Choose me or die: Tommy February6 ! ^_^
Hi everybody... once again I'm sorry for the sporadic updates... :-S You know, having a music blog takes more time than anybody can initially think of, and sometimes, even if I love blogging and seeing that some of you out there are enjoying the music I post, I really don't like investing my free time spending those precious hours in front of the computer... Summer is almost here, the weather is improving dramatically where I live and, naturally, I want to go outside with friends, tan a bit, enjoy the lake, have a beer late at night and all that jazz ! In any case, today we have a special guest that I hope will make it up to you. And by "special", I mean "demented"... :-D 
Behold the absolute coolness and greatness that is Tommy February6 ! Yes, people, you are going to love this lady or I will have to personally smack you all with her plastic microphone filled with candy. And I mean it. Tomoko Kawase -her real name- is the vocalist and lyricist to Jpop/rock group The Brilliant Green, one of the few bands that actually innovated music in Japan with their sound, which is close to classic American guitar rock. Having enjoyed a significant success with The Brilliant Green (a group that deserves a post of their own, for sure), Tomoko kicked off a solo career in 2001 while the band took a hiatus. However, nothing in Tomoko's previous discography would have hinted to what Japan and the world were about to witness from her...
In July 25th of that year, Tomoko dropped her first solo single ("Everyday at the Bus Stop") under the name Tommy February6 (the 6 is silent and written as an exponential number, FYI), boasting a brand new sound and style. Her new stage name is a combination of her nickname inside The Brilliant Green and her actual birthday date. Tommy February6 is a made-up character: a girl that sings the most retro 80's synth pop you could have EVER thought of while dressed in 60's clothes and eyewear.
She appears in almost ALL of her videos in extremely girly pink settings, surrounded by cheerleaders (this was before Gwen Stefani took the idea for her Hollaback Girl video), fluffy pelouches, plastic toys and everything Hello Kitty, Sanrio's Star Twins and even Pokemon paraphernalia ! She frequently looks drunk in her videos, almost falling while trying to perform for the footage, badly lipsyncing, dancing to really simple choreographies, bored and looking like she wished she was somewhere else ! I swear that when you see the final product, the result is absolutely hilarious and you have to have a lot of humour to appreciate the whole package: the hommage to bubblegum pop in the music and the ludicrous concepts in her cheap videos. If you are trying to imagine what the hell I'm talking about, then check out her video for her hit "Love is forever" right here, courtesy of tommyandnacote & YouTube !
If you're not chuckling after seeing that, I don't know what is wrong with you... Anyway, after a string of hits, Tommy released her self-titled debut album (when else?) on February 6 2002 to great success. Tommy is not only about the music -which is fun, contagious and nostalgic- but also about a whole marketing campaign that has put out a clothing line, an official doll, a sticker collection... everything you can think of carries her logo by now. Her second album, which I post today, is called "Tommy Airline" and stayed loyal to her trademark sound. And which is that particular sound ? Well, as I mentioned lines above, her music is 80's synth pop taken to the extreme. You will listen to this album and songs like "Je t'aime, Je t'aime" will remind you of early Mylène Farmer or Vanessa Paradis; "Dancing baby" recalls the very beginnings of Madonna, and in many others you will think that she is channeling by turns Laura Branigan, Erasure, Kylie Minogue and many, many other stars that made this sound recognizable throughout the decade we love to hate in music: the fantastic 80's ! ^_^
Yet, after this release, Tomoko will take some distance from her Tommy February6 alter ego... and would develop another ! Yes, a bit dissatisfied with her TF6 persona, Tomoko created and alter ego to her alter ego (?!) called "Tommy Heavenly6" (?!?!), a punk chick that also released several singles and an album that was equally successful. Tommy Heavenly is radically different from February in image, sound, and substituted the cheerleaders of the latter for a band of Caucasian musicians that appear in her videos having a blast with her, much like in Avril Lavigne's video to her first hit, "Complicated". Tomoko likes to refer to February and Heavenly as other sides to her, one lighter and the other darker, but those characteristics may only apply to the music, going from pop to straighforward punk... but not in personalities, given that February usually looks like a drunk catatonic beyotch...
In any case, here you have "Tommy Airline", released in 2004. The 12 tracks are followed by 3 other tracks from the "Lonely in Gorgeous" single (yeah, don't ask about the gramatically correctness of that title...), which became the return to the spotlight of February after Heavenly seemed to have taken over for good. The song is one of the best that February has put out, and was used as the OP to the TV series of that great Ai Yazawa manga "Paradise Kiss". I have to post that video, just for you to have another taste of Tommy February6's music before you download the album, and because it's one of the most accomplished combinations of music and imagery that I have recently seen in any OP or ED. Here you have it courtesy of kuroinamida1 @ YouTube:
I have also included a couple of c/w songs from her singles, as a final touch... You know... because basically I'm THAT cool... Anyway, what is Tomoko doing right now ? Well, The Brilliant Green unfortunately seem on a permanent break and she on her own is doing so well that I don't know if they're ever reuniting... After the "Lonely in Gorgeous" single, she came back to her Heavenly self and next July she's releasing the single "Pray", OP of the TV series "Gintama". Here is the album, guys, so enjoy it and bring back 80's POP ! ^_^
In July 25th of that year, Tomoko dropped her first solo single ("Everyday at the Bus Stop") under the name Tommy February6 (the 6 is silent and written as an exponential number, FYI), boasting a brand new sound and style. Her new stage name is a combination of her nickname inside The Brilliant Green and her actual birthday date. Tommy February6 is a made-up character: a girl that sings the most retro 80's synth pop you could have EVER thought of while dressed in 60's clothes and eyewear.
She appears in almost ALL of her videos in extremely girly pink settings, surrounded by cheerleaders (this was before Gwen Stefani took the idea for her Hollaback Girl video), fluffy pelouches, plastic toys and everything Hello Kitty, Sanrio's Star Twins and even Pokemon paraphernalia ! She frequently looks drunk in her videos, almost falling while trying to perform for the footage, badly lipsyncing, dancing to really simple choreographies, bored and looking like she wished she was somewhere else ! I swear that when you see the final product, the result is absolutely hilarious and you have to have a lot of humour to appreciate the whole package: the hommage to bubblegum pop in the music and the ludicrous concepts in her cheap videos. If you are trying to imagine what the hell I'm talking about, then check out her video for her hit "Love is forever" right here, courtesy of tommyandnacote & YouTube !
If you're not chuckling after seeing that, I don't know what is wrong with you... Anyway, after a string of hits, Tommy released her self-titled debut album (when else?) on February 6 2002 to great success. Tommy is not only about the music -which is fun, contagious and nostalgic- but also about a whole marketing campaign that has put out a clothing line, an official doll, a sticker collection... everything you can think of carries her logo by now. Her second album, which I post today, is called "Tommy Airline" and stayed loyal to her trademark sound. And which is that particular sound ? Well, as I mentioned lines above, her music is 80's synth pop taken to the extreme. You will listen to this album and songs like "Je t'aime, Je t'aime" will remind you of early Mylène Farmer or Vanessa Paradis; "Dancing baby" recalls the very beginnings of Madonna, and in many others you will think that she is channeling by turns Laura Branigan, Erasure, Kylie Minogue and many, many other stars that made this sound recognizable throughout the decade we love to hate in music: the fantastic 80's ! ^_^
Yet, after this release, Tomoko will take some distance from her Tommy February6 alter ego... and would develop another ! Yes, a bit dissatisfied with her TF6 persona, Tomoko created and alter ego to her alter ego (?!) called "Tommy Heavenly6" (?!?!), a punk chick that also released several singles and an album that was equally successful. Tommy Heavenly is radically different from February in image, sound, and substituted the cheerleaders of the latter for a band of Caucasian musicians that appear in her videos having a blast with her, much like in Avril Lavigne's video to her first hit, "Complicated". Tomoko likes to refer to February and Heavenly as other sides to her, one lighter and the other darker, but those characteristics may only apply to the music, going from pop to straighforward punk... but not in personalities, given that February usually looks like a drunk catatonic beyotch...
In any case, here you have "Tommy Airline", released in 2004. The 12 tracks are followed by 3 other tracks from the "Lonely in Gorgeous" single (yeah, don't ask about the gramatically correctness of that title...), which became the return to the spotlight of February after Heavenly seemed to have taken over for good. The song is one of the best that February has put out, and was used as the OP to the TV series of that great Ai Yazawa manga "Paradise Kiss". I have to post that video, just for you to have another taste of Tommy February6's music before you download the album, and because it's one of the most accomplished combinations of music and imagery that I have recently seen in any OP or ED. Here you have it courtesy of kuroinamida1 @ YouTube:
I have also included a couple of c/w songs from her singles, as a final touch... You know... because basically I'm THAT cool... Anyway, what is Tomoko doing right now ? Well, The Brilliant Green unfortunately seem on a permanent break and she on her own is doing so well that I don't know if they're ever reuniting... After the "Lonely in Gorgeous" single, she came back to her Heavenly self and next July she's releasing the single "Pray", OP of the TV series "Gintama". Here is the album, guys, so enjoy it and bring back 80's POP ! ^_^
Labels: CD Album, Jpop, Tommy February6
posted by AOI at 7:47 PM
3 Comments:
Oha!! a parte de todo lo ochentoso que tiene Tommy en la música, también tiene un montón de cosas de los Little Twin Stars!!*__*, heredé un par de cosas de mis hermanas pero no tan lindas como las que muestran en el video ^^.
No te hagas mala sangre, voy a seguir entrando a la página aunque me cueste un poco leer, te lo merecés por todo el trabajo que te tomás, te felicito!
Saludos ;)
P/D: Lonley in Gorgeous se me pegó casi tanto como Oha!, me encanta esa canción.
Hola, Delfinae, gracias por tu apoyo ! :-) Si, a mi tambien apenas escuché "Lonely in Gorgeous" se me pego mucho, pero emepecé a escuchar sobre ella con "Everyday at the bus stop", de su primer album. Espero que no hayas tenido problemas para bajar el archivo. Si es asi, avisame, porque se que a veces estos servidores gratis como rapidshare no andan bien para varios paises... :-S
can you please put a link to airline on other file host? i have try several days and can not retrieve. :(
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