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!

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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Hope you all had a good Christmas and New Year break. In case you hadn’t already caught the news on the redesigned BACK-ON.com (screenshot below) or even on their official Twitter, you can now watch the official PV for TELL ME on Youtube!

Click here to watch it (and add it to your Favourites of course) or click on ‘Read more’ below to view it on BOO.

Do I like the song? The answer is: I *absolutely* love it! It reminds me of the time I first heard Chain, as it is so memorable, even though the style of music is slightly different. One of the main highlights has to be TEEDA‘s rapping over the heavy guitar riffs(?) between 0:37 – 0:47 but if you’re after some great verses, a super catchy chorus and bridge, then I reckon you’ll definitely like TELL ME, as KENJI03‘s vocals are just so good.

As for the PV: fans who attended BACK-ON‘s Anime Matsuri concert in 2010 will be in for a treat, as the band decided to go down the BLAZE LINE route and feature clips from their trip to the USA; and from what I recall on the Forums (posts by IchiI think!), they actually performed this song during the concert, so if you catch yourself in the PV, please do let us know~ :)

So without further ado (and don’t forget to tell us if you like it) the PV:

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These photos are from the official live report and I really wish there were more! Loved TEEDA‘s hoodie top by the way:

And this is a map of the entire venue – BACK-ON was right in the heart of everything!

Icchan and Kenji03 certainly look as though they were enjoying themselves (see Icchan‘s full blog post):

Finally, to give you an idea of what the atmosphere is like at this massive music festival, take a look at the official Attractions & Audience photos and videos from Osaka – we’ve included a few below:

With warm thanks again to MONSTERSNITE for the news, it is probably the first time the band’s live performance of any of their songs has been released as a DVD! We have seen a few standalone recordings (on Youtube) and even in the BLAZE LINE PV, but nothing like this, although some of us BOO Forum folk would love to have a dedicated DVD!

The DVD will have a Retail Price of ¥ 7,140 and a running time of approximately 240 minutes (4 hours?) . According to this post by Anoop Gantayat on AndriaSang.com :

This is a “set” in that it contains two DVDs, one each for the afternoon and evening versions of the June 14 show. Buyers can look forward to talk shows and skits, much of which differed depending on the showing. In addition, the set will include bonus promotional footage, specifics about which have yet to be shared.

I only wish that the release date wasn’t so far away, but at least we have got BACK-ON‘s European debut at Connchi in Germany to look forward to in September. And before I forget – if you haven’t already heard – we are organising a GIGANTIC FANBOOK PROJECT for the band by fans. All ideas and fans are welcome so please do come and participate if you can!

She has decided to pick out some of the more distinctive songs from YES!!! to write about, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading what she had to say – I’m sure it will be the same for you too!

About our volunteer reviewer

Nickname: Yo-Yo! (funbari) Location: Hong Kong, China Favourite BACK-ON song(s): CHAIN, HIKARI SASUHOU, sonomamade Other favourite artists: Avril Lavigne How did you find out about BACK-ON? Air Gear’s OP–CHAIN!! Mini Introduction: I love listening to music, playing guitar and reading manga (favourite manga: Shaman King & Air Gear). Due to my very low contribution on the forum as a member(~_~), I decided to write this review, and it’s a great experience! Website: Funbari Onsen

The Review:

For those who haven’t heard of any songs from BACK-ON, I think it’s not too difficult for them to fall in love with BACK-ON’s songs after listening to “YES!!!”.

In my view, BACK-ON is not at the extremities, even though their songs are mostly ROCK based, they’re neither a pure ROCK BAND, nor a POP BAND, nor even a Hip-Hop band, but something in between three of them.

This diversifies their songs’ types. And in this album, it’s quite obvious.

Here’s my review of some of the songs:

果てなき道へ[LA mix]
It’s a totally new song of BACK-ON. The lyrics are quite (or very!) ENCOURAGING, with a vivid beat, this is a lovely song I think. But it’s difficult for me to find a word to describe the intro though, I think it’s a little bit unmatched with the whole song, but a lively opening.

CHAIN [LA mix]
What’s the difference between the original CHAIN and the LA mixed CHAIN?
I think it is mainly the GUITAR, which has been re-volumed, and being emphasized especially in the intro and the bridge parts, which is made to sound really like the live version of CHAIN.

Besides, Kenji’s voice seemed to be masked a little bit by some special effects, which I think couldn’t bring out Kenji’s chorus part, and couldn’t deliver the feeling of “太陽をお呼び覚ます” as the original version did.

That’s why I like the original one better than this LA mix. But, this LA mix definitely has a stronger feeling of GUITAR.

color[LA mix] & Ashiato[LA mix]
These are songs of BAReeeeeeeeeeN in the single “Ashiato”, for those who don’t know BAReeeeeeeeeeN, it’s a Group(or BAND) with 10 members:

BACK-ON(5)+GReeeeN(4)+JIN(1).

I personally like the song, “color” more than “Ashiato” due to it’s very strong and fast drum beat, and together with its lyrics with a feeling of ‘going forward’, the 2 songs are both inspiriting.

For Ashiato, I love its ending, where GReeeeN and BACK-ON split the verse into two.

ヒカリサスホウ [NEW WORLD version]
This is one of my favourite songs! Compared with the other BACK-ON songs, this is one of the most “ROCK” songs, I think.

And I LOVE its intro, as it seems the sound is sliding into my left ear and into the right one!!

ヒカリサスホウhas 3 versions, here in YES!!! is the NEW WORLD version (same as that in the album “NEW WORLD”), another version is the very original version, which first appeared in the album “Survive”(which is an album of Airstrike / ピンクフラミンゴMG / BACK-ON). The other one, the FK metal version, appeared as the opening song of the anime OVA “Murder Princess”.

And I like this New world ver. most. For me, the oldest version has an intro that’s just a bit too long, and the FK metal ver. sadly, doesn’t have a longer version (yet…maybe?).

Finally, そのままで[NEW ver.]
The original version of this song is in the very first album(mini album) of BACK-ON, called “ADACHI TRIBE”. It is my favourite song from ADACHI TRIBE, as it was always very easy to relax while listening to the song.

The differences between this new ver. and the old one: first, it is the total reproduction of the instrumental track, which I think makes me more relaxed while listening to it~

And the second change is that they added the chorus part which doesn’t exist in the original version, I think this chorus makes the song more complete, and, perhaps more meaningful~

Seeing as the YES!!! EU Edition has recently been released in France, I hope this fan review and others will help people decide that the album is really worth buying. A huge thank you must go to funbari for kindly volunteering to write the review for us!

If you’re interested in reviewing one of BACK-ON‘s albums or singles, please get in touch! To rehash what we said last time, our aim is always to encourage as many people as possible to listen to BACK-ON‘s music, and by featuring different styles of reviews by fans, it will help promote their work to even more people. If you liked this review or any of the others,  please do let us know in the comments or on our Forums.

The band announced on BACK-ON.com that the European version of YES!!! (a.k.a YES!!! EU Edition)  would be available online directly from Amazon France for 20.95 EUR (= $30 USD = £18 GBP) and you can see the CD cover design below:

BACK-ON – YES!!! [EU Edition] Cover

The news release stated that the tracklisting for this European edition of the album would be the same as its Japanese counterpart, with the only difference in the design cover. In case you’ve forgotten what the original YES!!! looked like, take a look below:

Some fans might just prefer the EU Edition as it features all the BACK-ON band members :) Which one do you like best?

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

The CD has been released through the French-based record label Wasabi Records, which also has rather big name artists such as Anna Tsuchiya, OLIVIA, Kanon Wakeshima, Yuki Kajiura and m.o.v.e on their books; the record label even have their own Myspace and Facebook, and according to Mimu-net.net, Wasabi Records announced that they had signed BACK-ON way back in September 2008!

Hopefully we can find out more information about the release soon – which was out on 10th June 2009 according to Asia-Tik – (although Amazon.fr has a dispatch time of 2-3 weeks at the moment, it might be possible to find it elsewhere)  but in the meantime, if you haven’t already got a copy of BACK-ON‘s debut album YES!!!, perhaps the EU Edition will tempt you. It would certainly be interesting to find out which CD cover design you prefer as well with our poll, so please do vote!

p/s: Heads up to ookami for inspiring the poll idea! Don’t forget you can also listen to most of the tracks from YES!!! on our fan radio (scroll towards the bottom of the Music page) now with a new ‘pop-out’ function so you can listen whilst browsing the rest of the fan site.

We are…

The news was also announced on the official BACK-ON.com website just earlier today, and you can listen to what appears to be the entire song (with its long instrumental introduction) by watching this preview clip uploaded by IAMSjapan (2:48) either by clicking on the link below or viewing the video at the end of the post.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYZObdBeBe8

So what do you think? It’s actually difficult to describe how excited I am by this fantasic news, as since January 2009, i.e. start of this year when flyaway was released as both a standard and limited edition single, BACK-ON have been surprisingly quiet even with news on their official blog, although we had brief glimpses of their occasional live performances and the interesting snapshots of their life (including ones about them working on new songs)

Rumour has it that this may be due to personal events and celebrations as well, but now that summer is here (or winter for those of you in the Southern Hemisphere) BACK-ON appear to be back on the music scene again, this time with a brand new uplifting track called ‘We are…” reminiscent of flyaway, and even tied in with an IAMS (international pet food company) TV documentary project!

The documentary was filmed at the Helen Woodward Animal Center and features Kiki Sugino (aka. Yeong-hwa Seo) as the hands-on presenter. The preview clip is – literally – teeming with kittens, so if cute, fluffy and sadly abandoned kittens living in an animal shelter are your thing, it should be worth watching the documentary in full when it is released.  This means that – as appropriate for the song – BACK-ON has once again presented a wonderfully upbeat and joyful creation as the backing theme.

So no heavy riffs this time round, and as BACK-ON continue to develop their ‘pop’ style of music with a really sunny melody and Kenji03‘s captivating voice, this time we get treated to quite a lot more of Teeda singing in the main verses, although he does still rap during parts of the song, it is much more evocative of BAReeeeeeeeeeN Teeda than New World Teeda.

We would love to find out what you all think of this shiny new song; the band have asked fans to try and watch the video and listen to the song where possible. It’s rather unfortunate that comments have been turned off for the video by IAMS (you can get so much feedback via Youtube comments!)  so please let us know and maybe we can send them all in to BACK-ON! :)

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