The big news - here's the deal

Making an announcement of an announcement almost always results in a little bit of overhype. If you ask me, announcing an announcement should really be reserved for truly Earth-shattering, head-exploding news. This isn't that.

The big news announced at 8AM today was that PUFFY's going to be doing a cover of a 1980 hit called "Wedding Bell" that will also be used as the theme song for a prime-time TV drama. And "Wedding Bell" will appear on their forthcoming album Bring It! And it sounds like it may in fact be their next single too - it'll be released as a ring tone on May 2, with the release of the full song (to mobile phones) a few weeks later. No word on whether a packaged release is coming (separate from the album, that is), so it may or may not be an actual single. They may be seeing how it goes.

Now, all this probably is fairly big news in Japan, where a lot of their fans likely grew up with this song and where having a prime time TV theme song is a big deal. And it is good news for them. I'm obviously looking at it from a little different perspective, so I can't help but be slightly disappointed that the "important news" today was the announcement of yet another cover song after we just had an album full of them (I'm officially suffering "cover fatigue"). My big hope was for word of a world tour, or some "Bring It!" artwork, or a new TV show (starring them), or some song samples or something.

Guess all that'll have to wait.

By the way, if you're curious, this is "Wedding Bell":


Depends on what PUFFY does with it, I suppose. Maybe they'll call in Enapou and go all "Nantettatte Idol" on its ass.

UPDATE: Well, not quite. Here's PUFFY's version (thanks Bonsaipark!):

"Important news" Monday at 8AM?

Just a heads up that Puffy have announced... something... coming at 8AM on Monday. That's only about 9 hours from now given the time difference. Check their site later to see what they've posted.

Of course, I'll have some commentary on it here, whatever the news is.

By the way, I've been trying hard to get my hands on a copy of the latest Soup Cruise, on which Puffy appears on the cover, but have had no luck - my local Japanese book stores aren't carrying it this time. If you want to see the pics from it, though, just head to the Sumairu Puffy BBS.

Puffy's Uniqlo T-shirts

You may have seen this weekend that Puffy have announced a collaboration with clothing retailer Uniqlo that involves eight t-shirt designs for eight corresponding songs on the upcoming album BRING IT!. Supposedly they'll even be available overseas - though I don't really believe that. Uniqlo generally doesn't sell the exact same products in the US as Japan. (Sizes are different, for one thing.)

Anyway, they also mentioned that you might see the first t-shirt if you "type in UNIQLO". Well, try it - doesn't really work. You need to actually go to the Japanese version (not the US version!) of Uniqlo's "UT" site, which is not easy to find on Uniqlo's confusingly-laid out main web site (I ended up just Googling it and getting there that way). I only realized later that it's right there at the top right - there's just too much going on at that site.


Hopefully they will have a couple geared more towards guys - I think they probably will. And I do at least hope that they'll be on sale here (at least through the web site), because I can tell you from experience that Uniqlo's "XL" in Japan ain't the same as an XL here.

New Album: BRING IT!

Well, that's about all we know so far. That and a release date: June 17. Pretty soon! And about what I expected after the tour date announcement.

Quick update: I should check my email once in a while! CD Japan already has some more details:

Description:New full-length album release from Puffy. The songs composed by Butch Walker and Avril Lavigne, Anders Hellgren & David Myhr (Merrymakers), Ringo Shiina, Sawao Yamanaka (the pillows), Masahiko Shimura (Fujifabric), Yuta Saito and more. Limited edition includes bonus DVD featuring footage from their US West Coast tour in 2005.

Arrrrrrrrrrgh - why can't the 2005 footage be from the show I went to?? Well, in any case, it should be great - though it's strange that they're mining a tour four years ago for footage. How about giving us the rest of the Shibuya AX show from last year? Well, I shouldn't be so picky.

The title... are Ami and Yumi gonna don boxing gloves for the cover? It's a little weird. But whatever. I kind of figured that'd be the title after the tour was announced - usually their tour names have some relation to the album titles, and there aren't very many possible variations of the phrase "bring it!"

I'm just happy to have some new music from them, and more than just a single (those shipping costs are adding up!).

CD Japan purchase link to the right. (I appreciate all the orders, those of you who have been using my links!) That "no image" will hopefully be replaced soon.

PUFFY AMIYUMI X PUFFY Album Review

After more than a year since their last original album and the apparent (though never announced) cancellation of the US honeycreeper release, it was honestly a little disappointing when PUFFY announced that their next album would be a cover album in the same vein as The Hit Parade. Worse, it would be mostly filled with tracks most fans have heard before, and probably already own.

Luckily that disappointment has been tempered a bit now that the band has reiterated that an original album is still coming, and in time for a July tour of Japan. That makes it a lot easier to take PUFFY AMIYUMI X PUFFY for what it now seems to be: a little side project designed to both collect a lot of their more obscure tracks in one place, and probably to collect a little bit of extra money for the band too.

Here's the track list, this time with info on where PUFFY's version of each track originally appeared:

1. Girls Just Wanna Have Fun - Cyndi Lauper - We Love Cyndi tribute album (2008)
2. 日曜日よりの使者 (Nichiyoubi yori no Shisha) - The High-Lows - new recording
3. BASKET CASE - Green Day - Japanese Splurge bonus track (2006)
4. フロンティアのパイオニア (Frontier no Pioneer) - Shi-taka version - Tamio Okuda - "All Because of You" single b-side (2008)
5. JOINING A FAN CLUB - Jellyfish - 59 album (2004)
6. 天使のウィンク (Tenshi no Winku) - Seiko Matsuda - Jewel Songs tribute album(2006)
7. Lucy in the sky with Diamonds - The Beatles - Happy Birthday, John tribute album (2005)
8. 人間はもう終わりだ! (Ningen ha Mou Owari da!) - MAGOKORO BROTHERS - Magokoro Covers tribute album (2004)
9. Radio Tokyo - Marvelous 3 - Splurge album (2006)
10. 健康 (Kenkou) - Tamio Okuda - Tamio Okuda Covers tribute album (2007)
11. Not Listening - Snuff - YOWAVINALAAAAFINCHA? - A Tribute to Snuff album (2008)
12. 東京花火 (Tokyo Hanabi) - NEW ROTE'KA - A.I. Company - Tribute to New Rote'Ka (2004)
13. CAN-NANA-FEVER (環七フィーバー) - Guitar Wolf - I Love Guitar Wolf Very Much EP (2005)
14. ひと夏の経験 (Hito Natsu no Keiken) - Momoe Yamaguchi - Thank You For... tribute album (2004)
15. Don't Bring Me Down - E.L.O. - "Hataraku Otoko" single b-side (2006)
16. 雪が降る街 (Yuki ga Furu Machi) - Unicorn - "Kore ga Watashi no Ikirumichi" single b-side (1996)

17. [BONUS TRACKS] Hi Hi Spanish (スペイン語ver.)
18. [BONUS TRACKS] Hi Hi Portuguese (ポルトガル語ver.)
19. [BONUS TRACKS] HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU

There's no really coherent way to review an album of cover tracks recorded over the span of thirteen years for different purposes. It's not a coherent album. I'd planned to go track by track, but with 19 tracks, that'd be an epic post. So to be brief, I'll just separate the wheat from the chaff:

WHEAT
フロンティアのパイオニア (Frontier no Pioneer) - Shi-taka version
Lucy in the sky with Diamonds
健康 (Kenkou)
Don't Bring Me Down

CHAFF
Everything else, for one reason or another.

Not to say all the other songs are bad. Just that maybe they're already pretty well-worn and staples in any PUFFY fan's collection ("Joining a Fan Club", "Radio Tokyo"), or the version on this album isn't the best available ("Basket Case", which is better live on Hit & Fun), or yeah, at times the execution isn't what it could be ("Not Listening"). Some songs themselves really just aren't very good, which is obviously not PUFFY's fault, but just a failing of Japanese pop music in general (though they probably didn't need to choose those songs to cover).

In fact, "Frontier no Pioneer" is only on my wheat list because the original's drum machine has been re-recorded with live drums - it's not like it's some obscure track that needed to be on this compilation for anyone to find it. "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" is also on the bubble. I had expected it to be a train wreck - you just don't remake that song! - but it's really pretty faithful, if a little stiff.

Take those songs out of the mix and there are really only two tracks worth buying this album for, unless you're just a PUFFY completist (though if you were, you'd have all these songs already!). The Andy Sturmer-produced "Don't Bring Me Down" is such a good rendition that I'd put it on a mix CD for anybody I was trying to introduce to PUFFY. Of course, those of you who have the "Hataraku Otoko" single already have it. I'm not sure if the irony of recording that song is lost on them or not (with the obvious similarity to "Asia no Junshin", the song that launched their careers), but they seem to sing it earnestly. And "Kenkou", despite (or maybe because of) its horns and laid-back feel, sounds like a Tamio Okuda-penned PUFFY song from the old days.

The CD itself is a little low-rent compared with most PUFFY releases. The girls didn't even bother scheduling a photo shoot. There are liner notes and lyrics for all the songs, which is nice, and some neat artwork (one panel of which is a bit ecchi). But it's a foldout insert in a cheap American style jewel case, and again, there are no photos.

I have to say, though, that I didn't really expect more than this. In fact, on balance I think this album is better than The Hit Parade, their other cover album and one of my least favorite PUFFY releases. If you'd never heard any of these songs before, then you'd probably get hooked on about half the album. My only real problem is just that I already own most of the best songs, so for me and a lot of PUFFY fans, it's probably just not completely essential.

Final Grades

Music: B- (judging solely on quality, not ubiquity)
Performance: B
Production: B