5 posts tagged “buono!”

 

This song was my first real wake-up call to J-pop, Hello Project and Morning Musume specifically. I saw this song on the Internet, off the Rainbow 7 concert of spring 2006, which has to be the worst-videographed concert of all time.

 

Still, I got it. “How Do You Like Japan?” appeared to be aimed right at foreigners, right at fans outside Japan – fans like myself who were just then discovering the astonishing legacy of Morning Musume.

 

“OK,” Risa and her colleagues are saying, in so many words: “Just how well do you really like Japan, Yankee boy? Are we just too much for you?” It’s not a put-down, it’s a challenge. A dare. The Daughters of the Morning are calling out all outsiders. OK, guys, walk through that door – but beware of what you might find!

 

It is a sassy, killer song, one that really carried Rainbow 7 – and was even more amazingly staged during the Morning Curry concert, fall 2006. In that version, Morning Musume had dropped from 10 to a mere eight members, with Konno and Mako departing earlier in the year at the fateful, tearful Hello Project Summer 2006 concert the previous July.

 

But for some reason it was a much more brutal, grittier version. Yossi, Miki, Risa and even Sayu took the gloves off and snarled out those lyrics under an eerie red light which belied the bright Hawaiian-style garden costumes the team wore in that memorable concert.

 

Yes, “How Do You Like Japan?” went from sassy to just plain mean. It was a delight.

 

Then, in 2007 came the “Bomb Girl” concert which, frankly, was a bomb in many areas.

 

It was a thrill to see “How Do You Like Japan?" embedded right in the middle of the “Bomb Girl” setlist last November, just as it was 12 months earlier – but the end result was less than satisfactory for many fans, and some bloggers began to doubt the quality and appropriateness of the song itself.

 

Well, that’s stepping over the line – my line. Why criticize the national anthem, for example, after some idiot tries to sing it and screws it all up? The same principle applies here: “How Do You Like Japan?” is a classic, and classics should never be dissed or put on the shelf. After the somewhat lukewarm rendition during “Bomb Girl,” I hope Tsunku doesn’t lock it in a vault.

 

It’s easy to see why the deterioration has occurred. Yossie and Miki are gone; they carried this song in many ways. Miki especially did the job  at Rainbow 7, Yossie exploded in the fall 2006 version. Risa has been great all three times – she just had no supporting cast in “Bomb Girl.” JunJun and LinLin were like lost little children. Reina tried valiantly to take up the slack, but it mattered little; even Sayu had an off-night. Aichan? Don’t get me started.

 

Well, every great song has a down day. Let’s hope the legacy of “How Do You Like Japan?” does not fade further into seclusion.

 

Especially for us Yankee boys.

 

 

 

This is Radicalipton signing off – for now.

 

Take the collective sentiment that Ray over at American / International Wota has displayed for Momoko, multiply that by, say, 100 – then shove it all under a big rock for three months. That about sums up my own suppressed opinions about Manoeri, or Mano for short.

 

Mano, Mano, Mano. Turns 17 on April 11, getting up there in years for a Hello Project Egg. Got her shot with Ongaku Gatas, cut a couple singles with this fine band, performed in a few concerts, received more than her fair share of attention on all the wota Web sites and – holy mackeral, she’s suddenly the second coming of Goto Maki.

 

That must be it. Tsunku’s otherwise fine lineup of all-girl groups has been decapitated over the past year; he’s lost a major-league soloist in Gomaki, who just up and quit (later to sign with Avex) after  being made to slither around like a sidewinder during the January 2007 Hello Project winter concert at Yokohama Arena. Yossie graduated from Morning Musume, and Miki got the boot because of boyfriend issues.

 

So why not just give it all up to a kid who has practically nil in terms of vocal credits? OK, she looks very, uh … great, actually, somewhat like a younger Gomaki but … well, even better looking than her, and can move and smile and laugh like, uh … well, Yossie, only she’s better looking and more pleasant than the steely Yossie, and, uh … maybe Tsunku isn’t so dumb after all.

 

But I smell another TNX or Pony Canyon rat amidst all this hoopla about the spritely Mano leapfrogging above almost everyone in the company to attain this lofty, if undeserved, status. And how are we to read this? Tsunku said March 2 that Mano is already out of Gatas, and that she will be out of the Eggs as of March 29, but then what?

 

Please, please don’t sell this kid out to Pony Canyon, which has already cherry-picked Momoko, Miyabi and Suzuki from Hello Project for Buono! (yes, do the math, Buono!'s new album has already done 18,000 in the short time it’s been out, and since Pony Canyon is charging AKB48-level prices for it, $34 US, the earnings have already gone to more than a half-million bucks US and the promotion for this album has barely begun). At least Berryz Kobo and °C-ute have held up through all this, but how long will that last?

 

And, oh Lord, don’t hide Mano away in some closet like what has happened to The Possible, who play in obscure clubs and whose noble Egg beginnings have been corrupted by some kind of twisted insider’s game tucked within the seedy underbelly of the J-pop music business.

 

Or it could be that Mano might have surfaced in, say, the proposed Milky Way unit, in which Gomaki, otherwise known as simply Gocchin, had been rumored to be a future part of. Now, hold on, it’s coming to me … that actually makes sense. Having Gocchin and Mano in the same group, maybe paired up like Abe and Maimi? But, alas, that is not to be as Kusumi and a couple more lucky Eggs will be in Milky Way, it was announced recently. 

 

Otherwise, the possibilities are endless.

 

Otherwise, it’s good-bye to Mano for now. The good thing about all this is that I can finally justify paying all that cash for the January trip to Japan to see Ongaku Gatas live, three times, doing both singles each time – with Mano. Little did I know that would be the last time I might ever see this fabulous talent.

This is Radicalipton signing off –  for now.

 

 

It was a strange juxtaposition, seeing Aika clobber a song with great Hello! Project history and meaning, “Otoko Tomodachi” (“Boy Friend”) during last fall’s Nov. 25 “Bonkyu! Bonkyu! Bomb Girl” concert – with a clearly flat and disinterested V-u-den backdancing for her.

 

Rika and V-u-den must have already anticipated they were going to be disbanded, or at least they seemed to act like it. But Aika saved the song, and the concert, with a shimmering and historic rendition of that marvelous tale of teen infatuation. And to think she's only been around a year. My, how far this one has come.

 

Aika has inherited the lede role of “Otoko Tomodachi” from a pair of legendary voices. Yossie did wonderful work with it in 2005 during a Morning Musume concert with Reina, Kusumi, Eri and Sayu backdancing. 

 

Originally, Morning Musume charter member Abe fronted the song, with 5^th generation members Aichan, Konno, Mako and Risa backing her. Until Aika’s tremendous rip, the Abe version, done in 2002, had been my favorite.

 

Risa and Aichan were only pups, and as it turns out they are the core of Morning Musume now. And, speaking of Risa, she really rose to the occasion, stepped up and took a firm leadership role in this concert.

 

The huge hole created by Yossie graduating and Miki resigning is evident in every old song done during this concert, but Risa responded as best she could and did great work on “How Do You Like Japan?” and that crazy motorcycle song Yossie and Reina used to rock with. The core of this group now – Risa, Aichan, Reina and Eri – crushed “Shanimuni Paradise,” clearly the best song of the concert and one of the stronger songs in years by Morning Musume.

One more interesting aspect of this concert: It was in a smaller theater venue. Didn’t the Morning Curry concert 12 months prior take place in an arena, as did Sexy 8 (albeit with Yossie graduating)? Is there something to be read into this? Hope not.

 

But “Tomodachi” struck a little gold for Aika and Morning Musume. There might yet be hope for us all.

 

This is Rad signing off – for now.

 

 

In what promises to be one of the most intriguing J-pop incursions in recent years, “Japan Nite 2008” blows through America in March. This tour is cool in that its backers, SXSW Music Asia and Benten Tokyo, make it easy on the groups with a lightning 10-day, eight-stop tour in major U.S. cities. This minimizes exhaustion and maximizes fun.

 

 

Dates follow:

*** March 14 (Friday) AUSTIN, Texas @Elysium
*** March 16 (Sunday) NEW YORK @Knitting Factory
*** March 17 (Monday) BOSTON @ TT The Bears
*** March 18 (Tuesday) CHICAGO @ Empty Bottle
*** March 19 (Wednesday) DENVER @ TBA
*** March 20 (Thursday) SEATTLE @ Hi Dive
      ( Note: Ketchup Mania is not performing in Seattle)
*** March 21 (Friday) S.F. @ Independent
*** March 23 (Sunday) L.A. @ Knitting Factory

Bands include:

*** Avengers in Sci-Fi
*** Detroit 7
*** Ketchup Mania
*** Quartz-Head 02
*** Petty Booka (warning: Bluegrass girls)
*** Sodopp, an all-girl garage rock trio
*** The Emeralds
*** Scandal, compared to Morning Musume
*** The Beaches

 

Band profiles here:

http://sxsw-asia.com/JapanNite2008/index.html

Full details here:
http://www.zbsatozofjmusic.com/2008/02/japan-nite-2008.html

 

Highlights: Avengers is very interesting and features mainly instrumental tracks, and Quartz-Head is along the same lines, only jazz-oriented. Not much could be scraped up on The Beaches , but five of these bands – Detroit 7, Ketchup Mania, Petty Booka, Sodopp and Scandal– have female lede singers and they’re all screamers, except for Booka, which appears to be a traditional Don Ho-style, acoustic-ukelele ensemble. Count 'em: Five lede singers are girls. That's all the excuse I need to get my tickets lined up.

 

Ketchup Mania will not be a quiet act, and has caught on recently in Japan. Sodopp's lone single on the Internet, "Pop Rider" (2006), is beautifully simple. It might sound childish at first, but it grows on you fast! Check it at: http://www.myspace.com/sodopp.

 

Scandal, with its 19-year-old lede singer and 16-year-old drummer along with two 17-year-olds – should probably still be attending high school in Japan rather than touring. But that’s another story.

 

Overall, pretty nice set of head-bangers, if they all show up. Ketchup Mania is not included in the Seattle stop (March 20), and on the San Francisco ticket, only six of the nine bands – The Beaches, Petty Booka, Detroit 7, Ketchup Mania , The Emeralds and Scandal– are listed. The fact that the San Francisco show is on a Friday night bodes very well for this tour. That means I get to go!

 

Scandal the headliner? Check out their Web site (http://www.scandal-4.com) and accordant MySpace page and find out why that might be so. And, “Oh, are YOU the Play-boy?”

 

Tour organizers picked these bands by auditioning more than 100 groups in Japan, I'm told. You're getting the best of the garage set, for sure, and hopefully not just a cluster of musicians playing to U.S. tastes.

 

Bottom line? This is a rare shot to see and hear a lot of J-pop/J-rock (even J-country, for that matter) for very little cash. And with all these tour stops there's bound to be a venue within driving distance for almost anybody in the country. What are you waiting for? Get your tickets and stop complaining about the lack of J-music in America because here ... it ... is!

 

The Emeralds are described as a "Samurai rock-n-roll trio" because of songs like this:

 

 

 This is Radicalipton signing off -- for now.

 

This was supposed to be a screencap collection of °C-ute highlights from the entire concert of Sept. 30, 2007, at the packed and raving Yokohama Blitz, Japan. Problem is I couldn't get past the first two songs, "Tokaikko Junjou" and "Meguru Koi no Kisetsu." Just hang on for this wild ride!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is Radicalipton signing off -- for now.