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Associated Artists Hirama, H ZETT M, PE'Z, appa, Petrolz, etc.
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Old 2009.07.25, 08:20 AM   #1
Beltshumeltz
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Default Can people show me the Solo/other_band stuff from Tokyo Jihen's musicians?

I don't even know the names or who the other guys are other than Shiina Ringo. Could you guys post videos showing their other acts, whether solo or as another band?
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Old 2009.07.25, 10:11 AM   #2
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there is a search feature.
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Old 2009.07.25, 10:27 AM   #3
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Some of the members of Tokyo Jihen wouldn't be even remotely famous if they weren't riding Shiina Ringo's coat tails. To an extent, some of their own solo projects or other bands are still very obscure, and thus very difficult to find on YouTube.

So what I'm going to do is explain the scope of everyone's career, so if something can't be found on YouTube, you'll have a pretty good idea why.

Izawa Keitaro (the current pianist of Tokyo Jihen),
has a band called Appa, consisting of Izawa providing songwriting/vocals/piano, then there's a drummer and a stand-up bassist. They have no singles, no DVDs, but they have a couple of albums or EPs - most of which are extremely difficult to find available for purchase (only one of their releases has ever been distributed by any major retailers). I highly doubt you will ever find any video clips for that band. Perhaps some still-images with CD tracks playing in the background. Appa is too indie to have any PVs, whether those PVs would ever be available for purchase or not.

Ukigumo (the current guitarist of Tokyo Jihen),
has a band called Petrolz, consisting of songwriting/vocals/guitar from Ukigumo, plus there's a drummer and a bass guitarist. Petrolz have a few not-exactly-legitimate concert video clips here and there, and nothing else. To this day they have never made a studio album. The very few albums or EPs you can buy are from concerts they have never sold any videos for. There are no Petrolz DVDs. Their studio singles are so rare that they've never been heard by Shiina Ringo's international fanbase. Petrolz is too indie to have any PVs, whether those PVs would ever be available for purchase or not. On YouTube you are more likely to find Tokyo Jihen concert clips with Ukigumo in them, instead of anything for Ukigumo's career outside of Tokyo Jihen.

Hirama Mikio, or "Micky" (the first guitarist of Tokyo Jihen),
has a solo career where he provides his own vocals, most of the guitar-playing, most of his own drumming, and all of his own songwriting. Hirama has next to nothing on YouTube. As far as I know, Hirama has never fronted anything other than his own solo career, though he has been a guitarist for other bands. Maybe you can find a PV for one of the worst songs of his career, and maybe you can catch glimpses of his supporting role within other bands such as MONORAL. He has 4 studio albums (at least two of which weren't creatively started until after Hirama left Tokyo Jihen), 1 studio EP, no singles (unless an audio cassette counts), and no DVDs. None of his solo productions are rare except the EP (called Beautiful View). Hirama is so indie that he only has 1 PV that I know of, despite the fact that he has four albums that are very much accessible from a retail vantage point. As with Ukigumo, on YouTube you are more likely to find Tokyo Jihen concert clips with Hirama in them, instead of anything for Hirama's career outside of Tokyo Jihen.

HZM, or Hiizumi Masayuki, or "H ZETT M" (the first pianist/keyboardist of Tokyo Jihen),
had been the sort of second-in-command of an instrumental jazz/samba band called PE'Z. The trumpeter ("B.M.W.") would write most of the songs, while HZM would write the rest, and HZM would on rare occasion provide the only vocals PE'Z ever had. This band already had more its own reputation before HZM's association with Tokyo Jihen, compared to the amount of reputation any other solo career or band had after one of their people became a Tokyo Jihen member.

PE'Z has 7 original studio albums, 1 cover album, 1 remix album, 2 concert albums, 2 compilations, 5 EPs, 5 singles, 2 PV volumes, 2 concert DVDs, and 3 Dynamite In-like DVDs (the kind of DVD with an identity crisis where it doesn't know if it wants to be a concert or a documentary), and no bonus DVDs.

So it should go without saying that if you want to find YouTube clips for PE'Z, you wouldn't have to look very hard even if HZM had never joined Tokyo Jihen. HZM teaming up with Shiina Ringo almost qualifies Tokyo Jihen (Phase 1) to be considered a "supergroup", more than anyone else joining Tokyo Jihen. His existing career with PE'Z was already too important for him to be spending a lot of time with Tokyo Jihen, and that's probably the biggest reason why he eventually left Tokyo Jihen. You can't say the same thing about the weight of Hirama's other career, which gives rise to theories like "Shiina Ringo and Hirama were romantically or sexually involved, and after that was over it was too awkward for Hirama to stay in the band".

But I'm not finished talking about PE'Z yet.

Later on PE'Z hooked up with a vocalist/guitarist named suzumoku, and the band name changed to pe'zmoku. Prior to this, the only vocals PE'Z had were from HZM, and not very often. Now they are like a bizarro version of their former selves, in that they now have vocals most of the time, and now their instrumentals are as rare as their vocals used to be. Ever since pe'zmoku was formed, there have never been anymore non-moku PE'Z releases. pe'zmoku has so far released 1 album (with an optional bonus DVD), 2 EPs, 2 singles, and no standalone DVDs yet. They are starting to gain international attention due to being featured in the Bleach anime.

I'm still not done yet. HZM has too much history.

Awhile after leaving Tokyo Jihen, HZM started up his own solo act under the name of "H ZETT M", where he provides the vocals (whenever there are any), all the piano-playing, and all of the songwriting. Surprisingly his solo-career vocals are far better than any vocals we ever heard from him in PE'Z, and you get to hear them in at least half of his solo-career songs. Throughout the course of his solo-career, "H ZETT M" has released 2 albums (each with optional bonus DVDs), no singles or EPs, 1 concert DVD, and no standalone PV collections (a couple of PVs can be found throughout his bonus DVDs). He is still an active member of pe'zmoku, but his status within the band is unknown. If he was sort of kind of the second-in-command before suzumoku joined, is HZM the third-in-command now? Does HZM write any songs for pe'zmoku? Does he ever provide anymore vocals? I'm not sure, because I haven't delved too deeply into their works yet.

Kameda Seiji (the bassist of Tokyo Jihen),
is involved with dozens of artists, either as a producer, arranger, studio bassist, or possibly all three. Because he operates more behind-the-scenes, and for far too many acts (rather than fronting a band or two), there's really nothing for him on YouTube worth linking to. It should be noted though, that he was professionally involved with Shiina Ringo for many years before Tokyo Jihen was ever formed. His involvement dates to as far back as Muzai Moratorium, and perhaps some its preceding singles. While he might be super-duper busy with the many artists he helps out, as far as I know Tokyo Jihen is the only act he currently performs on-stage with. He might do a little songwriting for acts other than Tokyo Jihen, but I don't think he has a lot of time for that.

Hata Toshiki (the drummer of Tokyo Jihen),
is involved with a handful of artists (nowhere near as many as Kameda), and one of them was Shiina Ringo's brother, Shiina Junpei. As far as I know, he never does any songwriting or vocals. He doesn't front anything.

---

Honorable mentions ("related" artists who have never been members of Tokyo Jihen):

Tomosaka Rie (debut vocalist for Shoujo Robot),
is a pop idol who never writes her own music, and Tomosaka Rie's music career didn't have a lot of prominence until Shiina Ringo started providing songwriting for her. Shiina Ringo has so far provided at least 6 different compositions for Tomosaka Rie, making her the most closely "related" individual artist outside of Tokyo Jihen. While Tomosaka Rie is not the only artist Shiina Ringo has given compositions to, for any other artist such as TOKIO it's only ever been like one song - making these other artists not very closely "related".

Tomosaka Rie isn't particularly great at singing, and she is rarely ever backed by any great instrumentalists, so primarily you'd be enjoying her idol body or the songwriting, if anything. Tomosaka Rie released quite a few average-quality JPop albums before Shiina Ringo came along, then after Shoujo Robot, Tomosaka Rie focused on her acting career for awhile - if you could call her a real actress (more like a RealActress). Toridori (released the same day as Sanmon Gossip) is the first music release from Tomosaka Rie in nearly a whole decade, and guess what? She didn't write any of that music either. Tomosaka Rie had some more help from her old friend, Shiina Ringo (among other people). Tomosaka Rie only has 3 Shiina Ringo related PVs, and who knows how many PVs associated with the average JPop from before that.

Asai Kenichi (guitarist of Tsumi to Batsu),
is nearly the most "related" individual artist you can find outside of Tokyo Jihen. He's been a guest guitarist for Shiina Ringo's solo career, and Shiina Ringo has been a guest vocalist for Asai Kenichi's solo career. He was also an early inspiration for her before they ever hooked up. They even ended up dating for awhile. Asai Kenichi has done more songwriting than all the members of Tokyo Jihen combined - including Shiina Ringo herself.

Between Asai Kenichi's solo career and his numerous bands (all of which he fronts), he has almost entirely penned at least 23 completely original studio albums, plus there's at least another 7 whole albums worth of EPs and rarities if you don't feature the same non-album tracks twice. Don't even get me started on how many compilations, concert albums, and DVDs are available. There's no shortage on YouTube of PVs and concert clips and still-image audio samples for Asai Kenichi's solo career and his various bands. He's made his mark on Japan at least, and there's nothing obscure about him over there. He's one of the very few Japanese songwriters (if not the only one) with the cultural credibility to advertise in Japan for Levi's denim. Right now he's a little more internationally obscure than Shiina Ringo, but that could change once he is featured on the Bleach anime later this year. (why are all these connected artists being featured on Bleach?)

---

I may edit this post later to include any video clips I can find. Just thought I'd offer you some background first, so you can assess the weight of each career.
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Old 2009.07.25, 03:14 PM   #4
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Petrolz has a few live videos on Youtube and nicovideo, and they released a mini album called EVE2009 on 12.31.08. They also just put out a studio single within the past two months.
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Old 2009.07.25, 03:41 PM   #5
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Originally Posted by Glathannus View Post
Hirama has next to nothing on YouTube.
Actually he has an official YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/mikiochannel
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Old 2009.07.25, 03:47 PM   #6
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hirama lacking footage on youtube is probably a good thing. his whatever AM Can You Touch It or whatever it was called PV made me puke a little bit in my mouth.
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Old 2009.07.25, 03:54 PM   #7
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Originally Posted by fluffiethesock View Post
Petrolz has a few live videos on Youtube and nicovideo, and they released a mini album called EVE2009 on 12.31.08. They also just put out a studio single within the past two months.
First of all, I wouldn't say that Petrolz 'has' anything on YouTube, but rather what I would say is that YouTube has Petrolz videos. Each arrangement of words implies something different. You say it as through Petrolz themselves have been pushers or enablers of making such footage very accessible, hence my phrase "not-exactly-legitimate". Even if many PVs appear on YouTube without an artist's permission, the fact is there was a push for that PV to get mass offline exposure before the footage could ever unofficially arrive on YouTube, so by broadcasting it or releasing it on DVD, the hypothetical artist has contributed more toward the video's accessibility than Petrolz ever have.

Petrolz don't have any PVs or DVDs, and any live clips you can find of them are TV rips (or amateur-made videocam recordings) being uploaded by different people. So I would say YouTube 'has' the videos more than Petrolz does, because the only Petrolz involvement seems to be that they performed at a certain time and place in view of a video camera, and perhaps they made arrangements for that footage to be broadcast on Japanese television once (if it was even their own camera), or maybe it was never on Japanese television at all. Totally different situation compared to content that more people have offline access to before some random unassociated person posts the footage on YouTube, and totally different than Petrolz uploading the footage themselves. If Petrolz do little or nothing to offer availability of themselves on video, they didn't do enough to 'have' whatever footage you've seen of them.

Also, if they have already released a studio single, I haven't seen it. There's something coming out in a few weeks though. Maybe that's what you're thinking of. They announced it before, as if it were going to be released in May, but it could have been postponed, because the August release has the exact same product number. Their newer announcement has a Tower link, while their previous announcement didn't mention any vendors in particular. Perhaps it was available at certain concerts early, but it won't be available to the wider public until August.

Originally Posted by huerta View Post
Actually he has an official YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/mikiochannel
That's new (to me at least). Last I checked, there was only an If You Can Touch It PV, and it was uploaded by someone else.
Okay, so six videos. That's about as good of marketing shape as Petrolz (through little or no promotional efforts of their own) are in, but at least Hirama is trying.
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Old 2009.07.25, 08:23 PM   #8
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the If You Can Touch it Video is great. =p
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Old 2009.07.25, 09:40 PM   #9
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yeah, if you like trannies with shitty vocals....
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Old 2009.07.25, 09:41 PM   #10
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i swear the drummer for one or two of mika nakashima concerts looks like hata but im not sure if it is him or not
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