Former Megadeth “charisma guitarist” Marty Friedman (46) has been unashamedly gushing about his love of the J-pop scene for a few years now. And today he’s cashing in on the mismatch of heavy metal axeman and sugar sweet pop music with the release of “Tokyo Jukebox,” an instrumental album of J-pop covers. Friedman performed a few guitar licks for reporters at the Tokyo Tower observation deck yesterday, including his take on Mr. Children’s “Gift” and a little enka in the form of Ishikawa Sayuri’s “Amagigoe.” Friedman performed as a member of Megadeth during their most successful decade from 1990-2000. After moving to Japan, he joined X Japan guitarist Pata and Luna Sea drummer Shinya as a backing musician to rock singer Aikawa Nanase in 2005. A more unlikely pairing was with J-pop star Suzuki Ami on NHK’s “Kohaku Uta Gassen” that New Year’s Eve. He also performed last year on a mini-album of covers by African American enka singer Jero. In March, he performed Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra. A famous Friedman anecdote is that he auditioned for legendary rockers Kiss, but was turned down because he was under six feet tall.
Tokyo Jukebox tracklist
- Tsume Tsume Tsume (Maximum the Hormone)
- Gift (Mr. Children)
- Amagigoe (Sayuri Ishikawa)
- Story (AI)
- Polyrhythm (Perfume)
- Kaeritakunatta yo (Ikimonogakari)
- Tsunami (Southern All Stars)
- Yuki no Hana (Mika Nakashima)
- Eki (Takeuchi Mariya)
- Sekai ni Hitotsu Dake no Hana (SMAP)
- Romansu no Kamisama (Hirose Kohmi)
- Ashita he no Sanka (Alan)