the Shiina Ringo thread

This S&P song makes me think: she really is no jazz singer.

I find it really hard to care about that song at all.

Listening to "Frustration" for the first time right now, and I like it so far. Haha, oh the guys doing the chorus thing is pretty good. Her singing here reminds me of Shouso Strip for better or worse.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zNHE6LGZ9o

I could be happy with an album that sounds approximately like these two songs, I think.

Her singing here reminds me of Shouso Strip

As the song progresses, not immediately.

On the other hand, the drumming (or maybe the rhythm section in general) is very TJ and reminds me a bit of "Killer Tune" in the faux Latin section (at least that's how I'm naming it at the moment).

I think this will surprise some of you. It's definitely not more smooth jazz funk glamor pop.

Maybe this will be the western crossover album haha. . . Probably never going to happen unless they actually market it here.

And actually, there's a lot of very interesting discussion (including translations of some sort of SR or TJ interview) relating to what they are up to now. Guess I am going to move over there in a moment.

new song is hilariously good and hey wow big surprise I totally love '3 minutes' now

Yeah, good stuff.

Definitely go check out the interview article kuro_neko translated. There's some good stuff in it about TJ's creative process, with SR being almost Ra-esque in the exercises she comes up with for the band.

Could you point me to that?

It's part of this thread here:

http://forums.electricmole.net/showthread.php?p=65240#post65240

It looks like some of the info. is from liner notes (from the single?) and some is from some sort of interview.

Starts with Post #563.

thanks!

Probably I am going way overboard with the Ra comparison (trying to link two favorite artists), now that I re-read those posts.

I'm not sure exactly what I think of this new song, but I keep wanting to hear it over and over again.

Does anyone know where else I can stream the new song? The youtube video is down and I can't find the imeem site I was just listening to last night. Maybe they got sick of me playing the song over and over again. Or if anyone wants to send me a link for a download. . . (I do definitely expect to buy the album, but I'll probably skip buying the EP.)

Up again:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAZZ6NbDmRs

Oh my god, I love this song!

amazing how similar the japanse phonetic word for semen is to its english equivalent!

I've never really thought about it, oddly enough. I assume it's a borrowing.

Am listening to Muzai Moratorium for the first time in a while and it's sounding really good. Funny how it sounds like the sort of album everybody obviously would know about it--except it's not. Flew right under the radar outside Japan (and maybe a couple other Asian countries).

Except I'm not listening to Muzai Moratorium, I'm listening to Shouso Strip, and I've done this before haven't I? I just woke up.

That's why it sounded good!

That's unfair. Muzai Moratorium is all right, I just don't forgive how butchered "Koufukuran" is on that record. Also I don't forgive "Koko de Kisu shite" for its inane existence.

I have to admit I cringe when "Koko de Kisu Shite" comes on.

Cringe and generally skip to the next track.

Maybe they should reissue that album with a bonus deletion.

I'LL NEVER BE ABLE TO GIVE UP ON YOU, SO NEVER SAY GOODBYE AND KISS ME ONCE AGAAAAIN.

I sort of find it fascinating because everyone I've ever talked to that song about has talked about her Alanis worship. Which is visible, it's just made much worse by its filtering through J-pop traditions of the time and those awful "Eastern"-approximating strings. And lyrically it's so much less tolerable than her Kurt and Courtney aside on "Gips." Which has a chorus that is a monster that has remnants of me in its teeth, so, you know, talk about Kurt and Courtney all you want Shiina Ringo, just break me down with your song.

I'LL NEVER BE ABLE TO GIVE UP ON YOU, SO NEVER SAY GOODBYE AND KISS ME ONCE AGAAAAIN.

Belt it, girl!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgVZ9a1R0QM

Just wanted to post the "Koufukuran" video, because it marked a shift for me, removed me from the pose of "I am fine with just Karuki Samen and Tokyo Jihen's Kyoiku because they are weird and beautiful and that is what I want from Shiina Ringo." I watched this out of curiosity toward her initial singles, and discovered that it isn't weird and beautiful, but it's an incredible pop song (I had to hold back from saying "perfect").

One week later I had secured every goddamn thing she had ever released to my iTunes library.

I like both versions of "Koufukuran," but thanks for reminding me of the video (EP?) version, because I hadn't heard it for a while. As for weirdness, the video is at least a bit weird. I'm pretty sure this was one of the huge batch of videos I watched back in the spring of 2006 that immediately hooked me in to Shiina Ringo and Tokyo Jihen.

Yeah, big ups to Youtube, without which I would not be a Ringo fan myself. Think I was searching Zazen Boys videos when Tokyo Jihen's "Himitsu" came up. I heard it and spoke only in "holy fuck"s for the next few days.

yeah the videos are key to the shiina love!

TS: Aozora (b-side) vs. Aozora (etsuraku hen, live)

Is there a DVD available of all the promos?

not all on one -- the Watashi No Hatsuden DVD has the PVs for all the singles, but it lacks a lot of my favorite clips like 'Tsumiki Asobi', 'Meisai', 'Identity', 'Sigma'. Each of her 4 albums' clips are compiled on the Sekitai Healing Vol 1-4 DVDs. But I'd say money's better spent on the live DVDs first, like 'Dynamite Out'. Endless blather about most of the DVDs upthread.

http://www.yesasia.com/global/watashi-no-hatsuden-hong-kong-version/1011222206-0-0-0-en/info.html

Official title : スポーツ (Sports)
Out February 24, 2010

・生きる to live ikiru
・電波通信 radio transmission denpa tsuushin
・シーズンサヨナラ sayonara season shiizon sayonara
・勝ち戦 victory kachiikusa
・F.O.U.L
・能動的三分間 an active 3min (official=3min) noudoutekisanpunkan
・F.A.I.R
・乗り気 eagerness noriki
・スイートスポット sweet spot suiito supotto
・閃光少女 flashing girl senkou shoujo
・極まる the end kiwamaru
ほか全13曲

translated by kuro_neko, from electric mole forums

Shiina Ringo became famous in the late 1990s as a relatively talented singer-songwriter, but for her third album, she self-produced what is absolutey the most avant-garde, most conceptual, most confrontational and most well-considered album that has ever been released under the J-Pop rubric. Unfortunately, however, her teenybopper fans did not understand the musical and lyrical complexity, and the indie scene refused to believe that such a mainstream singer could offer something truly innovative. The album ultimately fell through the pop cultural cracks but certainly marks the high-water mark for the entire enterprise of Japanese mass market music.

http://www.cnngo.com/tokyo/play/6-most-underrated-japanese-albums-00s-702098#ixzz0afFFD6QS

nice! i always meant to listen to that shugo tokumaru album too

I was unfamiliar with this Macdonald Duck Eclair band, but that one track sounds prety interesting, so I'm checking through all the videos he links to. (I want to check out the related review of the best recent Thai bands.)

i had to laugh that the only video he could find was an Audiosurf playthrough

http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/pictures/m/00/19/TOCT-26940.jpg

has leaked and is now quite easy to find.

thx d00d.

Don't want to influence anyone overly much, but I find this album really disappointing.

ha ha 'Sweet Spot' oh my goodness

I hope that means you agree that song is awful.

her most awkward english language song EVER

time will tell but there are way too many fantastic songs on this for me to feel disappointed

though yeah definitely ever closer to straight-up J-pop -- not even the passing token 'weird' production moments that felt thrown in on Superficial Gossip

two weeks ago on a long van trip my friend Martin did a really cruel but probably pitch accurate impression of me from a few years ago when we watched the Electric Mole DVD that he & D. had brought back for me from Japan: 'She's really weird! She's really really weird! Well ok this part's kinda normal but wait here comes the really weird part' (mimics utterly pedestrian kawaii vocals, then rolls his eyes)

I'm losing the faith rapidly.

ok i'll unbookmark this until i get a chance to listen