That is, as an English speaker? I know Subhuman and that's always a hit, but I want to be able to play and sing more of my favorite band's songs than just one. Unfortunately, I utterly fail at memorizing and singing in Japanese, so I was wondering if any of you can think of some fun Engrish Pillows songs to play and sing, or maybe have translations that fit the meter.


P.S. I wasn't sure if this was considered Pillows discussion, lyrics discussion, or tabs discussion so I figured I'd put it in the general forum.

Bubbletown's happy zoo, advice, naked shuffle, killing field, mr. droopy, come down, calvero... That's all I can think of right now...

Nightmare, No Substance, Doggie Howl.

Cant think of any others, I'm sure theres some escaping me though.

Comedy option: Tokyo Zombie

Edit: Revivals great if you can play it

Gazelle City

Oh yeah, I forgot that I knew Nightmare, Naked Shuffle, Come Down, and Advice at some point. I'm sure I have my versions laying around somewhere. And Gazelle City is a Bingo, I love the guitar in that one.

[quote="Ashinow"]Gazelle City[/quote]

[quote="wffong09"]Oh yeah, I forgot that I knew Nightmare, Naked Shuffle, Come Down, and Advice at some point. I'm sure I have my versions laying around somewhere. And Gazelle City is a Bingo, I love the guitar in that one.[/quote]
Um, does anyone have a good tab for Gazelle City? I don't really want to start from scratch if I don't have to.

[quote="[Mr. Lostman]"][quote="Ashinow"]Gazelle City[/quote][/quote]

I doubt my advice will be taken, but I just wanna share my thoughts:

Honestly, I think pillows covers from English-speakers are best when they're covering non-English pillows songs. It would make sense for a English speaker to cover an English song, but because Sawao's lyrics are pretty broken and awkward, it makes singing it in a native English speaker's accent sound even more awkward. Often, Sawao's English songs have unnatural phrasing and cadence. Subhuman is preeetty alright, but even something like Gazelle City just sounds kinda wonky when the person enunciating has a natural English accent.

I understand if you guys feel differently, but compare 1) Charm Face's winning cover of [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LNf-Sz_5gA]Gazelle City[/url] and 2) BDMonster's cover of [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2LRMMC9ods]Fool on the Planet[/url]. Musical elements aside, I personally prefer BDMonster's by a long shot. His Japanese pronunciation isn't perfect, but it seems less stilted and awkward than the Charm Face vocal.

When I watch even high quality pillows English-song covers, it gives me a similar feeling like I'm watching a Ukranian rock band whose English is pretty good, but is still that uncanny valley that makes you think "We...don't really say that in English..."

the pillows' English tracks "work" because the combo of a Japanese accent and stilted/awkward English makes sense. But when you perform it with a natural, native accent, all of that becomes even more stilted/awkward because the unnaturalness is made clearer. There's a disconnect. You focus on how cold and flat the line "It is very cold this morning" is, and you hang on the weird pause between "I slept(ah)" and "badly, Sunday night."

My sad conclusion is that if you simply can't do the Japanese and English is your only option, you're destined for at least some level of weirdness. And you're gonna sound at least a little bit like this guy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhmsy5o9WAA#1m18s

Texan Daily Life? Secret Slogan?

[quote="GoldenRhino"]I doubt my advice will be taken, but I just wanna share my thoughts:

Honestly, I think pillows covers from English-speakers are best when they're covering non-English pillows songs. It would make sense for a English speaker to cover an English song, but because Sawao's lyrics are pretty broken and awkward, it makes singing it in a native English speaker's accent sound even more awkward. Often, Sawao's English songs have unnatural phrasing and cadence. Subhuman is preeetty alright, but even something like Gazelle City just sounds kinda wonky when the person enunciating has a natural English accent.

I understand if you guys feel differently, but compare 1) Charm Face's winning cover of [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LNf-Sz_5gA]Gazelle City[/url] and 2) BDMonster's cover of [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2LRMMC9ods]Fool on the Planet[/url]. Musical elements aside, I personally prefer BDMonster's by a long shot. His Japanese pronunciation isn't perfect, but it seems less stilted and awkward than the Charm Face vocal.

When I watch even high quality pillows English-song covers, it gives me a similar feeling like I'm watching a Ukranian rock band whose English is pretty good, but is still that uncanny valley that makes you think "We...don't really say that in English..."

the pillows' English tracks "work" because the combo of a Japanese accent and stilted/awkward English makes sense. But when you perform it with a natural, native accent, all of that becomes even more stilted/awkward because the unnaturalness is made clearer. There's a disconnect. You focus on how cold and flat the line "It is very cold this morning" is, and you hang on the weird pause between "I slept(ah)" and "badly, Sunday night."

My sad conclusion is that if you simply can't do the Japanese and English is your only option, you're destined for at least some level of weirdness. And you're gonna sound at least a little bit like this guy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhmsy5o9WAA#1m18s[/quote]
I see what you're saying but you gotta be creative. I redo all the pillows songs I know a little bit, partially because I'm combining two guitar parts into one and partially to make the lyrics not sound weird. For instance with your example, I would sing "I sle-ept badly Sunday night", just holding the "e" instead of adding the extra syllable. Trust me, I'd do the Japanese songs if I could because they're my favs, but I can't even remember the Japanese words to Little Busters with any accuracy (and that's an easy one) and American audiences typically don't respond well to peppering Japanese into a set. Like I said, my Subhuman is usually a hit. Although, I remember the words to Come Down and We Have A Theme Song are really goofy if you sing with enough diction that people can understand you.

[quote="Lesser_Hamster"]Texan Daily Life? Secret Slogan?[/quote]
I've never heard Texan Daily life, actually, and I've only ever heard Secret Slogan with piano.

[quote="Spike"]http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1244235/Hosted%20Files/The%20Pillows%20-%20Gazelle%20City.gp5[/quote]
I'm not quite sure what to do with this...

Hey, friendly point of advice, please try to keep multi-replying to a minimum. Edit your first post if necessary rather than quote three people in three separate posts, please. I went ahead and took care of it for you this time.

Rain Brain always seemed totally doable, and seeing this http://youtu.be/gl8voXtVA1Y made me happy. "this brain stopped growing/a tree is known by it's fruit/I consider myself dead" is awesome for me. You [i]could[/i] swap "this" for "my", but I like the detachment "this" implies, that it is something that he owns rather than a part of his body, therefore something that can be manipulated in some way and changed for the better.

And Rookie Jet is simple and fun, grab a buddy to help with the "Well I Never" and for alternating yeahs.

Purple Apple would only need a few grammatical changes here and there, but, uhhhh... [url]http://youtu.be/-AfPa1_vOzg[/url]

Kinda related.

I'm covering Sawao's 'Rehabilitation' but I'm changing his word choice/phrasing so it makes a little more sense. The music's exactly the same but the lyrics have been made a little more personal while still retaining Sawao's ideas.

I've kept "Can I be normally?" because I can't think of anything that'd suit. And it's the original lyrical hook.