One Day in May…

[Ah, I love it when Ashin writes about his lyrics! From his blog on June 4.)

June, the flowers once blossomed in youth and now have spent their beauty, leaving no regrets.
Taking photographs of flowers that will soon pass away is more meaningful than taking them of the ones in full bloom.

Everyone says you take songwriting so seriously, have you ever just thrown a song together.
Oh yes, especially in the summer.

However, you'll probably guess the wrong song.

That summer, I mean, those hazy lyrics, I only took about ten minutes.
Not only to misread them with the mind of a poet, but even to battle a beautiful misunderstanding.

In a burst of energy, wrote them in eight minutes
and then had two minutes left to revise a bit.

I rarely write these kinds of hazy lyrics
Because I always want to play with the music a little while longer.

Just like a flower
Wants to linger in summer longer,

It's hot today,
So just grab anything to listen to,
It's just thrown together. : )

Left-Click (左鍵)

That high wall will fall
The red light will be extinguished, time will slant
Issue roses

Before your eyes, before my eyes
A few words become ardent

I’ve fallen in love with the fiery left-click
It takes me to a different word
One that has you

I’ve passed through zigzagging information
Into the expanse of your heart

Started to risk utopia
Your story, sweet and fresh
Wanting more, will you give it

Standing here, this cold world
Ceaselessly dreary, massive lies
The soul is stranded

[Hmm, there's a song translation that's due for revision... I'm going to get the whole site reworked this summer. Erm, maybe. But I'm going to try...]

Alright, call me crazy, but I’m sensing a trend here:

First there was “Little Sun (小太陽),” which has a lovely video and all, but was the advertising song for Tenwow Tea Drinks.

Then came “To Flourish (出頭天)” (we can debate the merits of that translation in a minute, just bear with me for a moment), which was released after the earthquake, but it turns out is the advertising song for Mass Mutual Mercuries Life (三商美邦人壽); the video-cum-commercial is here.

I joked in an email yesterday that now we just have to wait for the Hey Song Sarsaparilla song. Erm, actually, no waiting necessary. Here’s the commercial, and wait, do mine ears deceive me? Could that be that a new song in the background?

Okay, should we open a book on the new album? How many songs (out of a presumed 10) will be songs to advertise something? They do seem to have a special affinity for insurance/financial services and beverages, I’m not sure what that means (well on the former, obviously it means they have a more mature fan base than, say Fahrenheit) (yes, this is now our go-to comparison. Someone had to take the place of the Shin Band…) (though come to think of it, that’s a real insult to the Shin Band. My apologies, fellows). Ahem. The other part of it, of course, is that with two fathers in the band, Mayday is uniquely aware of the importance of life and health insurance, and therefore more prone to promote it.

It’s no particular secret that Mandopop artists no longer make much money at all off of their albums, just because the illegal downloading of songs/sharing of music is so prevalent. Instead, the profit basis of the music industry has moved to sponsorships and spokesperson opportunities, something I’ve talked about before. Mayday is no exception to this, so this is what we get, I guess. Perhaps it is strong motivation for fans to exercise restraint and not engage in any dodgy downloading practices themselves.

(A big thanks to Jennifer for sending me all the video links!)

Anyway, moving past the onslaught of new songs + new products, let’s look a little closer at that new insurance commercial. 1. Suits = Veeeery nice. Oh yeah. 2. Masa’s hair is now officially too long. 3. Stone’s looks like it’s getting pretty long, too. 4. Ashin is looking quite trim in his suit, but they are about to go into the studio, and we all know what that means… 5. Er, is Ashin wearing a pink shirt? He does that a lot, but I don’t really approve of pink. You know, in a general sense. 6. On the other hand, Ashin looks about 22 in this video, which ain’t half bad. 7. In the coffee scene, Stone and Monster look like they could be real cube-dwellers, but Monster looks a bit like a bad ass who wandered in off the street and put on someone else’s suit to disguise himself. Just a bit.

They guys have said of their little adventure as working stiffs in the video that it was really not like them at all. They don’t normally wear suits (though more’s the pity on that one, I say), they don’t ride motorscooters to or from work, and they really don’t take care of each other when they’re sick. (No, they bring in “Little Nurses” for that, right?)

On their suits, Masa – apparently not the least bit chastened by the weekend’s events – went through the band and did a little critique on how well they wore their suits. He thinks Stone wears his best, he looks like a high achiever, whereas poor Guanyou looks like a grunt. On Monster, he started to say his shoulders were too narrow, but catching the look in Monster’s eye, Masa changed his tune to praise how handsome he looked in his suit. No comment on Ashin? Eh, no worries, Masa, I’ve got you covered.

There are a few pictures of the boys in their jeans and their suits at the link.