As part of their end of year round-up, Cokemachineglow have put up a podcast of new and upcoming artists covering songs from 2006's best albums. There are two covers from one of my favourite finds this year - Japan's Shugo Tokumaru. He covers M. Ward's "To Go Home" (Itself a cover of a Daniel Johnson tune) and Peter Bjorn and John's catchy as fuck "Young Folks". "To Go Home" is a shorter version of the original and has that great pounding piano Shugo does so well with singing in Japanese while "Young Folks" is [...]

Paran Maum: Linda Linda Linda (Linda Linda Linda OST, 2005) Cornelius: Sleep Warm (Sensuous, 2006) (christmas themed) Shugo Tokumaru: Sleigh Ride (そり遊び) Parenthetical Girls: Festive Friends Forever The first song is from a Japanese film I just saw watched called LINDA LINDA LINDA(2006) which is about four schoolgirls who start a cover band for their school's festival. I thought it was kind of cool. [...]
Today would be the one year mark for this site's existence. Perusing the archives you can see a little bit of paradigm shifting in musical taste which is a good thing I guess. According to the site traffic and feed stats we actually have an audience and actual readership (which isn't that much but its still p cool). So thanks for making chinese restaurant in the forest* relevant. Special thanks to Squashed , Moka , Funtime OK , mp3blog.ch , Shay , boomawang , bbqchickenrobot [...]

Some beautiful odd music from Tokyo, Japan trickled into my ears this past week (Thanks Gráinne). I say odd but maybe it's because Shugo Tokumaru's music sounds like it was made in an forgotten era or more accurately, a world without electronics. It's delightfully quaint and full of old-style rhythms and classical guitar picking. 'Paparazzi' for example is a frenetic acoustic tune with some dizzying high pitched guitar. It reminds me of Michel Gondry's French band Oiu Oiu. Shugo sings over some of his songs and no stranger to a catchy melody and there's a playful sense of inventiveness throughout [...]

Who is Shugo Tokumaru ? Many have never heard of him, though some know that the talented musician from Tokyo, Japan is a budding star. He has released two albums - Night Piece (released in 2004) and the more recent L.S.T. (released in 2005), along with playing with artists such as Jens Lekman, Animal Collective, and M. Ward. Along with a countless number of artists, one of Tokumaru's primary influences is Brian Wilson, as he explores his more vocal side on L.S.T. with soothing but creative [...]
Regina Spektor - Us Seu Jorge - Carolina The Avett Brothers - Talk on Indolence Thao Nguyen - Moped Whitest Boy Alive - Don't Give Up Shugo Tokumaru - Karte Tuung - Out the Window with the Window Why? - Next Atlanta [...]