Now is the time at AsiaPundit when we dance.:

In this youtube, a band identified as the “Indian Beatles” performs a totally rockin’ version of “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” in Hindi. I’m pretty sure I have this song as an MP3 somewhere, but with the video added in, it’s a hundred times more awesome.
Commenters on the YouTube page add more details. The song is “Tumse Hai Dil Ko” from the film “Jaanwar” — and this: “The camera work is exceptional, the singing great, and the fact that this was just 1 year after the Beatles’ appearance on the Ed Sullivan show makes this work of adaptive plagiarism all the more impressive.”

Technorati Tags: asia, india, south asia

Now is the time at AsiaPundit when we dance.

Via Brian Turner, Siberian throat-singing punk rockers Yat Kha cover Motorhead’s Orgasmatron.:

Also, a version of Joy Division’s Love Will Tear us Apart.

Technorati Tags: asia, east asia, yat kha, music, siberia

Joshua at Korea Liberator - which is not incidentally a CIA front - reports that attempts to shut down the North Korean prison camp musical have backfired.:

In one of the great ironies of this young year, “Yodok Story” has had a splendid opening because of the very people who tried keep it from seeing its first opening act. The Chosun Ilbo reports that many shows are sold out, and that the play’s Web site has crashed from the overflowing traffic (though OFK/TKL readers have known for weeks that the site has labored under what we will call technical “challenges”).

A month after the fact, the government finally got around to denying reports that it tried to intimidate “Yodok Story” producers into watering down the atrocity stories in the script, or that it had a hand in pressuring some investors to pull out of the production. Director Chung Seong-San also claims that someone threatened his life. Soon afterward, a flood of media attention attracted new investors, donors, and the interest of theataah-goers.

Whoever attempted to stop “Yodok Story” failed miserably. Not only did the play get most of its publicity from its enemies free of charge, so did the cause those enemies tried to conceal from the world’s attention.

UPDATE: Reports of a smash hit have likely been exaggerated.

(Photo stolen from NPR.)

Technorati Tags: asia, east asia, korea, northeast asia, yodok

Now is the time at AsiaPundit when we dance.:

I’ve wanted to bring you examples of Xinjiang’s pop culture for some time, but never got around to setting it up. That’s all in the past, though, now that I’m signed up for Google Video. So… ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, let me introduce to you the group that’s been bringing down the house in Uyghur discos all over Xinjiang, all the way from Uzbekistan, the beautiful girls of [Insert Band Name Here].

Now is the time at AsiaPundit when we dance.

This somehow reminds AsiaPundit of the Sugarcubes, only that Japanese is a touch more comprehensible than Icelandic.

(Via Panda Passport.)

Via Boing Boing, a look at Malaysia’s heavy metal crackdown of the early 21st century:

It happened quite a while ago, in 2001. There was this big outcry over teenagers holding Satanic black metal concerts and stomping holy books and all that. Basically - imagine the whole Satanic Ritual Abuse hoo-ha with an added element of music.

I was in school during the time and there was an announcement made in morning assembly about it. According to the announcement, the crackdowns started after a imam (Muslim priest) walked into the woods and stumbled onto a black metal concert where holy books like the Quran and the Bible were set on fire and stomped on (and other such "Satanic" stuff).

The story (it’s never really been verified) got picked up by Harian Metro ("HM"), a Malay tabloid, and they really made a big deal out of it. The government then got involved. There were crackdowns in schools, kids were stripsearched in some places, and there were posters and information everywhere about supposedly Satanic symbols - including pentagrams and the hand signs for "I Love You" and "Rock On". Merchandise from bands like ACDC and Limp Bizkit were banned; so were their music, for a while. People who wore black T-shirts were looked at suspiciously - one local radio station had a problem with this because their T-Shirts were black!

Thankfully, due to the crisis, Malaysia developed an herbal treatment for heavy metal addiction, as noted in this 2001 BBC report (also via BB).  I recommend it be developed for export and used on Gorogoth fans (they need some sort of treatment).

A state in Malaysia says it will give herbal medicine to 150 teenage rock fans accused of belonging to a Satanic cult.

Fadzil Hanafi, an official from the northern Kedah state told Reuters news agency: "This herb is to stimulate the brain so that students can concentrate on their studies."

Technorati Tags: asia, malaysia, music, southeast asia

Associated Press via Canada’s Globe & Mail.

BEIJING  — A Chinese political activist goes on trial next week on subversion charges after posting essays and lyrics to a punk song on the Internet, a human rights group said Thursday.

No reports on whether the band was also busted.