X Marks the Beat: Mr. Tea

Saturday, September 27, 2014

Mr. Tea

If I ran a game store I might play the song Mr. Tea by Peelander-Z, it's iffy.

On paper, Peelander-Z looks like a band that gamers should adore: they're a group of Japanese ex-pats who met and formed a band in New York describing themselves as a "Japanese Action Comic Punk band hailing from the Z area of Planet Peelander". Their whole act is cosplay and music and whimsy. Their music is loud and brash with hard to understand accents and sometimes the music itself isn't very good. Some of their stuff is punk in a bad way. I don't think a game store can just belt out a full Peelander-Z album. They have gems on each of their albums, though – songs that a game store can play. The elements that make their music a challenge are sometimes put aside, lessened, or heightened to create a song that has easier appeal. Mr. Tea is one of those songs. It begins with dialogue between Captain Yellow and a robot named Pichigo with the dialogue punctuated by spitting and yelling. Captain Yellow gets served a drink he abhors – coffee – and educates Pichigo that his real love is tea; he loves it so much that he's called "Mr. Tea". The entirety of the song is Captain Yellow singing about his love of tea. The music is a nice rockabilly beat with a punk vibe. It's a very listenable and catchy tune and the chorus of "hey, hey, I am Mr. Tea" can stick with you longer than you'd expect.

Mr. Tea is from Peelander-Z's 2012 album, SpaceVacation. There is a second version of the song that does away with Pichigo and Captain Yellow's preamble. They're both from the same album so it seems that the source from where you stream the song makes the difference.

Mr. Tea on Bandcamp (with preamble)

Mr. Tea lyrics

[Pichigo:]

Captain Yellow

Break time

Here is hot pot beverage

[Captain Yellow:]

Thanks my friend, Pichigo

(Spit)

Naaaa

Pichigo, I do not drink coffee

I told you

Understand?

Never ever

[Pichigo:]

Sorry Captain Yellow

[Captain Yellow:]

Don't you know what everybody calls me?

[Pichigo:]

No Captain Yellow

Pichigo does not have that data

[Captain Yellow:]

Mr. Tea

Every day

Every single day

Don't forget tea time after lunch

Hey, hey, I am Mr. Tea

I cannot drink coffee

Hey, hey, I am Mr. Tea

Oh yeah, give him a drink, please

Oh yeah

Want a pot?

Oh chagasuki

Yo kucha daisuki

It's about a healthy and a tasty tea

Hey, hey, I am Mr. Tea

I cannot drink coffee

Hey, hey, I am Mr. Tea

Let's drink to my yellow tea cup

Hey, hey, I am Mr. Tea

Call me Mr. Tea

Don't call me Mr. Coffee

Hey man, I pity the fool that drinks coffee

Mr. Tea

Not saving you any, I love tea, I eat tea, yeah

Mr. Tea

Oh yeah, give him a tea please

Just a pot

Oh yeah

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If I ran a game store ...

The music at my FLGS sucks. They either play the local rock radio station or they play Lord of the Rings or Star Wars soundtracks. There are people who write, play, and record music aimed at gamers, but the music remains obscure because the brick and mortar bastions of geek culture do not play them. I believe there is a catch 22 here with the obscurity causing stores to overlook it and since it is overlooked it is obscure. X Marks the Beat wishes to remedy this situation by providing a list of quality music that will appeal to the clientele of game stores. Herein is a list of songs about RPGs, video games, movies and TV shows, fandom, and more. The three primary tags used are FLGS to indicate songs that are appropriate for play in game stores, NSFW to indicate songs that are inappropriate for play in game stores but that target gamers, and IFFY to indicate songs that I think will appeal to gamers but are not about gamer topics per se.

X Marks the Beat updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and sometimes intermittently.

I maintain the playlist on Google Play Music. The playlist can be found here: FLGS.