the Shiina Ringo thread

to each's own etc, though I think Ringo's strength is that she's not too much of anything, as opposed to much of the Japanese pop spectrum. (and I do like many other Japanese pop acts, too, including SMAP.)

I wouldn't say Ringo is Japan's modern day female Bowie, but her career trajectory has many parallel's to Bowie's -- in particular, the cult aspect, especially outside Japan, since much of her iconography is deeply rooted in Japan, some get sucked into the mystery of it all. But many don't, which may be why Milton, Rocket Scientist, myself, and others just end up talking to each other mostly.

There's a lot of crawl through if you starting looking to what's up with her lyric meanings, all the different images/personas she's used in her videos and in concert, and all those various releases, etc. I actually got two friends into her music this year. These guys haven't done anything like looking for biographical info, and they're not into Japanese culture at all, but they still enjoyed her stuff on the strength of the music and her energy.

i hope this isn't an annoying question: but where do most of you buy your Ringo-related stuff?

it's too hard to keep up with her new releases and telling what I have from what i dont have!

It's expensive but the Kinokuniya Books inside the Uwajimaya in Seattle keeps Ringo's stuff updated and in stock. I use my Kinokuniya card often for the discounts tho, which make a difference. But surely there are some jpop resale sites. Worst case: amazon or eBay

Does anyone know anything about a Tokyo Jihen live DVD possibly called Spa & Treatment, can't seem to find it on sale anywhere, just curios if I have my information ass-backwards.

Also there is a fantastic website called Tokyo Recohan that deals in second hand J-Pop/Pico/J-Indie/Canto/Korean etc:
The fellow Patrick who runs it if very helpful and will track down stuff for you and make pretty spot-on reccomendations.

http://www.tokyorecohan.com/

>Does anyone know anything about a Tokyo Jihen live DVD possibly called Spa & Treatment

it was a TV special, isn't on DVD, you might find it online, check upthread for reviews (between Rockist & I we cover most of the DVDs). I'd hold out for a release of [DOMESTIC! Virgin Line before Spa & Treatment but Kronekodow is great & they do a great version of "Kaban no Nakami", my favorite Variety-era TJ song

I have to keep relinking the live 'Souretsu' from DOMESTIC! because they keep taking it down:

seriously though, that Zazen Xstasy DVD, in a just world this thread would be 60 new answers of discussion on that DVD alone, it is something

That Souretsu performance is really great, though I'm so down with all the visual filters...

Is Zazen up online anywhere?

the few things they have up don't begin to hint at the best parts. JASRAC are pretty vigilant about patrolling youtube for their artists. Tsumiki Asobi, (just warming up)

I love this thread so much, it has given me such a lot of great info to chew on. Loving it all!

http://sankei.jp.msn.com/photos/entertainments/entertainers/081201/tnr0812010841005-p2.jpg

from this weekend's 10th anniversary concerts at Saitama Super Arena

http://www.japan-zone.com/news/2008/12/01/shiina_ringo_celebrates_ten_years.shtml

Vegas Level

incredible

still kickin' it

a review of the new 6DVD box of her solo albums (in spanish, but with pictures)

http://eiko-moogles.livejournal.com/11806.html

Are these just DVDs for the audio remastering of the albums then? Or there's new video content or both?

I couldn't tell if those snapshots were just intro bits, or things that last for the entirety of each album.

96kHz / 24 bit remasters of the albums, introduced briefly by Ringo & then the songs are accompanied by abstract visuals.

the box is already sold out online, the copies in the stores are the last copies available. I already own every note, this is a new high in pointless temptation

Isn't it about time for a new Jihen album? I've heard no news of what's going on with them. Enough with these 10-year anniversary releases.

It was 18 months between the last two releases, so if there was one this spring it would make sense - but she's been busy with the solo shows and 10th anniversary stuff, I wouldn't be surprised if it took longer. Especially if she went back to writing most of the band's material.

(Man she's never gonna stick to a single English spelling of her name, is she?)

not too crazy about this but just so I can find it again in a few months, here's the song Shiina wrote for Puffy

PUFFY - 日和姫

she's mixing and matching from her old singles, it's almost maddening how at any one moment you can almost hear which of her songs she's directly referencing before she diverts to another. which is what Puffy always does, one referential song in each genre per album, only this time they commissioned the actual person to write the song for them instead of assembling a Beatles / ELO / Avril / rollerdisco / grunge pastiche... even the video is faux-Shiina.

I guess a collaboration was inevitable, and this is exactly what I thought it'd be like... more downtime

I'd like this if she were singing it herself. In hindsight this really underlines what she brought to 'Variety' -- other people's songs sound like hers if she's the one singing them.

just noticed frecklegirl updated her site with translations for Shiina's lyrics for Variety and they're pretty good. I think I prefer her hyper-literal, blocky translations, they're awkward to read but they seem more accurate to the concepts than some other people's attempts to force the lyrics to flow in the same way the originals do

Pretty spot on, Milton. (it really is a faux-Shiina video!) I am a little more annoyed because it sounds so obviously like a Shiina "remix", but it's really not suited for Puffy's singing style at all, while the aforementioned ELO/Beatles clones and such generally have. Compare that to Amagasa that she wrote for TOKIO:

Their vocal style suits this Killer-tune clone much better. Then again it's kind of weird, since she didn't compose Killer-tune in the first place... I wonder if her bandmate is okay with that!

Frecklegirl's translations are definitely preferable to the other stuff I've seen out there...

This is just a preference with me, I expect to be alone with it, etc. but I try to avoid english translations of the lyrics of Ringo songs.

I don't mind translations for the song titles, only for reference sake in conversation. But with Ringo, as opposed to other Japanese pop/rock artists, she's made the Japanese in her work a scavenger hunt even for more interested scholars in Japan, whereas almost any other Japanese artist hands you the English version, or names half their songs using the English/Roman alphabet. (Variety seems to be more a little more inclusive with English for the first time in forever, though, hmmm)

I've always wanted to learn Japanese, but Ringo has kinda forced to start learning parts of it on my own, so I don't really want to be given the meanings/translations of the lyrics, because it distracts me from my MISSION. (heh heh)

while i've now heard, played repeatedly and absorbed a lot of shiina ringo's material, i always feel behind the pace when i consult this thread, because i'm not quite at the point where i can effectively follow what she's doing in the present. for instance, i'm still playing KZK and adult fairly regularly, and not yet feeling compelled to move on. KZK is somehow an inherently steamy record. i think the power of the vocals on this one lie in their subtlety and the little nuances in the delivery that really get under your skin. and then of course the musical arrangements and production are really something to behold.

i'm still playing KZK and adult fairly regularly

These are the albums I go back to the most.

yeah, and i mean those two had much less immediacy, i thought when compared to much of her other stuff. i even had trouble telling some of the tracks apart for a while - took me some really involved listening and an ear for detail to appreciate the greatness of them.

Actually, Adult was pretty immediate for me. KZK took a little longer.

In the library, listening to some Tokyo Jihen playlists on headphones, from youtube no less, and I continue to be impressed with how well-constructed a lot of this music is. Noticing new details here and there thanks to the headphones. Variety may be a flawed album, but extract a lot of the tracks, re-arrange them with some others, and they are pretty amazing. Also, say, the EP version of "Shuraba" is different enough from the album version to win them some more credit.

Adult - solid album, non-album tracks on EPs felt like leftovers
Variety - scattered album, some of the best tracks saved for b-sides & a non-album single.

review of 10th anniversary show while waiting for the DVD - http://www.jame-world.com/uk/article.php?id=6761

some good reviews here - http://www.jrawk.com/Content/etc/features/recommended-20-2008.html

I only just picked out the name "Pinocchio" in the words to that song, just now, listening with headphones, even though I've heard the songs dozens of time. (I guess my brain just normally turns off word parsing figuring it's all in Japanese anyway.)

RINGO EXPO 08 01 - I like how the video screen just stays zoomed in on the cobwebbed antlers instead of her face
RINGO EXPO 08 02
RINGO EXPO 08 03 - this version of 'gamble', straight to your grandma
RINGO EXPO 08 04

seems like one to pass on. spectacular like Vegas. instead of weird new arrangements of her hits, these versions are clones of the studio records, and Saito's orchestral arrangements are much more anonymous than his big band arrangements. kind of glad this endless 10th anniversary year is over.

this DVD w/ Saito's big band, much much better

Shiina Ringo's new single・'be superfluous wealth',
2009 May 27 release date TOCT-40255 / ￥ 1,000 (tax included)
Friday ★ TBS drama series "Smile" theme song

Does that mean a new solo record is coming out?

Does that mean a new solo record is coming out?

http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/detailview.html?KEY=TOCT-26840

Nice!!!

Are you sure this is going to be new recordings, and preferably new songs, or is it possible this is another repackaging thing?

1. 流行 ryuukou / vogue
2. 労働者 roudousha / the laborer
3. 密偵物語 mittei monogatari / a spy's tale
4. ○地点から maru chiten kara / from point O
5. カリソメ乙女 karisome otome (death jazz version) / temporary virgin DEATH JAZZ version
6. 都合の好い身体　 tsugou no ii karada / a profitable body
7. 旬 shun / season
8. 二人ぼっち時間 futari bocchi jikan / time for the two of us
9. マヤカシ優男 mayakashi yasaotoko / the phony gentleman
10. 尖った手口 togatta teguchi / sharpened tricks
11. 色恋沙汰 irokoizata / love affair
12. 凡才肌 bonsai hada / mediocre skin
13. 余興 yokyou / sideshow

bonus
14. 丸の内サディスティック (EXPO Ver.) / marunouchi sadistic (EXPO Ver.)

(translations courtesy of kuro_neko, shoutouts to all at electric mole -- the thread on this release is already 11 pages long)

Shit, I need to re-register over there.

they're not saying much, half of them already have their knives out. the loudest, most active posters aren't really Jihen fans, they wish she stayed in 2000-2003, so the forum is usually too tough a read for me.

her symmetrical song titles are particularly locked in and conceptually mirrored this time around. I am not anything but psyched for this.

from point O <> sharpened tricks

emoticon

most active posters aren't really Jihen fans, they wish she stayed in 2000-2003, so the forum is usually too tough a read for me.

Oh yeah, I've read enough to gather that. (Except I thought there was a lot of love for the original Tokyo Jihen lineup.

(At least as manifested in live recordings.)

I have to admit I was a tad disappointed by her last "solo" album but still got major love for everything she's done, recent Jihen included.

yeah they liked Hirama. his noise guitar solos & stage energy was the one thing in the band that bridged the new cabaret direction of Jihen with her older rock albums, and when she axed him in favor of Uki's fusion guitar and Jihen went full on classical jazz-pop... you seldom see fans that outraged, they really felt betrayed. But that's where the band was going the whole time, Hirama already seemed kind of anachronistic on that first record

I think Jihen Phase 2 made better albums, but Phase 1 live circa Dynamite Out DVD = the force

xpost
the DVDs that show the big band playing Saito's arrangements live are amazing -- you can sort of see why she said OK to doing an album of polished studio versions, but as a studio album it sounds like too much of a retread. But the Dai Ikkai Ringohan Taikai no Moyo DVD >>> Heisei Fuuzoku CD

I wish "Karisome Otome (DEATH JAZZ ver.)" weren't on this, because (a) I don't like it much and (b) it's a rehash. Maybe a studio version will be better than the crazy Japanese TV show live version.

i prefer tokyo jihen phase ii and cannot wait for this

I really liked the Death Jazz version over the one that went on the album, myself. Plus it was a digital only single, so I can understand why that did this rehash (though yeah I would probably prefer a new track over it, too).

Anyone know what happened to the Freckle site? It seems to be down.

This is okay on first listen. Okay, not more than that for now.

(And is it or isn't it on the new album? Does anyone here know?)

However, perhaps feminist forcefulness is what mainstream Japanese pop needs. Strong female acts like Shiina Ringo and Yuki have enjoyed huge commercial success and represent a more substantial appreciation of womanhood by Japan's pop-loving masses. What's clear is that, with female-fronted bands continuing to reign supreme, Japan's gender roles are slowly changing.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/may/05/turning-japanese-rock-chick

I hope her name isn't going to become so widely mentioned in the English language music press that I won't be able to complain about the lack of mentions any more.

I agree, it's just okay. Surprising choice, pretty low-key song (and video as well, no Ringo in it at all).

single is not on the album (happily) -- it's the theme song to a new japanese prime time soap opera / drama show called 'smile' which is primed to be a huge hit. the song did grow on me a bit, I like how the last three minutes of the song are basically one long guitar solo that starts out george harrison and then gradually turns david gilmour (a user on EM noted that the video's basically a reference to the pink floyd collage at the end of Zabriskie Point)

album cover art up: http://www.hmv.co.jp/product/detail/3586298

we knew the b-side would be weirder

'superficial gossip' (non-album title track b-side)

we knew the b-side would be weirder

I thought I saw her showing off her scars on one of those Japanese interview shows posted on youtube recently, so that makes more sense now.

And the single is. . . hmmm. I can live with this, but don't have any strong reaction, except I kind of like it best at the end when it's more instrumental. Sounds very international pop if you know what I mean.

Yeah, I kind of follow you there, with the style of that track. I like the B-side, though... and the back image, and how the barcode is just slightly placed underneath the fingertip in that image. That back scar is a provocative image, but I wonder if there's any meaning to it or if it was just time to get around to using it. Thanks for the info, Milton.