Sunday, March 23, 2008

New single and mini-tour announced

Today PUFFY have announced their new single for Japan entitled "All Because of You", written by Butch Walker and Avril Lavigne(!). Here's the full track listing:

1. All Because of You (Butch Walker/Avril Lavigne)
2. Frontier no Pioneer (Tamio Okuda)
3. Closet Full of Love (RYUKYUDISKO Remix)

The release date is May 5, and there will be two versions, one of which comes with a DVD.

I think it's a safe bet that the title track will be sung in English. Could be the rumored bonus track for the US edition of honeycreeper as well - it would make sense. No announcement of that as yet, though, so it's pure speculation on my part. Not sure I'm all that into the idea of Avril Lavigne writing songs for them. I can't say she's at the top of my favorites list. She's a lot closer to the top of my "people who are probably the Antichrist" list.

Anyhow, there's also a small tour to go along with the single. Here's the deets for those of you in Japan (or planning to be there soon):

July 8 (Tuesday) Osaka Namba Hatch
July 9 (Wednesday) Nagoya Club Diamond Hall
July 11 (Friday) Tokyo JCB Hall

Tickets apparently go on sale tomorrow.

I doubt this is a one-off tour. I'm not sure there's ever been such a short PUFFY tour that wasn't almost immediately followed up by something larger. This is probably something like a rehearsal tour. Summer's usually a very busy touring season for PUFFY, with a lot of festivals and major tours going on nearly every year.

Two possibilities for a follow-up tour that I think are about equally likely:

a) A US tour to promote the release of honeycreeper (assuming it actually happens)

and/or

b) A larger Japanese tour to support a brand new album.

Possibly both! We'll just have to see, won't we.

Exciting times.

6 comments:

  1. I agree with about the Avril thing. I really hope this song isn't like one of hers but with a title like "all because of you" I fear that it will be very Avril like.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yeah, my guess is she's writing the lyrics and Butch Walker is writing the music. I really don't believe she has any actual musical ability whatsoever.

    I'm sure the lyrics will be her usual pre-teen bitchiness.

    My wife's theory is that they're actually doing this to encourage sales in Japan, not here. Avril's fan base in Japan is a lot broader than her pre-teen fan base here. And she's incredibly popular there.

    But here, I dunno; it's not really the direction I'd have picked for Puffy to go in. But then, maybe that's why I'm not their manager.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Avril Lavigne's albums " Under My Skin (2004) " and " The Best Damn Thing (2007) " hit No.1 in Japan, which Butch Walker was involved in producing. She is quite popular in Japan and it's a good promotion that she provides lyrics for Puffy. So, it seems reasonable that they actually do this to encourage sales in Japan.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Man, I'm not sure whether this is good or bad...I'm really more interested in the fact there's a bonus DVD...this is weird...I wonder what the song is like...Could there be a music video? Will they still promote Frontier no Pioneer...this is all really a punch to the guts for me. This sucks!

    ReplyDelete
  5. It's possible (though maybe not likely) that this is another double-A side single, and that they'll have videos for both songs. They don't seem to be calling it "All Because of You/Frontier no Pioneer", though, like they do with their other double-A side singles.

    The DVD is probably just going to be the video for one or both songs. That's similar to what a lot of Japanese bands do with albums; they just make a special edition with a mini-DVD that has 2 or 3 promotional videos on it. I think it's still usually worth it because it's only a couple bucks extra and you get the video in full DVD quality (not YouTube quality).

    ReplyDelete
  6. Ah crap. Avril Lavigne? Lame. This is disheartening. I don't think that girl can write her name, let alone pen some lyrics. I guess I just have to trust Puffy and say a prayer.

    ReplyDelete