2011-2012 Jihen Releases & Tour Discussion

[Nimh]

I don't think we can discount the possibility that Shiina Ringo might just be totally bugfuck nuts.

[deadgrandma]

Originally Posted by Nimh

I don't think we can discount the possibility that Shiina Ringo might just be totally bugfuck nuts.

I certainly hope so

[clakaz]

I just want to add two words on the "end of the world" stuff. It's not literal, off course. The meaning it's more on the line of "defining moments" that make you forget "mundane" things and change perspective about yourself and the world you live. "Kono yo no kagiri" (the end
/limits of this world) actually is a song that talk about it, that the ending of this world is too the beginning of other world. I.e., transition, change of perspectives, values and all the feelings that it brings: nostalgia, fear, hope. "Sayonara, Hajimemashite" (goodbye, nice to meet you), says the song (same phrase appear on Noudouteki, by the way)
Off course this "defining moments" sometimes are marked by death and tragedy, like 9/11 and the recent earthquake. Changes are changes, nobody never said that it has to be for the good.

[frecklegirl]

Let's get some facts straight...

Ringo married Junji in November 2000. (that would have been pretty soon after she discovered she was pregnant)
She gave birth July 2001. (Mayonaka wa Junketsu was released in March, and she had concealed the fact that she was pregnant from the people working on the PV while filming it. After they found that out, she was scolded and they made it an animated PV)
She divorced Junji in January 2002.

It looks like several jmusic wiki sites have reported the facts wrong which has led to the misconceptions (also, for some reason, this information isn't on the English wiki page at all).

Now for the interview snippets. There has been a lot of discussion about these passages, and actually I would really like to read the whole interview (maybe I need to seriously think about acquiring these sorts of magazines for myself), so I thought I'd provide a translation not a summary of them.

I don't really enjoy translating interviews because people kind of ramble and sentences go on forever which makes them harder to parse and understand, so I'm open to suggestions/corrections especially from Japanese speakers/those who have studied Japanese longer than me.

Originally Posted by Nimh

“女の子は誰でも”は、椎名林檎の素顔のスタンダードナンバーである。私たちの多くが椎名林檎を知ったのは大ヒットアルバム「無罪モラトリアム」「勝訴ストリップ」の代表される初期ソロ時代である。しかし、それはアイデンティティの確立に悩む思春期の表現であり、彼女本人にとって永遠にスタンダードな音楽ではなかった。しかしこの曲には、思春期以前から彼女の中にある「女の子は誰でも」感じることが描かれているのである。服部隆之によるビッグバンドアレンジと東京事変のバンドサウンドが両立することによってその世界は始めて形になった

"Onna no Ko wa Dare demo" is a standard number of Ringo Shiina's frankness. The Ringo Shiina we largely knew is from her early solo era as represented by the hit albums "Muzai Moratorium," "Shouso Strip." But as that was an expression of puberty worrying about establishing an identity, that wasn't perpetually standard music for the person herself. However, this song depicts feeling the "girl is anyone" inside her since puberty. Due to the coexistence of a big-band arrangement by Takayuki Hattori and the Tokyo Jihen band sound, that world is given shape for the first time.

Originally Posted by Nimh

急にリボンとかハートとかが好きになっちゃって、最近。自分が創った椎名林檎っていうブランド自体は、自分がキャラクターっていうか、ブランディングしてったところがあると思うんですよ。それはもちろん自分の中にないものではなくて。ただその時にだったものは、本気で私生活でも嫌うっていう徹底したブランディングで自分を殺してきたようなところがあると思うので、実際に苦しかっただろうし。煙草とかもそういうの一環だったのかもしれなくて。よくよく煙草と私っていうのを考えてやめて。そしたら女性ホルモン。。。。ほんとに肉体的なものなんでしょうね。それもあると思います

Lately I've suddenly fallen in love with things like bows and hearts. I do think that the "Ringo Shiina" brand I created myself, which you might call a "character" I do, has undergone "branding" itself. That's not to say, of course, that it isn't inside me. Just what happened at that time was very difficult in reality, as I do think I'd been sort of killed by the thoroughly carried out branding that "I truly hate even in my private life." The cigarettes and so on might have been linked to all that. Quitting when I thought about cigarettes and who I was. Then female hormones.... We're really corporeal things, aren't we. I think that's there too.

[fluffiethesock]

Could someone please update the first post/title to include the new release date for the single?

[so_cold]

^ Thanks very much for the translation, Freckle.

[D.K.Liu]

Thanks frecklgirl for the translation.

And I just realized that Nimh had to type up those Japanese passages...

It appears from frecklgirl's translation that SR acknowledges that the 'characters' she took on came from within herself. Actually, looking back... Nimh mentioned it as well

though she can't deny actually being some of the things she was "branded" as being.

No doubt, she felt a need to change, but that doesn't automatically mean she is disowning everything she did.

[jackmanca]

Frecklegirl, thank you so much for translating this <3

[frecklegirl]

Originally Posted by fluffiethesock

Could someone please update the first post/title to include the new release date for the single?

Not really necessary... the single is basically out so it's time to move discussion of it to the Product Reviews thread.

This thread will stay open as a place to discuss the tour only. Any single discussion will get moved to the PR thread. Thanks for your understanding

[Maou]

Everything that I can't stand
Watches me and slaps my hand
Take me to the promised land

So expose me. I ain't growing up again.
Unload the years. I ain't growing up again.
And the shriii-ee-i-ee-i-ine sighs

Let's go, Gorbachev!
Take another trip (Blowing up) 'cause I've started to rip (Blowing up)
And when I get a big hit (Blowing up) I'll be totally ripped (Blowing up)
And if I make a mistake (Blowing up) I'll fly away (Blowing up) home
And I'm blowing up the mystical I'm blowing up the myth that's all around


And yes that was relevant.