"My Story" is Mine

It has arrived.

The CD:

The Limited Edition DVD:

I'll explain what this is below tomorrow - Japanese readers can just read it!

I've listened to the CD and I've watched the DVD. I won't say more than that yet, except to say that the DVD *killed* me. Every time I see them live, and I mean really live (not fake live like on a Japanese TV show), I remember why I love them. And it's always like seeing them for the first time.

Incidentally, no additional photos inside. Waddya want? It's a single.

More tomorrow.

"My Story" Release Day

Today is August 6th, which of course is the release date of Puffy's latest single "My Story". I'm waiting for my copy in the mail - it shipped by EMS yesterday, so should be here within the next couple days. You'll see a full review shortly thereafter, though with only two original songs, it's probably not going to be a long one. I'm actually most interested in Volume 2 of the Shibuya AX live DVD (still available with the limited edition! Hurry!), and I'll have some screen grabs of that as well.

Incidentally, I'm actually not sure how long this has been up there, but you can now take a listen to a sample from the single's b-side "Twilight Shooting Star" on this page of Puffy's official site. Hard for me to judge what I think of it - I'll wait to post my thoughts for the review.

For those of you that have the single already, what do you think?

Puffy at Rock in Japan Festival 2008

It's summer, and that means one thing for Japanese musicians: time to hit the festival circuit.

Puffy's a mainstay at ROCK IN JAPAN - they've been there at least the last four or five years straight (if not more). This year's festival was held August 1-3, with Puffy appearing on the Lake Stage. I haven't seen too many blog or other reports around the net that really talk much about Puffy, but I did at least find a set list. English and/or romanized below:

01.Basket Case
02.Nagisa ni Matsuwaru etc.
03.Hi Hi
04.boom boom beat
05.Kore ga Watashi no Ikirumichi
06.My Story
07.Boogie Woogie No. 5
08.Tokyo I'm On My Way
09.Asia no Junshin

Pretty standard stuff, at least compared with the recent All Because of Live tour.

Just a personal anecdote here: I don't know how many of you have been to a big music festival like this, but it sucks. You spend hours standing in the heat waiting for the one band you want to see, then they only play 9 songs and you're done. And since by definition most of the crowd is there to see somebody else, it seems like nobody's even paying attention when the band you like is on. It's just a terrible atmosphere.

Things might be a little different in Japan than they are here, and I've only been to American festivals. But the footage I've seen from Japanese festivals looks the same. It's just no fun, even if you like a few of the bands that are playing. The crowd never gets into it, the bands themselves are rarely all that into it, and there's no connection between the band and audience.

Last year when we went to Japan, we knew we were going to miss either Puffy or Kaela or both (I don't remember anymore) at some show by like 3 days. We actually thought about adjusting our schedule so we could go, but then realized it was a festival show. We kept our original schedule and didn't regret it.

New Album Rumblings...

This is gonna be quick - it's way past my bedtime!

Ami and the Puffy staff dropped a few more hints today that we're in for a new album fairly shortly - and like it or not, it sounds like it's gonna be another "guest" musician/producer album.

The relevant quote from Ami:

Anyway, lately we've been recording like crazy. Everyday at a different studio. Everyday with a different musician. So much to look forward too!

And from the staff:

The past few days we've been recording. One of the recording sessions with several different people, which I can't reveal yet.

Usually when they say that, it's just a matter of weeks. My guess is shortly after the release of "My Story", we'll have some substantive news.

Ami Sings with Ken Yokoyama

Once again, thanks to TBB for bringing this to everyone's attention, although apparently this song is at least 5 months old. So apologies if you've already worn it out by now, especially to my Japanese readers who have a lot more exposure to Ken's stuff than we do in America. But I hadn't heard this before, so maybe some of you haven't either.


That's Ami singing a couple bars with Ken, who you probably remember as the writer/producer of "Security Blanket" if not his work with his former band Hi-Standard, of which Ami is a huge fan. They're long-time friends.

Ken's accent is a little distracting to me, but Ami sounds really cute in this.