Following on from last night’s volleyballpop discussion on Lollards, I thought I’d do a quick post as a follow up with some links to the other songs I mentioned! Doing the theme tune to volleyball championships seems to be quite lucrative. I mentioned that the first NewS single was used as the theme to the 2003 World Volleyball Championships (although for convoluted reasons this wasn’t considered the band’s official ‘debut’!): ladies and gentlemen I present NewS NIPPON! Really, nothing, ever, could beat the awesomeness of this song which I loved for years before I even sought out the video which features dancing in space, Yamapi in shorts. They also appear to have borrowed some of Kylie’s spare C&A spacesuits – remember when Kylie went into space? Yeah! I could go on (seriously <3 <3) BUT there’s MORE to this volleyball lark!
Because – as it turns out, in 2005, ANOTHER NewS single was used as a volleyball theme, this time to the ladies volleyball championship! This wonder is called TEPPEN (‘top’ or ‘summit’, whatevs). This song actually has an actual link to volleyball in the video, which features the lovely band members wearing various shades of quasi-dayglo trousers (AND THEY ACTUALLY MANAGE TO STILL LOOK GOOD WTF) and playing a wide variety of sports in a very well-kitted out warehouse. Oh, apart from the warehouse is semi-flooded, so as they play kicky-ball they get WET. (Like Andrew WK). (Ok not quite). Anyway, they play basketball, fitba, give each other backies on a bike (I’m saying NOTHING – oh Shige), drink cocktails, sweep the floor in orange boiler suits. But they DON’T actually play volleyball! Argh! But at the end they jump up and down like DORKS and it’s great so they’re forgiven.
Final one is the new single which we played on Lollards last night by Hey! Say! JUMP! – there is, mathematically speaking, ELEVENTY GRILLION of H!S!J! which means they would make a very effective volleyball team – if backflipping is a legal move in volleyball that is. The tune is Ultra Music Power – which I didn’t like so much on the first listen, perhaps because I am seriously concerned that I am listening to groups featuring a large amount of members under the age of 15 (I am 26, I admit this). But – you know what, I give in, it’s BLUDDY GRATE. The video is suspiciously similar to NewS Nippon now I think of it, except they appear to be in a CITY OF THE FUTURE rather than in space with aliengs, also they are pod people. There’s quite a lot of angsty staring at the camera inbetween cracking dance routines which makes me wonder – just how seriously ARE they taking this volleyball lark? AGAIN, no volleyball appears in the video. I now have a TOTAL CRAVING to watch boybands play volleyball. They should have a boyband league all of their own, totally!
Ah, ah. I said songs about volleyball and FOOD didn’t I? OK then, a sudden change of pace from relentless jpoptimism, here’s the wonderful 60s beat Eating Cold French Fries & Drinking a Lukewarm Coke by Louise Lovett. Wrenching stuff! At the beach on a date, she goes to the hamburger stand (cz the way to a man’s heart, etc) comes back clutching grease only to find the boy kissing JUDY! The b1tch! Our Lou flees the scene, clutching the by now soggy fries and syrupy fizz – when he drives up alongside her! DOH – it wasn’t him kissing Judy! It was Judy’s boyfriend! Louise just can’t tell men apart! Ha – so Louise gets in the car and they share the cold french fries together – but the real gutter in this one is the line “they pretend it was a joke”. You can picture them eating the cold fries in silence, he drops her off at home but when they see each other at school the next day, the awkwardness is still there. She doesn’t trust him, he doesn’t like that, and she’s embarassed. By the end of the week it will be over and Louise will be embittered, and working at the burger stand. Why are the burgers so salty? It’s because of her tears…
Anyway! I think this is the most I’ve posted to Freaky Trigger in donkeys so – erm, enjoy your songs about volleyball and food! I’ve made myself hungry now…