Pinkish: Info (Part 1/2)

At first it started out with difficultly finding information about Pinkish (or Pinkisshu). An hour or so of researching later, and there is a LOT more to the group than I originally thought. They are the second to sing in the 5th video of TIF, following after Idoling!!! They only get around 27 seconds of spotlight, but it's something!

The quest for info! I like to dig up background on these groups, because it's interesting and fun. Though it's also sometimes quiet a chore if the group isn't well known. Over the last few days I've spent some time listening to Pinkish and trying to find out more about them. I first tried looking for videos on YT, and turned up with around 5 to 6!

The next step would be using search sites (I'm such a Google gal), but the problem is that with a name like Pinkish -lacking kanji or even romaji- I got a lot of results about things pinkish colored, makeup, etc. Totally unrelated to the Japanese idol unit. So then I used my thinking cap, and googled for 'google.jp' ~ since whenever you see that little 'jp' in a URL you know it's a Japanese site.

And TADA, I clicked on the link it turned up and from there I again searched Pinkish. The websites results were a little confusing for me, so I switched to images and was quite successful! Especially on one blog in particular; www.ecity.ne.jp ~ I'm not exactly sure who writes it, though I think it covers going-ons in the Saitama Prefecture.

The blog is linked to the YT account Saijiman; which is pretty much the only place I could find Pinkish's videos. Here are all of the entries under the label Pinkisshu. There are a lot of good pictures of the girls at different events, mainly from 2009. At the TIF only three girls performed, thus I first thought it a trio unit. But after finding their ja.wikipedia page, I learned differently.

Idoling (Part 2/2)

The reason I am focusing more on NA・GA・RA is because that was the first song performed by Idoling members at TIF. What took me a bit to figure out though, is WHO sang it. Two of the original members of GizaGiza Idoling graduated- Koizumi Rumi (Jan 2009) and Michelle Miki (Mar 2009) -cutting their numbers down by half. So at first I thought maybe the company simply added girls to fill in their place, meaning that Fonchi and Miyake would have still performed.

I felt really lame when I figured it out, because it was glaringly obvious. If you look at the image up there (a screenshot of the video playing on my computer, cause, oh yes, I have it downloaded), in the lower right hand corner above the song's title on the blue/yellow strip it says 'フリフリアイドリング!!!' So it ended up being Furi (フリフリ) performing Giza (ギザギザ) 's song at TIF.

Idoling!!! (Part 1/2)

Here is Idoling!!!'s cast member page at their official website. They've really taken a page from Morning Musume's book, in that they started off with nine girls making up the first generation and from there they've had members come and go. They added their 4th gen in 2010 and currently have 20 girls overall.

When you first look at a list of all the singers who've been in Momusu, along with their generation and what year they left the group- it can really make you feel lost. When I started looking into Idoling because of TIF, I had had no idea that they were running their group in a similar way. I saw all the girls' pictures and their numbers and the different gens and was like 'oh. . .'

But -as when it comes to the 'getting to know who's who' part regardless of who the group is- if you take it a bit at a time it's not all that daunting. I feel that before I jump right into their first performance in TIF, I should share a little bit of their early works. And of their first three singles, one is very befitting at the moment.

Rambles + Various Groups

I don't want to only write about idol groups that performed at the Tokyo Idol Festival; it was merely my main inspiration. Hello! Project is so big and such an attention grabber, that it captures many listeners that are new to the world of Asian music. I was dazzled when I first discovered it, because there is nothing like it here in the US.

But what many fans (including myself at one point) don't realize because they're too busy drowning themselves in the music & going-ons of Momusu, Berryz & C-ute (etc) is that there are SO MANY other idol groups out there.

Twinkle Twinkle, sweet SG

Aren't they adorable?! I've been meaning to blog about SG again, gathering pictures and any info I could find the last few days, so here we go! When I saw the above image I wanted to start off with the formation of さくら学院　バトン部『Twinklestars』. Or as I am simply going to call them; Twinklestars (or if you prefer, Tinkurusutazu). I read about it in the news section of Sakura Gakuin's website.

The seven girls are all members of the main group- thus I suppose I see this as sort of a subunit. The girls are (from left to right in the photo); Moa, Hinata, Marina, Ayami, Raura, Nene and Yui. As the picture easily tells us, they will be doing more than the usual; they'll also be twirling batons!

I'm not positive yet if they are meant to be a performing group, but their site also mentions a 'pre-debut single' which makes me think that they will be. Their single is listed as Dear Mr.Socrates, which will include only the song and instrumental. It's going for ￥800 and will be online only. There is also a news page on their very own website, which has similar info listed + more!

Previews + Farmin' + Album

キラ・ピュア・POWER！ (left) ~ 恋愛ルール (right)

I discovered these previews in the S☆G thread at Hello-Online. They were posted by Stellosphere, who is the Gallery and News updater at the STYLE blog (the Tokyo Girls' Style source), and a Global Mod at STYLE forums. On first impression, I didn't care for KP POWER very much, but it's one of those grow-on-you songs. It's cutesy, upbeat and actually pretty fun. Nice melodies.

I like that Reira got to solo in the beginning of Renai Rule! So far Avex has been pretty fair in line division. She was somewhat pitchy in the live performance, but I think she'll pull it off really well with more practice! I'm a bit iffy with this song- I like the verses & pre-chorus, but the chorus doesn't appeal to me much. I think I like KP POWER more, lol. But I'd like to wait for a better performance to go by.

S☆G's studio sound

Where do I start!? I suppose with this!

The above is not a video! LOL. I don't understand why people disable embedding of YT videos. Maybe I'm missing some obvious reason, but whatev. I just end up screenshotting and making do. Here is the link to the above performance, the japanese in the vid's drop down section mentions some info on the group and roughly tells us;

出席者：ＳＵＰＥＲ☆ＧｉＲＬＳ
2010年10月2日；ＳＨＩＯＤＯＭＥ−ＡＸ（東京・汐留）

Attendees: SUPER ☆ GiRLS
Sun October 02 2010; SHIODOME-AX (Shiodome, Tokyo)

My main reason for sharing this is that STUDIO VERSIONS of all three songs can be heard!! Most people know that from time to time -be it on TV shows, in concerts, or elsewhere- idol groups either lipsynch or sing with themselves. It always kind of disappoints me when I see it, but I know it's usually not the girls' decision. At their Shiodome-AX performance, S☆G members sang with themselves.

As in, the official recorded track played instead of just an instrumental and the girls also sang live. Thus we get to hear sort of a double vocal thing going on, it's especially noticeable during the solos. And when you hear the chorus or other group-parts, you can tell that it's a recording. But!! In this case I'm kind of excited, because before listening to this video, I had yet to hear what the girls would sound like in studio.