Ni-Hao! (ニーハオ!, ni-hao!)
Dec 11, 2016 18:25:16 GMT -5
Post by tangerinesun on Dec 11, 2016 18:25:16 GMT -5
Ni-Hao!
(ニーハオ!, Ni Hao, Ni Hao!, ni-hao!)
Emi Morimoto's old college band from Kyoto is about as alive as it's ever been.
For some time now, their Roman spelling is all lower-case, with a hyphen and a bang.
The 2016 profile for their Mixi Community says Ni-Hao without ! is "not allowed".
Bassist Mie of THE LET'S GO's announced she's joining the "all-girl experimental cheer punks" Ni-Hao!.
No departure from her rootsy rock'n'roll band. This is in-addition-to, with Coco's blessing as I understand.
Clockwise from LL: Mie, Ariko, Mika, Yukari
What will this combination be like? Mie plays standard song forms in a serious-minded way, while
Yukari is eccentric, chaotic, weird and impulsive — like a garage-ier and less frightening Afrirampo.
Yukari Operating Principles:
1. If it feels good, do it (harder).
2. If it ain't broke, break it
The original band brief was, "explosive groove." Currently the Ni-Hao! philosophy is Cheer(ful) Punk.
They say, "virtuosic short pieces filled with stop and start precision, dramatic changes and charming
vocals." That sounds like something their label wrote.
They're still compared to the usual suspects from Kansai:
You suspect that the Kyoto underground is the only place on earth they could have come from.
They are friends of any underground act, especially if it's strange, transgressive, liberating or
primitive, or has jokes. Goes double for girls. For Yukari, that includes a idol act like BiSH.
She named as early inspirations Kim Gordon and the Slits. I'd compare her to Mariko Gotou
of Midori and sometimes, a little, Cibo Matto.
〜〜〜〜〜
Although it's Yukari's unit, the uncrackable core of Ni-hao! has been the two-player team
of Yukari with Ariko. Ariko took over Emi's vacant drum chair, and Ni-hao! performed for a
long while as a duo when Yukari's son was very young.
Other players with signature colors are official, but they do seem to come and go.
Currently Ni-Hao! includes… one-year veteran guitarist Pink-Miko, ex all OK…
and their brand-new bass player, YELLOW MIWAKO, who comes on as
Purple-Elena bows out (just after recording finished on the latest album).
They have a half-dozen labels, but officially still list John Zorn's Tzadik in New York.
Tzadik's done a good job for them, getting them on iTunes and Spotify and into the
recorded sound collection of the US Library of Congress.
〜〜〜〜〜
Ni-Hao! gappy timeline
1998–99
Yukari is an underground art-punk star on the college circuit in her first Ritsumeikan University band,
Limited Express (has gone?), with guitarist JJ (Iida Jinichiro) and drummer Narazaki Koji. That leaves
room for an all-girl project. Ni-Hao! will always feel a bit like the feminine face of LimitedEx.
2000
Ni-Hao! forms as ニーハオ! in Kyoto, out of the Rock Commune of Ritsumeikan University — the same club
that will later spawn Otoboke Beaver. Original lineup: Yukari and Ariko, both on bass, with "Leo" (Emi Morimoto)
on drums, because there was a dire shortage of drummers.
First self-produced releases on music cassettes. Blue/Red/Green color IDs are established, and so is the
avant-punk experimentalism. Influences include modern classical composers Yukari has studied, and Kyoto
punk bands like the twin-bass unit Ultra Bide.
2001
In June a split CD-R EP with the Fukuoka girl-punk trio GARORINZ on the GyaruGyaru Recōz label
of their guitarist, Yoshie Fujii. Yukari will always look on this as a first break in the business.
A version of "Candy" is already on this one.
2002
Wikipedia says Ni-Hao! vs GARORINZU was released in June this year.
They've been wrong about other things, though.
2003
Gigging busily, including a date at Koenji 20000V with Doi Uroco's Minzoku Kurukuru.
In her spare time, Emi's probably finishing her university program.
2004
Commercial debut with two mini-album releases, Red (April 14) and Blue (July 14) on the
independent label UMMO Records. Each CD has half a dozen guest credits. John Zorn gets
wind of them through his underground scene connections.
2005 OCT 02 in Seoul, two amateurs with two experienced hardcore photo subjects – James Creegan photo
2005
Tour of South Korea (October). Re-release of Red and Blue with a bonus audio track as the
video-enhanced CD compilation album Red Blue Green on the Tenzenmen label of Sydney, AU.
The Gorgeous album is released on September 30, after an invitation from John Zorn to record
and perform in New York that June. Hurricane Katrina set the release back a week.
2006 in Brisbane – Marie Saki photo
2006
Tour of Australia (February). The new-hao! album is released (August) as a CD+DVD package,
9 songs plus an MV and some live video with extras (Poet Portraits, distributed by Tenzenmen).
Sampling and synthesizer are added to the act for a new-wavier feel; Yukari has somewhat
taken over on a bare-bones drum kit, while the other two work with keyboards. new-hao!
tops the Disk Union sales chart for 6 weeks running. Earlier in the year, two promotional
videos have been in heavy rotation on Music Japan TV.
2007
In a clean break, Leo/Emi leaves Ni-Hao! for Ultra Jr. with Hidenori Fujiwara of Ultra Bide
and JJ of Limited Express (has gone?) (joined 2007 MAR, first gig 2007 APR 10).
Ni-Hao! don't talk about Emi, and Emi doesn't talk about Ni-Hao!
Ultra Jr. won't last long — Hide is already too busy, and will fold it up after Emi accepts
a full-time job with Shonen Knife. Emi has been part-timing it in Nasca Car and Mamastudio
for various lengths of time. The year winds down with Yukari increasingly pregnant with a
first child (with Jun Taniguchi, producer, collaborator, and label owner at Less Than TV).
2008
Yukari's son Kyoumei is born on February 07, three weeks early. She had just played a show in Nagoya
with LimitedEx on February 04; in less than 6 weeks, she's back in the studio.
After a resolution to re-think everything, Ni-Hao! continues as a two-piece in which Yukari and Ariko both
sing and play bass, drums, whatever else. The flavor now is more punk/hardcore. Yukari is still busy with
LimitedEx and other projects. With childcare added, Ni-Hao! band activities slip into maintenance mode.
2006 careful parenting at LimitedEx gigs: earmuffs on bandstand
2009
Short tour of Australia with LimitedEx and Beaches in the last week of October. "It's fun working on
two things," says Yukari, but LimitedEx is still Thing One.
2010
More regular live schedule for spring and summer. Yukari is working on recording new Ni-Hao! material
with guest performers, but "it can't be released because of LimitedEx." Yukari's dear friend Yoshie Fujii
from GARORINS loses to cancer at the beginning of November. Ni-Hao! helps to stage "Bravo Tengoku",
a last memorial fundraiser in Tokyo in December. There were plans for a series of shows together.
Enthusiasm to finish the album is hard to find.
2011
The Marvelous album released through Tzadik in July. Helpers include Ken Takehisa: Guitar
☆ Kenji Honzawa: Saxophone ☆ Masayuki Chatani: Drums ☆ Mikito Tsurugi: Bass
☆ Lakin’ of kiiiiiii and U.T.: Chorus.
2012
Still poking around in 2012.
2013
On a winter tour of the US, Ni-Hao! meet Jazmin and Jennifer Romero, Latina twin sisters
from Los Angeles. Instant friends. Ni-Hao! are puzzling over how to expand, when it's so
convenient managing just two members and they aren't finding any new girls they like.
The solution: "almost as a joke", to sign up two new members that they do like… who
can't get in the way because they are never around.
2014 – rehearsing No Respect in Kyoto
2014
Early in the year, new members (Gt.) Silver-Jazmin and (Ba.) Gold-Jennifer are admitted to
the band. "We don’t care about the distance. We are worldwide girls," say Ni-Hao!
Yukari and Ariko both concentrate on left drums, right drums, vocals, and electronic keyboards.
Now their lyrics are in Spanish, as well as English, Japanese, and baby talk.
2015 at Borofesta, an annual festival produced by LimitedEx members
2015
The No Respect album is released in March on the <omochi records> label, available as a CD from
the band or at Disk Union, or for download at Bandcamp from the Australian distributor, Tenzenmen.
At the beginning of November, after five final shows in Japan with all four members, twins Jazmin
and Jennifer graduate out to be replaced immediately by new official members Pink-Miko (ex all OK)
on guitar and Purple-Elena (Rururu Kin) on bass.
The 2015 All-Japan team. Elena is behind Yukari with a hand on her shoulder.
2016
The PAYDIRT album completed in November, a double-CD release with many guests from Yukari's
other bands and relations through the Less Than TV label. Shortly after, Elena leaves to be
replaced by Yellow-Miwako.
〜〜〜〜〜
Ni-Hao are:
Vo/Ba Blue–YUKARI
Vo/Dr/Synth Red–ARIKO
Vo/Gt Pink–MIKO
Vo/Ba Yellow–MIWAKO
And formerly included:
Ba Purple–Elena
Ba Black–WAC
Gt Silver–Jazmin
Ba Gold–Jennifer
Dr Green–Leo
Ni-Hao have been retiring the signature color whenever its member leaves.
Yukari wrote, "It'd be good to do an All-Stars show sometime, wouldn't it?
Nowadays, all of us going on stage would look like Precure or Kamen Rider."
At Facebook:
facebook.com/ni-hao-162867023765897
YouTube playlist:
youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6C6035307007F311
Ni-Hao! Journal at Excite:
nihao2180.exblog.jp/
From 2007 AUG after Emi's departure (Green Leo never mentioned)
Homepage (very unmaintained):
ni-hao-ni-hao.com/
Ni-Hao! NEWS at Geocities (2004–2006):
geocities.jp/nihaoblue/news.html
Ni-Hao! at Tzadik:
tzadik.com/index.php?catalog=7269
ニーハオ! search on Disk Union.net:
diskunion.net/portal/ct/search?m=11&q=ニーハオ%21...
At Bandcamp on tenzenmen:
Red Blue Green
No Respect
At Spotify (Tzadik releases only, currently unavailable in US):
open.spotify.com/artist/2rq2Ey2tW4ZBG0K9OAg39k
At MySpace (grave-marker site):
myspace.com/nihao2180
Ustream channel:
ustream.tv/channel/ni-hao1
At Last.fm:
last.fm/music/Ni+Hao!
At Discogs.com:
discogs.com/artist/1516027-ニーハオ!
Ni-Hao! community at Mixi.jp:
mixi.jp/view_community.pl?id=62022
〜〜〜〜〜
"2180", like at MySpace or Excite?
It can be decoded into roman letters as NI—HAO:
2 >> NI (usual pronunciation of the cardinal number)
1 >> — ("ichi" is written as one stroke, resembling a dash and/or a long-vowel mark)
8 >> HA (first syllable of "hachi", eight)
0 >> O (arabic 〇 looks like roman O)
Feel free to use at obscure J-rock parties.
(ニーハオ!, Ni Hao, Ni Hao!, ni-hao!)
Emi Morimoto's old college band from Kyoto is about as alive as it's ever been.
For some time now, their Roman spelling is all lower-case, with a hyphen and a bang.
The 2016 profile for their Mixi Community says Ni-Hao without ! is "not allowed".
Bassist Mie of THE LET'S GO's announced she's joining the "all-girl experimental cheer punks" Ni-Hao!.
No departure from her rootsy rock'n'roll band. This is in-addition-to, with Coco's blessing as I understand.
Clockwise from LL: Mie, Ariko, Mika, Yukari
What will this combination be like? Mie plays standard song forms in a serious-minded way, while
Yukari is eccentric, chaotic, weird and impulsive — like a garage-ier and less frightening Afrirampo.
Yukari Operating Principles:
1. If it feels good, do it (harder).
2. If it ain't broke, break it
The original band brief was, "explosive groove." Currently the Ni-Hao! philosophy is Cheer(ful) Punk.
They say, "virtuosic short pieces filled with stop and start precision, dramatic changes and charming
vocals." That sounds like something their label wrote.
They're still compared to the usual suspects from Kansai:
| Afrirampo Boredoms Grind Orchestra | Haco Hijokaidan Hoaiho | Nasca Car OOIOO Oshiri Penpenz |
You suspect that the Kyoto underground is the only place on earth they could have come from.
They are friends of any underground act, especially if it's strange, transgressive, liberating or
primitive, or has jokes. Goes double for girls. For Yukari, that includes a idol act like BiSH.
She named as early inspirations Kim Gordon and the Slits. I'd compare her to Mariko Gotou
of Midori and sometimes, a little, Cibo Matto.
〜〜〜〜〜
Although it's Yukari's unit, the uncrackable core of Ni-hao! has been the two-player team
of Yukari with Ariko. Ariko took over Emi's vacant drum chair, and Ni-hao! performed for a
long while as a duo when Yukari's son was very young.
Other players with signature colors are official, but they do seem to come and go.
Currently Ni-Hao! includes… one-year veteran guitarist Pink-Miko, ex all OK…
and their brand-new bass player, YELLOW MIWAKO, who comes on as
Purple-Elena bows out (just after recording finished on the latest album).
They have a half-dozen labels, but officially still list John Zorn's Tzadik in New York.
Tzadik's done a good job for them, getting them on iTunes and Spotify and into the
recorded sound collection of the US Library of Congress.
〜〜〜〜〜
Ni-Hao! gappy timeline
1998–99
Yukari is an underground art-punk star on the college circuit in her first Ritsumeikan University band,
Limited Express (has gone?), with guitarist JJ (Iida Jinichiro) and drummer Narazaki Koji. That leaves
room for an all-girl project. Ni-Hao! will always feel a bit like the feminine face of LimitedEx.
2000
Ni-Hao! forms as ニーハオ! in Kyoto, out of the Rock Commune of Ritsumeikan University — the same club
that will later spawn Otoboke Beaver. Original lineup: Yukari and Ariko, both on bass, with "Leo" (Emi Morimoto)
on drums, because there was a dire shortage of drummers.
First self-produced releases on music cassettes. Blue/Red/Green color IDs are established, and so is the
avant-punk experimentalism. Influences include modern classical composers Yukari has studied, and Kyoto
punk bands like the twin-bass unit Ultra Bide.
2001
In June a split CD-R EP with the Fukuoka girl-punk trio GARORINZ on the GyaruGyaru Recōz label
of their guitarist, Yoshie Fujii. Yukari will always look on this as a first break in the business.
A version of "Candy" is already on this one.
2002
Wikipedia says Ni-Hao! vs GARORINZU was released in June this year.
They've been wrong about other things, though.
2003
Gigging busily, including a date at Koenji 20000V with Doi Uroco's Minzoku Kurukuru.
In her spare time, Emi's probably finishing her university program.
2004
Commercial debut with two mini-album releases, Red (April 14) and Blue (July 14) on the
independent label UMMO Records. Each CD has half a dozen guest credits. John Zorn gets
wind of them through his underground scene connections.
2005 OCT 02 in Seoul, two amateurs with two experienced hardcore photo subjects – James Creegan photo
2005
Tour of South Korea (October). Re-release of Red and Blue with a bonus audio track as the
video-enhanced CD compilation album Red Blue Green on the Tenzenmen label of Sydney, AU.
The Gorgeous album is released on September 30, after an invitation from John Zorn to record
and perform in New York that June. Hurricane Katrina set the release back a week.
2006 in Brisbane – Marie Saki photo
2006
Tour of Australia (February). The new-hao! album is released (August) as a CD+DVD package,
9 songs plus an MV and some live video with extras (Poet Portraits, distributed by Tenzenmen).
Sampling and synthesizer are added to the act for a new-wavier feel; Yukari has somewhat
taken over on a bare-bones drum kit, while the other two work with keyboards. new-hao!
tops the Disk Union sales chart for 6 weeks running. Earlier in the year, two promotional
videos have been in heavy rotation on Music Japan TV.
2007
In a clean break, Leo/Emi leaves Ni-Hao! for Ultra Jr. with Hidenori Fujiwara of Ultra Bide
and JJ of Limited Express (has gone?) (joined 2007 MAR, first gig 2007 APR 10).
Ni-Hao! don't talk about Emi, and Emi doesn't talk about Ni-Hao!
Ultra Jr. won't last long — Hide is already too busy, and will fold it up after Emi accepts
a full-time job with Shonen Knife. Emi has been part-timing it in Nasca Car and Mamastudio
for various lengths of time. The year winds down with Yukari increasingly pregnant with a
first child (with Jun Taniguchi, producer, collaborator, and label owner at Less Than TV).
2008
Yukari's son Kyoumei is born on February 07, three weeks early. She had just played a show in Nagoya
with LimitedEx on February 04; in less than 6 weeks, she's back in the studio.
After a resolution to re-think everything, Ni-Hao! continues as a two-piece in which Yukari and Ariko both
sing and play bass, drums, whatever else. The flavor now is more punk/hardcore. Yukari is still busy with
LimitedEx and other projects. With childcare added, Ni-Hao! band activities slip into maintenance mode.
2006 careful parenting at LimitedEx gigs: earmuffs on bandstand
2009
Short tour of Australia with LimitedEx and Beaches in the last week of October. "It's fun working on
two things," says Yukari, but LimitedEx is still Thing One.
2010
More regular live schedule for spring and summer. Yukari is working on recording new Ni-Hao! material
with guest performers, but "it can't be released because of LimitedEx." Yukari's dear friend Yoshie Fujii
from GARORINS loses to cancer at the beginning of November. Ni-Hao! helps to stage "Bravo Tengoku",
a last memorial fundraiser in Tokyo in December. There were plans for a series of shows together.
Enthusiasm to finish the album is hard to find.
2011
The Marvelous album released through Tzadik in July. Helpers include Ken Takehisa: Guitar
☆ Kenji Honzawa: Saxophone ☆ Masayuki Chatani: Drums ☆ Mikito Tsurugi: Bass
☆ Lakin’ of kiiiiiii and U.T.: Chorus.
2012
Still poking around in 2012.
2013
On a winter tour of the US, Ni-Hao! meet Jazmin and Jennifer Romero, Latina twin sisters
from Los Angeles. Instant friends. Ni-Hao! are puzzling over how to expand, when it's so
convenient managing just two members and they aren't finding any new girls they like.
The solution: "almost as a joke", to sign up two new members that they do like… who
can't get in the way because they are never around.
2014 – rehearsing No Respect in Kyoto
2014
Early in the year, new members (Gt.) Silver-Jazmin and (Ba.) Gold-Jennifer are admitted to
the band. "We don’t care about the distance. We are worldwide girls," say Ni-Hao!
Yukari and Ariko both concentrate on left drums, right drums, vocals, and electronic keyboards.
Now their lyrics are in Spanish, as well as English, Japanese, and baby talk.
2015 at Borofesta, an annual festival produced by LimitedEx members
2015
The No Respect album is released in March on the <omochi records> label, available as a CD from
the band or at Disk Union, or for download at Bandcamp from the Australian distributor, Tenzenmen.
At the beginning of November, after five final shows in Japan with all four members, twins Jazmin
and Jennifer graduate out to be replaced immediately by new official members Pink-Miko (ex all OK)
on guitar and Purple-Elena (Rururu Kin) on bass.
The 2015 All-Japan team. Elena is behind Yukari with a hand on her shoulder.
2016
The PAYDIRT album completed in November, a double-CD release with many guests from Yukari's
other bands and relations through the Less Than TV label. Shortly after, Elena leaves to be
replaced by Yellow-Miwako.
〜〜〜〜〜
Ni-Hao are:
Vo/Ba Blue–YUKARI
Vo/Dr/Synth Red–ARIKO
Vo/Gt Pink–MIKO
Vo/Ba Yellow–MIWAKO
And formerly included:
Ba Purple–Elena
Ba Black–WAC
Gt Silver–Jazmin
Ba Gold–Jennifer
Dr Green–Leo
Ni-Hao have been retiring the signature color whenever its member leaves.
Yukari wrote, "It'd be good to do an All-Stars show sometime, wouldn't it?
Nowadays, all of us going on stage would look like Precure or Kamen Rider."
At Facebook:
facebook.com/ni-hao-162867023765897
YouTube playlist:
youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6C6035307007F311
Ni-Hao! Journal at Excite:
nihao2180.exblog.jp/
From 2007 AUG after Emi's departure (Green Leo never mentioned)
Homepage (very unmaintained):
ni-hao-ni-hao.com/
Ni-Hao! NEWS at Geocities (2004–2006):
geocities.jp/nihaoblue/news.html
Ni-Hao! at Tzadik:
tzadik.com/index.php?catalog=7269
ニーハオ! search on Disk Union.net:
diskunion.net/portal/ct/search?m=11&q=ニーハオ%21...
At Bandcamp on tenzenmen:
Red Blue Green
No Respect
At Spotify (Tzadik releases only, currently unavailable in US):
open.spotify.com/artist/2rq2Ey2tW4ZBG0K9OAg39k
At MySpace (grave-marker site):
myspace.com/nihao2180
Ustream channel:
ustream.tv/channel/ni-hao1
At Last.fm:
last.fm/music/Ni+Hao!
At Discogs.com:
discogs.com/artist/1516027-ニーハオ!
Ni-Hao! community at Mixi.jp:
mixi.jp/view_community.pl?id=62022
〜〜〜〜〜
"2180", like at MySpace or Excite?
It can be decoded into roman letters as NI—HAO:
2 >> NI (usual pronunciation of the cardinal number)
1 >> — ("ichi" is written as one stroke, resembling a dash and/or a long-vowel mark)
8 >> HA (first syllable of "hachi", eight)
0 >> O (arabic 〇 looks like roman O)
Feel free to use at obscure J-rock parties.
