16 posts tagged “karaoke”

Toma karaoke, 8 May 2009:

And We Danced - Hooters
Heart of Gold - EXILE
What's So Funny 'Bout Peace, Love & Understanding - Elvis Costello
Bobby Jean - Bruce Springsteen
Come On, Get Happy - The Partridge Family
A Girl Like You - The Smithereens
King of Rock - Run-DMC
Add It Up - Violent Femmes
Daite Senorina - Yamashita Tomohisa

New updated English song database at Toma so I had to take advantage with the locals.  Split early 'cause I had a dental appointment on Saturday morning...

Saturday fun with Kayoko, Ai-chan and Eri-chan.  You can probably guess who sang what...
___________

Tomorrow - Okamoto Mayo
Valenti - BoA
Sora no Shita de - My Little Lover
True Love - Fujii Fumiya
Kamome ga Tonda Hi - Watanabe Machiko
Cherry - Spitz
Message - Fukuyama Masaharu
Candy Candy - Horie Mitsuko
Akai Sweet Pea - Matsuda Seiko
Winding Road - Ayaka feat. Kobukuro
Endless Story - Ito Yuna
Star - Aiko
Roman Hikou - Komekome Club
Truth - Ito Yuna
Wadachi - Kobukuro
Saboten no Hana - Tulip
Ichiban ni Ikou - Shimatani Hitomi
Oretachi ni Asu wa Aru - SMAP
Ai no Uta - Koda Kumi
Departures - Globe
We Will~Ano Basho de - Exile
Colors - Utada Hikaru
Ashita Ga Suki - Watanabe Machiko
Love So Sweet - Arashi
Aoi Usagi - Sakai Noriko
Love Addict - Nakashima Mika
Blue Tears - Judy And Mary
Seishun Amigo - Shuji to Akira
Sweet 19 Blues - Amuro Namie
Dakishimetai - Mr.Children
Soba ni Iru Ne - Aoyama Thelma
Let Go - m-flo
NAO - Nakasone Izumi
Umiyuki - Jero
Kagami no Dress - Sakai Noriko
Yoroshiku Aishuu - Go Hiromi
Matsuwa - Amin
Thank You - Dreams Come True
Hello Another Way - The Brilliant Green
Sakurazaka - Fukuyama Masaharu
Hurt - Christina Aguilera

EVERYBODY sings Fukuyama Masaharu at karaoke. My list:

Melody
It's Only Love
All My Loving
Koibito
Hello (THE all-time champ)
Message
Heart
You (not very often)
Peach!
Squall
Sakurazaka (most-requested tune)
Niji
Sore ga Subete sa (the Pocari Sweat CM song)

(Copied from Facebook, where the "25 Random Things" thang ended with me.)

Tunes "performed" this past Friday at Toma:

Oh My Little Girl -- Ozaki Yutaka
Don't Let the Sun Go Down On Me -- Elton John
Umiyuki -- Jero
Daite Senorita -- Yamashita Tomohisa (thanks, Z!)
A Hard Day's Night -- The Beatles
sha la la -- Skoop On Somebody
My Gift To You -- Chemistry
Surrender -- Cheap Trick

I was composing a comment to zdorama's rememberance of an old single by SMAP.  A little while later, I had more of a rememberance of my own encounters with SMAP and J-pop in general, a decade-plus ago...

In the mid-90s I was becoming aware of SMAP as part of the whole J-pop pantheon.  One of the older managers in the office, a woman from Japan named Setsuko, pushing 60, was a huge fan of Johnny's Jimusho, especially Kimutaku and SMAP.  I was still generalizing on the king of all Japanese boy groups and thought her fangirl attitude a silly thing (ignoring of course my own CoCo worship but that's another story).  

I'm not sure what triggered the notion in me that SMAP wasn't worthy of ridicule (like say, the Backstreet Boys).  Certainly all those "Music Station" retrospectives provided some sort of foundation.  And it became clear that I'd have to learn some of those tunes for karaoke cause new material would be necessary for my co-workers from Japan.  

One day I crossed Setsuko in the hallway and told her, out of the blue, hey some of those SMAP songs are actually GOOD.  In fact, I SANG some of them.  She gave me this wide-eyed look, almost full of surprise.  "Of coooourse!" she replied, her tone not even trying to hide the obvious nature of my statement.  I could have expressed to her my great surprise that the sun rose Koko Head side or that it didn't snow in Hawaii -- her reaction would have been the same.

Not too long after that we were hanging out at a karaoke bar in Waikiki (long since closed) after work and I sang some of those songs, albeit rusty and unsure.  However Setsuko was impressed that I gave it the old college try and picked up the tab for the entire evening.  Thank you, SMAP!

Sunday.  Coffee.  The ultimate experience in relaxation.

ESPN Sportscenter.  Mets squeak by the Yanks.  And Spain seems to have won an important soccer game.  Good.  For.  Them.

A boatload of George Carlin torrents sparkle on my monitor.  Did he ever rant about the Internet.  Jerry Seinfeld said Carlin used four computers to store and manage all his material.  I wonder if one of them was used for "fun stuff?"

A high-school friend is visting this week.  A short respite from his 24/7 work life to relax, catch up on surfing, and gather up snapshots for his Flickr site, which has been mostly neglected for the last few months.  We'll hit our favorite yakitori restaurant this Wednesday.

Thursday: another epic (aren't they all) karaoke party at Toma with the work crew.  I'm not sure what the theme is but hopefully my friend can make it to this event as well so I can show off to him all the KEWL J-pop karaoke tunes I can belt.

I was at GS Studio a couple Tuesdays ago and the guy showed us the new English system they got there, just like at Toma!  And a English songbook, at GS!  Why the hell would I be singing English songs at GS Studio?!!  I might as well go back to Kiki's with da localz and get my Jawaiian on.

Thankfully none of the group I was with chose that option.  I still wish some of the Lavca music tracks didn't sound so MIDI-like, so synthesized.  I think the system at Toma (DAM) is superior in that respect: sounds like real instruments being played instead of a complex ringtone.

Of course I think BOTH places would benefit from having more PVs featured.  That way the indifferent loco-mocos (i.e. people who don't sing J-pop) would have something to LOOK AT while I'm singing my Chemistry, Arashi or V6.  This is crucial stuff.  One time at Toma, this gal punched in "The Peace!" by my beloved Musume but NONE of us would've gotten up to boogie if the actual PV hadn't appeared on the big-screen monitor.  Funniest shit ever.

My karaoke tunes from this past Wednesday at GS Studio, Waikiki, USA:

Seishun Amigo -- my friend wanted to sing it, again
Sekaijuu no Dareyori Kitto -- another duet, although it seemed like I sang over 80 percent of the song
Kassai -- ditto above.
You Go Your Way -- had the Chemistry PV
Bus Stop -- early 70s "enka" standard by Taira Koji
Onna ni Sachie Are -- you all know this one...
Hakaida no Uta -- 70s J-hero era tune
Choo Choo Train -- had the Exile PV
Chigireta Ai -- VERY cheesy 70s J-pop by Saijo Hideki, sung like a William Shatner oratory
Hana to Mitsuboshi -- teenage Go Hiromi standard, sung like I had a stuck nose
Aruiteru -- the song by Musume and Company that's STILL reviled by hundreds of English-speaking bloggers
"S"ENSATIONAL WIND -- a song by ribbon, one of my official five J-pop religions