Sake no Sakana Ustream on New Year's Day

Just announced, there will be another "Sake no Sakana" Ustream on New Year's Day, 1/1 at 4PM JST. That's tomorrow.

This isn't a repeat telecast of the previous one but a new one! It's quite amazing that they would have another one so soon. This is the sixth time they're having "Sake no Sakana". As always, "Sake no Sakana" will feature Yamaguchi Ichiro from Sakanaction and Hoshino Gen of SAKEROCK. 

It would be a chill talking session and limited to Ustream only, unlike the previous time where they did it in front of an audience at Tower Records. 

Ustream link: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/victormusicch

As a side note, it doesn't seem like they're ever going to repeat telecast the Tower Records one, which is a real pity because I really want to hear Ichiro's acoustic versions of Mikadzuki Sunset and Yoru no Higashigawa again.

SAKANAQUARIUM 2011 DocumentaLy -LIVE at MAKUHARI MESSE-

AAAAAAAAAAAAH ZOMG DYING!

Freshly announced some minutes ago, there will be a DVD/Blu-ray release of Sakanaction's 6th Nov concert at Chiba's Makuhari Messe!

Part of the nationwide tour "SAKANAQUARIUM 2011 DocumentaLy", the Makuhari Messe live had an audience of 20,000. This particular live featured the use of special theatrical lights called NINJAR LIGHT (the first time it was used for a concert), fantasy-like oil art, dazzling laser beams and so on.

The DVD and Blu-ray versions both come in Limited and Regular types, and all are slated for release on 28th March 2012.


Set list for DVD / Blu-ray「SAKANAQUARIUM 2011 DocumentaLy -LIVE at MAKUHARI MESSE-」
01. RL
02. Monochrome Tokyo (モノクロトウキョー)
03. Sentorei (セントレイ)
04. Adventure (アドベンチャー)
05. Kamen no Gai (仮面の街)
06. Klee
07. Antares to Hari (アンタレスと針)
08. years
09. Ryuusen (流線)
10. Endless (エンドレス)
11. Bach no Senritsu wo Yoru ni Kiita Sei desu.(『バッハの旋律を夜に聴いたせいです。』)
12. Holy Dance (ホーリーダンス)
13. DocumentaRy
14. Rookie (ルーキー)
15. Aruku Around (アルクアラウンド)
16. Identity (アイデンティティ)
17. Document (ドキュメント)
18. Native Dancer (ネイティブダンサー)
19. Mikadzuki Sunset (三日月サンセット)
20. Me ga Aku Aiiro (目が明く藍色)

DVD (Limited): 4,800 yen
DVD (Regular): 3,800 yen


Blu-ray (Limited): 5,800 yen
Blu-ray (Regular): 4,800 yen

More details as well as cover art will be revealed at a later date.

source

Ustream: NEXUS presents Unforgettable 2011

The quality's not great, but it's a Ustream screenshot.

First off, I have to apologize that this info came after the stream actually happened. I actually didn't know of this stream beforehand. Yamaguchi Ichiro first tweeted about it six and a half hours before the stream, and I was out and about during that time. I happened to come home just when Yamaguchi tweeted again just when he was going to appear on the program so I was lucky, but I couldn't have blogged about it in time.

In any case, Nexus TV, a television program production company (the same one doing the artist photo web calendar which has featured Yamaguchi and Kusakari Ami), is running the "NEXUS presents Unforgettable 2011" program on Ustream, 26th and 27th Dec. The program, organised by Shikano Atsushi, is intended as a kind of "year-end party" that looks back seriously at the unforgettable and turbulent 2011. 

The program, happening at 9-11pm JST, stars:

26th (Mon): Kanai Masato from BIGMAMA, Yamaguchi Ichiro from Sakanaction, Shikano Atsushi

27th (Tue): TAKUMA from 10-FEET, Hoshino Gen, Shikano Atsushi

Update on possible new single

After several days of nothing from Yamaguchi Ichiro's official Twitter, I was starting to get a bit worried on how the new song was going.

The last tweet before the tweet "hiatus" was on 18th Dec:

新曲の歌詞に集中する。の前にちょっと寝る
I shall concentrate on (writing) the new song's lyrics. But before that I'll sleep for a bit.

But, just last night as well as today, Yamaguchi finally tweeted more about the song they're making that could likely mean a new single on the way, very soon.

DocumentaLy ranks on Oricon's Yearly Album Chart 2011

Oricon revealed the Top 100 charts for the year of 2011 yesterday. Sakanaction's 5th album "DocumentaLy" ranked at 81st place on the album charts! 

This is a great achievement for the band as I believe it is the first time they've made it to the Top 100 rankings of Oricon's Yearly Charts. 

"DocumentaLy" sold well but I kept my fingers crossed the entire time I was looking through the charts for it. When I finally saw it on the last page, I was overjoyed. I am just so happy for them! 

Sakanaction frontman Yamaguchi Ichiro is slowly but surely fulfilling his aim of selling 100,000 copies of an album. "DocumentaLy" may not be it, with reported sales of around 80,000 copies, but with their ever expanding popularity, I am sure they will achieve that number soon, and probably even get a #1 rank on weekly charts!  

Congratulations to all the amazing members of Sakanaction and may they continue to strive on!

Feature: Who is Dutchman?

Before Sakanaction formed in 2005, vocalist/guitarist Yamaguchi Ichiro had been making music for years. And he wasn't alone. He was in a band called Dutchman for about 6-7 years.

Some may have heard of the name Dutchman from Wikipedia, or from Japan Times Online, some may not have heard of the name at all. Whichever it is, when I found out about Dutchman, I found it rather interesting and gone on to learn a fair bit after researching.

For the longest time I have wanted to share about Dutchman, because it is related to Sakanaction and I believe it will give people a new perspective on Yamaguchi. Thus, after starting this site not long ago, I've been writing this feature.

Sake no Sakana Ustream short roundup

Tonight was the Sake no Sakana Ustream featuring Yamaguchi Ichiro of Sakanaction and Hoshino Gen.

Due to my bad Internet connection, my stream skipped quite alot, but here's a roundup of the event.

The first section of the event featured two of them taking random boards with questions of them from a prepared stack, and then both of them would answer the question on it.

One of the more notably funny parts was when they were asked "which musicians are you good friends with?" Yamaguchi brought Koide Yusuke of Base Ball Bear up, although not a surprise. He also said Hoshino-san which sparked giggles among the crowd and Twitterers. And lastly both brought ROY of THE BAWDIES up, and then they both said to each other "I won't lose!"

After the question and answer section, both of them took a short break, and then came back to perform live! Yamaguchi performed Mikadzuki Sunset and Yoru no Higashigawa live with an acoustic guitar, so it was something never seen before. It was a very emotional performance, although broken by crowd laughter when Yamaguchi playfully tried to sing Identity in an emotional way. Hoshino also performed two songs, Futon and Roufuufuu. In between, he teased the audience by playing a few notes of Endless.

The event ended with the two of them (mostly led by Yamaguchi) making the crowd copy what they said, which was about making NHK or BS channel carry the Sake no Sakana program. The actual phrase they made the crowd say was a joke.

どうかサケノサカナをNHKのなんやらかんやらに、流してやってください、そしてそれを収益として僕らにキックバックしてください

 Please let Sake no Sakana be shown on NHK somehow, and then please give us the revenue so we can kickback (and relax).

Twitterers joined in and tweeted the same phrase, causing "どうかサケノサカナ" and "キックバック" to trend at 4th place and 9th place respectively, for a short while. A great way to end the program if you ask me.

I do hope they rerun this program on Ustream again because I really liked the acoustic live part.

SAKANARCHIVE First Day Ranking

Today was the official release date for the SAKANARCHIVE DVD!

If you guys haven't bought your copy yet, what are you waiting for?

I'm personally still waiting for my copy to arrive in the mail, but until then let's check out the Oricon Ranking for this release...

Congrats to Sakanaction for making it to #8 on the Oricon daily DVD combined ranking chart!

Although this number seems low compared to the #2 that DocumentaLy got, bear in mind that usually only actual fans would buy the DVD of an artist, unlike albums where people who just like the songs will buy. Besides, there is stiff competition from other categories when it comes to DVD charts, like anime and movie DVDs. In just the DVD(Music) ranking chart and not the combined one, SAKANARCHIVE attained a #5 ranking.

Looking forward to receiving my copy soon and watching the Document PV. Judging by reactions on 2ch it should be pretty impactful (in a positive way).

Kusakari Ami sings a short version of Sonic Fireworks

Recently, it was revealed that a version of avengers in sci-fi's new single song Sonic Fireworks that was used in Mazda's television commercial (CM), was sung by Sakanaction's bassist Kusakari Ami.

Sonic Fireworks (releasing on 14th Dec) was used as the CM image song for Mazda's new generation of AXELA and DEMIO cars. For each car there was a different version of the commercial, and in the DEMIO version, the female voice singing caused people to wonder "who's vocal is this?"

avengers in sci-fi is a band made up of three males, thus this question arose among fans. It was then revealed in the FM802 radio show on the night of 7th Dec, that the female vocal came from Kusakari Ami of Sakanaction.

Upcoming Ustreams

First off, happening this Thursday, 15th Dec at 7pm, is Sake no Sakana.

Sake no Sakana is a live public event to commemorate Sakanaction's DocumentaLy album and Hoshino Gen's Episode which were both released on the same date. Only vocalist/guitarist Yamaguchi Ichiro will be present to represent Sakanaction. The actual event will take place at Stage One, Basement 1 of Tower Records' Shibuya store, and it will be streamed live on Ustream.

In case you wonder about the title, Hoshino Gen is a member of the band SAKEROCK, although Episode is his 2nd solo album. Thus, the title combines the "Sake" from SAKEROCK and "Sakana" from Sakanaction.

The link to view the stream is http://www.ustream.tv/channel/victormusicch. If you use Twitter, it's good to note that the hashtag for this event/Ustream is #sakenosakana.

More recently announced is a Ustream program to commemorate the release of SAKANARCHIVE 2007~2011 Sakanaction Music Video Collection DVD. This live stream will take place on Saturday, 17th Dec at 10pm.

In this program, Yamaguchi Ichiro serves as a "moderator", and it stars music video directors Seki Kazuaki, who directed Aruku Around's award-winning music video and Yamaguchi Yasuyuki, who directed the Document video clip in DocumentaLy's DVD. The program will reveal secrets of the shooting and production of these music videos.

The stream is held 3 days after SAKANARCHIVE's release date so that fans enjoy it after watching the entire collection of music videos.

The link for the stream is http://www.ustream.tv/channel/sakanarchive.

Don't miss both streams as Sakanaction's streams are usually not archived. They may be aired again a second time like in the case of MUSICA & Sakanaction presents Sakanaction 5th Album Preceding Explosion Listening Party, but really, it's better to be safe than sorry!

I think both streams are going to be really interesting, and Sakanaction never lets me down.

SAKANARCHIVE trailer released!

With just five days to go before the release of the SAKANARCHIVE music video collection DVD, a trailer has been put up on VictorMusicChannel's YouTube!



In addition, it is understood from their tweets that the background music for this cool stop-motion trailer was done by drummer Ejima Keiichi.

On a side note, DocumentaLy has made iTunes Japan's Best Selection of 2011 as the Best Album of 2011. It's definitely a well-deserved achievement!

Music Japan Plus's special feature on Sakanaquarium 2011

The folks at Music Japan Plus have put up a special feature documenting the live at Makuhari Messe on 6th November.

Check it out!

Ichiro tweets about recording

Fans that are eagerly anticipating new material from Sakanaction should be happy because Ichiro tweeted the following:

レコーディングが始まる。新しい曲が生まれるのか。
Recording starts. Will a new song be born?

(source)

It's been about 2 and a half months since DocumentaLy released. During this time Sakanaction has been on their Sakanaquarium 2011 tour, so I didn't expect anything new to come for a while. But with this, we may see the announcement of a new single very soon.