Catching Up With Shakalabbits

New Shakalabbits Anthologies with Video Collections

  This past weekend my friend and I were cruising at a local department store when the Wonders' snazzy song "That Thing You Do" from the Tom Hanks movie of the same name came on, and as we stood there groovin' to it, I was immedaitely reminded on how freakin' great the J-Pop ska group Shakalabbits' thrashing cover of it was! I asked him if I ever shared that video with him, and when he said he hadn't, I made sure that when we got back to my house that he got to see it!

 Needless to say, he loved it (even demanding I make a copy of the song for him!) and this got me to wondering just WHAT Shakalabbits were up to! Jumping onto the trusty CD Japan site, I was to find that they'd JUST simultaneously released two CD/DVD Greatest Hits with all their hit singles (as well as favorites chosen by the band) and all their super COOL videos! This was particularly a thrill for me, since, even though I'd bought one of their DVD Video collections before (the awesome Video Music Awards greatest Hits Vol.1):

...it didn't include a lot of their later songs, especially songs "Dazzling Soup" and Monologue" which were the first songs I loved from them- or their really early stuff like "Even If I'm Alone" and "80", happily,  they ALL were on this new package! WHOA!
 I immediately ordered the two CDs (well, added it to my existing T-ARA order, which was set to ship out in only another week) and jsut today they came in! So stoked, for while there, SHAKALABBITS was just about my favorite group, and these videos have always been a BIG part of what I loved about them-for the FIRST TIME, I'm seeing these PVs nice and crystal clear!!!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Favorite J-Pop Singles: Shakalabbits / Monster Tree

Just last week, my Youtube Account got suspended for uploading Shakalabbits' "Monster Tree" PV, and in a strange coincidence, just today I see that Shakalabbits is due to release two live DVDs, and the live video clip they're releasing to promote it is none other than Monster Tree itself!!! HAHAHA

Even more fun is the fact that "Monster Tree" is the only song I've ever tried to sing at Karaoke (went with Yametekudasai and Masa from Otokichi Premium, and while I sang, both of their faces were like O_O) so it's the one song I know all the lyrics by heart- and here we have Uki getting the crowd amped for a rousing "Monster Tree" singalong! DAMN, I coulda TOTALLY joined in on that one!!!!!!

I've loved the music of Shakalabbits since they released their wonderful single "Dazzling Soup" and subsequent single "Monologue", and from there jumped right into their entire back catalogue. My favorite video from them was always Monster Tree, and it was in fact one of the very first things I ever posted about in my long-dead VOX blog, one of the first thing I felt "passionate" enough to WANT to blog about!

And Yeah, so I uploaded the PV to my Youtube account so I could link it to my blog entry. And now my account is killed!  Ah well, admittedly, they DID warn me three times about it, I've learned my lesson- from now on, if I have to link to a video, I'll just find someone ELSE who has it up and link to THEIR video! Cause it sure is funny that they singled out MY account when there are at LEAST four other accounts with the same video up! AHAHAHA

Keep the SHAKALABBITS Love Alive!

Shakalabbits!

Here's probably my favorite current J-pop group out there right now,the rocking and quirky SHAKALABBITS!

A Friend asked me to describe them in a sentence, and I said "Judy and Mary for a new generation of fans!"

YES I said JAM, so they're an acquired taste and not for the faint of heart!

Whenever I would check out the latest postings on the mighty Japanese ORICON charts, there always seemed to be groups that charted regularly in the top echelon that never seemed to appear in television shows like Music Station and such. You would see these names like ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION, GARNET CROW and BUMP-OF-CHICKEN, and think, “Who ARE these groups?” I suppose if I lived in Japan, or at least had access to japan radio shows, I’d know them, but being completely reliant on shows like UTABAN and HEY HEY HEY to “educate” me about new groups, there were quite a few that remained unknown to me!

  Shakalabbits was one such group. I’d see this group with its weird name continually making the top twenty in the Oricon charts, and one day, a kind and generous soul on Jpopsuki uploaded the latest single of theirs called “DAZZLING SOUP”, and I downloaded it so I could finally get to HEAR this group!

 Wel, I didn’t know what I expected, but this song was just fantastic! As I mentioned above, they struck me as a latter-day JUDY AND MARY, but this group also seemed to have 1980’s nu-romantic overtones in the music as well (at least in THIS single), and I immediately knew I wanted to hear more!