On the Cover of Rolling Stone: SCANDAL

Posted on August 9, 2015 by Shamisen

Left to right: Tomomi Ogawa (Bass / lead vocals) Haruna Ono (Lead Vocal / rhythm guitarist) Rina Suzuki (Drummer, Keyboardist, Guitarist, secondary vocals) Mami Sasazaki (Lead Guitar / secondary vocals)

A few years ago, I posted an article about the band Scandal. This is a follow up to that piece.

That last five years have seen aggressive yearly tour schedules playing every major arena in Japan–including BUDOKAN in 2012 and OSAKA-JO HALL in 2013–and then capping it off with the ‘HELLO WORLD Tour’ in 2015.

Congratulations SCANDAL, you’ve made it, and you’re on the cover of Rolling Stone. Granted it’s the Japanese Edition but in my book Rolling Stone is all that matters.

SCANDAL has taken advantage of modern technology, social media and YouTube, using self promotion that was not available when I was their age. I have to admit I’m quite amazed how all this self promotion works. And comparing today to the last post they were pretty much the only ‘all female band’. Today the number of bands has exploded. SCANDAL was the trail blazer for this generation of bands. A point of order here is the difference between a band and a group: in a band you play instruments, in a group you don’t. SCANDAL is a band. 9nine, AKB48, and Momoiro Clover Z are groups. Going back to my last post, the only semi popular female band that I found, believe it or not, was the live action K-ON band. A lot has changed in the past 5 years.

As most of you are aware, I enjoy many things in this life, and music is one of them. Music is also universal; you need not know the language to like what you hear. I’ve followed SCANDAL since 2008 and their first US appearance. So what do I like about this band? The simple answer would be the music, but there is more to it than that.

What makes SCANDAL stand out? You get a performance from the entire group, not one person monopolizing it. Granted, Haruna is lead vocal. She has the natural gift of leadership, and has learned how to best utilize the group as a whole.

A bit of history: SCANDAL was officially formed in 2006 on Rina’s 15th birthday. Mami and Tomomi were 16, and Haruna had just turned 18. Face it, keeping independent souls in that age bracket together and learning the ropes was a daunting task, I’m sure. Then–two years later–they’re here, in the states, performing. Yeah, there is some chemistry between the four of them I would say, with Haruna being the lead chemist.

That aside, the performances–live and studio–are first rate. They play their own music quite well, I might add, and are genuinely enjoying what they are doing. Take Haruna’s powerful vocals teamed with Tomomi’s hauntingly beautiful voice, then add in Mami’s and Rina’s background vocals and there’s the formula for listening pleasure. With all of this balance in instrumentals and vocals SCANDAL has hit the right note. (I should mention here that Tomomi was the lead vocalist on their first releases. Whoever is leading, the members follow with an excellent result.)

Congratulations on entering your tenth year together and here’s hoping for many more to follow…

And whatever course fate takes you on enjoy it to the fullest…

A belated Happy Birthday to Mami and Tomomi and a early Happy Birthday to Haruna and Rina…

Oh Rina, if you ever run out of arenas, let me know, I’ve got such a list.

(Addendum)

I just finished watching the P/V for Stamp. Besides being a great number, I might suggest that, in future, American cars need to have the door firmly pulled to you. Haruna made the effort but the Mustang only hit on the ‘safety’ latch. Just for future reference and while I’m at it, I’m waiting for ‘Sisters’ to be released. I’m hoping it follows the idea I have in my head.

Need More K-ON! Music? Try These Seiyuu Solos!

Posted on September 15, 2010 by Shamisen

With the second season of K-ON!! in the can, many of us are already starved for more peppy after-school music. Aki Toyosaki, who is the voice artist of the character Yui Hirasawa, has released two singles over the past year, which is old news. However, Minako Kotobuki who plays Tsumugi is releasing a solo of her own. This I find rather surprising. Since I don’t think Minako’s done a solo, in the series that is, it will be interesting to hear what she sounds like without the other four members of H.T.T. The links listed below the photos will take you to CD Japan where you can hear forty-five second previews of the songs that Aki and Minako are releasing.

More after the break.

Continue reading →

New K-ON!! OP and ED

Posted on July 6, 2010 by Jon

The latest episode of K-ON!! has brought with it an entirely new OP and ED, replacing the much-maligned Go! Go! Maniac and Listen!! with fresh songs and animation.

Utau yo Miracle

No, Thank You!

I’m not too keen on the new OP; it strikes me as bland and forgettable. As for the new ED, I think it has promise, but I’d like to hear the full song before passing final judgement. I’ll have to wait, though, since the singles don’t come out until August 4th.

K-ON! is licensed by Bandai

Posted on July 1, 2010 by Jon

Are they laughing with Bandai… or at them?

I’m still in shock.

Despite their financial woes, Bandai Entertainment has just announced at Anime Expo that they’ve acquired the rights to K-ON!‘s first season. There’s no word yet if it will be dubbed or released on Blu-ray. Bandai also announced a series of live-action K-ON! marketing videos similar to the ASOS Brigade series for Haruhi. For these, they’ve cast Christina Vee as Mio, Karri Shirou as Yui, “Kix” as Tsumugi and “Briana” as Ritsu.

Hang on a second… Christina Vee as MIO? She’s got a great singing voice, but their personalities couldn’t be more different. This is going to be most interesting…

I think it’s likely that Bandai will give K-ON! a dub, probably recycling many of the cast members from the Haruhi and Lucky Star dubs. However, in my opinion, their English version of “God Knows” was ear-splittingly painful, especially when compared to the original Japanese song. Given how music-oriented K-ON! is, I’m hoping they can track down some voice actors who can actually sing. Of course, I’d also be perfectly happy with a sub-only release.

Oh, and Bandai? If you try to pull the same “no Japanese audio track” crap that you did with Kurokami, I’m not buying it. Period.

[Via ANN]

New K-ON!! Single “Pure Pure Heart”

Posted on May 19, 2010 by Jon

CD Japan’s listings have recently revealed new information about the upcoming K-ON!! single. You can preorder it here.

Pure Pure Heart
Release Date: June 2nd
Price: 1000 yen
Tracklist:
1. Pure Pure Heart
2. Sakuragaoka Joshi Kotogakko Koka (Sakura Girls High School Theme Song) [Rock Ver.]
3. Pure Pure Heart (instrumental)
4. Sakuragaoka Joshi Kotogakko Koka [Rock Ver.] (instrumental)
5. Pure Pure Heart (instrumental) [Guitar 1]
6. Pure Pure Heart (instrumental) [Guitar 2]
7. Pure Pure Heart (instrumental) [Keyboard]
8. Pure Pure Heart (instrumental) [Bass]
9. Pure Pure Heart (instrumental) [Drums]

[Via CD Japan]

The Rest of the K-ON!! Voice Actresses

Posted on May 10, 2010 by Shamisen

Since Stilts has introduced you to Ritsu’s VA. I figured you should meet the rest of the group. Can you guess which voice actress plays which character? Mouse over each picture for the answer! More information can be found by clicking on the link below their picture.

Tsumugi Kotobuki

Yui Hirasawa

Mio Akiyama

Azusa Nakano

Ho-kago Tea Time (4)

K-ON!! Band Sets New Record

Posted on May 3, 2010 by Dustin

Hip, hip, hooray!

Not content with simply stealing the hearts of otaku, the K-ON!! girls’ newest single, “Go! Go! Maniac”, stole the top spot of Oricon’s weekly singles ranking according to ANN. “Listen!!” came in second place, because there’s apparently no such thing as overkill.

“But Stilts,” I pretend you’re asking, “who are they beating?” Good question! Looking at today’s daily rankings, the #3 slot belongs to enka-singer Fuyumi Sakamoto’s “Asia no Kaizoku/Mata Kimi ni Koi Shiteru” (“Asian Pirates/I’m in Love with You Again”). It was released over a year ago and recently climbed to the top, only to be unseated by Hokago Tea Time’s songs. And in #4 is “Mahō no Ryōri ~Kimi kara Kimi e~” (“Magical Cooking ~From You to You~”) by the curiously-named Bump of Chicken, who have done songs for video games and anime, too. It was released on April 21 and made it to the top of both the daily and weekly charts. Clearly, both songs were worthy contenders for the cultural steamroller that is K-ON!!

I’m pleasantly surprised by this development. To me, the vast majority of the songs from the first season of K-ON! were generic and forgettable J-pop tunes. When I first heard the OP and ED for the second season, I thought, “Hey, they’re actually taking risks and experimenting with different styles. Good for them!” It’s nice to see that they’ve been rewarded for their efforts.

Blasting Aliens with K-ON!!

Posted on April 26, 2010 by Dustin

Before you get your hopes up, no one’s made a Touhou-esque shooter featuring Ritsu and the gang. Yet. Instead, Beat Hazard gives you a ship, throws you into a twin-stick shooter arena filled with enemy spacecraft and asteroids, and determines your weapon strength, spread, and re-fire rate based on how frantic the background music you choose gets. In other words, it’s like Macross 7 was adapted into a curtain-fire shooter. As you can see from the video, “Go! Go! Maniac” works really well. In fact, J-pop in general works really well, as does metal.

It’s a cool idea, and I’m enjoying it so far despite a couple irritating problems. For example, Beat Hazard doesn’t work well for every song. Since your ship’s ability to kill things is heavily dependent on the intensity of the music, trying to play some genres will just be an exercise in frustration. Everyone hoping to cause massive destruction with Enya will be disappointed. I also found that the amount and density of particle effects on the screen can often become absurd; it’s a neat visual effect, but the gameplay isn’t fun when I can’t see where the enemy bullets are. Finally, there’s no AAC or M4A support (at the moment), so anything you buy off of iTunes won’t work unless you convert it.

Still, for $10 it’s a fun little diversion that I can see myself consistently going back to for half an hour every few days. After all, I still play Audiosurf (another game with music-generated levels that I highly recommend), and it’s been over two years since I bought that thing.