I THINK THE ANIMATOR DREW THE WRONG MEMBER OF MEGADETH

Okay, so for some of you young ‘uns who will forever think of Chris Broderick as Megadeth’s guitarist, you should know that before Broderick there were some other dudes in the band, and before them there was this guy Marty Friedman, and before him there were, again, some other dudes.

But this is a story about Marty Friedman, so let’s just stick to him for a sec.

See, after Marty quit the band in 2000, presumably because he couldn’t look at himself in the mirror anymore after actively participating in the creation of “Crush ‘Em,” he moved to Japan, where everyone who was ever famous will stay famous forever. (Seriously, it’s like the Never Never Land of famous people over there.) At least, I think that’s what happened – all I really know is that Friedman was in Megadeth, and then he wasn’t, and then Blabbermouth started posting fifteen stories a day about Friedman and Japan. I’d do the research to get the full story but I don’t care that much.

So, why did I bring this up? ‘Cause Friedman’s latest Asian endeavor is a collaboration with Gary Suarez’s favorite musician of all time, Andrew W.K. (Who, reader Porkspam tells me, seems to be having fun with the rumors that there are multiple Andrew W.K.s And there’s a video for this collaboration, entitled “Kiba,” which I believe is Japanese for “Really strange and terrible song that makes you kinda glad that Marty Friedman isn’t in Megadeth anymore.” (It may or may not also mean “Fang.”) But what’s really weird – I mean just beside how FUCKING STRANGE the song is – is that the video is animated, and portrays a cartoon Andrew W.K. maxin’ and relaxin’ with a cartoon… Dave Mustaine.

I’m serious. Check it out:

I mean, sure, Mustaine’s hair is more wavy than curly (Friedman has curly hair), but in what fucking universe is Friedman a ginger? I mean, look at this photo of the guy, which was taken in 2009:

I’m not fucking crazy, am I? The guy’s hair is brown!

So what happened? Was it a major communications breakdown between Friedman and those wacky Japanese animators? Was there some consensus that having two cartoon characters with roughly the same color hair might be too confusing for the viewer? Or have I just put too much thought into this?

I’ve put entirely too much thought into this.

Sigh.

Here’s Friedman the way I like to remember him, in an only slightly less bizarre video…

-AR