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. :)

JAPANESE (Kanji)

[Verse 1]
Standing alone wet. Upside down the 砂時計
当然のように隣にいた君そう忘れない Memory
I can only hear the rain’s melody & 金木犀の香り
I couldn’t ask you to wait 『ちょっと待ってくれ！』 なんて意地を張ってあの時言えなくて…
水溜リの波も広がってただ… 1人立ち尽くす雨の中で

[Interlude 1]
キミがいないつまらない日々を
気付かないフリをしてもせ隠ない

[Chorus 1]
あの時僕らは何かに怯えて
繋いだ手と手を離したんだ
wow wow
今も君の笑顏想い出して切なくなる胸焦がす RAIN

[Verse 2]
So dark & hard to breathe 全て Freeze
君と離れて初めてわかるこの気持ち you know what I mean
一緒にいた日々あのストーリー今じゃとても愛しく思う轍 I don’t know how to say it! 映し出す二人の形
Looking up all you see are the drops. この思いで震わす ear drums
手を伸ばして掴んでみたって君の雫この指先をすり抜けて唇かみ締め…
自分勝手だったなんて今になってため息なんかついて… oh baby rain

[Interlude 2]
サヨナラをした また会えると思って
キミとの想い出が溢れ出す

[Chorus 2]
留守番電話に残った声を
繰リ返し聞いて うつむいた
wow wow
今も後悔は無いよ
だけどそうやって言い聞かせて
どしゃぶりの RAIN

[Musical interlude]
Flashback!

* Repeat [Chorus 1]

This time, a day dreaming… and Kodou were the top favourites of our voters, and as usual, we have also put up two extra downloads for just one week only, including the much-requested Hikari Sasuhou (Survive ver.) as well as the runner up from the previous polls, forward.

Thanks to everyone who voted in the latest polls, and if possible, it would be great if you could vote again in the next one, where:

• Butterfly (Butterfly single)
• DRIVE (New World album)
• Believer (Chain single)
• Grab (Survive compliation album)
• Gaku-Ten (Baby Rock album)
• RAIN (New World album)

are all up for selection. It might be a bit more difficult to choose this time! :)

More updates will be forthcoming throughout the site, as well as more content from various contributors! And before I forget, we have updated the affiliate link with Sound EX from their Myspace to their official new website! The people behind the website are Nao and Sesshy, and I would encourage everyone to pay a visit, particularly as the graphics used for the site design really are fantastic! I’ve included a screenshot of the new site design below as a taster, but look out for the flash movie on the splash page – it’s worth the wait – and this is coming from someone who doesn’t usually take a second glance at splash pages.

Out of the 488 votes that we received since the previous poll/series, 38% and 36% voted for Hikari Sasuhou and New World respectively! I applaud these choices, simply because they both top my ‘favourite Back-on songs’ list! :D

To celebrate the forthcoming release of Butterfly and flower on September 19th 2007 (please mark this date in your diary if you haven’t already done so ^^) we are also featuring Hikari Sasuhou (Survive ver.) and also EYES for download as well! However, they will only be available for one week only, so please do try and pick them up within the time frame.

In case you weren’t already aware of it, the Radio section of the Music page is now featuring one of Back-on‘s out-of-print albums: Hero. The album torrent came courtesy of Crackerjack, so we would like to thank her for making it available for everyone else to listen!

So on to the last part of the Download section, the new poll is now up and running with 6 songs to vote for this time (because of the forthcoming singles release) where each song is taken from almost all of the Back-on singles and mini-albums! Please do take a few seconds to vote when you have a spare moment. :)

Moving on to the updates to the Lyrics section, we mentioned previously that the lyrics are now organised alphabetically. funbari, who has been kindly helping out by typing up the missing lyrics (her contribution includes forward and ~feel~ so far!:)) mentioned that it could be improved further, so a further small change has been made in an attempt to make navigation clearer: by adding a prefix ‘Translation’ to any translated lyrics, similar to the current ‘Lyrics’ nomenclature.

Please do let us know if you have any suggestions as to how we can improve your navigation experience! :) Even small changes can make a significant difference.

Finally, thank you to everyone for your patience and support. ^^ Please look forward to more news updates! Feel free to subscribe to news updates and have the latest news delivered directly to your email inbox as well.

p/s: Don’t forget to check out the new Wallpaper section too, featuring work by MJtheOne!

However, this time, to celebrate the forthcoming release of Back-on‘s latest single: BLAZE LINE/a day dreaming…, instead of just featuring 2 songs for download, for the next 5 days – until June 6th 2007 (the official release date for BL/ADD) – all 4 songs that were featured in the previous vote (where 169 people participated for their most-wanted download) will be available!

These are:

1. Believer (Chain)
   
2. Rain (New World)
3. Gaku-Ten (Baby Rock)
4. Nuts Tribe (Baby Rock)

After that, just the top two winners will remain as usual (as bolded)
You can reach the Music page by visiting: http://www.backon-online.com/multimedia/music/

Again, the aim of the downloads section is to provide a ‘one-stop’ place for fans and potential fans to listen to Back-on’s work – ‘try before you buy‘. You can support Back-on even more by buying their albums and attend their concerts. There is more information about where you can purchase the cds avilable on the Music page.

Finally… there hasn’t been any change to the Radio section of Music for the moment… but check back in two weeks! :) Don’t forget to vote in the new Poll in the meantime!

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. :)

The English translation has kindly been provided by quartet4.net.

rearrange Chain in DUB

where DUB is apparently a form of Jamaican music with reggae origins. To bring this into context, Back-on‘s name was given by Jesse of the Japanese metal, reggae and rap band RIZE. :)

So how does this all relate to the Air Gear OST II?

I have to confess that I haven’t actually seen the anime Air Gear beyond Episode 1, because I became a bit too obsessed intrigued by Back-on to continue watching it, but listening to the second OST (original sound track) is really helping to change my mind!

The first OST (original sound track) “What a Groovy Trick!” was hailed as a great album, but for fans of the show, it appears to have lacked the instrumental versions of Chain used throughout the anime.

The producers haven’t made the same mistake twice, and the second OST “Who wants More Groovy Trick!!??” features 8 (short but) different instrumental remix versions of Chain by Skankfunk! And in all honesty, I love them all!

You can see the track-listing below (courtesy of Wikipedia):

1. Chain [ROCKIN' 8 GLIDER MIX]
2. Massiveness
3. Chain [TEKNO VALUE MIX]
4. Fear 4 Terror
5. Chain [MAGNIFICENTRAL MIX]
6. Delusion
7. Chain [POPPY HOPPY MIX]
8. Melopole
9. Chain [ACOUSTIC COWBOY MIX]
10. Rise Electric
11. Chain [UNDERWATER MIX]
12. Sky-2-High [BATTLE-MENTAL REMIX]
13. Chain [FOLLOW UP 30 MIX]
14. Chain [FOLLOW UP 15 MIX]

My personal favourites include Chain [Magnificentral Mix], which starts off with quite a mellow rendition with synthetic violins and electric piano (I think) but towards the middle, that unbelievably catchy beat just *HITS* you and well… the only thing that matches this in variation is Chain [ACOUSTIC COWBOY MIX], with at least 3 different remix-styles in one. Of course, I mustn’t forget the signature Chain [ROCKIN' 8 GLIDER MIX], as it really gets you going! :)

Now that I’ve raved on-and-on about how much I love “Who wants More Groovy Trick!!??“, it would be irresponsible for me to *not* say where to find the OST online. Thankfully, this time you won’t have to rely on torrenting (although the original source file did come courtesy of Nipponsei) because Japtard.com have kindly made both OSTs available for download directly from their website!

In addition to the downloads, you can also listen to Air Gear OST II by using the Flash-player located on the website – it’s pretty high quality, and provides a very welcome distraction when waiting for the download to finish!

So a big thanks to Japtard.com for providing the readily-available download, and hope you all enjoy listening to the (albeit short) Chain instrumental remixes! Please let us know what you think! :D

p/s: There are also has one or two other Back-on related downloads that you can find if you read the comments on Japtard.

Teeda‘s profile can be found at http://www.myspace.com/teedafrombackon and you can see a screenshot of his current Myspace below:

If you’re interested in some statistics, the page has clocked up 431 views in a period of just over a week, and Teeda currently has 53 friends on Myspace. You can also just about see that his featured song is New World, which you can listen to just by visting his profile.

Kenji03‘s profile can be found at http://www.myspace.com/1000547563, and as above, you can see a screenshot of the current view below:

Kenji03 hasn’t actually publicly displayed the number of profile views, so we’ll have to focus on other things, such as the important fact that his profile states that he is:

Single and straight!

which, as die-hard fans will know (cough cough, notably Ichi) is one fantastic piece of news! Hehe :)

We also get to listen to a song by one of Kenji03‘s favourite artists: Hide (formerly of X-Japan). The song is called Electric Cucumber which was recorded in 1998, and according to Wikipedia, is actually by Zilch, an industrial-rock band fronted by Hide that was intended to break into the English market.

Alas, the other band members haven’t yet signed up yet, but let’s all keep our fingers crossed!

p/s: If you live in Japan or plan to be in Japan on July 4th 2007, Back-on will be playing their first ever solo gig at Shibuya O-Crest. The tickets will be on sale starting from tomorrow so go and buy them before they’re sold out! :)

If you wish to purchase them online, you can buy them at Eplus.jp for ¥2500, but the best thing about this gig, is that if you’re the first 100 people through the door, you’ll get a special T-shirt for free!

First up is a video posted by SoundEX (Nao) on Youtube titled “Kenji’s drinking contest” and features the group (and presumably Anime Matsuri staff) Alas embedding has been turned off (understandably) so to watch the video, please visit the official channel directly by clicking the link below:

Official Back-on Street Team – Youtube channel

More videos after the read more…

The next video has been kindly provided by Ichiban (yes, the same Ichi who has shared her pictures in the earlier news posts :D, thanks!) and is a fabulous clip of Kenji03 waving at the camera and giving a little smile *the effect on a fangirl is quite catastrophic actually* :p

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

Also, also… following on from the concert videos posted by happysky, a new user mineralblue, has kindly posted longer videos of Back-on‘s rendition of Chain and New World on Youtube as well! Watch the two videos below or visit mineralblue (organicraver)’s Youtube channel :)

The first video is Chain:

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

and the second is New World:

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

Last but not least, instead of a video… we have a shot of a short newspaper article from Japan with the photo that Back-on took with the crowd and some introductory text – havea look below, courtesy of the G-F-S blog. (Find out more about it in the next news post where we tell you more about G-F-S)

I’ll update this post at a later time with more info about the content as well as hopefully an embedded video! :)

This is a rare glimpse (and good quality :D) into Back-on‘s amazing live-performance standards. Apparently their repetoire/set-list included (with thanks to Miyu-chan and xiijelly)

1. NEW WORLD
2. EYES
3. BLAZE LINES
4. Believer
5. Drive
6. a day dreaming…
7. so many tears
8. FLYDOM
9. Hikari Sasuhou
10. Chain

Encore:

1. Colors
2. Kodou

We have now been able to confirm the full list thanks to Miyu-chan and xiijelly (earlier, happysky says there were about 10!) , but let us return out focus to the (all important) videos!

Please click on read on…

In the first video, Back-on performs Chain, and, apart from focusing on the band, it is patently obvious that the crowd are going wild! cstarresurrection does a great pan-shot of the surrounding people as well as the screen behind Back-on playing the opening credits for Air Gear. So a big kudos to happysky for some great (and steady-handed) filming!

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

On to the second and very intriguing video, which I believe follows on after the Chain recording – it’s a song I’m fairly certain I haven’t heard (but it’s abit hard to hear the song itself) which leads me to believe that it could be the third song from their soon-to-be-release (June 6th 2007) single BLAZE LINE/a day dreaming… – also known as EYES. Do watch the video and let me know what you think?

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

A big thanks again to cstarresurrection for sharing the videos on Youtube with everyone!