Shiina Ringo (椎名林檎) / Ringo Sheena, Japan's destroying angel
Jun 20, 2016 5:25:50 GMT -5
Post by tangerinesun on Jun 20, 2016 5:25:50 GMT -5
Basic Shiina Ringo, only... there is no such thing
Look out, John Keats, I've got your belle dame sans merci, right here:
I met a lady in the meads,
Full beautiful, a fairy’s child;
Her hair was long, her foot was light,
And most of the time she was moody at best.
Mercy… I'll check if we have any left.
Ringo Shiina (椎名 林檎, Shiina Ringo) also credited as "Ringo Sheena".
Real name Yumiko Shiina (椎名 裕美子, Shiina Yumiko).
I can't get myself to call her anything but Shiina Ringo.
Shiina debuted with EMI about 18 years ago in 1998 at the age of 19. She had bands in school,
was an indie notable before she could drive. Her star-power was out of all proportion from the start,
which lets her do about as she wants… not that she could stand it any other way.
A dragon lady in the current Universal promotion
At this point in her history, she can pick and choose her challenges. There's not much she hasn't
already tried and nailed. She formed her own management company just to run her several careers,
which have included being the leading face for Shiseido cosmetics.
2009 alien mermaid look
She's been in around 40 bands, especially Tokyo Jihen ("Tokyo Incidents") 2004–2012
as songwriter and leader of a band of independent concert musicians she had already
taken on tour. She has written and produced for another long list of bands, including
the successful "Hiyori Hime" for Puffy in 2009.
Mermaid comes up at certain intervals, like this chewing gum CM
Ringo, her chosen stage handle, means "apple". She once said that, when she needed
a business name to register her copyrighted works, she reverted to a schoolyard nickname
(ringo, because bashful Shiina blushed apple red). But she's also said she likes the association
to Ringo Starr, and just enjoys the distinction of being called by the word for a tangible object.
10th Anniversary edition of the ringo-logo
Her personal mark is a cartoon apple, sometimes with crossbones or other decorations.
This is how to have the last laugh on those little snots in your class at school.
Not really sure what's going on with this
The basic origin story is: born on November 25, 1978 in what is now Saitama City, the sensitive
"gifted" younger child of a well-to-do father who loved music and a mother who studied dance.
Ballet and piano lessons from an early age. A brother 4 years older, also musical. The privileged
aesthete scenario was disrupted by a series of operations to correct a congenital defect of the
esophagus. That left her with surgical scars and permanent nerve damage, prompting her
to quit dance around age 10.
She's attempted to make something of the scarring
She compared the scars on her back to places you'd have if you took off an angel's wings.
That sounds like the sort of thing you might tell to a little girl having major surgery.
There's a theory that her childhood experiences made a fighter of her. She's appeared since
costumed as an angel, and also in various torture and medical/victim scenarios. She's does not
shrink from confrontational material. If you got a handle anywhere, Shiina is one to grab and
pull it, the same as she pulls her own. Shock is one way she makes you take notice.
Hooker; nightmare nurse; girl your girlfriend isn't safe around
One time, a magazine took wedding-dress photos at locations all over Tokyo. Where'd they find a gun shop?
Details of her current home life are not so documented, but she's not that secretive.
Shiina has had a daughter with the well-known video director Yuichi Kodama (met
on the job in 2009), with whom she lives, collaborates, and also raises the older son
of a prior relationship (a 14-month marriage to guitarist Junji Yakichi).
There's a checkered tabloid history of irregular associations with men.
"Why him?" None of your affair, people. I think I need a better phrase.
Homies with Perfume
Shiina is the creative chameleon whose fans include all the artists you are a fan of. People with
not much else in common all bow to Shiina. Junior girls and middle-aged women want to be like her.
She appeals to football fans. Opera fans. Dirty nurse fans. TV and Movie directors. Playwrights.
Japanophiles. Japanese nationalists. Artists. Photographers. Lonely hearts. Musicians of all genres —
because she plays in all genres, hip-hop to electro-pop to j-rock to jazz to soundtrack to Western
semi-classical to old-time Japanese enka.
2001: Retro mannikin with colored contacts and 1/4 pound of ear hardware
Her own description of her style has been "Shinjuku-kei writer/performer". A Shibuya-kei
joke that doesn't really clarify. Shinjuku is Tokyo's commercial and administrative hub, so
Shinjuku Style is explained as pragmatic flexibility in business management.
I don't think of her as a rocker first, but as a singer-songwriter first. A fashion-plate second.
Her latest thing sounds like Capsule covering Pizzicato Five, but a previous release ranged
from French chanson to EDM to punk rock.
All the same person, and this is only a fraction. Shiina plays piano, guitar, drums, and whatever else she wants, including samisen.
Shiina Ringo career summary and aggregated gossip with pictures
at Marble, "Adornment For The Fashionable Woman"
topicks.jp/75679
It's Japanese. There's a ton of linked material.
Put Google Translate on it, doesn't come out so badly.
Shiina Ringo at EN Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ringo_Sheena
Shiina Ringo at Discogs.com
discogs.com/artist/2258062-Shiina-Ringo
Shiina Ringo at JpopAsia
jpopasia.com/celebrity/ringoshiina/
Shiina Ringo at Wiki.ThePPN
ppn.wikia.com/wiki/Shiina_Ringo
Shiina Ringo at generasia
generasia.com/wiki/Shiina_Ringo
Shiina Ringo official YouTube Channel
youtube.com/user/ringosheenaofficial
Kronekodow artist management company website (JP)
kronekodow.com
Kronekodow artist page at Facebook (JP)
facebook.com/kronekodow.sheenaringo
Universal Music Japan artist page (JP)
universal-music.co.jp/sheena-ringo/
Shiina Ringo at Recochoku.jp
recochoku.jp/artist/2000000611/
Shiina Ringo at iTunes.com
Sorry, nothing in the US but covers and collaborations
Since she's always been with major labels, there are the usual problems getting to know her work
where you may live. The big guys find Western safe-harbor laws regarding copyright all very unforgivable.
Shiina's own focus seems heavily Japan-first. You can't join her $40/year fan club unless you reside there,
for example. Not even Universal JP is that restrictive.
Her website is deliberately arty and puts small puzzles in front of you, whether you speak English or Japanese.
It purports to belong to the Pussywillow Line of a fictional SR (Shiingo Rail) transit authority… another
in-joke, I guess. She says, "Since 2003, I've Been Working on the Railroad."
Inside, it functions not unlike Tumblr. Apart from things like that, I get the feeling her business sense
is more than sound. Dad worked for a petroleum company.