Official YouTube Channels

After a long time, both Shiina Ringo and Tokyo Jihen have official YouTube channels, through Vevo. Most of the videos are uploaded there, with 240p to 360p maximum resolutions. Some of the old ones are 480p, but, in the case of "STEM", the aspect ratio is incorrect: 4:3 instead of 16:9.
Not great, but not bad either, since we can finally share most of them legaly and without worrying about their eventual take-down.

However, it isn't a perfect solution, since some of the videos are locked outside of Japan. Kind of lame, if you ask me.

Shiina Ringo Official YouTube Channel

Tokyo Jihen Official YouTube Channel

Tokyo Jihen "returns" in February...

Tokyo Jihen, or should I say EMI, are returning this coming February, or at least two new releases are, according to Kronekodow. Yet another best DVD and another best CD collection, both released February 27th, 2013.

Although this time expect it to suck your wallet dry.

Hard Disk

Complete CD-Box (21.000Y, around $255)

- All 5 albums

- color bars

- Shinyawaku

- Special 9 track CD with songs that didn't make it to CD format yet and also unreleased tracks

Includes a hard-cover 52 page Photobook, 4GB Tokyo Jihen USB with photos and an instrumental version of "Service" called "Kaomisen Hen", which means something like Debut Chapter (wth?). Apparently the size of this thing will be the same as a analog record, according to my crappy translation.

First-Press Edition will come in a hard-cover book format.

Golden Time

DVD/BR (3.400Y / 4.100Y)

PV Collection:

- Gunjou Biyori

- Sounan

- Shuraba

- OSCA

- Killer Tune

- Noudouteki Sanpunkan

- Sora ga Natteiru

- Onna no Ko wa Daredemo

- Atarashii Bunmeikaika

- Konya wa Karasawagi (New Edit)

- Tadanaranu Kankei (New Edit)

- Senkou Shoujo (New Edit)

Comes with a special booklet concering the PVs and the first-press edition will have a plastic sleeve case.

New Tokyo Jihen releases this August

Today Kronekodow revealed the covers for the new Jihen releases. We can only guess if this is going to be EMI's last batch of money-milking after the band announced it's dissolution in last February 11th.

Regardless, we're still bound to get some interesting contents from both items: the B-Side CD collection "Shinyawaku" and the live best-of DVD/BR "Chin Play Kou Play". Here are the contents for both of them.

Title: 深夜枠 (Shinyawaku) (The Edge of Late at Night)

Release Date: 29 August 2012

01 - ハンサム過ぎて (Handsome Sugite)

02 - 我慢 (Gaman)

03 - BB.QUEEN

04 - 体 (Karada)

05 - ピノキオ (Pinochio)

06 - 鞄の中身 (Kaban no Nakami)

07 - 恋は幻 (Koi wa Maboroshi)

08 - 落日 (Rakujitsu)

09 - ダイナマイト (Dynamite)

10 - 心 (Kokoro)

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

12 - 顔 (Kao)

13 - ただならぬ関係（新曲）(Tadanaranu Kankei) (New Song)

Title: 珍プレー好プレー (Chin Play Kou Play) (Unusual Play, Good Play)

Release Date: 29 August 2012

Tours:

From "Dynamite!” 2005.02.09 ／ Nagoya Century Hall

01 - 林檎の唄 (Ringo no Uta)

02 - 車屋さん (Kurumaya-san)

03 - 恋の売り込み (I’m Gonna Knock On Your Door)

From “DOMESTIC Virgin LINE” 2006.02.19 ／ Nippon Budokan

04 - 葬列 (Souretsu)

05 - 虚言症 (Kyogenshou)

06 - 母国情緒 (Bokoku Jousho)

07 - 落日 (Rakujitsu)

From “Just can't help it!” 2006.05.26 ／ NHK Hall

08 - 雪国 (Yukiguni)

09 - ダイナマイト (Dynamite)

10 - 喧嘩上等 (Kenka Joutou)

From "Spa & Treatment” 2007.11.21 ／ Zepp Tokyo

11 - 金魚の箱 (Kingyo no Hako)

12 - 私生活 (Shiseikatsu)

13 - 黒猫道 (Kronekodow)

From “ウルトラＣ” 2010.05.12 ／ Tokyo International Forum A

14 - 電波通信 (Denpa Tsushiin)

15 - 生きる (Ikiru)

16 - 乗り気 (Noriki)

From “Discovery” 2011.12.07 ／ Tokyo International Forum A

17 - 空が鳴っている (Sora ga Natteiru)

18 - 秘密 (Himitsu)

19 - 今夜はから騒ぎ (Konya wa Karasawagi)

From “Domestique Bon Voyage” 2012.02.29 ／ Nippon Budokan

20 - 新しい文明開化 (Atarashii Bunmeikaika)

21 - 能動的三分間 (Noudouteki Sanpunkan)

22 - 群青日和 (Gunjou Biyori)

Festivals and Events:

From “0724YAMABIKARI”

2004.07.24 / Chicken George, Kobe

01 - その淑女(をんな)ふしだらにつき (Sono Onna Fushidara ni Tsuki)

From “FM802 MEET THE WORLD BEAT 2004”

2004.7.25 / Expo Commemoration Park, Osaka

02 - 御祭騒ぎ (Omatsuri Sawagi)

From “FUJI ROCK FESTIVAL '04”

2004.7.30 / Naeba Ski Resort in Yuzawa, Niigata

03 - 遭難 (Sounan)

From “COUNTDOWN JAPAN 06/07”

2006.12.30 / Makuhari Messe International Exhibition Hall

04 - 花魁 (Oiran)

05 - ブラックアウト (Blackout)

From “RISING SUN ROCK FESTIVAL 2008 in EZO”

2008.08.15 / Ishikari, Hokkaido

06 - 閃光少女 (Senkou Shoujo)

From “SOCIETY OF THE CITIZENS Vol2.”

2008.08.24 Tokyo Dome City Hall

07 - BB.QUEEN

08 - ミラーボール (Mirror Ball)

From “COUNTDOWN JAPAN 09/10”

2009.12.30 / Makuhari Messe International Exhibition Hall

09 - 我慢 (Gaman)

10 - ありあまる富 (Ariamaru Tomi)

From “EMI ROCKS 2010”

2010.11.06 / Saitama Super Arena

11 - 天国へようこそ (Tengoku he Youkoso)

12 - 透明人間 (Toumei Ningen)

From “EMI ROCKS 2012”

2012.02.19 / Saitama Super Arena

13 - ｓａ＿ｉ＿ｔａ

14 - キラーチューン (Killer Tune)

Bonus Feature:

幕の内サディスティック (Makunouchi Sadistic)

Special feature concerning the most performed song by the band, Marunouchi Sadistic.

PS - Regarding the blog's 3rd year, celebrated last June 26th, yay!
PSS - Regarding the link's issue, I'm still trying to find time to solve/upload it all. There are rumours that megaupload might be returning, so I'm inclined to wait a little bit to see if it's true or not... Thanks for your patience!

SWITCH March 2010 Scans

Here are my scans for the March 2010 issue of the SWITCH magazine, featuring loads of Ringo and Jihen content, during the Sports era.


SWITCH - 2010.03
Download (24 PNGs)

As the cover says, there's a Shiina Ringo x CHANEL photoshoot inside, one of her collaborations with the fashion house before the recent THE LITTLE BLACK JACKET exhibition/book.
I didn't include the pages where there was only text/interviews, by the way.

Bon Voyage Tour DVD and Blu-Ray

The final Tokyo Jihen tour, Bon Voyage, will get a DVD and Blu-Ray release on June 13th.

First-press edition will include a cardboard sleeve and an envelope-enclosed 1.000.000 Jihen paper bill. This release will include the last day of the short tour, February 29th at Nippon Budokan. Pre-orders are available at the usual sites.

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
Download (5 PNGs)

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.

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 - 2011.10.29 - 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)

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.

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!

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)

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.