« | Home | »

Jazzy Japanese Pop Band Sour’s New Video Is Fan-Powered

Topics: Music | 1 CommentBy admin | July 3, 2009

The clever new video for Sour’s song Hibi no Neiro, from their new EP Water Flavor is performed entirely by fans on web cams.

Whenever I feel like I’ve pretty much seen the Internet and am ready to cancel my membership, something charming comes along and reminds me what I’m doing here. Not too long ago it was Kutiman, the Israeli guy who took hundreds of amateur music tutorial videos from YouTube and mashed them up into amazingly listenable new music. This time it’s the Japanese band Sour, whose music is just some mellow, sparse, jazzy pop that sounds sort of like if a few Japanese guys studied at Berklee and couldn’t decide who they liked more, Chet Baker or Charlie Hunter. The video at left (for their song Hibi no Neiro) was produced completely using their fans, carefully choreographed on web cams to make a whimsical little video that perfectly matches the thoughtful but upbeat tune. They have a few other playful and clever videos on YouTube, including Omokage no saki which uses simple stop-animation, and Hangetsu, which uses some clever shadow puppetry. I was going to research them a little more and write about them, when I realized the bio information on their site summed it up perfectly:

In 2002 Spring, hoshijima (gut guitar/voice), Sohey (upright bass/bass), KENNNNN (drums/toys) got together after graduating their uni.

SOUR, is named after the alcoholic “confy” feeling with the “grumpy” or “cranky” sensitivity that the word itself has.

Having some time of struggle, they at last builded their own sounds in early 2004. Then in December 2005, after strong live shows their album “for my incongruity” didn’t need more than 3 months to sell out 250 copies at only ONE store in Tokyo.

In October 2006,their leading single “sad song” started digital delivery at Listen Japan. And their debut full album “rainbow under the over pass” was released in May 2007 from arights entertainment.

What could I possibly add to that?

Read Comments

  1. Posted by » YouTube As A Musical Instrument - Dissociated Press on 09.30.09 8:52 am

    [...] an extension of his Bb project, which (in a fashion similar to Jazzy Japanese Pop Band Sour’s fan-driven video) relies on user-submitted clips for the finished product. Solomon’s “band” [...]