Stuck In A Pagoda With Motoko Aoyama

Most of the stuff in the 50-single stack I acquired this week is enka or kayokyoku – styles I am most likely going to refer to for the purposes of this project as Traditional Japanese Pop (not to be confused with the modern J-Pop we all know, love, and follow). But a white label promo single that was amongst the stack caught my eye tonight because there was no artist, song, or label logo – just a catalog number and a mostly Japanese sentence which had the familiar letters EMI incorporated within.

A random Googling of the catalog number revealed that the single in question was by a band called Show-Ya. I Googled the group’s name and discovered that the group is an all-girl hair metal band – a Japanese equivalent of Vixen, if you will. Although I had a couple of early candidates for the first installment of this blog project that were more on the Traditional Japanese Pop side, this 45 was screaming to make a more left-field formal first offering.

The A-side is “Kodoku No Meiru (Rabirinsu)” (translation: “Maze of Isolation (Labyrinth)”), and its coupling track is “Uso Dado Iute Yo Moon Light” (very rough translation: “Saying That It’s A Lie In The Moon Light”). The Vixen reference is not an idle comparison either – they do remind me of the one-hit wonders that foisted “Edge Of A Broken Heart” on the American public in the second half of the 80′s, but both sides of the single give the appearance of a band that seemed a lot stronger musically than Vixen. Lead vocalist Keiko Terada in particular has a very strong voice compared to the likes of Vixen’s Janet Gardner and Lita Ford.

“Kodoku No Meiru” is an uptempo rocker that wouldn’t have sounded out of place amongst the Poisons and Cinderellas of the world, while “Uso Dado Iute Yo…” has a feel not unlike a slightly slower version of Ozzy Osbourne’s “Shot In The Dark”.

More web research reveals that the band, although forming in Japan, made their debut at the legendary British club Dingwall’s and made several sincere attempts to gain a worldwide audience during their career. When they attempted to break into the US in 1990, unfortunately for Show-Ya the musical climate was already starting to drift away from hair metal and even through they opened for a few notable names in the hair metal field in the US, they didn’t even make a dent. Grunge and alternative would eventually kill hair metal (or at least send the genre packing to the oldies circuit) for good months later, of course.

They made a few reunion attempts in the 90′s, and have apparently reformed (seemingly for good) for their 20th anniversary in 2005, but haven’t recorded new material yet. Much of their back catalog was reissued in Japan in 2005 and remains in print. Too bad I didn’t hear of Show-Ya back when they tried to crack the American market, but in 1990 I wasn’t too fond of most of the hair bands of the day. I think I would have liked these girls, though.

Please read the disclaimer if downloading the mp3 files.

A new Berryz Koubou single is coming out on August 27th… if you can call it that.

Right in-between the releases of their 17th single “Ike Ike Monkey Dance” on July 16th and their as yet untitled 5th LP on September 10th is a single involving a remix of their cover version of Dschinghis Khan’s eponymous single, which will have the collective release title Dschinghis Khan Onkochishin Remix. I do have to agree with those who think this particular release, on appearances, comes several months too late, given that the original Berryz single came out this past March. Remixes usually tend to come out within weeks of an original version’s release, rather than months, no?

Is Tsunku running out of ideas, as some of us have feared? No. Considering that a new, original, Berryz single is coming out the month before this remix EP, and an album of new material plus “Dschinghis Khan”, “Yuke Yuke Monkey Dance” and “Tsukiatteru no ni Katamoi” is coming out the month after, it’s not even a possibility. Since the EP is coming out on Piccolo Town, Tsunku’s only real role in the release in question is probably just approving the final master of the CD. So many Berryz Koubou releases coming out in a very short time period is nothing new either: Their first three singles came out in three consecutive months in the spring of 2004, and the band closed out 2005 by releasing in a five-week period the Dai 2 Seichouki LP, the “Gag 100kaibun Aishite Kudasai” single, and the Special! Best Mini ~2.5 Maime no Kare~ EP.

However, it should be pointed out that as of this writing, “Dschinghis Khan” is Berryz Koubou’s biggest selling single to date, having sold over 37,000 copies in outlets whose sales are counted by Oricon. It’s also the Berryz single that has had the most first week sales of any single in their career and the single that has had the longest stay on Oricon’s sales chart (eight weeks). The song apparently still has some wings over in Japan; although the single hasn’t been on the Oricon chart since May, the song is presumably still getting scattered airplay on Japanese radio, and given the song’s origins as a popular European and Asian disco hit in its original incarnation in 1979, it’s not unlikely to think that Berryz’ version is getting some club play as well, in spite of its radio-length brevity.

It’s also not unlikely to think that some enterprising bedroom remixer somewhere hasn’t done an unofficial remix that combines the Berryz version with the Dschinghis Khan original, or that some DJ in a dance club in Japan hasn’t already crossfaded between both versions in the course of a club set. Hence this impending release.
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If I have one bad habit as a writer – and in the interest of completely disclosing my own self-analysis, I have more than one – it’s having too many ideas. A published author that I met over this past weekend (Savannah Russe, author of the Darkwing Chronicles series) told me in conversation that there is nothing wrong with having too many ideas, and I have to agree. The only caveat is, there are unfortunately not enough hours in the day to actually put all those ideas to use.

At the time I am writing this, it is around 8:30 at night on June 24, 2008. I have a lot on my mind concerning things both at and away from my laptop. I have a novel manuscript I want to finish by the end of summer, a non-fiction book project whose outline and sample chapters were recently sent (with me hoping that they got there OK – electronic submissions are easy to accomplish but, unlike the world of snail mail with its delivery confirmation sheets and green return receipts for the mailman to send back, hard to trace the path of), two short story ideas that are screaming to be finished, and a shitload of other ideas sitting in various fragmented states on my hard drive – some of which were transferred to my present computer via a CD-R I had fortuitously burned as backup days before my beloved 2004 Apple PowerBook G4 achieved ex-parrot status this past St. Patrick’s Day. There’s a bunch of CD and single reviews I’ve been wanting to do for this blog for several weeks, and I intend to do at least a few of them at some point. (I’ll do one this week, I promise.)
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I just got a stack of 45s in the mail today.

Fifty of them.

All Japanese. and dating between 1968 and 1990.

I’ll explain quickly: A couple of weeks ago, I won an eBay auction for a lot of fifty Japanese 45s. The seller, very helpfully, provided post-it notes on each single with the artist and titles written in romaji, which is a big help to this gaijin who is practically illiterate in the language that fascinates him so. I spent the past 90 minutes or so cataloging all 50 of these singles into an Excel database file.

Now the real fun part begins.

As often as I can, I’m going to write about each of these 45s – both sides, what I think of the songs, and whatever I can find out about the artists. I’ll even share vinyl rips of these recordings. For anyone interested in earlier Japanese pop/enka/kayokyoku, this should be a treat. It sure is already one for me as a collector of records and a fan of Japanese music and culture.

Memes by both Misa and pengie within the IW blogosphere have turned up. I’m doing Misa’s first since pengie’s seems to call for a more detailed explanation and my response won’t be ready to be posted on here until later this weekend.

1. What was the first Japanese song that you ever listened to?
“Kiss In The Dark” by Pink Lady. I still have the 45 somewhere in my house.

2. Did it inspire you to like that group/singer, or did it turn you away?
I liked them a lot. Never bought the full album though… I’m surprised that I haven’t rectified that by looking for the album on eBay, but I do have a double-CD anthology of Pink Lady now!

3. What is the one song that you have been listening to for the longest time?
Both of Whiteberry’s albums.

4. What group/singer have you liked the longest?
Group: Whiteberry. Singer: Yui Horie.

5. What is the song with the most plays on your iTunes/media player? As of today, Morning Musume’s “Egao YES Nude” with 140 plays.

6. Is that song your favorite?
Definitely one of my many favorites. “Resonant Blue” is right behind it with 136 plays.

7. If not, what is?
No answer.

8. Is there any one group that you can listen to all/most of the songs by? If so, who?
Morning Musume/Hello! Project.

9. What is your favorite agency?
Some might say Hello! Project/UFW but I don’t have a “favorite” agency.

10. What is your favorite group/singer?
It’s a tie between The Stooges and Morning Musume.

Having already known of Li Chun’s keyboard talents when her and Qian Lin’s addition to Morning Musume was announced last year, I wondered if she’d ever display her instrumental skills in a public setting. Apparently she has already in this video from one of JunJun and LinLin’s first public appearances. (Does anyone know the name of the piece JunJun is performing in this clip?)

Of course, Sayumi tries to show off her (more rudimentary) keyboard skills afterward, only to get thwarted by two roadies (one of whom is wearing a commemorative Panda Musume T-shirt). Hey, at least Sayumi didn’t do a hamfisted version of “Home Sweet Home” or “Runaway”!

For those of you (like me) who are in the mood for a little more classical piano greatness, here’s an intimate performance (right out of his New York townhouse) from the Jimi Hendrix of classical piano:

News broke this afternoon that Maki Goto signed with Avex’s Rhythm Trax imprint, which is also the home of Koda Kumi. Maki’s new label-sponsored site is here; hopefully she will not be giving up her own blog in the process. Apparently the vocal and dance training Gocchin was going through in Los Angeles earlier this spring was in preparation for her move to her new label. That training as documented on her blog, plus her being on Rhythm Trax has folks already predicting that Maki will be going down a J-Urban path not dissimilar than Kumi’s. And judging from the picture above, Maki seems to not only be sharing the same label as Koda Kumi, but also the same wardrobe department and nail artist. I like a lot of Kumi’s stuff, and Maki’s already flirted with that musical road before early on in her H!P days (with “SHALL WE LOVE?” in Gomattou), then started learning heavily towards the urban pop side of things with much of her last Piccolo Town/King album How To Use SEXY), so her first Rhythm Trax singles should be very interesting records indeed. Release dates, anyone?

From Ai Kago’s blog entry for 6.10.08, translated by Hello-Online.org:

Sammo Hung smoked cigars, which made him seem even more like a father. After eating, I’d be offered cigars or cigarrettes, and it was hard for me as the youngest one… I did smoke a little. But I just couldn’t handle a cigar… I’m sorry, everybody. I smoked. When I left Japan, I was adamant I wouldn’t. Really, that wasn’t cool of me. I kind of hate myself for that (;_;)

Dear Aibon,

Excuse the angry tone this starts off with, but what in the flying motherfucking fuck were you doing smoking a cigarette again?!? It pissed me off back in 2006 when you did that the first time, and it pissed me off all over again when I heard about it today. The fact that you’re legally old enough to smoke a cigarette now still doesn’t make it right.

Suffice it to say, as one of your fans, I am extremely disappointed. I’m sorry if I come off so hardcore straight-edge, but professional singers shouldn’t be smoking anything if they expect to have a long enough career in the music industry… not because of what their management and agency would do as punishment, but because of the damage to their larynx and their lungs that regular tobacco consumption can cause.

Contrary to what Frank Zappa said once, a cigarette is NOT food. Please wise the fuck up before this song starts to ring true in your case:

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Sincerely,
CJ Marsicano

A couple of weeks ago (the first week of June, to be exact – Hello! Online only posted the translation a few days ago), Morning Musume were asked this for their Pocket Morning Weekly Q&A:

If you were asked to release one Morning Musume song overseas, which song would it be?

(Presumably, this question is being asked of the band regarding the musical merits of their songs, perhaps also disregarding language issues under the admittedly utopian, but still refreshingly open-minded belief that no one really gives a shit what language a song is sung in. The language issue is another column entirely.)

Some of the ladies had their own answers. Eri Kamei suggested MoMusu’s ska-punk chestnut “Koko ni Iruzee!”, citing (for obvious reasons) the line “A song passing over borders” and adding the reason, “Because it’s a very powerful Morning Musume song.”

Sayumi Mishichige picked “Aruiteru”, a song she acknowledges as one of her personal favorites, also citing an appropriate line of lyric in what she refers to as “the second refrain” (actually, it’s the first prechorus) of the song: “We’re at the distance where the we can hear the songs of the whole world.”

Koharu Kusumi picked “Joshi Kashimashi Monogatari” for a more personal reason: “It’s the song where I introduce myself, so I want to introduce myself like: ‘This is me!’” (Presumably, she is referring to “Joshi Kashimashi Monogatari 3″, which closes out Rainbow 7.)

Li Chun went old-school, picking without explanation the MoMusu standard “Furusato”. (Is JunJun looking to cut a solo version of the song for the next Best Shot DVD?)

Reina Tanaka had two choices, both personal favorites. One was “Shadondama”, which she had already picked as her top favorite Morning Musume single in the 17th installment of her CDData column last October. The other choice was one she shared with the rest of the band: “Resonant Blue”.

Risa Niigaki and Qian Lin both cited a similar reason for picking “Resonant Blue”: The fact that (as of this writing), “Resonant Blue” is the band’s current single. Gaki-san wants overseas fans “to see the recent us” while LinLin “want(s) more and more people to hear (the song)”. Aika Mitsui picks the song as an example of what she calls “the cool Morning Musume”, while Ai Takahashi gives no reason whatsoever for picking out the song.

Admittedly, I’d pick out “Resonant Blue” as an introductory American single myself, simply because it’s such a solid song and performance. Longtime readers of this blog already know my affection for the song, so I won’t risk boring anyone with a recap.

According to iTunes, “Resonant Blue” is already the most downloaded Morning Musume song on the American iTunes service. The young ladies of Morning Musume just might have something there. It also makes me wonder, yet again, how aware Morning Musume and Up-Front Works are of the band’s non-Asian cult audience. That, of course, is another column entirely… maybe part of a certain ongoing series.