We thought the Michael Jackson fans amongst you might need a little cheering up after the recent trauma you’ve endured, especially finding out that your idol was buried without a brain in his head. That’s why we’re staging a Finger Five revival. Granted, it’s a little difficult to stage a revival of something that no-one’s ever heard of, but we’ll give it a go. Finger 5 was Okinawa’s answer (not that anyone had asked the question) to the Jackson Five. Copping their style more from the Osmond Family than the Jackson family, they still had some smooth flair-bottomed 70′s moves, and made enough of an impact in their day that they’re still being covered by J-Pop girl bands like Morning Musume. Check out Morning Musume’s version of Finger 5′s biggest hit “Koi No Dial 6700″ (featured in the clip at left). Although we haven’t actually checked it out, the best collection of Finger 5′s hits seems to be Finger 5 Best 10. In spite of Finger Five’s somehow almost disturbing name, it seems to be based on the fact that they also covered Jackson Five songs. Check out the audio clip below of their cover of “I Want You Back”. It might help erase the insidiously catchy “Din din dih-din, din din dih-din din, din din dih-din din dih-diddy-din din” from the clip featured here…

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?

Great. Just when I thought I was safe from more hours of mind-numbing searches, downloads, and quick listens on YouTube, I have to go and discover Shibuya-kei. It all started with a relatively innocuous but upbeat video by Kahimi Karie that my photographer friend Terry Osterhout shared on Facebook, which led me to look up the artist, which led me to Wikipedia, which led me to rediscover some old favorites like Pizzicato Five and Cibo Matto, and before I knew it I had spent yet another hour of my life on YouTube, in 3-5 minute segments. You’ve probably at least seen Pizzicato Five’s Twiggy Twiggy at some point (if you haven’t, you’ll pick up some smooth dance moves from watching Brother Konishi doing the “Tighten Up”) or their whacked out rendition of Girl From Ipanema. You may have also heard some Cibo Matto because of their Beastie Boys connection. What you may have missed back in the early 90′s was stuff like Flipper’s Guitar, a band that, if they went back and dubbed the songs with a Norwegian accent, could easily pass for one of the slew of Northern Europop bands of the last few years. There’s so much fun stuff in this genre I’m not even going to try to point you in the right direction, but YouTube user PizzicatoMania has a ton of Flipper’s Guitar, Cornelius, and Pizzicato Five to get you rolling, and the Shibuya-kei page on Wikipedia has a good list to start with too. One band I just discovered that I hadn’t heard of is Buffalo Daughter. That linked video has the excellent tune “Daisy” for some reason playing over a slightly pervy Japanese schoolgirl video by Canario Club. Whatever. Can someone please tell me though, WTF is TNX and H!P ?