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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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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The auction was held in association with Bidders.jp, which I understand to be a Japanese auction company, and featured one of Back-on‘s latest special t-shirts (previously modelled Icchan) autographed by all the band members, in addition to a signed copy of the single BLAZE LINE/a day dreaming… The band also donated issues #1~21 of all(?) the Eyeshield 21 manga, so I’m sure you’d agree that it was definitely a particularly generous donation! (given that some celebrities just donate e.g. lip gloss)

You can visit the (now closed) auction directly by clicking on the picture above, but for those wanting the low down, 33 different price bids were made for the items above, with a mini-bidding war between two users 19920628 and kameya_online towards the end, and the final price was ¥ 8000, which is about $70 USD or GBP £ 35!

So congratulations to 19920628 (I have no idea who this is either) for winning the auction and picking up the prize booty! :D We’ve included some more pictures of the auction items below, so do have a look if you’re free!

And one more – focusing on the t-shirt:

http://ameblo.jp/back-on

I’m sure everyone would agree that this is a far easier link to remember compared to the url of their previous blog: http://back-on.cocolog-nifty.com/stuff/

Anyway, before we get too bogged down in the detail, let me tell you more about the new blog! As a picture is worth a thousand words, a screenshot of the new blog site will come first:

I do love these colours – of course they were designed (or chosen) to fit the new style that Back-on are using for this season, the upcoming release of flower (and maybe Butterfly?) – but it’s very easy on the eye! You’ll see that the top left menu actually has categories for all the band members, Teeda, Kenji03, Shu, Gori, Icchan and Back-on’s Staff, so it is possible that we’ll see entries on the official blog in the future byindividual band members! :)

The first entry has already been bagged by the Staff, who have introduced the new blog powered by Ameblo, and then going on to say that there will be lots more posts (I think) about the live events, recordings, personal thoughts and all sorts of other fun things!

So, to sum up: if you haven’t already bookmarked their new blog site, go for it!

p/s: I think I know what my next badge will be~~ take a look at the header of the new blog!

Anyway, Sound EX has suggested that we all visit Gori‘s personal blog to wish him a happy birthday, which I think is fantastic idea! So click on the link below to visit his blog and give him your very own birthday greetings!~

http://blog.goo.ne.jp/goribaba/

From Back-on Online –

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GORI-san! Hope you have a great time today and always! 誕生日おめでとうございます

I’m a big fan of Gori and Icchan‘s new look(s), and Kenji03 reminds me of Gackt or someone like that. ^^ It would be interesting to know what other people thought though!

And, just for contrast, you can compare their new pictures with their previous photos below:

Finally, visitor feedback is always welcome, and today, I’m putting out a special request for people to vote for which profile photos Back-on Online should use for the Band Members information page. Please vote and let us know below!

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

All the media can be found on the Forums, including more PV screenshots that you can see above (again provided by Sowon!) The direct link to the thread is:

http://www.backon-online.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=165

The video is unlike any of Back-on‘s previous PVs (the list currently includes Chain, New World, Kodou, and Nuts Tribe) and features scenic views of (presumably) Houston (it was filmed before their performance at Anime Matsuri) with some great closeups of all the band members, particuarly Teeda and Kenji03, although Icchan does win his arm wrestling match against a local(?) on the hood of their white truck! (Lucky guy! He gets to feature in Back-on‘s PV!)

What do you think about the PV? :D

It’s already been mentioned before that Back-on were particularly keen on hamburgers and Gori in particular seems to adore them! He writes:

I recall that on day one, I ate a hamburger the size of my hand in a bar!

On day two, for lunch, I ate a hamburger from the hotel.

On day three, I ate a hamburger from a takeout(?)/or outside.

On day four…

Gori stops at this point… where he says the memory of eating burgers everyday keeps popping up! :D

He obviously enjoyed being in America, and has posted a group picture which you can see above! Like Teeda and Kenji03, Gori thanks the people in America for being so good to them. He is also very much looking forward to Canada, so to all the Canadians – please do make an effort to support them at Anime Evolution if you’re around the area!

On another note, active forum users will most likely already know this video, but during Anime Matsuri 2007, one very lucky person by the name of Fabio was ‘serenaded’ by Back-on! The video has been uploaded by buehrer on Youtube, and Fabio has kindly allowed us to post it here:

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We get to see Kenji03 strumming on his guitar singing Fabio, fabio, fabio… with the rest of Back-on joining in at the end of each sentence with Fabio! At the end, Gori says the sweetest thing.. I love you!

In what I believe to be Back-on‘s first English interview article entitled USA turns it BACK-ON, Cynthia of JaME (JMusicEuropa) asks the band a selection of interesting and investigative questions that really do open my eyes to how the band thinks, as well as reveal some intriguing facts about the band, such as the tidbit that their favourite performance song is Chain. Some of my favourite Q&As are included below:

Q: Who are the main lyricist and songwriter of the band? How are the two developed?

A: TEEDA: We basically all work together. SHU, GORI, and ICCHAN come up with the music; they’re the first building blocks. Then KENJI03 and I come up with our own lyrics that we sing. After the lyrics are added, all of us come together as a band and listen to what we’ve come up with to make suggestions and changes.

Shu adds later on in the interview that for shows such as Tokyo Mayokara and Eyeshield 21:

SHU: We usually try to create the music based on the visual image that we see, so the viewer can connect both the song and show. We try to interlink the music with the show, so that way the listener can visualize what he or she saw in the show by remembering an episode or scene. Since the visual was already created for the audience, what we’re trying to do as artists is create the sound side.

And this is how Teeda learnt his English:

Q: TEEDA, you speak a lot of English slang and also have slang written in your lyrics; where did you learn this?

A: TEEDA: When I was in high school, my father knew an American family that lived in the neighborhood. I was able to visit them often and stayed over from time to time, so I learned English from my father’s friends’ children. When I put slang into the lyrics I ask my friend, Matthew, if they sound alright. He’s not related to those friends I had from my childhood days.

One of the main reasons I love this article is because we also get to find out what inspires Gori and Shu, since it’s quite difficult to find anything other than factual information about them. Alas, Icchan doesn’t say much during the interview (according to Gori, he’s shy :D awww…) but we do get to find out how he joined Back-on (in October 2006):

ICCHAN: I was introduced to the band from mutual friends of the original BACK-ON members of other local and active indie bands.

USA turns it BACK-ON also solves the puzzle behind Kenji03‘s name, an FAQ of quite a few Back-on fans (you know who you are ^^):

KENJI03: Everyone has their unique name, but Kenji is very typical, so I wanted to add a little tweak to the name. And since BACK-ON is from Tokyo and Tokyo’s area code is 03, I added 03 to my name.
TEEDA: KENJI-TOKYO. (everyone laughs.)
KENJI03: It could also be read as KENJIO-SAN. (again everyone laughs.)

There is plenty to read that hasn’t been included here, so do read the article! The actual interview was conducted on the last day of Anime Matsuri in a room with comfy-looking sofas! I know this, and you will too, because Cynthia has kindly included photos of the band taken during the interview.

Which reminds me, on another (mostly unrelated) note, JaME have also published a brand new picture for Back-on‘s profile, which you can see below, courtesy of JaME.

Every single band member has a brand new hair style, with Teeda sporting the biggest change from his previously braided locks! Icchan has a rather devilish look (imho! I’m willing to be corrected here :D) which I do like (although by all accounts, he’s really a sweetie! Just ask Koutarou!), although my favourite in this picture has to be Gori (who has the cutest smile in their recent interview with Soundex).

So, a big thanks to Cynthia and JaME (JMusicEuropa) for interviewing Back-on and publishing such a great article! Please do show them your support by commenting directly on their Back-on Interview Comments Thread, you’ll have to register, but I think it’s worth it!

p/s: A big thanks must be given to xiijelly as well! :)

SoundEx Youtube Channel

With reference to the video captions by Nao, in the first 50 second clip, the translator Tomo runs through the list of the questions to ‘prep’ the band. I’ve taken the executive decision to use a picture of Tomo (and Nao‘s head?) for the screenshot, since by all accounts on the Forums (ok, I meant Ichi), the official translator is meant to be very cute! Click on the picture to go straight to the video.

 In the second interview clip (with a running time of 4:02 minutes) we get to see/hear each Back-on member give a brief account of their “typical day“, which was the opening question so there are presumably more coming up! (I’ll try and find out more about the answers either from the Forums or by listening to the clip again.)

This is the video that highlights that all the band members look incredibly cute when they’re smiling (smile more!) and Gori definitely struck me as a very happy man, because he was smiling from the start of the clip! Hence we have his picture for the screenshot below. :) As before, you can click on the picture to watch the clip.

There are also more videos (in sequence) of the Post Autograph session which are worth watching too, so do pay a visit to the SoundEx Youtube Channel! Apparently it’s already one of the top 100 most watched channels in the Musicians category today. ^^