Sometimes, you get a surprising musical boost from a direction that you would never expect to. That’s what I got a week ago and in both its cuteness and innocence, it puts a real smile on my face.  I actually received 2 links, one to a Japanese movie with sub-titles; it’s all about these girls that inadvertently poison the food of the band members in their High School Band.

While the band needs a while to recuperate, the girls begin to learn the instruments to fill in for the Band, but of course no one learns how to play within a week or two. However, these girls have talent and within a relatively short time, they get good enough to enter a contest against other school bands. It’s a fun movie with some really quirky and amusing parts. If you want to see “Swing Girls”, it is in 11 parts on youTube – The first episode can be found here

The other link someone sent me was also a pleasant surprise – There are 8 Japanese girls that have put together a Jazz/Pop/Hip Hop Band and it is very cool. They are known as Pistol Valve. Their Website is the following:

What I like with Pistol Valve is that it’s not the same old thing I would be hearing on any radio station. Here is one of their cool songs.