BACK-ON has been added to the lineup of of bands performing at the 10th Anniversary of the major Japanese ROCK Music Festival: SUMMER SONIC 2009!

Just to give you some idea as to how big this festival is, here’s a snapshot list of some of the other big name artists that have been lined up for the event in Osaka:

You might not listen to any of their music, but I’m willing to bet a BACK-ON album/single that you’ll have heard the name of at least ONE of them! :)

According to the SUMMER SONIC 2009 Osaka timetable, BACK-ON will be performing at on 7th August 2009 at 16:20pm on the Garden Stage and you can get buy the one-day pass directly from the SUMMER SONIC 2009 website for ¥ 13,000. The ‘sister’ event will be running concurrently just outside Tokyo.

Now, moving onto non-factual commentary: I know we like to talk about BACK-ON‘s “milestones” (like their work with GReeeeN to form BAReeeeeeeeeeN and doing the theme song for TotW:RM2) every so often on this fan site, but considering the variety and pulling power of the lineup and the enormity of the event – it attacted 200,000 people in 2007 – I think anyone would agree that for a ‘home grown’ talent like BACK-ON, this performance will potentially be one of their crowning moments!

Fingers crossed that international producers, record companies, or even bands who are known to spot previously unrecognised talent, will take time out to listen to BACK-ON‘s 40 minute live set and take them to the next level… Glastonbury, anyone?

UPDATE 31/07/2009: A really interesting post about the logistics of the event is Summer Sonic 2009: a reader Q&A about the event by Joshua Williams .

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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What makes this particular interview rather different from others before is that firstly, there are two versions. One version is Japanese-only, where you hear Jennifer Ho ask Teeda (and Kenji03) the question in English – in an Aussie accent (as expected) – which is followed by their reply in Japanese.

The other version is almost exactly the same, except that now Teeda and Kenji03‘s replies have an unobtrusive English voice-over, which enables us to understand what they are saying!

Without spoiling the interview for you (although we have provided a full transcript below the cut) there is a really funny moment where Kenji03 launches into an answer and then forgets the question (best heard in the Japanese version) and it seems that Teeda really likes koalas? It is also interesting what he says about how the band came to work with GReeeeN:

GReeeeN and BACK-ON have the same producer known by the name of JIN. Sometimes he brings GReeeeN’s new tracks for us to have a listen to or take our tracks to GReeeeN, vice versa, which has made us realise we had the same message to tell, even though we come from different backgrounds.

What we want to express with our music is no different, and we thought we could make
something really cool together – mixing rock and Jpop – that’s how we ended up together.

Teeda then talks about what BACK-ON brings to Ashiato, their first single with GReeeeN as BAReeeeeeeeeeN:

GReeeeN’s music is more of a pop music, with a kinda popular straightforward sound, whereas BACK-ON has been playing in the underground rock scenes in Japan and occasionally overseas.

We’ve brought that kind of BACK-ON taste into the collaboration: we’ve turned it more ‘rockish’ by adding some features like rough raps or distortion to the sound.

Of course there is more, and you can listen to the interview for yourself by visiting the link below:

Listen to the interview on Alchemy’s Asian Pop Show

I would really highly recommend it, although here is some breaking news about their plans for 2009: BACK-ON‘s first full album YES!!! is going to be released in Europe! Apart from doing more live gigs, they would also like to do a tour in the US and possibly Europe and Australia.

Hope you will enjoy listening to it as much as we did :) A big thanks must go to Jennifer Ho and Mika Nakamori for their fantastic work! As mentioned above, if you are unable to access the audio, you can read the full text transcript of the interview below:

Interview Transcript

Teeda (and Kenji03): To everyone in Australia, including the koalas, this is BACK-ON’s MC Teeda and Kenji with Jennifer on Alchemy’s Asian Pop Show!

** Chain plays in the background**

Jennifer: Recently one of the things about you guys is the new collaboration with GReeeeN. What are some of the things you guys have done to promote your collaboration with GReeeeN?

Teeda: Well, GReeeeN actually keep their identity a secret and never show their faces to the public. To keep it that way, they can’t perform live or appear on TV shows with us. For that reason promotional activities from the BACK-ON side were restricted as well.

We only did TV ads and commercials.

Jennifer: What do you think (of) the idea that they try to hide their identity?

Teeda: The positive side of it, I think, is that no one would recognise you, so you could walk on the streets without being spotted. That would be one of the good things about it I guess.

Jennifer: How did you and GReeeeN end up together and become BAReeeeeeeeeeN?

Teeda: GReeeeN and BACK-ON have the same producer known by the name of JIN. Sometimes he brings GReeeeN’s new tracks for us to have a listen to, or take our tracks to GReeeeN, vice versa, which made us realise we had the same message to tell, even though we come from different backgrounds.

What we want to express with our music is no different, and we thought we could make something really cool together – mixing rock and J-pop – that’s how we ended up together.

Jennifer: What role does BACK-ON play in the new single ‘Ashiato’?

Teeda: GReeeeN’s music is more of a pop music, with a kinda popular straightforward sound, whereas BACK-ON has been playing in the underground rock scenes in Japan and occasionally overseas.

We’ve brought that kind of BACK-ON taste into the collaboration: we’ve turned it more ‘rockish’ by adding some features like rough raps or distortion to the sound.

** Ashiato plays in the background**

** BLAZE LINE plays in the background**

Jennifer: Now let’s focus on BACK-ON. How’s the new album YES!!! special to you?

Teeda: Is it ok if Kenji, our guitar/vocalist takes over from here?

Kenji03: Domo. Good morning. BACK-ON’s guitar and vocalist Kenji03 here.

Since it was our first album, we wanted to create the best thing possible… I’m sorry what was the question again? It was a rather… complicated question.

Teeda: No it wasn’t.

Kenji03: What was it again?

Mika Nakamori: *repeats the question*

Kenji03: There are no special thoughts as such, but this is our very first album. We’ve always wanted to release one for so long, so we’ve tried creating the best thing ever, which makes it a very special album for us.

Jennifer: So tell us about the process of putting this album together, for example the recordings and some of the difficulties you guys have faced?

Kenji03: It took us a while to select the first track. We wrote several songs to use as the first track, but we couldn’t decide it. What we thought was the right one was actually the first… I’m not really sure what I’m talking about *laughs*

But, anyway, what I meant is it was difficult to write a song for the first
track of the first album.

This is because when you listen to your CD or samples at the CD store, you’re most likely to start from the first track, right? The first track is always the key track of an album, so we considered it more seriously.

** Hate Naki Michi E [LA mix] plays in the background**

Jennifer: And what is one of the most unusual ways you guys have come up with a great song that you love?

Kenji03: Teeda will take over from here.

Teeda: For the song called ‘Color’, it’s actually for BAReeeeeeeeeeN. I came up with the verse and the pre-chorus sections whilst I was having a bath in the hot spring.

** Color plays in the background **

Jennifer: And I hear that you guys have been trying to film the new music video for the new single ‘flyaway’ and the weather hasn’t been too good. So share with us a little bit – what’s this single going to be about?

Teeda: ‘flyaway’ will be the opening theme for the sequel of Namco Bandai’s popular video game: Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology.

Jennifer: Are there any plans for 2009 that we can look forward to?

Teeda: We were too busy with recordings this year and didn’t get to do gigs very often, so we want to get out and do more gigs next year and hopefully do a tour in the US.

As our album ‘YES!!!’ is set to be released in Europe, we’re hoping to go to Europe as well. It would be great if we could also have a chance to go to Australia. We would love to kangeroos and koalas, and of course Australian fans.

Kenji03: Yeah!

Jennifer: Yes, I will take you guys to see kangaroos and koala if you come.

Teeda: Yatta. Kenji is also saying Yatta!

Kenji03: YATTA!

Jennifer: If we were going to visit you in Japan, where will you take us?

Teeda: We’re from downtown Tokyo, so we can go on a pub crawl in Asakusa to eat monjayaki, okonomiyaki and udon. How does that sound?

Kenji03: I’d like to recommend a track called NEW WORLD, simply because it rocks! YAY!

** NEW WORLD fades into the background **

12/11/08: #26
13/11/08: #29
14/11/08: #24

These are the figures I’ve been able to capture so far, and I’m actually really looking forward to the release of the weekly results to see how well BACK-ON have done, especially now that they have been featured as part of Fuji TV‘s staple weekday morning news program とくダネ! (Tokudane!)

According to the Wikipedia entry for the program, it is currently broadcast from 08:00 – 09:55, Mondays to Fridays” and with reference to the English version of FujiTV Outline, this ‘infotainment’ program has held the top position for audience ratings during the morning slot for 74 months running! This is good news, because even if the viewing audience are primarily made up of OAPs (assuming Japan and the UK are similar in that respect :p) this still means that BACK-ON was promoted for two minutes to the majority of TV viewers!

And it was a great introduction imho, which you can watch for yourself courtesy of MONSTERSNITE (gangangan03‘s new account!) by clicking the link below or scrolling to the end of this post!

Click here to watch BACK-ON being introduced on Tokudane!

For those without access to Youtube, here’s a quick breakdown of what happened in the clip:

• The main presenter is Tomoaki Ogura (小倉智昭) introduces BACK-ON by playing 足跡 (Ashiato) and introducing them as one half of BAReeeeeeeeeeN. I love how he pronounces the word BAReeeeeeeeeeN. :)
• This revelation is met with murmurs and various nods of approval from his co-hosts and guests. +1
• I think he then talks about how JIN (big bro of HIDE of GReeeeN) is related to BACK-ON
• As Butterfly is played in the background, Tomoaki Ogura talks about BACK-ON‘s brief history whilst displaying their group photo on-screen (below), and he even drops in Kenji03‘s name!

  

• For those better at Japanese than I am (that’s many of you by the way) you’ll understand what the presenter is saying before he drops in the word ‘flower‘. I didn’t really get most of it, but I’m pretty sure he said “America” :)
• They then play the PV for flower as it rolls into the chorus. The text 5 member (BACK-ON) First Album is shown throughout the clip by the way.
• I’m sure the presenter then talks about ‘next year’ something or other, and then some strange rating system appears where BACK-ON appears to get 80 (out of a possible 100?) This is a good thing I think?

So there you have it, BACK-ON‘s (probably first) promotional on day time telly; it might not seem like much, but for someone who has just witnessed the startling effectiveness of TV advertising first hand on a friend, I am pretty sure that this brief but surprisingly thorough introduction has probably resulted in BACK-ON‘s YES!!! jumping 5 spaces to #24 in today’s Oricon rankings! And oh YES!!!, if you happen to know how this whole rating system works on とくダネ!, please do drop us a comment below and let us know!

And last but not least; the video clip of BACK-ON on とくダネ! (Tokudane!) courtesy of MONSTERSNITE!

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]]> http://www.backon-online.com/back-on-featured-on-fuji-tvs-tokudane/feed/ 2 http://www.backon-online.com/back-ons-first-full-album-yes-due-out-on-november-12th-2008/ http://www.backon-online.com/back-ons-first-full-album-yes-due-out-on-november-12th-2008/#comments Sun, 02 Nov 2008 21:58:27 +0000 Flick http://www.backon-online.com/?p=320 It’s official, BACK-ON are definitely releasing their first full album on November 12th 2008! The news was released yesterday on their official website, accompanied by a picture of the jacket cover, the final tracklisting and a brief note about the new mixes!

If you missed our last speculative post about the album, don’t worry (although we would still encourage you to read it as it includes official photos from BACK-ON‘s most recent live gig) as we have something more up-to-date, although the main picture still hasn’t changed:

AKA. the Jacket cover of the new album YES!!! except we can now dabble more with facts as we have the full tracklisting too. Previously the rumour was that there would be 10 songs on the album, including Ashiato and Color from the BAReeeeeeeeeeN single, but it turns out there are 14 songs in total including a brand new song and also, remixes!

So the official tracklisting is as follows:

1. 果てなき道へ [LA mix]
2. flower [LA mix]
3. NEW WORLD
4. Sands of time
5. Butterfly
6. BLAZE LINE
7. DRIVE
8. a day dreaming…
9. そのままで [NEW ver.]
10. ヒカリサスホウ [NEW WORLD ver.]
11. Chain [LA mix]
12. FLYDOM
13. BAReeeeeeeeeeN / color [LA mix] -bonus track-
14. BAReeeeeeeeeeN / 足跡 [LA mix] -bonus track-

This is great news for BACK-ON fans, not only because of the groundbreaking full album release (it is always good news when bands release full albums!) but because there was always the worry that the album would simply be another CD with songs from their previous singles and mini-albums, and in difficult economic times like these, even a fan needs value for their money! I’m glad to say that BACK-ON has not disappointed us here, and for that I am even more so excited about the release!

There is plenty to be cheerful about. For a start, there is a new song called: 果てなき道へ [LA mix] or Hate naki michi e [LA mix], which I believe stands for something like ‘Never-ending Road‘ (but I’m not sure, so corrections are welcome) as track #1, and if the strength of BACK-ON‘s title tracks so far are anything to go by, this should also be a winner! Fingers crossed ^^

Secondly, the album features remix versions of BACK-ON‘s back catalogue of songs! Granted it was disappointing for some of us to see that ヒカリサスホウ (fk Metal ver.) didn’t make it, see Dean’s post in this thread) it is still great to see that the band has not veered from the tried-and-tested formula by bands such as UVERWORLD and are releasing remixes for their album (credit to Sesshy)!

The news release mentions that Matt Hyde is the engineer/mixer behind the new LA mix versions of 果てなき道へ, flower, Chain, color and 足跡 (Ashiato) and I think it’s pretty safe to assume that this is because the songs were remixed in Los Angeles (LA). This is based on the latest news from Matt Hyde’s official website (dated October 19th 2008), where he said:

… I just mixed 5 songs for the Japanese acts BACK-ON and Bareeeeeeeeeen over at No Excuses studio in Santa Monica …

So who is Matt Hyde? BACK-ON‘s news release mentioned that he had worked with bands such as Sum 41 and No Doubt, and from his profile page on McDonough Management (his agent I believe) he has worked with a whole host of other rock bands such as Pride Tiger, Monster Magnet, Porno for Pyros, and Strung Out although interestingly, he also has a Grammy Award-winning album “Turn Around” by Blues/Gospel singer Jonny Lang on his list of credits!

It’s difficult to find a recent photo of Matt Hyde, although you can see an older photo of when he was working with Sum 41‘s producer Greig Nori at Oceans Studio Burbank (where Evanescence have also been a client) but it is with thanks to a promotional ‘In studio with Matt Hyde’ video for the band So They Say (now called The Audio) from 2007 that we are able to catch a more up-to-date glimpse of the producer/mixer/engineer himself:

So after this name-dropping introduction, what does it all mean for BACK-ON? Like many fans, I really really love the band’s original versions of their songs, and will thus have quite high expectations of any remixes, especially ones that are meant to showcase BACK-ON via their debut full album. After reading through Matt Hyde‘s bio, it’s pretty clear why the band have chosen to collaborate with him, and I am certain that his experience and talent will really add another level (or dimension) to BACK-ON‘s songs!

The test is in the pudding (ref), which in this case is BACK-ON‘s debut full album YES!!!, due out on November 12th 2008 priced at ¥ 2,600. If you are interested in pre-ordering the album online, there are a couple of online retailers that we have listed below for your convenience (prices are correct at the time of this post and exclude delivery costs):

• Yesasia (US$ 25.75)
• CDJapan (US$ 24.91)
• JPOPHelp (US$ 33.48)
• HMV Japan (¥ 2,600)
• Amazon Japan (¥ 2,600)

Hopefully we’ll find out more about the album and the songs as the countdown begins (11 days left!) ; BACK-ON‘s official blog has promised us more news about their recent interviews with magazines and a radio station soon, and we at Back-on Online will be sure to keep up either here or on our Forums, so please keep checking back and thanks for all your support so far! :)

Then came September, and the revelation that the other half of the mysterious new group BAReeeeeeeeeeN were in fact BACK-ON, and since then, the band has experienced a huge surge of popularity. So much so, that at their first public performance after the release of 足跡 (Ashiato) at Shibuya Boxx on October 9th, the venue was packed out! We found out about this from the official ‘report’ on Back-on.com, which was accompanied by the launch of their official photo gallery, featuring more than a dozen photos from the gig!

There are more photos available at the link above, but perhaps more importantly… we had the very first hint in the last line of the report that the full album really is forthcoming, this time on the new rumoured date of November 12th 2008!

So what do we know about this potential new album? If the Japan-base online CD retail companies like Amazon.jp, CDJapan and HMV.jp are anything to go by, this is the jacket cover of the brand new album:

We also find out that the new album will probably be called Yes!!!, and that it should be priced at ¥ 2,600, which is around $27 USD or £17 GBP. Apparently there will be a total of 10 tracks, including 足跡 (Ashiato) aka. Footprints and color from the BAReeeeeeeeeeN debut single, which really shouldn’t be a surprise, given that the cover design really does scream (to me) GReeeeN!!! What do you think? Let us know on the Forums, if not in the comments below!

The supposed 8 other tracks on the album are currently unknown, but it seems BACK-ON will definitely be including all the title tracks from their singles so far, which presumably means songs such as (in reverse chronological order) -

• Sands of time
• flower
• Butterfly
• BLAZE LINE
• NEW WORLD
• Chain

and many more of their crowd favourites. One site even mentioned ヒカリサスホウ (Hikari Sasuhou), which was a huge hit with the fans at their October 9th Sonic Concorde gig, enough to make BACK-ON perform it twice!

Seeing as it’s one of my most favourite songs, I think I can understand why ;) And as if the photo extravaganza above wasn’t enough, look at the promotional photo we found on Amazon.jp!

Kenji03 is wearing glasses!!! That’s enough to make any fan-girl go KYAAAAAA! (I’ve borrowed this from someone, sorry!) It’s a pity the photo isn’t larger, but if you do want a good close up, I can certainly recommend watching a new video uploaded by gangangan03, where BACK-ON (in their new outfits!) introduce 足跡 (Ashiato), but unfortunately the broadcasting giants appear to have waved their copyright flag, and not only have they removed the video, but gangangan03‘s Youtube account has mysteriously been suspended! It’s a HUGE HUGE blow for BACK-ON fans imho, and I really hope the account will be re-instated soon as it is a gold mine of media of the band. Let’s keep our fingers crossed!

I would like to drop in a tantalizing hint “タネウマ★DJ ICHIKAWA from Volta Master remix” at this point, but let’s leave it for the next post and move back to the main topic:

Will BACK-ON‘s first full album be called Yes!!!

Will it really be released on November 12th 2008?

That really remains to be seen, but please keep checking back here for more news!

The first revelation (courtesy of our hero gangangan03) is that JIN, the older brother of HIDE (GReeeeN‘s leader) is featured in the PV!

You can see his picture above, and as far as we can tell, he makes his appearance at 2:17 and 3:22 (I love his sunglasses!) and apparently, the peeps behind the video asked him to be make a guest appearance since he’s the bridge and an ‘important guy’ between/to the two bands.

He also makes his appearance in the CM for mu-mo, which is the digital download site of the Avex label (credit gangangan03); take a look here and see if you can spot him. :D

Unfortunately I didn’t see any members of BACK-ON in the video, and GReeeeN like to keep what they look like a secret, since apparently they’re all dentists-in-training?

But the second revelation is that the bridge of the PV version is a little different from the mp3 that’s flying around the internet at the moment; where Teeda starts his English rap:

This is at 2:17, and in the PV, we hear Teeda saying:

BACK-ON plus G-R-e-e-e-e-N dou desu, You ready?

But in the mp3 version, this is replaced by an electronic voice (Teeda‘s?) singing:

B-A-R-eeeeeeeeee-N dou desu, You ready?

Although I like both versions, for some reason, I really do prefer the first one where we can hear Teeda rapping clearly – perhaps it’s because I’m a BACK-ON fan, and as such, am absolutely not biased? :p

It would be interesting to find out what others thought. At present no one knows which version will be on the single Ashiato, although a reliable source (see above) tells us it’s usually the PV version, but since the digital download version is different… Nevertheless, we at BOO do try to encourage fans to buy the CD (out October 1st) and support the bands if you can. Another way, of course, is to:

SPREAD THE WORD!

BAReeeeeeeeeeN is already making headlines in Japan (see the photo of the newspaper article below from HIDE’s blog, with thanks to gangangan03!)

but for some reason fewer people seem to have caught on in the “English language” blog-o-sphere, so let people know! One thing I should mention is that when pronouncing BAReeeeeeeeeeN, the ‘eeeeeeeeee’ sound should be held for around two seconds. So, altogether now:

BAReeeeeeeeeeN!

And last, but not least, the video (courtesy of gezimayuo)!

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

p/s: You can view the AVI version by viewing this post by de_broti!

GReeeeN shot to the top of the Oricon charts during the summer with their single Kiseki, and the two bands have joined together to form a new band under the Avex trax label cutting edge called BAReeeeeeeeeeN, pronounced ???? (Bariin). The producer of this new group is JIN, Hide (leade member of GReeeeN)’s older brother, who is also known for his role as both the guitarist of P.T.P (PaymoneyTomyPain) and the producer of BACK-ON. Apparently he is the mastermind behind the entire collaboration.

BAReeeeeeeeeeN‘s debut single, which is out on October 1st 2008, doesn’t seem to have a title per-se but may actually be called ?? (Ashiato) which is also the name of the title track. The B-side, or second song, is called color. You can already listen to an mp3 version of the first track (see Tsubasa‘s forum post, a big thank you!) and now that I’ve heard it, I can definitely say it’s a really really catchy song!

It’s a fantastic blend of the musical styles of both groups – mixing pop, rap and rock – where (since this *is* a fansite about BACK-ON): Teeda features as the lead during the second part of the first verse of the song and the bridge; you can hear Kenji03 in the chorus; and there is of course the underlying guitar, bass and drums from Shu, Gori and Icchan, and although I LOVE the bridge, the intro of the song is already catchy enough to get people moving!

JIN is quoted as saying that its meant to be a fusion of GReeeeN‘s singing-in-harmony and BACK-ON‘s rapping.

I’ve been listening to it on repeat for most of the evening whilst writing up this post, and Ashiato is definitely a hit in the making, and even before its release, it is already being featured in the headlines:

According to Tokyograph, Ashiato was already making tidal waves on USEN and chaka-uta since its release around 3 weeks ago, but we heard from from gangangan03 (who kindly sent us a link to this Yahoo! article) that the song actually reached #1 in downloads for both providers.

To give a bit of background info (with special thanks to wao for being so helpful and providing this information): USEN is an ISP that provides digital content for download, the chaka-uta (short for “chakushin merodi” or “ringtone”), provides full song ringtone downloads.

You can actually see the song in the #1 position on this week’s USEN charts. According to the aforementioned Yahoo! article, the Ashiato has been downloaded more than 200,000 times in the past two weeks, and is already making history as being one of the most popular songs for an ‘unknown’ band.

This is because the song appears to have been released to USEN users at the end of August 2008, but the identity of the people behind BAReeeeeeeeeeN was only ‘officially’ revealed within the last two days, which prompted a flurry of speculation in early September, including rumours that the group involved GReeeeN because of the e so characteristic of the band (each e represents a band member):

BACK-ON was mentioned as one of the potential bands, by blogs such as MUSIC TRIP~????~ (who also posted the lyrics to the chorus of Ashiato) amongst others such as Hi-Fi Camp.

To add fuel to the (blazing) fire, three companies mu-mo, Casio and Kirin decided to work together to produce CMs featuring Ashiato to promote their products (mu-mo, Exilim 2300 and Smooth respectively) on TV (which you can watch here) which only served to fan the flames of BAReeeeeeeeeeN.com‘s mysterious image.

However, the launch of the (dual-band) group’s official website BAReeeeeeeeeeN.com on September 15th 2008 (just two days ago) and the official news release today (September 17th 2008) all the rumours were quelled as the truth was revealed:

BAReeeeeeeeeeN = BACK-ON + GReeeeN + JIN!

Needless to say, the 10 e‘s that are in BAReeeeeeeeeeN represent the 10 people involved with the new group (BACK-ON‘s 5, GReeeeN‘s 4 and JIN) and the name is a mix of the two bands BA and Reeee(eeeeee)N.

As GReeeeN is one of the hottest pop bands around at the moment (their Wiki entry says they’re all training to be dentists?) hopefully BACK-ON‘s collaboration with an equally talented musical group will bring BACK-ON and its staff their well-deserved break! BAReeeeeeeeeeN.com is pretty much the most talked-about band in the media at the moment, and given the strength of the song, this might even bring BACK-ON (and GReeeeN) around the world (again) and maybe even to the European shores this time as well (shout out to gangangan03 here!)

p/s: A big thank-you must go to wao for being so helpful during our research for this post.
p/s2: Watch the PV courtesy of satsukidabesa on Dailymotion!