They played this once live on Dec. 20, 2017 in support of MUCC. MUCC also played Honey and Saiki performed with them. Two other bands (Hysteric Panic and Roach) also covered a MUCC song and played that night. Their singers also joined MUCC for their version of the song. That would have been a cool show to see.
They did do one cover for a Video Game titled "Memories of Wind and Wine " (Dawn Winery Theme from Genshin Concert 2022). When you get to that time period, I hope you feature it because it shows How the Band can take a song and play it straight up as it was, then bring it to ROCK OUT, and finally make it wholly BAND-MAID. It IS an instrumental, so no Saiki, but it's definitely a great addition to their roster of deliberate instrumental tunes.
Though this has little to do with your enjoyment of this song, I have to say I've listened to both versions of 'Honey' many times and I enjoy both for their individual intent. That said, I'm a BAND-MAID fan (for 10 years so far) and I enjoyed BM's respect for this song and for MUCC. Thank you for your reaction.
I didn't mean to sound so harsh toward the original. It's a fine song. Just I'm not a fan of that type of vocalization, so this one is better for me, purely for the vocal change. (And for all the other changes.) :-)
After reflecting on it, I think maybe the most interesting thing Band-Maid could cover would be "Kimi Ni Fuku Kaze" by Shimokawa Mikuni. For those that don't know, the song is blatantly a Japanese version of "Game of Love" by Carlos Santana and trying to go down the rabbit hole of figuring out why there was never legal action taken over it has lost me more sleep than trying to find the origin of 'Hunky Dory'. Anyway I think this would probably be the best way to witness Kanami's take on a Santana classic without stressing Saiki's English. Also the song goes significantly less hard than "Game of Love" a song which itself is somewhat mellow. I think even if Band-Maid just covered "Game of Love" using the lyrics of "Kimi Ni Fufu Kaze" it'd already be a product unique enough to justify itself, but imagine getting a Misa bassline on top of it. I think they could really make something special out of it.
I'm not familiar with either of those songs, but I'll take your word for it. As for "hunky dory", it's a common phrase in some versions of English - I heard it very often as a child in Oklahoma, for example, usually from people born in the 1940s and '50s.
@@Chan_Fry I'll save it for when you get to Influencer (assuming you keep this series going), but the origin of the term is actually surprisingly complicated.
Yep, Saiki and Miku were saying the same thing in the spoken part except that Saiki didn't say the last phrase "無理だよ" ("muri dayo") which means "it's impossible". It appears that they played this song live only once in 2017. In the early days (when Band-Maid didn't have enough original songs), they did several cover songs live. Unfortunately, no recording exists as far as I know😔
I figure they must have done *some* covers, as you said, in the early days. They were playing shows before they released any albums or singles... And I don't mean to take away from their original work, which is perfect for me, just that I'd be curious about their takes on certain songs. :-)
In hindsight, Akane truly makes this cover GREAT for me. Who knows what options she considered as they adapted the song, but clearly she chose the "pound them into oblivion" option, and I'm so thankful. :-)
@@Chan_Fry I totally agree... I think this cover surpasses the original, especially because of Akane's work and Kanami's solo... Great reaction! Thank you!
MUCC is a classic, old school punk band. For an anniversary celebration they invited bands to do covers for an album. This was Band-Maid's contribution. The original is very punk. This is far more progressive.
Hi Chan. Wow, I had no idea this cover existed. I'm not sure but you may be the only reactor to have ever reacted and commented to this song. In either case, thanks for your continued efforts and for "serving" up something unique. An album of covers would be rather magnanimous of these ladies....Cheers!
Glad I could help! :-) As @jsellitto mentioned, others have reacted to it. (When I searched for the audio track, I saw results including Ryan Mear and Wave Potter reactions, maybe a few others. I think like most of their non-video songs, it's going to get fewer reactions. I admit audio-only reactions aren't quite as interesting as MV reactions.)
Hey Chan, great review! I happen to love the original song. It's full of angst with it's raw, unpolished sound and arrangement. However, I also love what BM has achieved with a polished cover. Where Saiki's vocals don't quite convey the same weight of angst, the instrumentation more than makes up for it. The variation in Akane's patterns and Kanami's guitar arrangements punctuated by MISA's bass and Miku's guitar (and let's not forget Kanami's solo!) capture that emotion evoked by the original song. Add to that the spoken portion with Saiki and Miku is hilarious, if only because of Miku's tone of voice, lol
Ha, yes, I love Miku's spin on the spoken portion. :-) Certainly Saiki's version of "angst" is different from Mucc's expression, though I don't know if it carries any less weight. (Maybe you're right; her voice sounds incredibly sophisticated when contrasted with the original.)
Great job again Chan. I too have thought it would be great for Band Maid to do covers - my fantasy song would be Immigrant Song by Zeppelin. With an extended Mincho solo… World Domination theme.
From the Hanabie school of covers, make it your own, make it better than the original, or don’t do it at all. Much as I love Band-Maid originals, this is one of my top 10 Band-Maid tracks.
I think it's a perfect cover - enough like the original to be quickly recognizable but unique enough to be separately enjoyable. And certainly I prefer Saiki's vocal tones. I'm in agreement with you about many '80s and '90s bands - though I get that their vocalists were often signature sounds (Axl Rose has such a unique sound, you can't mistake it) - I still prefer a clearer, purer vocal tone. And I like that you included an exception... I'm no Iron Maiden fanatic, but his vocals are incredible.
:-) One thing, besides the signature sound, I guess is that certain rock groups were playing against the traditional music scene and actually trying to upset the older folks, which might be one reason I dove into some of those when I was younger. But over time, it just began to grate on me. :-)
Nice reaction! This is the first time I've seen a reaction to this cover song. 5:10 This monologue part speaks exactly the same content as the original song.
Thanks for the clarification on the speaking part. (As for other reactors, I saw in my search results that Wave Potter and Ryan Mear have both reacted to this.)
@@Chan_Fry thank you! I didn't know about it, so I'll look into it. “Honey” was used as the jingle for the radio program they were in charge of. The program name is “BAND-MAID NIPPON”. It's on UA-cam with translations.
This is a fantastically improved cover, sure not the same! Love it and I like the idea of a group of covers, that would be cool. Thanks for the reaction and looking forward to the next song! (first song on Domination) :)
I wonder how long a list they'd come up with if they crowdsourced the idea of a cover album... I'm sure the 10-15 songs I'd suggest would be vastly different from a number of other Maidiacs... (Recently, when listening to a few of my older favorites, I kind of half-imagined Band-Maid playing the music, and thought it would work until I listened more closely to the lyrics... For example, I can't imagine Saiki singing the lyrics to "Rocket Queen" or "Welcome To the Jungle"... LOL)
Someone else said that too, but of course if there's no available video, did it really happen? :-) (I'm joking of course, playing off the "pics or it didn't happen" thing from several years back. But, for most of us, it might as well have never happened.)
@@Chan_Fry There is actually another one of those. You may know, but there is an original instrumental that Kanami wrote for either a radio or TV show called "Go Nuts!" It shows as only played live 5 times in Japan, but legend has it Vladimir Chupin caught it on audio coming out of the bathroom at a show, so it is out there. Also, interestingly enough, they did 2 shows over 2 days in 2018 at Studio Coast. One was video recorded for the DVD release. The other show which was not, they played Go Nuts! So who knows, there might actually be a video of it.
Hi Chan, Apparently this song not only comes from a two disc CD, but there is also a three disc version including a Blu-ray DVD. So there may be some footage of Band-Maid on it.
Finally someone agrees with me 😀Guns 'N Roses made great music, but the singing isn't my thing at all. The same goes for Aerosmith. And I've never been a fan of long never ending solos: I am so happy that Band Maid is bringing back the old rock days, but with great voices (Miku and Saidi), complex compositions, many progressive elements and (very important) short, crisp and tasteful solos from everyone. ❤
I do appreciate *some* of the "never-ending solos", but I don't mind the short ones either. :-) I think what Band-Maid did for me was piece together every single element I loved about older hard rock and fit it all into these beautiful packages, while leaving out all the irritating parts (like the painfully slow intros that would last for 90 seconds, which I hated, and Band-Maid apparently isn't a fan either.) :-)
I never knew the lore behind this cover. I think they absolutely slayed, but as a band that rarely does covers, the choice always seemed weird. Outside of sound tests, the only other things I've seen them cover (as a band) is Slipknot's Duality (instrumental). I think a big part of the appeal covers have is that they can take a band out of their genre or bring a song into their genre. While I'm not going to claim Band-Maid doesn't have a genre, they're already not strongly tied to whatever that genre is. So while it might be cool to hear Band-Maid cover a Blues song or something, I'd rather just hear their take on Blues (The Dragon Cries). Misa being an unorthodox bassist and Saiki's English being sus probably also converts from a strength to a potential problem when it comes to covers. Their talent stack just doesn't optimize well for covers from my perspective. That said I think a song like Tokyo Jihen's "Ringo No Uta" would be a good fit for Band-Maid.
You have a good point that English-only covers could highlight some weaknesses. Something to think about for sure. I suppose their are plenty of rock songs though, that either have a very few lyrics, or they weren't understandable in the original anyway. :-)
Band-Maid did a great job on this cover for sure. One cover I'd LOVE to see Band-Maid do is Dick Dale's "Nitro" for a Saiki pee-pee break. ua-cam.com/video/GuHs_mhg9Nk/v-deo.html with the Maids putting her own spin on it of course.
That one would be interesting for sure! And they'd definitely have to put their own spin on it; I think it repeats the same phrases too many times for a Band-Maid song. :-)
@@Chan_Fry I thought of that but you know Kanami. She can make chicken salad out of chicken poo. Surf Nation does a great cover and it's not on UA-cam. I'll have to take another list but I think their cover is better than Dick's. I have the CD, maybe I'll get ambitious and load it on my channel.
They played this once live on Dec. 20, 2017 in support of MUCC. MUCC also played Honey and Saiki performed with them. Two other bands (Hysteric Panic and Roach) also covered a MUCC song and played that night. Their singers also joined MUCC for their version of the song. That would have been a cool show to see.
Certainly it would be interesting to see. :-)
A cover album from Band-Maid would be great!
They did do one cover for a Video Game titled "Memories of Wind and Wine " (Dawn Winery Theme from Genshin Concert 2022). When you get to that time period, I hope you feature it because it shows How the Band can take a song and play it straight up as it was, then bring it to ROCK OUT, and finally make it wholly BAND-MAID. It IS an instrumental, so no Saiki, but it's definitely a great addition to their roster of deliberate instrumental tunes.
Though this has little to do with your enjoyment of this song, I have to say I've listened to both versions of 'Honey' many times and I enjoy both for their individual intent. That said, I'm a BAND-MAID fan (for 10 years so far) and I enjoyed BM's respect for this song and for MUCC. Thank you for your reaction.
I didn't mean to sound so harsh toward the original. It's a fine song. Just I'm not a fan of that type of vocalization, so this one is better for me, purely for the vocal change. (And for all the other changes.) :-)
After reflecting on it, I think maybe the most interesting thing Band-Maid could cover would be "Kimi Ni Fuku Kaze" by Shimokawa Mikuni. For those that don't know, the song is blatantly a Japanese version of "Game of Love" by Carlos Santana and trying to go down the rabbit hole of figuring out why there was never legal action taken over it has lost me more sleep than trying to find the origin of 'Hunky Dory'.
Anyway I think this would probably be the best way to witness Kanami's take on a Santana classic without stressing Saiki's English. Also the song goes significantly less hard than "Game of Love" a song which itself is somewhat mellow. I think even if Band-Maid just covered "Game of Love" using the lyrics of "Kimi Ni Fufu Kaze" it'd already be a product unique enough to justify itself, but imagine getting a Misa bassline on top of it. I think they could really make something special out of it.
I'm not familiar with either of those songs, but I'll take your word for it. As for "hunky dory", it's a common phrase in some versions of English - I heard it very often as a child in Oklahoma, for example, usually from people born in the 1940s and '50s.
@@Chan_Fry I'll save it for when you get to Influencer (assuming you keep this series going), but the origin of the term is actually surprisingly complicated.
Love Kobato's chat! 🕊️
She seems really enthused about it. Which I suppose is her normal state of being. :-)
Full Minchozilla and 🦍🥁
Yep, Saiki and Miku were saying the same thing in the spoken part except that Saiki didn't say the last phrase "無理だよ" ("muri dayo") which means "it's impossible".
It appears that they played this song live only once in 2017.
In the early days (when Band-Maid didn't have enough original songs), they did several cover songs live. Unfortunately, no recording exists as far as I know😔
I figure they must have done *some* covers, as you said, in the early days. They were playing shows before they released any albums or singles...
And I don't mean to take away from their original work, which is perfect for me, just that I'd be curious about their takes on certain songs. :-)
@@Chan_Fry Me too!😉
Akane!! Akane!! Akane!!
In hindsight, Akane truly makes this cover GREAT for me. Who knows what options she considered as they adapted the song, but clearly she chose the "pound them into oblivion" option, and I'm so thankful. :-)
@@Chan_Fry I totally agree... I think this cover surpasses the original, especially because of Akane's work and Kanami's solo... Great reaction! Thank you!
I like both versions. I'm a fan of the original, unhinged vocals.
It's an impressive cover. It's very confidently done.
There's certainly something to be said for the craziness of the original. :-)
Their only actually officially released cover.
MUCC is a classic, old school punk band. For an anniversary celebration they invited bands to do covers for an album. This was Band-Maid's contribution. The original is very punk. This is far more progressive.
Hi Chan. Wow, I had no idea this cover existed. I'm not sure but you may be the only reactor to have ever reacted and commented to this song. In either case, thanks for your continued efforts and for "serving" up something unique. An album of covers would be rather magnanimous of these ladies....Cheers!
@RyanMear did a reaction to this song back in March 2022. But it's good to see another review of this song.
Glad I could help! :-) As @jsellitto mentioned, others have reacted to it. (When I searched for the audio track, I saw results including Ryan Mear and Wave Potter reactions, maybe a few others. I think like most of their non-video songs, it's going to get fewer reactions. I admit audio-only reactions aren't quite as interesting as MV reactions.)
The chorus is full po!tron miku n psyche rocking a harmony
Hey Chan, great review! I happen to love the original song. It's full of angst with it's raw, unpolished sound and arrangement. However, I also love what BM has achieved with a polished cover. Where Saiki's vocals don't quite convey the same weight of angst, the instrumentation more than makes up for it. The variation in Akane's patterns and Kanami's guitar arrangements punctuated by MISA's bass and Miku's guitar (and let's not forget Kanami's solo!) capture that emotion evoked by the original song. Add to that the spoken portion with Saiki and Miku is hilarious, if only because of Miku's tone of voice, lol
Ha, yes, I love Miku's spin on the spoken portion. :-) Certainly Saiki's version of "angst" is different from Mucc's expression, though I don't know if it carries any less weight. (Maybe you're right; her voice sounds incredibly sophisticated when contrasted with the original.)
Great job again Chan. I too have thought it would be great for Band Maid to do covers - my fantasy song would be Immigrant Song by Zeppelin. With an extended Mincho solo… World Domination theme.
Immigrant Song would be amazing in a Band-Maid version... I imagine the bass guitar part would suddenly become more complex, for example. :-)
@@Chan_Fry definitely!
From the Hanabie school of covers, make it your own, make it better than the original, or don’t do it at all. Much as I love Band-Maid originals, this is one of my top 10 Band-Maid tracks.
I think it's in my top half, for sure. (And since you mention Hanabie, I did enjoy their cover of Believer, despite the grows/screams.)
ムック=correct :)
one of the few cover songs they actually played. I preferred the cover to the original. I felt they really "made it their own"
Thanks! They definitely added their own stamp to the song. :-)
I think it's a perfect cover - enough like the original to be quickly recognizable but unique enough to be separately enjoyable. And certainly I prefer Saiki's vocal tones. I'm in agreement with you about many '80s and '90s bands - though I get that their vocalists were often signature sounds (Axl Rose has such a unique sound, you can't mistake it) - I still prefer a clearer, purer vocal tone. And I like that you included an exception... I'm no Iron Maiden fanatic, but his vocals are incredible.
:-) One thing, besides the signature sound, I guess is that certain rock groups were playing against the traditional music scene and actually trying to upset the older folks, which might be one reason I dove into some of those when I was younger. But over time, it just began to grate on me. :-)
You are right Saiki vocal is better than the original
Nice reaction! This is the first time I've seen a reaction to this cover song.
5:10 This monologue part speaks exactly the same content as the original song.
Thanks for the clarification on the speaking part. (As for other reactors, I saw in my search results that Wave Potter and Ryan Mear have both reacted to this.)
@@Chan_Fry thank you! I didn't know about it, so I'll look into it. “Honey” was used as the jingle for the radio program they were in charge of. The program name is “BAND-MAID NIPPON”. It's on UA-cam with translations.
This is a fantastically improved cover, sure not the same! Love it and I like the idea of a group of covers, that would be cool. Thanks for the reaction and looking forward to the next song! (first song on Domination) :)
I wonder how long a list they'd come up with if they crowdsourced the idea of a cover album... I'm sure the 10-15 songs I'd suggest would be vastly different from a number of other Maidiacs...
(Recently, when listening to a few of my older favorites, I kind of half-imagined Band-Maid playing the music, and thought it would work until I listened more closely to the lyrics... For example, I can't imagine Saiki singing the lyrics to "Rocket Queen" or "Welcome To the Jungle"... LOL)
Great work man!!
Glad you liked it!
I've heard this a few times and I think it's brilliant and better that the original!
Agreed.
Love this cover!
They have actually played it once live in 2017 in Sendai at a festival
I wish there was a video of that. I loved Band-Maid’s cover.
Someone else said that too, but of course if there's no available video, did it really happen? :-)
(I'm joking of course, playing off the "pics or it didn't happen" thing from several years back. But, for most of us, it might as well have never happened.)
@@Chan_Fry There is actually another one of those. You may know, but there is an original instrumental that Kanami wrote for either a radio or TV show called "Go Nuts!" It shows as only played live 5 times in Japan, but legend has it Vladimir Chupin caught it on audio coming out of the bathroom at a show, so it is out there.
Also, interestingly enough, they did 2 shows over 2 days in 2018 at Studio Coast. One was video recorded for the DVD release. The other show which was not, they played Go Nuts! So who knows, there might actually be a video of it.
Fun cover.
🤘❤🔥🤘
Hi Chan, Apparently this song not only comes from a two disc CD, but there is also a three disc version including a Blu-ray DVD. So there may be some footage of Band-Maid on it.
If there's footage, I couldn't find any. (Lots of copyright holders inexplicably don't like a ton of people seeing/hearing their work.)
Finally someone agrees with me 😀Guns 'N Roses made great music, but the singing isn't my thing at all. The same goes for Aerosmith. And I've never been a fan of long never ending solos: I am so happy that Band Maid is bringing back the old rock days, but with great voices (Miku and Saidi), complex compositions, many progressive elements and (very important) short, crisp and tasteful solos from everyone. ❤
I do appreciate *some* of the "never-ending solos", but I don't mind the short ones either. :-) I think what Band-Maid did for me was piece together every single element I loved about older hard rock and fit it all into these beautiful packages, while leaving out all the irritating parts (like the painfully slow intros that would last for 90 seconds, which I hated, and Band-Maid apparently isn't a fan either.) :-)
I've heard the original also. I too prefer Saiki's vocals. Both versions rock. I love this version. It's a regular listen for me. Thanks!
I'm certainly going to make sure it's in my rotation. :-)
I never knew the lore behind this cover. I think they absolutely slayed, but as a band that rarely does covers, the choice always seemed weird. Outside of sound tests, the only other things I've seen them cover (as a band) is Slipknot's Duality (instrumental).
I think a big part of the appeal covers have is that they can take a band out of their genre or bring a song into their genre. While I'm not going to claim Band-Maid doesn't have a genre, they're already not strongly tied to whatever that genre is. So while it might be cool to hear Band-Maid cover a Blues song or something, I'd rather just hear their take on Blues (The Dragon Cries). Misa being an unorthodox bassist and Saiki's English being sus probably also converts from a strength to a potential problem when it comes to covers. Their talent stack just doesn't optimize well for covers from my perspective.
That said I think a song like Tokyo Jihen's "Ringo No Uta" would be a good fit for Band-Maid.
You have a good point that English-only covers could highlight some weaknesses. Something to think about for sure. I suppose their are plenty of rock songs though, that either have a very few lyrics, or they weren't understandable in the original anyway. :-)
i rarely hear this song -
I think I want to hear it more now, so I made sure to bump it up higher in my Spotify playlist. :-)
Band-Maid did a great job on this cover for sure.
One cover I'd LOVE to see Band-Maid do is Dick Dale's "Nitro" for a Saiki pee-pee break. ua-cam.com/video/GuHs_mhg9Nk/v-deo.html
with the Maids putting her own spin on it of course.
That one would be interesting for sure! And they'd definitely have to put their own spin on it; I think it repeats the same phrases too many times for a Band-Maid song. :-)
@@Chan_Fry I thought of that but you know Kanami. She can make chicken salad out of chicken poo. Surf Nation does a great cover and it's not on UA-cam. I'll have to take another list but I think their cover is better than Dick's. I have the CD, maybe I'll get ambitious and load it on my channel.