the Shiina Ringo thread

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milton, that youtube video has me very intrigued.

so is it better to start with shiina ringo solo or with tokyo incident? or does it really matter?

― A. Lingbert (A. Lingbert), Wednesday, 12 April 2006 08:17 (twenty years ago)

"Karuki Zamen Kuri no Hana" is arguably the masterpiece, dazzling arrangements, 4D sculpture production, possibly the peak of anything she's ever been involved w/. but...

I think Shiina made her name (in Japan) during the "Shouso Strip" period culminating w/ very popular nurse cosplay-parody video for 'Honnou'. I think there's the most tension there between charting rock star and widening weirdness palette.

It's also the period when most of her Cindy Shermanesque personas cropped up, sort of the dominant theme of her solo career. Before switching to T. Jihen there was 1) japanese ghost persona of 3rd & final album - death, 2) final song built entirely out of samples from her back catalog (link still above), & 3) a final video which chronologically travels through all her previous video roles.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=DQBWmLfxwxs&search=shiina%20ringo%20uta

― )alex(, Wednesday, 12 April 2006 16:42 (twenty years ago)

thanks for the tips. i'll check her out further.

― A. Lingbert (A. Lingbert), Wednesday, 12 April 2006 17:54 (twenty years ago)

I misposted upthread, that's 'Souretsu' live, not 'Shuraba'. it's a very different version of the final song on KZK.

imagine going to a stadium show and having that be the opening song.

what alex said. I like the Cindy Sherman reference, the song's lyrics are about an apple tree that longs to be human but settles for giving away her fruit at the end of each season -- sung by a person who keeps shifting through violently different personas, it's almost painful.

― milton parker (Jon L), Wednesday, 12 April 2006 21:10 (twenty years ago)

This is incredible (live video):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyf9M7mt_RY&search=tokyo%20jihen

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Saturday, 22 April 2006 19:11 (twenty years ago)

She makes me want to rock again.

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Saturday, 22 April 2006 19:12 (twenty years ago)

My bank won't authorize payment to cdjapan, or they won't accept my card or something. This is very frustrating. I'll have to call my bank this week.

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Saturday, 22 April 2006 19:16 (twenty years ago)

I feel like there is a big gap in my CD collection where Shiina Ringo CDs should be. All I want to put on right now are the CDs that belong there, and I can't.

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Saturday, 22 April 2006 19:24 (twenty years ago)

Do you think some of the shots in Yamini Furu Ame are supposed to be reminiscent of Hammershoi's paintings (or is there just a similar mood)?

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Saturday, 22 April 2006 19:55 (twenty years ago)

I love the apple-headed cartoon audience in "Ringo no Uta."

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Saturday, 22 April 2006 21:05 (twenty years ago)

ah great stuff. when i was in japan last summer i bought like 10 of her DVDs.

― ryan (ryan), Saturday, 22 April 2006 21:11 (twenty years ago)

She has ten DVDs? That's a bit scarey, financially.

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Saturday, 22 April 2006 21:13 (twenty years ago)

Also, I don't generally do celebrity crushes, but her skin always looks fantastic.

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Saturday, 22 April 2006 21:15 (twenty years ago)

it's way too easy to crush out on her.

http://www.everlasting-dream.net/ringo/video.htm

ryan, do you have "Hatsuiku Status" (green cover, cartoon drawing) and "Gekokujo Xtacy"? I know I want the latter, the former I'm on the fence about. The youtube excerpts from "Dynamite Out" (like the one RS linked to) make me wish I hadn't passed on it.

― milton parker (Jon L), Saturday, 22 April 2006 21:43 (twenty years ago)

(In one of the bios I read, it said that the only time she used to throw tantrums (or something like that) when she was a child was when she had nobody to play with. I immediately thought, sounds like a libra, which turned out to be the case, fwiw.)

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Saturday, 22 April 2006 22:11 (twenty years ago)

(Wait, no it didn't. She's on the other side of October, a sag. apparently. Duh.)

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Saturday, 22 April 2006 22:15 (twenty years ago)

(It's as if I am determined to completely humiliate myself on this thread.)

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Saturday, 22 April 2006 22:17 (twenty years ago)

"Sounan" started to sound like an old familiar song after a couple listens ("Wait, haven't I been hearing this all over the place? No, that's not possible"), yet I don't think I'm being reminded of anything specific. I think the melodic "logic" is so perfect, that the song immediately seems like it's always been there.

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Sunday, 23 April 2006 13:24 (twenty years ago)

The live "Ringo no Uta" from Dynamite Out ("Dynamite Out" haha) is great! (Okay, I gather it's all great.)

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Sunday, 23 April 2006 13:33 (twenty years ago)

sags are november and december!

I <3 Shoso Strip.

― RoxyMuzak© (roxymuzak), Sunday, 23 April 2006 13:49 (twenty years ago)

Now I want to go to Japan, several years after my x-friend in Japan with close ties to the Japanese underground music scene gave up on my boring ass (for which I still don't really forgive him--yo, if you are reading this, I don't think our old "friend" Allen Ginsberg was so quick to throw people away for being bogged down in their personal troubles). :(

Anyway, I could still go.

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Sunday, 23 April 2006 13:56 (twenty years ago)

The way this stuff like "Himitsu FOR DJ" slips and slides through all this urban sophisticate funky jazzy stuff that I am not really crazy about but absolutely love as its handled by Tokyo Jihen. (Sorry there's no verb there.) Sometimes it's really hilarious when you hit these ultra-smooth funk jazz disco passages (like that great little chorus section as she's getting out of the car in the video for "Himitsu For DJ"), but not funny in a way that breaks the spell of the music, not just funny.

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Sunday, 23 April 2006 14:23 (twenty years ago)

I keep thinking there are comparisons to be made to Roxy Music too, but not sure exactly how to pick that up. There's some similarity in Shiina Ringo's seemingly ambiguous relationship to glamour, half believing in it, but also seeming to see through it. (But that's not too unusual really, is it?)

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Sunday, 23 April 2006 14:25 (twenty years ago)

the whole hilarious 'sophisticated jpop' imagery works for me, it's hard not to love this

http://shiinaringo.se/pics/Tokyo%20Jihen/jihen1.jpg

― milton parker (Jon L), Monday, 24 April 2006 01:58 (twenty years ago)

That one guitar lick in "Instinct" reminds me a lot of Todd Rundgren (not that that's a good or bad thing, just an observation--probably adds some appeal for me).

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Monday, 24 April 2006 02:14 (twenty years ago)

"Sounan" (especially this live version) might be my favorite song I've heard for the first time this year. She seems to be gaining so much control in her singing (judging based on comparing older videos with newer ones), testing a more subdued sound at times (like parts of this song).

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Monday, 24 April 2006 02:22 (twenty years ago)

I find it very difficult to listen to "Sounan" less than three times in a row

― milton parker (Jon L), Monday, 24 April 2006 02:28 (twenty years ago)

Listen to it? It never stops playinig in my head now. (I still haven't ordered any CDs due to restrictions on my credit card, which I now have to formally ask my bank to lift.)

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Monday, 24 April 2006 15:38 (twenty years ago)

man i dont even know which DVDs i have. the one where she performs in a kimono is pretty great, and the Tokyo Jihen one as well. most of the rest are music videos.

ok im ordering Adult right now....

― ryan (ryan), Monday, 24 April 2006 15:50 (twenty years ago)

"Electric Mole" is the kimono one...

― ryan (ryan), Monday, 24 April 2006 15:50 (twenty years ago)

'Gibbs', dudes.

― BARMS, Monday, 24 April 2006 16:53 (twenty years ago)

That's one of my least favorite SR songs.

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Monday, 24 April 2006 16:56 (twenty years ago)

Q22: If you could be born again, what would you like to become?
A being that is perfectly lacking consciousness.

http://www.everlasting-dream.net/ringo/specials/patipati99.htm

Yes.

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Monday, 24 April 2006 22:26 (twenty years ago)

Anyway, in this Dynamite Out! performance of "Sounan," Shiina Ringo looks like she has arrived at complete master pop star status. She performs with the confidence of someone who has already taken her place on the pop Parnassus.

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Tuesday, 25 April 2006 10:26 (twenty years ago)

At the same time, based on watching videos she made over a period a few years, she seems like she is just absorbing things like a sponge all the time, like a young child going through that learning spurt we all go through. Certain things she does seem so studied and yet they also seem so natural (maybe not the first time they appear though?). Does any of this make sense? Despite her formal training in music, there's something very autodidact about her; it's obvious that she has been absorbing, and imitiating, and presumably analyzing (and in fact, it precisely the type of stuff she wouldn't have learned in her formal music education: certain popular singing devices or all sorts of aspects of moving as a performer--I hope we don't lose her to movie acting, or do I? I'd probably go see her films).

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Tuesday, 25 April 2006 10:53 (twenty years ago)

Now we will talk about JPop (Especially in the context of Anime Theme Music)

― curmudgeon (DC Steve), Tuesday, 25 April 2006 17:15 (twenty years ago)

Shiina Ringo es la reina.

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Tuesday, 25 April 2006 18:10 (twenty years ago)

I really don't do anything any but watch these videos and try to make converts. I haven't felt such a need to evangelize about an artist for a while, I think.

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Thursday, 27 April 2006 02:25 (twenty years ago)

Damn you people that make me buy $45 CDs that I enjoy

― Brakhage (brakhage), Thursday, 27 April 2006 15:45 (twenty years ago)

I'm a victim as well.

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Thursday, 27 April 2006 15:59 (twenty years ago)

The shop I bought KSK at had a huge sign saying that Copy Control CDs CANNOT BE PLAYED ON PRACTICALLY ANY AUDIO DEVICE but iTunes ripped it just fine. The DRM was just Windows autorun to prevent Windows boxes from reading the CD directly. Whatevs

― Brakhage (brakhage), Thursday, 27 April 2006 17:53 (twenty years ago)

I've gotten more play value out of my $30 copies of KZK, Shoso Strip and Adult than most of the discs I've dumped money on in the last five years

I can see the reasons why Virgin hasn't even licensed her records in the States so far -- the english speaking world has low tolerance for pop sung in a different language. When an artist or group is selling out stadiums in Japan, the motivation to start over and slog through a tour of mid-sized clubs is low. And the few times there's been a push, the results have been mixed: Puffy, Dreams Come True, Utada Hikaru (Puffy only got a second chance after their tie-in cartoon show). So why should Virgin take a chance on an iconoclast cult-figure like Shiina...

Except I think it's completely obvious that she's the one with a chance to cross over here, Jpop for people who are usually allergic to Jpop. The sheer number of english fan sites is mindblowing, all in the relative absence of any professional critical support -- everything online is unedited, self-published, and there's a lot of it. She's really got to tour the States, it would be the loudest thing that's happened over here in some time.

http://www.pliink.com/mt/marxy/archives/000346.html

― milton parker (Jon L), Thursday, 27 April 2006 19:32 (twenty years ago)

the english speaking world has low tolerance for pop sung in a different language

That's for sure (not that it's only true of us). I run into it a lot when I get excited about some new foreign language music.

I would go see her live.

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Thursday, 27 April 2006 19:41 (twenty years ago)

What do I have to buy to get the studio version of "Ringo No Uta"? Do I have to get the EP?

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Thursday, 27 April 2006 22:33 (twenty years ago)

(I realize I could just download it. I'm not talking about downloads.)

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Thursday, 27 April 2006 22:37 (twenty years ago)

shiina ringo productions = not to be fucked with, but what if I don't love her voice? it's not a bad voice, mind you, just not something that is holding me still

also, doesn't it seem odd to say ringo is the best j-pop? if anything, she shows how to subvert j-pop, and make it art-rock

― Dominique (dleone), Thursday, 27 April 2006 23:28 (twenty years ago)

Hmmm. She uses her voice so many different ways, that I'm not sure I even have a strong sense of what her voice per se sounds like. I think I like, though occasionally I don't like how she uses it.

I would agree that her voice, and also her singing, are not as unimpeachable as her songwriting (and production--if she's involved with that a lot--I don't know).

What do you think of her voice on the Tokyo Jihen Dynamite Out! version of "Sounan"? It doesn't have the littlegirlishness of some pop singers, but also she isn't doing a lot of weird effects (like on her version of "The Lady is a Tramp").

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Thursday, 27 April 2006 23:38 (twenty years ago)

well, having just d'ldd, I like the song, and she doesn't sound bad, just not necessarily compelling. maybe I should take more into account her writing or arranging or whatever she is doing here, but as a singer, she seems kind of generic to me. Maybe I'm just wanting her to be Bjork, will have to spend more time

― Dominique (dleone), Thursday, 27 April 2006 23:53 (twenty years ago)

I'm glad she's not Bjork, actually. Not too big on Bjork.

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Thursday, 27 April 2006 23:59 (twenty years ago)

How about the very Japanese sounding passages in "Kurumaya-san" when her voice kind of goes gnarled? I find that kind of sound pretty compelling. (I'm still feeling the flush of instant fandom, so I can't give up.)

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Friday, 28 April 2006 00:10 (twenty years ago)

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Got to go to a Tower Records in Tokyo and they had a huge display set up for her new album, including a little set that you could pose in and take pictures. It was beautiful.

― Zayniac (hourspass), Wednesday, 12 June 2024 18:40 (one year ago)

three months pass...

i’m staying in shinjuku rn and listening to muzai moratorium and wow her music just hits different here

― ivy., Wednesday, 9 October 2024 21:31 (one year ago)

also the recent tokyo jihen stuff is actually really good??? much prefer it to the new ringo solo record

― ivy., Friday, 11 October 2024 00:33 (one year ago)

i do love the list of collaborators on the new ringo tho, just about everyone i like in modern j-pop/rock

― ivy., Friday, 11 October 2024 00:34 (one year ago)

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