Quruli -- Saigo no Merry Christmas（最後のメリー・クリスマス）

 

Yesterday for Nobuo Ariga's（有賀啓雄）"Pocket ni Tsumete Jingle Bell"（ポケットにつめてジングルベル）, I started off by putting up an AI art generator's creation of my request for a "Japanese City Pop Christmas" done in anime style, and indeed it looked quite seasonal. Before that though, I'd put in the same request but didn't add the anime part and the above is what resulted. Not that it's a bad result but it's a bit weird and apparently accurate spelling was more of a friendly guideline than a hard-and-fast rule.

Well, getting onto things here, when I was about to post the article for Masamichi Sugi's（杉真理）"Saigo no Merry Christmas"（最後のメリー・クリスマス）back in November, I discovered that he wasn't the only musical act that liked that title. The Sugi song was recorded back in 1986 but then a few decades down the line, the eclectic band Quruli（くるり）decided to create their own song with that same title.

In fact, it was Quruli's 27th single released in December 2013 so we're almost on the 10th anniversary since the band's "Saigo no Merry Christmas" first got to ears. Now, the KKP file on Quruli has shown us that they've given us a lot of different styles of music since their beginnings in the mid-1990s. And even Shigeru Kishida（岸田繁）and his merry group have denoted their long career in terms of phases or stages. However, I'm always going to see them first in their 8th and current stage of their brand of quirky pop (now continuing for ten years) thanks to nikala's introduction of Quruli through their "Liberty & Gravity" along with their prize-winning music video.

Actually, "Saigo no Merry Christmas" was released right before "Liberty & Gravity". Kishida wrote and composed his description of a Xmas in the band's hometown of Kyoto where the snow has been non-stop. It's an elegantly jaunty tune with a Latin beat and perhaps a few whispery references to other famous Xmas songs. I've always wondered what the Yuletide is like in Japan's former capital city and the adjective elegant did come to mind. The single managed to reach No. 15 on Oricon, and it's also available on Quruli's September 2014 album "The Pier" that made it up to No. 4 on the album charts. By the way, the actual music video below begins at about 50 seconds in.

Quruli -- California Coconuts

 

According to the good folks at Good Free Photos, the above is a photo of a highway around the San Diego area. So, why am I putting something like that up there? Well, we do have these California coconuts...🥥

Since nikala first introduced this eclectic band Quruli（くるり）on the blog back in 2015 with their fun and bizarre "Liberty & Gravity" from a year previously, I've gotten the impression that Shigeru Kishida（岸田繁）and his band have enjoyed shaking things up in their music for their fans over the past few decades. Certainly, they've even described their career in stages with their 8th and most recent stage having lasted between May 2013 and March 2021. Considering that "Liberty & Gravity" was created in that time, perhaps Quruli was going for a more whimsically bohemian sound.

Leader/vocalist Kishida and bassist Masashi Sato（佐藤征史）have been the only constants of Quruli since they first formed in 1996 despite there being a whole bunch of folks who have come and gone during their history. At this point, I'm not sure whether an official 9th stage currently exists although we are in the homestretch of 2023, but the band is still performing and producing. In fact, last month, they released a digital single called "California Coconuts".

Written and composed by Kishida, the lyrics seem to be about coconuts and love and that's about as far as I'll go with that. The sound by Quruli this time here is a melodic pop/rock, almost a relaxing lullaby. Maybe they're giving tribute to the 80s or 90s? I figure that with southern California being close to the tropical zone, coconuts would exist but I had thought that the Golden State was all about the raisins.

Quruli -- BIRTHDAY

 

For all those in the United States, Happy Memorial Day! Hope all of you are enjoying the long weekend. And for anyone else who was born on this day, May 29th, Happy Birthday! Without trying not to sound like "Entertainment Tonight", you are sharing birthdays with composer Danny Elfman, seiyuu Saori Hayami（早見沙織）and former Spice Girl Melanie Brown.

We're still exploring the varied discography of rock group Quruli（くるり）and today I have here their 14th single from February 2005, "BIRTHDAY". The band has been full of surprises for me since nikala came up with their 2014 eccentric pop tune "Liberty & Gravity" while I went back to their debut single not long ago, "Tokyo"（東京）from 1998 which is more alternative rock from that decade.

"BIRTHDAY", which was written and composed by vocalist/guitarist Shigeru Kishida (岸田繁) during their third phase (July 2002 to December 2006 with a year off in between), is also a track on Quruli's November 2005 6th studio album "NIKKI". According to J-Wiki, the band had wanted the album to follow a 1960s UK rock path a la The Beatles, The Who and The Kinks, three groups that Kishida greatly respected. "BIRTHDAY" is an upbeat love tune that also strikes me as having a bit of country in the guitars and bouzouki. I was also interested who was helping out with the background vocals, and I found out that it was singer-songwriter Inotomo（イノトモ）.

It's kinda too bad that we only have the shortened version of the music video here since it's nice to see the Man in Pink dancing about in Tokyo. "BIRTHDAY" reached No. 10 on Oricon while "NIKKI" hit No. 3 on the album charts.

Quruli -- Tokyo（東京）

 

Contributor nikala was the first one of us to introduce the band Quruli（くるり）onto "Kayo Kyoku Plus", and it was a most entertaining tune since its 2014 "Liberty & Gravity" was one eccentric lallapaloosa of a mix of Okinawan music, Moldovan trumpets, and rap among other influences as nikala stated. Then several years following that article, I provided my own Quruli article with their 2016 single "Kohaku Iro no Machi, Shanghai Gani no Asa"（琥珀色の街、上海蟹の朝）which was a more conventionally cool soul groove number.

Now, from what I've read in their J-Wiki article, there have been eight iterations of Quruli since their inception in 1996 which included slight lineup changes and perhaps also their type of music during their time. Apparently, for the two songs that I've mentioned in the above paragraph, that was in their most recent iteration. I'd also read in nikala's article that Quruli identifies itself as an alternative rock band which I didn't see in those above songs.

However, I decided to go as far back as possible and so I did find Quruli's first single as a major act, "Tokyo" which was released in October 1998. Indeed, it's as different as one can get from "Liberty & Gravity" and it's a song that was from their first iteration. At the time, the band centered around the three members of Shigeru Kishida (岸田繁) (vocals and guitar), Masashi Sato (佐藤征史) (bass), and Nobuyuki Mori（森信行） (drums), and together on "Tokyo", they provided that 1990s jangly alternative rock that I remember hearing from the United States from the early part of that decade.

The above video is a shortened version of "Tokyo". Written and composed by Kishida, the story is about a fellow living his life in the capital while still having feelings for a former flame and wondering whether to dare give her another call. The single got as high as No. 64 on Oricon and was also placed on Quruli's first album "Sayonara Stranger"（さよならストレンジャー...Goodbye, Stranger） which came out in April 1999; it hit No. 16.

Quruli -- Kohaku Iro no Machi, Shanghai Gani no Asa（琥珀色の街、上海蟹の朝）

For this Quruli（くるり）song, I had to do a double-take at first since I needed to make sure that I did have the right band. I remember nikala's article on their "Liberty & Gravity" (2014) with the accompanying music video since both were eclectically catchy. nikala provided her own descriptions of their music, and to add some of my own descriptors, I thought that "Liberty & Gravity" was the love child of chindon'ya and bohemian pop who was introduced to the wonders of absinthe.

But with their July 2016 analog single "Kohaku Iro no Machi, Shanghai Gani no Asa" (Amber-Coloured City, The Morning of the Shanghai Crab), I just heard this old-fashioned cool groove with some rap which had me doing that double-take I mentioned above. From their description on J-Wiki and Wikipedia, I read that Quruli was into pop, rock, alternative rock, electronic rock and synthpop but didn't know about any R&B leanings. It's a nice take and as with the music video for "Liberty & Gravity", I also enjoyed the anime style for this video. It looks like Quruli has plenty of surprises.

In the lyrics of the song, the members mentioned how much they wanted to eat that crab, which apparently is formally known as Chinese mitten crab according to Jisho.org. Well, I can certainly understand their hunger since I had the opportunity years ago to try this variety out when I visited Hong Kong for the first time. It was October and apparently it was the peak season for the crustacean. Steamed in their shells with a certain type of Chinese liquor (I may have gotten the cooking technique wrong, so please correct me if so), it was the tastiest shellfish that I had ever eaten. And this confession is from a guy who usually doesn't go for crab or lobster since he doesn't particularly like having to toil for his food by cracking chitin. Kinda goes to show how good it was.

Quruli -- Liberty & Gravity

As a person who’s into fun and bizarre videos, I’m tempted to hand the trophy to “Liberty & Gravity”. It’s a wonderland of showy nonsensical visuals joined with equally chaotic music. So far, it won the “Best Video of the Year” award at 2015 Space Shower Music Video Awards thanks to the directorial efforts of Jun Tamukai (田向潤), the man behind many Kyary Pamyu Pamyu videos including “Pon Pon Pon”. Since Quruli (くるり) is an alternative rock band and not a Harajuku fashion icon, he doesn't use any of those fanciful colors but his taste for visual madness is still recognizable here.

There’s no need for me to write out the whole biography of the band because you can learn plenty about them through English-language sources such as Wikipedia and generasia among other places by plugging their romanized name into Google. But since most of those sites haven’t updated their Quruli pages for a while and so haven’t kept up with the band’s recent membership changes, I just want to set things straight on their current line-up: Shigeru Kishida (岸田繁) (vocals and guitar), Masashi Sato (佐藤征史) (bass), and FanFan (ファンファン) (trumpets and keyboards). The first two members have been around since the band's birth in 1996.

The song and the video have received significant attention since being shared on English J-Entertainment blogs late last year. It certainly feels like a breath of fresh air even within Japan’s already diverse music market. At first it sounds like it’s all over the place because of its progressive nature and the way it throws so many influences into the blender: Okinawan music, Moldovan trumpets, and rap, just to name a few. Yet it’s obvious that the song is marketed to the pop-loving crowd despite those experimental elements. Yep, it is super catchy. I like the way Lendsey C. summarized the whole thing on the Black on the Canvas blog: Dave Matthews meets Lady Gaga. Let's see what you think.

According to another music blog beehype, Kishida was influenced by his impressions of Vienna while composing this song. He observed how many cultures from around the globe blend together in the Austrian city: from music and arts to food and architecture, so he decided to do the same in “Liberty & Gravity”. This fusion of cultures is also the backbone of Tamukai’s entertaining video.

Another reason why this song captivates me so much is because I haven’t heard Quruli sound this good in a long while. I first became interested in them circa-2004 when Japanese Alternative crowd on the net was raving about this band a lot. I was impressed by their playfulness and ambition in their then-recent albums “Team Rock” and “The World is Mine”, and“Liberty & Gravity” also showcases those qualities, although the actual song sounds nothing like the stuff they've done before. The band went through a folk rock phase for a while which brought some nice songs along the way but lasted for way too long, so I wanted the quirky Quruli back. “Liberty & Gravity” may as well be just another one-off effort, but I’ll stay optimistic until I hear their recent album “The Pier” to see if the rest of it lives up to this track.

Source: http://beehy.pe