Utada Hikaru releases a new single on Nov. 22 titled, "Boku wa Kuma", so says Bounce.com. The single ties in with a line of stuffed animals named Kuma-chan. The article goes into detail about the toys, which I won’t. The song has been described as soft and tender.
The early Duran Duran videos which demonstrated the staying power — for good or bad — of MTV are hitting the digital downloaded services. The band announced it a few days ago, but it took Billboard until now to give a rat’s ass.
And I understand the sentiment.
The videos announced for download are the same ones available on the Greatest DVD. The added "bonuses" for iTunes are also the same easter eggs available on said DVD.
Capitol is evidently gearing this reissue campaign to the casual Duranies who liked the band at one point, still like them on some level but couldn’t care less about the minutiae for its career.
I already have the DVD, and there’s no way I’m going to buy video downloads with DRM. I may as well just decrypt my DVD if I wanted that kind of portability. Which I don’t, since I don’t live a lifestyle to require an iPod.
I’ll be interested in this kind of news when such video rarities as "Lonely In Your Nightmare", "Nightboat", "Do You Believe in Shame?" (cool video, sucky song) or anything by Arcadia gets reissued.
m-flo is releasing a new single, titled "Love Song", on Nov. 6, so says Bounce.com. Continuing its series of post-Lisa collaborations, m-flo is working this time around with Bonnie Pink.
Bonnie Pink and Verbal collaborated a while back, so bringing Taku into the mix isn’t unimaginable. And if m-flo can make it work with Dragon Ash, it should be interesting to see what happens with Doping Panda.
A remix of "lotta love" featuring Minmi rounds out the single.
Vola & the Oriental Machine is set to release a single, "Hane no Hikari", on Oct. 25, so says Bounce.com.
Kayo from Polysics makes a guest appearance on the track, which Bounce describes as "smelling good" (well, that’s what the kanji translator tells me.) The three-track single also includes "Kanu Neko", which has a bizarre but pleasing middle verse that is reportedly unforgettable.
The single continues to employ the new wave sound of the band’s debut mini-album, Waiting for My Food.
To adapt a phrase from Project Runway’s dapper Tim Gunn, this coming fall release schedule concerns me.
I’ve been putting off throwing together a "Looking Ahead" entry till I get a nice long list of future releases that attract my interest. I’ve been waiting a long time.
That’s not to say it’s not going to be a packed season — it’s just not going to have anything for which I’d throw down money. And that’s true for Japanese releases as well.
Spangle call Lilli line has always been a band I wanted to check out but didn’t feel too compelled to track their material down. The band has recorded a number of albums since forming in 1999, and on Oct. 11, they will release a best collection titled since, so says Bounce.com.
Spangle call Lilli line is working on a new album, and one of their new tracks, "Until the end of time", appears on the collection.
Maybe this best collection will finally get me off my duff. I’m lazy like that.
With ICE magazine joining the dearly departed, I must now rely on the scattershot offerings of various other websites to pull together these "Looking Ahead" entries.
That’s always been the case for Japanese releases, but it was so much more convenient for US releases with ICE around. For the most part, I’m relying on Pause and Play for domestic stuff and of course, Bounce and various e-commerce sites for Japanese releases.
I tried to organize these previews in two-month chunks, but I’ll take whatever information as it comes.
Quruli is putting together its first best-of album for a July 26 release, so says Bounce.com. The two-disc Best of Quruli Tower of Music Lover contains all 17 of the band’s singles, plus a number of remixes and soundtrack contributions. Some of the extra tracks include "Iede Musume", the theme song to the film Realism no Yado, the popular b-side "Harukaze", the Rip Slyme collaboration "Night Rider", and new mixes of "Suichuu Motor" and "Revolver".
A special limited edition pressing includes a third disc of demos and rare tracks from Team Rock, Antenna and Nikki.
The only album I’m missing from my Quruli collection is Zukan, but even the extras on this compilation makes me want to make my collection redundant.
I saw this announced on the Speedstar site a number of weeks ago, but now, details have emerged about UA’s new jazz standards album. Titled cure jazz, the album is a collaboration between UA and saxophone player Kikuchi Naruyoshi. The July 19 release contains 12 songs, including "Over the Rainbow" and "A Night in Tunisia".
Bounce.com reports UA and Naruyoshi each appeared on the other’s latest albums — Naruyoshi on UA’s Sun, and UA on Naruyoshi’s Degustation Jazz. The pair will then embark on a series of concert dates to promote the album, including appearances at the Fuji Rock Festival and the Rising Sun Rock Festival.
A lot of the releases in this entry could qualify as curiosities for me. I’m not going to pre-order them, nor will I totally dismiss them when they hit the shelves.