MONSTER baSH 2014 Festival Added

Puffy has added another MONSTER baSH 2014 to their performance line up this year and it is a heck of a big festival.  It will be running from 8/23 to 8/24 in Kagawa prefecture.

Probably a safe bet that Puffy's set will be curtailed like most of their festival appearances, but for a two day event there are a lot of acts across a handful of stages.  Add Puffy to everyone else that will be performing and MONSTER baSH offers a compelling event:  Kaela Kimura, the telephones, Asian Kung Fu Generation, Shishamo, Base Ball Bear, Magokoro Brothers, Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra, etc.  Lots to see to say the least.  I will be curious to see what Puffy's set list and band looks like for this appearance and the forthcoming  tour.


P.S.  I had a blog all plotted for the SMA 40 appearance Puffy had, but Sony in their not-knowing-how-the-internet-works style pulled the YouTube vids.  Honestly, YouTube is one of the best marketing tools that a company can use and keep interest in their artists.  Oh well... It will probably pop up again and I will snag it.

A Brief Tangent From Puffy: The Wonder Soul Style Revisited

This is going to require some snapping back to one of my early blogs here at Amiyumidas.  In that blog I was reflecting about watching the Sony promotional recording "Harada Kinenbi 99" which featured Puffy and a lot of artists that I have gone on to explore in my trek through J-Rock and J-Pop.  One I have mentioned a couple of times, The Wonder Soul Style, has been a chase for albums laced with a bit of heartbreak, disappointment and determination.

Over the years, I have cobbled together The Wonder Soul Style's limited releases... which amounted to a single ("Let It Loose") and EP ("midbooster").  There was one straggler in completing this very limited back catalog: "5 Nite Flashbax."  Truthfully I suspect '5 Nite Flashbax" perfectly defines an obscure rare recording;  an album by a Japanese band that never met with commercial success, years after they broke up and apparently self published. Best of luck finding that, but sometimes it is the chase and not the prize...

Of course I found it.  You did not think I would go to all this effort to complain about not finding "5 Nite Flashbax?"

The album itself is a mix of five studio tracks and four live tracks. The concert itself I believe was, I believe, to honor the late bassist Perry who died on New Years Eve 2003.  The live tracks are pretty good, the studio tracks are great:

1. Can't Stop The Illusion
2. Evolutions
3. Go On Safari
4. Summer Nights
5. You Never Believe
6. Black Night Cruise (Live)
7. Sour Grapes (Live)
8. Runaway (Live)
9. Drop (Live)

Anyways, my compatriots... this was something too cool to not share even if it is a side track.  Lastly and most importantly I owe my friends Rieko, Noriko and Raj a debt for "5 Nite Flashbax" making its way into my music library.

Swag, Swag, Swag

It has been three years since Puffy's last tour and this past week "Swag, Swag, Swag" was announced. It is kind of hard to believe it has been this long of a break between tours, but then again the clock has to turn further back for a new album.

Anyways, even for a Japan tour it is a limited number of dates spread across early October through early November.  Tickets are 5400 yen and are on sale starting August 10.

The announced dates are:

October 10 (Fri) Osaka Umeda CLUB QUATTRO
October 11 (Sat)　Nagoya BOTTOM LINE
October 15 (Wed)　Hiroshima CLUB QUATTRO
October 16 (Thurs)　Fukuoka Ims Hall
November 1 (Sat)　Sendai darwin
November 8 (Sat)　Tokyo EX THEATER ROPPONGI

My big question is what will the band consist of?  Pretty sure Kinoshita Hiroharu will be in the mix on bass, but guessing from the pics I have seen filter out from the last performance I am less certain.  I would be surprised if they did a stripped down band, but on the other hand a simpler guitar centric sound is not something I am opposed to.

If this is not every Puffy TV advertisement...

... it is close to it.

Some are actually fairly funny bits to boot (car washing and computer guy on train).  Enjoy.

P.S.  Still trying to wrap some information on what is going on with the support band, the last festival seemed to only have the ever trusty bassist... 

Yeah! A New Puffy Track!

Celebrating it's 100th anniversary, Yoshimoto Kogyo is releasing a three disc album featuring a slew of original material and covers titled "Yoshimoto Cover & Best."  You might ask, as I did, who the heck is Yoshimoto Kogyo?  I had to do some digging, as I have trouble enough keeping track of stuff I actively listen to.  Yoshimoto Kogyo is an entertainment conglomerate based out of Osaka and focuses on comedy talent.  They actually celebrated their 100th anniversary in 2012, but a couple years off out of a 100 is not too far off.

Some entertainers you'll recognize outside of Puffy, like Tamio Okuda.  Quite a few I do not.  The first disc seems to be focused on classic hits by what I presume are the original performers.  The second disc is songs that are more contemporary.  The third disc is musicians covering comedic songs from the Yoshimoto catalog.

It is a pretty strong assumption Puffy will be doing a comedic song.  Not unfamiliar territory as their own song "Youkai Puffy" falls into that genre. I skimmed a translated review from Yahoo.jp and they seem favorable and that is favor's Puffy's musical stylings.  I sort of dig this sort of thing, even if it winds up being something I do not like.  I say this because is shows Ami and Yumi are entertainers and not just singers, which is probably a good direction they should go as they approach the end of their secodn decade as performers.

Thanks to EQ here is a sampling of the third disc, which contains the Puffy track.  Skip to the 38 second mark to hear Ami and Yumi's contribution:

To me it still has that synth heavy sound I am not really sold on, however even this snippet sounds better than “Himitsuno Gimmy Cat Ufufu Hontouyo.”  I will be interested to hear other new material by Puffy as it looks like their support band has been blown up and simplified, which I will comment on in a post hopefully later this coming week as I need to do more legwork for that.

(h/t to Bonsai for the initial find, you gave me a great lead!)

P.S.  If you feel the need to drop 32 dollars (or so... and I would not...) on a single Puffy track, I recommend CD Japan  (as I get a little snippet that goes to support this blog.