今回、突然のご報告で驚かせてしまってごめんなさい。
僕、BACK-ONのKENJI03は、
兼ねてから交際してました倖田來未さんと今月末に入籍します。

出会ってまだ日は浅いですが、お互いを一生のパートナーとして歩んで行こうと決めました。
宇宙一パンチの効いた夫婦を目指しいきたいと思います。

これからもどうか僕らを温かい目で見守ってください。

BACK-ON KENJI03

With thanks to Tokyo Hive for the translation (where you can also read Koda Kumi‘s announcement) this is what he had to say:

“I’m sorry to surprise you with this sudden announcement.  I, BACK-ON’s KENJI03, will be getting married to Koda Kumi-san who I’ve been dating, in the end of this month.  Though it has not been that long since we met, we have decided to walk together as a partner for each other’s life.  I want to aim to be the most punchy married couple in the universe.  Please continue to watch over us with warm eyes.“

It’s such brilliant news! We’re really happy for them here at BOO and would like to wish them a wonderful future together!

p/s: If you tweet – don’t forget to look up KENJI03 and send him your own message of congratulations!

p/s2:  And feel free to join in with our discussion on the Fan Forums too (w/thanks to Sesshy)!

BACK-ON Connected at 3:58!

Watch Connectus and selfish PV below:

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The latest video uploads feature TEEDA and KENJI03 giving us a quick commentary of Hello World in Japanese, English (TEEDA) and Mandarin Chinese (KENJI03)! I have to say that they are all brilliant! I don’t want to spoil his message, as it’s better to hear the man out himself, but this is what TEEDA said – and I quote:

Hello World, this is TEEDA and KENJI03 and you’re watching BACK-ON channel!
On February 16th we’re going to release the new album “Hello World”! It’s going to be the best J-Rock sound you’ve ever heard – no doubt! The first and second track  ’”Beginning” and “ROCKSTAR ANTHEM” is crazy because I rap so sexxxy, you know what I’m saying?  And this year we’re going to go more worldwide, so hope to see you at your country. Anywayz, please check out our homepage, blog, Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, blah blah blah for more information. Thanks… See ya!

Once you’ve heard him say that, I swear you’ll <3 him forever! (I know I do… and so does Sesshy!)

KENJI03‘s spoken Chinese has improved leaps and bounds, so for any BACK-ON fans that understand Mandarin, this video is a real treat ~~ He says:

你好,我們是BACK-ON! 我是主唱KENJI還有TEEDA! 在2月16號,我們BACK-ON要發行我們的第二張的全新專輯: Hello World! 請台灣大家一定要聽喔! OK?! 然後-在台灣只要上日本Amazon網站就可以聽到我們的新專輯 Hello World. 請多多指教!

which roughly translates as:

Hello, we are BACK-ON! I am the lead vocalist KENJI03 and this is TEEDA! We will be releasing our 2nd brand new album: “Hello World” on February 16th and hope everyone in Taiwan will listen to it! OK?!
If you’re in Taiwan, you can visit Amazon Japan and listen to our new album “Hello World”. Please look after us!

In addition to these 3 videos, BACK-ON have uploaded 5 other videos, which we’ll try and post about separately, including:

• A mini documentary about their T-shirt project (6:35) – TEEDA and KENJI03 design and spray-paint t-shirts by hand for fans to buy at their forthcoming PUBLIC THEATER live
• BACK-ON group commentary on Hello World (5:18)
• BACK to the Future 1 [爆 to the Future 1] (4:53) – Documentary video of BACK-ON’s trip to Canada in 2007 – surely the title is a homage to the film Back to the Future?
• BACK to the SP [爆つべ SP] (2:11)
• BACK to the vol.4 [爆つべ vol 4] (4:28)

The official Youtube channel was registered on January 23rd 2011, but as this BACKONNETCHANNEL account was registered on the much earlier date of January 5th 2011, it shows that this project has been at least a month in the making!

There is a short (and primarily audio) video called album CM 18 26 25 2 which might be some sort of promo for Hello World? We’re not sure really so would welcome any comments or thoughts.

But going back to the main topic: the official Youtube channel is definitely a feather in BACK-ON‘s cap when it comes to their recent international social media campaign, which already includes Twitter and Facebook, as pictures speak a thousand words and videos can offer so much more, and all this means that we can interact with BACK-ON the band directly via mediums we fans are already comfortable with.

Out of the uploads so far, the most exciting video me is really the recent video commentaries by TEEDA and KENJI03, as they reiterate the band’s plans for going more ‘worldwide’ in 2011 – Japan and (we believe) America are already on their list, so I’m hoping that they’ll visit Europe again, as well as the rest of Asia and even the South Americas, as there are brigades of fans in Taiwan, SE Asia, China and Brazil etc.

If you are a fan, give us a shout here! We’ll try and feature some of the international fan brigades over the course of the next few weeks, and hope this will give BACK-ON more reasons to go to even more countries!

It is yet another significant achievement for BACK-ON, as their previous Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology tie-in single flyaway also reached the top #10. We’re hoping with you feat.Me can go all the way to the top 3!

In other news, unfortunately BACK-ON didn’t quite clinch the top spot for the Best of January poll run by our lovely affiliate Love[asia]Music with TELL ME (there were a ‘questionable’ number of Dir En Grey fans loitering around the polling station if you ask me off-record :p)  but with the release of with you feat.Me, the band will again feature in the Best of February votes: we will be promoting this as well and hope more BACK-ON fans will set up camp vote every day for them when the polls re-open!

p/s: Watch out for our forthcoming news post about the launch of BACK-ON’s Official Youtube Channel!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yq973zVrTXI

You can see a screenshot of KENJI03‘s adjusting the amplifier above (about halfway through the video) and of course, what this PV means is that you can listen to with you feat.Me in full for the first time if you haven’t heard it already from other sources!

If you’re wondering what happens after the teaser : misono sings the first half of the second verse, but then TEEDA rocks the song with some trademark rapping – which he does (awesomely) again during the bridge  (2:25) – and we get to see some lovely cinematography (with a hint of TEEDA smiling and a scene of GORI lighting a cigarette – although the ciggy isn’t there any more when the song resumes after the musical interlude). As a fan of Shu, I am personally ecstatic that he is wearing a shirt and tie! <3

And first impressions of the single: some will prefer the B-side Nagareboshi (Shooting Star) – which is a lovely mellow rock song – to the title track (for various reaons), and with you [Tales of] remix is definitely more varied in style than flyaway [Tales of ] Remix and features the voice of Hirano Aya, but all I can I say is that you will need to listen to all these songs on decent speakers to do them justice!

Hope you enjoy watching the PV! :)

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The video has been uploaded by pochomuking0310, and you can watch it by click on this link or even below the cut-off:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPtRlxTlAX4&NR

As you can tell from our title, this remix features the voice of Kanonno Grassvalley aka. Hirano Aya – who is arguably more well-known for her role as the seiyuu of Suzumiya Haruhi from “The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi” anime series.

with you [Tales of] Remix is definitely a different style to flyaway [Tales of] Remix, but I am a huge fan of this song already, especially with Hirano Aya‘s gentle vocals that flow so very smoothly with KENJI03‘s singing that makes the song seem far more relaxing (even with all the fast electronic beats) – especially as the song starts with a long musical intro of synthesised guitars.

Let us know what you think! Or better still – come join us on our Fan Forums!

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And with thanks to Buzu for the news: BACK-ON have also launched a new ‘with you feat.Me‘ design for BACK-ON.com due to the forthcoming release of the single. I personally love the dark colours of both designs, but this new theme has a smaller menu but now features a section showing the covers of both CD designs and the barcode for downloading with you feat.Me as a ring tone.

Like the new design?  I hope so and if you have a Facebook account – please pay a visit to their official Facebook page and click on Like!

I only wish the clip was longer but we can safely say that the rumours that misono is Me were true! Definitely a bit of the Crazy Town sound imho during TEEDA‘s rap bridge, but the chorus brightens up again with more misono and KENJI03.  I personally can’t wait to get my hands on the lyrics!

What do you all reckon? :)

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The DVD version is on the left (with members of the band) and the CD version is on the right:

The album will feature 12 songs in total, of which 7 (yes, 7!) are brand new! What this means is that we have never seen them on any other BACK-ON single, album or compilation releases to date, and the tracklisting is below:

1. Beginning
2. ROCKSTAR ANTHEM
3. with you feat.Me
4. Apologize
5. twenty four / 7
6. TELL ME
7. flyaway
8. HERO
9. Tomorrow never knows -album ver.-
10. We are…
11. ONE STEP! feat.mini
12. hare days

I love the names of the new songs so far, and according to TEEDA’S blog entry (which mentions that he really likes the first two tracks called “Beginning” and “ROCKSTAR ANTHEM”) the album is BACK-ON way of saying a huge ‘hello’ to the world!

The band DO want to do a world tour, which they are kick-starting in Japan, as they have already released dates for their “Hello World” tour around Japan and there may already be plans for America!

The CD version will retail at ¥ 2,500, but the DVD version will cost ¥ 3,200. For the extra ¥ 700, the album will come with a special DVD with lots of videos:

• with you feat.Me
• TELL ME
• ONE STEP! feat.mini
• flyaway
• Sands of Time
• flower
• BLAZE LINE
• a day dreaming…
• BAReeeeeeeeeeN/足跡
• Anime Matsuri 2010 in TEXAS Documentary

Are you excited? I know I am! It’s hard to believe this is only their second ever full-length album (as we know, BACK-ON do love releasing singles) but the real bonus for fans imho is that we get 7 new and unique songs on this one massive compilation, not to mention the lure of the DVD of high quality videos (name dropping Sesshy here).

For international fans, you can already pre-order the DVD (and/or CD) version on online retail websites such as those listed below and we have also listed the prices for the DVD version for your reference (correct at time of this post) excluding shipping:

• CDJapan $36.67 USD
• YesAsia $38.25 USD
• CDBanq $38.98 USD

Let us know what you think! We are having a super fun and active discussion on our Fan Forums as well, so join us here: http://www.backon-online.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=853

The new single is called ‘with you feat.Me‘ and come in two editions (much like flyaway) – a normal/standard edition with just two tracks, and the other a special ‘Tales of’ edition that will feature a special remix of the title track, special in-game downloads and we presume a different CD jacket design as well.

The tracklisting is as follows:

1. with you feat.Me
2. 流れ星 (Nagareboshi)
3. with you『テイルズ オブ』Remix [Tales of] Remix **

The two different editions will retail for  ¥ 1050 and  ¥ 1260 respectively, and if you click on the links above, you can watch the recent promotional video by Namco Bandai on Youtube and jump to clips of both songs; 流れ星 (Nagareboshi) stands for meteor or shooting star. I’m personally really digging TEEDA‘s rap part at around 1:37 in with you feat.Me.

We still don’t know the identity of the mysterious Me, who (w/ thanks to Sok) is rumoured to be Misano. Hopefully we will be able to confirm whether this rumour is true very soon and also find out the cover designs of the single!

EDIT on 20th January 2011: The new covers are out!

And in case you missed the video links above, watch it below:

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