Update
11/11/2009
Sorry, I’ve gone 5 months without an update. The truth is I started a new job with an airline and haven’t been able to do much with this site since then. I hope the 100++ guitar tabs and the almost complete transliteration page will tide you over til the next update. I have some interesting stuff on apbank and collaborative work. Let’s see if I can upload them during the weekend. Don’t give up on me yet!
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6/6/2009
Nice date. I’ve added a video clip of Surrender taken from the Q 2000-2001 tour, which also has a live album called 1/42 (tres excellent, do get your hands on it if you can). A word of warning, this clip is taken directly from the official concert DVD so I won’t be surprised if they are removed soon so if you want to keep it in your library, please use my download suggestion at the bottom of the video. This concert DVD, in my opinion, is one of the more enjoyable ones so if you are a fan and are building a Mr.Children collection, you should have this and the 1/42 live album.
Also, my personal thanks to those who dropped me a note, comment and/or email after my long absence. Work is piling up but I will try not to let too much time pass in between posts. There are a few requests that I need to look into i.e. to clean up the guitars page coz there are some songs that I titled wrongly, the transliteration for Classmate (and the rest that I don’t have transliterations for yet) and to dig up news or reviews about the new Tour.
If there is anything specific that you are looking for, and you can’t find it in here, just leave me your comments or drop me an email at ijah@email.com. I try to accommodate as many requests as I can, but I try to stay away from posting MP3s for downloads.
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19/05/2009
(p/s: I am on facebook. Add me as a friend: Ijah Amran)
I know, I know, 3 months is a long time to go without any new updates but if you have been following my personal blog at Killing Time, you will know that I am now running 10 blogs, on top of various non-bloggable side projects that I got myself into. So, it has been a pretty strain on my time to be able to keep all blogs current at the same time so something’s gotta give – unfortunately that something was this site. But I hope the 90++ guitar tabs tide you over, that was a lot of work getting those tabs out so I figured ok, I can afford to relax a little where this site is concerned.
Nothing particularly new in this update, all I did was post some re-hashed news, wallpaper and an encore video from the Home Tour 2007. I am still looking for further reviews of Supermarket Fantasy, most of them are in Japanese so it’ll be some time before I get around to getting them translated.
But, I would love to hear what you think of the album; or about Mr Children in general. How did you discover them (read mine in the Discovery tab)? Which song(s) you like the most? Why? What would be the top 5 Mr Children songs that you would listen to when you are feeling blue? Just leave me your thoughts in the comments box, or email me at ijah@email.com. It’d be nice to hear your perspective and thoughts.
Til next time.
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18/02/2009
I am back from Kota Kinabalu, fell sick like a dog and now have tonnes of work to catch up with. The good news is, I have uploaded most of the chords that I have. You can get them here: Guitar. I also zipped the files into one downloadable file that can be downloaded via 4shared so that you don’t have to download the chords one by one (total size 9MB). It’ll be some time before I can do a massive update like this one so enjoy it while it lasts :-)
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06/02/2009
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11/01/2009
Actually I have updated this blog a few times but didn’t post the updates in here. Anyway, very quickly:
- Added 30++ romaji under Songlist and reconciled all transliterations in my archive (except those for Supermarket Fantasy, which for now is still linked directly to boo’s site utau-inu). The songs marked # would mean that I don’t have the transliteration in my keeping. If you have them, please email them to ijah@email.com or leave them in the comments box.
- If you have not seen Mr Children’s performance of Gift for the new year variety show kouhaku, see it here and weep.
- Also added, live performances of Fasunaa, Drawing and Birdcage from It’s A Wonderful World.
- I’ve also added more reviews of Supermarket Fantasy by other sources, you can read them here.
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22/12/208
- The review for Supermarket Fantasy is finally finished!
- I am going to cheat a bit and using this space to talk (just a little bit) about another musician that I have great admiration for. I know most of you would have never heard of this musician, who goes by the name Maman, as he is a Singaporean artiste who is a strong proponent of neo-nusantara (sometimes mistakenly referred to as neo-folk) genre. His music is punctuated by strong acoustics mixed with traditional elements and instrumentation characteristic of the Malay archipelago. Okay, I know those are a lot of words, why don’t you just give him a listen instead. You can find MP3 downloads of his earlier works here (all downloads have received express permission from originators). While Maman writes almost exclusively in Bahasa Melayu (Malay language), I have included transliterations where applicable. What I do want to point out is, as far as Bahasa Melayu is concerned, his work would rank very high in terms of fluidity, use of imagery and poetic beauty – one of the few that uses the language in a thoughtful and meaningful manner instead of, you know, writing another love song. Come on, indulge me. Give him a listen.
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20/12/2008
Transliteration for Supermarket Fantasy is now available! Only 3 more songs left i.e. Suijyou Bus, Tokyo and Rock’n Roll.
As always, my deepest gratitude to boo and takko of utau-inu for their excellent work. At the moment, I am not going to re-post the transliteration here (though I will be adding them to the archive at a later date), so please click here to go to the goodies (scroll to the tracklisting).
Also, watch the live performance of Shounen, Hanabi and GIFT right here. I am converting these into MP3s in a bit so that you can put them in your mobile units (MP3s players, ipods, 3G phones etc) and listen to them on the go. Please note that I will not post MP3s directly from Supermarket Fantasy, only its live performances that have been performed and broadcast publicly so as to respect the copyright of the originators. Check for information on how to purchase the CD here.
Review coming soon, I promise. I am halfway through it already.
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19/12/2008
MrChildren888 channel on YouTube has been suspended due to sharing and copyright violation so all the videos that I pulled from his channel (including those in the latest Shifuku no Oto post) is no longer available. I am leaving the embedded player in the post coz the screencapture pics can still be seen so at least it gives a nice graphic to the post.
I pulled quite a bit of official PVs from there so if you see broken video links anywhere in this site, do let me know so that I can find alternative links. I have restored the PV for Esora but I am sure there are more. If you find one, leave me a comment k. Thanks!
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16/12/2008
15 days to 2009. Wow. The year has been exceptionally short for me. Updates on the site:
- If you are a fan of Shifuku no Oto, watch the documentary shorts on the making of the album here. The boys looked exceptionally young though this was merely 5 years ago (2003). Looking at Esora, I was secretly hoping they would look a little bit worse for wear but no such luck.
- Piano scores for Sign, Kurumi, Youthful Days and See Saw Game via Innocent World.
- I am reviewing Supermarket Fantasy. It’s not a hard album to like thanks to its breezy, uplifting tone. If the songs for ordinary man theory holds, I see why each song is written like a big, huge motivational piece. Actually while I was listening to the album, I was thinking of Celine Dion’s Power of the Dreams from the Olympics 1996 Atlanta. It has the same feel and style, not musically of course, but the way the songs are arranged – big, polished sounds; crescendos; dramatic strings and orchestral accompaniment etc. Is it a coincidence that Gift was NHK’s official Olympic song? Could that song set the tone for the whole album? Full review once I give the album a couple of more spins.
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13/12/2008
- Supermarket Fantasy is out. Get your copy today! I am in the midst of writing the review, hopefully I’ll get it out this year :-P
- Boo has put up the link to centigrade-j’s archive. Priceless.
- More Golden Circle of Friends videos.
- Still procrastinating on updating the songlist *sheepish grin*
- I’m compiling a playlist of covers by fans on youtube and metacafe that you can vote on, comment and collaborate with if you’d like. Patience, young padawan.
16/11/08
- I have not been able to update this site as often as I’d like to in the past month so my apologies to frequent visitors who are hoping to be able to find something new to read/listen to/watch in here. But, if you had clicked the links in the blogroll, you’d be able to get the latest news on Mr Children from other blogs.
- To those new to this site, here’s a little explanation of what I am trying to do with it. As much as possible it will try not to duplicate the efforts done by other fan sites, so if you are looking for the usual stuff i.e. news, discography, biography, pictures, wallpapers etc, please check the blogroll to the right of the screen. It will have transliterations and romaji lyrics (as many as I can manage), guitar tabs/chords, videos (tributes by fans, covers, side band projects, TV appearances etc), translated articles and every now and then, downloadable MP3s.
- I welcome comments and feedback, and where possible will try to fulfill requests. If you would like to write to me instead of posting comments or to become a contributor or co-editor of the site, please send your email to ijah@email.com.
10/09/08
IJAH’s REQUEST:
I am looking for the english translation of Sorezorede Umareta Otokotachi. I tried posting in the Jpop Music Forum but both times my post was deleted coz apparently they didn’t meet the forum’s guidelines. It is not from a Mr Children’s album I think, since I ran across this clip when I was looking for non-Mr Children videos featuring any of its members.
Anyway, if any of you happen to know of the translation, or any place where I can find the translation, give me a shoutout.
You can see the vid here Golden Circle of Friends: Sorezorede Umareta Otokotachi.
Hi webmaster!
Hi Ijah,
I´m a great fan of Mr. Children, from Brazil, and I wish to congratulate you for this fantastic site.
By the way I´ve been looking for the translation of: Mr.Children:さよなら2001年 (Sayonara 2001)-(B-Side Album – 2007).
Could you help me?
Dewa mata, Ana