the Shiina Ringo thread

Did you travel outside of your body during Souretsu (the last song)?

all right so now you need to either seize Shouso Strip (which is basically about as weird but with a few more hat-tips to J-Pop ("Gips," "Honnou")) or Tokyo Jihen's Kyoiku (which is kind of completely fucking unhinged, uh, "rock")

during the last song I kinda merged with the cosmos, like

then you understood the lyrics! http://www.nostalgic-lavender.net/ringo/kalksamen.html

new TJ song is clearly supposed to be boring, the video is going to lengths to depict them as bored by their own music, all is going according to plan

this morning's youtube break is Meisai!

studio PV
live (Baishou Ecstasy version)

Haha, oh god no, not more of this mediocre show-tune stuff:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RTb_QJhpO0

Hata arrested! Hit a police officer after being arrested on suspicion of breaking into a house. I thought this was a joke at first, but it sounds like it's for real. How bizarre.

http://forums.electricmole.net/showthread.php?t=1610

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110212p2a00m0na008000c.html
http://www.tokyograph.com/news/id-7441

I listened to Sanmon Gossip for the first time in a while today and while uneven and choked with floral arrangements, it's pretty great overall, particularly when it allows itself to get lost ("Togatta Teguchi," "Bonsai Hada").

I have no intention of revisiting Sports, meanwhile, but I intend to see if Variety is still boring.

Sanmon Gossip and Variety both have some good-to-decent tracks, but I find them both uneven and unsatisfactory overall.

goddamnit kameda why you gotta write this rote j-pop ballad and make it track 4

way to kill the momentum

re: "Fukushuu"

why you gotta try to make this a dir en grey record, ukigumo.

Okay, so whenever I think of this record, I think, how can it be bad? The singles are incredible!

And then I remember that there's a track on this record with Ukigumo shouting.

fuuuuck "killer tune" is still so, so great

izawa definitely comes off as the best non-shiina writer in this band.

Eh, I can't agree with that. I haven't kept close track, but I think they're fairly closely matched.

this is probably posted elsewhere in this increasingly untenable thread, but if tokyo jihen mk 1 had stuck around to record adult:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PY4VfDvHvZc

It's good, but I actually prefer the Adult version (and also think Adult is better than the debut).

oh yeah and then there's this infinitely superior version of tomei ningen

Chiaki Kuriyama/Shiina Ringo collaboration (SR wrote and produced and TJ are performing, if I understand correctly):

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

The Shiina Ringo thread where we are still embedded youtube whores.

Even when there's nothing to see.

Hirama working on a new project:

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fm20110204a1.html

New album soon?

Soon. End of the month, I think.

http://sadisticgossip.blogspot.com/2011/05/tokyo-jihen-phase-3.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWEC6QMgWCs

Don't like the video, not sure about the song. Maybe they will progress into being a really good ultra-commercial rock band.

I don't hate it.

She appears to be singing in English but I am not sure of most of what she's singing, but at least her English isn't annoying here. Better to be incomprehensible (like plenty of English language songs by singers whose first language is English).

It does sound like Tokyo Jihen, but how many times can I make that mostly pointless comment?

I like the video a bit more now that I've actually watched all of it. The slow-mo ending is my favorite part though. I still am not too impressed with it.

so, so boring.

dammit.

I don't get what they're going for in that video

I haven't been keeping up with Electric Mole, so it turns out there is more of this album on youtube already. (In fact, for all I know it might have leaked by now. I haven't gotten to the end of the thread.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozt6SPBZQ0U

Just wanted to thank you guys for bumping this thread so many times over the years that it got me to finally check out Karuki Zamen Kuri no Hana earlier this year. Loved it, and picked up a copy while in Japan this month. I also checked out ADULT and didn't like it as much, but I'll probably make my way through her/their other stuff and see if anything else grabs me.

http://motto-jimidane.com/jlab-maru/s/maru1309196052906.jpg

'Brand New Civilization' is one of my favorite Jihen singles in forever. loved it the first time I heard it too.

the last two singles really had me scared but this has me psyched for the album (even if it's got all the songs from those singles strewn through it)

Crazy fan boy.

really like that new song.

I actually wondered what Milton would have to say about the song, so Milton, I'd be interested in your impressions. I don't mind the song, but I don't think it's too good or special either.

well it's the same old self-questioning thing, would I have listened twice to things like 'kono yo no kagiri' & 'killer tune' & 'metro' if they hadn't come from the person who gave us KZK. even the most ridiculously twee songs work for me because, coming from her, you can hear the darker undercurrents. so even though Jihen albums seem less cohesive now than they used to, each one still has a few songs that I find to be more than just pop songs, they're really emotional for me.

frecklegirl's lyrics site help with this. when the happiest disco song on Sports turned out to be named 'Absolute Despair', things like that keep me a fan boy

I feel like if I had just been more psychic, I could have bumped into Shiina Ringo while she was in New Mexico:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6VREu3vjIg

On first listen (in progress), enjoying the new album more than I expected. I have a feeling I will end up liking this one more than Sports.

it's great and it's normal, time will tell

so many english songs this time! 'Dreadful Adults' is so great

"Rejoice and be glad"

I don't think I'd say great, but we'll see.

I definitely like it more than Variety or Sports, already, but that's not saying much.

"Dreadful Adults," great? Really? Shiina Ringo's vocals seem really weak there, although the band sounds great at time. It's a nice smooth Adult style sound, but a bit throw away, I'd say.

& oh jesus these generic show-tunes. Aaaaaaagh. How did we get here? My favorite consistently disappointing band.