Fan Stuff! Band Edition

One of the things you’ll find a lot of on YouTube, is people doing their own covers of K-On! songs. A lot of the time, you’ll see some guy playing the instrument of his choice with the original recording in the background. Occasionally, though, you may find this type of video where someone had the bright idea to either edit several of these individual covers together to form a full band video, or collaborate with several other people to create one.

Yeah, I know the singer on that last one is a dude.

Episode 1 “Disband the Club!” Music replacement comparison

Okay – I’m not going to keep bringing this up all the time, but yes; this is about the music replacement again. As mentioned in the Volume 1 Blu-Ray review/comparison, Bandai’s US release of K-On! has music replaced in the first episode. For some, it may not seem like a big deal. For others, it’s a huge disappointment. Personally, I think that with K-On! being a heavily music-themed anime, any music replacement is especially unfortunate.

For those who aren’t really sure what to make of this, here is a video that shows exactly what the change entails:

News: K-On! Live album to be released

The official K-On! website of Japanese broadcaster TBS has announced a K-On! live album CD will be released. The album will consist of material from the two live shows performed by the anime cast and music crew; “K-On! Live Event – Let’s Go!” from 2009 and “K-On!! Live Event – Come With Me!!” from February this year. No further details have been revealed as of yet.

The first live event, “Let’s Go!” was released in its entirety on DVD and Blu-Ray June 30^th of last year, and “Come With Me!!” is scheduled for release on August 3^rd.

CD review: “Cagayake!GIRLS” single

The first two K-On! CD’s ever released were the opening and ending song singles, Cagayake!GIRLS and Don’t Say “Lazy”. Released all the way back in April 2009, they became the first two out of many K-On! singles to hit the Japanese pop charts pretty hard. In fact, in their first week; Don’t Say “Lazy” and Cagayake!GIRLS scored the number 2 and number 4 spots, respectively, selling more than 60,000 copies each.

"Cagayake!GIRLS" Limited Edition cover

Reviewing the song Cagayake!GIRLS would be pointless. There is not a K-On! fan in the world who doesn’t know this song from the TV anime. The difference, obviously, is that the CD single features a full length version of the song as opposed to the 90 second long version featured over the anime’s opening sequence. But it’s the same song, of course, just… longer.

The B-side is an upbeat, somewhat catchy song named Happy!? Sorry!!. Like the first track, it features Yui (Aki Toyosaki) as the lead with the other three main cast members doing background vocals. To finish up the CD, there are vocal-less versions of each of the two songs.

"Cagayake!GIRLS" Regular edition cover

Two different editions of the Cagayake!GIRLS single were released. The content of the CD was identical between the two versions, but the presentation of it differed. While I don’t have the regular edition on hand to review, it had different cover art and came in a slim CD case whereas the Limited Edition comes in a standard jewel case.

Unique to the Limited Edition is the artwork on the disc itself (the same as on the cover), as well as how the cover insert is handled: Instead of the usual little booklet, there is a series of separate inlays, each with a piece of the art work on the front and part of the lyrics or credits on the back. Each of the characters featured on the “main” cover gets their own cover inlay where their picture is separated from the rest, so if you’re one of those weirdos that’s only a fan of a specific character and not the group as a whole (how are you a K-On! fan?) all you have to do is switch the cover and – voilà! – your beloved Ritsu, or whoever, gets all the attention.

The regular edition should still be easily available, but the LE is, sadly, out of print. Fortunately, if you really want it – and why wouldn’t you? – it’s not hard to find it second hand and if you do a little searching you can probably find new and unused copies without too much trouble.

Fan stuff! K-On! MADness!!

Finding K-On! fan videos on YouTube can be brutal. I swear, I won’t subject you to this kind of thing on a regular basis.

The next video features madness of a very different and decidedly more sinister kind.

Now, as offensive as that was, I think the following video is even worse. My advice is; try not to think of it as entertainment. Think of it as a useful tool to punish your children with if they grow accustomed to beatings and regular emotional abuse.

I am truly sorry.