Paul at Hello!Blog has done it again with his annual desire to combine his love of Hello! Project with some mad coding skills. This time around, the survey incorporates all of Hello! Project, including the Elder Club, making for what should be some rather interesting results. Here’s the “tall” version of my survey graphic (the long version I’m going to use as the basis for a future header).

Now I get to explain myself again… Read the rest of this entry »

MORNING MUSUME
Platinum 9 DISC
(Zetima/Sony [Japan]/JapanFiles.com [USA])
Available on CD and through JapanFiles.com and iTunes US and Japan
Rating:

Man, talk about playing catch-up. The last time I saw a favorite band release a shitload of long-playing albums in such a short period of time was when Black Flag had come back in 1984 from a couple of years of legal limbo during which they couldn’t record or release new material. In one calendar year, they had released the studio albums My War and Slip It In, the live cassette Live ’84 and the half-spoken word/half-instrumental project Family Man – all in one calendar year. While that may sound like an odd comparison anywhere else in the J-pop blogosphere, I myself don’t think so. While Morning Musume didn’t have any legal holdups to speak of, 2008 was a somewhat idle year release-wise for the band, with only two singles and a side-project for them to speak of until the release of COVER YOU last November. Now, we already have a new album and single out, and a second single already in the can and scheduled for release in May – now that’s the MoMusu release schedule I’ve been acquainted with for the past five years! 

On to the album itself… Read the rest of this entry »

HANGRY & ANGRY
Kill Me Kiss Me
(Gothuall [Japan]/JapanFiles.com [North America])
Available on CD, iTunes US and Japan, and through JapanFiles.com

Ooof.

I wasn’t sure what to expect when this EP came out, but since this album has pretty much been my regular car music for the past two months, apparently the formula didn’t miss: Take two 4th-gen MoMusu’s, give them some great rock/goth/punk  hybrid tunes, wrap them in a bizarre image inspired by a Japanese boutique’s mascots, issue on CD and mp3, and knock thousands of MoMusu/H!P fans on their asses. “GIZA GIZA” recalls Evanescence somewhat (not as closely as that album track on 1st Goodsal, though), but the rest of the five-song EP has a style all of its own. A bigger independent label like Matador or Merge could give this album a better shot at American success, but JapanFiles.com put their nuts on the line to make sure this album came out simutaneously with its Japanese counterpart and did a better job in that department than The End did with Dir en grey’s new album.

ONGAKU GATAS
1st  Goodsal
(Zetima)
Availablility: CD, iTunes Japan and US

Ongaku Gatas’ 1st album (and apparently their only full-length album, given the impending graduation of most of the senior members as well as Hitomi and Rika’s current involvement in Hangry&Angry) was an easily overlooked affair by some fans. This was definitely an unfair assessment of the CD, as the efforts of “Soccer Musume” on the long-player recalled everything from “Love Machine”-era MoMusu (”Dakishimete… Namida” and first single “Narihajimeta Koi no Bell”) to Evanescence (”Koi Uranai Douri niwa Naranai wa”). With the Elder Club graduation concerts happening at the beginning of 2009, plus Erina Mano’s solo career and the impending US live debut of Hangry&Angry, now is the best time for listeners to give a second chance to 1st Goodsal. The album simply seems to get better with every listen.

For a Sunday, I was up a bit early already – you can thank the anticipation of Colin Powell endorsing Barack Obama on Meet The Press this morning for that.

After watching Gen. Powell give his endorsement, I grabbed my laptop and started hitting up my usual news and political haunts to see the initial reactions, then started going to my usual other haunts to see what else was going on, to discover this statement from Tsunku:

I have important news to share.

All members of H!P Elder Club, namely Morning Musume OG (Nakazawa Yuko, Iida Kaori, Abe Natsumi, Yasuda Kei, Yaguchi Mari, Ishikawa Rika, Yoshizawa Hitomi, Tsuji Nozomi, Konno Asami, Ogawa Makoto, Fujimoto Miki), Inaba Atsuko, Satoda Mai(Country Musume), Melon Kinenbi, Maeda Yuki, Matsuura Aya, Miyoshi Erika, Okada Yui and Ongaku Gatas, will be graduating from Hello!Project on 31.3.2009.

Most of these girls have already graduated from Morning Musume and other groups. They have been appearing on stage since their teenage years.

After the 10th year anniversary had passed, they have realized that it is necessary to smash through the stereotypes they have built by now, and find courage to begin a new trip towards their future careers.

Personally, I have big expectations to see their future efforts, and I would like to announce my support for these girls.

I also hope you will keep supporting both current Hello!Project members and the members who are going to graduate.

(Translation from Hello! Online, grammar-nazied here by yours truly)

While there is some initial shock at reading of what seems like a mass purge, with the shock and bits of sadness comes the realization that this had to happen.
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