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Old 2009.10.01, 04:44 PM   #81
Glathannus
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I haven't listened to Sphinx Rose (2009.09.30) yet, but it's looking like Sony is really milking the fans now.

Let me review the whole release process.

FRIENDLY was the first single for this latest.. wave of Asai Kenichi's solo career.

You could buy it with an Asai Kenichi figurine, but if you did so, you only got 3 tracks:
01. FRIENDLY
02. Bad Strawberries
03. SPRING SNOW

If you bought the single on its own, the tracks you got were:
01. FRIENDLY
02. Bad Strawberries
03. SPRING SNOW
04. SENSATIONAL ATTACK

This is alright if you're a moderate collector because all you're going to buy is the single on its own. But if you're serious enough to buy the figurine, you're also serious enough to buy the single on its own, because you don't want to miss out on SENSATIONAL ATTACK.

Okay, so now that the album is out and the tracklist has been made clear, here's what's on Sphinx Rose:
01. スケルトン
02. Mad Surfer (album ver.)
03. Your Smile
04. チーズバーガー
05. FRIENDLY
06. Runaway Girl
07. Bad Strawberries (album ver.)
08. 大きな木
09. COOLER
10. SENSATIONAL ATTACK
11. はかない命
12. 光のスクリュー
13. SPRING SNOW

If you're still following me here, basically anyone who bought the single on its own and bought the figurine.., well, they got really screwed. If you were getting the figurine, there was no ultimate gain for buying the single on its own because the album includes SENSATIONAL ATTACK.

But the outrage doesn't end there. No matter whether you bought one version or both versions of the single, the only unique music you got out of it is a non-album version of Bad Strawberries. If you bought the album once and the single twice, you've got a total of 5 tracks throughout your two singles, which are completely redundant. Plus you've got two copies of the non-album version of Bad Strawberries, plus one copy of the album version.

The release process wasn't this bad a couple of years ago, but Asai Kenichi seems to have shifted from one Sony subsidiary to another, and under the new management they are trying to trick the fans into triple-dipping now.

Admittedly Mad Surfer (the second single before the album) wasn't a wasteful thing to purchase. The A-side isn't the same version as what's on the album, and the B-side was completely unique. If you threw extra money at the Mad Surfer single, you could get a bonus DVD with several PVs on it which were not featured in the bonus DVD for the album.

So the Mad Surfer single - I'll give that a thumbs up.
But damn... there was so much corporate greed surrounding the FRIENDLY single.

I'm not going to be in any rush to pre-order his later singles.
You probably shouldn't be either.
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Old 2009.10.02, 03:06 PM   #82
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I don't understand what you're talking about, Glath, but as I'm currently 'getting into' Blankey Jet City/Asai Kenichi, I will do eventually.

I started with SKUNK because someone in the thread posted that it was Shiina's favourite or whatever. Well, I liked what I heard so I'm deciding to start that shit from the beginning and work my way up.
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Old 2009.10.02, 05:10 PM   #83
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Blankey Jet City takes awhile for a new listener to full digest. I'm barely into the familiarity phase where I could hear a song and tell you which album it came from, but I'll be damned if I have to remember all the specific song names.

The albums I can most distinctly remember, other than SKUNK (the very last of the original EMI studio albums), are the three later studio albums published by Universal - which are more surf rock than rockabilly.

The first album of Blankey Jet City sounds as much like SKUNK, as MM sounds like KSK. I prefer the remakes on THE SIX, over the originals from Red Guitar And The Truth. It's not a very polished album, and yet it is also not a very edgy album.

SKUNK was the definitive Blankey Jet City sound, before they took a 1-year break and started making surf rock. SKUNK was also just before the formation of SHERBETS.
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Old 2009.10.04, 05:16 AM   #84
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While I'm nowhere close to being as big a BJC fan as I am of Asai's other bands, I appreciate and listen to "BANG," "幸せの鐘が鳴り響き僕はただ悲しいふりをする," and "Harlem Jets" (to a certain extent) the most.

SKUNK never really appealed to me.


Regarding Sphinx Rose: Good, but as already noted, way too many non-exclusive tracks.
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Old 2010.01.04, 12:01 PM   #85
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I downloaded a lot of albums by his bands and as a solo artist. So I have about all his solo albums, about all from Blankey Jets City, and one or two as Sherbets.

I want to say that I find it unbelievable how consistently good I find his songs. I've listened to about 2 albums from each group and they are all quite different and excellent.

I'm now a huge fan!
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Old 2010.01.04, 05:49 PM   #86
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You have to listen to the rest of Sherbet(s). Their albums are consistently better than the rest of Asai Kenichi's bands/acts. I'm still digesting Miracle and Mad Disco (their latest two albums), and meanwhile their oldest albums still have plenty of replay value for me.

I've recently come to realize you (as an informed fan) have to put an (s) on Sherbet(s), because first they were Sherbet, then they were Sherbets - technically two different bands. Their first single and album were Sherbet releases - everything later on has been Sherbets. The difference was, they were signed under EMI and they had a second guitarist and no bassist. Then they changed record labels and swapped the second guitarist for a bassist. This makes their first album interesting in that it is their only double-guitar album. High School is the only double-guitar song they ever ended up doing later on, and that's from their keyboardist "pulling an Izawa".
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Old 2010.01.05, 11:46 AM   #87
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Thanks for the info.

By the way, I find it odd.. usually I'd feel some irrational jealousy that Shiina Ringo is boinking anyone. Just a sharp pain in my heart But it feels good knowing she boinked this guy, because I love his music.

*talks to his shrink*
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Old 2010.01.05, 07:06 PM   #88
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welllll, it's never been confirmed outright, I don't think. Just a strongly suspected rumor. But, kinda likely.
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Old 2010.01.05, 11:23 PM   #89
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Well, let's describe in detail how it might have happened then. Or is this against forum rules? heheh
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Old 2010.06.08, 10:51 AM   #90
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Looks like 2/3rds of Blankey Jet City have got back together as a new band.

PONTIACS will release a new CD, and they'll perform something at the Fuji Rock Festival this year.

But there are a few unanswered questions:
Does the CD consist of remakes (like AJICO unveiling their own version of Pepin), entirely new songs, or both?
How much of the Fuji Rock Festival concert will consist of old songs? If there are any old songs, will the setlist weigh heavily on Blankey Jet City material, or will it be a balanced combination from Asai Kenichi's other bands as well?
How long will the new band remain intact?
Will any concert performance of theirs ever get recorded and officially sold? (doesn't seem to happen with Fuji Rock Festival performances).

Hopefully we'll get answers later this year.
Meanwhile it's too bad I won't be in Japan in July. This is BIG.
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