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 - 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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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)

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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)

Download (MP3 V0)

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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

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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.)

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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 - 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)

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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)

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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)

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Download (MP4 H264 1280 x 720 Chapters)

Shiina Ringo - 2007.03.13 - Angela Aki Documentary

I think this is definitely my most unusual upload. It's a TV documentary for Angela Aki's 2006 concert in Budokan, narrated by Shiina Ringo. It's called 武道館に桜が咲いた日 (The Day the Cherry Blossoms Bloomed in Budokan). I only actually heard about this last week, and I guess it probably went a little bit overlooked by us Ringo fans.

There's actually a part where Angela Aki shows the setlist of Suguroku Xstasy, which she attended (in Budokan), and she kept it as a memento since then, promising herself that one day she would perform on that very stage herself.

It is known Aki and Ringo are friends, but unfortunately they never appear together in this video. There's only a small clip from the "Koufukuron" performance from Electric Mole.

Unfortunately there are no subtitles, but Ringo's polite narration voice is always amazing to listen to! I included a chapter in the MP4 so you can skip to the part where Aki shows the Suguroku Xstasy setlist.

Download (MP4 H264 852x480 Chapters)

PS - I need to thank the My Keys International forum, where I got this video from.

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)

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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)

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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)
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Tokyo Jihen - New Watering KissMint TV Ad

It seems the Watering KissMint advertisement campaign didn't die with the last tv ad. A new one was released a couple of days ago, were we can listen to a small portion of "Kachi Ikusa", coupled with more Ringo randomness.



I should say it sounds awesome. There is slightly more excitement about this album now, for me. February 24 can't come soon enough!

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)
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Shiina Ringo - 1999.08.12 - Tamentai Telepathy

Tamentai Telepathy, or 多面体テレパシー (meaning Polyhedron Telepathy), is another Space Shower TV special program about Shiina Ringo. First broadcasted two months before the release of the "Honnou" single, it's a hour long interview with Ringo, mostly shot in b/w. There are some clips of her PVs and other kinds of footage, but it's mostly b/w. The highlight of this whole interview is that Ringo has a realistic (toy) gun with her and at some points waves her carelessly around. Reminds me of her "Yokushitsu" performance at Ringo EXPO 08.
Anyway, like any other Ringo interview, it's a bit useless without an english translation, something I would like to provide but can't. Maybe one day...

Download (MP4 H264 352x262)

Shiina Ringo - 2000.08.30 - Kyuudan Recycle

Kyuudan Recycle, or 糾弾リサイクル (meaning Blame Recycle), is a special program made and broadcasted by Space Shower TV, first airing some weeks before the release of Zecchoushuu. Like the name implies, it's a "recycling" of old interviews, mainly Tamentai Telepathy and Yuuhatsu Orgasm. At the end of the program there's the PV for "Yattsuke Shigoto" along with a small Zecchoushuu ad.
Sadly, there is no english translation of this, so I guess it's not very useful to us non-japanese fans. I wonder if anyone out there is available to translate these kinds of interviews? Because I got a bunch here.

Download (MP4 H264 320x240)

Shiina Ringo - 2000.01.24 - Pop Jam

I do not have much information about this special episode of PopJam, but I suppose it isn't anything very important. What you see in the video is Ringo performing a slightly-short version of "Honnou" with most (if not all) of Gyakutai Glycogen's members. In the second part, Ringo acts has co-host of the show and makes a small comment about the Morning Musume performance (not included) and then presents the popular band The Yellow Monkey. But first comes a comedy duo pretending to be members of the band, only to be teased at by the real members that appear afterwards. They then have a joke performance of the song "JAM", which was used as theme song of PopJam at the time. During that time Ringo is next to them and exchanges some words, but nothing really important.

01 - 本能 (Honnou)
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Shiina Ringo - 1999.02.05 - Music Station

Time sure flies, and I'm not talking about Ringo's career. Is it August 18 already? Geez... Well, anyway, here is something nice for everyone, an old Music Station performance, back from 1999, some weeks after the release of the single "Koko de Kissu Shite". What's nice about this is not exactly the performance itself, but more her looks. Ringo, you were a freak back in the day! That said, I wouldn't mind if you came back just like that, with crown and girlish hair included.

01 - ここでキスして。 (Koko de Kissu Shite.)
Download (MP3 V3)
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