ROCK & ROLL GIRL DIGITAL STAMP & RONETTES

New digital stamp titled 'Sixties Rock n Roll', you might already have guessed she was inspired by the beautiful Ronettes, my favourite girl group from the 60s! This illustration was made quite some time back (last year). I will post a coloured example soon!

She is 8 inches 300dpi in jpeg format, available as an instant download in my Etsy shop: https://www.etsy.com/listing/230803771/

The W-I-P sketch.

Meanwhile enjoy some beautiful photos of the trio:

My favourite Ronette songs are: 'Be my Baby' (of course), 'I Can Hear Music' (first heard it from the Beach Boys), 'You Baby' (first heard it from The Lovin' Spoonful) & 'Do I love you'. The 2nd and 3rd songs were my faves from the Beach Boys and Lovin' Spoonful before I got into Ronettes.

Previously I only knew 'Be My Baby' and their Christmas songs. No surprise why I like the girls so much, it's the type of tune I'm into... giving Phil Spector the credit for that!

'Be my Baby':

The Big TNT Show - 'Be my Baby' and 'Shout'

A NEW CD - 'WONDERFUL WORLD'

Yuzu's latest album 'Wonderful World', I bought this CD + DVD limited edition from Ebay and it's been a while really since I enjoyed a cd this much.

Yuzu is a Japanese folk-rock duo, and 10 years have passed since their official debut. Time really flies! I became a fan despite not knowing a single word of Japanese then! I love their summery harmonies as well as their thoughtful lyrics (after I found out what they were singing lol). One of my favourite folk instument is the harmonica, which is played super skillfully by Iwasawa Koji who also juggles his guitar at the same time.

For this album I'm glad they returned to their roots of more folkish songs. In the past few years, their music was straying abit from folk and more into commercial pop which was quite disappointing, since I felt the best albums were their pre-debut mini album of street performances (they were originally busking in the streets). 

やさしさに包まれたなら COVER

I discovered a wonderful video of my favourite band Yuzu, covering a song I like which was on a movie by an animation studio I love!

やさしさに包まれたなら Yasashisa ni tsutsumareta nara

This is the ending song for the popular Studio Ghibli movie "Majo no Takkyuubin (Kiki's Delivery Service)"(1989). Originally sung by Arai Yumi in 1974. This song is quite lovely! I love Studio Ghibli's films, my club at deviantArt: studioghibli.deviantart.com

Here is a video (with subtitles to the lyrics). It is the ending credits to the film.

THE BRILLIANT GREEN

This is a performance from one of my favourite bands, The Brilliant Green. Time Magazine rated them as one of the top 10 bands in the world outside the US (surprising to some). Their albums are usually released in autumn-winter which is a good indication of their musical style. They draw a lot of inspiration from the Beatles and play tunes ranging from pop-rock to whimsical rock. I can't say the lead singer Tommy (Kawase Tomoko) has the strongest 'live' performance abilities, but this video above demonstrates that she actually sings better with less noise and being seated lol, rather than go off-pitch in some of her TV performances (which is, by the way, much better than the lip-syncing she has to do sometimes).

This one is one of their old vids I like because she finally looks her age. This vid about 6 years old. And she gives off that sexy vibe, rather than the cutesy she is known for. The concept of the video is a little thought-provoking too.

For the past 6 years Tomoko was concentrating on her solo releases 'Tommy February 6' and 'Tommy Heavenly 6' which are both short term projects but turned out to be massively popular. I am so glad Brilliant Green is back again finally after a 5-year hiatus. You wouldn't believe the horror when I first saw Tommy February 6's debut on Music Station but I've kind of warmed up by now. I've always liked her gloomy sombreness in the band but well, it was a very strategic career move anyhow. And her good prediction that an 80s synthesizer revival was coming up (she did it way before any of the revival artistes did, I think). The below video demonstrates my point:

I won't even delve on her Heavenly6 persona, just that it is rather Avril Lavign-ish which I'm not into. She is 32 this year I think, amazing how she seems to look younger than a decade ago!

YUZU FINALLYY! INTRODUCING 2 VIDS

Finally someone managed to post Yuzu's music vids on youtube! It's only a week old I hope it will remain for longer time.. Previous attempts to post their videos never lasted more than 3 months, I mean c'mon Senha!!! Give us a break we can't afford your pricey japanese msic video imports (well i do own 2 sets of the same tho, the VHS and then upgraded to the DVDs costs me 160bux for the vhs and 80 for the DVD, but then I am afterall one of their biggest fan lol) I haven't bought their stuff for 2 years though... shame on me! I thought they were getting too pop but then I saw their new song and it was back to good ol japanese folk songs!!

Anyhow I just HAVE to share my fave song!!
'Itsuka' by Yuzu (1999)

The new folk song I was talking about, I'm just ecstatic when I saw this video! It's 5.30am now ^_^ My other NEW fave song!
明日天気になぁれ (Ashita Tenki ni Naare)

AIKO IN PERFORMANCE

Aiko is one of my favourite female singers. She has got a sunshine personality to match her cuteness! Love her voice and she's got a pretty unique style of composing songs.
This is my fave song of hers called 'Ama no Gawa' / '天の川' meaning Milky Way (Celestial River):


'Eriashi' / 'えりあ し' :


Aiko being her exuberant self tossing plushies to her fans: