Over The Weekend: Skeet Skeet Boz Scaggs Rocket Man

Knowing Mikey would be in town over the holiday weekend, I also knew that at some point we'd inevitably end up at a norebang, or Korean-style karaoke. Unlike our typical norebang adventures, Mikey brought along a girl he had just met from China and her roommate from Japan. As we started entering songs into the system they informed us that they only knew how to sing songs from their native countries, with the lone exception being "I Want It That Way" by the Backstreet Boys which they somehow both knew completely in english.

This exposure to into a completely untraversed genre was quite eye-opening for me. A lot of it turned out to be pretty cheesy, but the most exciting part of the night in my opinion was everyone attempting to join in on Judy and Mary's "Sobakasu," clapping and shaking tambourines for those of us whom the language barrier proved too difficult to overcome.

Much to my delight our new acquaintance schooled me on Judy and Mary who's "Sobakasu" was used as the theme to the manga series Rurouni Kenshin (or Samurai X to us silly Americans) in the early 90's. Over the weekend I acquired their album The Power Station, which is full of J-pop twee, blended with noise rock, and innovative punk, all filed down into easily digestible pop nuggets.

While I admittedly would most likely enjoy their work more if I understood what they were saying, it doesn't stop me from making up my own words. For instance I sing, "Skeet skeet Boz Scaggs rocket man that's your great escape" during the chorus of "The Great Escape".

MP3: Judy and Mary - Sobakasu
MP3: Judy and Mary - The Great Esacpe

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