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)

Download (MP3 V0)
Download (MP4 H264 1280x720)
Download (MP4 H264 848x420)

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.

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)

Download (MP3 V0)

Download (MP4 H264 1280x720)

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)

Download (MP3 V0)

Download (MP4 H264 1280x720)

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)

Download (MP3 V0)

Download (MP4 H264 1280x720)

Shiina Ringo - 2005.07.08 - Bokura no Ongaku 2

This episode of Bokura no Ongaku 2 focuses on Mukai Shuutoku, former member of Number Girl and founder of Zazen Boys, but Shiina Ringo is the second guest, given her relationship with Shuutoku and the fact that they are both band leaders. They talk with each other about their careers throughout the episode and then there are two live performances, altough I only included the first one, which is a duet with Ringo.

"KIMOCHI", the performed song, is originally from Zazen Boys first album, but here we're presented with a slower duet version. Ringo also collaborated on their second album, with back-vocals for three tracks.

One of the things I'd like to hear her say, when Mukai Shuutoku asked her if she had any big dreams, she said she wanted to have a second marriage. I wonder if she still feels the same in 2011.

She also mentions that Sonata, her son, calls her "Haha" instead of "Mama", which is more tradional. And he tells her things like "What's with those dresses mother?".

Surprisingly, she also says she hopes to have a daughter, to somehow compensate for the fact she always grew up wanting a sister.

It's a very endearing interview and performance, I'd say.

01 - KIMOCHI feat. 椎名林檎

Download (MP3 V0)

Download (MP4 H264 640x480 Chapters)

Shiina Ringo - 1996.10.10 - Music Quest '96

Look what I found! Shiina Ringo singing back in 1996. How nostalgic! Even though I only started listening to her in 2007.

Before signing up any record deal, and after she dropped out of school, Ringo participated in Yamaha's annual Music Quest contest. It was another try at success to kick-start her music career, after the previous year attempt, but this time she performed her own song, the later-to-be smash-hit "Koko de Kissu Shite". It was also the first time she publicly used her stage-name, Shiina Ringo, instead of Shiina Yumiko. In the end, the Grand Prize went to Takashi Taniguchi, but she managed an Excellence Prize and grabbed attention from all major record labels. She ended up signing with Toshiba EMI.

Funny fact: singer-songwriter aiko also participated in this contest, just like in the Teen's Music Festival '95.

Considering how the 5th edition of Music Quest was the last one, after which Yamaha decided to make normal auditions only, we can thank Ringo for not postponing her participation in the contest, as it would have undoubtedely changed her career in ways we can not imagine!

01 - ここでキスして。 (Koko de Kissu Shite.)

Download (MP3 V0)

Download (MP4 H264 320x240)

PS - In order to improve the frequency of my updates, I decided to create a template for covers, instead of having to create a different one every time. So it'll be just a screenshot/photo with SR or TJ and the title. Sorry to disappoint the legions of fans of my super cool covers! I'm looking for opinions to improve this template tho, since I'm not a designer. Do you think I should make the text smaller, different color, different background, etc. I'm keeping it as it is for now.

Tokyo Jihen Live Tour 2011 Discovery (set-lists)

Instead of making a new post for every day of the Discovery tour, I decided to just keep updating this one.
Remember that you won't find any recordings here, just the set-lists.

Live Tour 2011 Discovery

For those of us who just couldn't attend any of the concerts from the Discovery tour, let's enjoy the set-lists!

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)

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!

Shiina Ringo - 2011.05.20 - Music Station

Here is the latest Music Station performance. Ringo was there without the band, promoting the single "女の子は誰でも" as if it was her own. Likely for the same reason why the Shiseido ads had to be changed to feature a Ringo-only version of the song: Hata's incident with the police.

Anyway, she didn't talk much during the whole show, but really had a great finale performance, even tho the vocals were just plain mediocre. We know she doesn't seem to put much effort into any Music Station performance, but I think this song really deserved it.

Ringo's message after the show.

I should start adding these to the Music Station's posts... they're usually quite cute or funny. I'm not sure what she's saying in this one, but I could swear it's some kind of comment about men's (男) transpiration (汗), because the guests had some kind of chat about that kind of scent. Oh well.

01 - 女の子は誰でも (Onna no Ko wa Daredemo)

Download (MP3 V0)

Download (MP4 H264 852x480)

Shiina Ringo - 2009.05.02 - Kame no Ongaeshi

It seems Hata Toshiki's recent "incident" with the authorities gave us the need for something else to listen to, while waiting for the unknown-to-be-released next Tokyo Jihen single and TV performances.

So here's the whole Ringo performance at Kame no Ongaeshi, Kameda Seiji's own show, which was a 2 days event where a bunch of artists he produced made live performances. As far as I know, there was supposed to be a DVD release for this, but the project was probably scrapped. So who knows? Ken Hirai duets with Ringo in "put your camera down", by the way.

For now, there's only bootlegs, and this one seems to have the highest quality and was provided to me by Yahiko.

Festival: 亀の恩返し (Kame no Ongaeshi)

Venue: 日本武道館 (Nippon Budokan)

Date: 2009.05.02

01 - 茜さす 帰路照らされど… (Akane Sasu Kiro Terasaredo)

02 - more

03 - ギブス (Gips)

04 - put your camera down

05 - 閃光少女

06 - MC

07 - 丸の内サディスティック (Marunouchi Sadistic)

Download (MP3 Various Bitrates)

Tokyo Jihen - 2006.07.02 - Society of the Citizens Vol.1

What better way to wait for Jihen's soon-to-be-released new single, than to listen to one of the greatest performances the band has ever given? That's what I bring to you!

This is one of the most sought-after Tokyo Jihen bootlegs ever, and someone over at KMC was kind enough to (finally) share it with all us westerners. The audio quality of the original files is fine, but I had to tweak the channels a bit to actually put it in great condition, in my honest opinion. The original files had the band playing in the left channel and the audience clapping in the right channel, so I tried to center everything, without really losing the stereo.

Hata Toshiki was absent from this performance due to an arm injury back then, so Yasuo Sano (佐野康夫) played that part. Some members from ZAZEN BOYS also performed along with the band in "Mirror Ball" and "Service". Ringo sang two duets with them, during their own concert at this festival, but I don't have those.

Just enjoy this amazing concert. And here's hoping that I update this blog more often...

Festival: SOCIETY OF THE CITIZENS VOL.1

Venue: 日比谷野外音楽堂 (Hibiya Open-Air Concert Hall)

Date: 2006.07.02

01 - Beginning

02 - 御祭騒ぎ (Omatsuri Sawagi)

03 - 少女ロボット (Shoujo Robot)

04 - 歌舞伎 (Kabuki)

05 - MC1

06 - 茎 (Kuki)

07 - ゴング (Gong)

08 - ミラーボール (Mirror Ball)

09 - サービス (Service)

10 - 喧嘩上等 (Kenka Joutou)

11 - MC2

12 - 秘密 (Himitsu)

13 - MC3

14 - 映日紅の花 (Ichijiku no Hana)

Download (MP3 V1)

PS - Both "Gong" and "Mirror Ball" are covers of Petrolz songs, Ukigumo's band. Only "Mirror Ball" ended in a Tokyo Jihen album tho.

Shiina Ringo - 2008.07.14 - Top Runner

The Top Runner episode someone requested! The 3 performances in this TV show have very interesting new arrangements (Yume no Ato isn't very different tho) and so I think it's very worth the watch/listen. Ringo talks about her life and career, with some photos from her youth to ilustrate, which is also interesting of course.

I'm sorry I can't write a bigger entry with more information, but I'm really short of time these days and my main concern was to upload this and that's done, so... Until next time!

01 - 本能 (Honnou)

02 - 意識 (Ishiki)

03 - 夢のあと (Yume no Ato)

Download (MP3 V0)

Download (MP4 H264 1280 x 720 Chapters)

Tokyo Jihen - 2004.07.30 - FUJI ROCK FESTIVAL '04

Got this video this morning so decided to upload. It's the FUJI ROCK FESTIVAL '04 show that was broadcasted on television. Unfortunately it's only 3 songs out of the complete 15, but it doesn't seem the whole recording is easy to find, so here's the upload. Also found the video uploaded to YouTube by someone else, so you can watch it there instead of downloading.

Video was removed from YouTube.

FUJI ROCK FESTIVAL '04 was the 3rd of 4 summer festivals Tokyo Jihen performed in, during 2004. One of the other 4 was Meet the World Beat, which I already uploaded, and as you can see the performances don't sound that different. The only really noticeable difference are the setlists.

01 - 丸の内サディスティック (Marunouchi Sadistic)

02 - 迷彩 (Meisai)

03 - その淑女ふしだらにつき (Sono Onna Fushidara ni Tsuki)

04 - 御祭騒ぎ (Omatsuri Sawagi)

05 - 林檎の唄 (Ringo no Uta)

06 - 遭難 (Sounan)

07 - 群青日和 (Gunjou Biyori)

08 - ダイナマイト (Dynamite)

09 - 事変音頭 (Jihen Ondo)

10 - 歌舞伎町の女王 (Kabukichou no Joou)

11 - サービス (Service)

12 - 幸福論 (Koufukuron)

13 - la salle de bain

14 - 茎～STEM～ (Kuki)

15 - 駅前 (Ekimae)

UPDATE: Felipe, known in the interwebs as Yahiko, gave me the complete bootleg for this show, so here it is. We decided to keep the TV rips from the 3 songs that were broadcast: "Dynamite", "Koufukuron" and "la salle de bain", so you'll notice a sudden change in quality. Regardless, this is totally worth it.

Download (MP3 Various Bitrates)

Download (MP4 H264 640x364 Chapters)

Tokyo Jihen - 2004.12.24 - Music Station SUPERLIVE 2004

Here's something I figured would be an easy upload. Found it recently on jpopsuki and even tho it's not a remarkable performance (only the vocals are live), it was still important promotion for the beginning of Phase 1, since many big names in the japanese pop music industry performed in this SUPERLIVE. It *was* a big television event.

Anyway, there you have it. It's "Gunjou Biyori", it's not amazing, it's your typical Music Station performance (this time with bonus pyrotechnics) but it's Phase 1 and HZM is worth watching!

01 - 群青日和 (Gunjou Biyori)

Download (MP3 V1)

Download (MP4 H264 720x404)

PS - This as got to be my worst cover yet!

Tokyo Jihen - 2010.02.28 - Music Japan

Music Japan special episode featuring Tokyo Jihen. I found a version without the tsunami warning all over the screen. Pretty decent show and performances, in my opinion. Highlight goes to "Ikiru" with a figure skating coreography (sadly not live).

01 - 能動的三分間 (Noudouteki Sanpunkan)

02 - 勝ち戦 (Kachiikusa)

03 - 生きる (Ikiru)

04 - シーズンサヨナラ (Season Sayonara)

05 - スーパースター (Superstar)

06 - 閃光少女 (Senkou Shoujo)

Download (MP3 V0)
Download (MP4 H264 848x480 Chapters)

Tokyo Jihen - 2010.02.19 - Music Station

Here is the "Kachiikusa" performance at the February 19 episode of Music Station. The instruments are playback, as usual.


01 - 勝ち戦 (Kachiikusa)
Download (MP3 V0)
Download (MP4 H264 852x480)

Tokyo Jihen - 2009.11.27 - Music Station

Altough Tokyo Jihen didn't really "raise the dead on your turntable" with this Music Station performance, they sure did make me work again on this blog. You see, it's not that I haven't been keeping up with Ringo activities or that I don't have anything else to post, I've just been really busy these days. But I don't wanna leave you guys missing out anything that is "new", so here it is (a week later!).


01 - 能動的三分間 (Noudouteki Sanpunkan)
Download (MP3 V0)
Download (MP4 H264 852x480)

Tokyo Jihen - COUNTDOWN JAPAN 09/10

According to the popular j-music website Natalie.mu, Tokyo Jihen will perform at this year's COUNTDOWN JAPAN, a yearly event that starts December 28 and goes all the way into the new year.
Tokyo Jihen were there in 2006 as well, where they performed a pre-Heisei Fuuzoku version of "Oiran" (which I love). Let's hope this year's performance will bring us something to be excited with. But on the other hand, I also hope they do announce some more stuff for this year, because December is still a little bit far away.
The band will perform on December 30 and you can check the other artists at COUNTDOWN JAPAN here.

Thanks for the news Orenji!

Shiina Ringo - 2000.07.30 - Zazen Xstasy

I consider Zazen Xstasy to be one of Ringo's most important concerts ever. It was a one night show, only available to a restricted number of fans, and with a setlist composed of tons of B-Sides, instead of the cliché songs. Some of them had interesting new arrangements and overall the performances were great. Also, it was the first and only Ringo concert to be broadcast live through the internet, with the choppy video/audio quality of the year 2000. And someone ripped it.
For some time, that rip and other audience recordings where the only way for anyone to experience the greatness of this concert. However, as everyone knows, we got lucky and in 2008 EMI released a great quality DVD with the full concert... Or was it? Not really! For some reason they decided to cut one of the songs, "Haikei EMI-dono", which is a cover of Sex Pistols' "EMI".

So what I've got here is the rip of the web streaming of the concert, which contains MC parts excluded from the DVD and also the Sex Pistols cover. But as you can guess, the audio quality is pretty crappy (and from what I saw of the video, that one is crappy too), so fortunately I also got hold of a audience recording bootleg of the "Haikei EMI-dono" song which sounds so much better.

I think the better option here is to keep the web rip because of the MCs (unless you don't care about those things) and then put "Haikei EMI-dono" along with the DVD rips of Zazen Xstasy (which I don't provide), in the order I will show bellow.


Tour: 座禅エクスタシー (Zazen Xstasy)
Venue: 嘉穂劇場 (Kaho Theatre)
Date: 2000.07.30
01 - 時が暴走する (Toki ga Busou Suru)
02 - 積木遊び (Tsumiki Asobi)
03 - 眩暈 (Memai)
04 - 少女ロボット (Shoujo Robot)
05 - リモートコントローラー (Remote Controller)
06 - MC1
07 - 茜さす帰路照らされど… (Akane-sasu Kiro Terasaredo…)
08 - 拝啓EMI殿 (Haikei EMI-dono)
09 - アイデンティティ (Identity)
10 - 病床パブリック (Byoushou Public)
11 - アンコンディショナル･ラブ (Unconditional Love)
12 - MC2
13 - サカナ (Sakana)
14 - 歌舞伎町の女王 (Kabukichou no Joou)
15 - 弁解ドビュッシー (Benkai Debussy)
16 - 浴室 (Yokushitsu)
17 - マイラグジュアリーナイト (My Luxury Night)
18 - シドと白昼夢 (Sid to Hakuchuumu)
19 - ストイシズム (Stoicism)

Download (MP3 v5)

You might be wondering why there is no "Nihon ni Umarete", and that's because it wasn't broadcasted in the web streaming.
Anyway, here is the "Haikei EMI-dono" from the audience recording bootleg, which sounds very good.

Download (MP3 160CBR)

PS - Starting this Saturday I'm going to be internetless during a month (maybe), so this is probably my last post till then. See ya!