Puncolle: Japanese-short for "voice actresses' legendary punk songs collection". That pretty much describes what this is - a set of sometimes very cleverly-arranged covers of punk (loosely - there's some grunge, etc) songs done in a J-Pop style by famous Japanese voice actresses (note: not the same as singers).
Editorial aside: I heard "Ruby Soho" on WFMU the other day, and was intruiged enough to seek this song out - and found the collection... along with a number of badly-written, poorly-researched, downright incorrect blog entries. So here is another one.
The appeal to this album is manifold - at the very least, it's funny at first; some of these covers are also pretty creative, and offer up a different, valid version of the song.
.1. Sex and Violence (The Exploited)/ Haruko Momoi
.2. Basket Case (Green Day)/ Haruna Ikezawa
.3. White Riot (The Clash)/ Kaori Shimizu
.4. Pretty Fly For A White Guy (The Offspring)/ Mai Kadowaki http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lA_5pSiYpgU
This one's pretty funny - you can tell what it'll be like right away from the attempted pronunciation of the gibberish introduction (which the Offspring took from Def Leppard's Rock of Ages, if anyone's wondering).
.5. Anarchy In The UK (Sex Pistols)/ Rie Tanaka http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1WHwUI-uh4
This a clever one - the background music is very different, while the vocal line is more or less the same. Each line of the verse in the original version goes over the same chord, while in the cover, the chords descend for each line of the verse. I think it works pretty well!
.6. London's Burning (The Clash)/ Yuko Goto
.7. Call Me (Blondie)/ Haruko Momoi
.8. God Save The Queen (Sex Pistols)/ Haruna Ikezawa
.9. Blitzkrieg Bop (Ramones)/ Kaori Shimizu http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esQdCXKP8Og
This song, not surprisingly, works well as a straight J-Pop piece.
10. Search and Destroy (Iggy & The Stooges)/ Mai Kadowaki
11. Ruby Soho (Rancid)/ Rie Tanaka http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wkgm-B-yhWw&feature=related
Punk songs seem to translate well into J-Pop. Note how she really kind of says "Luby Soho". Note also that the interval for the chorus melody is shifted - in the original, the "Ruby Ruby Soho" line is at an octave, while here it's at a third.
12. Smells Like Teen Spirit (Nirvana)/ Yuko Goto http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KTFzsoumgg
Slowed down, and played on piano, it was never so obvious what an old cliche the chord sequence for this song originally was- the reason it worked was the performance and execution. As the song goes on, the chords have changed a little to more of a J-Pop feel.
![]()
Buy>http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/pictures/s/03/47/AVCD-23728.jpg>Buy Puncolle at CDJAPAN!
Comments