the Shiina Ringo thread

'genjitsu wo warau' is phenomenal. wow

It's a good song, but her singing in English doesn't work for me on that one (including any live versions I've heard).

well it's got bizarre phrasing in the verses. i can deal with that. it's a pretty unflashy vocal performance overall by her standards. but yeah, the song is great.

So what's the difference between these "Dynamite Out/In" DVD's? The CDjapan descriptions are kind of vague, I know the region codes are different. Are they the same show??

Genjitsu wo warau is great! As is Kyoiku.

Dynamite Out is much better (based on what I've seen of each on youtube, which is quite a bit by now).

I had no idea that Ahito Inazawa from Number Girl played drums on "Meisai" and "Ishiki", two of my favorite tracks from KZK.
He also comes out in the video, but it looks like it's not on Youtube anymore.

Oh, so it's two different shows.
I wonder why they did that. Released one on region "2" and the other with region code "all".

Dynamite In isn't a different show, it's just out-takes, rehearsal and backstage footage from the Dynamite Out Tour.

Not the sort of the thing you'll want to watch more than once, really.

Oh wow, it's got all that, except the actual show. hahaha

I don't hate Kyouiku, but I am more and more convinced that Adult is a million times better.

Sorry, I bet some of you were expecting real news. Isn't it time for a new Tokyo Jihen single?

hahahah
well as long as this thread keeps tiding over

It's time for the Spa & Treatment DVD....

headlining two nights of rising sun festival, first night jihen, final night solo shiina: http://rsr.wess.co.jp/2008/artists/lineup/index.html

& beyond

http://kronekodow.com/img_index/2008.jpg

That's pretty genius.

There's a band on that lineup called Ogre You Asshole.

OGRE YOU ASSHOLE

i love the verse of 'superstar'. adult has taken ages to grow on me properly. but creep up it has

i wonder if i am the only one who has found a new desktop picture!

http://jpopkpop.net/?itemid=471

Ten years after debuting in the Japanese music industry, rocker Shiina Ringo is to release her first BEST album. Titled Watashi to Houden, the album will be released on July 2 and will contain all of her singles as well as B-sides and album tracks over two discs.

On the same day, she will be releasing her fourth PV collection, titled Watashi no Hatsuden. It'll include all of her PV's as well as a new one, MELLOW.

I own 8 of those 10 singles. in many cases I like the b-sides better than the singles. towards the end her singles were conceived more as 3 track standalone EPs, especially the last four which shared no material at all with the albums they ostensibly supported, so it'll be interesting to see the track sequencing

'Watashi to Houden' 2CD b-side compilation

http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/1913/srcdfd3.jpg

'Watashi no Hatsuden' DVD solo video compilation

http://img117.imageshack.us/img117/6010/srdvdwl8.jpg

http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/3823/srpsvw4.jpg

english tracklisting posted by Maou @ EM

CD1
1. Suberidai
2. Unconditional Love
3. Remote Controller
4. Memai
5. Rinne Highlight
6. Aozora
7. Toki ga Bousou Suru
8. Sigma
9. Tokyo no Onna
10. 17
11. Kimi no Me ni Koishiteru

CD2
1. Mellow
2. Fukou Jiman
3. So Cold
4. Aisaka no Choushoku
5. Sid to Hakuchuumu
6. Ishiki ~Sango saidai kyou no boufuuu kennai kashou~
7. Meisai ~Sango saidai kyou no boufuuu kennai kashou~
8. la salle de bain
9. Karisome Otome
10. Sakuran
11. Ichijiku no hana

DVD
1. Koufukuron
2. Kabukichou no Joou
3. Kokode Kiss Shite
4. Honnou
5. Gibs
6. Tsumi to Batsu
7. Yattsuke Shigoto
8. Mayonaka wa Junketsu
9. Kuki
10. Ringo no Uta
11. Kono yo no Kagiri
12. Mellow (New Retake)

Very nice cover art on the CD!

That's quite a lineup on the Rising Sun festival.
Mukai from Zazen Boys HAS to bring out Ringo to do "Kimochi".

well that's a straight-up b-sides-only compilation, except they left off 'Ringo Catalogue' for some reason, which is her very best b-side. Disc one is all the b-sides from the first two albums, pretty straightforward songs with occasionally strange production, disc two is all over the map, those weren't leftovers those were distinct EPs and it's weird to splice out just the b-sides, but... good songs. I was sort of hoping they'd include non-album a-sides, but I guess the idea is that the DVD is the 'singles comp'.

so that means they've left off the videos for non-singles like 'Identity', 'Sigma' & 'Meisai'. and there's no 'Tsumiki Asobi' (my favorite song / video from her first album). even though this new DVD is twice as long as any of the earlier Seiteki Healing video compilations, I'd easily recommend Seiteki 3 or Seiteki 2 quality-wise over this new one, and even then only for superfans, you can't expect the videos to be up to the standard of the albums

a new reissue of Karuki Zamen Kuri No Hana is coming out the same day. it wasn't out of print, but maybe it'll give people in the US an excuse to review it

I wonder what the deal is with her redoing stuff from Zeccho Shuu... Mellow? That Gamble remake was damn nice, though.

Not surprising that they seem to have left out that cool little live street performance from the Kabukichou no Joou single, but it was one of my favorite B-sides.

Over the weekend (or something like that--I'm unemployed and broke and it's all merging together) I checked the Japanese section of my copy of the Rough Guide to World Music (first edition from 1991 or thereabouts) and I found this intriguing tidbit, which I haven't seen mentioned before (though it's probably there somewhere on the specialized Shiina Ringo board):

“In 1945, ‘Ringo No Uta’ (The Apple Song), sung by Michiko Namiki and Noburo Kirishima was released. The optimism of the song struck a chorc with people suffering from great hardship.”

The entry on Japanese music also talks about kayokyoku, about which it says:

The term came into widespread use just after World War II, when it was applied to a whole range of local popular styles that emerged from the fusion between Japanese music and imported styles like jazz, R&B, and country and western.

It seems like this could apply to SR's music, though I am not very familiar with what other Japanese nomenclature is available.

Also who were Shang Shang Typhoon and were they any good?

From a website:

The most symbolic post-war Japanese song was 'Ringo no Uta' (Apple Song) recorded in October 1945 (music by Tadashi Manjome, lyrics by Hachiro Sato, performed by Michiko Namiki and Noboru Kirishima). It's been said that people were able to endure the famine and ease a sense of despair after the lost war.

http://www.emimusic.jp/ringo/data/live_05/top.gif

Zazen Ecstacy DVD
Here comes another release to celebrate Shiina Ringo's tenth anniversary on the music scene. Zazen Extasy records live footage from Shiina's one-night-only performance at the KahoGekijo in Fukuoka on July 30, 2007. Only around one thousand people were admitted to see this live performance.

1. tsumiki asobi
2. memai
3. shoujo robot
4. remote controller
5. akane sasu kiro terasaredo
6. EMI (sex pistols cover)
7. identity
8. byoshou public
9. unconditional love
10. sakana
11. kabukicho no jou
12. benkai debussy
13. yokushitsu
14. mai ragujuariinaito (cover of kisugi takao version, of a song originally by
shibata hatsumi)
15. sid's daydream
16. stoicism

encore

17. nihon ni umarete (tomosaka rie self cover)

Vocals & guitar: Shiina Ringo
guitar: Yayoshi Junji
Bass: Seiji Kameda
Keyboard: Minagawa Masato
Drums: Muraishi Masayuki

ol' crazy eyes: http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=ioUkMBk0Q2Y

oops, that promo copy is absolutely wrong. the concert was shot the night of July 30, 2000 (not 2007) -- this is a document from the year Shoso Strip was released

closing the main set with 'stoicism', have to see that

OK, right when it's Ringo's 10th anniversary, it seems all of the Ringo fan sites and forums are in complete disarray! WTFF!!!!!!1

Anyway, I grabbed all of the above.. Electric Discharge 2CD, Watashi no Hatsuden DVD, and the Zazen Ecstasy DVD. Yet to play them.

I assume Electric Discharge & Me is all previously released stuff? Even so, it's great for folks who are newbs to they don't have to hunt down all those B-sides (even if it's not every B-side)

"Stoicism" is my favorite song off Shouso Strip, even if it's meant as an interlude.

It's no interlude on Zazen. Best Shiina Ringo solo career concert DVD bar none, and it matches Dynamite Out.

skipped the two Electrical comps (already have the singles, and I might have gotten the DVD but it leaves off too many great videos)

these, I don't know:

MoRA CD Box [Limited Release]
CD box set release from Ringo Shiina includes three previously released albums with additional single. All tracks featuring digital remastering and cardboard sleeve. Contents of set are - Disc 1: "Muzai moratorium" plus "Kofukuron" (single version). Disc 2: "Shoso Strip" plus "Mayonaka wa Junketsu." Disc3: "Karuki Zamen Kuri no Hana" plus "Stem." Disc 4 "Ringo no uta." Set also includes deluxe box that plays the voice of Shina Ringo when opened, 100-page special booklet, 3 stickers, 9 cards, and a 10th anniversary poster (folded).
http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/detailview.html?KEY=TOCT-26761

Those singles don't really belong on the same discs as the albums, but that's a great price, far far less than what I had to pay to track down all those records in 2004/5

I keep trying to like Ringo's stuff - have two albums and the above-described compilation - but it just doesn't do it for me. For weirdness, I prefer UA; for glossy jacked-up ultrapop, I prefer Ayumi Hamasaki.

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.