Senbonzakura

Idols Got Talent: Kagura

/ Homicidol Maniac / 1 Comment

I just looked at the ol’ drafts queue and thought, you know, I only have about 100 things that I could make EXCEPTIONAL WEB CONTENT about, but I think instead I’ll just go ahead and default to something easy and, frankly, a series that hasn’t been getting much attention lately, which I’m using as an excuse because I’m feeling ever so lazy at the moment.

The other day! I believe it was Saturday. Am I Bored? hit me up on Twitter to reference a wonderful juxtaposition of talent and celebration of why you should never, ever pigeonhole an idol: Continue reading →

Idols Got Talent: 969 Gets in on ‘Senbonzakura’ and It Rocks

/ Homicidol Maniac / 3 Comments

You don’t need to spend too much time around Japanese music to hear this song. And hear it. And hear it. “Senbonzakura” (“Thousands of Cherry Trees”) is a modern classic that sounds a lot older than it is*, a contemporary twist on neo-traditional sounds to create something beautiful. Wagakki Band’s version, for instance, is particularly cool.

In this case, 969’s band (aptly named the 969 Band) and idol member Hinata Haruka teamed up — with Haruka on recorder — to create this nicely punked-up version of the song:

Never forget: 969 is cool as hell.

*I didn’t even realize it was a contemporary piece until trying to track down its origin while writing this and found that it’s from an anime; this blog post has a lot of details on its romantic nationalist lyrics, which suddenly puts the song into a much bigger context than “oh neat it sounds like Japan.”