Yet Another Solo Ringo Single

After collaborating in many projects as a music director/collaborator, Shiina Ringo is once again involved in another project. The ballet documentary "今日と明日の間で" (Kyou to Asu no Aida de) starring dancer/actor 首藤康之 (Yasuyuki Shuto), will have the english titled track "Between Today and Tomorrow" as its theme song, which is the exact translation of the japanese title. Altough it seems it was the english name who appeared first.

Similarly to what happened with the Sakuran movie, she will work with Saitou Neko again in what seems to be an instrumental only piece. Ringo will play the piano herself. Altough we're left unsure if this will have a vocal version as well, or even if there will actually be more tracks.

I'm not exactly sure, but from what I can gather the documentary will be an autobiography of Yasuyuki Shuto himself, directed by 小林潤子 (Kobayashi Junko). I'll probably try to add more information after more research, but what you really need to know is that it's set to be released in January 17, 2012.

This certainly seems to bring more hope for a new solo album, along with the 3-track single "Carnation" which has its release date settled for November 2nd. We're talking about 4 solo tracks already!

CS Channel

A (little bit) random post about CS Channel, Tokyo Jihen's new PV collection DVD/Blu-Ray coming later this month.

Release Date: 2011.09.21

01 - 能動的三分間 (Noudouteki Sanpunkan)
02 - 勝ち戦 (Kachiikusa)
03 - 空が鳴っている (Sora ga Natteiru)
04 - 新しい文明開化 (Atarashii Bunmeikaika)
05 - 女の子は誰でも (Onna no Ko wa Daredemo)
06 - 天国へようこそ Tokyo Bay Ver. CS Edit (Tengoku he Yokouso)
07 - ハンサム過ぎて (Handsome Sugite)

I was looking at the official promo site for CS Channel and decided to grab all the meanings for CS from the background image, which is this one:

CDMAT SPECIAL

Central67System

Chan-Son

CHART'S SOVEREIGN

Cheeky Smile

Citizen Ship

City State

Civilized Sounds

Clear Spectrum

Click Stop

Clip Session
Climax Scene

Cloudy Sky

Code SOS

Common Sense

Communications Satellite

Company Sixth-Sense

COMPOSE SPARKS

Compulsory School

Contemporary Songs

Cool Summer

Crazy Spectacle

Critical Sound

Curious Saturday

Customer Satisfaction

New ones found in the DVD:


Caviar's Stocks
Ceiling Speed
Chaos Sequence
Chemical Shoes
Chime Swells
Classy Stereography
Clear Spectrum
Comedy Show
Command S
Commercialize Stories
Computer Signal
Curry Spice

I wonder who came up with all these names. Maybe each member gave their inputs? Some of them sound very Ringo-ish, while others sound like they came from some of the male members. Who knows.

Tokyo Jihen - 2010.11.06 - EMI ROCKS

Considering there's a new EMI ROCKS festival announced for February 19, 2012, here's what we have of the first one, where Tokyo Jihen performed.

BS Fuji broadcasted a 2 hour program covering the festival, but only included 2 or 3 performances for each artist, which left us with "OSCA", "FOUL" and "Killer Tune". However, it doesn't seem the performances were much different from the ones found in the Ultra C Tour earlier that year (altough Ringo sounds a bit drunk which is cool), so we're probably not missing out much. Except for the fact that they performed two songs from "Daihakken", which we haven't heard live anywhere yet: "Tengoku he Yokouso" and "Dopamint!". Hopefully one day I'll get the complete setlist.

EMI ROCKS was a one day festival at Saitama Super Arena to celebrate EMI's 50th anniversary, with around 10 of their biggest rock bands performing, including Acidman, Tomoyasu Hotei, Miyavi, 9mm Parabellum Bullet, Base Ball Bear and others. But apparently the fun doesn't stop there, because there's another EMI ROCKS planned and we still don't know if Tokyo Jihen will make an appearance, but I say it's very likely.

Venue: Saitama Super Arena
Date: 2010.11.06
01 - 天国へようこそ (Tengoku he Yokouso)
02 - OSCA

03 - FOUL
04 - ドーパミント！ (Dopamint!)
05 - キラーチューン (Killer Tune)
06 - 能動的三分間 (Noudouteki Sanpunkan)
07 - 透明人間 (Toumei Nigen)
08 - 勝ち戦 (Kachiikusa)

Only the bolded tracks are available.

Download (MP3 V0)

Download (MP4 H264 1280x720 Chapters)

Bootleg Updated

Just wanted to let you know I've updated the FUJI ROCK FESTIVAL '04 bootleg, which now contains the whole show. Listen to the audience recording of the complete 15 songs setlist here.

Shiina Ringo - New Single "Carnation"

Just to get a little update done on this blog.

I've had little time no time whatsoever in the last weeks. But there are exciting news I want to share with everyone.

Shiina Ringo is releasing a new solo single! It's another dorama tie-in, just like "Ariamaru Tomi", so I'm hoping it'll give us the same hope for the future (new solo album much?).

Both the song and dorama are titled カーネーション (Carnation) and from what I can gather, the main theme will be motherhood. The story is based on the (real) life of fashion designer Ayako Koshino, who passed away in 2006 and is the mother of three women who are now at the top of the japanese fashion industry. It will portray her life from the teenage years through her fifties. An interesting fact is that Chiaki Kuriyama is part of the cast, one of Ringo's inseparable friends.

The dorama starts airing October 3rd, so there's bound to be some previews of the song by September. There's no release date for the single, yet.

Tokyo Jihen - Daihakken Scans

And finally, here's the booklet for the latest album. Too bad most of the english lyrics are difficult to read, due to the font. Oh well.

Daihakken (Scans)

Download (16 PNGs)

SWITCH June 2011 Scans

Kind of late, but I've been busy. And this edition of SWICTH magazine has a gazalion Tokyo Jihen pages. Not my favourite photoshoot, but there's some interesting stuff in there, particularly a list of the most influencial albums for each member of the band. From what I figured, it's only the ones that came to mind when describing inspiration for Daihakken.

SWITCH - 2011.05.20

Download (18 PNGs)

And here's the albums list, translated from the scans. Most of them are indeed worth the listening!

Shiina Ringo

Pierre Barouh - 1992 - Vivre

Tony! Toni! Toné! - 1993 - Sons of Soul

Barry Adamson - 1996 - Oedipus Schmoedipus

The Prodigy - 2009 - Invaders Must Die

Eugene McDaniels - 1970 - Outlaw

Queen - 1995 - Made in Heaven

Ukigumo

Original Love - 1994 - Kaze no Uta wo Kike (風の歌を聴け)

Yumi Matsutoya (松任谷由実) - 1989 - Love Wars

The Rotary Connection - 1969 - Songs

The Brand New Heavies - 1991 - The Brand New Heavies

Alan Jackson - 1992 - A Lot About Livin'

The Byrds - 1965 - Turn Turn Turn

Izawa

Lee Morgan - 1957 - Candy

The Beatles - 1968 - The Beatles (White Album)

The Sting OST - 1973

Hiroko Yakushimaru (薬師丸ひろ子) - 2002 - Golden Best

BUCK-TICK - 1989 - TABOO

Bill Evans - 1968 - Bill Evans at the Montreux Jazz Festival

Kameda

Michael Jackson - 1982 - Thriller

Tokyo Jihen - 2010 - Sports

Hata

Kurenai Buta (Porco Rosso) OST - 1992

Kiki's Delivery Service Vocal Album - 1989

Gustav Holst - 1981 - The Planets (Berlin Philarmonic)

Gergiev - 2004 - Tchaikovsky Symphony No.5 (Wiener Philarmoniker)

Beethoven - 1979 - Symphony No.9 (Wiener Philarmoniker)

The Boston Pops Orchestra (John Williams) - 1990 - Music of the Night

Nuovo Cinema Paradiso OST - 1989

Carpenters - 1994 - Yesterday Once More: Original Master Karaoke

Red Hot Chili Peppers - 1999 - Californication

The Beatles - 1973 - The Beatles/1962~1966 and The Beatles/1967~1970

MUSICA July 2011 Scans

Today is the release of Daihakken, and three days ago was the 2nd birthday of this blog. But that's not what I want to talk about now!

Here are the scans for the July edition of MUSICA magazine, featuring Tokyo Jihen on the cover. They did a great photoshoot at the National Museum of Nature and Science in Tokyo, altough I was hoping for even more photos. There's a huge interview with Ringo and another huge interview with the guys. If anyone wants, I can scan it.

By the way, I think these scans are better than the last ones I did, for Rockin' On Japan, because I learned a few tricks, so I'm thinking about redoing those in the near future. I want the maximum quality achievable!

MUSICA - 2011.06.16

Download (8 PNGs)

Tokyo Jihen - 2011.06.26 - MUSIC JAPAN

Here's Tokyo Jihen's performance of "Atarashii Bunmeikaika" at MUSIC JAPAN yesterday. It's a pretty performance, but, sadly, the instruments are all playback. Only Ringo's voice is live, and very good at that.

This marks the begin of a bunch of TV Promotions to come soon, by the way. I'm hoping we get some good stuff.

01 - 新しい文明開化 (Atarashii Bunmeikaika)

Download (MP3 V0)

Download (MP4 H264 852x480)

PS - Only 2 more days for the album!

Rockin' On Japan June 2011 Scans

I wish I knew how to scan better, but for now this is the best I can do.

Here are the scans for June's Rockin' On Japan issue, featuring Tokyo Jihen. Of course I only scanned the TJ parts, not the whole magazine. I left the Ringo and Kameda interview out, because it's just text and I can't translate it, so... Unless someone shows interest in translating it, in that case you just have to ask.

Anyway, enjoy!

Rockin' On Japan - 2011.04.30

Download (8 PNGs)

PS - I know it's a huge size for just 8 files, but that's because they're around 2800 x 2000. Tell me if you think it's enough to provide lower resolution pictures.