KENJI03’s collaboration with hip-hop star ‘SoulJa’ for “SoulJa×KenJi03 / 雨のち晴れ collaboration with 菅谷哲也” (Ame Nochi Hare collaboration with Sugaya Tetsuya)

Although rumour has it that a new BACK-ON release may be out at the end of July 2013  (called Ai Kotoba that will potentially feature two tracks and their respective instrumental versions; 愛言葉 and Brand New Story) it seems that KENJI03 has been collaborating with well-established hip-hop musician SoulJa for a new song called “雨のち晴れ collaboration with 菅谷哲也“!

Image source: BACK-ON Facebook

A sample clip of the song and music video has been uploaded to Youtube, which you can find below with some screenshots:

Original Teaser: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4gXwafRGGg

*New* Teaser music video with Sugaya Tetsuya: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLA7sM41XS4

One Piece new OP “Hands Up!” written and composed by BACK-ON!

Some fans may be familiar with the popular Japanese anime TV series One Piece, and I am very happy to announce – with thanks to MONSTERSNITE for the news – that the 16th opening theme called “Hands Up!” was written and composed by BACK-ON!

The band has also been credited on the official One Piece website and the new OP aired for the first time today (April 14th 2013) as part of episode 591 :)

You can hear the full song here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_26UyXKWP04 with thanks to shun0516ya  and although it was sung by Kota Shinzato (新里宏太), it does sound like a classic BACK-ON track – one that Kenji03 could easily sing.  The lyrics are also typically uplifting – encouraging the listener to look up, step up, leap over the waves and head to the future.

Do you like the song?  Let us know what you think! :)

p/s: With thanks to shun0516ya for the Japanese lyrics:

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!

Exclusive preview: “come on & let’s go feat. Emyli, KALIS from OverDose (Taiwan)” lyrics – chorus, Emyli and KALIS’ rap

Have you been listening to come on & Let’s go feat. Emyli, KALIS from OverDose (Taiwan) on repeat since yesterday?  I know I have, especially after listening to the ON8 radio interview uploaded by MONSTERSNITE, which included what was probably the first radio airplay of the song and, in case you missed it, can be found here (with a little intro by KENJI03):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKTSSNHazC0#t=19m56s

This is the first time that BACK-ON and their collaborators Emyli and KALIS (not KAILIS) will be releasing a song in three different languages: Japanese, English and Mandarin, and we have been given an exclusive preview of the lyrics by an anonymous visitor for the chorus, as well as  Emyli and KALIS‘ rap!

A big thank you must be given to our anonymous visitor for the exclusive preview! :D  

We will be transliterating this part of the lyrics over the next week (the ones in Japanese and Chinese) as we count down the days till the release of Good Job!! (May 30th 2012), as this is definitely one of BACK-ON‘s best songs (imho) in that not only does it deliver a message of hope, inspiration and belief, one that we can ALL relate and sing-along to, but does so as part of a tune that, to me at least, is as groundbreaking and captivating as Chain.

TEEDA and KENJI03 – Radio interview with BayFM’s Sana on “ON8″ and listen to ‘come on & Let’s go feat. Emyli, KALIS from OverDose (Taiwan)” in full!

BACK-ON‘s TEEDA and KENJI03 joined BayFM‘s さな(Sana) on her radio show ON8 yesterday and MONSTERSNITE has very kindly uploaded it onto Youtube for everyone to listen to as well!

The pair are their usual charming selves (I think there’s even a gift!) and Sana likes calling them ‘sempai’, but quite importantly, this is probably the first time that come on & Let’s go feat. Emyli, KALIS from OverDose (Taiwan) has received radio airplay and we get to hear it in FULL!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKTSSNHazC0

It is definitely a fantastic collaboration featuring KENJI03 + TEEDA + Emyli + KALIS rapping and singing in no less than three different languages (English, Japanese and Mandarin) – it is THE tune of the month for me!

Photo of TEEDA and KENJI03 with Sana (17th May 2012) from TEEDA’s blog

I reckon it will be impossible for anyone not to like this song and it would be great to know your thoughts! :D  With lyrics like ‘turn up the volume on the 50-pound boom box‘ and mentions of ‘Wu-Tang‘  (TEEDA) and ‘gotta aim sky high never settle for a lie‘ (Emyli),  ‘gotta be brave… 最真實的自我’   (my true self – KALIS) and a chorus with English and Japanese (sung predominantly by KENJI03) – English excerpts below:

Come on and Let’s go, are you ready set go!…
I wanna be a hero
Tell me what you want, show me what you got yeah 

Such a hotly anticipated collaboration and BACK-ON delivered with aplomb! :D  For those who understand Japanese better than I do, I would love to find out more about what they talked about during the interview!

BACK-ON releases 45 second preview clips of all songs from “Good Job!! on BACK-ON.com”

With thanks to the TEEDA via his Twitter account for the news:  BACK-ON have just posted 45 second preview clips of all the songs from their new album “Good Job!!” on their official website!

It’s definitely what one would call a fast-paced album with a lot of variety, going by the songs showcased here, but I think BACK-ON are catering for everyone here – fans past/present/future – with this ensemble of work. I can hardly wait for May 30th 2012!

Click on the image below to listen to the clips – let us know what your  favourite is so far: my personal one has to be “come on & Let’s go feat. Emyli, KALIS from OVERDOSE (Taiwan)”

And I have checked with the OVERDOSE team by the way – his name is KALIS and not Kailis! :)

p/s: I have now added Ice cream and Piece  to the BOO Radio for your online BACK-ON music fix :)

BACK-ON – Piece | Lyrics

As the B-side track on BACK-ON‘s eleventh single “Ice cream“, Piece came as a really pleasant surprise and has become a personal favourite; it reminds me of the ‘old-skool’ rock BACK-ON, although TEEDA has taken his rap verses to the next level since then.

We have Uta-Net to thank for the original lyrics and will also include some notes before the song of interesting words used:

バラバラ = barabara = scattered, dispersed, disconnected, loose

はつなぎ = 初凪 = first lull (or first calm)

Assuming the lyrics are correct: KENJI03 appears to combine two pronunciations of ‘明日’ in the first line of Chorus 2 (‘asu’ and ‘myou’ = “asuyou”) and does not sing the が.

Our usual disclaimer is as follows:

The usual kanji, romaji and karaoke versions of the lyrics can be found below (after the cut-off) and we will always do our best to bring you the most accurate lyrics possible, so we do occasionally amend the spelling of the original English lyrics if we believe it to be appropriate. But as always, if you spot any mistakes, please let us know either by commenting below or via the contact form.

Finally, if you would like to post these lyrics elsewhere, please kindly link back to this page. :)

BACK-ON – Ice cream | Lyrics

Ice cream is the title track of BACK-ON‘s eleventh single “Ice cream” and comes with its own colourful and humorous PV!

What’s really nice about this track is the sheer joy and happiness of the song that makes anyone and everyone leap up and dance (or I do at any rate) – even though the lyrics (at least the rap part) are quite cheeky – and one has to be impressed by KENJI03‘s increasing use of English too ;)

So with thanks to Uta-Net for the original lyrics. As usual, we will try and include some more notes overtime about the lyrics of Ice cream below to showcase the rich vocabulary used by the band:

リアクション = riakushon = reaction

アンコール = ankoru = encore

Our usual disclaimer is as follows:

The usual kanji, romaji and karaoke versions of the lyrics can be found below (after the cut-off) and we will always do our best to bring you the most accurate lyrics possible, so we do occasionally amend the spelling of the original English lyrics if we believe it to be appropriate. But as always, if you spot any mistakes, please let us know either by commenting below or via the contact form.

Finally, if you would like to post these lyrics elsewhere, please kindly link back to this page. :)

Watch BACK-ON “Ice cream” PV preview on Youtube!

With props to our new forum member reghrhre for the find, you can now watch a 1:33 min preview clip of BACK-ON‘s brand new PV for “Ice cream“ on Youtube!   reghrhre spotted TEEDA’s RT of @kimonako‘s post about the new video and decided to share it with us on the Forums!

It is definitely one of the funniest music videos I have seen to date (and it was only the first 1:33 minutes!) and for those who haven’t had a chance to watch it yet, some of these quick screenshots might help you build up a picture:

Although we don’t know the ending yet, the video begins starts like this: it’s a slow start to the day, but then 2 lovely female customers enter the diner. This galvanises the BACK-ON band members into action, and they compete to see who will be the one to help out the ladies each time.

As you can see from the screenshots, the colours are very vivid and match the location of the video shoot: the 1950s California-style Diner “Googie’s Cafe” (Nagano 南長野店 branch).  Particular personal favourites at the moment are GORI’s “Oh my god” face, KENJI03’s prancing to-and-fro from the table and being distracted by one of the lady’s assets *cough wink* and TEEDA’s “neuuu….”

The video was uploaded by ggajjgas and its direct link can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DcLsv3JHz0

UPDATE! You can now watch a 480p quality version uploaded by avexnetwork here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IL_kdHUuPns

Like the PV? Love the PV? Let us know :) The song is certainly very upbeat and you can watch it by clicking on the link above or alternatively, click on ‘read more’ below to watch it here:

BACK-ON to release their third album “Good Job!!” on May 30th 2012!

As with Hello World, BACK-ON have decided to release two editions of their third album “Good Job!!” – a CD-only version and the other as a CD+DVD combo. This is the first album release since Icchan left the band in November 2011 and features 9 new, previously unreleased, tracks!

Good Job!! (CD)	Good Job!! (CD + DVD)

With thanks to CDJapan for the images and details: the CD-only edition will include 12 tracks, and the CD+DVD edition will apparently have two additional videos for “Ice cream” and “Connectus and selfish”.

The tracklisting is as follows:

1. Ice cream
2. Highway Dancer
3. Connectus
4. Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!
5. come on & Let’s go feat. Emyli, kalis from OVER DOSE (Taiwan)
6. HOME
7. Word play
8. WE CAN’T STOP
9. フタリダイアリー
10. IT’S NOT OVER
11. Selfish
12. Mr Yesterday
13. [DVD] Ice cream **
14. [DVD] Connectus and selfish **

As we browse through the tracklist, we find that the band have included “Connectus and selfish” as two separate songs – BACK-ON originally combined the two due to restrictions by their record company for the same-title single to only have ‘one new track – and have collaborated with Kalis from the indie Taiwanese rock band OVERDOSE for “come on & Let’s go”.

Some of you may recall that OVERDOSE were the opening act (or warm-up act) for BACK-ON during their 2009 live tour in Taiwan – KALIS is credited as one of the band’s main vocals and rappers and you can listen to more of the band’s music on their official Youtube channel.

Emyli – who also collaborated with them on the same song – is a Japanese pop singer who has also worked with m-flo. She recently posted a photo of herself and TEEDA on her Facebook wall and her official website can be found here.

BACK-ON‘s third track “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme” hints at ABBA (I hope it will be a fast song, personally) and フタリダイアリー or ‘Two person diary’ seems to be a very contemplative title.

All-in-all, Good Job!! is looking to be a very intriguing release – especially given the collaborations – and I hope you are as excited as we are about it! We’ll be updating the Discography section as we find out more, but feel free to come and join our forum discussion thread as well!