It's understandable, though. GNB are [i]too awesome[/i] for a lot of people. Sure, it's frustrating that they haven't released an album, but look at the stuff that [i]has[/i] come out (and is about to come out) from GNB and Mineta:

Aidonwanadai
東北新幹線はチヒロちゃんを乗せて
Hikari
Nightrider
17sai
Mamotte Agetai
Tabi ni dete miyou
Tsutawari
Tsutawari!
Boys on the Run
Berochuu*
the new Ginga Tetsudou no Yoru*
Yume wo Akiramenaide*

*presumably going to be awesome

That's a fuck ton of win tracks. If you're used to albums with only a good song or two on them, consistently awesome releases would be shocking to the system. And Mineta's voice sounding ragged? Have you not been listening to any of their releases since, oh, I don't know, the Going Steady days? The production and vocal style sound about the same as the last two or three releases anyway.

Sigh. I know what Mineta's voice sounds like, I've listened to both going steady and gnb many times. I'm not going to argue with you, but his voice just sounds ragged, and this time it doesn't particularly fit the song to me. Whether it's on purpose or not, I'm not sure, all I'm saying is I didn't enjoy it as much as their previous stuff. I didn't say it was a terrible song, no one said it was a terrible song. Just because someone doesn't think that everything gnb puts out is the greatest thing ever doesn't mean something's wrong with them or their musical taste. But maybe you were just joking, I can't tell.

admittedly, i like plenty of the songs on that list, and really looking forward to their next album. I just wish it would come sooner than later. Listening to a good song, and then having to wait another several months for one or two more good songs is a bit frustrating for me. Like imagine if the pillows released each of the tracks on happy bivouac or little busters over the course of four years. Don't you think it would sorta dampen the impact of those songs as a whole? I'd be a lot more satisfied if we had one or two singles for three or four years or so and then they came out with an album with all the aforementioned songs.

I've whined about the lack of a new album as much as the next guy (though to be fair, Hikari and Aidonwandai together are about as long as some pillows albums of recent years...). But Boys on the Run is still awesome, if you're into that kinda thing. I remember lukewarm reactions to 17sai at first, too. People were put-off by the style of the cover, the abrasiveness, and Mineta's wild vocals. Many of those changed their minds, however, and now dig that track hard.

Not saying you'll dig it. It's certainly not for everyone, but to me Boys on the Run is a lot like 17sai. It seems to have the same concept of like... a totally poppy love song done in this explosive style with edgy vocals and instruments. I think this one takes some soaking in, much like 17sai did.

But maybe I'm full of shit. I dunno, Mare likes it too, but see what Kyle and Grey say.

edit: I'm expecting more or less this sort of reaction after a bit of time.

[quote="GoldenRhino"]I'm starting to change my mind on 17才. The acoustic version definitely helped. I think when you heard the acoustic version, you can get the melody in your head easier, and it's easier to "get" the rel version. It initially sounded way to...all over the place, no real direction. But if you know the melody, it works well.

Sort of weird, but yeah. I dig it.[/quote]

17sai's acoustic version was fantastic. I really loved it, it had a lot more warmth than the band version.
Yeah, I'll probably end up warming up to it a bit more. Although personally, most gnb songs that I like only took me a few listens to start enjoying it.

Now that I think about it, it's possible that gnb is sticking to the punk ethic of only (or mostly)releasing singles, but bands back then did it only because they couldn't afford enough studio time to record a full album, or their songs were too short to make an LP. Just a theory.

At first I thought the BOYZ were extremely annoying and didn't really care to listen, but then I got hooked a little on "Skool Kill" and "I Don't Wanna Die" really sealed the deal. 17sai is one of the best two minute cover songs ever recorded, and it's only flaw is.... that it is only two minutes, which garners more than one listen at a time in order to maintain the fleeting ear orgasm.

I just hope they put this out as a 12" single as well.

Also:
[quote="Jomei"]And @ 4:30 Mineta steals Sawao's "OH YEAH" crown.[/quote]
Quoted for truth.

The first time I listened to Skool Kill the melodies and all the stuff going on were totally lost on me, but I had the same experience of being weirdly-hooked by it and coming back.

I think songs like Skool Kill sold the band to me.

It sounds like they've just wrapped shooting on the PV, which (I think) had about 1000 extras and was shot in Akihabara, Nakano, and Ikebukuro. It also appears that it will be very "omoshiroi"

;OOOO

edit: shitton more locations than that, actually. fuck it

Mineta hard at work on the new PV.


[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v359/yakasmitsen/minetapronpwn.jpg[/img]

Link to the new PV is on Keikaku. It's not cool enough to warrant me linking it, really, as it is only currently on Niconico.

Well, that and the fact that it's possibly the shittiest PV of all time.

It's certainly not the best. But without understanding enough of the Japanese to get much out of it, I wouldn't pass quite such harsh judgment.

A good PV blends visual imagery/narration with the music of the song. This PV has a billion minutes of Japanese dudes talking about stuff, about a third or half of which has the song also playing, but the volume mix makes it so that when the music is on it's hard to really pay attention to either, rendering the idea of setting your music to a video completely worthless. What we get is something that is impossible to enjoy for either aspect. Alone, them having a bunch of young Japanese dudes is interesting at best, but certainly not going to be awesome, whereas the song by itself is awesome. However, when you take something that's "interesting at best" and then superimpose it over an awesome song such that you can't even really hear the damned song, you get "the shittiest PV of all time."

Unless one objects to your narrow idea of what a good PV can be, which I do.

We can agree that ideally a PV will express something that can be interpreted and understood by the listeners/viewers, correct? If so, only the part before the music starts playing is capable of achieving this, since as I've stated, once the music starts playing you can neither hear the music nor the responses clearly, thus removing that all-too-important ability to really understand wtf is going on.