Tokyo Jihen -- Onna no Ko wa Dare de mo（女の子は誰でも）

 

This week's "Nodo Jiman"（のど自慢）took place in Gotemba, Shizuoka Prefecture, a city that I've known mostly for a famous outlet mall (I had a lot of students who enjoyed shopping at the place). One of the participants today sang a Tokyo Jihen（東京事変）tune that I hadn't heard before and wanted to try some further listenings.

In recent years, vocalist Ringo Shiina（椎名林檎）, who I first got to know as the rock girl with some great growl and a terrifying stare, has been embracing her jazzy inner self, and I think that initially came true with the Big Band version of "Sid to Hakuchumu"（シドと白昼夢）which was on her 7th single "Mayonaka no Junketsu"（真夜中の純潔）from 2001. At the time, I believe that I was in the middle of my jazz obsession, so to hear one of the most original Japanese music acts try a genre that I wouldn't have imagined that she would ever tackle was pretty darn refreshing.

Well, since then, it seems like Shiina has been getting more and more into jazz as we all got deeper into the new century, a genre that I had read somewhere that her father very much enjoyed. And in 2011, as the vocalist for Tokyo Jihen, she and band bassist Seiji Kameda（亀田誠治）came up with "Onna no Ko wa Dare de mo" which can be translated directly as "Girls are Good with Anyone" but the official English title is "Fly Me to Heaven", one-half of the double A-side for the band's 7th single "Sora ga Natteiru"（空が鳴っている...Reverberation） released in May 2011. For the first time in TJ's history, though, they left the arrangement with an outsider instead of handling the song by themselves, and guess what? The outsider was really an old friend, Takayuki Hattori（服部隆之）, who had given the sparkling Big Band swing treatment to "Sid to Hakuchumu" as mentioned in the previous paragraph. If you go through the Hattori file, you'll find that he also provided the epic soundtrack to a particular PlayStation game that I owned and a very popular theme song for a drama series.

Not surprisingly, I've fallen hard for "Onna no Ko wa Dare de mo" which seems to not only draw in the old-time swing but also some of that 1950s or 1960s razz-ma-tazz show tune feeling on the old American variety shows and specials featuring folks like Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. Shining Shiina and even the TJ members get in on the show time act in the music video; the only things that were missing were the frame of an old cathode-ray tube television set and black-and-white. And where were the Radio City Music Hall dancers?

The single itself made it to No. 6 on Oricon, and both A-sides have also been placed onto Tokyo Jihen's 5th studio album "Daihakken"（大発見...Discovery） which came out in June of the same year. It hit No. 1 and went Gold.

The crazy thing is that after all I'd said at the top about not hearing this Tokyo Jihen song before, it turns out that I did. It was the commercial tune for a Shiseido cosmetics ad featuring Shiina. This I do remember seeing before but probably had assumed that the jingle was just a quick jingle. Knowing full well about tie-ups between commercials and pop songs in Japan, I should have given myself a Gibbs slap upside the head. Not only that but apparently "Onna no Ko wa Dare de mo" was part of the singer's performance at the 2011 Kohaku Utagassen but I don't remember seeing that at all. Then again, it was my first Kohaku viewing back in Toronto after many years in Japan, and the rest of my family has had the penchant to fast forward anything they didn't like. Let's say that I'm the only in the J-Canuck clan that appreciates a good Ringo!😁

Tokyo Jihen -- Eien no Fuzai Shoumei（永遠の不在証明）

Currently with TV Japan now going with a direct feed from NHK World Premium, we're no longer getting any other programs from the Japanese commercial channels which means our formerly regular episodes of "Meitantei Conan"（名探偵コナン...Case Closed）on Thursdays have been discontinued for now. As well, I just read that the latest "Conan" motion picture, "Meitantei Conan ~ Hiiro no Dangan"（緋色の弾丸...The Scarlet Bullet）which was supposed to have started in Japanese theatres yesterday has been postponed until the pandemic abates.

Along with the famous theme by Katsuo Ono（小野克夫）, Tokyo Jihen（東京事変）headed by singer-songwriter Ringo Shiina（椎名林檎）has joined the long list of singers including B'z and Maki Ohguro（大黒摩季）providing theme songs for the franchise. For "Hiiro no Dangan", the Tokyo Incidents/Incidents Tokyo provide "Eien no Fuzai Shoumei" (The Scarlet Alibi), an appropriate theme for the usual danger and intrigue in a "Conan" motion picture. There's that mixture of jazz and rock along with a soupcon of James Bond, and of course, Shiina's vocals which range from breathy to her famous sharp and spiky delivery.

"Eien no Fuzai Shoumei" came out as Tokyo Jihen's latest digital single at the end of February 2020 and is also a track on the band's 7th studio album "News" which was released earlier this month. It has so far reached No. 2 on the Oricon weeklies.

Ringo Shiina/Chiaki Kuriyama -- Seishun no Matataki （青春の瞬き）

OK, in all honesty, watching Ringo Shiina's（椎名林檎）performance at Tokyo City Hall (I know that's not the official name of the place but it's easier for me) on the 2016 Kohaku Utagassen a second time didn't have quite the impact that it did when I had first caught it about 10 days ago. I was never a huge fan of that "Let's all pretend to be mannequins!" craze and I'm starting to get a tad tired of Shiina's vocals often cracking up near the end of a song. Still, her performance of "Seishun no Matataki" (Flicker of Youth) with her old band Tokyo Jihen（東京事変...Tokyo Incidents） ended up as my one highlight from the 2016 show.

"Seishun no Matataki" was a song created by Shiina and arranged by Keiichi Tomita（冨田恵一...aka Tomita Lab） for her album of self-covers "Gyakuyunyū: Kōwankyoku"（逆輸入 〜港湾局〜...Reimport: Ports and Harbours Bureau） from May 2014. I have yet to hear the original version but so far I've enjoyed her concert versions. When I found out that Tomita arranged the song, I nodded appreciatively since from some of the other songs that I've heard, mostly from his great album "Shipbuilding", he has had that wonderful ability to add that cool and classy urban contemporary feeling to his works. I'm not sure whether Shiina meant it to be so, but the song almost seems to be a love song or a lullaby in tribute to Tokyo itself. Moreover, the tune has included the genres that the singer-songwriter has dabbled in all through her career: rock and jazz with some technopop thrown in. I wouldn't mind if Shiina performed this again at the 2020 Olympic Opening or Closing Ceremonies...and with that projection mapping.

(I'm sorry but the video has been taken down.)

Now I did say that "Gyakuyunyū: Kōwankyoku" was Shiina's album of self-covers so there was an original version and that version was sung by actress/singer Chiaki Kuriyama（栗山千明）as the coupling song for her 5th single, "Tsukiyo no Shozo"（月夜の肖像...Portrait of the Moonlit Night/Identité de la Lune） from November 2011. The arrangement there sounded a bit more straight-on pop but I have to say that the former Go Go Yubari didn't sound too bad at all. Kuriyama's version also received the French title of "Le Moment". The single peaked at No. 62. As for Shiina's album, "Gyakuyunyū: Kōwankyoku" went as high as No. 3 on Oricon.

Tokyo Jihen -- Sounan （遭難）

Where was I when I bought Tokyo Jihen's（東京事変） 2nd single from October 2004, "Sounan" (A Distress)? Strangely enough, I remember quite well where I was. It was another autumn Saturday afternoon in the dandy Omotesando district of Tokyo when I decided to check out a CD shop in the basement of Harajuku's LaForet shopping complex. There were a lot of far younger and hipper folks than me hanging about but I didn't feel too self-conscious since I've always been able to slip through the masses as a stealth gaijin all these years.

Anyways, I hadn't intended to buy "Sounan" and was still fuzzy about what had happened to the divine Ms. Ringo Shiina（椎名林檎）. She made quite a splash when she debuted at the turn of the century and then took some time off to have a baby and then she came back with her own band, Tokyo Jihen (Tokyo Incidents). However, as I was browsing through the CD shop in the basement, the staff started to pipe the maxi-single/mini-album over the speakers, and after hearing all of the three tracks, it didn't take too much arm-twisting to shuck out the yen. Plus, the cover of her swooning while the band rescued her just seemed so appealingly Ringo and retro at the same time.

"Sounan" made quite an impression...not that I was surprised. Starting off with a guitar lick that came from "The Twilight Zone", Ringo just jumped in the convertible that was the song and decided to take a drive through the very neighbourhood I bought her CD, up through Shinjuku and make a slight detour into Asakusa...and very much ignoring the fact that there was afternoon traffic. As the title suggests, it's a pretty frantic ride, but Ringo is adamant to get to where she wants to go. Her vocal delivery was just like as it was back in "Muzai Moratorium"（無罪モラトリアム）with those interesting twists and turns. There may have been a band behind her but it still felt like the good ol' Ringo days.

The 2nd song, "Dynamite" was originally a Brenda Lee tune from 1957. I think there was an official music video to Ringo's version, and as soon as I heard it, I just thought, "OK, how far back into the time vaults did she go for this one?" I just imagined some sort of dangerous watering hole in Kansas City in the early half of the 20th century, and the very nonchalant Ringo handling herself with absolute aplomb there. I have to admit that I get quite a kick listening to her English as well as her famous growls. The video above also has "Dynamite".

A bit of a detour. Just for comparison's sake, here is Brenda Lee with "Dynamite". If that Wikipedia date of her birth is correct, she was only 13 years old when she exploded (no pun intended) with this song. Tom Glazer and Mort Garson were the songwriters here.

However, of the three songs on "Sounan", the one that finally got me to part with my cash was the final track, "Kokoro"（心）. Although it is directly translated as "mind" or "soul", the Wikipedia article on the single stated that it "...was given the figurative translation "Spiritual" in English." with the source being at this page. Whatever the winning word is, I liked it since there was another retro feel to it but not of Showa Era kayo....there was more of that feeling of 1970s US radio music. Plus, I enjoyed that lush piano intro along with that jazziness during the instrumental bridge. Compared to the first two songs, "Kokoro" had that laidback air and Ringo was in a groovy mood. I have to admit that I listened to this one song back-to-back.

Aside from "Dynamite", the singer-songwriter took care of the other songs. The whole single got as high as No. 2.  I have yet to buy any further Tokyo Jihen albums or singles but with this particular one I purchased, I was definitely not feeling any sounan.