD

(...*snicker* and I know, I know, the REAL test of whether mankind will destroy itself through hubris is when the scientist actually collide the particles. Hush, all'a'y'all.)

Do ANY of you have the Lilith Fair CD with N'Dea Davenport's "Underneath A Red Moon" and Holly Cole's "Onion Girl" on it? I miss that CD like MAD and have been wanting to hear it, but it was one of my CDs that got stolenated when I came to Japan, and yeah, good luck finding that here. :(

As a bribe in hopes of anyone having it and um providing, I give you Jesus Christ, Superstar: A Resurrection, starring the Indigo Girls as Jesus and Mary respectively. This version has the greatest versions of "Heaven on their Minds" and "Simon Zealotes" EVAR.

Gather 'round, children, as I explain to you about a very important part of music: ripping other people off covers.

Doing covers the right way is actually rather difficult. It's incredibly easy to do a bad cover, and the risk is higher when it's a distinctive and/or popular song. It takes skill to do a cover right and have the song become yours, and not you ripping some other guy off. So, I am going to give y'all some examples of covers done right, as well as a cautionary tale of How Not to Do a Cover.

Also, I'm sticking mainly to covers that I don't think y'all have heard. So, a lot of covers of the kind of music I listen to, but I promise there're some songs in English... ^^;; Plus, I wanted songs where I had both the original and the cover, and that had an impact, too--I've got a really cool cover of "Stars" by Lacuna Coil, but no original, so, yeah, couldn't use that.

So, without further ado.

( Example One - Making the Song Your Bitch. )

( Example Two - Pouring Your Whole Heart and Soul Into It. )

( Example Three - Stripping it Down to the Bare Essentials. )

( Example Four - Subverting the Text. )

( Example Five - What NOT To Do, aka Quit Sticking Your Dick In It. )

So. I hope y'all have enjoyed this little lesson on covers. XD And should you decided you want to hear all the songs, here is a handy-dandy zip file with all of them in it.

Now, the first time I heard that someone had done a musical based on The Jerry Springer Show, my first reaction was WTF?! And it continued to be WTF until I heard it, and now, OH MAN, *hearts*. It is so full of awesome wrongness. It is the wrongest wrong that ever did wrong, and that's why it's so right.

Don't download if you're easily offended by anything.

And the best part? There is serious musical complexity in this. I know, right?! Blew me away to hear counterpoint, and in a duet between the Devil and Jesus ("Talk to the stigmata!")

1. Overtly-ture and Audience Very Plainsong - This sets up the musical and the tone perfectly--"My mom used to be my dad, snip snip!" XD SO WRONG.

2. I've Been Seein' Someone Else, Chick With a Dick, and Talk to the Hand - STEVE!!!! >XDDD And opera singers singing "What the fuck, what the fuck, what the fucking fucking fuck?!" and "Chick with a dick!" Also, Jerry's inner Valkyrie. XD And bitchy insults!

3. I Just Wanna Dance - The wanna-be poledancer's song, and you know what? This song is abso-fucking-lutely gorgeous. The only complant I have about it is it's only two and a half minutes long, and it really needed to be longer, and turned into a real solo piece, because yeah. This song is just...yeah: "I'm tired of laughin', and I'm tired of cryin'; I'm tired of failin' and I'm tired of all this tryin'. I wanna do some livin', 'cause I've done enough dyin'. I just wanna dance, I just wanna fuckin' dance."

The end of act I, Jerry is shot, and this is what leads into Act II, which takes place in Purgatory and Hell. No, I'm not kidding.

BONUS! Grilled and Roasted - How the Devil convinces Jerry to do a Jerry Springer in Hell show. By telling him what will happen to him if he doesn't do it. >XDDDDD It's only about 40 seconds long, but whoo boy. XD

4. Once In Happy Realms of Light and Fuck You Talk / Satan and Jesus Spat - The Devil's soliloquy--his point of view about being cast out of Heaven, and just what it is he wants now from God and Jesus. This is kinda like "I Just Wanna Dance," where it--the beginning, at least--is almost unexpectedly deep. The Devil's soliloquy leads directly into the confrontation duet between the devil and Jesus. Polyphony! Counterpoint! Stigmata!

5. Please Don't Die - A return from the underworld to the moment where Jerry was shot, and the audience singing for Jerry not to die. And, of course, Jerry's Final Thought.

Still sick. and my brain is too asdfhjkl; for me to manage writing drabbles right now (my creativity just muzzily gave me the finger and curled up to sleep). Since I feel like crap and can't sleep, oh, hey, music. XD

When the plotbunnicula that is Harrow Children ate my brain, I also made myself a playlist (that's how I know I'm doomed, BTW. TTYNKAP has one, and now HC does. I'm sharing some of the songs from the HC one. :D

All these are for the first chapter; believe it or not, I've got radically different songs for the next two chapters, complete with different 'themes' for Tifa, Zack, and Cloud. I love being a loser. XD

1. Last Smile - Love Psychedelico [Japanese]. If you've never heard Love Psychedelico, I'm sorry. They are so very retro-cool, and win points for the best use of Engrish ever--they use the English right but they kind of get the English wrong, but it's OK. They seriously have the best blending of English and Japanese ever. The random English in this song should be enough for you to get chunks of this, but one line I'll give you: "unmeisen kara other way." 'Unmeisen kara' means "from the line of fate." (lyrics!)

2. Twilight - BoA. NO, not the bubblegum j/k-pop Boa you're thinking of. Banish the thought. This is the coolass indie band BoA that did the opening to Serial Experiments Lain, and this song is about a love triangle in the process of going wrong.

3. Cloud's theme - How You Remind Me of Someday - Nickelback mashup. Someone took two Nickleback songs and laid the tracks over each other to prove how it was the same song. And they ended up making a song that I think is made of awesome (yay, polyphony!), especially if you listen to how the lyrics overlay. This song also makes me think of HC!Cloud's head, because it's two different tracks that somehow kinda work.

4. Tifa's theme - Vector - Maaya Sakamoto [English]. Oh, the irony here, using a song sung by Aerith's voice actress. But this song makes me think of Tifa. Tifa's not as bad off as the poor sod in the lyrics, but she's kind of slowly reaching that point, and she hates it.

5. Zack's theme - 럭키 데이 - My Aunt Mary [Korean]. Before you ask, no, I have no idea what the name of this song is, or what it's about. But I can tell you right now that My Aunt Mary is love, and this song is pure Zack--it's so irrepressibly bouncy and happy, plus the brassy big-bandness of it all.

Bonus:
CEACK!theme - The Boy is Mine - Brandy & Monica. *snicker* Because you know that catfight was gearing up into this.

If any of y'all want, I might upload the stuff for the next chapter so y'all can start wondering just what the hell I've got planned for that chapter. >XD

Yeah, two music fanpushing posts in a week! But the first was songs I had promised to upload, and these are the songs that are in my brain right now.

1. Kalil Fong - Good-bye Melody Rose. So, yeah, this guy can do R&B. And I love his voice. And the rhythm changes--the patterns in here are really R&B, but it's all the good things about R&B. Plus random cello and erhu. God, I love Chinese pop music. Chinese pop and R&B will seriously play with instrumentation in a way that mainstream Western pop and R&B just won't (*loves all over Jay Chou because that trend in Chinese music is all because of him--he started out as a songwriter and his influence is all over Taiwanese and Chinese music*).

2. Steve Conte and Maaya Sakamoto - The Garden of Everything. Yes, that IS Rimsky-Korsakov's "Scheherazade" that Maaya Sakamoto is singing in the background. And yes, this is by Yoko Kanno, so that alone is reason right there for you to download it.

3. Alanis Morissette and Salif Keita - Mercy. She sings in Hungarian, he's singing in Mali, and the English Chamber Chorus is singing in Swahili. And yes, does it ever work. So pretty.

4. Otofuke - Penguin Talk. I saw this guy playing on a street corner in Shinjuku--one guy playing his guitar, and I pounced on a CD. I have yet to regret it, and this song makes me smile, because I listen to it and can imagine penguins cheerfully waddling around, chillin'. XD

5. The Gathering - On Most Surfaces (Inuit). VIKING GRRRL ROCK. I'm not even kidding. This chick rocks, and rocks HARD, rocks like Youjeen, she rocks so hard.

Bonus! The newest Cherry Filter single English B-side!

Cherry Filter - Rolling Heart. This isn't Cherry Filter's most inspired song, alas. It's...Generic Cherry Filter Song B. ...this is not a bad thing, since Cherry Filter rocks, but I admit to not being that impressed. ...Youjeen is still GOD, however. Just so we're all clear.

(And so y'all on this journal know: Youjeen, the lead singer of Cherry Filter, is GOD. You should all want to be her when you grow up, or worship at her feet. So yes. She's GOD. And Jay Chou makes me squee, and once his new CD comes up, be afraid.)

When my we're-going-to-hell-see-our-handbasket? friend came down, we went out to karaoke. She liked a couple of the songs I did, and I promised to upload them for her. Which I did, and since I like sharing, I'm uploading them there, too. :D

So, yeah, these are my karaoke staples--some, at least; I left out the Jay Chou and the Gackt and the HY, mainly because I refrained from Jay, she already has the Gackt songs, and I put the HY on my iPod and took it off my comp for space, and now my iPod hates my comp and I can't transfer the files back, which is a damn shame because HY is summer. ^^;;

1. Hitoto Yo - Morainaki (plus Ken Hirai's cover) - Yay, syncopation! Makes vocalists happy.

2. JJ Lin - Tu ran lei le - THE happiest, sweetest little song evar. No one does cute little sweet love ballads like JJ Lin. (Except for when he does fucked up songs about stalkers killing people with lines like 'this is love, it's only love', which makes the cute little sweet love ballads kinda twitchy and if you want to be as twitched as I am, do a search for JJ Lin and "Sha Shou" (or "Killer") on Youtube and watch the video for that song or the mini-movie, and GAH.)

3. Abingdon Boys School - Via Dolorosa - Yay rock! Yay, arpeggios! Makes vocalists happy!

4. Ayaka - Why - Why yes, I AM a big screaming Crisis Core fangirl, how good of y'all to notice.

5. Hajime Chitose - Haru no katami - W00t, pop thoroughly infused with traditional Japanese melodies and singing styles, Hajime Chitose's trademarks. (And on a show-offy note, I kinda love watching Japanese people get all bug-eyed when they hear me able to sing like that. It's like the "I'm classically trained in opera" just kinda doesn't sink in... )

6. Joey Yung - Xiao xiao - Because Jay Chou has to come in here somewhere, and he wrote this song. And it's...it's...yeah, it's just that pretty. I love the "China Wind" style pop/traditional songs that Jay does, and this song he wrote for Joey Yung (a woman, btw), with the piano and the guzheng and pentatonic scale, and the lilting, delicate melody line, is just...just...yes.

I don't know if y'all know about this, but if you don't, oh, this must not be.

Overclocked Remix's The Voices of the Lifestream.

Three and a half hours of "remixed" versions of the music from FF7. Basically, Overclocked Remixes had a contest, and the songs they judged the best, they put on four "CDs" that you can download: "Crisis," "Dirge," "Advent," and "Order" (...if y'all don't know where the names come from, SHAME. XD )

Some of them are only OK, but my god, some of them are amazing. "A Life Without Parole" is a piano arrangement of "Desert Wasteland," and oh my god--it's just gorgeous. Likewise, "Mark of the Beathsmith (Mark of a Traitor)" is just lovely.

Download the whole thing, all two gigs of it. Trust me, you will not regret in the slightest that you did. I had about half of it before, I just got the rest, and yeah. I wish I had gotten all of it sooner, because yes. Just yes.

Because it's been awhile, and fuck no, do I feel like studying for my big test tomorrow.

I'm gonna fail, and I don't EVEN care. I think I'm burnt out. Or something.

Anyway, music! :D

1. Optimistic Nerd - Jay Chou - This song is so stupidly bouncy and cute. I'm not even kidding. It's about a cool guy taking a total loser under his wing and trying to make the guy cool. I love the like, "Bie shuo ni bu neng!" - "And don't say you can't!"

2. Morai Naki (Sympathetic tears) - Ken Hirai. I usually hate Ken Hirai. And his covers. They make me want to stab things. So I was very, very, VERY surprised when I liked this cover. Like, really shocked. I'm gonna blame this on the fact that the first time I heard Morai Naki was at karaoke with a guy singing it, so I'm more inclined to think a male voice sounds "right." That said, he really does do a good job with this. Really.

3. Morai Naki - Hitoto You. Because this song rocks, and this is the original version, and it is sweet. Any song that uses triplets is a win in my book. I like the orchestrations better in this one, overall--they're crisper, in a way. The less defined ones in the Ken Hirai version fit his voice, but the cleaner ones here fit Hitoto You's distinctively clear voice. If you hate the whiney, airy, nasal way most female Japanese singers have, you'll like Hitoto You, because she DOESN'T sing like that. That gets a massive thumbs-up from me.

4. Fulfilled Desire - Crisis Core soundtrack. All the themes of FF7/CC orchestrated into one really fuckin' pretty nigh-nine minutes of GOOD. I just close my eyes and listen to this and enjoy the gorgeousness of it all. Because it's pretty. It's just pretty. And moving. And I say that not as the gamer geek I am on the slippery slope to becoming, but as someone who really loves music.

5. The Price of Freedom - Crisis Core soundtrack. Zaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa~ck! *cry* Yeah, so, other than that, I got nothin'. Well, that, and I am weak to rock guitars and solo violins. Very, very, very weak. I admit this.

Now, all of you be good boys and girls and go out and buy the CDs. :D

Just because, yo. The mood of the song matches how I've been feeling most of the day.

Just let us love each other
For this one autumn season.
I only discover them after they've drifted,
The fragments of this happiness.
How am I to pick them up?
(bad translation mine)

Jay Chou - Bu neng shuo de mi mi [Secret] [English lyrics]

"Secret" is the official English title, but the whole thing translates to "The Secret that Can Not Be Spoken."