A Sidebar For The HaroMoni@ Discussion
One can only wonder how HaroMoni@ would have fared if the episodes had gone more along these lines:
It’s Only A TV Show, Don’t Panic.
It’s kind of lame that the first thing I post about regarding Morning Musume at my new blogging home is the cancellation of their TV show HaroMoni@. However, I’m not worried.
I didn’t see any full episodes, only clips (many of those having only Reina Tanaka in them, for reasons obvious only to longtime readers of MotokoAoyama.com (both versions) and SHSSF. From what I read of descriptions of the show, it seemed to get sillier and sillier with every episode. Didn’t bother me though.
It wasn’t the talent that was the problem with the show – Morning Musume still continue to sell records, having not missed the Oricon Top 10 in their entire history. It was the situations they found themselves in. Their previous program, Hello! Morning, had the group in a bigger variety of situations both in and out of the studio. HaroMoni@ had them stuck in a TV studio being bossed around by a puppet in a crown and a diaper.
Morning Musume and Up-Front Works will, no doubt, have a new TV outlet to replace HaroMoni@. With the band still a priority for UFW, that’s pretty much a given, and I wouldn’t be surprised if UFW had a contingency plan in place once they saw the writing on the wall. I would also not be surprised if an announcement on MoMusu’s replacement program came before HaroMoni@’s last episode airs at the end of September.
The only real disadvantage I can see, from my point of view, is that the end of HaroMoni@ also means the end of eyecandy of my favorite MoMusu wearing those rather sexy cat ears.
REVIEW: THE HUSKY “Husky”
THE HUSKY
Husky
(Chockyu)
Availablilty: CD EP
Rating: 
While the rest of Whiteberry has been, for the most part, idle and out of the limelight since their final concerts in March of 2004, lead singer Yuki Maeda has not. In 2006, with fellow ex-Whiteberry, bassist Yukari Hasegawa briefly in tow, Yuki Madea reemerged on the Japanese independent label Deadgirls with an eponymous CD EP from her first post-Whiteberry band, a four-piece all-female unit dubbed yukki. The existence of the new group was something I wasn’t aware of until Zush at Kakko-ii.com wrote about her new band’s project in late 2006. Thankfully, I got a hold of a copy of the CD in time for it to make my list of the Top Albums Of 2006 on MotokoAoyama.com v1.0. yukki (the band and the EP) found Yuki Maeda not only singing, but playing guitar and writing all of the material. It is a great EP – imagine Whiteberry without the keyboards.
Unfortunately, yukki the band never followed up yukki the EP. Yukari Hasegawa disappeared again (presumably to return to college), and the band continued for several months before quietly disappearing. No one who followed Whiteberry and yukki knew what was up until the group’s homepage presented a link to another site – the homepage for a new band fronted by Ms. Maeda called The Husky.
With their sort-of-eponymous debut CD EP, again an independent release (this time on a label called Chockyu), Yuki Maeda seems to be slowly progressing away from her Whiteberry past. While her distinctive vocals remain, with the existence of The Husky, Yuki Maeda finds herself, for the first time in her professional career, to be the only female member of the group. Joining her in the lineup are former La’cryma Christi drummer Levin and newcomers Yasuaki Miyaji on guitar and Sunao Nakamura on bass and baritone guitar. Like with her previous post-Whiteberry band, Yuki Maeda continues to rely on her own material, having penned all of the songs on the album, save for two songs where her lyrics are set to music composed by Miyaji.
“Story”, the EP’s highlighted track (a PV exists, Yuki’s first since “Shinjiri Chikara” – yukki never made any) opens the proceedings in fine form. Initially, the song retains the Whiteberry-minus-keyboards punk sound from yukki, only to be interrupted first by a baritone guitar riff from Nakamura and then by a tinny acoustic-sounding guitar (actually an unplugged electric recorded with a microphone) initially underpinning Yuki’s vocals before veering back into Whiteberry-style punk.
“Hitori Botsuchi” follows with a slightly slower rock tempo and an arrangement and chord sequence that recalls some of Living Colour’s minor-key material from Time’s Up. Miyavi does some rather interesting guitar work in the recording’s left channel that sounds more like a synthesizer than a guitar, while a creepy-sounding string synthesizer (played by an uncredited keyboardist) intrudes on the song’s atmosphere.
“not control” (the song title isn’t capitalized), one of two songs co-written by Miyaji, takes the band and the EP on a left-field turn by bringing some ZZ Top-meets-George Thorogood blues riffing into the mix for much of the song. A false ending suddenly takes the band into a jazz-rock vein for the song’s coda.
“Tsuchi” keeps the band within blues/classic rock territory by way of Elvis Costello, slowing down the tempo and giving them a 12/8 time signature to contend with. A slightly anarchic Theremin (or at least Miyaji making some Theremin-like sounds with his guitar and effects) interrupts things as the band goes from the song’s B-section to its chorus. The third time the B-section around, Levin changes things around by throwing in some tribal-sounding drumming before shifting back into gear for the final choruses.
“Ime” sounds like its going to veer into early Chili Pepper-esque funk at first, but Levin’s Motown-esque drum beat nips that in the bud, while Yuki’s lead vocal obliterates further Motown comparisons and Miyaji tosses in some modern rock guitar noises for additional texture.
“Mekumori”, the second of the Maeda/Miyaji songwriting collaborations, returns the band to mid-tempo 12/8 time, but with songwriting and playing that sounds both familiar and new at the same time. While not a fast rocker, the song itself is quite anthemic, and allows Miyaji to take flight with a tasteful extended guitar solo.
It’s safe to suggest that The Husky’s EP represents a considerable and major musical progression for Yuki Maeda. The EP allows her to come further out of her old shell, forging a new musical background that compliments her distinctive and instantly recognizable vocals. Hopefully, the next recordings we hear from Yuki Maeda will be a follow-up release from The Husky rather from yet another new band. Unless Whiteberry reunites, of course.
Five out of five stars.
