Mitsui Aika winamp skin for you!

It’s been 3 and a half years since I last made a winamp skin, what with iPod being invented, mp3 players on your computer don’t really get used that often (by me at least). But I’ve been getting back in the habit and thought it might be fun to do a Momusu skin. I wanted to do something other than one of the girls against a white background, and when I saw this pic of Aika, it really jumped out at me. So here it is!

For Winamp Classic I guess.

Shuffle and repeat buttons are visible when turned on, EQ and Playlist buttons appear when turned off. The load button is in the vicinity of her left eyebrow. I left it out to try and not cover her face. I had to chuckle at myself when making it. Back in the day images 275 pixels were 1/2 of your monitor resolution, now-a-days that’s incredibly tiny!

I might be doing more of these.

Utada Hikaru - Heart Station

I’ve had this on my iPod for a while now, needed something to write about, and decided this was a good idea. I ended up buying it on iTunes as I end up ripping all my CDs to my iPod anyhow, and it’ll take up less space in my room. Plus, it’s supporting Utada here in the States. Win-win!

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Fight the Blues - I was kind of surprised she didn’t open the album with it’s title song. When I first listened to it, I was kind of indifferent to this song, I thought it was too slow to open with. After a while though it won me over. Not my favorite track on here, but Utada’s vocals are, as always, beautiful and soothing, and the hook is really nice. It really does set the tone well.

Heart Station - I am so in love with this song. When the PV was first released I could not stop watching it. When listening to it now I cannot stop myself from lip synching (or if alone, singing along). It’s such a calming song, and invites such a warm feeling. Utada’s vocals and the synthesizer really blend together well. It’s interesting when she speaks English (and I’ve noticed this in interviews as well), her voice is much lower pitched.

Beautiful World - Probably my favorite track on here, probably one of my top 3 favorite Utada songs. I love the lyrics, love the marching quality of it, I love the piano, I love the deep bridge. I freaking love this song.

Gentle Beast Interlude - Not sure this was really necessary, but it sounds nice. It’s a nice transition from Beautiful World to….

Celebrate - Another favorite track from the album. A great dance song, it’s got great bass and a great hook.

Prisoner of Love - I had been hearing all over the place how this the best new track of the album, but once I heard it I was kind of disappointed. I don’t know what I was expecting. It’s since grown on me immensely, and I will include it as one of the best tracks on the album, just not THE best. One of the problems with reading reviews is getting the other person’s opinion implanted within your mind before you even sample it. This sounds like vintage Hikki.

Take 5 - Another favorite song off the album. If I had an anime series, I would so request this was put on the soundtrack somewhere. The only complaint is the abrupt ending. I love the melody though, a very emotional song.

Boku wa Kuma - This is an ADORABLE song, however it feels really strange on here. I tend to skip it as it gets stuck in my head incredibly easily.

Nijiiro Bus - I seem to be prone to loving Utada’s piano featuring songs. I LOVE this song. A very cool feeling to the melody and Utada’s vocals. It strikes me as a feel good rainy day song. I don’t know why. Another one of the top new tracks off this album.

Flavor of Life - Before I bought the album I had only heard the ballad version, which was a bit too slow for me. The regular version though is pretty stellar. I love the chorus. A nice song to end with!

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Overall a terrific album and another strong release from Utada Hikaru. Highly reccomended!

My first Jpop CD

Excuse me while I go “I walked uphill to school both ways!” on you for a moment.

I got on the internet back in ‘96. At the time, if you wanted to hear music, pretty much the only thing available to you was midis. I didn’t live anywhere near a shop that had heard of, much less stocked any japanese music. My friends and I used to hold tape recorders up to the TV to tape the ending and opening theme songs of anime to get our japanese pop fix. The first japanese PV I saw was Wink’s Kitto Atsui Kuchibiru which some kind soul had tacked on at the end of a 3rd generation fansub tape.

Eventually, Napster came along, and it was like a godsend. A whole new world of japanese music was opened up to me. However, not knowing the names of any bands, and information being so god damned scarce, your best bet was to type in “jpop” and see what you got in response. TWO-MIX was big at the time, and I had recorded off the computer tapes of their songs. A lot of what I found at the time was in some way or other related to anime, as that was all a majority of kids stateside had access to at the time. (Incidentally all my mp3s are still kept in my original Napster folder. FUCK YOU METALLICA!)

Somehow or other I got a hold of two mp3s of Nanase Aikawa. One was Cosmic Love, the other I think was Heat of the Night. I was blown away. Who was this chick with the hard rock sound and the amazing vocals? I had to find more but where?

It was around March of 2000 that my sister and I gathered up a bunch of friends, piled into the car, and drove to Boston and Cambridge Mass. to check out the anime shopping there. Across the street from the Harvard Square station was an amazingly expensive little bookstore, Sasuga Books. I had a habit of dropping in excess of $300 every time I went there. Blowing whole paychecks on that store alone. I didn’t buy much music there (mostly manga) as at the time I thought $30 per CD was outrageously expensive (little did I know).

But I digress, it was during this first trip that I just happened across the newly released album by Nanase Aikawa, FOXTROT. Holy crap. HERE SHE WAS! I was beyond ecstatic. The whole rest of the shopping trip I couldn’t wait to get back to the car so I could listen to that CD. I played it the whole ride home, I played it when I got home, I played it driving to and from work every day, I played it to death. It is not an exaggeration to say that I LOVED and still LOVE that album.

Nanase is very awesome as she was and still is very much Rock n’ Roll. She is the standard to which I hold up all other JRock female artists. I read that in the summer of 07 she went back into the studio to start work on her new album. I can’t wait to see what she has in store!

I’m going to leave you with an invitation to blog about your own first Jpop CD purchases, a promise for an almost decade on track by track review, and the PV for one of my favorite tracks off FOXTROT, Jealousy. Amazingly I couldn’t find the video on Youtube, so I’m providing the Veoh link.

The video is a RIOT to watch. Nanase and her caucasian boyfriend take in a gay homeless man. Said gay homeless man then proceeds to seduce Nanase’s boyfriend into bed. Nanase catches them together, then walks the streets in gloom/despair and runs into a bunch of tranvestites under a bridge. Later gay homeless man attempts to stab Nanase in jealousy, but her boyfriend takes it to the gut instead and instantly dies. In a rage, gay homeless man decides to smash a very nice white car with a sledgehammer for no reason whatsoever. Also, there are random shots of Jell-o/jelly falling to the floor throughout. But the song…. the song is awesome.