BACK-ON featured on Fuji TV’s とくダネ! (Tokudane!)!

YES!!! was released just 3 days ago (12th November 2008) and I am happy to say the album has been doing well in the Daily Oricon Rankings as it has been sitting within the TOP #30 spot for all 3 days, climbing to a high of #24 yesterday!

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:

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Is BACK-ON’s first full album called “Yes!!!”?

Rumours that BACK-ON might be releasing their first full album this year have been floating around since earlier this year, when the various online record companies posted an ‘Untitled’ album by BACK-ON due out on the penultimate day of July. However, 30th July came and went, and news from the band during the summer were really just day-to-day thoughts from their official blog.

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!

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Lyrics: RAIN

It might seem a surprise to everyone for us to release the lyrics for RAIN out of the blue, but with thanks to nosoul4u and ookami (Forum Moderator!), who have both said on the Forums how much they would like to have the lyrics, I finally got round to sitting still for 2 hours to type them up. ;)

RAIN is from the New World mini-album, which Back-on released at the end of 2006, and is quite a feel good song. Surprisingly (for me anyway) it was actually the longest song on the CD (4:03) probably because of the long musical interlude in the third half of the song. It’s definitely a grower, although I have to admit I like Teeda’s rap part the best, even though he’s uber fast, particularly in the second verse, I had to slow down the tempo by almost 40%.

Interestingly though, Kenji03 sings a word in the first line of the chorus slightly differently to the usual pronunciation:

あの時僕らは何かに怯えて
where 時 is usually pronounced as “toki” (or “doki” if time of ’something’ but this is not used in this song) but “toku” is sung instead.

You can find the original kanji below, romaji on page 2 and the romanised version on page 3, with page 4 featuring the hybrid/karaoke mix of kanji and romanji.

As always, if you spot any mistakes, please let me know either by commenting below or via the contact form. If you would like to post these lyrics elsewhere, please link back to this page. :)

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Lyrics: message for kidz (Romaji only)

message for kidz is probably the happiest song written by Back-on for the new single Sands of time, and according to Icchan, is a song dedicated to cheering on anyone who has worked hard to overcome their hurdles and energising listeners.

The song definitely has a very cheerful and summery feel, and I really love it when it comes on on my playlist, but message for kidz does feature a strange if funny ‘chicken’ rap (as coined by Sesshy) in the middle, which adds that extra bit of playfulness. I’m still in two minds about it though!

We have to thank Sowon for kindly providing the romanised lyrics on the BOO forums, and allowing us to post it on the site! The lyrics for the bridge part of message for kidz, like fifty/50, was not available with the single, and was completely transcribed by Sowon!

As always, if you spot any mistakes, please let me know either by commenting below or via the contact form. If you would like to post these lyrics elsewhere, please link back to this page. :)

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Video interview with Back-on by MTV Taiwan, now subtitled!

This news comes a little late (almost a year!) after Back-on’s visit to Taiwan for their international debut in Asia for Formoz Festival 2007. The original video was uploaded by gangangan03, and as it was in mandarin (and Japanese!) it was only accessible to those familiar with the language.

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! :)

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Lyrics: fifty/50

fifty/50 is arguably the most experimental song that features in Back-on’s latest single Sands of time, and in addition to the song being of a more electronic-rap genre where Teeda seems to be the only singer, the lyrics are actually surprisingly dark for the band.

Nevertheless, it’s still a great song, and if you haven’t heard it yet, please refer to this page to find out how to listen to the entire single online. The lyrics are, of course, provided below.

Unfortunately, as with message for kidz, Back-on didn’t actually include the lyrics for the ‘bridge’ of the song (where Teeda’s voice goes all electronic) so this is a transcribe of what I could hear from the song. I haven’t yet been able to figure out what the missing ‘—-’ is, so if you do know, please let us know!

You can find the original kanji below, romaji on page 2 and the romanised version on page 3, with page 4 featuring the hybrid/karaoke mix of kanji and romanji.

As always, if you spot any mistakes, please let me know either by commenting below or via the contact form. If you would like to post these lyrics elsewhere, please link back to this page. :)

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Watch the ‘Sands of Time’ PV in full on Youtube!

If you’ve been camping out on the BOO Forums for the past few days, you’ll definitely have heard of the breaking news (from Sesshy as well :D) of the release of a clip of the Sands of Time pv on Back-on’s Myspace!

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 3:13 minutes of it at the link below! (or below the ‘cut’)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZEk3B-SF5c

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! ^^

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“Sands of Time” preview on Myspace (and titles of other tracks on the single posted too!)

With thanks to both Sesshy and the Back-on Facebook Group for the news, Back-on have posted a 50-second preview of Sands of Time on their official Myspace! The great thing about this preview is that it seems to be from the start of the song, where as Sesshy put it, Kenji03 sings with an electronic voice :)

We also get to hear the first verse+rap, and I have to say, I love the introduction to the song! If you haven’t heard it already, you really seriously must. I demand kindly request it. :p Incredibly catchy imho!

In addition to the preview, the band have also posted the titles of the other two tracks that will be released along with Sands of Time on May 21st 2008, so the final tracklisting for the single is as follows:

1. Sands of Time (ED for “Keitai Sousakan 7“)
2. message for kidz
3. fifty/50

And before I forget, for those who can’t access their Myspace, we have of course done the usual mp3 rip for you to download which you can find below. Enjoy! And let us know what you think of the preview too! :)

Sands of Time [Myspace Rip] (1.86 MB, Zipped)
Downloaded a total of 388 times

p/s: If you’re interested in a mash-up between the Myspace preview + TV Size version of Sands of Time, please take a look at the dedicated “Sands of Time” + Keitai Sousakan 7 discussion thread on the Forums! (Hint: post #102)

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Watch the full ending sequence of Keitai Sousakan 7!

Hot on the heels of our last news post about the preview clip of the jdrama ケータイ捜査官7 (Keitai Sousakan 7), we’re happy to announce that not only has the series made its debut today (April 2nd 2008) gangangan03 has again kindly uploaded a video clip of the entire ending sequence of the drama, which of course features Sands of Time!

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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New Keitai Sousakan 7 Preview Clip (with Sands of Time)!

The video clip that we have all been waiting for! :D With just a few short days before the premiere of the new jdrama ケータイ捜査官7 (Keitai Sousakan 7) [April 2nd 2008] the waiting really has reached a severe bottleneck (is this the right way of putting it?) so when slipknot240 posted on the BOO forums about the new preview clip on Youtube with Sands of Time in the background, I was really really excited! :)

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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