Singer's face finally clearly seen in new video!

Japanese band パスピエ/Passepied today release its new album. Titled 幕の内ISM/MAKUNOUCHI-ISM it is a current example of how Japanese popular music try to market through fancy packaging and limited extras.

But let's first of all explain the title of this blog post. From the start Passepied has been careful about showing the band members faces in pictures and videos. Here's a current promo pic:

But two minutes into the current video for トーキョーシティ・アンダーグラウンド/Tokyo City Underground singer Natsuki Ogota's face  is suddenly visible for three seconds or so. See for yourself:


Back to the packaging.

The album comes in a limited version with a DVD including six live tracks filmed during the 2013 tour.
The album art itself folds out into a three dimensional diorama, and early buyers of the album get a diorama to assemble that comes in four slightly different versions depending on what store you buy it from.

If we ever get our hands on the limited single Kira Kira Killer from Kyary Pamyu Pamyu we'll do another fancy Japanese packaging post.

It's all in the packaging... きゃりーぱみゅぱみゅ and きらきらキラー

Here's the last post in this unplanned series on extensive packaging of music.
Just happened that way as we wrote about a) Wu Tang Clan, b) Rush and c) Blondie.

A mild curiosity in Japanese popular music has exposed us to a land where the selling of physical records has been taken to another level when it comes to tie-ins with movies, shows and commercials plus the packaging. Case in point is the lastest release from singer Kyary Pamyu Pamyu that was announced this Friday.
Usually her singles come in two versions. One regular and one limited with the limited one including something extra like a DVD or a photo booklet, a poster or something like that. But this time they went all out on the make-it-special front.

So it was announced on Friday with the release date set to June 11 but instantly available for pre-order. The trick is that this time there was just one limited edition. And when we say limited we mean limited. The single titled きらきらキラー (Kirakira Killer) will only come in 7777 copies. No more, no less.
The song itself is about being lucky so they go with lucky number seven and include seven goodies in the package.

Everybody gets a mini-poster signed by Kyary herself, a Kirakira Killer sticker and an exclusive vinyl bag.

Also included are raffle tickets that you send in to be in the drawing for a sparkly "Kirakira" hair tie (777 winners), a T-shirt that matches the one Kyary is wearing in the coming music video for Kirakira Killer (777 winners), a mask to match Kyary’s in the same music video (77 winners) or a personal thing picked by Kyary herself (1 winner).

Needless to say the record was sold out within a few hours and just as quickly reselling on EBay for seven times the original price of 1777 Yen.
All this a whole month before it is actually out.

And no, we missed out, never got our order in in time and will have to face summer without a sparkly hair tie. And our very own copy of quite a catchy japanese pop song.
(Sad face...)



Like most of Kyary's singles this one is tied to a commercial with lyrics that more or less alludes to the theme of the commercial. It has been airing for a couple of months now preparing the way for the new single.

Case in point; her latest full length album. Of the 12 songs eight has been used in commercials and one as the theme song for a TV cartoon. 

Here's a few more examples of Kyary commercials that all feature her music:

Blondie celebrates 40 with a double dose of a record

Blondie is 40. And a new album is just around the corner. In fact it is two albums. Or a double album. Or two single albums coming in a package. Whatever.

There is the all new album titled Ghosts Of Download that's been on its way since last summer with a song here, a song there being releaseed in one form or another. The album is finally here in a couple of days.

But it comes bundled with a Greatest Hits album. It is titled Deluxe Redux: Greatest Hits and contains 11Blondie classics - as the wording usually goes. But wait! There's a twist. The 11 old songs are all new recordings made last year by the current version of Blondie.
Nothing wrong with that, but having heard a couple of examples of the re-recordings we find that they sound pretty much like the originals, so the question is why do it if you're not going to add something new or different to a song?

Anyways, the two albums come joined under the somewhat unwieldy title Blondie 4(0)-Ever.

Album of the Month: Rush

Announcing the long overdue Album of the Month for May 2014. But what's a week and a half in the great scheme of things for a record that was released 40 years ago?
And we're looking to Canada and the still very much active band Rush debut album titled "Rush".

This is also gives us a chance to continue our posts about non-average packaging of music. The first being yesterdays post about the nickel-silver Wu Tang Clan extravaganza.

As the debut album from Rush is 40 years old it is only fitting that a remaster is released. And it is. Digitally of course, but also in a vinyl box that surprisingly does not include any outtakes and extra music, but some other goodies for the Rush fan/collector.

Original album jacket art, a reproduced promo poster, three litographs, a family tree of the band and a card for a digital download of the album should you not want to play the physical vinyl one that's in the box.
The record itself is pressed on 200g audiophile vinyl. And the box is a limited release.

Come back later today and Sunday for two more packaging posts! One of them including the sad story of how Radio Dupree missed out on a brand new, fresh collector's item due for release June 11, 2014.

Cher + Wu Tang Clan = True

Yes, Cher is apparently on two tracks on rap legends Wu Tang Clan's forthcoming double album Once Upon A Time In Shaolin.

And if you think that's a way to increase interest and sales of the album you're wrong. At least as far as sold copies go. The fact of the matter is that it will be released in one copy only, sold to the highest bidder.

According to this article in The Guardian the plan is to sell the album through some auction house, but apparently the band has already been offered $5 million from private parties interested in owning the only copy.
At the same time fans have started a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign to match the $5 million bid and share the music among fans.

You see, before the album copy is sold it will do a tour of museums, galleries, universities and such being exhibited and people can listen to it on headphones for $30-50 a pop.

Yes. You read that correctly. Send the album on tour and charge people to hear it.

The person who finally end up with the only existing copy of the Wu Tang album will get it in a nice engraved nickel and silver box...