Different Chistmas music

This time of the year I figure people are getting sick of hearing the same Christmas songs over and over, so I head over seas to find different Christmas music for a change of pace. This year, as is often the case with these alternate Christmas music posts, I headed to Japan to see what sort of insanity I could find.

The Japanese celebrate Christmas with all of the trappings -- Christmas trees, Santa, elfs, presents and what-not -- but it is a couples holiday to them, more akin to Valentines Day than anything. That's why in the song above (Christmas? What is that? Is it delicious?) they've changed the lyrics from 'jingle bells' to 'single hell' and the Crayon Pop song below is called Lonely Christmas.

Enjoy them as you go about your pre-Christmas routines and hopefully some of the more energetic ones don't induce seizures while you watch them. Oh, one more warning... you might get the phrase "a winter fairy is melting a snowman" stuck in your head for some odd reason. Just sayin' is all.

Some Christmas music

Enjoy this Japanese ska/punk version of Jingle Bells by SKAyway.

 

Strange Japanese choreography

I meant to post the above video months ago, but forgot to bookmark it and, since I knew neither the band or song's name, had a devil of a time finding it again. In fact, I found it by accident while looking for another weird Japanese video I neglected to bookmark.

The song is by Genki Sudo and the slow-motion robotic business men are a dance troupe called World Order. Sudo is a former martial artist who has since retirement from the ring written books, acted, choreographed dances and became a musician. 

He's also a practicing Buddhist, so --  rather than the "man as a cog in the machine of modern society" type message his visuals evoke in a Westerner -- in his songs he's more likely examining the interplay between what is real, what is false and where does the truth lie.

The above song was written as a reaction to the Japanese earthquake and tsunami. The Examine article Are we living in a 'Machine Civilization' asks Genki Sudo discusses the song and includes the lyrics. As you can see he dwells on the themes of dreaming, awakening, illusions and the mundane that are common in Buddhist literature.

Below is another video of his, this one staged in New York. Its lyrics follow it.

We have opened the veil of the world
and heard two voices
One is the soothing beautiful lie
and the other the distorted truth that fills the hollows
What is right and what is wrong
Truth is always the paradox
One era has gone by
and I awake in sleep

The rhythm of the universe the rhythm of your love
Dreaming cycle Beautiful Venus

The rhythm of the universe the rhythm of your love
Now in this moment I 'dance'

World Order