the Shiina Ringo thread

Interestingly, she comes across as more of a female Cornelius than Takako Minekawa did.

it's reassuring to hear anyone else say this, I think she's peerless.

if you've got the albums and want to start in on the DVDs, I'd recommend Baishou Ecstasy -- a 60 minute concert film where her performance in one auditorium is broadcast live by satelite to five other completely full theatres. the songs from KZK are redone as acoustic jazz cabaret songs by a 30 piece big band orchestra, and the songs just work -- she opens with an Edith Piaf cover, and like most of her concert films there's an extremely unsettling narrative twist at the end

I'm not as into the Electric Mole, which is Tokyo Jihen live at Budokan playing slicked out TJ versions of the KZK songs, though the Lynchian short film interludes are _really_ bizarre this time and there's a version of "Stem" that starts like Black Sabbath, plateaus like the Carpenters and ends exactly the same way as Sachiko M's sinewave solo on Ground-zero's Last-Concert album.

The videos are compiled on the Seiteki Healing series, volume three has the KZK clips.

http://www.everlasting-dream.net/ringo/ is my favorite fan site.

Of course, I'm not sure how much comfort it should be coming from a not very popcentric* person like me, but it might even be true (or plausible, or whatever truth-like value you prefer).

I don't own anything yet, myself, but once I've moved into my new apartment, and maybe after I wait a month or two to deal with some other necessary purchases, then I will at least pick up Adult and Karuki Zamen Kuri no Hana.

*though hopefully not anti-pop.

OK, now I am even more intrigued, although I also trust Milton's rave reviews. I was looking this stuff up on eBay the other day, seems that these CDs are reasonably available. I'll have to investigate.

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

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

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.

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

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.

I <3 Shoso Strip.

Anyway, I could still go.

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

ok im ordering Adult right now....

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

Yes.

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

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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tg8foBeQfcw

even her b-sides from early on are unreal

New TJ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OS45uTF_8P0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pG7zs-2vQY

The new single is pretty great and has Hisako Tabuchi from Number Girl on guitar!

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

omg tabuchi and ringo reunited

New Ohzora Kimishima is extremely good Shiinacore if anyone's interested

oh wow that's great. shiina's an obvious influence but there's a whole lot more going on than just that

It's great on initial listens, I've only just gotten my head around 縫層 and that was years ago

Will try that!

Does anyone know why in 2023 you can get her whole discography on Spotify/Apple Music but you still can't purchase them to own in the US