[TJ] 2010.07.28 - Tengoku e Youkoso/Dopamint! (Online) [Single]

[Glathannus]

Interesting.
It's not an EMI or Kronekodow release.

[MagicSword!]

Hmmm, I like both tracks, but they feel like the kind of tracks you'd put out for a tv theme and cm, I suppose.

I don't know if I should jump in on the SR/TJ/P1/P2 ruckus. I have strong views about it, but reading all this stuff ends up depressing me. Someone said "I just want something that matters!" Well, y'know, maybe Adult matters to some people in a way that SS or even KZK never did. Then again, this is the internet. This kind of ranting is what it's FOR.

Personally I really agree that phase one had more darkness, sexuality and power than phase two. That said I can't believe that people think that they're a tighter, more mutually sympathetic band than phase 2. The interplay between the current members is really incredible. Watching them play live and then realising that the recorded versions are so free from overdubs (on many songs ) is really fucking impressive. Ringo-chan wanted to play in a band, and now they really fucking sound like a band. Like five people playing in a room, and that's always been one of the big things that TJ have going for them in my opinion.

For me Sports is up there with the phase one album. It's certainly better than Adult or Variety and a million miles ahead of Sanmon Gossip.

Bu-whadda-I-know?

[ShadyNook]

Originally Posted by MagicSword!

I don't know if I should jump in on the SR/TJ/P1/P2 ruckus. I have strong views about it, but reading all this stuff ends up depressing me.
For me Sports is up there with the phase one album. It's certainly better than Adult or Variety and a million miles ahead of Sanmon Gossip.

Bu-whadda-I-know?

Escape this place while you can!

[Scribble R]

Originally Posted by ShadyNook

Escape this place while you can!

Seconded. =P

(Sports is not a million miles ahead of Sanmon Gossip, thank you very much. =P)

In the meantime, you can look at Shiina. She was interviewed yesterday about some theatre thing

White Apple

And the Ultra C previews are coming next week (tomorrow), I think.

[Masuku]

^when you said white apple i first thought of the postponed iphone 4 white xD

i like her blonde hair there a lot, she looks younger again. Looking for the previews !

[Tokyo Jihad]

The following is a side-track, but it was just some thoughts of mine.

Originally Posted by Maou

I know I'm in the minority on this one, but I also can't stand what they did with Souretsu.

This is a minor pothole which went down a long road in my head. Of course I don't agree, but that's not the point. The point is that the Virgin Line Souretsu was the climactic moment for phase 2 for me. A moment where they would never reach again and would drop from surprisingly soon.

To say Phase 2 was outright rejected by the older core of fans is completely wrong. There was skepticism at worst. For myself, at the time I was punch drunk with the idea that Shiina could do no wrong. KZK/EM was amazing, and DO was a monolith coming out of Kyouiku's initially underwhelming impressions. I expected HzM's exit, and was definitely disappointed by Hirama's, but was sold when Shuraba came around. When Adult leaked, I was more than pleased, and the forum came around eventually. Himitsu comes in with it's thick, heavy beat -- a worthy variation on the original. Yukiguni's eerieness and a true epic coming from the newcomer Izawa in Tegami. Even though the weak spots were already showing, I remember immediately thinking, "this guitarist is really not doing much for these songs." namely on Superstar (which in spite of it being a guitar driven song with a weak guitar track, I still adored.) and Toumei Ningen -- what had happened?? On DO, I thought the song could have been a singles contender, and now sounds like a parody. Toumei Ningen aside, there were few gripes.

Then came Virgin Line. "Phase 1" on record vs. live were completely different beasts, some of the newer fans and forumites maybe can't appreciate this being that on cursory glance, Kyouiku is the main legacy of the band. But on stage, the band truly thrived. So to see the new Jihen live was certainly a time to be taking notes. They boldly opened that so with "Souretsu." Mood, atmosphere, weight, all were almost perfectly translated on stage in that moment. I was about as floored as the first time I cued up Dynamite Out. For just a moment, phase 2 was poised to surpass the original Jihen, magnanimous feat. An even more ambitious, serious act. The follow-up to that song they played the retooled Gunjo Byori, which I thought was pretty brilliant. The chorus made the performance, and I can appreciate the variation. However, at the end of that song, the band fell off a cliff.

Kabuki was unassuming enough, but very soon after came "Service." That performance was crushing. Choreographed dancing. Every bandmate dancing, singing, gyrating. Shiina prancing around in neko ears. How was this the same band? The big finale? Toumei Ningen...and would be the bands finale song for years to come. It wound up being a statement that the atmosphere, the performance, the art of Souretsu at the beginning was to be left behind in favor of the "Toumei Ningen sound" at the finale. That sound would prove to be the future of Tokyo Jihen as displayed Variety (and still felt today.) The imagery of Shuraba and it's video lost to commercial cheek and pandering (like OSCA) or outright advertisement (Senkou Shoujo.) Years later, it would prove ominous that Shuraba's release was used in advertisement, as would every subsequent Jihen/Shiina release. (I realize the culture is different, but if every release is yielding a sort of commercial cash in, you have to break out that two word stamp of artistic dissaproval.)

I don't understand "nu-fans" and more than they understand those mean old hater's point of view, but I will try to explicate, at the very least, my stand. The band launched with every bad point on Adult. Aside from Ningen's duck-noises and "plunk-plunk" guitarsmenship, there was also the problem of "keshou Naoushi." Not the worst song, and certainly worked in context of Adult, but it was the first in what I see as "stereotype songs." It's one thing to take a genre and put your own spin on it, take some aspects and infuse your song with it. However this, and future songs, felt like Shiina sat at her desk, checked Wikipedia for "musical genres", picked the least commercially used one and pieced a song together using some of the most used conventions applicable. What you wind up with is a largely soulless song with the band hamming it up and Shiina whining her way through it. The contrast of this would be a song like "Sakana." Not a true "genre song" as it definiteltfits with the rest of SS, but definitely infused with different sensibilities. See also Ichijiku no Hana (though it wound up being too big of a departure from the KZK sound, still definitely comes from the same mold as every other Shiina song to that point.) The last blemish on Adult that wound up being a band trademark came from "Blackout" -- outright unoriginality.

Familiarity can be forgiven some times. But the most unforgivable of aspect of the disparity between phase 2 and the phase 2 at the very beginning of Virgin Line was the lack of sincerity. Until then, it felt like the band was purpose driven, like they wanted to instill a feeling, a mood, weight upon the audience. Even trying to cheer the audience up, make them happy takes sincerity that phase 2 lacked. Sincerity in message and sincerity to the song. Sincerity in a song like Killer Tune would not undercut the song by having a crippling solo. Sincerity would have the vaudeville style influence a song like Kronekodow, rather than dictating the song. Sincerity in a song would never remind you to buy a pack of gum or a t-shirt.

Granted, Sports has the band cutting at least some of the crap, and Kimaru truly kicks ass, but look at the reception it got. Besides the prevailing sycophants, it was too un-noteworthy for the new fans and "not enough" for the old fans and even today is still less discussed than any other TJ album. A resounding "meh." This release seems to indicate a complete relapse to Variety, but the reason Kimaru works: there is some subtlety, some atmosphere, some feeling evoked in the listener -- what a good band should be able to do. A step back towards that Souretsu.

TL;DR: Halfway through Domestic Virgin Line, the band started to suck and forever was.

[Ringo~Bingo]

Originally Posted by Tokyo Jihad

Sincerity in a song would never remind you to buy a pack of gum or a t-shirt.

That's pretty much it.

I'm glad people like you can put how I feel into a post in a way I can't.

Shit had me in tears bro.

[MagicSword!]

Originally Posted by Scribble R

(Sports is not a million miles ahead of Sanmon Gossip, thank you very much. =P)

You're absolutely right, that was me failing outright to keep sane and not get too serious and hyperbolic. Sorry about that. Sports is ahead of Sanmon Gossip for me, but only a little.

Mea culpa, sorry.

[Masuku]

making of for watering kiss mint

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAo5vsSXH18

[gekokujyo]

^^But....Sports was awesome!