December 2006 Update:

KonBUMP! Hope you're all doing well!
It's been such a long time since the last update, sorry I haven't been able to keep updating as often as I could and should

Please welcome new members - ~Kazeyumi-Hitomi and ~yamipandora
Thanks for joining! And thanks for those who watch this site too.
You may like to introduce yourself in here - INTRO, please tell us what got you into Bump of Chicken and why you like them.
Also, what would you like to see in this club? Activities? Suggestions are welcome!
Again, you may contact me here - *koony, as I only log into this account once or twice a month. ^^

Now the latest news!
At long last, BOC had a new single released on 2006-11-22! (also thanks ~diwj for the update reminder ^^)
Songs:
1. Namida no furusato (a song for the LOTTE airs commercial)
2. Makkaina sora wo mita darouka
3. Orusuban (hidden track)

Here's my first impression -

1. "Namina no Furusato" definitely sounded better in this context, ie. without looking at the PV (for your information, BUMP OF CHICKEN wear highschool uniform in the video while playing the song, they should have shown more of the band instead of the actress imho). Maybe the song has grown on me, or maybe playing along with the b-side "Makka na sora wo mita darouka", it just sounded much more appealing.

2. "Makka na sora wo mita darouka", this song is awesome! I'm still basking in the fine fine tune and Fujiwara Motoo's voice. His voice has got such uplifting yet calming and soothing effect it's amazing. Troubles seem to dissolve away and disappear when listening to Fujiwara sings.

3. Last but not least, the hidden track "Orusuban".
They're getting more and more professional and serious (or seriously funny? Funnily serious?) in their production of the weird and wonderful hidden tracks ever since "Shadow" aren't they? "Orusuban" is a power-ballad that would make some late 80s early 90s bands proud, with the twist of strange/funny lyrics of course. BOC approach the song with dead seriousness and it sounds funny and great. And man doesn't Fuji sound awesome in there? He's totally into it, as well as Masu (the other main vocal of the track) of course! The whole effect kind of reminds me of some old karaoke experience with friends, yup, singing late 80s early 90s power ballad, haha.

So, please tell us what's your impression of BUMP OF CHICKEN's new single.
And remember to support the band by buying the CD if you could.

Cheers, *koony

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LATEST NEWS:

- 12th Maxi Single "Namina no furusato" (TFCC-8919)
2006.11.22 on sale

- First original silent video/movie "Ningyougeki girudo" (TFBQ-18066)
2006.9.20 on sale

- Motoo Fujiwara has released his first solo project on 2006/03/22 -
1st motoo fujiwara solo sound track album
"SONG FOR TALES OF THE ABYSS" (TFCC-86193)
It's a soundtrack/BGM of the RPG game "Tales of The Abyss", composed by Fujiwara Motoo. How appropriate that Fujiwara's first solo project is for an RPG game, haha. (one of his hobbies are RPG)
I've received my CD two days ago, and here's my personal thoughts.
Most songs are the RPG MIDI type instrumental piece of variation of the karuma tune, except for track#9, which's sung by a female (personally, I can't say I like that female voice... Fujiwara-san should have sung it instead lol). Anyway, he didn't sing any new song, track#11 Karma is practically the same as the single. Overall, the album's quite pleasant, but honestly I much prefer the BUMP OF CHICKEN band songs, or Fujiwara-san's acoustic songs.. but I suppose this is an RPG soundtrack after all. Anyway, if you're a fan of RPG, you may enjoy this fine soundtrack.

ANYWAY, good thing about the first press, you get to have a copy of Fujiwara-san's handwritten score of the title track, to read about his thoughts on the songs he composed, plus drummer Masu Hideo's view too. AND, photo of Fujiwara on a piano keyboard

If you've heard this album, please let us know your thoughts too!



=================================================
2004 Updates -

As some of you might know, 2004 has been a great, eventful, and successful year for Bump of Chicken.
So, after their "Pegasus You" concerts (my live report - [link] ) and the Korean concert in December 2004, they are taking a slightly longer rest/vacation to recuperate. Meanwhile, you can find out how BOC is doing these days at their regular radio show PONTSUKA - [link]
(referenced from TAKAHASHI DIARY from their official site [link] )

Also, you may like to visit the official Japanese excite site for the BOC 2004 tour blog - [link]
Then click on the TOUR DIARY link.
The last I checked, Shikata-san (ex Rockin' on Japan editor) wrote a three-part wonderful report of their Korean tour.

Other news -
Chama (bassist Yoshifumi Naoi) has released an art-book on 2005-02-28.
The book title is "Comic World Fun" - [link]
"Comic World Fun" is a full volume collection of Chama's regular column (16 issues so far) at the "H" magazine (Rockin' On published). There are 416 pages.
They include his photography, illustrations, doodles, graffiti.
Regrettably, it doesn't have photos of the other BOC members, I'll have to
go through the book again lol.
(For those who're interested in buying, I bought mine from [link] )

Personally, I would love it if Fujiwara releases an art book. I love his illustrations as much as his writings/lyrics. But before that, they NEED to release a live concert DVD! I still can't believe they haven't released a live DVD! <- here we go again.


Anyway, that's all for now re updates.
I will post again once I come across any news.

---------
My thoughts/summary of the recent releases -

"Sharin no Uta" single
1. Sharin no Uta (single version) - this version is not much different from the album cut, they just enhanced the "country" feel a little. It's a great song, period.

2. Yume no Kainushi - musically this song has a similar feel to "guild" upon first listen, with a heavier emphasis on drums, plus the signature Fujiwara's overdubbing of his singing, it's such a pleasant effect and a beautiful song.

3. Snow smile (ringing verions) - ie. Chrismas version. Usually I'm not a big fan of "christmas songs" (that said, I actually like a lot of them lol), but this is so beautiful! The original "Snow Smile" was already a great song, but this version really radiates with such a warm and fuzzy feeling, is too beautiful for words.

And of course, the hidden track (and the artwork lol)! I won't say more, except to sing-a-long "chu-chu-chu-chuchu-churuu~ chuchuchu-chuchu-churuu~.... hana megane!". I LOVE this hidden track! It's so fun! Seriously, their hidden tracks are getting so awesome that they ought to release one big compilation album for them!


"Sharin no Uta" PV
Go watch the sample from here - [link]
(or buy the DVD!) It's half in monochrome half in colour. The PV started off with a cool CG animation of Fujiwara's pencils drawing (the world of the cover of "Yggdrasil" album). Then the "story" starts. The "past" (story about a boy and a girl in the country side) was in colour, and "present" (where the girl became an old woman, boy an old man; plus the band performing) were in black and white. Note that it's the first time we see the four of them sitting down performing the song, dressing up as olden days country folks - Masukawa's playing the acoustic guitar, Fujiwara's playing the mandolin (it's awesome!), Chama's playing the big bass, Massu's playing the drum with the brush-sticks.

The visual and story also reminded me of 'Kudaranai Uta', in which the boy's drawing a picture/painting a watercolours picture on a hill (a tanpopo hill in Kudaranai Uta), presenting the painting to "kimi" ("you", childhood friend).. and in the song, the first person pondered about - many years later when they have grown up, would they still remember the faces when they were young. It's all kind of tied-in, in the world of Fujiwara's lyrics/stories.

Although this PV's beautiful, I wish it had shown more of the band playing (or the band themselves), instead of the boy and the girl (plus old man and old lady). I mean, it's sweet and all but... I think I prefer their earlier PVs - such as Little Braver, Lamp, Diamond, Snow smile, Harujion, Stage of the Ground, Tentai Kansoku etc.. in which the PVs focus more on the band performing. In a sense, Only Lonely Glory also had the band playing, but somehow it's not as captivating as their earlier PVs, maybe it's due to too much high-tech interference. What's everyone's view?

Anyway, here's a "Sharin no Uta" PV inspired art - [link] ^^

YGGDRASIL DVD
PV:
1. Only Lonely Glory
2. Sharin no Uta
3. sailing day
4. arue
5. snow smile
6. lost man

CM: Commercials of the snow smile single, sailing day single, Yggdrasil album (featuring Fujiwara as the announcer).

DATA: A little map of the shooting location of each PV, and comments by BOC members in text. For example, in the arue PV data, Masukawa's comment in text: "It was nostalgic, but also embarassing." (re seeing their old footages).

And my favourite part of the DVD -

BONUS:

1. snow smile (another version)
This is "snow smile" (ringing version, ie Christmas-y version) from the Sharin no Uta single. The PV shows re-arranged footages of the original snow smile PV, without the children, and entirely in monochrome (black and white). In addition, it also merged live footages of the band when they're performing "snow smile" on stage (kind of like that arue PV), plus still-photographs taken during that original "snow smile" PV. I love this PV! It's my favourite on this DVD! While watching this PV along with this new remixed version Christmas-y version, it really gives a feeling of warm and fuzziness and very nostalgic .

2. Sharin no Uta (another version)
Remember I was just talking about how it'd be nice if Sharin no Uta PV focused more on the band? They gave us just that in this version
This PV used the original album version of the song, same PV, MINUS the animation and all the scenes of the country side and the boy and the girl. Hence, it's just the band sitting there and playing! I really enjoyed that.
I also like the end part very much, when they finished playing the song and the PV just stopped at the "freeze" moment, the four of them were so in synched; it's difficult to explain.
This PV is entirely in monochrome too.

Random observation: Fujiwara doesn't seem to open his mouth even if he's "singing along" to the track for the PV, he just kind of move his lips ie. in Sharin no Uta, lost man, snow smile, etc. He talks like that too during some interviews that I was able to watch.

OH! Last but not least, at the MENU section of the DVD, we get to see Fujiwara's story-artwork from the Yggdrasil album booklet animated! While the animation of the faceless bison(?) and the little boy was in progressed, "asgard"'s played as the soundtrack. I thought that was cool


Cheers, *koony

========
|| TOP/MAIN || - Or NEWS section, which is this section, for all updates.

|| INTRO || - It's for new members introduction.

|| PROFILE/BIOGRAPHY || - BUMP OF CHICKEN's profile/biography/history.

|| DISCOGRAPHY || - BUMP OF CHICKEN's discography, new releases will be added into this section too.

|| LINKS || - This contains BUMP OF CHICKEN official links and fan info sites, including lyrics translation site.

|| REVIEW/MISC || - This contains my personal reviews of songs/albums/live, or anything BUMP OF CHICKEN related. All club members are welcome to participate if you have review/write up to share. It's on a on-going construction I suppose, to see what works for us. Also, due to DA policy of not allowing Clubs to favorite club-members' deviations, please note ~BUMPOFCHICKEN if you have any BUMP OF CHICKEN related work to share, I will post your links during club updates.


SITES (more can be found here LINKS )

- BUMP OF CHICKEN official site - [link]
- TOY'S FACTORY (record company) site - [link]
- PONTSUKA!! (BOC radio show) - [link]

- English-speaking fan site Star Gazing - [link]
- Great lyrics translation and reviews - [link]
- .. and this club founder's illustration site (full of bump of chicken artwork!) - *koony


TO JOIN
Please send a note to ~BUMPOFCHICKEN or *koony
You may like to put the icon or : dev BUMPOFCHICKEN : (no space) at your page, but not necessary. It'd be nice though ^^


Club Founder/Admin - *koony
Members -
=Dewclaw ~stephi ~midnightpeppermint =mazoku-chan ~lawnmowerpants ~nishikaze ~SquidBoy ~outshined *majinthing ~kace353 ~hisako ~Quack-Sama- ~BebopBountyHuntress *Mako588 ~Karoloka ~Momocha ~SwanKnight ~Initta ~rei-vincent ~Duh-Sa ~anishka =CalebAaronOsment ~wasasu ~chadakoon *GiantHamsterMech ~tamagoPechay ~kampuput ~diwj ~Hikari-hart ~Kazeyumi-Hitomi ~yamipandora