Shiina Ringo - 2007.03.11 - Otakara Show at NHK

After the (still shocking) Tokyo Jihen dissolution, we still don't know what plans Ringo has in her mind for the future of her career. So let's take a look at what she was doing in a not so distant past.

Otakara Show was a NHKG Special made to promote the Heisei Fuuzoku album. In it, Ringo spoke about her career and how she was approached to make this soundtrack for the Sakuran movie. There's also appearances by violinist Saitou Neko and Ringo's brother, Shiina Junpei.

The glamorous concept of the show is very similar to what can be found in the Baishou Xstasy or Dai Ikkai Ringohan DVDs, and the 8 performances are sure to please any fan of the Heisei Fuuzoku era.

01 - 歌舞伎町の女王 (Kabukichou no Joou)
02 - 罪と罰 (Tsumi to Batsu)
03 - 茎 (Kuki)
04 - パパイヤマンゴー (Papaya Mango)
05 - 錯乱 (Sakuran)
06 - 意識 (Ishiki)
07 - この世の限り (Kono Yo no Kagiri)
08 - 迷彩 (Meisai)

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Tokyo Jihen Live Tour 2012 Domestique Bon Voyage (set-lists)

Once again I'll try to cover up the setlists for the Bon Voyage Tour. The 6 days tour started yesterday, February 14, with a huge setlist bound to please most fans, even with the absense of some favourite tracks. There was space for three covers, however, two of them being from the recently released self-penned songs given to Chiaki Kuriyama.

ROCKIN' ON JAPAN January 2012 Scans

Here are the scans from the Discovery Tour article included in the January issue of ROCKIN' ON JAPAN, unfortunately not quite as early as I had expected to post them. The article is a bit short on words, focusing on all the releases and activities that culminated in the 2011 tour, with a brief sinopsis of the shows. It also mentions the release of the solo single "Carnation" and the soon-to-be released album "color bars", then called simply "colo bar".

I think the important part are the gorgeous photos, really, so get downloading.

ROCKIN' ON JAPAN - 2011.11.17
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Tokyo Jihen - 2012.01.20 - Music Station

This is Tokyo Jihen's last performance on Music Station, which aired yesterday. The band decided to pick up both the last and first singles of their career: "Konya wa Karasawagi" and "Gunjou Biyori". As usual, the instruments are all playback, but Ringo seemed to actually give an effort this time, showcasing some of her best vocals on Music Station ever. The stage includes a Phase 2 logo with the Phase 1 colors, which was a very nice touch and matches the song choices.

Much to my surprise, they didn't really talk much about the dissolution, with only some comments from Ringo and Kameda. They did have somewhat of a special focus on the show, however.

For the stalker-ish fans (like me), I've included the first few seconds of the Big Bang performance where you can see Ringo curiously looking at them in the background. I wonder what she was thinking about.

01- 今夜はから騒ぎ (Konya wa Karasawagi)
02 - 群青日和 (Gunjou Biyori)

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PS - I'm opting for 480p videos, since I can achieve smaller filesizes that way (200MB compared to 500MB for a 720p version). However, I'd like to hear everyone's opinions on this choice.
I've also changed Megaupload with Rapidshare, considering the recent incidents. I'll have to reupload every video on this blog as well, so before that it would be nice to know what you think of this choice too.

EMI ROCKS 2012

Even after the dissolution news, Tokyo Jihen keep treating us with (somewhat) good news.

The announced performace at the 2012 EMI ROCKS edition, on February 19, is still up, and Tokyo Jihen will perform in this festival along with other big names from EMI like Acidman, Straigthner, 9mm Parabellum Bullet and Miyavi.

Yet another event to look forward to, during these last two months of Tokyo Jihen.

Sadistic News

The word is out: Tokyo Jihen have disbanded.

Through a series of messages from every member, posted on Kronekodow and the official band page, Tokyo Jihen announced the end of this Phase and also the band itself.

It is truly a sad day for every fan, including myself.

I can only find hope in believing that Shiina Ringo will not stop being a musician and continue her solo career.

But I'm not here to express my feelings on this matter, I have done it in other places.

Tokyo Jihen have announced a farewell tour to start next month. Tickets will be sold from January 13th to January 23rd, and the dates/venues are as follows:

February 14th

神奈川県 横浜アリーナ

Kanagawa Prefecture - Yokohama Arena

February 15th

神奈川県 横浜アリーナ

Kanagawa Prefecture - Yokohama Arena

February 21st

大阪府 大阪城ホール

Osaka - Osaka Jo Hall

February 22nd

大阪府 大阪城ホール

Osaka - Osaka Jo Hall

February 28th

東京都 日本武道館

Tokyo - Nippon Budokan

February 29th

東京都 日本武道館

Tokyo - Nippon Budokan

Price of the tickets will be 8888 JPY for all venues (approx. $115).

They will also participate in the January 20th episode of Music Station. A chance to promote color bars and talk about the disbanding, I'm sure. Hopefully also about the future.

Shiina Ringo - 2011.12.31 - 62th NHK Kouhaku Uta Gassen

Took me a while to upload, but here is Ringo's performance at the New Year's Eve National TV Show, the 62th NHK Kouhaku Uta Gassen. It's her first time performing at this important television event, after all this time, and altough Jihen are present in the stage, it's really supposed to be a solo thing, with Ringo being part of the female team or Akagumi (Red Team).

She does perform one song from her solo career, the latest single "Carnation", and afterwards a Tokyo Jihen single, "Onna no Ko wa Daredemo". It's important to notice that this live arrangement of "Carnation" is exactly the same as the one performed during the Discovery Tour, which differs greatly from the orchestrated original song.

At the beginning of the video we can see Ono Machiko, who is the star of the dorama "Carnation", and also the band Arashi, which coincidentaly has had a strong connection to Ringo for some reason I've yet to understand.

01 - カーネーション (Carnation)

02 - 女の子は誰でも (Onna no Ko wa Daredemo)

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Shiina Ringo - 2011.11.11 - Music Station

I wish I didn't take so much time to upload this, but I've been too busy with bad-paying-work life.

This "Carnation" performance is pretty much like the Countdown TV one, with playback instruments included. It's nothing memorable. But I included the parts of the show where Ringo was interviewed, as well as a small segment where children watch and react to "Koufukuron" and "Honnou", much to Ringo's embarrassment. I don't mean to sound creepy, but she's irresistibly cute when she starts panicking.

01 - カーネーション (Carnation)

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Shiina Ringo - 2011.10.29 - Countdown TV

The first televised performance of Ringo's newest single, "Carnation". Last time Ringo performed on CDTV was back in 2007, four years ago, during the Heisei Fuuzoku promotion.

Altough there's the whole orchestra there, plus Tokyo Jihen members, it seems to me that with the exception of her voice, everything else is playback. I'm not a great fan of this song, but the vocals are amazing and the stage has this huge feel similar to what we find in the PV. Altough I was expecting her to use the same wig.

Opinions aside, here is the interview plus performance.

01 - カーネーション (Carnation)

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New Ringo song titled "32歳の別れ"

Just to report on some news which seem to be slightly ignored by the westen community.

Tokyo Jihen's set-list for yesterday's show had a slight change in the Encore section, where they decided to replace "Yoake no Uta" with a new Ringo penned song, called "32歳の別れ" (32-sai no Wakare; Farewell My 32 Years). Before presenting the new song, she told the audience she was a bit nervous to play it because it was still being worked on and the band didn't really rehearse much.
I must say I was a little sceptical at first, because Ringo is turning 33 in November 25th, so it almost sounded like a joke. But maybe this means this stage of her life was very important for her. There's also the possibility that this is not the final title, considering how the song is still being worked on.

This new song brings to 5 the number of solo tracks released after Daihakken: "Carnation" plus two B-Sides, "Between Today and Tomorrow" and now "32-sai no Wakare". I guess a new solo album release is turning out to be more and more expected.