New "single" by Yaguchi and Yasuda

Mari Yaguchi and Kei Yasuda is going to release the song I wrote about some time ago: "kimi ni todoke".

According to Yaguchi's blog (translated by b.slade & kuno at hello-online) the song is gonna be released digitally through a download site called recochoku,

They performed the song together at a fan club event this summer, and it is that version which is gonna be released.

It would have been nice if they recorded it in a studio and released a two track single with a studio recording and a live verion. But at least it is gonna be "released".
A small step forward, maybe we will get to see more music aranged by Yasuda?

I did a sub for the live performance, available at hello-online :)

Working on the site

In addition to this blog i am working on updating my site: www.hpoldschool.com

It is a work in progress which is taking a lot of time.
It takes a long time for two reasons:
1 My interest in HP isn't as big as it was two years ago (and further back)
2 It takes time to collect up all the info!

My main interest within HP has always been music first. I never cared that much to as what the girls were up to on other activities, it was music and concerts that interest me!

But for my site i want to have abiography in addition to the discography. For many of the girls the info is scarce, making their bios short and incomplete. For others there is too much info and a long history.

Right now I have taken a pause from writing biographies and started scanning.
Oh the pain it is to scan magazines!
I have a 150 paged magazine consisting of pnly hp stuff, which means i have to scan all of it. On top of that the pages are too big for the printer. SO i ahve to scan each page twice and join them in photoshop.
TIme consuming yes.

Hopefully someone will provide their aid and translate the articles. That is my purpose of doing this!

Yuko Nakazawa - KARASU no nyoubou

Everyone knows Nakazawa, right?



She is one of the original five of Morning Musume, a 1st gen musume and for fours years the leader of the group. For 12 years she was the leader of Hello! Project.

Back in 1998, to everyones surprise, she was given the opportunity to release solo material while being a member of Morning Musume; both a solo artist and a group member at the same time. But she wouldn't make regular pop songs, she would release music in the genre called "enka".

Her first release is entitled "karasu no nyoubou" ("The Raven's Wife") and was released on, what was unique for Japan, 8 cm cd single. It was also released on cassette.

promo poster

Nakazawa's manager at the time said that if it hit the no 1 spot on Oricon he'd shave his head.
The single sold around 80.000 copies and hit first place. Someone had to shave his head..

The composer of the song is Horiuchi Takao and he has performed the song himself on occasion. The song was also used a sthe ending for the dorama "Hagure Keiji Junjoha" back in 2004.

This guy also covers the song, but I don't know anything about him:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMoYd3j_Q00

Nakazawa would go on and release an enka album and two more enka singles, before
moving on to slower, ballady jpop music.
Her last release was the single "danna-sama" back in 2007.

New singles and enka album

I can't believe it, but I have actually gotten my hands on all singles by Miyoshi Chinatsu, BRAND NEW.
So now my Chinatsu collection is complete!

Chinatsu wasn' in H!P for a long time. A little over a year, if i remember correctly.
She released three singles and participated in concerts, before suddenly leaving. Between the time she released her third single and left, she went abroad to USA for a little while. I dont't know why, but I have a small article about it. I am hoping for someone to translate it one day.

From left to right is Unchain my heart - Love, yes I do - Anata no shirt to love song (Your shirt and a love song).
I hadn't heard the b-sides to these single before, which made it really interesting getting them. It was like I got three new old school songs, and listening to them were amazing!

Before getting the singles I read this at "yossha!" a long time ago, where the author of the site comments on these releases, and I must say i agree with him/her.

I also got my hands on an enka compilation album, in which Yuki Maeda is features. Her third single is featured on the album, but what makes this interesting is that she covers "anata to ikiru" by Teresa Teng.
The arrangements sound the same to me, and Maeda sings it like only she can. I am not gonna compare her to Teng, but this cover was quite nice listening to.



I had been looking for this for years, and when it showed up I had to grab it.
There is not even a picture of Maed aon the cover fo the cd. You have to look at the back to find it. Can you spot her?




Only thing missing in my Maeda collection now is a live album by Itsuki Hiroshi in which Maeda covers the song "hana".

Sayaka Ichii is back!

This is old news, but I kinda felt like putting a few words about it here too.


Sayaka Ichii graduated from Morning Musume in 2000, and shortly after re-emerged in the music scene as a part of the band CUBIC-CROSS. They released singles and an album, and in 2003 Sayaka released a solo single.
Then came the news about her pregnancy and she withdrew (with no hesiteijon it seems) from the music business and stayed away for five years.

Rumor alert: THe official reason for her graduation was that she wanted to study (heard that one before haven't we?, cough asuka cough), but in only six months she was back with more music.
I read somewhere that Sayaka was annyoed with both the heavy promotion and pushof Maki Goto and the adding of 4th gen members. Apparently Sayaka was supposed to be the second face of MM next to Natsumi Abe before Maki Goto became so extremely popular.
And with the 4th gen I think she might have been annoyed that she would be pushed even further to the back (or she just found them too immature and left the ship).

Now she is back, and for starters it looks like she is gonna be a tv-personality and actress.

I am hoping for some music in the future, it'd be nice.
Her song "4U -hitatsura-" (her only solo single to date) is a nice jpop song with a cute video. I doubt this is what she'd be doing now, but lets be a bit nostalgic for now :)




hello/online has translated the first posts of her blog, a video message and a longer (and really interesting) article at their site.

Yasuda & Yaguchi´s new song

A few days ago Yasuda Kei and Yaguchi Mari (ex 2nd gen MM) held a dinner show, in which they sang their favorite songs and old H!P songs.
They also sung a song where Yasuda had composed the music, and Yaguchi wrote the lyrics.

It is entitled "kimi ni todoke".

It is a ballad, and it sounds nice. After a few listens i think it sounds a bit boring, but I am not that into ballads.
What I find interesting is that Yasuda is composing songs AND singing them for an audience, so I am hoping that maybe, just maybe, she can release something in the future. It seems like that is what she has wanted to do for a long time now.

All though i am not a huge fan of the song it was nice to hear her voice again.
I think her voice is one of the best H!P has ever had! And in my opinion she outsings Natsumi Abe with her version of "senkou hanabi".

Some small info about the event and such is posted here and here.

update

I have updated the video section of my site, with a download of this video (subbed in romaji and english):



Do you know which one it is ;) ?

Taiyou to Ciscomoon - 2nd Stage

I recently got taiyou to Ciscomoon's second album in the mail. (After Miwa's return to the group they changed their name and are therefore credited as t&c bomber on this album. But since their "re-union" they refer to themselves as taiyou to ciscomoon so i'll do the same).

Being a fan of the old school music, it suddenly crossed my mind i'd never heard any of the songs on this album (except the singles), so i went ahead and bought it.

I have given it a few listens, and some songs sounds good some of the others are bland.

The ones that catch my attention right now is "yes! shiawase", "matayacchatta" and "aisuru hito e".

The sound of the music has a vibe of the late 90's which is what i like about the old school sound.

I am gonna have it on repeat for a while more, to see if the songs grow on me and get back to a review of the songs later.

1st post

Well, this is the first post of the blog!

I started taking an online course in making web-pages (or so I thought), so i could make my own web site dedicated to all things old school in H!P.
I am slowly re-designing the old site, now that i know more about xhtml and css. It looks much better when you can style it with css, instead of just writing html. So keep an eye out, i'll try to finish it this summer.

What sucks though, about the class i paid a big amount for, is that that course only teches you HOW to write xhtml and css. Nothing about web esign. That is another course which i have to pay extra for.
That's not going to happen! I spent enough money already. So i'll work with what i know, and I think the page will turn out good :)

I'll be needing help with the site, especially when it comes to translating articles. I have a bunch of old school stuff, ... but can't read it. If you're interested in helping out send me an e-mail!