12, Smart

Looking back, both of these albums represent two parts of a transitional period for the band. Eri Kamei, Qian Lin and Li Chun were about to depart the band when Fantasy! Juuichi dropped, while Ai Takahashi had already taken her bows before 12, Smart‘s release. The next album and the singles that precede it with the tenth generation involved should prove interesting, even if that first single A-side is too much of an anime theme for most people’s likings.

By the way, this ranking isn’t any kind of slur on Morning Musume – far from it. It’s just there’s one album that seemed to get played just a little more than both of these… Which album was that? Check in after midnight…

MORNING MUSUME
12, Smart
(Zetima)
Available on CD, CD/DVD combo, and on iTunes US and Japan
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

It took a couple of days longer than I expected, but I wasn’t about to not review a Morning Musume album for the second time in a row. (At least in the instance of Fantasy 11, I could blame the Christmas holidays.) Let’s do the math quick: This is Morning Musume’s third album in nineteen months (I can’t help but recall back when Husker Du dropped New Day Rising, Flip Your Wig, and Candy Apple Grey – solid albums, all – within a similar time frame back in the mid-80′s). And it’s the soonest they’ve followed up a studio album since the three-and-a-half month gap between Cover You and Platinum 9 Disc. (The second shortest gap was between Second Morning and 3rd Love Paradise). And this album is coming out on the heels of Ai Takahashi’s graduation from the band and the addition of four new members that have yet to see the inside of a recording studio, and that’s on the heels of four more members being added at the beginning of this year. Things are getting way busy over in MoMusu land, and that’s a good thing. They’re also changing a mite too fast, but thankfully, the new album is giving veteran MoMusu fans like myself a chance to catch up.

I do have to admit that I was a little wary of how the songwriting quality of the album was going to be considering the tough double act 12, Smart has to follow with the two solid albums that bookended 2010, the semi-experimental 10 My Me and the more group-centric Fantasy 11. [Which I still wish I had written a review of last December; If you haven't bought that album yet, go get it now 'cause it still holds up.] I also wondered how the 9th Generation members were going to mesh in an album setting, considering there were basically thrown front and center their first single in, before being reined in by Tsunku afterward (and quite wisely) on the two singles that followed.

Tsunku has had a pretty good game plan as far as sequencing the opening tracks of the past several Morning Musume studio albums – new studio track followed by one of the recent singles – and he adheres pretty much to that same operating procedure. “Give Me Ai” (sung as “Give me love” in the lyrics itself, if you didn’t know what the word “Ai” meant in Japanese) recalls both Platinum 9 Disc‘s “SONGS” and Fantasy 11‘s “Onna to Otoko no Lullaby Game”, with an arrangement that mixes some of the best elements of both tracks.

“Only You”, one of the current lineup’s best single A-sides, follows “Give Me Ai” out of the starting gate. Tsunku’s songwriting for Morning Musume singles has been displaying a determination to have more than two strains of music (in other words, not just a verse and a chorus ad infinitum) in a pop song if he can get away with it. Here, he gets away with it in spades. Ai Takahashi, Reina Tanaka and Risa Niigaki are in excellent voice (even if some of Gaki-san’s vocals are deliberately effected with AutoTune in the song’s prechoruses).

One of the unique things about the last Morning Musume album, Fantasy 11, was that the album was dominated by group performances, with only Ai Takahashi and Reina Tanaka getting solo cuts and no subgroup features to speak of. This time around, the band gets splintered around for four of the album’s twelve tracks. On “Silver no Udedokei” Reina is paired with Riho Sayaski (the only member of the 9th gen to get any solo lines on “Only You”) for a classic H!P urban R&B workout a-la the ROMANS one-off “Sexy Night”, with Risa and Aika Mitsui brought in to contribute rap-style vocals here and there. Although Morning Musume can pull off pretty much any style they are confronted with, modern R&B is one of their strongest suits.

Sayumi Michishige and newcomer Mizuki Fukimura take their turn at a subgroup cut next with “Suki da na Kimi ga”. Apparently Mizuki is cut from similar cloth vocally to Sayumi, and they get a heavily electronic track to play with.

“Kaiketsu Positive A” starts with traffic sound effects before a soul horn section (albeit a synthetic one) kicks in, bringing the entire group along for the ride. Here some of the ninth gen members hold their own very well alongside the veteran members, both with solo lines and harmonies.

Six tracks in and we get our first non-uptempo cut of the album, “Kono Ai wo Kasanete”, a sort of torch-passing duet between Takahashi and Niigaki. Given that the release date of this album was – somewhat stupidly – done a couple of weeks after Takahashi graduated from the band, its fortunate that then-leader and then-subleader were given a chance at a subgroup cut.

The one/two punch of the band’s current double-A-side single “Kono Chikyuu no Heiwa o Honki de Nagatterun da yo!”/”Kare to Issho no Omise ga Shitai!” follows. I’m glad the band and Tsunku retained the crossfade between both songs from the single version for the album. In my mind, this is the best double-A-side single since Husker Du’s “Makes No Sense At All”/”Love Is All Around”.

“My Way ~Joshikou Hanamichi~” combines rock guitar riffing and drum-and-bass percussion loops. That combination shouldn’t work, but here it does. The band members engage in some top-notch harmonizing over the somewhat frantic musical arrangement.

“Otome no Timing” starts with a Motown-esque double-time rhythm on the intro (and choruses) before giving in to a brighter pop arrangement on the verses. Back when Sexy 8 Beat was released, an 60′s-influenced musical bed allowed then-newcomer Aika Mitsui to have some solo space with veteran Eri Kamei. Now, Aika is in the veteran’s spot with a similar song and she has her hands full with newcomers Erina Ikuta and Kanon Suzuki, whose vocals are already starting to remind me of Ai Kago & Nozomi Tsuji circa 2000-2001.

“OK YEAH!” starts off somewhat weak then almost threatens to drown out the band members with its happy-hardcore sound (so much so that one would not be blamed to double check to make sure Anabolic Frolic’s name isn’t in the credits). Fortunately, saner heads prevailed at the mixing desk and the MoMusus are front and center.

“Maji Ka Desu Ska!”, the first single by the new lineup (review from when the single was first released here), closes out the album – not only a further reiteration of standard Tsunku operating procedure for sequencing a Morning Musume studio album of late, but a reminder of how the year started for the band in the first place.

If there are any weak spots on the album, they are when the newest, youngest members of the band are featured so prominently. Perhaps it is because we now have a MoMusu lineup that has members younger than the members of Berryz Koubou and C-ute. Fortunately, the songwriting and the vocal performances of the veteran members are still top notch and sustain the album. Hopefully the newer members will develop more vocal personality by the time the next band’s album drops.

4 and a half out of 5 stars.

OK, I know that nobody outside of the hip-hop world calls them mixtapes anymore considering that the primary sound carriers of these things are either CD-Rs or iTunes/iPod playlists, but the concept is still the same. You make a mix that you’ll be playing on the regular when you’re driving to the beach, lying on the beach, driving home from the beach, going on vacation… you get idea. The kind of tape where, if immaculately mixed and sequenced, will stay in your car all summer – maybe even during the fall and winter, too – until it either gets lost, borrowed, or left on the dashboard absentmindedly (where it’ll get fried by the sun).

And there is an art to making good mixes. You don’t just throw together eighty minutes worth of songs and call it a mix. You make the sequence as perfect as possible. You try not to be clever by putting ten-minute track from your brother’s favorite Yes album, or hip by slipping some American pop tartlet like Katy Perry inbetween tracks by Anthrax and Bright Eyes.

It’s been said by some aficionados of mixtape culture that mixtapes are going the way of the Edsel, thanks to the presence of iPods. Given that there are still plenty of participants on sites like Zen Running Order and Art of the Mix, that isn’t true. In my case, iPod/iTunes playlists have served to be the perfect test lab for making mixes. Ever since I first started using the program in 2004, I’ve used iTunes to do multiple drafts of mixes, playing the sequences on either my iPod or right on my laptop, fine-tuning the tracks until I have a sequence that a) flows well, and b) fits within the limitations of an 80-minute CD-R. That last parameter is of utmost importance – I’ve lost track of how many cassette mixes I’ve done back in the day where the tape ran out just as my carefully-chosen closing track was prematurely ended by the sudden appearance of the cassette’s plastic leader. Of course, if one could still find blank cassettes and the machines to record and playback with, one could pre-master their sequences on CD-R’s and then transfer those to cassettes – but unless one was being a retro hipster, why would you? (Hmmm… maybe I should do an eBay search for a good stereo reel-to-reel recorder and some blank reels… that would really be retro!)

Anyway, since this is the IntlWota Summer Refreshment Program we’re dealing with here, I’m contractually obligated to display both the refreshment that this program funded for me (in this case, a can from case of Arizona Green Tea – about the only goddamn thing I drink regularly thanks to being both straight-edge and lactose intolerant) and the tools that helped put this article together – my loyal laptop and one of my two iPods. Wait a minute, you’re asking: Two iPods? Yeah. They’d both be in the shot, but I had to use the other one just to take the picture.

I should explain about the two iPods – the one in the picture is a 160GB iPod Classic; a 64GB iPod Touch that is basically used like a miniature iPad/phoneless iPhone is what I took the picture with, and it’s been a rather handy device. I was on a first-anniversary weekend trip with my wonderful wife Tara and was using the hotel’s free WiFi to catch up on e-mail with the iPod Touch, when I got the go-ahead from International Wota to do this. I immediately started putting together the initial sequence right in the iPad Touch, sequenced it, and even gave it an initial spin via a very useful and very fun DJ app – wherein I discovered that my original track sequence was over 90 minutes long. Barely OK for a cassette mix – but we’re dealing with CD limits, so at least ten minutes of music had to eventually be chopped.

Summer, itself, was the basis for picking out the tracks. If it came out in summer, had a summer memory attached to it, or just reminded me of or even sounded like summer in some way to me, it went in. And, befitting this blog’s general ethos – that ethos basically being putting J-Pop and Western music on equal footing – I didn’t restrict my choices to just J-Pop material.

Once I was back home, I got myself the aforementioned fresh case of tea (I’m already halfway through it as I write this – it’s been one of those fucking hot weeks up here in Pennsylvania), sat down with the laptop, and got to editing and resequencing. Below is the final result: My soundtrack for the rest of the Summer of 2011.

1. WHITEBERRY “Natsu Matsuri” – A no-brainer of a logical choice to kick off this mix. When I started to get more seriously into Japanese music, it was Whiteberry that led me on my current path. I owe them a great deal of gratitude for that. I’ve long since heard the Jitterin’ Jinn original and I must say, Whiteberry’s version has the upper hand. Yuki Madea’s voice reminds me of J Mascis as far as her somewhat raw delivery goes; her post-Whiteberry recordings, first with the band Yukki and currently with The Husky have seen her get better with age.

2. REINA TANAKA “Manatsu No Kousen” – Yep, the idol who drives my wotahood (to paraphrase something Ray said at American Wota a few years back). It’s probably no surprise that all of her recently released solo singles are on my hard drive (thank you, US iTunes!) – the surprise is how well she pulls off her solo rendition of the early MoMusu summer classic.

3. HUSKER DU “Celebrated Summer” – Another no-brainer of a selection and the first representation of Western music in general and classic punk/indie in particular on this track list. It was probably my reading Bob Mould’s recent autobiography See A Little Light as well as a book about the Huskers from earlier this year that spurred me to include this choice a lot quicker than I otherwise would have. But then again, I miss the Huskers big time and wish they’d never split up in 1988.

4. BUZZCOCKS “What Do I Get?” – Yes, this is one of those tracks that reminds me of summer – specifically, one time back in the summer of 1994 when I found a copy of their box set in a used CD store in Bloomsburg, bought it on sight, and listened to it in the car on the way home. Plus, I’m starting to make some serious plans for getting a new band together – first time for me since 1997, first time back on guitar since my first band split up in 1984, and first time ever singing lead vocals full-time – and this is one of a long list of candidates that are going to be on the prospective band’s set list.

5. MORNING MUSUME “Souda! We’re Alive!” – Throwing one of my favorite songs by my favorite band of all time into the mix, specifically one from a classic lineup of the group. Gotta love those big powerchords in the intro/chorus/outro.

6. ROKY ERICKSON “Bermuda” – I threw this classic in – specifically this superior version from the Don’t Slander Me album – to add a bit of travel-related paranoia to the proceedings. Yes, this is another selection from my soon-to-be band’s list, too.

7. SAN NIN MATSURI “Chu! Natsu Party” – I had to throw in at least one of the Hello! Project Shuffle Units, and this classic collaboration between Ai Kago, Rika Ishikawa and Aya Matsuura was begging to be heard.

8. BORIS “Hope” – Attention Please and Heavy Rocks 2011 – both reviewed a month or so ago here at TGML – came out just as summer was unofficially starting. With lead guitarist Wata singing in a fragile manner over her own driving Jesus And Mary Chain guitar riffing, the song is a perfect fit.

9. SCANDAL “Koi Moyo” – That opening chord sequence sounds very summery, even beachy. I find myself playing it on guitar a lot when I’m warming up.

10. 11WATER “BE ALL RIGHT!” – the second representation of the H!P Shuffle Groups in this mix. Eleven H!P members take on some Bosstones-esque ska punk. Love this one even though I’m a little more used to MiniMoni’s version from their second album.

11. THE BEATLES “All You Need Is Love” – This one is here for a very personal reason: The day Capitol Records put this 45 out on the racks is also the day I was born.

12. THE MINUTEMEN “Search” – When I got into my first semi-pro band after graduating high school – this was the Summer of 1985 – one of the tapes I frequently carried was the My First Bells compilation tape of all of the Minutemen’s releases prior to Double Nickels on the Dime. I find myself associating that tape with summer weather and car travel a lot.

13. SCANDAL “Secret Base” – The Osaka Four covering the Zone classic. Sometimes I think the basic story line as seen in the Zone PV reminds me of a summer romance that never got off the ground any more come September. The keyboards, however – no matter whether it’s the original or SCANDAL’s retake – remind me of early King Crimson. And I got my first King Crimson records in the summer of ’81, too, if that counts for extra credit…

14. JUNIOR MURVIN “Police and Thieves”
15. MAX ROMEO – “War in a Babylon”
I’ve been in a serious reggae mood lately – the recent Peter Tosh reissues are partly to blame – and so, rather than slip 7nin Matsuri’s “Summer Reggae Rainbow” into the set list, which would have been a little too obvious, and even though I love the song, I opted for putting some more authentic classic reggae in instead. And one can’t get more authentic and classic with reggae without gravitating towards the Bob Marley canon, than by culling from the work of the great Lee “Scratch” Perry. Both tracks sourced from the great box set Arkology – do yourself a favor and find a copy.

16. AKB48 “Heavy Rotation” - One of the best things AKB48 did last summer, if not, all of last year.

17. BUONO “My Boy” - This single might have come out a month early for the Summer of 2009, but by the time the last weekend of May rolled around, it was a perfect fit and stayed that way for the whole season and then some, making it one of Buono’s best ever singles to date.

18. BERRYZ KOUBOU “Waracchaou yo BOYFRIEND” – Likewise, this came out while there was still one month of summer left in 2006, but the 50’s style musical arrangement never fails to evoke summer nights, car hops, crusing, and the like… even if, at the time the song was recorded, most of the girls weren’t even old enough to get learner’s permits.

19. THE SEX PISTOLS “God Save The Queen” – Another deliberately personal summer memory creeping in here, this time of more recent vintage: When Tara and I were finalizing our first-dance and bridal-party song selections with the DJ we hired for our wedding reception last year, he told us to feel free to e-mail him if there were any specific songs we wanted him to play that night. Tara didn’t think of anything, but I asked for this song – admittedly, my favorite song of all time, period point blank – and got it, and got Tara to dance with me to it near the end of the night. Afterwards, our wedding photographer came up to us and said, “I never thought I’d ever hear the Sex Pistols at a wedding reception – that was fucking awesome!!”

20. THE BEACH BOYS “All Summer Long” – Yes, picking a Beach Boys track is pretty obvious for a summer mix, but I needed a good closer, and since this track closes out the American Graffiti soundtrack double-album (a favorite album since I was 7!) it was the perfect track to use. Also, there’s another summer memory attached to this song and the entire soundtrack album – the movie was available on an early pay-per-view hotel system when my family and I stayed at the Inn On The Park hotel in Toronto in 1974 (Around the same time Glenn Gould was using one of the other rooms in the building as a makeshift tape-editing studio for his recordings, I later found out), which is when I first saw the movie and heard most of the music from it. Ironically, while the movie takes place in 1962, this song didn’t come out until two years later. Go figure.

Have a good summer, everyone!

BONUS: Here’s a streaming version of the mix as I originally did it with the dJay app on my iPod Touch, before I discovered that I had to chop at least ten minutes off of the track sequence. Can you pick out the songs that didn’t make the final cut?

IW Summer Refreshment Test Mix 1 by TGML/IW Summer Refeshment

Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols:

Robert Fripp:

Two for one here… Ace Frehley and Slash!

Neil Young:

Jimmy Page:

Zakk Wylde, here playing with the man who should be Idol:

The Stooges’s Straight James Williamson, here doing a warmup gig with the band Careless Hearts before rejoining Iggy and company:

Randy Rhoads:

And while I’m not one to be posting my own guitar wanking on here, today I can make an exception and share something I did this morning on my own Les Paul, nicknamed after my favorite MoMusu:
Les Paul Birthday Riffin’ by thegroovemusiclife

And to finish off, a now-classic beer ad (not a beer I would ever drink, though) featuring Les himself.

Straight from the band’s own YouTube channel, the new PV for their forthcoming single, and in beautiful HD, too. The anticipation continues…

A full HQ copy of Morning Musume’s forthcoming single “Only You” (out 6/15) has already surfaced. The band is back to the mature sound of “Nanchatte Renai”, “Naichao Kamo” and “Onna ga Medatte Naze Ikenai” after kicking off 2011 and their 9th-generation period with this past spring’s much needed dose of sunshine known as “Maji Desu Ka Ska”. And Takitty and Reina, the two best vocalists in the band, are right up front as they very well should be. Loving it already… how could I not? How could you not? Summer’s already starting to sound good and it’s not even Memorial Day yet…

ETA 5.20.11: Sorry – I wasn’t aware that the original stream had been removed – here’s a replacement.

B.I.Shadow:
Kento Nakajima

BoA
BREAKERZ
BRIGHT
C-ute
COMA-CHI
Crystal Kay
D-BOYS
D-NA
Da Pump member Tomo
Daichi Miura
Fukui Hiroaki
FictionJunction
Five member Ryota Kamisato
FLOW
flumpool
Goto Yukari
GReeeeN
Gyaruson
Harisenbon
Hello! Project

Hey! Say! JUMP:
Inoo Kei
Ryosuke Yamada
Yuri Chinen
Hikaru Yaotome
Kota Yabu
Yuto Nakajima
Daiki Arioka
Yuya Takaki

Higashiyama Noriyuki
Hiromi
HOME MADE KAZOKU
Hoshino Gen
Hosoda Yoshihiko
Ichihara Hayato
ICONIQ
Ikimono Gakari
Ikuta Toma
Inoue Joe
Inoue Masahiro
Inoue Waka
Iwanaga Hiroaki
Izumiya Shigeru
GIRL NEXT DOOR
Hige Danshaku
Jasmine
JYJ

Kanjani8:
Ryo Nishikido
You Yokoyama
Okura Tadayoshi
Hiroki Uchi

Kago Ai
Kalafina
Kamiji Yusuke
Kana Nishino
Kaname Jun
Kara
Kato Kazuki
Kato Natsuki
KAT-TUN
Kawaoka Daijiro
Kiss my ft2
Kimura Ryo
Kinomoto Minehiro
Kitano Kie
Kitayama Hiromitsu
Komatsu Ayaka
Kumi Koda
Kusumi Koharu
M-Flo member Taku Takahashi and VERBAL
Maeda Atsuko
Mano Erina
Matsushima Shota
Matsushige Yutaka
MAY’s
MEG
Meisa Kuroki
Melody
MiChi
Miura Ryosuke
Mizushima Hiro
Monkey Majik members Maynard Plant and Blaise
Morning Musume
Mr. Children
MUCC
Nagashima Shugo
Nagata Anna
Nakagawa Shoko
Namioka Kazuki
Nami Tamaki
Namie Amuro
Nana Mizuki
NEWS
NICO Touches The Wall
NMB48
Noriyama Nobuyuki
Nozomi Tsuji
NYC
Okada Yoshinori
Okamoto Rei
OLIVIA
ON/OFF
Orange Range
Perfume
Pour Lui
Rie Fu
S/mileage
Sakurada Dori
Sato Megumi
Sato Takeru
Scandal
SDN48
SEAMO
Seto Kouji
Shaku Yumiko
Shida Mirai
Shimizu Shota
Shioya Shun
SHU-I
SKE48
SMAP
Sonar Pocket
Stereopony
Sugiura Taiyo
Sugizo
Suzuki Ryohei
T.M.Revolution
Tackey & Tsubasa
Takada Riho
Takahata Mitsuki
Taisuke Fujigaya
Teippe Koike
The Boss
The Takagi twins
The Touch

TOKIO:
Shigeru Joshima
Tomoya Nagase
Tatsuya Yamaguchi
Masahiro Matsuoka

TOTALFAT
Tsukamoto Takashi
Utada Hikaru
V6
W-inds member Keita Tachibana, Ryiuchi
Wentz Eiji
WISE
Yagami Ren
Young Sky
Yu Shirota
YUI
YUYA Matsushita
2NE1
?Pia-no-jaC?

J-Rock artists conformed safe
12012
13 MUSIC (This is a label. Everyone from that label are fine.)
2side1BRAIN
9GOATS BLACK OUT
9mm Parabellum Bullet

Acid Black Cherry
ACIDMAN
Administrator
Aldious
ALiBi
AliceNine
An cafe – Kanon, teruki, miku, Takuya
aicle
Aigis – Tenka
ALSDEAD
amber gris
AND
Angelo – Kirito
Aoi from Ayabie
Aqua Timez
Arc
Art Cube – Z
Asian Kung-Fu Generation
AUBE
Awoi
AYABIE

Base ball bear
Black cat – Makoto
(ex) Black:List – Kyotaro
BLACK LINE
Black run
Blam honey
BLOOD – Dora, Hayato, Kiwamu
Blood Stain Child
Blu-Billion
BORN
BUCK-TICK
BugLug – Issei, Kazuki

Calmando Qual
The Candy Spooky Theater
(ex) Canzel – All but Ruri confirmed
Chaos system – TOMO, Kyouka
Charlotte
Chemical Pictures (also ex member Jimi)
Chicken head – Kudai
CindyKate
ClearVeil – Ryuuto, Nozomi
Cocklobin
Crossfaith
Cube

D
D=OUT
D’eiz
D’espairsray
Dagan shoujo – Shina
Danger Gang
DaizyStripper
Dear L’Novel – Kazuho
DEATHGAZE
DecoLa Hopping
DELUHI
DER ZIBET
DIAURA – Yo-ka
Dio -Distraught Overlord – mikaru, denka, ivy, erina
Dir en grey
DJ SiSeN
the Dopes
DOG in the PWO
dolore
Doremidan
Downer – Kagome
DuelJewel

E’m~grief~ – Cecir
EGOIST – Rui
exist trace

FEECHE
FLOW
the fool

Gackt (plus Chachamaru, Jun-ji, Ju-ken and You)
Gakido
Galneryus
the GALLO
the GazettE
(ex) GHOST – Kousei
Girugamesh
GLAY
Golden Bomber
GPKISM
Guild

heidi.
HERO
Hi:BRiD – Zero, Jill (ex member)
HITT
HYDE (Since he’s in L’ac~en~ciel)

Irokui
Inoran

Janne da Arc
jealkb
Jin (ex Hime Ichigo)
Jinkaku Radio
Jui (ex-vidoll)
Juka
Jun (ex Hime Ichigo)

Kaya
Kagrra,
THE KIDDIE
Kiryu
KISAKI
Kozi
Kra
Kuroyume
KYOKUTOU GIRL FRIEND

L’arc~en~Ciel
Lacroix Desphere
La’cryma Christi
LAGING – Orochi
Lauder – MAST, LEN
(ex) Lareine – Emiru, Kamijo
Lc5
Lin -the end of corruption world-
Lolita23q
LOST ASH
LM.C – Aiji & Maya
LuLu
LUNA SEA
Luzmelt
Lycaon
lynch.

Mana
Matenrou Opera
Megaromania – Misery, Hyoga, Sui
Megamasso
Merry
MIEL – shin
Misaruka
MIX SPEAKER’S INC.
Miyavi
Moi dix Mois – Seth, K
MoNoLith
Mu?Mu
MUCC – Tatsurou, Yukke, Miya

Nega
NEXX – Shikoto
NICO Touches The Wall
NightingeiL
Nightmare
Number mouse – Kyohei

Oblivion Dust
-OZ- – Aki, Nao, Tama
ONE OK ROCK
Oyuugi wagamama-dan x PaRADEiS

Para:noir
(ex) Panic Channel – Kiri
Penicillin
The Piass – Takayuki
Piko
Plastic Tree

R-shitei – Mamo, Z, Kaede
Rabbit of Labyrinth – Teruhiko
Reivier – Jey, Makoto, Kou, Hiro
remming – Kosuke, Tomoa
Royz

QUAFF – (ex members: Hal, Shingo, Ukusemi, Takuma)

RADWIMPS
remming – Sou, Kohsuke
rice
the Riotts

Sadie
Satsuki
Schwein – Yam, Zin, Takeru, Hina
SCAPEGOAT
SCREW (ex member Yuuto as well)
Secilia Luna
Sekihan
Sel’m – Tsubaki
Shaura
SID
SKULL – Die
SOMATIC GUARDIAN – Saki, Junya
Souiumono
spiv states
SuG (also ex drummer Mitsuru is safe)
Sugizo
Suzaku
SWEET MADONNA – Takeru, shinnosuke, kemono
Syndrome – Tatsuya
Synside

Takanori Nishikawa (T.M.Revolution)
TissueHime
TOON FACTORY
Tokami – Agato, K, Shige
(ex) Tokyo Shitei – Shibuya, Ren, Runchu

uchuu sentai NOIZ
UnsraW
UN=(XAG) – Yun, Yukihira
UNiTE
Ultimate Sonic – Yuu
UVERworld

V-last
v(NEU)
(ex) VAJRA – L
Vallquar – Hikari, Mikoto
VAMPS
Velbet
(ex) Velgreed – Naru
Velvet eden
Versailles
(ex) Vettic – Hal
VII-Sense
Vidoll
Virgil – Roa
vistlip
ViViD
VURNY – Hina

X-Japan
XA-VAT
Xenophobia – Benjamin
xTRiPx

Zip.er
Zoro – Ryuuji
ZUCK

Confirmed Injuries
Yuto and Daiki from Hey! Say! JUMP are currently in the hospital with minor injuries.
Yuriko Kaida of FictionJunction has a broken finger
Masahiro Matsuoka of TOKIO – sustained minor injuries

(Mirrored mostly from Jpopasia.com, which has been going down at points all day today (no surprise. Being that I was at my day job when this post was first made, and had to initially post and then update this whenever and as quickly as possible inbetween the duties I actually get paid for between 10 and 5PM Eastern time, both errors and less timely updates may and have happened in past versions of this post.)

Now I get to explain myself again…

1. Reina Tanaka – Yeah, was there ever any other doubt? This hasn’t changed. Not just my favorite MoMusu, not just my favorite H!Per, but my favorite J-idol, period. Beautiful voice, beautiful face, nice rack, nice butt… fuggedaboutit.

2. Koharu Kusumi – My geinou adopted daughter, and the young woman responsible for three of the most twisted albums in the Hello! Project canon to date, was #3 on last year’s MoMusu poll. Curiously, she was listed twice on Paul’s new poll as both a MoMusu and 1/3 of MilkyWay, so for shits and giggles I went with her MilkyWay outfit, since her tenure voicing Kirarin Revolution is coming to an end (along with the series itself) soon – and also because I seem to be cuing up “Anataboshi” quite a bit lately.

3. Mari Yaguchi - It’s about fucking time Mari hit the studio for the first time in four years and recorded something. My copy of the new single came in today, although I’ve been spinning a leak on my iPod since I caught wind of it (my impatience strikes again, buffered by my conscience saying that since I already bought the record, it’s OK.)

4. Hitomi Yoshizawa and 5. Rika Ishikawa - Placed here mainly because the HANGRY&ANGRY EP has been a frequent visitor to my iPod and CD player. Not to mention I liked Ongaku Gatas and Viyuden. And no, I’m not putting Yossy in this spot just because Reina placed 4th in Vee’s own survey last week.

6. Miyabi Natsuyaki – 1/7 of Berryz Koubou, 1/3 of Buono! and Aa! Responsible via her shirt on the Yuke Yuke Monkey Dance single for the name of this blog. H!Per most likely to make like Mike Watt or Jah Wobble. Shares a birthday with Elvis Costello. 

7. Airi Suzuki - 1/7 of C-ute, 1/3 of Buono! and Aa! H!Per most likely to make like Johnny Ramone or Ron Asheton. Responsible for those great high notes in “Maasara Blue Jeans”. 

8. Yuki Maeda - I’m probably going to be one of the few people voting for the Elder Club’s resident enka singer, but I don’t give a fuck. Yuki set off my interest in enka music long before a fellow Pennsylvanian flew to Japan and gave the genre a kick in the ass. Here’s hoping her future singing career brings her a longevity that equals, if not rivals, Sayuri Ishikawa’s and Yuriko Futaba’s. 

9. Kaori Iida - We still love you, Johnson. Please make another solo album soon. 

10. Nozomi Tsuji - Ah, Nono, if only things were different (read: If only Naoki Yamazaki wasn’t such a stick-in-the-mud prude)… Someone at UFW should dust off the master recording of W3: Faithful and, if not give it a legit release right away, at least force one by leaking the goddamn thing online. 

The question this month:

The music industry has had many tie-ins with animes and doramas. Of those tie-ins, did one manage to capture your interest and get you hooked on their music? Or, did one manage to change your perspective of a musical act?

As a 2nd part, did you end up watching the anime or dorama in its entirety or give up once the musical act’s tie-in ceased?

And for you non-anime/dorama watchers, have there been any CM tie-ins that had a similar effect on you?

This is going to be somewhat brief compared to my usual ramblings. Years ago, I was regularly scouring the DVD bins for interesting anime titles, usually centering around ones that weren’t mecha-laden sci-fi. One of the titles that I got into heavily was Love Hina, based on Ken Akamatsu’s manga. Such was my interest that I started scouring the web for anything Love Hina that I could get my hands on, especially if it featured my favorite character from the series, Motoko Aoyama. Yeah, that’s where the title of my original music blog, Stuck In A Pagoda With Motoko Aoyama, came from.

The search inevitably led to me finding soundtrack CDs from the series (two albums of character songs sung by all the seiyuu on the series and two different soundtracks). I’d found one on eBay, and on a search for a more regular source, discovered CDJapan, ordered up the rest, and started searching out other recordings by the voice actresses on the show, particularly those by Yui Horie (whose singing career I’ve become a devoted fan of) and Yuu Asakawa (who, while putting out three fine mini-albums of music, hasn’t done any solo material since about 2003).

I lost track of what was going on in anime and manga after awhile (its only in the past couple of weeks that I’ve started to look through the latter’s racks again), but discovering CDJapan in my search for these CDs, and knowing in the process that I could find other Japanese CDs easier, led me to start using the site to fill gaps in my Whiteberry collection (specifically at the time, their first EP After School and their trilogy of cover-version singles). This in itself led to me doing a little networking through LiveJournal and elsewhere for more J-music to find, which of course led to my discovering Morning Musume and Hello! Project, and to my blogging adventures.

Funnily enough, I haven’t paid much attention to any acting or anime project involving MoMusu very much. I’ve downloaded the first couple of episodes of the current My Melody series because of Reina Tanaka’s involvement in the voice cast and my general interest in Sanrio characters (Hell, I visit the Sanrio store in Times Square and buy something every time I visit New York City – last time it was a little Kuromi beanbag stuffie and pen). On the opposite hand, even though I have all of Koharu Kusumi’s Kirarin Revolution-related solo albums and think they’re fucking brilliant, I’ve never seen a single episode of the series, although I’ve heard that it may be coming out on DVD in the States at some point. My fingers are crossed…

Wota Wonderings 003 – The Ties That Bind (Selective Hearing)
Wota Wonderings 3 – Tie-Ins (Solo Space)
Wota Wonderings: Mendol – where the guys are girls and the girls are hot. (boylikesmusic)
Wota Wonderings 003: It’s All Yui Horie’s Fault (Somewhat) (The Groove Music Life)
Wota Wonderings 03 – Anime, Dorama, Video Game Tie-Ins (fields of maize and berryz)
Wota Wonderings 003: Kirarin Revolution and Hot Guys (Merry Go Round)

You can name and/or recognize half or more of the AKB48 research students or H!P Eggs. I couldn’t even name anybody in AKB48 proper, except for Megumi Ohori because of her solo single.  

You own at least 10 photos of your favorite idol. Guilty as charged!

You buy t-shirts advertising your favorite idol/idol group and wear them on a regular basis. If you’re a man 25+, you don’t feel any regret or embarrassment about this. Regrettably innocent. Japan doesn’t seem to make their shirts in American XL size, otherwise I’d have at least one Morning Musume shirt and one Reina Tanaka shirt.

You know all of your favorite idol’s stats by heart. I know Reina Tanaka’s birthday, where she’s from, and what her first single with the band was. Beyond that, fuggedaboutit.

Whenever anyone insults your favorite idol or idol group, you immediately come to their defense… even if you know you’re b.s.ing half your compliments. (i.e. “They’re good singers!” “She can dance well!” “She has more personality than [insert some famous TV personality here]” “They’re NOT ugly!”) For one thing, I don’t bullshit my compliments when it comes to J-Pop. Other than that, guilty as charged, especially where my fiancée is concerned. All that having been said, anyone in MoMusu could run circles around [name of a certain teen pop/TV star deleted as I vowed never to mention her name on this blog ever again].

You have spent more than you make a day on idol goods. Guilty!

You can recognize all of your favorite idols’ voices. Yep.

You have almost a stalkerish obsession with wanting to meet them or even just see them in person. I definitely don’t know about stalkerish obsession, but let’s be fucking blunt: Morning Musume are my favorite band along with Iggy Pop & The Stooges, and since I’ve gotten to see the Stooges play live last year in what was the best fucking concert I’ve ever seen in my life, I need to get my ass to Japan someday so that I can complete that equation! If I got to MEET them, I’d probably be extremely fucking nervous.

You hear someone say something that remotely sounds like your favorite idol’s name and you immediately assume they’re also a wota. Let’s just say that it doesn’t help that Reina is also a common name for Latin females!

You heavily anticipate any news from your idol. Guilty.

You have sent fan-mail. Honestly, I wouldn’t know where to send them fan mail.

Your favorite idol appears in your dreams more than once. Hasn’t happened with Reina Tanaka yet, but I do remember a dream where I was supposed to be going away somewhere the next day and I’m in a room with my parents and Mika Todd. 

You have wondered what would happen if your idol dated you. (Mainly for guys, but if we include Johnnys here…) Actually, I haven’t wondered what a date with Reina would be like. A record-shopping trip with Reina would be quite interesting, though…

Your husband/wife/boyfriend/girlfriend/immediate family has learned to deal with your obsession long ago. Perhaps.

If your favorite idol is suspended/fired/retired/graduated/has no work with their agency/other you check more than two sources of possible info everyday and accept any rumors about his/her return to be true immediately. Um, seriously, I’m trying to put what happened with Ai Kago out of my mind, but…

You have at least 3 photobooks or DVDs of your favorite idol. To date, four photobooks and two DVDs of Reina.

You could colorcode a song sung by AKB48 O.o (I’m afraid of those who can!) I couldn’t even colorcode a song sung by MoMusu!

You do fandubs, cosplays, or fandances of your favorite idol or idol group. This would be fellow Cancerian wota Vee’s department. Personally, on a related note, I’m surprised I haven’t sat down with my guitar and figured out the chord changes to MoMusu songs!

You make birthday and worship posts on a blog/forum. Guilty in the first degree – hell, I started So Hot She Shits Fire on Reina’s 18^th birthday and did birthday posts that day on MotokoAoyama.com and YODC as well.

You don’t take the cheap route and buy your idol’s songs from iTunes or another mp3 site, you spend the money to order every edition of the CD/DVD. Unfortunately, I’ve taken the impatient route and downloaded a few things from either iTunes or Hello-Online.org’s tracker when the mail service for an advance order was way too slow for my liking.