[TJ] 2007.09.26 - Variety (CD) [Album]

[justriiingo]

Originally Posted by frecklegirl

- "Kronekodow" is definitely actually from the POV of the black cat. XDD I find this adorable. It sounds so haughty and indifferent towards humans--just like a real cat.

Maybe SR read this book.


It's something I've been wanting to read but I never got down to it.

[Lena-chan]

@JR
O.O this book seems so cute, I want to read it too >3<

@freckles
OMG thanks again!!! O____O

[Cosmo!]

Thanks for the translations, freckle! I really like the Kronekodow lyrics.

[EmilScherbe]

Originally Posted by justriiingo

Maybe SR read this book.


It's something I've been wanting to read but I never got down to it.

The author Natsume Soseki was the man of 1000 yen note from 1984 to 2004.
He is a kind of writer of literature class or recommend book list in middle or high school.
But I also was recommened to read his works in University
as a study of Japanese thought during modernization process in Meiji period.
(The problem here is that honesty said I skipped it.)

[frecklegirl]

We read Kokoro junior year of high school. (I didn't like it. The translation was also really dry.)

[D.K.Liu]

Hi all,

My first encounter with SR/TJ is through Entertainment/Variety, and I like it a lot. However, the most visible opinion around here seems to be that their earlier works are better, especially Shiina's solo albums. I have only known SR/TJ for about 10 days so you'll have to bear with my ignorance.

Anyway, while surfing the net and browsing this forum, I found the English speaking fans/community to be relatively info starved due to the language barrier. I myself can not speak Japanese, and I have to rely on Chinese and English sources.

I found a series of interviews with TJ on the emi website that has been translated into Chinese. I haven't been able to locate English versions, so I decided to translate them for the benefit of English speaking fans.

I've finished the first draft of the interview dated Sep 28 Fri 2007 on "Entertainment (Variety)" (with Shiina, Ukigumo, Izawa, Hata). The whole thing is about 2000 words. I'm attaching it as a text file.

If anyone speaks Japanese and knows the original interview, it would be fun to see how accurate my translations are. To be honest, there are many passages that didn't quite make sense to me in the Chinese translation, so don't jump to conclusions about any of the characters in the interview, things were lost/altered/added in translation. I haven't bothered to proof read ... I'll do it some other day.

D.K.Liu

[Tokyo Jihad]

Originally Posted by Shiina

Since when I was small, I only liked music that would never appear on TV, it's a stubborn-rebellious spirit that I've always had, there's no helping it. Even so, I hope people can listen to our work with joy.

Yet I believe many of us said Variety sounded like game show music.

Originally Posted by Ukigumo

Yeah, you can never tire of listening to this album.

Oh, Uki. You so cray-zeh.

Originally Posted by Izawa

And it feels alright being able to straddle the edge of J-pop.

I used to think Izawa was so cool. =( Remember that Izawa that headbanged while he mimed playing he pre-recorded track to Shuraba in one of Phase 2's first tv performances? What happened to that kinda spirit?

I really don't like this band. I agree with there "method" used in recording Variety (excepting the no-Shiina song stuff which is the #1 reason why its worst) -- however the sounds this band produces apparently....is cheezy. Thats the word I think I've been searching for for along time to describe Variety. Cheezy.

[D.K.Liu]

There are 4 more interviews on the emi website that I hope to eventually translate. Unfortunately for Tokyo Jihad, they are probably going to remind him much he dislikes SR/TJ's latest work.

The subject of the interviews are as follows:

1. OSCA (Shiina, Ukigumo, Izawa) 18 Jul 2007
2. Sakuran (Shiina) 03 Aug 2007
3. Killer Tune (Shiina, Ukigumo, Izawa) 22 Aug 2007
4. Senkou Shoujo (Shiina, Kameda) 22 Nov 2007

Which one do you guys want to see first? Or if you know an English translation exist already for any of these, tell me so I can save myself the trouble.

D.K.Liu

[HEDOfloe]

I was listening to all the Variety era songs yesterday and I was really disappointed at the album. I really really liked the b-sides and it's a shame that most of what was on the album wasn't as good as the b-sides were. I really, really still like BB Queen. It reminds me of the album version of Koufukuron. Also, I know she's been with the whole jazz thing recently, but I think songs like BB Queen and OSCA show that she definitely has not lost her edge vocally, at least. I think if she were handed rock music to sing to instead of pop, she'd be just as good as she ever was. I really liked Fukushuu, for example, even though it wasn't the kind of rock most people here would probably go for.

[Tokyo Jihad]

That's funny, cuz I was just listening to Variety too. At first I hated it, then I softened up a bit towards it....now I'm back to hating it again. Fukushuu is great, as unpopular as it may make me I still like Botoumin, Metro and Tsukigime-hime are cute, Shiseikatsu is ok. But the rest are pretty dreadful. I just noticed how paper thin of a song Ramp is, for example. While I wouldn't say OSCA is a great example of singing, if she wasn't being handed rock songs to sing, maybe she should tell them to at least re-work their songs a bit (Izawa).

or y'know, write her own songs (and/or kick everyone out.)