I think sometime (soon) I’m just going to have a “week of Muque,” “week of Brandy Senki,” “week of Yorushika,” and so forth and get it out of my system.
But for today we turn back to another “just premiered” song for the Music Video Pick of the day. Muque’s “Still Not Enough” (「たりない」)…
It’s a catchy song with a fairly simple video but it grows on you on replay. Just watching folks vibe out is nice. It is always interesting to have a song this upbeat with a video so laid back have a lot of lyrics about it’s “just not enough” but realizing its not enough is the first step to hope, eh?
My recommendation is to pick a dancer or two and just watch how they get through the whole thing. Lots of variety. Take a few trips. Worth it.
My favorite is see-through-Green-shirt man:
No “See also…” for this one because I’m going probably just post most of them. Lots of good songs.
My Music Video Picks [MVP] is a series of posts highlighting various music and dance videos from Youtube (usually). No particular schedule (sometimes lots, sometimes little). It might not even all be music or dance videos. Absolutely picked by me, though. Usually I have to like both the song and the video, but we’ll see.
You can see the most recent songs here: [Doug’s] Music Video Picks [Youtube Playlist]. Size of that list will change as the mood strikes. Playlist might contain spoilers for unpublished posts. Just enjoy.
While prepping for this [eventually-not-Daily] Music Video Picks series, I have been doing some mental sorting for music videos from the past year or so that I know I have liked. Trying to turn it into actual sorting into playlists and notes. That kind of thing.
Then, something occurred that took some time to fix… I had a “pretty clear” notion of a video that I watched in 2025, but I realized I had it tagged incorrectly in my brain. Let me explain…
My mental notes went something like this:
Japanese (absolutely sure), heard on Youtube (absolutely sure), and not a song I had downloaded at the time (pretty sure)
Female singer (almost entirely sure but I left in the exception that it could have been a male-fronted band with a female-presenting actor on screen since that seems common enough)
Alt Rock // Shoegaze (really sure)
Person is in a green field (fairly sure) and there might be some shots of an ocean or body of water (maybe sure). There is 100% a green/gold motif in the color scheme
There was a scene with a picnic table and this is possibly at the end as a celebration (pretty sure)
The guys in the video (bandmates?) are doing various tasks while she is a more a wanderer (it was getting flimsy at this point)
There is a scene where the singer (?) rescues her male bandmates (?) and they drive around in a Japanese-style mini-van (I was sure of the car scene, other aspects maybe less so)
A scene with a person on a ladder? (I don’t know, man)
I heard the song around the time I had found out about wowdow and Chili Beans and was listening to those bands (like, maybe…it was getting pretty vague)
This was tied into the mental stress of the international move and was part of that era where we constantly boxing and packing up stuff and Youtube was a primary media experience. May or June 2025?
I kind of remembered the video and channel having a lower subscriber and view count, but so it goes because luck and The Algorithm are both terrible role-models (actually pretty sure about this)
Then a day or two ago I went “Wait, what song was that?” For reasons I do not know, at least not clearly, I realized my brain had come to associate the song with either Crazy Blues or tiny yawn. Except I have music from both of them and listen to them on fairly frequent rotation [and Crazy Blues should show up on MVP in a day or two]. Despite being of a similar music fit, there were no close videos in either of their catalogs.
I had a mental cataloging error and I wanted to fix it (while showing a band some love).
As I begin a shallow dive, I got discouraged super fast. Because both Goat Life’s “Narcissus” and Yureruwayurei’s “Echoes of a Fading Girl” showed up fairly fast in my notes/lists and had the kind of visual imagery that was really close but also completely different. You also had Kurayamisaka’s “Sekisei Inko” (I think I only listened to this once, around that time, but it was nice). Again, not really close, but certain elements showed up that made me start to wonder if I had mashed together several visual tropes and came up with a song that did not exist [at least not anywhere close to my scant memories].
I looked through my liked videos (which Youtube caps at 5k1) and a large music video playlist I’ve kept for a few years but have let lapse for several long stretches. Neither had anything else that was a closer match.
I sorted the Entire Youtube Watch History options to just “music” and spent around half an hour doing a deep dive through all of 2025’s for myself. Nothing showed up better than the three, above.
There was a non-zero chance that even if I had not Frankenstein’d a video out disparate parts, I might be looking at a piece of removed media. Some things get removed and sometimes Youtube tells you and sometimes it does not.
This morning I sat down and gave myself an hour and a half to go page by page through my Youtube history. All of it. 1000s of videos. Random shorts. AI slop pushed into Up Next. Hours just letting Youtube pick song after song. Multiple copies of the same song or video rewatched a few times. It took a while. Nearly half an hour just to get all the way back to August 2025 with my browser steadily increasing in its glitching out and getting overloaded.
This was all assuming I was correct in my timing. And other such variables.
Then I went to more or less every music video in the list and clicked on them (unless I knew them pretty well). Just in case I was recalling a few scenes out of context.
I figured if nothing else I would go all the way back to January 2025 and hoped my browser wouldn’t melt.
From April 30, 2025, I found this cluster of things:
And viola! Presenting to you as very special bonus episode of Music Video Picks: Shirotsume Biboroku’s “Accelerator Petal”:
My brain had recalled almost the exact placement on the shelf but not name of the band or song. Reference librarian brain is weird.
Now that I had the song, though, let’s take a look at how close my other details were:
Color motif was pretty spot on (there was more blue than I remembered, but I can see my brain would have shunted that to a more filler color)
Many of the storyboard details were actually correct as was the general band composition and genre but there were odd gaps and mistakes
The vehicle is in a significant amount of the video not just a quick shot like I thought
The picnic table shows up for a scene and then kind of makes a much shorter cameo than I recalled. Glad I wasn’t skipping to the end of the videos or it wouldn’t have worked at all…
There is no ladder at all. One of the band members is doing some work next to a tree and that’s all I got
Body of water is pretty dang significant
Song is good. I like it a lot. I wish I had gone back and listened to it more when it was fresh but it was a rough time to sort stuff and no doubt a lot of things got lost in the wash.
Unfortunately, looks like I found them at pretty much the exact wrong time. Shirotsume Biboroku had shrunk over 2025 and 2026 to just three members and then just two and then just one. They have now called it quits.
There was a good bye concert very recently. Like, 25 July 2026. Just last week. I wish them all super well.
The most recent song, “Atmosphere” is also good for a listen.
It would be nice to get more from them but I’m glad I found them again.
If Hana Ohara ever rebuilds the band, I hope Youtube lets me know before a full year has passed. Otherwise, I might have to go digging again.
My Music Video Picks [MVP] is a series of posts highlighting various music and dance videos from Youtube (usually). No particular schedule (sometimes lots, sometimes little). It might not even all be music or dance videos. Absolutely picked by me, though. Usually I have to like both the song and the video, but we’ll see.
You can see the most recent songs here: [Doug’s] Music Video Picks [Youtube Playlist]. Size of that list will change as the mood strikes. Playlist might contain spoilers for unpublished posts. Just enjoy.
CREDITS
Most of the artwork comes from obvious places and linked videos. The last picture is a screenshot from their IG page (it’s linked if you click on the photo).
The four “memory bank photos” are all from Unsplash:
Had something else in mind for today but new stuff should always trump the backlog and since this video is around 5 hours old at the time I post it: it wins.
It makes an interesting contrast to “Roller Coaster” with its muted color schemes, introspection, and generally more downbeat self-analysis. Lyrics deal with feeling like you are out of sync with the life other people plan for you and being left behind as other people go off on their — presumably more successful, but maybe only in her eyes — journey.
You could 100% say that the person chiding someone for being too serious in “Roller Coaster” is talking to the person of this song. They are same person. That is likely on purpose.
Little details like the slow increasing of color as the song goes and the use of the bridge and waterway to demonstrate the liminal space are nice. I especially like the touch that at the end the view swings around to show another bridge.
It’s not about the destination, here. It’s about navigating the times in between.
Also, fair play for the “time lapse” pun [a lapse in time, being lapped, all sorts of word chews, there].
My Music Video Picks [MVP] is a series of posts highlighting various music and dance videos (usually from Youtube). No particular schedule (sometimes lots, sometimes little). It might not even all be music or dance videos. Absolutely picked by me, though. Usually I have to like both the song and the video, but we’ll see.
You can see the most recent songs here: [Doug’s] Music Video Picks [Youtube Playlist]. Size of that list will change as the mood strikes. Playlist might contain spoilers for unpublished posts. Just enjoy.
Decided to tweak things up a bit with this list before it becomes unmanageable.
AKA, I got tired of typing “Doug’s ‘Daily’ Music Video Picks” every day.
AKA, the ‘daily’ joke had the chance of getting old pretty quickly once I get through the backlog.
In honor of being truthful, let’s look at the video that essentially STARTED the idea.
Nanajuuhachi’s “Roller Coaster” is a fun summer song about hitting a breaking point and needing to break away from 24/7 to just embrace the fact that life (and romance? friendship?) is like a roller coaster.
It’s cute and pleasant and a nice song to have stuck in your head.
When I came across this song — thank you, The Algorithm™ — it had only a few thousand views and I felt it was simply too good for that. It has sense picked up some steam — Nanajuuhachi is killing it in taking advantage of the moment — but the germ of the idea of just sharing music here more or less grew out of finding this song and going on a deep dive to listen to all the existing tracks.
Just share stuff I like, all that.
As always, I tend to share folks whose back catalog I consider to be all good but in this case I’ll leave you with these two:
The latter getting a special shout out because it is a premier set to come out tomorrow [as of me writing this] and I’m excited. It’s fun to find a new artist.
My Music Video Picks [MVP] is a series of posts highlighting various music and dance videos from Youtube (usually). No particular schedule (sometimes lots, sometimes little). It might not even all be music or dance videos. Absolutely picked by me, though. Usually I have to like both the song and the video, but we’ll see.
You can see the most recent songs here: [Doug’s] Music Video Picks [Youtube Playlist]. Size of that list will change as the mood strikes. Playlist might contain spoilers for unpublished posts. Just enjoy.
It would be absolutely incorrect to say that I hit anything like a musical rut over the past year but I had kind of gotten to a point where I was just kind of recycling the same few songs. Not that there is anything wrong with listening to Ado’s Best Adobum for the dozenth time (or more).
However, when Yorushika’s “Plover” hit, it just lit a spark that is still burning bright:
I had already heard several Yorushika songs by that point (mostly off the Second Person album, like “Plover,” which I highly recommend) and had liked them but I was prior to March it was kind of like new and fun music would drift up and then settle back into the noise with only a few standouts.
Jamming out to Yorushika for a few weeks helped all music sound better. Even bands/performers that I had been listening to for years — like Majiko or twenty-one pilots or Oliver Tree — started getting sorted into playlists. I started filling in gaps in the catalog. I started reading up on genre shifts.
I openly braced my absolute adoration of Japanese music and starting playing a lot more indie groups from Japan. It has been nice.
No longer is something like just dragging and dropping a few albums into VLC working for me. I’ve been off an adventure of testing out music apps and ways to back-up my collection.
Thank you, Yorushika.
There is a lot of music I could recommend (short answer: all of it) from them but we’ll stick to two for the second (both also from the same album):
The way that Suis says “Hai…” around the 3min mark in “Martian” melts me, and once you brain realizes the symbolism of “Forget It” it is just a bit soul crushing. Lord.
There’s another one that I am saving because it should show up soon as a two-fer for the band.
Doug’s Daily Music Video Picks is a series of posts highlighting various music and dance videos from Youtube. Not actually daily. It might not even all be music or dance videos. Absolutely picked by me, though. Usually I have to like both the song and the video, but we’ll see.
You can see the most recent songs here: Doug’s Daily Music Video Picks [Youtube Playlist]. Size of that list will change as the mood strikes. Playlist might contain spoilers for unpublished posts. Just enjoy.
Admittedly, I had a different idea for a video today [which in theory will show up tomorrow….unless…..] but right as I sat down to write the post about it and why it was a good #2 choice, 171 dropped the video for their new song “Love” and you have to put some respect on 171’s name.
There are quite a few tracks in 171’s back catalog I could shout out but I’ll stick to just these three (listen if you like what you hear or what to try something else by the band):
Probably in that order. “Footsteps” was my first introduction and it was love at first listen.
In conjunction to the release of “Love” is a 3-song EP — MUSIC YOUTH LOVE. That or their full length album, HELLO!, are both disks to pick up.
Doug’s Daily Music Video Picks is a series of posts highlighting various music and dance videos from Youtube. Not actually daily. It might not even all be music or dance videos. Absolutely picked by me, though. Usually I have to like both the song and the video, but we’ll see.
You can see the most recent songs here: Doug’s Daily Music Video Picks [Youtube Playlist]. Size of that list will change as the mood strikes. Playlist might contain spoilers for unpublished posts. Just enjoy.
I’ve had a growing urge to share a few music/dance videos that catch my fancy but have always delayed and then felt awkward trying to catch up. Came up with the idea to just make it a “regular” feature on the blog: Doug’s “Daily” Music Video Picks. Make a Youtube Playlist for it (which will 100% show off some spoilers early on since I’m probably going to pre-load a few of these). Let that build up to around a month’s worth of songs and then cycle through. Or let it just grow to infinity. Either way.
Of course, Daily Music Video Picks makes it sound like I am going to do this daily. Absolutely not. I’ve gone back in and added irony quotes around “Daily” just to verify. I have a backlog right now but after that it might be more like once a week.
The song picked for DDMVP #1 is Sezko’s “Safe Place.” A band, and a track, that would have absolutely ate in 2005-era Hot Topic. It would have crushed the Huntsville mall scene so hard that it comes dangerously close to making me feel nostalgic just thinking about it.
It’s not just the band’s style — though it is that — or their blend of Japanese and English (about choosing to end a potential good relationship rather than risk the hurt)… it is the whole package.
Astounding track to kick this off.
Sezko seems pretty new to the whole scene and only have one other song released — “Shed It” — which would also fit. I’m down with keeping an eye (and ear) out for this one.
Doug’s Daily Music Video Picks is a series of posts highlighting various music and dance videos from Youtube. Not actually daily. It might not even all be music or dance videos. Absolutely picked by me, though. Usually I have to like both the song and the video, but we’ll see.
You can see the most recent songs here: Doug’s Daily Music Video Picks [Youtube Playlist]. Size of that list will change as the mood strikes. Playlist might contain spoilers for unpublished posts. Just enjoy.
Years ago (around 12ish according to the time stamp) I remembered being recommended a video of people making smart decisions in horror movies. Was probably shared through BoingBoing or Cracked or some such. Something I watched a couple of times and enjoyed. One clip in particular, one poking fun at The Ring, especially stuck with me. Would drift back up in memory from time to time.
Alas, I had lost any links or bookmarks to get back to it.
Admittedly it’s an old and often tired trope. “Why so dumb in horror movie? Surely they can understand they are in a fictional universe and could just guess all the rules and it will work out ok even if it destroys the plot!”
Are you telling me if you got a million dollar home in inheritance you would throw it all away the first time your kid paints a strange picture and talks to a dark closet? Some ghosts you try and live with. Especially when jackass authors have saddled you with a million dollars of gambling debt and a divorce or some such.
It’s a story. There is no character an author can write that is so clever as to not be subjected to the evils the author visits upon them. And vice versa. At the same time. Entertainment is found in the balance.
STILL…when the joke is done well it is worth a hearty chuckle.
I am glad that Youtube just went “Oh, you want to watch this again?” out of nowhere, yesterday.
When his friend brags about having the cursed tape “which kills you in five days” (inflation apparently hitting hard in the post-Ringu economy) he takes the tape and smashes it. And it has cracked me up for some time because of the sheer degree he smashes it.
While I have no idea if I will ever get around to watching (or reading) Chainsmoking Cat, Wasureranneyo’s “Nannmonee” used for the opening is a great song.
Picked up a bit of his back catalog thanks to it.
By the way, the opening sequence of the anime has a huge number of references to other movies. For instance…
If I keep this up, I probably will watch it and I have no idea if that would be good for me.
Anyhow, I’ll probably work through a small backlog of music and music videos I’d like to share over this next few days. Haven’t posted much in the past month and I have a chunk of stuff for all over.
I have had an online server I have used for a few years for all sorts of things. Cloud storage. Seedbox. And especially a media streaming server.
Outside of physical media — and, to a now much lesser degree, YouTube — that server was my media life. Fact is, with my music and its complicated curated playlists and metadata it was the heavy winner. I spent maybe a hundred hours working on it and that was ok because I spent a couple hours per day using it. Sometimes much more.
Only Kaz and I had noticed that it was starting to limp along here or there. Kicking connections. Having some trouble processing slightly larger files.
It was clearly having trouble. The people who run it were looking into it.
Last week it stuttered so hard it just stopped working except in random bursts. Then, yesterday I got the news that the drive(s) the server was on just crapped into dust.
In the arms of an angel…
I spent a few seconds just staring into space and then went: ok, let’s start rebuilding.
It was a bit later when I realized that it is nearly impossible to rebuild to its previous form. At least not without some long term struggle.
Let’s take the music: There were a few thousand songs on there. Artists were marked with their country of origin, moods, styles, and related artists. I had a few different tags that helped to build a few large, well-used, and ever-shifting playlists. I had manually gone through and added artist photos for every single artist in my collection. Some bios. I had rebuilt cover art to look better whether on the screen or on the phone. I had months and months of play data. I had hundreds and hundreds of songs with ratings out of five stars (including half stars) to help me sort through albums and getting just my favorites. I had stuff on there to analyze sound styles to bring up sonically similar songs. Different “radio” modes.
More than that. All that could played on my computer or TV or phone from the same database.
Even though I already have another such online drive in place and could relatively quickly upload the music I have on my computer, it would easily be August or September before I had reasonable chance to rebuild any major portion of that and stuff like the ratings and moods and seed playlists would never happen quite the same way again.
And it’s a good chunk my fault. I *should* have taken the time to set up a relatively simple script to back up the metadata. Just stored that off-site somewhere. The basic 1-2-3 rule: 1 place is very bad, 2 is better, 3 is best. I got sloppy and now I’m paying for it.
Even some self-recriminations don’t make up for those moments I remember stuff that I had built up like a digital packrat for years and sorted joyously.
As of right now, I have no plans to build up music on this iteration of the drive. I’m going to get some of the video content back in place and leave it there for a bit. I’ll make sure everything is marked and consistently backed up.
For music, I’ll just go with Musicolet on my phone and Foobar2000 on my computer. There will variations in playlists and content and that’s ok. I’m already figuring out how to do small hacks on both to just get some of the flow I like back.
I am going to miss PLEX Music, that’s for sure.
Sometime this summer I will start building up my own NAS and get it good and beefy and stable early on. At that point I will probably return to building up my music library.
And hey, by this time next year it might be back to as good!
