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/listen-to-clips-from-back-ons-new-album-yes-on-their-official-myspace/ http://www.backon-online.com/listen-to-clips-from-back-ons-new-album-yes-on-their-official-myspace/#comments Tue, 11 Nov 2008 00:04:37 +0000 Flick http://www.backon-online.com/?p=342 It’s been awhile since BACK-ON updated their official Myspace, but with 1 day left till the release of their very first full album YES!!!, they have revamped their profile with new banners, and more importantly, provided preview clips of 4 [LA mix] versions of their songs from their brand new album!

Click on the screenshot of the player below to visit their official Myspace and listen to the songs yourself! If you don’t have access to Myspace, keep on reading for a special treat that we have for you :)

The chorus of the new song 果てなき道へ [LA mix] (Hatenaki Michi E) feels a little more pop than rock, but as the clip tails off, there seems to be a promise of some heavy rock coming up… and possibly Teeda‘s signature rapping? Definitely an upbeat song and I have to say I really do like it! I can’t wait to hear the full song at least :)

As for the other songs, it will certainly be interesting to hear what everyone thinks; I heard from the grapevine that apparently the [LA mix] versions should be a little heavier and emphasise the ‘rock’ aspect of each song. Unfortunately Myspace are not doing BACK-ON any favours as they convert the original songs to very low bit/sample rates (96kbps and 22kHz apparently) so the songs sound rather unclear and somewhat hollow to me, but I think the bass and guitars are definitely a lot more pronounced! What are your thoughts?

To add icing to the cake, BACK-ON have also updated their profile photos on their website, and you can see thumbnails of their brand new look below, but I would highly recommend clicking on the thumbnails to visit our fan photo gallery for the full size photos! I actually want to do a bit of a fangirl scream here for ALL of the band members (Kya!?) but just to pick out one band member, doesn’t Icchan look so much more mature?

And last but not least, for people who can’t access BACK-ON’s Myspace, fear not, because we have recorded all the 4 [LA mix] song clips into one long mp3 (3:15) that you can download or listen to online below!

p/s: Good news for fans of gangangan03‘s videos! :) He now has a brand new account which you can visit here: http://www.youtube.com/user/MONSTERSNITE

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)!

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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!

With thanks to gangangan03 for his kind permission, we have now translated the interview clip and added subtitles to the original, which is now available on Youtube as a video response!

This is our first attempt at translating an interview clip, so if you do spot any errors or anything else that we can change or improve, please let us know! :) You can watch the subtitled version by clicking here or after the cut.

Interview questions included:

What were your thoughts about the whole event (Formoz Festival)?
Was there anything that stood out in particular?
Have you done anything interesting whilst you’ve been in Taiwan?
Do you have any weird habits?

Apparently icchan eats a lot (especially whilst on the phone) and Kenji03 likes sticking out his tongue!

Hope you enjoy watching the interview, and please do let us know what you think! :)

BACK-ON on MTV Taiwan (subtitled)

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It featured 0:58 minutes of Back-on goodness (splashing water, an hour-glass and slow-motion have never seemed so magical!) but ended so abruptly that the rabid dedicated fans were left wanting more. Our prayers were clearly heard by someone, and who else but the one-and-only gangangan03!

He has uploaded the full Sands of Time PV on to Youtube (thank you!!) and you can watch all 3:21 minutes of it at the link below! (or below the ‘cut’)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYhkmXIRx7o

UPDATE 05/01/09 – We have just updated the link to the fansubbed HQ version of the PV as sadly gangangan03‘s video is no longer available. The new video is courtesy of Vanalovas and is subbed by Order of Zeronos.

If you fancy just looking at the screenshots instead, we’ve taken just over 100 stills from the mp4 version of the file. They are now all hosted on our brand new Flickr account! We’ve included some of the pictures below for your convenience, but it’s best to experience the entire ‘PV’ by viewing them all in one go (at the size ‘small’ for optimal quality)

What do you think of the PV? I personally think it’s one of the best the band have done so far, and it’s very arty in some parts! :) I do love everyone’s outfits (although I wish Icchan had a more ‘complete’ look!) and can’t wait to see some official photos!

UPDATE: With thanks to gangangan03, it turns out that the director of this spectacular PV is none other than Hideaki Sunaga, who also directed the PV for Chain, and has worked with artists such as Dragon Ash, Ayumi Hamasaki and Koda Kumi!

Only 10 more days until the big day of the single release! ^^

BACK-ON – Sands of Time PV (uploaded by gangangan03 & Vanalovas)

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Unfortunately the previous video has been removed, but we get to hear the TV size version of the song in full with this new video! Apart from the ‘rock’-sounding ‘chorus’ featuring Kenji03 that we heard before, which runs from the start with a brief instrumental intro, the song seems to end halfway through the video, before (suddenly) starting again with Teeda singing the verse/interlude in harmony (with Kenji03?) which reminds me a little of the interlude of flower. This bit is very chilled out imho! Then the chorus starts again before fading away at the end.

And oh yes, the video itself. I’m not sure if the ending sequence will change for each episode, because the initial footage looked as though it could be part of the episode (1 in this case) and the last 15 seconds were labelled with ‘Next episode Preview” in the corner, which features some kung-fu fighting Phone Bravers! Wow, they’re cooler than I thought :) Anyway, this video is definitely worth watching; not just for the song, but also for the brief comedic, sad and exhilarating moments, not to mention the impressive list of sponsors running across the screen!

Feel free to watch it after the cut (below) or click here to view the video directly on Youtube! And before we forget to mention it, Back-on‘s Official Website now also has Sands of Time playing in the background as well!

p/s: If you can’t access either site, feel free to meander over to our dedicated Keitai Sousakan 7 discussion thread and download a zip file containing the mp3 rip (technology by Vixy.net) of the above video and the Flash swf file from the official website.

p/s2: Alternatively, you can now download a good quality mp3 rip of a raw file version from this page.

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The video has been uploaded by the-one-and-only gangangan03 (the one who kindly provides us with rare and amazing videos of Back-on!) and is a 25-second clip with various scenes from the show, which showcase quite a few members of the cast in-action, as well as the Phone Bravers; 01, 03 and 07 (and judgingl from the previous trailer: evil, good and good characters respectively)

“I am out of it evil!” & “Shiny shiny”

Sands of Time plays in the background (albeit VERY VERY quietly) where you can hear Kenji03 singing what seems to be the chorus of the song! It sounds a bit more rock-than-R&B imho (other thoughts welcome please!) and the clip ends as the ‘chorus’ reaches a climax, accompanied by the shiny metallic logo of Keitai Sousakan 7.

As custom dictates, you can either watch the video on Youtube, or watch it here on BOO at the end of the cut/post. Please let us know what you think – either via commenting here or joining in with our discussion on the BOO forums! :)

p/s: Don’t forget to reduce/turndown your volume once you’ve finished (re-)watching the clip! EDIT: Clip has been removed. Please refer to this post for an updated video.

p/s2: NEW! We have made a clearer/louder audio rip of the CM Preview from the original source so you can hear the background music a lot better. Find the download link here on the Forums!

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The aim for us this year? For BOO to become better! :) We definitely have something to look forward to, as BOO will be celebrating its very first birthday very soon! It would be an understatement to say that it has been a brilliant time, where the definite highlight was the opening of the BOO Forums by Sowon in April 2007!

I’ve met some seriously amazing Back-on fans through there, and if you do have some time, I would really encourage you to pay a visit and have a look around! A big thanks must go to the members for their great support, and if you did have any questions about the band (and band members) this is the place to ask as there are lots of experts! :)

Because the new year is a time of reflection:

Finally, a big thank you to everyone who has supported the site in some way or another, whether as a fantastic fellow admin (Sowon) or by providing site content (MJtheOne for the wallpapers, funbari for the lyrics, and guitar chords by Avalonstar12) including the images found in the Gallery (particularly ichiban) and also the special Back-on videos provided by gangangan03, blueblueblue and SoundEX amongst others. Of course the thank you must extend to the many people (who I’m sorry to have not mentioned here) who have made the site so much richer by posting comments and writing about their experiences both on the Forums and the main site. THANK YOU!

And before I forget: THANK YOU, BACK-ON, FOR BEING SO EXTRAORDINARY!

Happy new year everyone!

p/s: And for some really yummy news, rumour has it that Back-on will be releasing a brand new single on January 30th 2008. We don’t have much detail to go by at the moment, but will definitely keep you posted! If you would like to follow the latest developments, feel free to read the forum thread about the new release created by slipknot240.