the Shiina Ringo thread

Maybe I should have added a PayPal button to that post. Help me buy things I don't really need.

I'm slowly working my way through Clammbon's back catalogue via CD Japan right now which is kinda costly, so I don't think I will be purchasing, maybe the DVD.

■Disc8特典ＣＤ「Recovery Disc」
01 天国へようこそ Tokyo Bay Ver.
02 ドーパミント！
03 put your camera down
04 秘密 FOR DJ
05 恋は幻 FOR MUSICIAN
06 黄昏泣き FOR MOTHER
07 修羅場（single）
08 車屋さん
09 BON VOYAGE

http://www.emimusic.jp/tokyojihen/disco/

Most of the songs of the 8th disc are the alt mixes from vinyl or the DVD only songs, so only new to CD. One of them is 'kuramayasan', at least, but for $230 you're getting one new track

Is there anything definite about a solo Shiina Ringo album release this year, as far as you know?

Recording Industry Association of Japan, you bunch of short-sighted morons.

There's a new single coming out, I got a mail from CD Japsn

Cool. I haven't been checking EMF too much lately.

The 2:45 point in "Souretsu" still slays me most of the time. One of my favorite musical moments from he last decade or so.

Ringo Shiina - Irohanihoheto / Kodoku no Akatsuki

c/p from CD JP and put through Google.

1 year and 2 months from the dissolution of Tokyo Incidents February 2012. 15th anniversary and debut full than Shiina Ringo, large tie-up has been determined for both the release! Single bullet first two songs solo career on May 27 memorable!

Um.. yay!

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNTUwNDExNDQ0.html

It's okay.

Preview of other song with lots of annoying radio announcer chatter (though it sounds pretty weak anyway):

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNTUwNDExODk2.html

Irohanihoheto, the first one linked to in full above, sounds like the kind of thing she can probably knock off pretty easily at this point.

It has a real video, and it's pretty nice:

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

Really diggin this.

Makes me want to learn Japanese. I love her for doing this sort of thing, among other reasons, especially since she can do it and still write good music.

http://www.yam-mag.com/news/music-videos/shiina-ringo-irohanihoheto/

With Japan never uploading things I like from them, and the main culprit being Sony, I guess I had to come around and post Shiina Ringo’s latest single (just after the disbandment of Tokyo Jihen).

Titled Irohanihoheto (いろはにほへと) — the incomprehensible title for those with a less moderate use of the Japanese language and culture — refers to a pretty old Japanese poem that dates back a thousand years that uses every single letter of the Japanese alphabet just once, and still makes sense. It still makes sense- how is that possible?

The poem known as Iroha (いろは) talks about the concepts of Buddhism such as the unpredictability of life, and the ever-changing nature of things [1], with a first verse that gives Ringo her title. So could I translate the title to “Colors Will Fall” or maybe “Colors Will Fade“?

A flower in full bloom with beautiful colors will fall off some day.
We living in this world also cannot live forever.
Surmount this mutable and changeable deep mountain of waver now,
And reach the world of enlightenment.
You will be in a quiet state of mind without having an empty dream
Or being drunk with the illusory world of phenomena.

The music video was directed by Yuichi Kodama (児玉裕一) who had previously directed Ringo and Tokyo Jihen, as well as Perfume, Salyu, Polysics, Mr. Children and Namie Amuero. . . .

Irohanihoheto serves as the main theme for the FujiTV drama Bitter Sweet Home Kyoto (鴨、京都へ行く. -老舗旅館の女将日記-), and will be officially released as a single on May 27th (hopefully will show up on time on iTunes) alongside Dawn of Loneliness (孤独のあかつき, Kodoku no Akatsuki).

Here's the other A-side https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNwh1hWYlPY

I was just thinking yesterday that I should try to track down the other song but also that I'd run into it sooner or later anyway.

Beginning of the song makes me think of Boz Scaggs's "We're All Alone." FWIW. Probably nothing, since overall the song sounds nothing like Boz Scaggs.

Pretty entertaining (old):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRd1HY-czCY

finally got around to watching that Irohanihoheto video; her videos are always fun to watch

This was posted on EMF. It's some sort of auditory study of just a portion of "Souretsu," looping it and layering it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6ARnSAH9lY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9qjVCi0ID4

So I assume this is new? I've never heard it before. I like when the vocals get slightly more normal.

Just because y'all are Japanese Shiina and Towa Tei doesn't mean you have to. . .

Not that I don't kind of like it.

Some great peformances here (nothing new, but I've never seen the whole thing in one spot, and I assume it won't last):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cha3piAOtgs

Would probably recommend the unconverted start with the third or fourth song.

Uber-prog soloing break

Strange compilation coming out consisting of collabs and one new track.

http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/detailview.html?KEY=TYCT-69005&utm_source=MAIL&utm_medium=html&utm_content=130917-TYCT-69005&utm_campaign=jpop

I guess I can see the reasoning, I recognize a couple of the tracks on there. She's done a million collabs, it feels like.

I had a dream about a TV segment about Shiina Ringo visiting rescued/abandoned dogs (presumably in shelters) to cheer them up and publicize their plight. Unfortunately I don't remember actually seeing her in any of the shots. It was just that I knew that's what the report was about.

Sorry this is not album news.

Was talking to someone I know a few days ago about her dog sitting for a dog that has a scar on her head as a result of a rattlesnake bite.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o16rgGTZq9s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Trw9ZGhDKDQ

Okay, kind of missing Tokyo Jihen at this point.

the new collaborations comp "Ukina" is a tough listen. the older songs that I'm only hearing now are on the generic side, no flow from track to track. the three with Soil & "Pimp" Sessions are the best, two of them from their album "6", where they made sense (they're such a good band)

that first video, "J'ai trouve l'amour", is Nakata's song for her; I'm a pretty big Perfume & a selective Capsule/Kyary fan, so it's a double let-down for me. been thinking a bit about how sometimes, when strong personalities collaborate, they politely meet in the middle. "It Was You" was written specifically for Shiina by Burt Bacharach and once you know that, it's a grower.

haven't listened to the live comp 'Mitsugetsu Shou' yet, track selection is promising, if it works as an album I'll probably spring for a copy

To Taikai Heisei Nijyugo Nendo Kamiyama-Cho Taikai [w/ Bonus CD, Limited Edition]

Live Blu-ray from Ringo Shiina includes her 15th anniversary concert at Shibuya Orchard Hall on November 26, 2013. She performed 23 songs including an unreleased song "Ima" and self covers. Comes with a bonus CD including five live tracks (subject to change) from the concert on November 25, 2013.

new album news (sort of):

http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/TYCT-60035

http://i.imgur.com/TGzZVyG.jpg

Gyakuyunyu - Kowankyoku: Self-cover album from Ringo Shiina includes songs she previously provided to popular artists in Japan such as PUFFY, Chiaki Kuriyama, and SMAP from 1998 to the present. Contains a total of 11 songs with new arrangements.

More news, album in Nov.

http://sadisticgossip.blogspot.co.uk/

more than half of this is drawn from the last five years worth of non-album singles. some of which I did like, and hats off to her astounding work ethic slamming out at least one new CD and one new DVD a year, but the 'albums' really are seeming more and more cobbled together.

I tried twice with 'Gyakuyunyu - Kowankyoku'. Otomo Yoshihide's jazz orchestra arrangement of her song for Puffy is pretty great, and Otomo's noise guitar solo even gets soloed in the mix for about 1.5 seconds. That collaboration would have blown my mind 10 years ago, but given how high Otomo's star has risen in mainstream Japan since writing that jazzy theme for a hit daily radio show, this ends up being the least surprising track on the record. much of the production on the other tracks is trying way too hard.

all that said, still a diehard, ready to listen to anything she puts out

http://loud.cl/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/aramajapan_news_xlarge_sheenaringo_art20140919-564x570.jpg

best artist and most beautiful person on earth

well, at least when her hair is off, you know it'll be different by next year

still need to give Gyakuyunyu - Kowankyoku a few more listens

http://www.sharkenterprises.biz/accordion/dixiechicken.jpg

Pretty good salsa cover of Marunouchi Sadistic by a band out of Bogota, Colombia:

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

Will be back to say more about the new album at some point. Basically it's a mess with more tracks I like than don't like, but not something I have a desire to listen to straight through. I very much like the new jazzy tracks: Shizuka Naru Gyakushuu, Hashire wa Number, Sekidou wo Koetara, and Ima.

cool video! laudable effort, though the singer has a tough comparison
it's no Boys II Men style cover, but what can you do

For those who are interested but haven't yet heard the new album:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cfq8LRqmB-w

(I imagine this will get yanked pretty quickly though.)

Actually, looks like the whole album is up there now.

More not-her-best, but not bad:

https://vk.com/video-9089995_171354843

she's middling now, but has there been any act out of asia since YMO as great and essential as shiina ringo? she's got one of the all-time classic rock/pop albums to her name, and imo rounding up the best of her other stuff puts her on a level far above bjork, beck, or any other such artist who might be considered a peer/analog

No argument here (although I wouldn't feel comfortable make sweeping claims about all of Asia). She is still capable of something like this from just a few years back.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0ML7SdxI_c

For that matter, I thought some of the new songs on her album last year were quite good.

Part of the problem is that she has embraced her own institutionalization so enthusiastically, with all of these often self-parodic performances celebrating her own career. I'm not sure what to make of all of that, although perhaps she's always been laughing up her sleeve at her various stage personae.