Kung-Fu Music

[GeneChing]

Holy nachos! Clearly I am training at the wrong school.

[sanjuro_ronin]

****......

[GeneChing]

[GeneChing]

It's hard to beat the vid at the top of this thread, but here's yet another, with the sensei from the black lagoon no less.

http://vevo.ly/dT1gBw

[GeneChing]

Not sure if this really counts as a martial arts music vid but it's got cute Japanese girls in crazy armor with even weirder weapon-like things....and KISS! KISS totally trumps the sensei from the black lagoon.

[GeneChing]

[GeneChing]

An update on Asian Kung-Fu Generation

Asian Kung-Fu Generation Announces 2015 Japan Tour
"Asian Kung-Fu Generation Tour2015: Wonder Future" kicks off in July in Saitama
Paul Chapman
March 17, 2015 6:20am PDT (3 days ago)




Japanese alternative rock band Asian Kung-Fu Generation is getting ready to release a new album, and they've planned a Japan-wide tour beginning in Saitama in July of 2015 in preparation for its release.



Asian Kung-Fu Generation has created music that has been used in such anime as Tekkon Kinkreet, Naruto, Bleach, Fullmetal Alchemist, and The Tatami Galaxy.

The tour listings are as follows:

[ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION Tour2015『Wonder Future』]

Sunday, July 5 - Toda-shi Bunka Kaikan (Saitama)
Wednesday, July 8 - Beisia Bunka Hall (Gunma)
Saturday, July 11 - Utsunomiya-shi Bunka Kaikan (Tochigi)
Saturday, July 18 - Yokohama Arena (Kanagawa)
Wednesday, July 22 - Asahikawa Shimin Kaikan (Hokkaido)
Friday, July 24 - Sapporo Shimin Hall (Hokkaido)
Tuesday, July 28 - Matsuyama Shimin Kaikan (Ehime)
Wednesday, July 29 - Sun Port Hall Takamatsu (Kagawa)
Monday, August 24 - Kamakura Geijutsukan (Kanagawa)
Tuesday, August 25 - Kamakura Geijutsukan (Kanagawa)
Saturday, August 29 - Honda no Mori Hall (Ishikawa)
Sunday, August 30 - Niigata Kenmin Kaikan (Niigata)
Wednesday, September 2 - Omiya Sonic City (Saitama)
Saturday, September 5 - Act City Hamamatsu (Shizuoka)
Sunday, September 6 - Fuji-shi Bunka Kaikan Rose Theater (Shizuoka)
Friday, September 11 - Ofunato Shimin Bunka Kaikan (Iwate)
Sunday, September 13 - Iwaki Geijutsu Bunka Kouryukan (Fukushima)
Friday, September 18 - Kagoshima Shimin Hall (Kagoshima)
Sunday, September 20 - Fukuoka Sun Palace & Hall (Fukuoka)
Tuesday, September 22 - Ueno Gakuen Hall (Hiroshima)
Wednesday, September 23 - Kurashiki Shimin Kaikan (Okayama)
Friday, September 25 - Kobe International House (Hyogo)
Friday, October 2 - Nagaragawa Convention Center (Gifu)
Sunday, October 4 - Nagoya Congress Center Century Hall (Aichi)
Friday, October 9 - Orix Theater (Osaka)
Saturday, October 10 – Orix Theater (Osaka)
Monday, October 12 – Sendai Sun Plaza Hall (Miyagi)
Thursday, October 15 - Tokyo International Forum (Tokyo)
Friday, October 16 - Tokyo International Forum (Tokyo)
Saturday, October 24 - Okinawa Shimin Kaikan (Okinawa)

More information is available at the official tour website.

Source: Tokyo Hive

Paul Chapman is the host of the Greatest Movie EVER! Podcast and GME! Anime Fun Time.

[GeneChing]

Luv that title.

Hiatus Kaiyote share new track 'Shaolin Monk Motherfunk'
New album Choose Your Weapon out May 4
News ⋅ Jeremy Daniel ⋅ April 14th, 2015 ⋅ 56 Views



Hiatus Kaiyote just released a new track from their upcoming second album Choose Your Weapon, 'Shaolin Monk Motherfunk'. The song is available now as a new Instant Grat track via iTunes & Amazon, and their highly anticipated new album will be available on May 4 via Flying Buddha/Sony Music Masterworks. Choose Your Weapon is now available for pre-order via Amazon (mp3 / CD) and iTunes (mp3). The Grammy-nominated four-piece received rave reviews for their sets during SXSW last month, and is set to return to the U.S. for a headline tour kicking off May 2. The shows include sold out nights at New York City’s Gramercy Theatre and Los Angeles’ The Roxy

Choose Your Weapon is an 18-track, 70-minute odyssey from the Melbourne, Australia-based band. It takes listeners on a journey through the group’s self-created ecosystem, populated with songs each embodying its own mini-cinematic sonic soundscape. The album is the hotly anticipated follow-up to their celebrated 2013 debut album Tawk Tomahawk, which was championed by media and fellow artists including Questlove, Erykah Badu, Pharrell and Prince, among others. Legendary producer/songwriter Salaam Remi handpicked Hiatus Kaiyote as the first signing for his new label Flying Buddha, an imprint of Sony Music Masterworks, and they immediately gave Tawk Tomahawk an official worldwide release in July 2013.

Conceived on stages worldwide, Choose Your Weapon differs from its predecessor in that the band were no longer merely getting to know each other as bandmates and a newly formed family—they now were able to communicate musically on a virtually telepathic level. Taking this new framework, the band - Nai Palm (vocals/guitar), Paul Bender (bass), Perrin Moss (drums/percussion) and Simon Mavin (keyboards) - honed the songs in the studio, transforming them into exquisite pieces of music, pushing the boundaries of their comfort zone.

Hiatus Kaiyote Tour Dates:

May 02 Providence, RI - The Met
May 03 New York, NY – Gramercy Theatre
May 05 New York, NY – Gramercy Theatre *sold out
May 07 Boston, MA - Paradise Rock Club
May 08 Philadelphia, PA - Underground Arts
May 09 Washington, DC - U Street Music Hall
May 11 Chicago, IL - Double Door *sold out
May 12 Minneapolis, MN – Fine Line Music Cafe
May 14 Boulder, CO – The Fox Theatre
May 17 Seattle, WA - Neumo's
May 19 San Francisco, CA - The Independent *sold out
May 20 Los Angeles, CA - The Roxy *sold out
May 21 Santa Ana, CA - Constellation Room *sold out
May 22 San Diego, CA – House Of Blues Voodoo Room
May 23 Las Vegas, NV - Insert Coin(s)
May 26 Austin, TX - The Parish
May 27 Dallas, TX - Trees
May 29 Atlanta, GA – Vinyl
May 30 Philadelphia, PA – The 8th Annual Roots Picnic @ Festival Pier
May 31 Baltimore, MD – Baltimore Soundstage

[GeneChing]

I was tempted to go tonight as I've always wanted to check them out, but I'm kinda busy right now.

KUNG FU VAMPIRE
Wednesday, 13 May 2015 11:16 AARON CARNES Music - Love Your Local Band


Over a decade ago San Jose/Santa Cruz rapper Kung Fu Vampire started fusing straightforward hip-hop with a live band and dark theatrical elements of vampires and kung fu. It took several years, but when the Insane Clown Posse’s fanbase (known as juggalos), heard him, they embraced him full on.

Since then he’s toured the U.S. 13 times, with some Midwest markets drawing bigger crowds than right here in the Bay.

“I’m heavily connected to a super niche market. The good thing about that is that I have loyal fans that are super supportive, with my face tattooed on them. At the same time, it hurts me that other people who might enjoy my music might be turned off because they have the wrong idea,” Kung Fu Vampire says. “It’s not some freaky-deaky thing. It’s not metal. It’s not a rock kind of thing. It’s straight-up hip-hop. It’s just a cool name and a cool image.”

When he started, he was unaware of juggalos, and always played to hip-hop audiences, some of which felt his theatrics were a bit over the top. Now that he’s got an audience, he’s trying to expand it and show the hip-hop crowd that he is, more than anything, a rapper with skills. He’s performed on four TeamBackPack cyphers—which are well-respected in rap circles—and he even did a co-headlining tour with Wrekonize (of ¡Mayday!), who was featured on a Tech N9ne song alongside Kendrick Lamar.

“I grew up in Latin culture and low-riding, going to classic hip-hop and live rock shows. I have so much love and respect for the juggalo kids, but it doesn’t make sense for that to be my only fan base.”

Kung Fu Vampire has a new album expected out this year, along with a new video dropping this month that he promises will be “movie quality with an American Horror Story, paranormal kind of theme to it.”

INFO: 9 p.m. Thursday, May 14. Catalyst Atrium, 1011 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. $22/adv, $25/door. 429-4135.
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[GeneChing]

This is the beginning. Through this music video, Taylor will inspire a legion of nacho ninjettes all over the world.

And they SHALL RISE.

RISE UP!

FOR WORLD NACHO NINJETTE DOMINATION!!!

BWAHAHAHAHAHHA!!

[GeneChing]

One of my favorite music artists right now.

[GeneChing]

Not nearly as good as the one I posted above.

[GeneChing]

M.I.A. had me GENER8ION + M.I.A. - The New International Sound Pt. II (Official music video) above. Now she's just toying with me.

MIA's New Video Elevates Badass South Asian Warrior Women
Julianne Escobedo Shepherd
7/15/15 9:05am



Though MIA’s 2013 album, Matangi, was generally well received, it was not well understood. This was, in part, because of many Western music critics’ lack of curiosity about cultures outside their own, and specifically the music within; Matangi was an assertion of MIA’s globality, but also centered specifically on a spectrum of Hinduism that went beyond the gesture of spirituality most (white) critics seemed to grasp. She purposely made the internet the locus of her spiritual exploration, an artistic statement that cobbled together and curated goddesses in the decoupaged way she records her music.

On Monday, MIA (Maya Arulpragasam) released “Matadatah Scroll 01 Broader than a Border,” a new video shot in Western India and Cote d’Ivoire, viewable on Apple or Tumblr if, in her words, you “don’t fux with Apple.” (The woman who predicted that our government is monitoring us certainly would have a sensitivity to an aversion to the company, though that did not stop her from releasing it on the Apple Music video platform exclusively.) It’s an MIA-directed video element synced to two songs, the new track “Swords” and Matangi’s “Warriors,” which sampled a cacophony of djembes and Spanish mákina as she repeats the refrain “warriors in the dance.”

Those warriors are embodied here, MIA herself appearing only intermittently among groups of physically strong brown women working in tandem, awe-inspiring at their agility and fortitude as a crew. “Swords” begins by sampling the clink of sword upon sword and metal shield, featuring a nimble-footed crew of what could be kalaripayattu dancers and women spinning the staffs of silambam, two Tamil martial arts whose quick choreography is “bangin’ like Bangalore.” (The goddess Matangi is sometimes depicted with a sword and a goad.) On the outro, the camera focuses on MIA seated on a temple pier with a bowl of incense as she hums a a sacred “Om,” like she did so much on Matangi. Om signifies the moment of creation, an explicit suggestion that she sees music-making itself as a spiritual act, that artistic creation and the quintessence of living are not mutually exclusive.



“Broader Than a Border” is also in profound contrast to other Western music video takes on India—Major Lazer’s “Lean On,” a perfect song marred with its video’s othering qualities or, infinitely worse, Iggy Azalea’s “Bounce,” both of which place gleaming white women at the center of the Indian women dancing in the background. (It’s pretty ironic that MIA claimed her label made her hold back her video for “cultural appropriation,” though she’s been reasonably accused of that before, most notably with the “Bad Girls” video.) In “Matadatah Scroll 01,” as with many of her other videos, MIA re-centers these Indian women and girls, emphasizes they’re not your back-up chicks, nor exotic props to be put on film for Western eyes to consume as pretty flowers, but in fact real women with real lives that are not to be erased simply because they may live in a developing nation.



MIA’s always been reflective of both her culture—she salt and peppered her mango on her first-ever track—and her cultural multitudes. But as she gets older, she takes deeper dives into the essence of what that means. “Broader Than a Border” is just the first Matadatah track to receive a video; in an official statement released via her label promises this will be yet another globally-traversing, globally-created project:

I directed and edited my first music video for “Warriors” for my last album, MATANGI, and I held it back until now, because it inspired me to make a whole series of songs and videos on the concept of borders. Making songs and videos at the same time out of a suitcase on location is something I did on my album KALA, but it’s video, as well as music, made by me in a very ARULAR way. [...] There’s ten more of these countries coming and I haven’t chased where to go yet, so who knows where this project will take me.

Borders are what were theoretically obliterated once the internet began to explode; a lack of borders is what helped create the genre-blind “global bass” music that MIA makes and, indeed, helped create. As a refugee and a world traveler, borders are something she’s uniquely primed to understand, as no one knows the chasm between arbitrary cultural and national land divisions better than a person who is forced to leave their homeland due to war, poverty, or other unlivable concerns. (Famously, she was supposed to have been unable to enter the States during the recording of Kala due to visa troubles. “I’m locked out! They wont let me in!” she wrote in 2006 on her MySpace page. “Now I’m strictly making my album outside the borders!!!!”)

Presently, borders are perhaps a more volatile and important topic to explore since the time she’s been making music, with immigration-policy tensions bubbling in the US, UK, and across Europe, as countries like Libya, México, and Syria are less stable by the day. It’s interesting that after a childhood defined by displacement, MIA’s chosen to lead her adult life rather nomadically, traveling to parts of the global South that rarely receive a tourist spotlight in the Times when she’s not on tour, working with peoples who (She discovered the Cote d’Ivoire dancer in the latter, “Warriors” half of “Broader than a Boarder” in a YouTube video and, she says, spent two years searching for him.)

Of course, it’s easy to ascribe MIA with the kind of topics we want to be talking about in pop culture but often don’t, to project our social, political, and personal aspirations onto her. We do that because that is what we do with all pop stars—and particularly with MIA, because she is truly one of perhaps three current English-language pop stars who are migrants and/or refugees (Rihanna, Pitbull) and the only South Asian pop star in the US, a segment of people who very rarely see themselves represented in Western pop culture. If it seems like some fans elevate MIA into a political superhero, it’s churlish to cast blame; she’s not perfect, but as with Beyoncé up in front of that “FEMINIST” sign, her mere existence is giving agency to women of color who don’t always feel they have it.

“We dem gyals say, holla holla holla,” she chants, “we hold (/hope?) the world say holla holla holla,” as the LED-buzzed, tabla-juiced dancehall riddim of “Swords” cuts out into chimes and a bhangra sample. That’s when the video shows this:



It’s a feat, laying still while someone you must trust very much chops a gourd right on your neck. Showing it not only lets MIA’s non-Indian fanbase in to a tiny aspect of these women’s lives when, even in 2015, the going narrative remains a Slumdoggian, feel-good, third-world fantasy, but also represents the danger and bravery women the world over have to embody just to get through the day to day. It’s also a scene leading into a darkened, woman-only space in the temple she filmed; the staffs are lit up with fire and an image of the Om symbol (stylized as MIA’s name in lowercase) is in flames.

With “Warriors,” MIA shifts from the womanly paradise into a heavily male-centric video, focusing mostly on the twitchy-legged, Ivorian dancer’s astounding moves, his legs jittering almost independently of his torso, which remains taut the whole way through. (He must have an incredible core, I thought, my Americanness spooging all over itself.) Top dog even though I didn’t speak no English, MIA raps in “Warriors,” both an acknowledgement and validation of a huge part of the immigrant experience that is often rendered invisible. That she said it as a point of pride in a verse about swag is even more important.

As he dances, his feet look as though they’re ghostriding the whip. He’s clad in a green iridescent track suit embellished with raffia wrists and ankles; it matches MIA’s manicure.



Between moves, she cuts to archival shots of the green-skinned goddess Matangi, regal in her prayer stance, surrounded by drums as is her domain as the protector of music. “He is a spiritual warrior and communicates through dancing,” said MIA in a press release. “It’s a lifelong commitment for him to be the designated spiritual body that channels that dance.”

“Gangsters bangers, we’re putting em in a trance,” she raps. Two years later, the double entendres are still exciting. So is her vision.

[GeneChing]

Enter The Dragon Remix (EM)
from Eclectic Method

[GeneChing]

Way to go T Swizzle! All you Swiftees can get your ninja gear here.

'Bad Blood' wins Video of the Year at the MTV VMAs
by Mary Sollosi • @missollosi


Posted August 30 2015 — 11:36 PM EDT

The 2015 VMAs have come to a close, and the night’s top prize went to Taylor Swift featuring Kendrick Lamar for “Bad Blood.”

“I want to thank Kendrick Lamar,” Swift began in her acceptance speech alongside the members of her “Bad Blood” squad who were able to make it to the ceremony. “I wish he was here but he’s off in Europe on tour being amazing but he’s such a postive influence in my life and I wanted to thank him first.”

Swift continued:

This video was such a collaborative effort. These women helped create their parts, helped write their roles and decide what they wanted to be — and there were two women in the video I’ve named cats after! I love them so much and the factt that you would vote and give us this bonding experience we’ll have forever … thank you from the bottom of my heart.

I know there’s been a lot of discusison about this video and what it means but I’m just happy that in 2015 we live in a world where boys can play princesses and girls can play soldiers.

“Bad Blood” beat out Ed Sheeran’s romantic dance in “Thinking Out Loud”; the video for the infectiously danceable “Uptown Funk” from Mark Ronson, featuring Bruno Mars; Kendrick Lamar’s “Alright” video, shot in moody black and white; and 2014’s Video Vanguard Award recipient Beyoncé’s low-key, pants-free “711” dance video.

Swift’s win comes as no surprise. The hyper-stylized revenge fantasy video, featuring Swift’s coterie of supermodel BFFs, premiered at the Billboard Music Awards to enormous hype and has since broken the Vevo record for most views within 24 hours.

“Bad Blood” is Swift’s first Video of the Year win, and her second nomination in the category. She picked up the most total nods this year, with nine — seven for “Bad Blood” and two for her self-aware “Blank Space” video. “Bad Blood” also took home awards for Best Female Video and Best Pop Video.

This is the beginning. Through this music video, Taylor will inspire a legion of nacho ninjettes all over the world.

And they SHALL RISE.

RISE UP!

FOR WORLD NACHO NINJETTE DOMINATION!!!

BWAHAHAHAHAHHA!!