happy end - しんしんしん (mp3)

buffalo daughter - earth punk rockers (mp3)

yamasuki - kono samourai (mp3)

in the spirit of continuing "doing my bit for foreign relations" (please, for the love of god, just ignore me when i'm drunk) here's a super special, bonus, japanese themed triple bill post just for you.

following some research after loving 'kaze wo atsumete' on the oh-that's-how-you-do-it soundtrack to lost in translation, i found myself in possession of two albums by japanese 1970's folk rock band happy end. despite being one of the first rock groups to sing in japanese (it was generally thought that it just wouldn't sound right), this is far from clumsy pastiche. "しんしんしん" is definitely my favourite from both albums and if anyone can provide a translation of the title then i'd love to know what it's about.

what with the recent interest in the metalchicks' 'conspiracy' track i thought some of you would be interested to hear something by buffalo daughter, suGar of metalchicks' proper band. from their third album 'i', 'earth punk rockers' should help fuel kev's recent dirty love-affair with all things ROCK. watch out for the break-down and dirty, dirty riffage at around the 2 minutes 45 seconds mark.

finally, reaching somewhere around a nine out of ten on the bonkers-ometer, here's a track from the 1970's franco-japanese psych rock opera album "le monde fabuleux des yamasuki" (or "the fabulous world of yamasuki" for those without the might of my grade c in gcse french). re-released on andy votel's generally-to-be-relied-upon-for-weirdness label finders keepers this really is too fabulous to be done justice to by mere words. i was struggling to choose any one track but in the end decided that 'kono samourai' has the best sing-along chorus.