BACK-ON revamp BACK-ON.com and reveal a 38 second teaser for 愛言葉～この世界の中で君と出会えたキセキ～

Happy New Year to you all for 2013!

Sorry it’s been a while since we have updated the site.  Fans will probably know that – since the last update – KENJI03 became a father in July 2012 to a lovely baby boy (weighing 2,952 grams or 6.5 lbs) and BACK-ON have continued to be very busy with their live schedule.

They have also recently revamped their official HP http://www.back-on.com – by changing the main photo and rearranging the content below the logo and navigation.   As part of the revamp, they are now able to showcase 5 clips of their most well-known songs including: flower, with you, Ice Cream, Tomorrow never knows and Chain.

In addition to this, the band also released  38 second teaser for their new song 愛言葉～この世界の中で君と出会えたキセキ～ (Ai kotoba ～ kono sekai no naka de kimi to deae ta kiseki ～)  which translates into Words of Love ~ The miracle of meeting you in this world.

It’s a beautiful title and definitely takes the top prize for being the longest one by BACK-ON. I do like what seems to be the chorus which has the piano and strings playing in the background as KENJI03 and TEEDA sing and rap;  KENJI03 also sings “I love you” in Japanese, English and Mandarin Chinese (我愛你 – wo ai ni) in one sentence.

Hope you enjoy the clip as much as I do – feel free to listen to it on BOO by clicking on ‘Read more’  (or just below if you’re reading the full post) where we have provided a clip for your enjoyment :)  Let us know what you think!

BACK-ON’s “Ice cream” promotional drive kicks off with revamped official HP and a new ‘behind-the-scenes’ video!

BACK-ON kicked off their promotional drive for Ice cream today with the launch of their revamped official website [Ice cream edition] which features a new logo, new promotional photo and a new design that incorporates all the links to their social media channels too!

I personally absolutely adore their new look: it’s clean, stylish and so easy to navigate. The band’s team have also redesigned the profile page – instead of individual profiles – there is now a quick summary of the band instead beneath the (new) group photo:

They also uploaded a brand new ‘behind-the-scenes’ video on their Youtube channel: it features the band and their team during their Ice cream photo shoot session last month (March 2012) and for those who prefer reading to listening, BACK-ON helpfully included subtitles!   You can tell they had a lot of fun (despite the temperature being a measly 4 degree Celsius) and it’s really worth watching the video (爆つべ vol.21) just to laugh along with them and see them interact!

The highlights would probably include:

• A snapshot of GORI from about 10 years ago (before he was 18)
• KENJI03 biting a baguette – with zest!
• SHU laughing out loud and his oh so handsome new look (slicked back hair works for him!)
• TEEDA doing a ‘mini’ strip tease
• Lots of party-poppers and pizza and random scenes

You can watch the video by clicking on this link here:

Watch 爆つべ vol.21!

Or alternatively – click on ‘Read more’ below to watch the video on our site, and if so, do let us know what you think of the revamped BACK-ON.com and their new video :)

BACK-ON’s official Facebook page and new BACK-ON.com design for with you feat.Me!

As our previous post, this news comes from BACK-ON‘s Official Twitter, who – by the way – have just started following all of their current followers, but before I get distracted even more by the Twitter goodness and the fact t that BACK-ON are seriously embracing the mainstream social media networks, they have just launched their official Facebook page!

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!

Watch BACK-ON’s “TELL ME” PV online!

Happy New Year for 2011!

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:

Watch the 30 second preview of “flyaway” on Youtube!

Following on from our previous post about the new single flyaway, we discovered (via Yuki on the BOO Forums) that BACK-ON had changed the video on the front page of their official website to feature a 30-second preview of the title track “flyaway“!

Brand new BACK-ON.com – flyaway version

It appears to be a TV ‘spot’ ad that is currently playing to people across Japan (we hope!) to promote the new single, but the video was quite small, although we were all very excited to hear a clip of the chorus. However, in the meantime, it turns out that AbyssalChronicles has actually uploaded this clip for everyone to watch on Youtube!

Click on the link below to ‘watch it in high quality’ directly on Youtube!

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

Alternatively you can still watch the ‘normal’ version at the end of this post. For the sake of better graphics in particular, I would really recommend watching it on Youtube directly!

And on a quick side note, JUICE magazine did a quick preview for the new BACK-ON single, and the author seems to say that the theme of this single was:

Friendship & Courage (友情や勇気)

Hope you all enjoy watching the preview! :) Like some others, I am very excited by how good the songs sounds from the clip, and aside from the surprise that the lyrics for the single might already be available online, I can’t wait till we hear the song in full!

BACK-ON’s new single “flyaway” CD covers and Tracklisting confirmed!

This major news update comes courtesy of Sesshy who recently became head admin of Sound-Ex and arrives with plenty of images, including brand new group and individual photos on BACK-ON’s official website as well as the tracklistings and new CD covers for both editions of the CD!

The images we have all been waiting since the news hint of the new single, flyaway, were the CD covers for both the standard or normal flyaway single cover (shown first) AND the limited edition ‘Tales‘ version:

As the news update from Sound Ex put it:

“Even though it’s not “Back-On’s style, I REALLY love the covers.“

I would have to agree wholeheartedly with the latter statement, especially as I also love the covers too (why are the images so tantalisingly small!?) and I am sure you feel the same too (especially fans of the PSP series: Tales of the World – if you weren’t already aware of the news, BACK-ON is writing the OP and ED theme music for the brand new game Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 2) although if I were to really ‘look’ for any similarities to BACK-ON‘s previous CD cover designs, I would say that the cursive writing reminds me of Chain, one of BACK-ON‘s earliest singles, which features that nice italic-cursive-style as well.

Anyway, before I digress further, let us move on to the tracklisting. The question we were all (at least several of us?) dying to know was whether the limited/Tales edition of the CD would include anything extra – Chain, for instance, did not – but as the official BACK-ON website confirmed (screenshot), there is an additional track called: flyaway 『テイルズ オブ』Remix or flyaway (Tales of) Remix!

So the official tracklisting is as follows (with the Remix version only available with the limited/Tales edition):

New design for Back-on.com – Back-on’s Official Website!

It’s been a while since the website design for Back-on.com was updated, but today, it underwent a revamp, and the new design is definitely a breath of fresh air!

With thanks to Koutarou for the news – although the fundamental content layout hasn’t changed (which is good for frequent visitors) the new look is definitely a much easier read, (with larger font – dark on a light background) and navigation is also very straightforward, without having to rely on e.g. Flash as before.

It’s not quite “Web 2.0“, which is just as well because it doesn’t need to be, and I love it! It’s clean and intuitive! You can see a screenshot of the new site below:

The main header is a photo taken for their promotion of BLAZE LINE/a day dreaming… (which is due out tomorrow!) and you can see the original photo below, available from their blog:

Unfortunately it turns out I hadn’t actually taken a screenshot of the previous version (with it’s classic red brick background) but hopefully a screenshot of the first, second and third versions of Back-on.com will make up a little for this oversight!

Version 1 | December 2004 without images (promoting Adachi Tribe)

Version 2| August 2005 promoting Hero

Version 3 | December 2005 with ‘Mokkun‘ flash

What do you think of the new site? :D Please let us know!

Back-on on Myspace.com [updated May 18th 2007]

Yup, it turns out Back-on now have their very own account on Myspace. I came across it quite by accident, but they have been a members since June 7th 2006. Without further ado, visit the website by clicking on http://www.myspace.com/backonjapan

You can listen to Chain, Drive, Hikari Sasuhou and New World on their profile page, which also lists general information about the band…

TEEDA(MC)
KENJI03(Vo/G)
SHU(G)
GORI(B)

BACK-ON is… Back-On=In Japanese kanji “Sound Explosion” 2002 Teeda, Kenji03, Shu, Gori. The four misfits all from Adachi Tokyo. Plus Kenji03’s big brother’s friend Macchin joins.

Teeda & Kenji03, the 2top brings a strong message and the street flavor of Adachi. With trust and respect twards each other, Back-On will always bring “Sound Explosion” for the people.

2006-Opening Song of Animation “Air Gear” First single “Chain” makes a smash hit. The mini album “New World” Not only gets big in Japan, even the world starts wanting Back-On.

… as well their musical influences…

TEEDA: Kotton Mouth Kings,CRAZY TOWN, Mr Cartoon, Zodak, INSOLENCE, P.O.D, SHAKA ZOMBIE, tsunomaru, Yoshihiko Inoue(SLUM DUNK), Akira Toriyama(DRAGON BALL), Kousuke Masuda
KENJI03: SMASHING PUMPKINS, AIR, OASIS, hide(X JAPAN)
SHU: GUNS N ‘ROSES, ASIAN DUB FOUNDATION
GORI: Hoobastank, Chara, aiko, JIN, J(LUNA SEA)

…ending with their record label name…

cutting edge

Cutting Edge is actually a sub-label of Avex Trax, a famous Japanese music record company. According to Wikipedia, the Cutting Edge sub-label is known for its rock artists.
Their profile has received over 24000 page views – a seriously good sign as according to Volcomtoast/Finger Are I?‘s blog (http://blog.myspace.com/volcomtoast), back in June 2006, they only had just under 400 views! This means an average of 3300 visitors each month since then!

The band hasn’t uploaded any videos, but you can still watch the Youtube.com versions of New World (PV), New World (CM), Baby Rock (CM), Chain (PV), Gaku-Ten (PV) and Flydom (PV) – the latter two are both singles from Baby Rock, Back-on’s third album, released in 2005.

They have, however, uploaded some photos which you can see below:

The Myspace page also links to the band profile on Purevolume.com, which says that it is “the place for rising artists to host their mp3s and get exposure“. You can, again, listen to Chain, Drive and New World, but in addition, you can also listen to/preview Kodou or 鼓動, a track featured on their single release ‘Chain‘ in 2006 (Track #3) – a great tune starting off with some fast guitar strumming and drums (ala. the chorus) interspersed with with more chilled-out reggae for the main verse.

Back-on have classified themselves under “Rock/Rap/Pop Punk” on Purevolume, but add that they are also “Loud” and are a “J-Rock Band“. Aside from the usual blurb about the ‘New World’ album, they have also posted their support for street-wear brand names found in Japan, such as Tribal, Independent Truck Co. and Globe.

And last but not least… Back-on‘s Purevolume profile picture…

Update [May 18th 2007] : Updated link to new Backonjapan Myspace profile.

A brief mention in the Q&A section on Back-on.com

Well… ok… it was a private post to say how much I liked ‘Chain’ but its still something to feature on the official site on a section that is subject to approval by the administrator. ;)

So under the Q&A section #139 :

Chain is brilliant! No.139 DATE:2006/09/12(Tue)
NAME: Flick
Chain is a brilliant song – thank you! :D I’m a fan of Crazy Town and Linkin Park/Fort Minor’s music as well so am really looking forward to future singles by Back-on!
This is from the UK so please please consider doing a tour here at some point:D

Hopefully one of the band members will take some time from their work to give a reply! *keeps fingers crossed*