How Did We First Discover...?
 

This is the thread where we all share our stories of how we first got into Ringo/Tokyo Jihen.

For me, it was at the very end of April/beginning of May 2002, after my friend Ashley posted the lyrics to "Identity" on a lyric blog both of us were working on at the time. I was a sophomore in high school, this was about 5 years ago (in fact, I'm coming up on the anniversary! XD). Out of curiosity, I downloaded it off the now-defunct Audiogalaxy.com and loved it. I quickly downloaded more, including "Honnou" (another immediate love), "Gibusu" (that one took some time), "Koko de Kisu Shite" and others. It was quite a ragtag bunch of songs I got at that time, actually... (like "Sigma" and "Mellow")

I slowly gained more and more songs, and would try and catch the Ringo block of PVs at J-pop rooms at anime conventions, but I didn't care to go gather all her stuff for a while. At the beginning of summer 2004 I purchased "Karuki Zamen Kuri no Hana" (a year after its release), the first album of hers for me to own, and listened to it in my car driving to work; I loved it.

Later that year I was surprised to learn she had formed a band and they had already released a single, "Gunjou Biyori." My thought was, "Well, if she's stopped being a single artist, she's still releasing awesome songs, so who cares!" This drove my interest into higher gear and I started trying to collect more older B-sides and other things I didn't have already. In November of 2005 I launched my lyrics website and joined the Ringo Jihen forums and eventually became a real member of our little community! The rest is history... :)

I discovered TJ (and, therefore, SR) through some youtube links that were posted on 4chan's /t/ as samples for a Dynamite Out audio rip torrent. Everything just snowballed from there, and now I'm working on buying all her CDs and am awaiting TJ's new album.

Hmm, let me see...
 

My very first exposure to Ringo was through Tokyo Jihen's "Sounan" PV. I randomly decided to watch it because I'd heard Shiina Ringo's name around and wanted to hear what kind of music she made. I really liked the song but maybe not her voice as much then, because I didn't pursue her and the band any further. (Which is kind of ironic since "Sounan" is one of my all-time favorite songs now.)

I finally started to become interested in Ringo when I heard one of her solo songs through the last.fm radio one day. (Gah, I wish I could remember which song it was!! >_< I think it was "Meisai," but I'm not 100% sure. :() I listened to all her solo songs and grew in love with her voice and persona. While I didn't hate her voice the first time I heard it, I didn't see anything interesting in it until now--I think her voice is one of the most unique and beautiful (in its own way) voices ever. I fell even more in love with her when I found out about her little quirks, and that she's actually very polite in person. <3 I don't know any other artist who's as an interesting character as she is.

I'm about a third finished in collecting the whole discography, but I have the most CDs of hers than any other artist. :D

I was scavenging the South American isthmus with my travel guide (who would later become Dr. Octopus) for a sacred rock idol. He lead me to a cave hesays no on has ever immerged from alive.

Upon entering I see the cave full of Ukigumos. My guide laughs, saying there's nothing to worry about -- as there was a gigatic Ukigumo on his back ready to strike! I swat it off of him proclaiming my dislike of Ukigumos!

We made it past hidden HZMs that shot poisoned arrows across our path and then we came unto a deep chasm. Unsure of wha to do, I flicked my bullwhip onto a crevace and it stuck. My guide and I swung across the chasm to apparent safety and there it was. The golden rock idol of Ringo. My guide asked what I intended with such a treasure.

"Rawk out with my cawk out" I replied.

I knew she was on a weighted trigger, so I deftly exchanged a weighted bag of hollow rock bands (from America of course) for the idol. It a first seemed the deal done. but then... A QUAKE from above!

A ginormous rolling Kameda came crashing from above. It landed with a shiver and jauntily rolled along toward us! My guide and I darted through the corridor until we reached the chasm. He begged me to hand him the idol. I did.

He smiled and sneered "adios señor." He lept across, Shiina in hand and detatched my whip upon reaching the other side. I was stuck!

I swallowed hard and leapt across the chasm! I met the uncertain edge by a hair and pulled myself up. The killer Kameda loomed as well, rolling across the chasm as if it was a pothole! I ran.

Eventually, i saw a corpse! My guide! HZM Arrow through the head. He shoulda known.

I pilfered my idol and darted out of the cave only to be greeted by the savage natives of the area!

"Hay, do you like Gackt?"
"Does u hav A Best?"
"lawl, Tommy Heavenly > Buriguri" they sqwacked.

Did you just insert all the band members' names into an ad-lib? :blink:

Either way, I'd like to capture an Ukigumo. :) Are they furry creatures? XD

well, like I said before... my ex shows me Honnou PV and it was love at 1st sight X3
yeah, it was that Japophile one, but this was before our relationship
I was playing pokemon stadium 2 with another friend(my boyfriend on that time XD) and there were a lot of friends(all boys,only me as girl) on that room (the japophile's room), so he put Honnou to play and all that boys stoped what they were doing and they all were like "OMG OMG sexy japa perverted nurse lesbian O_________O" and I was "¬¬ so?"
and it happened, I pay attention on the music and I fall in love
so I tell to replay and I loved all the thing, it fits perfectly in the song
in that time the japophile was kind of addicted on SR (cause time to time he is addicted in something different) and I enjoyed every song that I heard n_n
OMG with this story I look like these girls that have so many boyfriends, but this story shows 2/3 of my boyfriends XDDDDDD
XDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD
this made my day!

While reading up on some trivia about Guilty Gear (an extremely good game), I read a tidbit about a character, I-no (my avatar), that said she was modeled after Shiina Ringo.

I read the wikipedia article about Ringo, and my interest was piqued, so I scourged the net until I found a torrent that contained all her albums, including both TJ albums. After not paying much attention for about a week, Honnou played and hooked me immediately.

After sitting down to really listen, the fact that her Music is awesome hit me like a sack of bricks and my obsession was spawned. I'm considering buying a second set of her albums just so I can keep them unopened. :P

Mine was very simple. A friend mailed me KZK and I'm hooked. Line and sinker. Heh.

The first PV I saw was TJ's Shuraba. The song doesn't automatically click with me and it took me until just recently to appreciate that song. And Shiina looks weird with white hair. ^^;

I was shown the Koko de Kiss shite PV by a friend (thanks Yuko! XD).
I confess the first thing I thought in the very beginning of the song was: "oh shit, another Alanis Morissette wannabe". ><
But this impression faded really fast. It was the Seiteki Healing DVDs, so we watched a whole bunch of PVs, and at the end I was truly impressed.
And I finally felt in love with here when I downloaded and watched that Tokyo Jihen "Meet the World Beat" presentation. That was THE band!
And I don't know how to finish this story, so I'll just stop it here.

I enjoyed Guilty Gear before I had ever heard of Shiina Ringo, so when I found out that I-No was based on her I had a little conniption fit. My friends who were there at the time were thoroughly annoyed, although that was mainly because I was excited about something that had to do with SR. I really, really need to learn when to shut up...

Anyway, Guilty Gear is cool (even though I-No is the biggest bitch of a final boss I've ever seen). Also, I use Chipp Zanuff, in case you're wondering.

Are you going to tell us what kind of creatures Ukigumos and HZMs are, TJ? >_<;;

:blink: Wow, that's really hardcore. I bet Glathannus wouldn't even do that. :P

By the way, I think getting into Ringo through video games is cooler than TJ's story! XD

i first encountered jihen through my friend coz he recommended sounan, but i didn't research instantly. but after a year, i came across shuraba (and i can't really remember where) and i enjoyed it. researched the band, the history etc. got more songs, watched concerts, collected little furry Ukigumos XD, and now i am here.

For the past few months that's pretty much what I've been doing with out-of-print releases. If I took a picture of the extras I've collected, you'd want to believe the picture was doctored, because it would break your mind to accept that anyone could be so crazy.

So what's next? Shiina Junpei and the Temple of Doom?

My story is not that spectacular:
A friend of mine told me about JPop as a specific genre and since I already liked much anime theme song and stuff I began searching for some random songs.
99% turned out to be shit.
(Sorry I really didn't like anything I heard^^)
Then I found a song called "Tsumi to batsu". That made my day. Such a beautiful song...
I gathered more.
Dadamm, now I'm here, total fanboy for all times to come.

Third time's the charm!
 

1. Heard "Gips" on the radio, which left an impression.
2. Years later, while randomly switching channels, saw "Meisai" PV on MTV. "Meisai" PV captured my attention...
3. Frantically copied down song title/artiste name and inserted into Google.
4. Got excited and bought KSK from CD store.
5. Listened to KSK CD. Enough said.

You got a cool radio station there milk! I never heard any SR songs on radio before! But I did catch Meisai on MTV, but that was after I became a fan. :)

How I got into SR because LUNA SEA disbanded and I was looking for new stuff to listen to. I randomly downloaded tracks from Kazaa (is it even still working now?) and I thought, hmm this girl is not too bad, but her voice needs some work.

Then I saw the Honnou PV.

I was sold. Honnou is an amazing song and till today it's still top on my list of best SR songs.

I'm not a crazy collector of SR stuff like Glath is but I do own SS, KSK, EM, Kyouiku, Adult, JCHI. (nope I don't have MM.) That's it, just the bare minimum. Don't intend to get the rest of of her back catalogue either because I have space issues where I live :)

Great to see you all share your stories!

THANK you. I was beginning to think I was too old for everyone (yet I think I'm younger than plenty here.) :P

I stumbled upon ProjectJ.net one day and downloaded every sample song they had, and so I heard Yami ni furu ame first. I thought it was good, but didn't pursue my search. Then, after KSK came out, the sample was changed to Shuukyou and that one left a bigger impression on me, and I remember dling KSK later in the year. But my real trigger was the Ringo no Uta pv. It gave me a glimpse into her universe and made me want to listen to everything. I started to collect her stuff on Ebay, and eventually on online cd stores.

On ebay: I got pretty lucky and found Electric Mole SE twice! I had to buy it a second time because my apartment got robbed in the meantime and they left with my first copy >_<

In a topic of Pingbook...
And a friend, when she was a Ringo Fan.

I used to watch Hey Hey Hey Music Champ on The International Channel with a friend of mine who was into J-pop. I wasn't much into it at the time, but I enjoyed all the crazy quirky japanese songs that were on there. Plus all the girls were so cute.:D He was mostly into j-pop and j-urban music. I enjoyed some of that stuff, and eventually started downloading from bunko.theppn.org. One episode had GO!GO!7188 on it. They played there song C7 and I thought it was the greatest thing I've ever seen, so I started dling their music. I started poking around the J-Rock forums at jpopmusic for more info on them and to look for anything else interesting. After I had bought everything GO!GO! had to offer, I needed more j-girl rock.

In looking at the jpopmusic forums I noticed that there were a fair amount of posts on the Shiina Ringo thread, so I decided to check her out. Like Migoto, I quickly compared her to Alanis and gave up on her. It wasn't until Tokyo Jihen started that I gave her another chance.

I dled the PV for Gunjou Biyori. I thought it seemed decent. Then Sounan came out. I got that and thought it was awesome, but the B-side, Kokoro, is what really hooked me. I love that song. After that I got the album.

After I listened to Kyouiku a million times, I needed more, so I started giving solo SR a chance again. I wish I knew what songs I had originally dismissed as Alanis wannabe crap, because I can't even imagine thinking that after giving Ringo a fair chance.

So now I am still Die-hard GO!GO!7188, but Tokyo Jihen and Ringo are right there with them.:D

Hey now, I did get it last night, ne? Then again, I am one of those older than you, right?

People I chat up on AIM don't count. :p

EDIT: Also, Buckeyes lost, huh? =(

For all that still don't get it, Tokyo Jihad was referring to this movie:

Wait, Golem...I recognize everyone there except the guy in the middle. Who's playing the part of Indiana Jones himself?

ask Tokyo Jihad :D

The most clever bastard on earth, that's who! :D


(Big ups to golem :D)

I first heard of Ringo in a various artists mp3 disc that Sakura gave to me some years ago. She had a japanese lyrics translations website ad that time and Ringo was displayed in its layout. I was curious about her because she looked quite unique compared to those japanese visual bands, and I fell in love with her music after listening Muzai Moratorium :) The first time I listened to it I was quite shocked because of her singing style, but her songs were just brilliant

Late-2002, early-2003I was looking for new Japanese artists to listen to and I came upon a site with all her albums uploaded. I picked a song at random, "Sakana" from Shoso Strip, and started listening to it constantly. Then she put out "STEM" and I got that and adored every song on that single. I accumulated the 3 albums she had out then over a year and I've been a rabid fan ever since then. I :wub: Ringo.

Well, not sure but I suppose the thing comes when Do As Infinity disbanded. I was trying to find something about Seiji Kameda and I found Tokyo Jihen. I listened to Koi wa maboroshi and shuraba and I must admit that it was what I was looking for 'cause it fits with my music style. B)

I first got into Shiina Ringo because of Dir En Grey. Just about all of the members mentioned that they liked her music, so I thought, "Who is this chick, and what about her makes her so cool?" :angry: I fell head over heels in love with Muzai Moratorium....

Im really sad to say that I dont even remember. I do belive it started with one of her songs that I downloaded randomly back in the good old WinMX on 56k, I liked it so I went to looking for more and more...and here I am now.

In my first year of uni I bought a note taker for my lectures and stored some mp3s for the 1-hr train rides between home and class. I downloaded some random anime and jpop/jrock songs from napster and came across "Gibusu" and "Tsumi to Batsu" I had listened to both a few times but didn't fall in love with them right away.

I was half asleep on the train to class when Tsumi to Batsu started playing. It was then.. when I had a moment to do nothing but listen to music that I realised it was a whole lot different from all the other jpop songs. Something in her voice made her words sound so powerful - like she really meant it - even if I couldn't understand much Japanese at that time, I knew she was singing words from her heart. Gibusu came on straight after and I realised - she's really great. When I got home I found a few more of her songs which satisfied me for a year and a half. It was about mid-last year when I finally tuned into youtube and saw some of her PVs. I thought, wow, it's really different... but it really suits her music. It's the sort of thing I like.

atm.. my fave pvs are Gibusu and Yami ni Furu Ame. I'd love to start building up a collection of DVDs etc... but it's really hard to find them here in Australia. I haven't even met anyone else who knows about her and likes her music here. It's all Ayumi Hamasaki, Mika Nakashima...

Wow, now that's a weird connection... lol

Yes....I know, lol. My favorite video might be Tsumiki Asobi, or Stem.
Kono Yo Ni Kagiri was good, too.

The combined efforts of youtube and last.fm lead me to Tokyo Jihen. I looked them up on youtube and found them to be incredibly catchy. This lead me to check out Ringo's solo stuffs. And here I am now. w00t. I'm pretty hazy on the actual details; I think I heard of Shiina Ringo before but I don't remember where. It must not have been important.

Oh whoa, I didn't know Dir En Grey were fans of Ringo!! That's soo cool (even though I haven't listened to them!) XD

And although the Indiana Jones pic looks funny, I still don't get the joke and what it has to do with Junpei... >_<;;

Ummm, nothing^^
Junpei was the first joke, and the pic was No.2

I first heard of her because my sister got into tokyo jihen and so did I. And I saw the main singer's name was Shiina Ringo. About a year later, I came home and my sister was watching the Mayonaka wa Junketsu PV and I we liked it so much we listened to her stuff.

There has to be room in there for 'Kameda's secret pyramid'

about the dir en grey thing...
I know 2 or 3 persons that get interessed on SR cause of DeG too
O.O

For me, it was because I download random things all the time. At that time, the only Shiina song I had heared was her duet with Utada Hikaru, I wont last a day without you. I hated it. I still kind of do. Being extrememly biased, everytime someone mentioned her I would immediatly say I couldnt stand her. In some forum, a person uploaded "Kyoiku" from Tokyo Jihen, and I had no clue it was her band. I'll be honest, I thought it was like some middle aged woman who smoked a lot >_> But for some reason I still loved the sound of it.

I was terribly surprised when I looked them up on Wikipedia and found outshe was the vocalist :D Ever since I've been listening to her music, and I absolutely adore her voice and her talents as a songwriter/composer.

Judging by her latest releases......:P:P

OMG you just put my memory back into my head. That's exactly how I felt the first times I heard a couple of Ringo songs. And I assume they were either MM or SS ones. I truly thought the voice sounded like it belonged to some old, left house wife that smoked all her life.
The difference from you would be that I didn't like the sound of the music at those first few listens. It had to grow on me.

Actually, Ringo was a smoker for a long time. I think she quit sometime recently, though...

The brand of cigarettes she smoked was Hi-lite Blue, 1.4 mg. As we know most women's cigarette contains nicotine varying from 0.1 to 0.5 mg. Hi-lite Blue is way too heavy for a girl. Therefore it damaged her voice.

Ooh, interesting! o_o I'm glad she quit recently though, since it doesn't fit her image anymore and isn't necessary (in my opinon.)

I think a large part of the reason she quit was because of her son. But it's good for her too. :)

Haha! I'm glad people agree XD. Most of my friends had to grow on Ringo, too (thats all they hear when they come over).

The one I find people have the most trouble liking, if they're not particularly a Ringo fan, is Tsumi to Batsu. Theres a lot of power in that, and it really threw them off >_>.

That's odd, I thought Tsumi to batsu would be a good first song for people to start liking her. I wonder what the best "introductory" song would be... I guess it depends on what the person likes already.

I think the best introductory song is honnou
maybe because I'm introduced to SR by this song
but when I use it as introdution method it works very well
XD

Ah~ Most people I showed that to liked it. Even the friends who were totally anti-Shiina. Maybe you're right about that song as an introductory (or maybe it had something to do it the nurseShiina/Patient scene?)

Though she mentions "Seven Stars" in an SS song so she smoked those at one point too. But I didnt know that about the other brand, wow!

Tsumi to batsu wasmy introductory song, I think its the best song to acclimate with. With Honnou or GIPS or Identity, you could get the wrong idea. MM/KZK songs might be harder sells.

I think it was around 2004, I was searching some info of maaya sakamoto on a web that had a radio blog and the song stem (the analog ver.) was playing behind, I loved it =3, but I didn't know the name of the singer so I couln't search more songs...

but the past year I was searching for rie fu and maaya info on a blog and I heard "himitsu" of tokyo jihen playing on the radio blog, I couln't stop listening it, the rest is story..it didn't pass so much time before I realized that the unknown singer of 3 years ago and the vocalist of tokyo jihen was the same person..Ringo..

Ooh, Rie fu AND Maaya, MisakO, we have some similar tastes :3

yeah! I think that too XD, I also like bonnie pink^^ .
I always go to your site when I need lyrics and translations...
and well sakura card captor it's my favourite anime:).
we have similar tastes :lol:

Ooh, we do!! :3

I saw a brief video clip of Ringo no Uta on the Hey! Hey! Hey! 2003 Christmas special top 100 countdown. I've said this before but I would love to see her interviewed by Hama-chan & Matsu-chan. Unfortunately, I don't think it will ever happen.

P.S. Raiders of the Lost Ark... best post ever! Although Temple of Doom was not as good, I think Shiina Ringo would be a great replacement for the female lead character in the opening segment at the nightclub.

I first heard heard Shiina from one of friends. He gave me Japanese music, most of which I already knew the artist. He gave me stuff like Mr. Children, Harvard, Bump of Chicken, ect. He gave Tokyo Jihen too, when I first got it I was think whats with this singers wierd voice, but the more I listened to it the more I like it. So I looked it up on the internet and I found out about Shiina herself. I searched for songs for days and I only found a few. Yame ni furu ame was my favorite. I decided to look it up in bitcomet and I found a whole buch of stuff.

I honestly don't remember when I first heard about her. As long as I've been into Japanese music, I've had at least some vague idea of who she was. I even had some random mp3s, which I enjoyed, but for some reason they never really motivated me to check out more at the time. Then one day I see Shouso Strip on Yesasia for like 25$ w/free shipping...not too much less than what Japanese CDs usually cost, but it was a decent enough price and I was curious so I bought it. After that I was hooked, and ended up buying the rest of the albums within 3-4 months.

freshevryday...
I NEED to say that I love your avatar and signature!

I've been wondering if fresh's avatar is Ringo. @_@ It kind of looks like her, but I can't spot her mole.

BTW, what Tokyo Jihen song did you hear on that CD?

Text says 椎名林檎 down left so yes, that's probably her or her mother.

thanks! I made cuz I was bored at school, but I think it turned out ok

Whoever hasn't posted in this thread yet, I encourage you to do so and share your story of how you found out about SR/TJ music :)

I guess I was first introduced to Shiina when I saw the video for Kuki from the Electric Mole concert on one of the music video cable programs I had when I lived in Japan (Space Shower TV?). I liked the song but didn't bother figuring out who it was. When the Gunjou Biyori song came out I thought, "Hot, but meh..." Kuki was still stuck in my head,though, and when I mentioned to a friend (also in Japan) that I really liked one song by a Japanese artist and hummed the melody to him, it turned out that he also liked SR and proceeded to tell me all about her. Started trolling the used record shops in Kansai and ended up buying all of her material. I also made it to four TJ shows, and the rest is history!

Oh you've been to TJ shows! What are they? Were you there in Dynamite tour?
And, how does it feel?

back in 2004, I had a blog about JMusic with some friends, I didn't know everything I posted about .. I just translated.. and some of the news I got was about Tokyo Jihen releasing their first PV dvd (Tokyo Incidents vol.1) ... that was the first time I heard the name (Tokyo Jihen) ... I always heard "shiina ringo" but didn't know that she was the Tokyo Jihen vocalist... then 2 years later I found a cool website with GO!GO!7188 on it and some related artists like Shiina Ringo and fra-foa.. so I picked the only song at there, Shuukyou.. at first ( thats already on early 2007 ) I liked the song ... but it was so complex... then some more time later (July 2007) there was a starter pack on Jpopsuki with Tokyo Jihen and Shiina Ringo.. I totally fell in love with the songs... but then I watched their latest pv.. which was OSCA.. I thought: "how can they make this into a single?!?! It's horrible! I hate it" ... but even after that I registered here... so I got more stuff and stuff and KILLER TUNE WAS OUT! I loved it soooooooo <3 and I listened to all their albums (ringo+tj) and I really liked the band .... laterrr OSCA was one of my fav songs LOL and I got very obsessed over it @_@ this happens to my friends also.. they think "omg wtf is that song" but then they are obsessed over OSCA o_O... well then variety was out and I had no doubts... Tokyo Jihen is one of the best bands in the world!

I just recently got internet in my house, so I am not a seasoned surfer. So I found out about shiina after I came home from college (spring 07). I was just back from my 1st trip from japan and was very interested in the culture.Well I started listening to kawaii radio (internet radio). They exposed me to a lot. One thing they exposed me to was ringo hime. The first song I heard was ishiki. I was like wtf!? Japanese make music other than pop and visual kei!? So it was in a vein that was very compatable with my tastes. I started search online for shiina's stuff. Saw some youtube, browsed the web a little. Then I ran into the shiina ringo thread at batsu forums. It was only like 4 or 5 people in the thread but it was so informative. I learned a lot about shiina and we dicussed songs, and one guy used to give reviews and opinions of songs. Man it was so good. But I was hooked after learning of her. But after I saw her... the perversion seeped from my pores, I was in love. So thats it. That's how I found her and came to like her.

The Casshern soundtrack was what introduced me to Shiina Ringo, with arguably the best version of Kuki - short of the haunting performance in Electric Mole (I dare you to try blasting that one in the dark with no visuals).

I went for six months without bothering to find out what Shiina Ringo looked like, then I was pleasantly surprised, but I was already bewitched by her before that, mostly from the incomplete set of KSK tracks I was able to scavenge on Kazaa. Muzai Moratorium material was oddly difficult to find.

I found news of Tokyo Jihen's existence from Googling my way into random messageboards I wasn't member of, somebody linked to a Sounan MP3, and that was my cherrypopper. Normally I'm not a lurker, but these Shiina Ringo threads were small, and I wasn't into any of the other artists (at the time) that these communities were about.

(Note: I didn't discover JPopSuki until after joining the Ringo Jihen community, and by then I already owned all of the retail essentials)

Shiina Ringo was actually the reason I bothered to get a 'real' job (I had very casual self-employment before that - barely enough to pay the bills). I was importing more and more music, it was costing too much, and Adult Pour Homme was the first Ringo/Jihen product I decided to buy extras of. That was the same month I got a job, and I'm still working that same job to this very day (2+ years later).

Electric Mole was my first concert DVD, not just for Shiina Ringo, but for any artist. The interruptions are annoying, but it's arguably the best setlist, and everyone was in their element.

Shiina Ringo was who got me into PE'Z, and by extension, the Japan Nite tour, then The Rodeo Carburettor and detroit7. Not to mention there's Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra, SOIL&"PIMP"SESSIONS, Asai Kenichi, and Heart Bazaar. Even when I run out of Shiina Ringo products to buy, there's always other good music to spend money on (so I have continued incentive to work full-time). Though I've branched out even further than that, Shiina Ringo was a very good center point for someone who wasn't familiar with other Japanese artists, aside from videogame composers (who some would argue aren't 'real' artists).

Statements like these make me cry a little inside. I do not want this thread off topic, but just know there are jigen tears on the keyboad...

omg
this was so cute
XD

I am an avid fighting game fan, especially 2D ones. I've been into Guilty Gear for years and when I got Guilty Gear XX, I-no became my favorite character almost instantly. So, out of curiousity, I look up info about I-no and find out she's based on some chick named Shiina Ringo. For some reason, I just overlook that. I do, however, get into Brian Eno, who is a possible influence for I-no's name. So my chance at getting into Shiina Ringo was missed right there.

Fast forward to one day nearly a year later when I am feeling completely sick and can't go to work or school. I'm not tired enough to sleep so I go on my computer browsing I-no fan art. I look up her Wikipedia article again and find out that not only is she based on Shiina Ringo in appearance, but she shares her birthday and guitar. So I think "Wow, this Shiina Ringo chick must be pretty rocking too to inspire a character like that." So I began my path to discovering Shiina Ringo...

When I look up new artists, I usually search YouTube to see if I can find anything since I don't have last.fm or anything else to download music. So the first thing that comes up is her infamous Honnou video. I like it. I don't love it, but I like it. Now I'm a very picky person when it comes to vocals. I won't even listen to the band Rush because I can't stand Geddy Lee's voice. So her vocals don't strike me as particularly "pleasant" but for some reason, I'm drawn in because they have a certain edge to them. She seems genuine. Plus I really like the video. So I'm still curious and the search continues.

I find the Kabukichou no Joou PV and listen. Damn, I kinda like this song. I listen again. And again. By the time I discover that I really love this song, I've already listened to it nine times. And I can't stop listening to it. It's like the song grabbed a hold of me and commanded me to hear it over and over and over again. Wow, this is some good shit. I wonder what else she's done?

Then I heard Tsumi to Batsu and was done for. I didn't stand a chance. It just floored me. And the rest, as they say, is history. :)

I discovered SR at a time in my life when I was sick of western music, having played it for most of my life. I had begun to discover Japanese music and enjoyed its unique characteristics, most importantly the melding of nondiatonic harmonies and other classical influences with rock, the Japanese enjoyment of "crispy" sounds rather than "round" sounds, and increasingly creative production values.

So I regularly scoured rotations and forums where J-/K-music was shared, and ended up downloading La Salle de Bain from a rotation because the description struck me as interesting. I listened to it and thought it was one of the most interesting songs I had heard in a long time. She was doing crazy creative things with her voice, the harmonies were complex and thoroughly interesting, the lyrics were twisted and dark and bizarre, the arrangement was fantastic... and on the bottom line, everything added up to a tremendous piece of music. When I found out that (unlike so many artists) she had written that song herself my respect for her shot through the roof, and I started trying to track down more of her music.

The next thing I found was KSK. I remember exactly what I was doing and where I was when I pushed play for the first time. But my initial reaction to KSK has already been well-documented. So I'll just say the rest was history.

ps freckle, misako -- I adore Maaya!

Actually, she's named after Luna Sea's Inoran. It's just that nobody knows who the hell he is.

Wow. Didn't know that actually. You learn something new every day...

I discovered SR looking for new stuff to download at jpopsuki.... back in 2006 I think...a little late I agree...but better late than never!

You discovered her before me... I discovered her in the spring of 07. So you are doing better than me. I just wonder what song did you first hear by her that made you say, "yea this is my style"?

Hmmm, when my friends were vaguely into DDR circa 2000ish I d/led a DDR track called 'kofukuron'. It wasn't a very good DDR track but I liked the music :)

wc.

lol

Utada Hikaru

damn you

"I won't last a day without you"

and then I forget why I ended up downloading KSK, but needless to say, it should be obvious from there.

what? Koufukuron was a DDR song??

My theater work in Shimokitazawa in '02 rekindled an interest in Japanese music (I was a big YMO fan long ago) when an actor played some Cornelius. I realized that not all Japanese contemporary music was disposable robo-pop. To cut to the chase, one day while websurfing I came across a site that described various singers and groups and I was really impressed by the description of Cocco. And the first words of that article were "Flag bearer for many artists like Shiina Ringo and Yaida Hitomi who make music by reaching deep into their heart..." and boom, I decided to concentrate on the music of talented Japanese female singer/songwriters. Simple as that.

Wow that was awesome. YMO plus cornelius? Thats pretty awesome my friend. Too bad my story is not that cool. But I like your taste in music. But I am a j-music addict... unfortunately, so I love robo-pop (FUCKING perfume, nocchi I am your shining knight!)

I do love Halcali, who teeter on the edge of my definition of robo-pop, being a manufactured band with just about no say in the production of their music. And I'm a huge Puffy fan, 30 albums and singles, front row at three concerts, heck, my name is Amifan on some other forums. But they are totally not robo-pop, amd I will happily excoriate any naysayer with a barrage of unassailable truths in whichever forum is appropriate.

^ Puffy is the truth

shuraba really hooked me, like a fish, i can still remember

Hi, i really discover Shiina's world with "Sounan video. it was great! ^^ so after it I decided to be really interested in the ancient works of Ringo.
the video clips had a important part for me. Finally i'm fond of shiina and tokyo jihen since 2004 ^^

I have yet to post in this thread, so here goes. There are a couple of things that came together to lead me to Shiina. First, there was the start of my interest in Japanese music. Mine did not come via anime or video games or anything like that. Rather, a friend was into the Pillows and had collected the majority of their music and gave me the whole set of mp3s. I'd say that for two years or so I would listen to the occassional song by them but that was it. Eventually, slowly, their music sank in and I began listening to them quite a bit. Since I liked their music more than contemporary American music, I started to search out other Japanese acts, although focusing on male singers. Most of the female singers I saw on YouTube seemed to be cutesy J-Pop fare, which is fine for some, but not really my style.

At the same time I was becoming very proficient at tracking down mp3s and, being a Beatles nut, was searching for a lot of Beatles and solo Beatles music. I collect Beatles records, but records didn't transfer to my new (at the time) iPod easily. (It's not too difficult either, but with the logistics of moving my stereo equipment close to my computer and then paying for software to make the transfer process smoother, it was a better option to just find the counterparts to my vinyl already on the internet.) Anyway, my Ringo Starr searches kept pulling up Shiina Ringo, but for the longest time I never even gave her a listen because I assumed she would be more of the cutesy J-Pop. Poor sad Digdad.

Enter Tokyo Jihen. I don't even remember how, but I came across the OSCA video on YouTube and thought it was refreshing in how out there it was. Finding rocking jazzy funk in Japanese was just what the doctor ordered. I looked up a bit about the band and was surprised to find out it was Shiina Ringo. The same Shiina Ringo I wrote off so quickly before. Again, poor sad Digdad. I also found out that she had done a Beatles and a John Lennon cover. Not only that, but the Beatles cover was not a typical love song, oh no, it was Yer Blues. Done and sold. So I quickly began tracking down her material via YouTube and mp3 sites. While my initial introduction to her was OSCA, the first music of hers that I really began to listen to extensively and get incredibly hooked on were first Shouso Strip and then Muzai Moratorium. It was only later after several listens that KSK began to sink into my psyche and overtake her other albums as my favorite.

seems like no one was there...

i was in a bar in shinjuku getting pissed off at all the smap and other obnoxious j-pop crap that was blasting out from a tv hanging from the ceiling while i was trying to have a beer and talk to my co-workers. and the in slapped me in the face... honnou. at that time i was pretty convinced that music was dead in japan. i had never heard anything remotely interesting that had been done in the last two decades... seemed like inoue yousui, morita douji, and arai yumi were about the only thing that were really worth listing to from japan.

but her voice and the music caught my attention, and then i saw the video. damn. it kind of haunted me for a couple of days and then i saw a cm on tv. and then i went out and found muzai.

i'm really glad she's blossomed musically. expanding, changing, evolving.

she kind of inspired me to dig around a bit, and i found a few real artists (e.g., yamazaki masayoshi) on the japanese music scene.

thanks ringo.


way too heavy for a girl...
i see, so she just smoked the "wrong kind" of cigarettes...
you must be japanese. "women's cigarettes"? gimme a break. is this anything like men's pocky? and "as we know" ... really? we know that...
no we don't. there aren't any cigarettes that are "ok" to smoke, for men OR women. and the nicotine is not what screws up you voice. everything else in the cigarette screws up your body and voice, nicotine just keeps you coming back for more...

I seen Honnou and it was just a combination of all my favourite things in life. NURSES, GIRL ON GIRL ACTION, BRUTAL MUSIC! I fell in love!

There's something disturbing about your avatar, but I can't just nail what it is. I guess it's Ringo's disappointed look, like she's forgotten her lunchbox on the Marunouchi line or something.

Definetely.

i think it's the word *ANAL* written across it ?

No, it can't be.
It's definetely the look on ther face.

ON-TOPIC:
It's not the same look I saw on her face when I first discovered Ringo.

I have not yet replied in this thread so i'll try put it shortly how I did discover her.

I had just moved to new house and I had all my CDs and everything still packed somewhere. I was browsing through some websites and saw this graphic site with tiny mp3 rotation aswell. There was around five songs shared which all had the same name but different performers. That's how I heard Tsumi to Batsu by Ringo for the very first time. I didn't have anything else really to listen from the computer and Tsumi to Batsu seemed a little odd for me, so I kept on listening to it.
And so on.. I had became fan.

I started writing my story but it was getting too tl;dr so here's an easy to follow flow chart. There will be a test later on.

1. Chance encounter with Meisai PV. I like :). Will check her out.↵

• Some googling later-

2. 30 seconds sample of Koko de Kiss Shite. I hate <_<. Alanis Morissette knockoff. bye bye Shiina Ringo.↵

• A month later-

3. Chance encounter with Tsumi to Batsu PV. I like :). Will check her out again.↵

• Later that day-

4. Mayonaka ha Junketsu single. I like but it's not really my style :mellow:. k bye again.↵

• A few weeks later-

5. Chance encounter with La Salle De Bain PV. I love :D.

somewhere between stages 2 and 5 I also watched the Honnou PV (:rolleyes:) which I didn't like but it wasn't enough to drive me away again.

By then it got through my thick skull what a versatile artist she is and that I need to be more serious about exploring her music so I downloaded her discography and the rest is history!

^ so far that one is best "how did we first discover..?" story on this thread, what i've been reading.

Though I wouldn't relate Shiina with Morisette really xD

It's really the intro to the song... I admit I didn't make that association when I first heard it- I read it somewhere on the web and it clicked. All I knew back then is that I really didn't like it because it sounded like an imitation of some sort.

^ Well I own one album by Morisette, i'll listen through and compare then! Or can you tell exact song which sounds alike?