Tomoko Kawase found fame as the singer with The Brilliant Green:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdhFPGFWtvo

Then reinvented herself,
first as 'idol'-type pop singer Tommy February6:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eg0WOWI4RV8

And then as her 'bad' alter-ego Tommy Heavenly6:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xQ12MJWcSY

All her videos and most of her songs are good,
in a strawberry cream soda pop sort of way.

WTF?
Dude. I think you done said too much.

And I have no idea what any of this stuff is...
If fact it all kind of scares me.

Yeah, you're probably right,
so let's make this a 'Japan Music' thread instead.

I'll drop stuff in as I think of it.
Feel free to add.
Anything goes - old, new, good, bad, pop, rock, anime etc. etc.

This is an all time favorite:
Supercar ~ "Lucky":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFLuZubqizI

Some of my favorites, maybe not favorite songs but favorite bands. In random order too.

Peelander Z
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cT0ZhOV6Bl8

Polysics
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-Dg3QMfWgQ

The Pillows
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9rrVZIl ... re=related

Petty Booka (uke masters)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVKs4Xf-EX0

Obligatory:

Guitar Wolf - from "Wild Zero"
(Not sure of the name of the song):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzhLjDZtnn8

Any leads on Japanese ambient or down-tempo or electronic?

I like The Brilliant Green but Tommy Feb was just way too poppy for me. Didn't know about Tommy Heavenly.
Supercar is pretty cool. I also like Asian Kung Fu Generation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxjYJWvmOlg
Dragon Ash's Deep Impact...I had a remix of this song with a heavy bass beat. Grateful Day is also pretty cool.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lY-Jot2Vk78
For some reason, I also like Bennie K...Better Days, Monochrome, and a few other songs. I don't think I have an all time favorite.

and of course...the god-father of our favorite TV theme songs...singing with a host of other singers way back in 2006:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCpcN6p38ik

Great links Alice! I love girl-pop in general, and that stuff was right up my alley. It's funny; I had found the TommyFebruary6 "Bus Stop" song on a blog about four years ago, and put it on a compilation that I gave to a bunch of friends. Good tune. Now I have to track down the TommyHeavenly6 stuff. Any other suggestions?
Edit: Just watched the Supercar video. That is almost too perfect to be real.

The Japanese music thread...

Masami Tsuchiya 土屋昌巳

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGK9bYdFnFU

Church Of Misery @ Roadburn 2009. One of the best bands at the fest. Best hair for sure..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xj5N4Nk3aCo

bummed that P5 is no more
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5CuZzIexfc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-D4ueFzla04

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saHMRnVgEhM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeZUZaLt0Fw

For me:

*0 (Nosei Sakata) http://www.discogs.com/artist/*0 - I don't know what happened to this guy. The last thing he did was a lock groove for a compilation I put out in 2004. He was supposed to do a corresponding track, but disappeared. To bad.. he did interesting stuff.

Ryoji Ikeda http://www.discogs.com/artist/Ryoji+Ikeda

Merzbow.. more as a nostalgic thing these days.

Melt Banana.. also nostalgic

Ami Yoshida - I'm excited as I get a chance to see her at a local experimental music fest this Oct. There is a cool Youtube video of a group she played in here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvQkzniMjvY Her Cosmos album is great.

I guess for me I really like the experimental stuff and I used to really like the grind stuff like Gore Beyond Necropsy.
Fun!

I'm curios to see what else people are into.

Cornelius and Sketch Show are the only two I can think of at the moment. And some Supercar.

Tetsu Inoue. Particularly his album 'Ambient Otaku'.

On top of my head...more towards jazz, downtempo, electronic.

United Future Organisation
Kyoto Jazz Massive
Towa Tei
Mondo Grosso
Shinichi Osawa (currently more electro, but his past work is more jazzy - Mondo Grosso)
Fantastic Plastic Machine (both album and remix albums)
Cro-Magnon (highly recommended!!!!!)
Denki Groove
Shuya Okino
Tokyo Black Star
Pizzicato Five (Romantique album in particular and remixes)
Ryo Murakami

the only japan music i know of is ayumi hamasaki...

not even utada hikaru?

Haha! Ayu is the Queen!


Her voice is perfect for techno
(her 'Cyber Trance' remix CD's are great for driving)
though she always looks like she's having the most fun
when she's rocking out.
This is "Fly High": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shu6m5fLl4Q

And here's a reminder of 'baby' Utada (she was fifteen!)
singing "Automatic": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsxM4uTgNrg

Honorable mention for PUFFY of course.


Lot's of good songs
(most penned by Tamio Okuda, himself a noted musician.)

This was their second single, "Kore ga Watashi no Ikirumichi":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dc9M-TUHiCQ

But suddenly ... a wild HALCALI appears!


Tandem: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOXKmrKTjvM
Giri Giri Surf Rider: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s51mbmck3co
Strawberry Chips: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4Den1Ez1ks

& the potentally seizure inducing remix of Strawberry Chips:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yR7bv68pLww

Damn! Those girls can dance!

... And, I'm about spent as far as girl-pop goes.
Apart from this.
This song almost drove me crazy a year or so ago.
I love it, but it's one of those that gets stuck in your head ...
(Also, it keeps getting deleted off YouTube, so this is a google-search link.)



Ai Otsuka ~ "Sakuranbo":
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 5131346900

Don't say I didn't warn you!

Not up on more recent stuff, but I still enjoy YMO... and have liked some things from Puffy Ami Yumi.

Love AKFG. My fave band next to Maximum the Hormone and the Beat Crusaders. Rewrite is still one my favorite songs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REkdUfZ1 ... re=related

Sadly, most of the Japanese bands I know are bands who have had songs played for opening or ending themes for anime.

Maximum the Hormone:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=772nYUKVKn8

Beat Crusaders:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuD0grYSQSU

Look up some of Urbangarde clips :
http://urbangarde.net/english.htm

And I add Sigh and Dissecting Table to the list.

Yellow Machinegun and Teengenerate are the only two bands I like that have not been mentioned already.