JUJU, Miyamoto Hiroji, and Sera Masanori Perform on "Music Fair" for November 26
This week’s guests were Miyamoto Hiroji, JUJU, and Sera Masanori. Miyamoto Hiroji – Machibuse (Miki Seiko cover) JUJU – Hana Sera Masanori x Miyamoto Hiroji – Anta no Ballad (Sera Masanori & Twist cover) Sera Masanori x Miyamoto Hiroji – Hikigane (Sera Masanori & Twist cover) Sera Masanori x Miyamoto Hiroji x JUJU – Moero […]
🆕🎶 「 Woman “Wの悲劇“より 」 new single by Hiroji Miyamoto is now available worldwide! 🌐
Listen now and discover new sounds from Japan on our weekly updated playlist 🎧 https://spoti.fi/3lgjH73
Before we headed to Narita airport, I went over to my aunt's house for a brief time. Check out time was 10 a.m., and we didn't have to get going until at least noon, so to kill some time, my aunt suggested I relax at her home -- a place I've never visited prior in the 30 years I've known her. My cousin welcomed me in, too, after my aunt and I done some small groceries. And unbeknownst to me, he had brought down some of his old music magazines that featured artists who he knew I was a fan of. He said, if I liked, I could keep them.
The day before, my aunt, my cousin and I went to go sing karaoke. I hadn't seen my cousin in 15 years, and frankly, I was not expecting to see him at all during my trip. I just didn't know of his whereabouts. And I was taken back by his kindness despite us not speaking to each other for so long. He helped me out as the three of us did some gift-shopping for my immediate family on the first half of the day, even paying for some of those gifts. We spoke relatively little, but after we got out of karaoke, he started opening up to me about the music he listened to when he was younger. I'm a bit bummed the hoodie I got for him as a gift didn't really fit him.
The first magazine he showed me was a 2009 issue of Ongaku To Hito with Perfume on the cover. Through my aunt, he knew I liked them and interviewed them recently, so he was happy to give it to me. But along with some other magazines with Perfume, he also got one with a tiny section on Aya Matsuura, whose "Love Namidairo" I sang when we went to karaoke together. It surprised me to know he took note of the stuff I liked. I'd bring up an artist to him as I sifted through the issues, and he'd immediately think back whether or not he had a copy that covered them.
He did, though, establish what he refused to part with: any that featured Hiroji Miyamoto of Elephant Kashimashi and a few special coverages of a Rock'inon Japan festival. It seemed too sentimental to him for me to inherit anyway, so I paid no mind. I started to get a feel of the kind of artist he felt a personal connection with, largely rock auteurs during the 2000s, and so I shared with him a picture of a particular album that I purchased during my trip: Ging Nang Boyz's Kimi To Boku No Dai Sanji Sekai Taisenteki Renai Kakumei. And lo behold, he'd bring down a couple of magazines that featured the band's Kazunobu Mineta. "I can't give these to you," he said. That, I understood, too.
I keep thinking about Sukka doing karaoke to this song because of how much Sheena Ringo and Hiroji Miyamoto let loose and end up practically wailing in the choruses and I just feel like Sokka and Suki would get super into that and absolutely kill it.
Kanazawa Tomoko: Recently I’ve watched MIyamoto Hiroji-san of the Elephant Kashimashi singing his song in Sukkiri!. He’s really great at singing usually, but in the TV program he performed a song absolutely his own way. He went out of the studio singing as far as the sub control room. Actually he fell behind the tempo in the latter part of the song. But I understood that he was doing it intentionally. The performance made me realize that great singing is not made by singing technique only. I tend to mind pitch and tempo always on the stages. So I was being excited to imagine if I performed on the stage without minding these things, as I watching his performance. And I also realized for the first time in my life that it’s not skill but something invisible like soul of the singer that is needed to move the audience. Surely, I’m not a solo singer and I need to cooperate with other members. But I’ve been thinking that I might need to sing without worrying about it sometimes.
(via Juice=Juiceが語る、実力派と言われる「歌」をメンバー目線で徹底解説 | Rolling Stone Japan(ローリングストーン ジャパン))
The first new song “WE DO” by Ikimonogakari after their two years hiatus. The full song it’s up on Spotify (only Japan). It is also the tie-in theme for a new Softbank commercial.
English translation and romanization below the cut.
ENGLISH
Children open up their arms, facing the sky
Trying to catch birds, clouds, their dreams in them
I knew nothing about what that looked like until just yesterday
I really believed these fingers of mine would reach you
In the distance where the sky and the earth meet
Is a road, calling out to a traveler from the past
To you I’m just a passerby
Just a stranger you saw when you turned around for a moment
I wander to and fro through a stone-paved town,
Letting myself be swept up in the crowd headed for the market
Voices saying prayers, the sound of hooves,
an almost sing-song hustle and bustle
A white morning, leaving me in the dust
For some reason, time travel
Has stopped up the wounds of my heart. What a curious road this is
I keep hesitating while I write a letter only saying “goodbye”
A foreigner with sadness to spare
A foreigner with sadness to spare
ROMAJI
kodomo-tachi ga sora ni mukai ryoute wo hiroge
tori ya kumo ya yume mademo tsukamou to shite iru
sono sugata wa kinou made no nanimo shiranai watashi
anata ni kono yubi ga todoku to shinjite ita
sora to daichi ga fure-au kanata
kako kara no tabibito wo yonde’ru michi
anata ni totte watashi tada no toorisugari
chotto furimuita mita dake no ihoujin
shijou e iku hito no nami ni karada wo azuke
ishidatami no machikado wo yurayura to samayou
inori no koe hizume no oto utau you na zawameki
watashi wo okizari ni sugite yuku shiroi asa
jikan ryokou ga kokoro no kizu wo
naze kashira umete yuku fushigi na michi
sayonara dake no tegami mayoi-tsudzukete kaki
ato wa kanashimi wo moteamasu ihoujin
ato wa kanashimi wo moteamasu ihoujin