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Kiroro announces another hiatus – Tokyograph
The female duo Kiroro held a short concert in Okinawa on Sunday. During the show, vocalist Chiharu Tamashiro announced that the group will go on hiatus by the end of the year. The news has been expected since August, when keyboardist Ayano Kinjo revealed that she was pregnant with her second child. Kiroro previously went…
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Kariyushi58’s new single set for a November release
Kariyushi58 will be releasing a new single on November 11th titled “Nana.” Included with the A-side song are the tracks “Kaze no Utai Hito,” “Aoi Basu,” and a cover of a song from The Blue Hearts. View the band’s YouTube playlist to see a bunch of their PVs. (Via bounce.com.)
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SPEED to release first single in 5 years!
It was just last month that our beloved J-pop quartet SPEED got back together and now we have news of a release of a new single—their first in 5 years! (The group’s last single, released in 2003, was “Walking in the rain.”) The single, “Ashita no Sora,” will be released on November 5, 2008, in…
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Stereo Pony to be the next big artist out of Okinawa?
I’ve seen a few of them come and go but can J-rock girl band Stereo Pony be the next big artist out of Okinawa in following the gigantic footsteps of ORANGE RANGE (OR) and HIGH and MIGHTY COLOR (HandMC)? If history is any indication, the answer should be a resounding yes, they can and that’s…
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A trio of upcoming singles to look out for
HIGH and MIGHTY COLOR’s “Remember,” marked for a 10/15/08 release, will be the band’s last single featuring their lead singer Maakii—who, after announcing her marriage to DREAMS COME TRUE’s bassist Masato Nakamura this past June, will retire from the band. O-pop duo Yanawarabaa will be releasing their 9th single, “Present,” on 11/5/08. “Present” follows the…
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Kariyushi58’s new single, “Kibou no Uta,” gets a street date
Popular rock/reggae quartet, Kariyushi58, will be releasing their next single as a Tower Records limited release on 9/24/08. The single, “Kibou no Uta,” is the CM song for Asahi Shinbunsha’s soccer promotion and there will be a special release of 3,000 copies of the single that will contain a secret track. (Via bounce.com.)
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Alan sings “Nada Sou Sou”
OK, I know we don’t normally go outside of our Okinawan pop culture bubble but we had to blog about this J-pop singer that we’re totally excited about: Alan (in keeping with the Japanese infatuation with using lowercase for names, in the J-pop world her name is listed as alan). Alan is a Tibetan/Chinese singer…
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New BEGIN single, “Ichariba Ohana,” gets a release date!
The J-blues trio known as BEGIN have been pretty busy this year with TV appearances (even making an appearance on the popular music show HEY!³ last month), their nationwide “BEGIN no Ichigo Ichie Concert 2008” tour, and they already have a new single set to be released on 10/22/08. The single, called “Ichariba Ohana,” will…
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RYUKYUDISKO’s new single “Top of the Island” set for release on 10/29/08
Having released a single back in July (“OK Sampler”) RYUKYUDISKO will be releasing their second single for 2008 titled “Top of the Island” which is the current theme song to the NHK show “Top Runner.” The single from the techno band also features a remix of the awesome song “Yume no FUTURE feat. KOTOMI” (featured…
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Yui Aragaki to cover Kobukuro song – Tokyograph
Actress Yui Aragaki has announced her second single. It will be a cover of Kobukuro’s ‘Akai Ito,’ a song originally created during their indie days. With this year being the 10th anniversary of their formation, Kobukuro decided to collaborate with a female artist to give the song new life. Aragaki made her singing debut last…
Karakui 