I don’t think I could add any more insight to what has already come out from Hello! Blog and Selective Hearing in the wake of much of Anime Expo’s staff getting up and leaving in what is apparently justifiable disgust. I will say this, however:

Although others in the blogosphere have said that the most likely place for popular Japanese acts to bond with their Western cult audience is at conventions like Anime Expo, this is an aspect that I have disagreed with for years. The incidents referred to in that ’silenced staff members’ post really disgusted me – how the hell did that douchebag think he could get away with disrespecting Morning Musume like he did? I came away from reading that more convinced that Japanese music acts should not rely on the conventions for their American performance venues.

Instead of dealing with anime con organizers, Up-Front Works and other agencies should hook up with established booking agencies outside of Japan and start organizing tours for their acts, much like they should avoid the quick-hit-oriented, throw-against-the-wall approach of most major labels when looking for Western labels for their recorded product in favor of a big independent label like Matador or Merge, or an independent-minded major-label imprint like Warner Bros.’ Nonesuch or A&M’s Octone.

Dir en grey, Puffy AmiYumi, and the many acts that have participated in the yearly Japan Nite package tours certainly don’t need the anime conventions – and wisely bypassed them entirely in favor of performing in more music-centric venues. Neither do Morning Musume or any other J-pop act that we all love. Given that MoMusu drew 7,500 last summer for their sole US show to date, it’s a no-brainer that American J-pop fans would go see their idols at a venue closer to home.
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On a vaguely related note (well, related to MoMusu, anyway) – the MoMusu/AKB48 singles “comparison” will resume shortly, and I’ll explain briefly in the next installment why the series has been taking longer that I would have wished to come to further fruition.

• I’m still going OMFG from the news, not even 24 hours after hearing about it. 
• Last night I was trying to digest in my mind both the news about Morning Musume’s impending American debut (Up-Front Works confirmed it themselves last night) and continue planning for my wedding next June (my fiancee and I just put the deposit on the hall last night, as a matter of fact). 
• Then Vee calls. The two of us, about 15 years apart in age and with birthdays right next to each other, proceeded to continue fangirling (ok, in my case, fanboying) about the news for much of the conversation. 
• Vee then dropped a very important question: “What songs are they going to play?” We started speculating on the set list: “Love Machine” obviously has to be there; “Resonant Blue”, “Egao YES Nude” and “Mikan” were also mentioned, Vee kind of hoped “Onna ni Sachi Are” wouldn’t be on the set list as she didn’t think it went well live… that kind of thing. I’m sure speculation about the set list will continue up until the day of the concert. 
• Typical procedure for anime convention headlining acts, according to Vee who has been to quite a few, is for the headlining act to perform on Saturday, which means that if this procedure holds for Anime Expo 2009, that Morning Musume will be making their American performing debut on Independence Day – an almost appropriate date for such a milestone, reminiscent of one of the early milestone events in punk rock – Independence Day 1976, when the Ramones made their English debut. Members of the Sex Pistols, Clash, and many other first-wave British punk bands were said to be in the audience that night. 
• JapanFiles.com is going to have Morning Musume’s back catalog, starting with the release of “Naichai Kamo”, available for legal download. No word on when or whether tactile copies will be available like they’ve done with HANGRY&ANGRY’s EP. 

They had to know we were out here. They had to have known how imported copies of the CDs were going across the Pacific Ocean (and elsewhere). They had to know how mp3s were circulating all over the planet. They had to see Western faces popping up at their concerts lately.Their music didn’t just worm their way onto US iTunes by accident. They had to know.

“They”, of course, meaning Morning Musume, their fellow artists in Hello! Project and their agency, Up-Front Works.

As every American J-pop fan who has a laptop and/or a cell phone knows by now. Morning Musume are going to make their American debut as “First Official Guests of Honor” at Anime Expo 2009 in Los Angeles. Ever since Vee relayed the news to me, I have been in OMFG mode. As my work day was concluding, I grabbed my iPod and started to listen to a different, non-Japanese album that I was thinking of before I heard the news, then realized to myself, “What the hell am I doing listening to something other than Morning Musume, today of all days?”

What I wonder right now is, what is the exact purpose of Morning Musume’s visit (besides performing, of course)? Is this a thank you to the diehard cult American audience that has been literally worshiping them from afar for the past several years? Or is there something else going along with this visit that hasn’t been announced yet? (Like, maybe say, an American distribution deal for their music?)Was having JapanFiles.com do the non-Japanese release of the HANGRY&ANGRY EP (involving MoMusu 4^th Gen members Hitomi Yoshizawa and Rika Ishikawa) a sneaky way for UFW to further test the waters, much like I believe the presence of much of MoMusu’s catalog on US iTunes was a first test?

Furthermore, speaking of H&A, was the streamlining of the Elder Club from Hello! Project (keeping them under UFW contract, however) one of the final steps needed by UFW before they started to look into bringing Morning Musume stateside? I don’t think that sounds completely ludicrous – Hello! Project, in a way, is its own entity within Up-Front Works and is, for all intents and purposes, UFW’s bread-and-butter. But what I am getting at is, I don’t believe that Anime Expo’s announcement of today was the result of an overnight decision on UFW’s part. The usual legalities of bringing a foreign performing act – getting work visas, convincing government officials that the act is either in demand or unique (and Morning Musume certainly qualifies as both at this point), and so forth – take time. The frequent travels of the band – both as a whole and as individuals – to Hawaii over the past several years for fan club shows and photobook shoots, no doubt, may have helped with the visa process.  

Since the news is still fresh and I am still fanboying from it as I write this, it’s too early to tell why else Morning Musume would finally be coming here, but I will certainly not be surprised by anything that happens related to this new development from here on in.

Now I’ve got to start making plans for the first weekend of July… 

Just when I thought the most J-pop-related eventful thing today was going to be listening to the new Buono! album and getting a couple of other overdue reviews done…

It started with an e-mail from my female counterpart, Vee with the subject line “Oh my fucking god.”: “You win, CJ. You win FOREVER. THEY *ARE* COMING HERE.”

I was at work and not immediately near my laptop, so the second I saw Vee’s message on my Blackberry, I ran to my desk at the first immediate opportunity and hit up hello-online.org. Then it was my turn to go “Oh my fucking god” repeatedly.

Only one thing could make two Cancerians from the East Coast go all fanboy/fangirl like this: Morning Musume in America. Finally.

I’d write more now, but I’m still going OMFG repeatedly. Soon as I calm down, I’ll write more. But one thing is sure: I am so there.

When we last left off, Dir en grey were planning to embark on a North American tour this autumn, a tour booked before doing any Japanese dates in support of their forthcoming album [UROBOROS]. The punch line was, they were doing it without an American record deal, having parted company with Warcon/Fontana sometime in 2007.

Last month, when I wrote about this situation (inspired by a friend who hipped me to what was going on with the group of late), I put forth speculation that the band were embarking on a North American tour first in order to secure a new American record deal.

As of today, they’ve already gotten that deal. Dir en grey announced on their MySpace that they signed with American independent label The End Records, a label specializing in metal and other dark/heavy music. The End Records, whose roster includes Voivod, Mindless Self-Indulgence, and ex-Swans member Jarboe, are apparently no stranger to giving American record deals to foreign metal bands that have cult interest in this country: Norwegian black metalists-turned-experimentalists Ulver, Japanese black metal veterans Sigh and Finnish GWAR-meets-glam rockers Lordi (infamous for winning the Eurovision Song Contest, a competition usually more suited to Celine Dion clones, in 2006) are also signed to the label, apparently making the label a perfect fit for Dir en grey.

Also a more promising sign: The End Records also has better distribution than Dir en grey’s previous label. Their distributing partner, RED Distribution (formerly known back in the early 80’s punk and metal days as Important and then as Relativity), also distributes many other labels that are no stranger to being easily found in most record stores (and thus, to sales and chart success); Trent Reznor’s new self-owned label for his post-Interscope releases, The Null Corporation, is distributed by RED, as is Motley Crue’s current label home Eleven Seven Music and the notorious Chicago punk/indie label Victory Records.

For the cherry on top: The End will be going the extra mile for the American release of [UROBOROS]. Unlike what Warcon/Fontana did with Withering To Death and The Marrow Of A Bone, where merely CD editions were released… well, we’ll let The End Records’ press statement as reproduced on their MySpace blog tell it:

In an effort to satiate fans’ unique preferences and desires, [UROBOROS] will be available in the US in four formats: digital album; CD jewel case; deluxe limited-edition CD digipak with bonus track and DVD; and double vinyl LP with a digital download card included.

There’s also an option for fans to grab all three versions plus a T-shirt for a discounted price. I went with the double LP.

How well Dir en grey will fare in their second go-round on an American label remains to be seen, but considering that for awhile it looked like the group would not have an American label to call home again, it’s a very good shot in the arm for them. Every Japanese group with a cult following in this country should be so lucky (cue that A.B. quote again, please…).

For now, though, that repetitive sound you are hearing in the background is probably the staff at Warcon/Fontana kicking themselves… repeatedly.

Dir en grey are getting ready to start an American tour to promote their forthcoming album, [UROBOROS].

The punch line is, they don’t have an American record label backing that tour.

As of this writing (August 22, 2008), their official MySpace lists them as being “unsigned” in North America, while still having a deal with Freewill in their native Japan. This ominous sign presents a major problem with the group’s original intended plan to have [UROBOROS] be the group’s first release to see simultaneous worldwide release. Their official English-language MySpace pages gives links to order the Japanese import editions of [UROBOROS] and its advance single, “Glass Skin”, through Amazon.com, although at prices ridiculously inflated to most pockets compared to CDJapan and YesAsia.

Dir en grey’s last two studio albums, Withering To Death and The Marrow Of A Bone were issued in the United States, but at times long after the albums were available as imports. Withering To Death’s US issue came fourteen months after its Japanese release in March of 2005; a mere thirteen days separated the Japanese and American editions of The Marrow Of A Bone.

Now, however, there has been a split between the band and their former American label home, Warcon. Rumors are rampant that business differences between Warcon and Dir en grey’s manager, Dynamite Tommy, are to blame for the split, in spite of Warcon’s sincere determination to market the group as career artists.

Although Warcon had substantial distribution to American record outlets through Universal Music’s independent distribution arm, Fontana, that same distribution leaned towards spotty in some places. While Withering To Death was available in every record store I looked in at the time it was a new American release, The Marrow Of A Bone was curiously not to be found in my otherwise reliable independent record store, only at FYE. Make of that what you will.

So why would Dir en grey, the biggest J-Rock act on the planet, tour North America without having an American record deal? Sure, they have the fan base, and pre-orders for tickets are said to be quite promising.

Is it possible that Dir en grey are using this tour to attract a new American record deal? Odds of this being the main reason for the tour starting in North America are even – word is that the North American tour plans for the group were pushed forward primarily to attract a new label; had their Warcon deal still existed, their North American touring wouldn’t be happening until early 2009.

More importantly, what American record label would be the best fit for Dir en grey? And, keeping those aforementioned rampant rumors in mind, would those potential labels be willing to deal with Dynamite Tommy?

Some new scuttlebutt has also come to light of late that Freewill America may have been cut out of the picture entirely as far as managing Dir en grey’s non-Japanese business is concerned (although current merchandise deals may remain in place for contractual reasons), replaced with a yet-to-be-named American manager.

No answers or public clues are available as yet, but with the American tour and the forthcoming release of “Glass Skin” and [UROBOROS] in sight, most, if not all, will surely be revealed.