I've been hard at work subtitling tayu tau and also translating songs. Posting three songs over the past two days brings the album Dramatic to completion! All but the two instrumentals now have transcriptions and translations.
I'm up to about 45 minutes of tayu tau, nearly half of the whole film. Some of the conversations in concert venues and bars are really hard to hear, but I'm doing my best, and I have the assistance of a native Japanese speaker.
Thanks for your support!
Miss Ikuko is about to release another solo album! After Kehai to Yoin in March, and Kemono to Mahou in June, this will complete her series of three releases for 2008. This album is called Ginga, meaning Galaxy. It has nine songs, including new versions of her previous album’s song “Aoi Yami wo Massakasama ni Ochiteyuku Nagareboshi wo Shitteiru” and of clammbon’s “charm point”. The release date is November 5, and there is a limited edition that comes with a book.
Hello friends! Well, I'm on vacation in my home town of Chicago, just lounging around my parents' house trying not to think about work. I have been posting translations for songs that appear in tayu tau, and so far I have about six and a half minutes of the movie subtitled.
I had some frustrations with Miyu, the subtitling software, but it seems to be the best choice for the Mac right now, and I think I have a pretty good workflow going. I hope I can present the final product to you soon. :D
Hello,
I managed to put together some funds and pick up the DVD of tayu tau. I have played it three times now, on my MacBook while I was working. Of course, it's a charming and sentimental document of the band's journeys around Japan, and the emotional connection they have with their fans.
It occurred to me that I could provide subtitles for people to apply to their own legitimate copy of the film. There is a pretty nice subtitling software for the Mac called Miyu, which could use some UI work but which does its job well. I'm drafting an email to the clammbon staff asking if it would be all right to distribute just the English subtitle file. Please let me know if you would like to see this happen!
I just clicked the little arrow next to Morning Musume in my iTunes party shuffle mode; I used to have this set up to go to the artist in my library, but I recently installed a new system, so instead it went to that artist on the iTunes Store. The crazy thing is that they actually have a ton of Morning Musume for sale on the USA version of the store! So of course I scrolled through the ordinarily pretty anemic J-Pop category to see what else they might have added; sure enough, there was clammbon!! At the moment they only have Musical for sale, but that's still pretty spectacular: clammbon music available outside of Japan for instant download, for only $10!
Update: Apparently the Canadian iTunes has even more clammbon music! Check your country's iTunes store!
Hello again, clammbon fans. I've got my YesAsia affiliate link set up now, so if you're going to buy clammbon products (or any other Asian entertainment products), you can support this site in the process at no extra cost. This program could be a huge help to me, so if you're going to buy something there anyway, please consider going through my affiliate link here at the site. Thanks very much!
And of course, any money that comes in through the affiliate program will go straight to more clammbon products for me to document on the site! I'm currently trying to get ahold of the new tour documentary DVD, tayu tau. As an example, you were to click that link and then buy a copy of the DVD for yourself, I'd be 1/10th of the way to my own copy! But anything you buy after clicking through will help a lot.
Thanks very much for your support!
Hello clammbon fans. Honestly, it is hard to justify importing expensive CDs and DVDs from Japan when my wife says that we're supposed to be saving money. But what about the web site? Surely I should have these new products when they come out, and I should document them on the site and help more people understand and enjoy them.
So, I have just signed up for an Amazon Honor System account. If you would like to help me buy the new tour documentary DVD tayu tau, please consider giving a few dollars. If I manage to get it, I will do my best to post material on the site to make the film as accessible as possible for English-speaking fans: I'll give summaries (or maybe even full translations) of any spoken scenes, and I'll give priority to translating songs that appear in the movie. When the goal is reached, I'll remove the donation link until another important product is released; I don't want to profit from this site.
I have also started the process of signing up for the YesAsia affiliate program. Once it's ready, you'll be able to support this site, at no extra cost, whenever you order clammbon stuff (or any other Asian entertainment products)!
Of course, there is no obligation at all to donate. If you enjoy this site, and if I have helped you to appreciate clammbon's music, then you have already given me the greatest gift I could have hoped for. Thank you.
The tour documentary tayu tau: -GOOD TIME MUSIC of clammbon- is still being shown in theaters, and it's also going to be available on DVD on May 21.
Certain stores and online shops have an extra DVD with six more songs from the Musical tour that didn't fit into the movie; if you preorder you may be able to get a copy of that.
YouTube has the trailer; of course, it looks great. They named this film after my favorite song from Musical!
The emotional quotations from the band members are:
Hi!!
I went on a translating spree today and finished up the three songs remaining on the second album: 246, EPIC, and 090. So now JP and MM are both completely translated for your enjoyment, yeah! Here's what remains:
For a total of 34 songs left. I have 42 songs translated on the main original clammbon albums. That's 55% complete!!
Hi everyone! I just upgraded this site to Movable Type 4.1. I'm quite impressed with how easily everything transfered over to the new version; it was about as seamless as it could be.
Last night I translated Nagareboshi, so go check it out some time.
New on YouTube:
New at c-b e-b:
Have a lovely day!
In anticipation of the new album, I’ve been blogging over at Vox about my memories of each clammbon album; if you would care to read those posts, here they are: Posts tagged ‘clammbon’
Musical is a treat; I’ll post about it soon. :D
Two new translations are up this week: Futari and Folklore. Enjoy!
Update: make that three. Here's Romantic.
Well, today may be the day I most regret leaving Japan. On Monday, clammbon will be playing a free concert at the Apple Store in Shibuya. Could the sum of all coolness result in the spontaneous creation of a supermassive black hole? Stay tuned.
At Amazon: Musical
Yyyyyeeeeeaaaaahhh!!
Clammbon's seventh all-original album "Musical" is set to be released May 23!! The official site even has a track list for us already.
With a new clammbon and a new RUSH coming out in the same month, will my mind explode? Stay tuned!!
I just watched a feature about Harada Ikuko on the NHK show Yurunavi. The theme was her relationship with the piano-harmonica thingy she's had since she was 18, but there was plenty of substance for clammbon fans:
Hi! I just wanted to brag that I somehow found Kujirammbon, clammbon's old old EP, brand new at the Tower Records at Shinjuku station south exit. I also picked up THE NEW SONG single, with clammbon's newest original material. Kujirammbon is kind of weird. The songs are classic early-clammbon excellence, though the rougher version of "Pan to Mitsu wo Meshiagare" caught me off-guard. The packaging has young clammbon looking strange and calling themselves names like "Hatching Haachiko-sensei" (Miss Ikuko) and "Daisuke Number 110".
Now I have 99 distinct clammbon songs (including different arrangements, but not including live versions or instrumental versions), and as far as I know there are only six recorded clammbon songs I don't own, from various singles and a compilation: "Mitsubachi", "OR→", "←ON", "Uruwashi no Kiss Scene", "Doredakedemo", and "Moriwatari". And I guess, the original versions of "Time Limit" and "Our Songs".
Holy smokes, I think clammbon is about to get a lot more attention in the English-speaking world... The secret third act at clammbon's "sound circle" event has been revealed to be none other than indie-rock legends Yo La Tengo! Uh... I admit I've never heard a Yo La Tengo song in my life, but hip-seeming people mention them relentlessly!
I got my five clammbon-related ceedees, and they're gloriously good. Dot i/o is a crash between clammbon and Squarepusher; micromicrophone is a mumbling trance; Lotus Guitar is solid straightforward rockingtimes; The Sun Calls Stars is 77 minutes of ecstatic drumming; 3peace is intimate live clammbon at its best. The performance of Summer Nude is some of the greatest music I've ever heard recorded; I'm afraid to listen to it too often lest I inadvertently cause the rapture.
Over the past 2 days I've translated 3 songs: id, Lullabye Sullabye, and imagination. Two were requests by my good friend Chris; the other was requested by etcrisis who found me at last.fm.
Now there's an official site for mito's solo trilogy... Available in Japanese and English! Check it out today: http://www.mito396101043.com/
Wowz, clammbon was featured on the max-hip UK blog NonStuff's always-happening Friday Podcast! This is a favorite podcast of one of my music-savvy coworker-friends, so it was cool to see the band praised there. Spread the clammbon word in the English-speaking world, yeah!
The bad news: the final part in Mito's solo-project trilogy, micromicrophone, has been delayed by a week until December 13. That's extra bad news for me, because I ordered 3 Peace, the LOTUS GUITAR album, the Sun Calls Stars album, and Mito's second and third solo albums, all at once. So I won't get to hear any of them until micromicrophone is ready. There's a nice apology at the official clammbon site, though, explaining that they took some more time to get the sound just right.
The good news: My translation of the lyrics to JP is finally complete! I had meant to start by translating JP in its entirety (as mentioned in the first news post ever, uh, three years ago), but I somehow missed one song, and then I started choosing from all of the various albums as the fancy found me, so I never got around to finishing that one. So, this is the first clammbon album to be fully translated.
I count 38 more clammbon songs to translate, not to mention all of the side projects. So far 28 have been translated, so that puts me at 42.4% of the way there! Wooop! I have kind of been holding off on trying to get any attention from clammbon themselves until the translations are complete, but maybe I need to work faster if I ever want to reach that point.
Whoa, I neglected to put Mr. Itou's latest projects up on the discography page. See his new stuff from LOTUS GUITAR and The Sun Calls Stars, both of which I still need to pick up. Lots of CD shopping to do...
The cover art, track lists, and release dates have been posted for Mito's second and third solo albums! You'll remember the first one, which came out under the band name FOSSA MAGNA, and was a free jazz adventure.
Declaration of the Independence of the imagination and the Rights of Man to His Own Madness II, by dot i/o, is to come out on December 2. It's more of the type of free jazz we saw in part I, and we had a preview of it in the PARCO department store commercial a while back. For this album, Mito has collaborated with Irmin Schmidt of the influential German avant-garde band Can.
Declaration of the Independence of the imagination and the Rights of Man to His Own Madness III by micromicrophone, is a fully solo project, with Mito himself playing all of the instruments and singing all of the (English!) vocals. If, like me, you wish you could have heard more of Mito's singing on clammbon albums, this may be the CD for you.
Also, the cover for 3 peace has been posted, so I'm adding it to the listing for that album here at c-b e-b. Good day!
Great news!!
"Clammbon's greatest appeal has got to be its live performances! Clammbon, who has given us so many unforgettable shows, is finally releasing their first live album!"
The recording was made at the July 10-11 shows of the 2006 June-July all-Japan "cover, lover and tour".
Check out the official announcement and the album info here at c-b e-b.
I was going to sit down and play some PS2, but Ze Frank encouraged us to "bust that cycle" today and I thought I'd do something else instead. I had "Binsenka" from Dramatic in my head, so I sat down and transcribed, transliterated, and translated it all in one go. I am getting spookily efficient at this; I only had to pop over to the dictionary a couple of times, and I even got "gakkyuu iinchou" on the first try! Why not put the song on and sing along today?
Now's your chance: clammbon's best album is on sale for less than 18 ameribux. It's not the limited edition with the DVD, of course, but it's a fine introduction to clammbon fandom, for yourself or as a gift. :D
Barcelona, Lisbon, Paris... Two traveling like one.
Harada Ikuko has a travel book out. The words were written by Miss Ikuko; the photos were taken by her younger sister Nana, who has done official photography for clammbon and some other popular bands. Check out the official site, with a mini gallery.
I posted some details about some recent clammbon-related releases in the discography section: LOVER ALBUM, ohana, and FOSSA MAGNA. I need to pick up that LOTUS GUITAR album soon...
The song Summer Nude on the new LOVER ALBUM has a production style seen on a couple of clammbon tracks in the past: you can hear people talking and various ambient noises from the studio, for an intimate feel.
A ways into the song, some guy suddenly makes a confused noise in the left channel. Every time I've listened to this song on my headphones at work, I've looked over my shoulder, thinking someone had snuck up on me. So when listening to this new CD, beware!!
All in all I think it's a fine album, in the tradition of Re-clammbon; a satisfying collection of music, even if it's not new clammbon material. :D
The track list for LOVER ALBUM has been posted at the official clammbon site.
From the official clammbon site: besides playing in FOSSA MAGNA with Mito, Mr. Itou Daisuke has another side project with guitarist ASH. Their drums-and-acoustic-guitar band is called LOTUS GUITAR, and their album first trip is due out June 7. You can follow the link on the clammbon site to ASH ON WEB, then visit the video room for a clip of their song "dobby dick". It sounds like nice energetic stuff.
I have been listening to the ohana and FOSSA MAGNA albums; they couldn't be much more different. ohana is absurdly upbeat reggae-pop, while FM is pretty avant-garde jazz. Both are quite worth a listen.
Here are a few things going on in the clammbon world:
Update: actually, the May 6 ohana show in Tokyo is already sold out. I guess I'm not going to see them after all. ;_;
The promotional video for Vital Sign is up on YouTube. I hope it stays up, because promotional videos are a great way for people to discover a band and start buying their music. Indeed, I received an e-mail this morning from a Rick Meyer, who discovered clammbon by their PVs on YouTube and wanted to know where he could buy the CDs. By the way, I recommend YesAsia for all of your Asian CD and DVD importing needs. They have fair prices, offer free shipping in the USA, and often include little gifts in your order. They're also the only place I could find the limited edition clammbon best with the DVD inside, even after checking many Japanese stores.
Anyway, check the Vital Sign video. Mito and Daisuke do a superb job; I think you'll be pleased.
Miss Ikuko has written and sung a song for the latest Kentucky Fried Chicken commercial in Japan. It's actually quite good, and I used Audio Hijack to grab it for my own iPod.
"I finally understood
The secret of your name
You've got sesame, Japanese pepper, and soy sauce
Just like the words say
You really say something great/tasty
Kentucky~"
Mito's side project dot i/o has a song in a commercial for Parco department stores.
My copies of the ohana album (with Miss Ikuko) and the FOSSA MAGNA album (with Mito and Mr. Daisuke) are on their way to me now. Maybe if I put those two albums together it'll be like having a new clammbon CD. :D
Miss Ikuko is narrating a new podcast... for a... planetarium. They are having some kind of light-and-music program; I just see it as a chance to hear her voice regularly. :D
The second installment was just posted; check it out!
Mito's got his new solo project underway, and it looks to be some pretty far-out proggy stuff. It seems to be a set of three albums, each released under a different band name: FOSSA MAGNA, dot i/o, and micromicrophone. The albums are called "Declaration of the Independence of the imagination and the Rights of Man to His Own Madness" parts 1-3. Part 1 comes out February 22, and the others are set for release later in the year. If you collect all 3 and send in the proof of purchase from the CD's "obi", you can win a carrying case or a CD of outtakes.
As always, see the official site for details. :D
This entire site is being migrated to the startlingly useful Movable Type blog system. It will make the site a lot easier and a lot more fun for me to update, and it'll encourage fans to communicate through the comments system. :D
Today's a very clammbon day. I just updated the albums section with several items that aren't normal full albums. :D
Miss Harada Ikuko has been mentioned on NPR! A music reviewer who went to Japan somehow came across Piano and has recommended it. They even offer downloadable samples of "Tori no Hane Tori no Kage" and "Twinkle", albeit in crappy proprietary media formats. It's odd that her solo project would get major recognition in the USA before clammbon itself did. Maybe this will create some more English-speaking fans. Thanks to Lee Richardson for finding the story. :D
Miss Ikuko has another side project in the works, this time with her long-time friends Nagadzumi Takashi (Hanaregumi) and Ooya Yuusuke (a member of Polaris). The band is called Ohana, the Hawai'ian word for "family" popularized by the fine film Lilo & Stich. They have an official site, and are working on an album and playing shows.
The group had a great set at the Fuji Rock Festival this year. They played to about 9000(!) people for 20 minutes, and were received well enough to do an unplanned encore. Congratulations to the band. :D See some lovely photos.
Sadly they did not get to play at Yaon (Hibiya Yagai Ongakudou) this summer like they had in years past, but we always have the magnificent Yaon deeveedee to remind us of great times.
Hi! There's a new song for you today, Anthem from the latest album. I was in Japan a few weeks ago, during clammbon's tour! But seeing them would have required taking a trip down to Kyouto, which just wouldn't have worked out. So I watched the Yaon deeveedee to make up for it. That just might be the greatest deeveedee ever made.
I've been talking with the very nice people at the official clammbon BBS; what a pleasant place to make new friends. :D
Meanwhile, more lyrics! I give you... "charm point"!
Holy cow!! The official clammbon site has seen a complete renewal. Go look now! :D
When I can't sleep, you get more lyric translations. I just put up "Surround", everyone's favorite tune. By the way, it doesn't make any sense. :D
Update: Still couldn't sleep, so translated "Rainbow" as well.
In other news, I went and plugged this site on clammbon's official BBS (where Mr. Daisuke himself has been spotted lately); two humans replied, including a clammbon.com staff member! Actual clammbon people agree: clammbon.metalbat.com is "subarashii". :D :D :D
Well, I guess my local Kinokuniya was lying, because now I can't get the new album there without special ordering it and waiting for several weeks. Instead I've got my old roommate-buddy bringing it to me straight from Japan when he visits next week. Unfortunately, I have to sit tight until then... I went and put up the lyrics for "George" from Dramatic, which I apparently translated a long time ago and never bothered to post.
I went and cleaned up a lot of the HTML and CSS that was getting on my nerves. Some things look nicer now.
There's still a ton to do, concerning both design and content. I want to automate the news and discography/lyrics pages with Python or something. I want to add information about clammbon DVDs. Of course, I want to translate the rest of the lyrics. Most of all, I want to listen to "ten,"!
My local Kinokuniya claims they'll have "ten," on or near its release date. I hope to get it as soon as possible, and post my impressions here. The world is incredibly fortunate to have a sixth clammbon album on the way...
Amazon Japan has some more info on "ten," including the distinctively-clammbon super-simple cover art, while Yes Asia has a track listing. As it turns out, the second disc is just a re-mix of the first disc. Of course, that's not as cool as two whole discs of original songs, but it's certainly better than just one disc. This album was produced by clammbon member Mito himself! I have a feeling this is going to be a great one. Mark your calendars for March 2!
Two updates in one day; can you believe it? I posted some more pictures of each member; they are taken from the best DVD and the live in shibuya DVD.
Well... only about fourteen months since my last update. The announcement of a brand new two-disc album coming March 2nd was enough to get me to update, though. The new album is called "ten," and is apparently already finished recording, according to the band in their new year's greeting at the official site.
One imagination song, "tourist on the mirai'n", has been translated.
Amazon Japan now has a track listing for imagination. Check out the transcription on the discography page.
I've added a lot of lyric translations to the discography page and little bits of more info around the site.
I was researching some clammbon facts at Amazon Japan and came across an entry for clammbon's next album! Slated for a November 19 release, its title is imagination. No further details are listed, but whoa, exciting!
All right, I'm actually starting to get some stuff in place around here. Now we're only missing two sections; yay. Watch for lyrics to appear little by little as I transcribe, translate, and practically extract and report them into sensible shapes.
Well, this site is somewhat open. I'm simultaneously trying to put together a design that I won't tear apart later for its failure to meet standards and trying to gather all of the clammbon info I have to actually fill the site. My first priority is getting all of the first album translated into English and set up for easy reading here in the albums section. Until then, welcome to the site.
