Stop me please! I'm going nuts with stupid pop music!

Share Your Music
#1

G’Morning Bachido! How’s everyone doing? Well so here is the story. I recently got offered a paying gig to perform Shamisen for a junior high school ceremony here in Japan. I was excited about it up until I heard that they wanted me to perform songs by Kyary Pamyu Pamyu. “Who?” I asked. After finding her on YouTube my first reaction was to perhaps cancel the gig. How could they be seriously expecting me to play this goofy pop music on my Shamisen? (seriously the corniest music I think I’ve ever heard in my life) But never one to turn my back on a challenge I reluctantly began picking out the melodies. Pretty soon I began actually getting into the songs. Well…one thing lead to another and before I knew it I found myself learning the melodies for a Nicki Minaj tune. Now I am looking in the mirror asking myself "What the hell happened to me?

#2

Cool play! We first have to practice saying Kyary Pamyu Pamyu successive ten times. More difficult than Peter piper picked …
No one can stop you, Kevin san!

#3

Haha sounds like a hilarious upcoming gig Kevin Kmetz among a crowd of stoked junior high school kyary pamyu pamyu fans . . .

I shall not inquire about what wardrobe stage outfit you are considering for this anyway while watching the clip above I thought this is not so bad but then the verse was over and the refrain started :slight_smile:

(sounds like you are up to the challenge though I especially liked the second clip)

#4

“When I was a geisha he was a samurai,
Somehow I understood him when he spoke Thai”

Yes, Kevin. I am very impressed by your choice of artists.

But its cool to hear you do stuff with the looping machine!

#5

i’ve had PonPONwayway PON stuck in my head for over a year now since i first heard it -___-

#6

Mc Hammer’s “Can’t Touch This” music fits more to that CANDY CANDY video.

#7

I think the best way to describe the situation is that you are a beast, Kevin. A mad, pop-tune playing, shamisen beast.

Nice work with the looper. Would be cool if you had a set of looper pedals so that you could designate certain pedals to certain parts of the song. Then you’d have a bit more control, and could start taking out parts one at a time, instead of stacking and stacking and stacking. Not that the final looped product sounded bad at all, just a thought.

And now these songs will be stuck in my head… Thanks for sharing!

#8

I seriously enjoyed every one of them :DD
Awesome job as always Kevin!

What can i say? Everything sounds awesome when you play it with shamisen.

Ooh btw oftopic i today earned my first money by playing Shamisen.
It was on my acquintance’s 60th birthday party. I introduced them to shamisen and japanese music and shamisen equipment and then played a few songs… Kuroishi Yosare, Ringo Bushi, Tsugaru Jinku, Kase no Yakko Odori and ofcourse first part of Rokudan.

And i loved it!

#9

Bachido Report.

March 23 (Japan) 2013.
The gig was yesterday afternoon and it went very well! I pulled off both Kyary Pamyu Pamyu songs without any problem (truthfully since I had arranged them to be played with the my “new” loop station I was more worried about the looping than the actual melodies (pretty simple songs) . But as I said I managed to loop the beat right in synch with the rest of the song . Whew! What a relief!!! The kids were all into it and I handed out a ton of fliers which also had a paragraph about bachido and our international community etc.

My only real problem is… Good Grief! Now I’m becoming addicted to Pamyu Pamyu on Shami! I’ve already started to arrange PONPONPON as a balled for piano and Shamisen. Think I’ll work on that today since I have the day off!

Dear Lord… I would have never imagined myself in this position. If I took a time machine back to three weeks ago I would never in a million years be able to convince myself that Pamyu Pamyu Shamisen was going to be my “new” thing.

I’m even obsessing over the idea of arranging ninjali ban ban or tsukematsukeru for multiple players! Grant, Kyle, Anne, Adrian …

BE PREPARED! Muahahahahahahahah!!

#10

P.s. Ortjo,

That is very awesome news about your first paying gig! I’d really like to hear your performance of those tunes! Keep it up! It’s an exciting thing to perform for people isn’t it?

Amanda, looks like I’ll have to dedicate my ponpon arrangement to you once it’s done! Haha! Here’s to having it stuck in your head for another year! (just kidding of course!)

#11

does some of the dance moves while singing the chorus

#12

Great playing, Kevin! I can’t help but wonder if 20 years from now some shamisen player will say that she started playing after seeing this foreign guy play pop music on the shamisen at her junior high school. And so things come full circle…

#13

And one of Kiki, Kanami also started Tsugaru shamisen triggered seeing a wonderful play at junior high school.
A part of history under making like this!!!

#14

Kyary Pamyu Pamyu is cute though

#15

Oh God! I did it! I’m currently editing a video a just finished filming! It’s a piano and Shamisen ballad version of PONPONPON ! I really did it! I didn’t just talk about it and imagine that someday it might happen! It’s already done! Hope to finish it up and have it uploaded in approx. 3-4 hours! It’s pretty cheesy though! I gotta warn you all!
But hey! It’ll be dedicated to Amanda from the UK since she mentioned it was stuck in her head for the past year!

Bachi On everyone!

#16

totally loving this. Right on Kevin!

#17

Dear Bachido,

#18

APPLAUSE
You…are a genius…you and kyle seem to be able to play ANYTHING.
I immediately showed this to a friend of mine who loves it better than the original, and we both think it sounds so nice slower

What’s next? Gangnam style?

#19

…only for You, Amanda! (haha)

#20

re: Kyary Pamyu Pamyu PONPONPON. Kevin that was incredibly beautiful.

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