I thought he was lead singer for a Queen tribute band.

Got to love the country singer's straw man about Hitler and Japan and ignoring the fundamental issue of US policy in the Middle East and acting to protect oil interests over letting them self rule and work out whatever issues they have to work out. I understand the need to try and contain the fallout from the wars between the various Islamic factions (mostly Shia and Sunni) from spilling over to neighboring nations, but the US policy has been overt in serving US interests over the long term interests of the region since the 50's. The US solid backing of Israel, even in cases where it is clearly in the wrong, adds fuel to the fire.

And I know those on the right complain how Obama has backed away from Israel, though the evidence clearly differs as the US still refuses to tell Israel, to the degree we should, to treat people within its occupied zones with proper respect... and the fact so many Americans feel the need to protect Israel and favor Israel over its occupied territories no matter what, again adds fuel to the fire and shows those in Islam how under attack their faith is, which makes them stronger in their faith and more sure that they are on the right path, since the devil is working harder to put their faith down than any other faith... of course I hear this exact same argument from Christians all the time, how the devil is trying to put Christianity down proves that Christianity must be true... amazing how a little empathy would probably help world peace, but neither faith seems to have any... though I've seen enough FB memes about how Christians are so depressed because they have so much empathy and I wonder where it is, as I've yet to see any empathy from Christians as a whole. All of which digresses from the original point...

US foreign policy is directly responsible for the rise of ISIS/ISIL, whatever you want to call it... now ISIS has risen itself up to be a rather large threat via its actions, which are deliberately provoking, as it's easier to radicalize people when the world starts turning against Islam as a whole, as those on the Right are apt to do, than turn against the small segment that aren't peace loving. Of course the Right's preferred response to those provocations are to do exactly what ISIS has publicly stated they want. They want a large war against them, they'd love it if Republicans banned them from coming to the US as it would make lone wolf attacks in the US by US citizens more prevalent, which like they did with Miami (the shooter himself pledged allegiance to ISIS, but he also pledged allegiance to Hezbollah, which is fighting against ISIS)... Republican policies, especially those of Trump and Cruz are so on point with ISIS desires, one has to wonder if they themselves are tied with ISIS interests, or if they are tied to military interests that profit off continuing the war and sacrificing American lives in the name of war profiteering... but Republican Jesus said "Blessed are the warmongers and the war profiteers and cursed be the peace makers"... It was there on the Sermon on the Mount when he also said, "Blessed be the rich employer who pays his employees poorly, and cursed be those employees who are poor and needy and needing assistance. Surely I say unto you, if you give tax breaks unto the rich and cut benefits for the needy and the poor, I shall bless your Nation... oh and forget the sick and dying, they got themselves into their mess, they are responsible for getting out, only the well to do shall have healthcare." Again I digress though...

They seem to be making fun of the music and competition which seems a bit weird. Does the music (bands,singers) stand up on their own musically, or is it all gimmicky as its a tv show(i assume) and all about the most exciting visually? Have any great acts come from the competition?

NHK Education channel runs clips like this every morning. The segment is called "Pitagoro Switch" (it's written on the flag on the house) and always features some Rube Goldberg-esque machine. This is the first one I've ever seen that actually had a story attached to it. The song is great too, as the singer describes everything that is happening in terms of the story (i.e. "Now the enemy is chasing them but they manage to get away...").

As a bass player I've tried playing some Babymetal for an internet forum challenge before. Not really my cup of tea, but some of the songs are fun. I don't think I've ever seen a video of them before, or if I have they tend to focus on the singer girls and not the band. So it was fun to see the bass player jamming out.

Dude's 6 string bass looks like it has a massively wide neck. Or maybe he's just proportionally small? I play a 5 string, and the neck seems like nowhere close to 5/6ths as wide as that beast... I thought maybe he was rocking an exotic bass with 8 or 10.

singer aint bad

Fucking fantastic singer.

I have no idea of who most those singers/musicians were or the songs themselves, but the mashup was well put together.

In this song, the fine state of Idaho is used to represent a case of paranoia - the lyrics "get out of that state" meaning to get out of that state of mind. B-52's singer Fred Schneider came up with the title, which was a play on the phrase "Private Eye" well before Hall and Oates used it in a song with a similar theme, but with hand claps. Why Idaho? Schneider explained to the Idaho Statesman that it was the wacky reputation of the state, saying, "Idaho is pretty mysterious to all of us. I know it's a beautiful state, but then I know there's also a lot of crazy right-wingers and all that stuff." He added, "The song's about all different things. It's not like a parody of Idaho or anything."
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=24064

Kind of reminds me of this band I was in a couple years back. We were booked to play this hipster library in L.A. (Yes, these things exist) and our band's singer/leader is stammering his intros and not playing to whatever crowd is actually there, the guitars are out of tune even though we spent hours preparing and tuning, and the drums are drowning out the rest of the instruments.

God, the acoustics in that place, and the look on the face of the person who booked us. Horror. Utter horror. I was wearing an Iron Maiden shirt with hair down to my tits, a look of insanity, me-against-the-world on my face.

Someone in the audience was like, "What the fuck is this shit?"

But I'm not Bill Burr and I' NOT in any mood to admit my faults, I just came back from 2 drinks over my limit at a bar around the corner, and I'm fucking done with hipsters. Suddenly our FOLK band goes into overdrive and becomes a punk band. I start smashing the drums with my sticks faster and faster, letting the rest of the band catch up, "Fuuuuuck you. You want some rock n' roll? Here's some fucking rock n' roll." Our singer is timid at first, but the guitarist is an anarchist and looks at me like, "YEAH! Let's do this!" Adrenaline and alcohol made it so I didn't even need to know what I was doing any more. We just played the same songs except faster and angrier.

People are disgusted by the sound and the entire place empties.

Later on as we're packing up, the guy I told to fuck off comes up to us with his pals and starts harassing us. Turns out, he was the guitarist of the band that was on before us. And everyone loved this guy. I stared at him and just said, "Fuck you." And he immediately replied, "No, fuck you!" I don't remember how many fucks were given but it was quite the juvenile display. We just packed up and left with "fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck" in our wake.

As we're walking to the van our band leader says, "Well, that went okay I think, you know given the circumstances, I think that showed off our energy."

I recognized this guy immediately.

*related=http://videosift.com/video/Falsetto-Russian-Pop-Singer

Falsetto - Russian Pop Singer has been added as a related post - related requested by nanrod.

I fully agree. It's a good rendition and does the original song justice but the voice is just too autotuned for my tastes. And the whole arrangement is too... pretty. There's no 'live' feeling to it. It's just his voice and a bunch of perfect instrumentals. Like he's singing to a midi track or something.

Edit: part of what bugs me about autotuning voices is that they're actually tuned to the wrong notes, ie. equal temperament instead of the just temperament a good singer sings naturally. There's the whole bit about voice ability but if they just tuned it to the right notes I'd be happy... or at least happier...

Speaking of Canadian science, folk singer and former Canadian government scientist recently lost his position for this song:

Nice cover! I watched the video without reading the blurb and thought the Massive Attack tag was added just because the kick and snare were like Teardrop but they were actually intending to quote it. I'd love to see a full version of Teardrop done by them.

(But only after I confer with the lead singer and get her to sing the correct 8th-8th-maj7th-5th-min7th on the words 'gentle emotion' instead of the 8th-8th-min7th-5th-min7th that she sang. I guess I'll forgive her for now.. )