1. Sci-Fi Wasabi by Cibo Matto, from the album Stereo Type A.I had some trouble at first because so much of my music came from someone on the blog already. Julie, I'mnotMarc and JPX all have folders in my iTunes. So I started scrolling down my music and only got to C before I had my answer. Cibo Matto (pronounced CHEE-bo MAH-toh, which is Italian for "food crazy") might not be the most obscure thing for all of you, but when this song came out in 1999 I liked it so much I would lie on my bed in the dark and jam it on my headphones, something I hadn't really done since I was 15. The line featuring a well-known Star Wars character still delights me every time.
These guys only put out two albums and an EP, yet they remain in my top 5 favorite bands ever. I got to see them in NYC in 2001 shortly before they broke up, and it was spam-tastic. While the band was founded by the two ladies pictured above (Yuka Honda on the left and Miho Hatori on the right), on stage they were about 10 people. During a long bridge in Know Your Chicken, every member of the band surreptitiously picked up a percussion instrument and on cue they all started wailing. Then they ripped out their power-pop-punk song Birthday Cake, and then finished Know Your Chicken, which apparently we were still in the middle of.
Other facts: Their video for Sugar Water (off their first album) was directed by Michel Gondry and can be found on the dvd of his work I raved about a while ago. And frontwoman Miho Hatori provided the original vocals for Gorillaz band member Noodle (above).
2. Meditational Field by Susumu Hirasawa, from the soundtrack to the movie Paprika.I don't know anything about Susumu Hirasawa except that he's done music for two projects by anime director Satoshi Kon: the movie Paprika and the 13-episode series Paranoia Agent. Jules and I screened Paprika a few weeks ago and I wasted no time nabbing the opening music. I was trying to describe the very similar vibe that Paranoia Agent's opening song had, and I said "It's all sweeping and layered and (making jazz hands) 'everybody in the world'." If I could have found Paranoia Agent's song I would have posted that, but iTunes let me down. It's hilarious when you get a song in your head and it's in another language.
Meditational Field is no less catchy, but the mix of vocals and electronica is so dense I couldn't even begin to hum it. But it's kinetic and upbeat and fun, kind of like Madonna's song Ray of Light. Onward!
7 comments:
Embarrassing to admit this since they're one of my favorite bands and all, but I've been pronouncing their name SHEE-bo Matto instead of CHEE-bo, and I'll probably keep on doing it that way.
Besides CM my other top 5 faves are Talking Heads, Massive Attack, The Dandy Warhols and The Magnetic Fields. The Beatles and Portishead both get honorable mentions.
And speaking of the Beatles, for a while John Lennon's son Sean was Cibo Matto's third frontperson, although he wasn't there when I saw them.
Oh I remember this band now! I once ended up with one of your tee shirts (how the hell did that happen) with this band on it. I was wearing it one day and this gay friend of a friend remarked how cool the bad was (thus implying that I was cool for wearing the shirt). Up until that point I had no idea what the shirt was all about, but I played along, "Yeah, they are cool!" Sorry for stealing your cool for a moment, dude.
This is shaping up to be quite an experiment! Interesting choices, I'd expect nothing less from you.
damn, unless husband has meditational field on his hard drive i will have to check out this "itunes" thing.
extra props to octo for participating despite the zack timeline and for the creativity of his picks. this is a whole new line of music for me.
Octo have you heard the new Portishead album yet? They make take years and years between albums but they never put out a shoddy product.
JSP, just bought the new Portishead! I'm acclimating. Love them, though.
What she said.
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