Thank you my teens

Today I turned 20! In the words of YUI:

I though I didn’t want to become an adult
But I am turning 20
Thank you my teens

Goodbye my teens….but still is 19 really any different than 20? Well who care? This will be the only day in my life where I can listen to Thank you my teens and have it actually apply! I must enjoy it =)

Besides that, I have to say I’m pretty sad that YUI went on a break, but the good news is that she’s going to be collaborating with stereopony! When I found out, I didn’t know who Stereopony was, but all the same I’m excited to see what kind of song YUI will compose for another group! Apparently they met unexpectedly in a recording studio in Okinawa and decided to it then (hm…no pun intended?). and of course I had to look up stereopony and let me say, I am pleasantly surprised.

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MONKEY MAJIK – Together / Akari / Fall Back

MONKEY MAJIK is a four piece rock band consisting of Maynard and Blaise Plant (vocals and guitar), Kikuchi Takuya (aka tax, drummer) and DICK (bass). Maynard worked in Japan as a language teacher and later called his brother over, who was a solo musician in Canada. The band was formed in 2000 in Sendai and today they are still based there today. They’ve had a lot of success on the indie Oricon charts and usually chart #1 in the Sendai area. Now they’re signed on a sublabel of avex, binyl records. Their singles usual chart moderately well and their major-label albums have all made it to the weekly top 10.

I think I’m beginning to understand the appeal of boy bands

For me, it’s come in a little Taiwanese package known as Fahrenheit or Fei Lun Hai. It’s not that I just discovered them, but more that I recently discovered that they’re pretty awesome. But it’s not really that all their songs are amazing or their performance skills are great, I just like them.

Members include (from left to right)

Fish Leong – j’Adore / Chong Bai

Tracklist
1. Chong Bai
2. C’est La Vie
3. Mei Tian Di Yi Jian Shi
4. Hui Hu Xi De Tong
5. 101
6. Yi Miao De Tian Tang
7. Gei Wei Lai De Zi Ji
8. Zhi Duo Shao
9. Shen Ming Zhong Bu Ke Cheng Shou De
10. San Cun Ri Guang
11. Yuan Lai Ni Ye Chang Guo Wo De Ge

I have a bit of a soft spot for Fish because she was one of the first Chinese artists I ever listened to; my first Fish album was Sunrise Wo Xi Huan…oh memories!! I don’t remember what I liked about her, but the next time I visited relatives in Taiwan, I made sure I bought another one of her albums. I don’t think I’ve ever listened to a Fish song that I hated. Sometimes, she surprises me with an amazing song, but most of her songs are just beautiful, so there’s really nothing to complain about.

Cherry Boom – Qin Ai De Wang Zi

Tracklist
1. Qing Xin De Zao Chen
2. Qin Ai De Wang Zi
3. Mi Mi Hua Yuan
4. Zai Jian Wo De Ai
5. Shi Yue
6. I Wanna Rock
7. Wo De Kong Qi
8. Xiao Chou Shi Jie
9. Bu Dui Ye Yao Ai
10. Hei Ye Lai Lin

I recently was in Taipei, Taiwan for a little over a month and discovered a great punk-pop-rock band. I was rather surprised to find them, since Taiwan has little to no rock. The music industry there is more R&B, hip-hop, and pure idol pop, which I can enjoy, but only to a degree. Not only is Cherry Boom an actual band, it’s a girl band! I picked up their second album first because it was a new release, and after listening to it a few times decided to buy their first album the next time I saw it.

ERIKA – FREE

Tracklist
1. FREE
2. FANTASY
3. Time to go home
4. FREE -Instrumental-

After first debuting under the pen name Amane Kaoru from the dorama which she starred in, idol Sawajiri Erika re-debuted under a new pen name, ERIKA. Surprisingly, her debut single, Taiyou no Uta, was the highest selling female single of 2006. That truly amazed me since Erika’s voice didn’t match up to the great composition of the two songs. However, she has a rather large fanbase from her acting and modeling career, which exudes selling potential. I was really surprised to hear that she would be re-debuting as a singer, since her voice didn’t impress me at all on her first single. ERIKA also co-wrote the lyrics to the first two tracks. FREE was released on July 4, 2007 and grabbed the #1 spot immediately, selling over 50,000 copies within the first week. But – the question is, is Erika just a actress/modeling riding on that fanbase to sell copies or does her musical career actually deserve it?

BOO BEE BENZ – Tokyo no Sora

BOO BEE BENZ is a Japanese indie band under no particular label. Members include from (left to right above) Nitta Masanobu (bass), Hiraoka Masaya (drums), Takeuchi Katsuhiko (vocals & guitar), and Yamashita Ryo (guitar). BOO BEE BENZ features really recognizable vocals and some amazing arrangements. I discovered this gem through the drama Tokyo Friends, which starred Ai Otsuka as a country girl who moved to Tokyo and joined a band. This band that she joins isn’t BOO BEE BENZ, but they play some of their music. It may be their most well known (and best selling) single because of the popular drama tie-in (and movie tie-in to a degree). But I can’t confirm this due to lack of information. Tokyo no sora was released under tearbridge records on June 8, 2005. The songs on this single were covered by Survival Company (a fictional band in Tokyo Friends fronted by Otsuka) and released on the Tokyo Friends Movie Music Collection.

abingdon boys school – INNOCENT SORROW

Tracklist
1. INNOCENT SORROW
2. Fre@K $HoW

abingdon boys school (a.b.s.) is Nishikawa Takanori, more commonly known as T.M. Revolution (Takanori Makes Revolution)’s new project. a.b.s is a rock band modeled after Radiohead, which was formed at Abingdon School. Thus, the name. They formed in 2005, but INNOCENT SORROW is their debut studio single (released December 6, 2006), though they have already released songs on various compilations, including tributes to the manga NANA (stay away), J-rock band BUCK-TICK (Dress), and the movie/manga DEATH NOTE (Fre@k $HoW).

Yuna Ito

Yuna Ito is a Japanese-Korean-American singer born in the States, but making her mark in the J-pop industry. She was cast as the powerful songstress Reira in a huge hit movie: NANA -Live Action- in 2005, which brought her huge fame. NANA is shoujo manga written and illustrated by Ai Yazawa and has completely enchanted readers around the world. The Live Action version was highly-anticipated and made millions. Her debut was kept a secret from the public, which kept everyone wondering – who is this Yuna Ito girl whose supposedly playing and singing the part of Reira, an extremely talented vocalist with the voice of an angel?