July 10, 2007

Niveous · Post by **Niveous** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 7:03 am

Hola songfighters,

I still can't get out of this funk I'm in. But I just keep on trucking. And here's a two-part question of the day for y'all.

Do you listen to music in languages other than English? And if so, what's your favorite song in another language?

This question is inspired by my recent growing love of Japanese music despite my lack of any knowledge of the language. I also dig a lot of Spanish rock music as of late.

As for my favorite foreign language tune, it's a toss up between Tommy Heavenly6's "Heavy Starry Chain" and Natalia y La Forquetina's "Ser Humano".

jackfrost · Post by **jackfrost** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 7:42 am

great question.

my favorite language to listen to songs in is japanese. something about the flow is really engaging to me. a lot of times there is a bit of engrish somewhere in the mix for good measure.

some favorites are:
composers: yoko kanno/seatbelts, yuki kajiura/fictionjunction yuuka
j-rock: the pillows, supercar, beat crusaders, l'arc-en-ciel, asian kung-fu generation, high and mighty color, porno graffitti
j-pop: maaya sakamoto, rie fu, younta
j-hip-hip/r&b: flow, home made kazoku, orange range

how can you not love these songs:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQRdix57pgM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Gg2ezbJCmE

i like sigur ros also, which everyone probably knows, is a mix of icelandic and a nonesense language that the singer made up.

Niveous · Post by **Niveous** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 7:46 am

jackfrost wrote:asian kung-fu generation, flow

king_arthur · Post by **king_arthur** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 8:21 am

QotD: I got to go to Poland for a week or so in 1993, to a tiny little town on the eastern (Ukraine) border called Przemysl ("shemish"). Probably the best souvenir I brought back was seven CDs of Polish rock bands, including two by Perfect (at least at the time, they were <u>the</u> great Polish rock band), a couple by Dzem (Polish for "jam"), and a couple others. Perfect's Police-like "Chcemy Byc Soba" ("We Want to Be Ourselves") is the one that sticks in my mind. I also wound up with about a dozen cassettes of Polish punk bands.

However, in terms of my favorite foreign-language song ever, Zucchero's "Chicas" still tops the list. Also up there is "Laud to the Nativity," a classical piece by Otto Respighi. I've sung it in English, but the recording I have is in Italian and is still cool.

Plans for the day: already did a little yard-trimming in the back. Mom's pool therapy class and lunch. This afternoon, the plan is to pull out a movie or something and put it on while I sit there and practice making ethernet cables... we bought a kit a while back, and yesterday the Mrs. decided that that should be my job, and I should be good at it by the time we get to Mexico on Sunday afternoon, so I can build cables for the computer room there. I've tried a few so far; one of them works if you jiggle the wire a little bit, so I know I have the theory right, it's just the execution that's not working. I think maybe some of the problem is that when I strip the outer wrapping off, some of the inner wires get stripped a little bit too, and then short out once the connector is crimped on. But some of the failures have had to do with getting the wires out of order at one end...

Tonight the "Technical Communication Society" is having their monthly meeting, and I've emailed to see if it would be okay to just drop in and check them out. I think some technical writing / communication sort of thing might be a way for me to ease my way back into the workforce, maybe start out with some job shop sort of things with flexible hours and work location, and then eventually get back to work full time.

Charles

P.S. - on our way back to the U.S., we stopped in Warsaw for the night, and I found a CD store in the downtown touristy area by the castle... I was talking to the owner about the sort of bands I liked, and at one point he decided to show me his treasures - definitely not for sale - two or three Allman Brothers CDs. I think if I'd had a CD of Fillmore East with me, I could have traded it for six or eight more Polish band ones... Grateful Dead he'd never heard of. Michael Jackson was hugely popular...

WeaselSlayer · Post by **WeaselSlayer** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 8:23 am

Norwegian (Darkthrone, Burzum), Ukrainian (Hate Forest, Drudkh), lots of metally things.

Hoblit · Post by **Hoblit** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 8:50 am

There's other languages? That must be the jibberish I' been hearin' on those channels down the dial on the AM.

Seriously, I don't listen to music in other languages on purpose. Whats funny is that I totally have an association though. When I hear latin music I get hungry. I'm sure it's something to do with mexican and spanish restaurants that I frequent.

Tuesday. Nothing special, another day another dollar. Great, now I want mexican food. (There is a great mexicano version of Hotel California that I hear at mexican restaurants here and there)

Rabid Garfunkel · Post by **Rabid Garfunkel** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 9:37 am

QOTD: Constantly. Too, too many to pick a single favorite. Off the top of my head, El Klan's "La Ruleta De La Vida" ain't half bad. And it's a cover, even.

If you're into '60s/'70s Mexican psychedelia, that is.

Turkish psychedelia is pretty sweet, too. And Bollywood soundtracks. And Central American punk/metal (Control Machete! Fuck yeah.)

mkilly · Post by **mkilly** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 9:41 am

Recently we've had a lot of foreign stuff come into the station. a short list off the top of my head:
boris/michio kurihara (japanese noise-metal stuff and classical, did a collaborative album)
cornelius (japanese; one of my favorite musicians)
bonde do role (rap in portuguese, I think, from Diplo, who also discovered MIA)
spanish harlem orchestra (salsa)
colleen (french - viola de gambo on the new album, which PFM bought at amoeba music h'wood yesterday)
savath and savalas (in spanish)
the moog (hungarian; singing in english tho')

hmm.

today I'm going to the Getty and seeing Manet's Bar aux Folies-Bergeres, one of the most important paintings of the last couple hundred years. wooooo! then back to Vegas, spend a day or two there, then Jerome, then Moscow. man, great vacation.

Niveous · Post by **Niveous** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 9:51 am

Oops gotta change my answer because I forgot all about- "Alcohol" by Resorte.

HeuristicsInc · Post by **HeuristicsInc** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 10:59 am

Hoblit wrote:(There is a great mexicano version of Hotel California that I hear at mexican restaurants here and there)

This is probably not Mexican but Spanish/French... it's a fantastic cover by Gipsy Kings. It was featured in the bowling scene in The Big Lebowski also. That's probably the one you mean. This also fits into yesterday's theme.

I don't really like the "pick your favorite" question because that's too hard. I do like a lot of songs in other languages. e.g. the above, and:

French - Autour de Lucie, especially "Je Reviens". In France I heard a rap band called Kamini, which I picked up before leaving, but I haven't picked a favorite yet.
Ielandic - Sigur Rós, especially "Svefn-g-englar"
German - Einstuerzende Neubauten, especially, let's see, "Die Interimsliebenden", also Kraftwerk
Latin - Enya "Pax Deorum", Verdi "Deus Irae"
Spanish - Faith No More doing their own song "Evidence" in Spanish, Marc Ribot y los Cubanos Postizos "No Me Llores Mas", Ozomatli
Finnish - Värttinä & Hector Zazou "Annukka Suaren Neito"
Hebrew - Malka Spigel, especially "Besof Hayam"
Tuvan throat-singing - Ondar, especially "Tuva Groove"

Cocteau Twins often used language in a very fluid manner with many things that may or may not be words... doesn't really count, though.

I do get fired up about foreign languages... see, I'm terrible at picking a favorite.
-bill

jimtyrrell · Post by **jimtyrrell** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 11:15 am

Today I sent my CD off to be mastered/duplicated. If all goes well, I'll have 100 copies of it in time for the Weird Al show in August.

So now I can start working on the show itself. I'm doing two 90 minute sets, and I'd like to do all original stuff. I think I'm going to cross that dark line I drew in the sand years ago (which must have faded a bit, apparently) and set up some BACKTRACKS to play to. God help me, I'm on the edge of Karaoke. But the venue seems to warrant the full band sound, and if it's all my own stuff, then no one should say boo about it.

QotD: Not much. I listen to the Quebec radio stations when I go up to The Balsams, but that's about it. Oh, I was on a Pizzicato Five kick for a while 'round about the turn of the Millenium.

EmbersOfAutumn · Post by **EmbersOfAutumn** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 11:16 am

I have a Bocelli CD that finds its way into my rotation every now and then. I also have a few Juanes (Spanish) CD's for some excellent Spanish Rock, and am a huge fan of Hikaru Utada (Japanses Pop). That pretty much runs it for me.

Niveous · Post by **Niveous** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 11:46 am

I complete forgot about French music. I grew up watching MCM on public television, so I still listen to 80's french music like Vanessa Paradis, Patrick Bruel, L'affaire Louis Trio and Noir Desir.

Caravan Ray · Post by **Caravan Ray** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 1:28 pm

I listen to a lot of Pacific Island music

fluffy · Post by **fluffy** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 3:33 pm

I love a lot of multilingual stuff. I have a lot of Chinese (particularly Mandarin, which sounds more lyrical than Cantonese) and Japanese music, and a smattering of albums in other languages as well.

Particular favorites:

Mandarin: Faye Wong
Japanese: Sanae Shintani (aka Sana, of Beatmania fame)
Swedish: Bla Kongo (their debut album Something's Torn is bilingual)

Of the above, I think my favorite is either Sana-Mode or Sanative, both by Sanae Shintani.

Also I love Fantastic Plastic Machine, though most of his music is in English though there's plenty of stuff in other languages (and he's native to Japan).

Billy's Little Trip · Post by **Billy's Little Trip** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 3:42 pm

German industrial metal = Rammstein, Oomph!, Die Krupps, to name a few. I love the stuff.

I tend to use German industrial in all of my little movie projects.

roymond · Post by **roymond** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 5:02 pm

My flight out of Atlanta is delayed...surprise! Hopefully this leads to a new gig in DC

QofD: I love Cafe Tacuba (Spanish), lots of Indian pop, dig it when Bjork does her native tongue trick, and always like German pop (like Peter Gabriel's german disks, even Falco.

I pick Indian.

sausage boy · Post by **sausage boy** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 5:36 pm

Caravan Ray wrote:I listen to a lot of Pacific Island music

Odd, we have a bunch of that on iTunes here at work. I love the pipes, and the repeatitive clangy guitars.

Other than that... some Rammstein? I have a particularly good song, Mark Mark, by an Aussie punk band whos name I have forgotten. It is sung in Indonesian... I think.

j$ · Post by j$ » Wed Jul 11, 2007 1:25 am

QotD: Hell yeah! french pop makes me happy (particularly Philip Katerine, Gainsbourg, Jacques Dutronc, France Gall and Claude Francois),

I love portugeuse Fado (it's the over-the-top vocal stylings on classic 'spanish' guitar that does it for me).

Rap in french or spanish sounds lovely, even when in the latter (for example Orishas) I have little idea what they're saying.

I really like this Uruguayan singer - Jorge Drexler. He's best known for the song he wrote for 'The Motorcycle Diaries' which won an academy award, but I highly highly reccommend his album 'Eco' and its lead single "Milonga del moro judio" especially.

Recently got a great German hits 3-cd called (my rough translation) 'From Du to Da Da Da') on which I discovered a band with the very un-german-sounding name of The Spider Murphy Gang, who are great.

Pretty much any country I visit I try and pick up a CD by a native singer/band. At best I find something new and exciting, at worst it helps me understand the culture a little bit more.

EDIT:Oh yeah, as Bill mentioned, Kraftwerk and Einsturzende Neubauten. Kraftwerk are one of the bands that have had the biggest influence on me, of any band in any language. So omnipresent in my music listening in fact that I didn't think of putting them in this post at first.

fluffy · Post by **fluffy** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 2:15 am

j$ wrote:Rap in french

http://www.songfight.org/music/please_t ... an_pig.mp3

Caravan Ray · Post by **Caravan Ray** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 2:54 am

sausage boy wrote:
Caravan Ray wrote:I listen to a lot of Pacific Island music
Odd, we have a bunch of that on iTunes here at work. I love the pipes, and the repeatitive clangy guitars.
.

Not Drowning Waving's Tabaran, recorded in Rabaul with George Telek and PNG stringband musicians is a wonderful record.

NDW - Pila Pila

Siva Pacifica is also a very cool record - sort of Polynesian/techno

roymond · Post by **roymond** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 5:54 am

fluffy wrote:
j$ wrote:Rap in french
http://www.songfight.org/music/please_t ... an_pig.mp3

MC Solaar, who was born in Senegal, has that sweet African voice with punchy hip-hop delivery. At least his first album, after which he sort of got sucked into pop and lost the edge.