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.
—–
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.

AKB48 Sakura no Hanabiratachi b/w Dear my teacher AKS AKB-101, released 2.1.06	MORNING MUSUME SEXY BOY ~Soyokaze ni Torisotte~ b/w Chance Chance Boogie Zetima EPCE-5390/91, released 3.15.06

The lyrical subject of AKB48’s debut A-side is… graduating?

In a way, it makes sense: The group had already been giving shows at their eponymous theatre in Akihabara for several months before Yasushi Akimoto decided to shepherd his new protégés – at the time consisting of what became “Team A” (no Meetan or Erepyon in sight) – into a recording studio for their first single – and this one, self-released, to boot. And a ballad! I wouldn’t be surprised if quite a few of the early regulars at the AKB48 Theatre were picking up the group’s first single, recognizing the song as being one of the band’s slower numbers, and running to their online message boards to post their discontent: The nerve! A slow song for a new all-girl pop group’s first single? And one with lyrics about moving on, yet? What is that schmuck AkiP thinking?

Consider that, for one thing, Akimoto and AKB48 were pretty much going the DIY route for this first single. They hadn’t courted, or been courted by, any of the major labels yet. No doubt many of the early fans of AKB’s live shows were clamoring for a CD of some sort. Judging from the packaging, however – a four-panel 2×2 insert briefly describing the band’s concept, lineup, and theatre, plus a randomly inserted collector’s card of one of the then-current members – Akimoto’s intention was, in part, to attract more attention to his new musical venture.

A slow song doesn’t necessarily mean a sad song – “Sakura no…” is very upbeat (in spite of its slow tempo), very innocent, and very major key. There’s no line division – the twenty-girl lineup sings the entire song in unison. And the lyric was appropriate because AKB48 was going from just being a live unit with an indefinite residence in its own performance venue to being recording artists. And given that school graduations were on the horizon in Japan at the time this single was released, AkiP’s and the group’s timing was close to impeccable. The song peaked at #10 on the Oricon singles chart, so the strategy worked.

The B-side of “Sakura no…” is practically the A-side’s direct opposite. Rather than an innocent and upbeat ballad about looking ahead to the future, “Dear my teacher” finds the girls singing (over an underground disco beat) from the point of view of a female student who wants to cross the line with her male instructor (at least I’m assuming the object of the song narrator’s affections is male). Some of the lyrics are pretty blunt, judging from the translation at Stage48: “Do it, BABY! / Do it, BABY! / Won’t you teach me a lesson? / I secretly want special extra credit / … If you lock the door / I’ll be a good girl.”

Meanwhile, a few weeks after AKB’s debut single, Morning Musume were all business as usual with “SEXY BOY”. There is a slight techno influence on the A-side, and I say slight because most of the techno I’ve heard didn’t have upfront harmony lead guitar breaks breaking up the otherwise keyboard-dominated landscape. There are some para-para moments in the chanted backing vocals in the chorus, but not as much as your average Eurobeat tune – Tsunku kept things less specialized and more mainstream as far as the basic musical arrangement went. It was and is a catchy and memorable song.

The B-side finds the band mining some big band/jazz influence again. This wouldn’t be the first time (“Mr. Moonlight –Koi no Big Band-“, of course) or the last (MoMusu’s last B-side of 2006 would also mine similar musical territory, but that’s another column). While it’s a good song, and the girls’ vocals are up to standard, in retrospect it’s one of their weaker B-sides, although I’m sure it served the purpose of being both B-side as well – given the band’s usual concert protocol – as part of the band’s Spring 2006 tour set list.

For their next singles, both groups would shift gears – but that’s a story for the next column.

There is considerable temptation – both spoken and unspoken – to compare Morning Musume and AKB48 to each other in the J-pop community, both in the blogosphere and amongst those who frequent boards and chat rooms. In many ways, this is an apples vs. oranges argument. Morning Musume are an established act with over a decade’s worth of albums, singles, and DVDs under their collective belt. AKB48 are practically the new kids in town, not even five years old. One is a more compact unit (albeit one that once boasted 15 members on recordings), the other is a veritable rotating talent pool/reparatory company. One act is more of a singles band than an album act, while the other could be either/or. One has eleven studio albums (counting a forthcoming March 2010 release and a cover/concept album that wasn’t traditionally numbered), the other has several album-length releases, but none could really be called studio albums in the traditional sense – more like cast recordings of their theatrical performances. One band has eleven Number One singles and only ever missed the Oricon Top 5 twice in their entire career to date – and both times, they never peaked at a position lower than #6; the other only has one Number One single so far, and didn’t break the Oricon Top 5 until the fall of 2008 – until then, #6 had been their highest chart position.

However… they both make great recordings. And that is where this series – in planning since last November – comes in.

Over several parts – each devoted to a single apiece from both bands – this author will be comparing the singles of Morning Musume and AKB48, strictly on musical grounds. Neither single covers nor PVs will be involved in the comparison. Sales numbers and chart rankings will have no relevance here, either, especially since neither has anything to do with the long-term impact of the music itself. (Consider how three of the most influential and beloved albums to be released in the mid-Eighties – the Minutemen’s Double Nickels on the Dime, Husker Du’s Zen Arcade, and Slayer’s Reign in Blood – have had far-reaching cultural impact in the twenty-some years since those records were first released, even though their initial sales were a fraction of what the major pop acts of the day were selling.)

How this works will be quite simple: Each Morning Musume single will be evaluated alongside its AKB48 counterpart – or vice versa, depending on which single came out first. The first installment, for example will pair MoMusu’s “Sexy Boy ~Soyokaze ni Yorisotte~” with AKB’s “Sakura no Hanabiratachi”. There will be no pre-determined outcome; there may not even be one. Yes, I refer to Morning Musume as my favorite band almost as regularly as I eat, shit, and breathe, but I am also a big AKB48 fan. If I had disliked AKB48, I would not even be writing this series, let alone be owning, hosting, and collaborating on a site dedicated to a favorite member of that group. This will simply be a somewhat scientific/scholarly look at where each act was when they released singles within weeks of each other.

In most cases, their release schedules for singles happened within weeks of each other, making the comparisons easy. In a couple of cases, AKB48 released singles within weeks of a previous single of theirs while Morning Musume had no brand new release to counter it; one single, the 2008 “re-release”/re-recording of “Sakura no Hanabiratachi”, will be left out of this comparison for reasons to be fully explained later, and their digital-only single “Baby-Baby-Baby” will also, most likely, be left out since there was no Morning Musume single to counterbalance – using the MoMusu side band High-King’s single “C/C (Cinderella Complex)”, released around the same time, would not be a very fair comparison, even if for many fans the single filled what has to be the longest gap between Morning Musume singles (April 2008’s “Resonant Blue” and September 2008’s “Pepper Keibu”) ever. “Boku No Taiyou” has also left me with a bit of a dilemma, given that it dropped seemingly within days of the release of “BINGO!” – I haven’t decided on whether or not it will be part of this survey. It might be, but pitting two AKB singles against one MoMusu single from the same time period will probably be pushing it. No matter. This is strictly for fun, not part of a contest to determine which band is better than another.

2010 is barely two days old, and already there’s new music to look forward to. Nothing on the Western music front yet, as far as I know. But by the time this post is less than a week old, a new Shonen Knife album will be on my desk. A new Koda Kumi album and new Buono! album will follow next month, followed by a new Morning Musume album the month after that – the latter just in time to define the final months of my bachelorhood. And there’s also singles from MoMusu, AKB48, Buono! and SCANDAL to deal with during that time period as well. The last time I recall looking forward to a new non-J-pop release at the beginning of the year, it was The Stooges’ The Weirdness album, which was scheduled within days of Morning Musume dropping Sexy 8 Beat – and those two albums dropping within weeks of each other early in 2007 made the rest of that year quite the anti-climax. By the end of the year, while I was trying to sum up the year in albums at MotokoAoyama.com, I was also planning to propose to my girlfriend.

Oh yeah, there’s that little interruption.

Truth be told, I’m already planning ahead, and not just for that. I’ve already anticipated that there’s going to be a short break in blogging action around the last week of June and going on for at least another week. Which only means one thing: I intend to stay as busy as possible, trying to post as much as possible here and at So Hot She Shits Fire (and whenever I can at My Sweet Meetan), while also going into final preparations for the wedding, getting the last scenes folded into Here Is The Wonderland in the immediate weeks to come, thus finishing that long-in-the-making first draft before plunging into the second, which should only take a minuscule fraction of the time it took to complete the first draft. And also upping my guitar skills.

What?

Yeah, I got a new electric guitar over the Christmas holidays. I don’t think I will be discussing it much here – this blog is meant for serious music discussion, and personal ramblings about trying to re-master the pentatonic scale or getting a better handle on sweep picking don’t really belong here, so there may be a little place somewhere where I’ll let those out of my system. (Updates about my personal life don’t belong here either, of course. I might refer to them in vague here or in “conversation” at SHSSF, but that’s another story, and I already have places for that.)

This, in a nutshell, is as personal as I intend to get, and I’m keeping it in topic: 2010 is going to see a lot more activity here. Beyond that, I’m not hard to find, as the list of “personal” links that has always existed here and at this blog’s predecessor will attest. With one of the series that I hinted at back in November (the Best Albums of 2009 series) out of the way, the other one will be starting next week to formally kick off blogging activity here at TGML for 2010. For now, I’m going to spend the rest of the weekend decompressing from New Year’s Eve/Day.

Other than that (and my wedding), I don’t know what’s going to take place in 2010. Hell, I didn’t know when 2009 started that Morning Musume were getting ready to announce their American debut and that Ron Asheton was going to be transferred from the Stooges to Rock N’Roll Heaven’s Helluva Band either.

Stay tuned. Things are only going to get insane here. But in a good way, of course.

MORNING MUSUME
Platinum 9 Disc
(Zetima [Japan]/JapanFiles.com [USA])
Available on CD, iTunes US and Japan, and JapanFiles.com

Morning Musume’s 9th studio album (10th if you count Cover You) shows the band at their prime – all the better for an album that wound up being their first ever American release, the second of two studio albums by the band’s longest-lived lineup, and the album that preceded their US performing debut. One of Morning Musume’s many strengths is that they put out solid albums and not just solid singles – this album was just a gentle reminder of that.

Before I reveal the top two albums of the year, I figured I’d throw in something different to prolong the agony of revealing those two top albums… by throwing up a second list, and a first for this blog (and its predecessor): A top singles list.

#10) MILDRED AND THE MICE “I Like My Mice (Dead)” (Third Man)
Officially supposed to be a socially awkward goth chick from a small town in Kentucky, but more rumored to be the wife of Jack White playing a rather eccentric character, with a few Raconeturs/Dead Weather members posing as Mildred’s “band”. Either way, this is demented two-chord garage punk that makes The Cramps look like the Carpenters.

#9) BIF NAKED “I Won’t Cry (Fuck You 2)” (Her Royal Majesty)
Bif’s big comeback single after her cancer-forced layoff… and boy, did she come back swinging! Never before did a standard 50’s doo-wop chord sequence sound so menacing.

#8) WE ARE THE FALLEN “Bury Me Alive” (self-released)
Mistake this for Evanescence, and you wouldn’t be far off, as three-fifths of this group were the creative hub of Ev. Throw in a more fuller-bodied-voice compared to Amy Lee (courtesy of American Idle alumni Carly Smithson), and you’ll wonder why The Open Door didn’t sound like this. The band had planned to slip out leaked tracks every month or so, but fate – and a contract with Universal Music – intervened. Now this is just a teaser for next spring’s LP.

#7) CARL SAGAN “A Glorious Dawn” (Third Man)
This song – comprising of AutoTuned monologues from the late scientist/TV personality’s Cosmos mini-series – started off as an experimental pro-science viral video with a free download available to those who wanted it. Then Jack White heard and saw the video, wanted to put it out on his own label, and the rest is history – just like the Voyager Golden Record whose design is reproduced on the back of the one-sided single.

#6) AYUMI HAMASAKI “Sunrise/Sunset ~Love Is All~” (Avex)
Two ways (uptempo and ballad) of saying the same thing, and both done very well.

#5) KODA KUMI “3 Splash” [EP] (Rhythm Zone/Avex)
Three sides of Kuu-chin in one handy single: Upbeat pop-rocker (“Lick me”), heavy techno in the vein of “Taboo” (“Ecstasy”), and a solid foray into funk-rock (“Hashire!”) – and all with PVs to go with it. Sold.

#4) MORNING MUSUME “Kimagure Princess” (Zetima)
The opening high-register vocals notwithstanding, after three rather emo singles a more upbeat number was the perfect track to close out both one of Morning Musume’s most triumphant years as well as Koharu Kusumi’s tenure in the band.

#3) AKB48 “Namida Surprise” (King)
In my opinion, the best of AKB48’s four single releases this year. It was definitely the most memorable, both for the title track and for the solo cut by Team K member Erena Ono, “First Kiss”.

#2) MORNING MUSUME “Shouganai Yume Oibito” (Zetima [Japan]/JapanFiles [US])
Referring to this particular period of Morning Musume’s singles as their “emo” period should not be interpreted as a putdown, because it isn’t. The fact that this single took Morning Musume back to the #1 spot on the singles chart in Japan shows that they were on the right track at the time; it’s definitely the standout of the three “emo” singles.

#1) BUONO! “My Boy” (Pony Canyon)
The guitar riffs in this song alone are insane – putting the sweet voices of Airi, Miyabi and Momoko makes it sound even more insane thanks to the seeming clash of elements, but it works, big time.

So Koharu Kusumi is leaving Morning Musume in December. It is a shocking and somewhat sad development. Her departure will end what has to be a record for longest intact lineup of Morning Musume ever (and the only Morning Musume lineup to record two studio albums – Cover You and Platinum 9 Disc – and be depicted on two different compilations – 2007’s ALL SINGLES COMPLETE and next month’s forthcoming B-sides collection – without a personnel change).

As much of a shock as it is, I am not upset, save for the momentary realization that my chance to see the band perform while she was in it is now gone (although, thanks to Kd Potter, ex of Iro Iro Aru Sa, I have a T-shirt from the summer 2009 Wonderful Hearts tour!). I was a fan of Morning Musume before Koharu joined the band, I remained a fan then, and I will remain a fan now. I did not hate Koharu like some bloggers did (even her supporters, like my colleague Vee, admit that Koharu was too easy of a target), and I found her three Kirarin Revolution “solo” albums to be some of the most twisted pop music ever released. Her intention to pursue a modeling career means that while we will still see her in the public eye, we won’t get to hear a more mature Koharu Kusumi making more serious pop records (well, more serious than her “solo” back catalog, anyway).

In a way, maybe we should have seen it coming. Maki Goto, like Koharu before her, had embarked on a solo career while she was still in Morning Musume, and she left after a short time period – only a couple of years – to pursue a solo career full time. So in a way, there is a precedent of sorts.

Does it affect the band? Not negatively. Quite honestly, there hasn’t been a personnel change in Morning Musume’s entire 12-years-and-counting history that has negatively impacted the band. There are still eight strong voices in the band; No doubt Koharu’s parts in all of her MoMusu songs will be shared amongst the other members (for example, Reina Tanaka might pick up Koha’s closing lines in the pre-choruses of “Egao YES Nude”). Talk of 9th generation auditions continues (although it would not be surprising if Tsunku turned around and tapped a Hello! Project Egg or two to add to the MoMusu lineup sometime late this year or early next year).

If there is any real advantage to Koharu’s departure, besides giving Morning Musume a fresh start (something every departure and addition to the group does), it is this: The temptation to lump Morning Musume in with anime, especially when promoting them outside of Japan, is gone. Now they can get fully back to what they always was, is and always shall be: a musical group.

Ganbare, Koharu. And rock on, Morning Musume.

I said it when I reviewed Morning Musume’s last single:

“An upbeat A-side along the lines of “Koko Ni Irusee!” and “Mikan” can’t hurt for single #41…”

Well, they didn’t disappoint:

Admittedly, the higher-register vocals threw me off at first, but when the song started to pick up steam, I knew the band had another winner on their hands. Some of the stylistic vibe of the past couple of singles is still there, but the song is way upbeat – just what the doctor ordered. Then again, with a title like “Kimagure Princess”, I highly doubt a dirge more fitting for the second side of Black Flag’s My War album would have been an appropriate musical backing.

It’s going to be a long five-week wait for this single to drop…

And as long as I’m making predictions of a sort about Morning Musume records, I’ll go out on a (short) limb: New studio album by May of 2010. That’ll be enough time to let it be the soundtrack to my final weeks of bachelorhood and my first months of married life. I wouldn’t be surprised if a “9.5″-numbered mini-album was released in time for the holidays, too.

Happy Birthday to Morning Musume’s leader and one of my favorite MoMusus, Ai Takahashi! She’s 23 today!

How mindblowing is it that Takitty has gone from this, eleven years ago (a rare pre-Morning Musume TV appearance)…

…to this (Takitty’s first PV with MiniMoni, after she’d been in Morning Musume for at least a year)…

To, most recently, this. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, even though this blog focuses mainly on the music, as a hardcore Morning Musume fan I proudly present to you, via her latest PB, Ai Takahashi and her J-Pop Badonkadonk (and yes, you can click on the pic to see the aforementioned badonkadonk in non-thumbnailed form):

I’ve had a Last.fm account since around the late summer of 2004, around which time I had a nice Apple PowerBook, no iPod to speak of then (although I did have iTunes and was burning mix CD’s like a motherfucker), and come to think of it, last.fm was known under another name back then. Anyway, thanks to last.fm’s scrobbling technology I’ve found it quite interesting to see how it charts my listening habits day to day and week to week as far as my iPod and laptop go. Obviously, it does nothing when I’m slapping a record onto the turntable or slipping a CD into the player of my car, but since the iPod still seems to be the primary device I derive much of my melodic and rhythmic intake from, we’ll go with that.

Using my last.fm page’s static weekly charts as a guide, I’m going to self-analyze my listening habits and try to put a paragraph to them. Because goodness knows, I’m the only one who can explain why Mission of Burma comes up on my iPod one moment and John Coltrane comes up the next. (I’m sure the guy who has been running Gallery of Sound in West Hazleton since it first opened in 1987 sometimes tells the guys who work under him about the one time in 1992 when I walked up to the counter with a New Kids on the Block remix CD in one hand and the Bitches With Problems CD in )the other…

Just as a general foundation, here’s what my overall last.fm Top10 chart looks like:

1) Morning Musume
2) The Stooges
3) Nine Inch Nails
4) Minutemen
5) Black Flag
6) W
7) Puffy AmiYumi
8) Sayuri Ishikawa
9) Frank Sinatra
10) Hank Williams III

Now, here’s what my listening habits looked like, from #10 on down, as they looked for the week ending Sunday, August 30, with my somewhat pithy/pitiful explanations following each one: (Last.fm usually finalizes these charts at Midnight Greenwich Mean Time on Sundays) Read the rest of this entry »