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Puffy AmiYumi stretched the fun of a one-shot deal
Friday, August 12, 2005
By SALVATORE TUZZEO JR.
SPECIAL TO THE RECORD
WHO: Puffy AmiYumi.
WHAT: Pop-punk.
WHEN: 9:30 p.m. Thursday.
WHERE: Irving Plaza, 17 Irving Place, Manhattan; (212) 777-6800 or irvingplaza.com.
HOW MUCH: $20 to $25.
They're prone to wearing pink. They're perpetually perky. Heck, they've even been immortalized in their own cartoon, to the delight of preteens in the United States and abroad.
But make no mistake about it, Puffy AmiYumi can rock out with the best of them.
With Powerpuff Girls-meet-punk-rock personas, the Japanese twosome - Ami Onuki and Yumi Yoshimura, or just Ami and Yumi - are as big as the Beatles in their homeland and are growing a devoted following in the States as well.
Much of the credit is due in no small part to their infectious power pop sound, which falls somewhere between the Ramones and Hello Kitty and is filled with a seemingly endless list of influences, from rockabilly to disco to bossa nova.
Ami and Yumi met in 1995 after each answered an advertisement for a Tokyo talent search sponsored by Sony. The two were singled out, thrown in a room together and eventually started a musical symbiosis that is going strong a decade later.
The pair admits, though, that they were skeptical of each other in the beginning.
"We hardly even talked or anything the first time we met. We seemed like totally opposite people," says Yumi, who notes the two eventually became such good friends, and an even better musical match, that sometimes they're mistaken for sisters.
In a matter of months, though, Puffy AmiYumi had its first hit single in Japan, "Asia No Junshin," and has been ruling the country's airwaves ever since, recording a handful of critically acclaimed, full-length albums.
On the verge of celebrating a 10th anniversary, the two are amazed at their staying power.
"Originally we thought this was a one-shot deal. We thought we'd be able to make and release just one album and that it would end at that, but the success of the effort gave us more opportunities," says Yumi.
The success has led to a variety of interesting opportunities not usually afforded pop idols.
In 1998, Ami and Yumi began hosting their own TV variety show, "Pa-Pa-Pa-Pa-Puffy," which ran until 2002. They've appeared in an array of Japanese ads, from Max Factor to Yamaha. And of course there's been the usual marketing blitz for the band, too, complete with a Puffy product line.
Two years later, Sony Music realized Puffy had enough crossover appeal to bring the act stateside and booked an appearance at the South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas. The pair proved impressive enough to the industry crowd that Sony brought them back on both Eastern and Western fronts.
Last year, the Cartoon Network re-created their bravado in an animated caper for the 8- to 12-year-old set.
While Ami and Yumi are glad to be able to sustain so many side projects, they say the most important thing is having fun.
"We'd essentially like to continue until the fun stops," says Ami. "We rarely think about the future. We think about what's going on, like, now."
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http://www.bergen.com/page.php?qstr=...Y3dnFlZUVFeXk3
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Greetings to Ami and Yumi
RIFFS
By Paul Stelter
SPECIAL TO THE WASHINGTON TIMES
August 18, 2005
If your daughters or nieces aren't already begging you, go say hi hi to Puffy AmiYumi on Monday at the 9:30 Club, as the Japanese pop/punk girl duo makes a rare U.S. appearance.
The thirtyish "girls" look, sound, and act about 15 years younger, one reason their "Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi Show" is so popular with the 6 to 12 set. Hyperkinetic and surreal even by Cartoon Network standards, the cartoon models itself as a 21st-century version of "The Monkees," even down to the infectious theme song. (Think "hi hi"="hey hey").
Like the Prefab Four, Ami Onuki and Yumi Yoshimura sing but don't play, except "from time to time the harmonica onstage," they explain via interpreter from a photo shoot in Kiba, Japan. Nor do they write their own songs, although Andy Sturmer functions well as their Neil Diamond.
Mr. Sturmer's several contributions to their latest album, "Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi" (Epic/Sony), reflect his days with '90s power-popsters Jellyfish, as on the supercharged title track with its Ramones beat and vocal homage to Blondie's "One Way or Another." And youngsters may like the early-'60s sound of "Forever" and "That's The Way It Is" even if they don't know the term "Beatlesque."
"Love So Pure" is indeed lovely, its chiming guitar and glockenspiel giving a Brian Wilson feel, though you need to ignore the trite English lyrics. Luckily for adults, about half the album is in Japanese, and not surprisingly, the girls' harmonies soar highest on those songs. Yumi agrees that singing harmony in Japanese is easier since they know exactly what they're singing.
Ami says initially the duo helped to choose what their cartoon selves would look like and supplied story ideas. Now they "don't help with them" much, although they're "very involved in the live-action segments" and the show's use of the band's music.
Yet as the mixed-language album suggests, Puffy (the "AmiYumi" was added later to keep Sean "Puffy" Combs' lawyers away) isn't exactly desperate for U.S. acceptance. Ami agrees it's not a priority, crediting "the great timing that everything's fallen into place."
They're only playing five U.S. dates this tour. When asked if it's hard to tour the United States regularly and leave their families, both loudly answer "Yes!" in English.
Yumi says their gig audiences range from teens to children, the latter of course with parents in tow. And while Puffy may play some cover songs this tour, Ami says: "Only people who come will find out."
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http://washingtontimes.com/weekend/2...5420-2340r.htm
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It's Puffy AmiYumi, out to conquer U.S.
By David Hiltbrand
Inquirer Staff Writer
When it comes to pop music, we enjoy a decided trade advantage over Japan. American groups from the Carpenters to Green Day have been treated like gods in the Land of the Rising Sun. But even the biggest Japanese idoru (pop star) could walk unmolested down South Street.
With the exceptions of Kyu Sakamoto ("Sukiyaki" in 1963) and Pink Lady ("Kiss in the Dark" in 1979), no Japanese act has ever cracked the top 40 here. (Chart data provided by former Billboard columnist Paul Grein.)
Puffy AmiYumi (pronounced Puffy ah-Me u-Me), a female pop duo who will headline at the TLA on Saturday night, plan to buck that trend.
In order to accomplish that, Puffy would have to overcome some steep cultural barriers. Even an interview proved to be a slow and stilted process, thanks to language and time differences.
Questions were e-mailed to Puffy's New York publicist, relayed to management in Japan, translated, and posed to the ladies, who at the time were flying to the States for their East Coast dates. The answers were conveyed in the reverse order (and probably edited at each interval).
Puffy's music is certainly eclectic. The encyclopedic AllMusic Web site identifies the band's influences as rock, disco, country, surf, rockabilly, bossa nova and Shibuya-kei, a sunny Japanese pop style named after a famous shopping district in Tokyo.
"It's hard to categorize us in one genre," Yumi Yoshimura says. "If we can enjoy performing it at a concert or if at the moment it feels right, then we record it."
For their U.S. releases, they rerecord their songs phonetically in English. Because of their growing fan base in China, they do the same thing in Cantonese. They've also recorded some tracks in Spanish and Portuguese.
Even with that grab bag of styles, Puffy's basic melodic approach sounds a little brittle and silly to American ears. But give these young women better hooks and you could be looking at the next Abba.
They certainly have the personality for stardom. The band's primary exposure in this country has come through the cartoon Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi, an animated cross between The Powerpuff Girls and The Partridge Family shown on Cartoon Network (Fridays at 7:30).
The cartoon episodes are bookended with live-action footage of the singers, little skits in which Ami Onuki, 31, and Yoshimura, 30, display a casual charisma that harks back to the pop fountainhead: early Beatles.
The duo had some input into the original look of the series, but maintain it bears little relation to their actual lives. "The personalities in the cartoon are of course exaggerated to make each of the characters different and for little kids to easily understand the animated Ami and Yumi," Yoshimura says. "But we really do have cats."
The cartoon Ami, for instance, is peppy, preppy and eternally optimistic. That's not a true portrait. "I am not really sure about my own personality," she says, "But I think I am pretty dark and boring."
In their own country, the pair have been enormously influential since a record company teamed up Tokyo's Onuki and Osaka's Yoshimura on the basis of solicited audition tapes. Their first single, "Asia No Junshin," sold more than a million copies in 1996.
The singers, as is customary in Japan, have taken a very aggressive approach to marketing themselves. All of Puffy's singles have enjoyed robust second lives as commercial jingles for soft drinks, cosmetics, computers, motor scooters and other products.
Their vibrant mix-and-match fashion sense has been spun off into lines of shoes, clothes and even poseable dolls. And the ladies have hosted their own TV variety show, Pa-Pa-Pa-Pa-Puffy.
They still find this country a little intimidating. "The buildings really impress me," Onuki says. "But I'm confused by the people who talk to themselves. I see a lot of that."
At the moment, they're trying to conquer America one city at a time. Asked what people can expect to see at their Philadelphia show this weekend, Yoshimura answers playfully, "This is for you guys to find out when you come!"
We know she was being playful because there is a smiley face printed at the end of her response.
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http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/ent...t/12409628.htm
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Japanese duo Puffy AmiYumi all puffed up for Somerville gig
By Sean L. McCarthy
Sunday, August 21, 2005
Since Sean Combs has changed his name - again - from Puffy to Puff Daddy to P. Diddy to Diddy, perhaps there is room for a new Puffy to take America by storm.
Enter Puffy AmiYumi.
The Japanese rock duo of Ami Onuki and Yumi Yoshimura have been big in Japan for a decade.
Only in the past year, with the introduction of animated versions of themselves on the Cartoon Network as ``Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi,'' has the winsome twosome started to become household names among the youth of America. Their five-city U.S. tour stops Wednesday in Somerville.
``It feels as if it's still the same,'' Yoshimura said on the phone from Tokyo, with help from a translator. ``It's not really something new. But it is a new challenge for us.''
Especially since they're finding a different fan base here than in their native Japan.
In Japan, they're bona fide rock stars. Their first single, 1996's ``Asia No Junshin,'' sold 1 million copies. Their music is peppy and sometimes subversive, with hints of punk, surf, indie rock and power pop.
Their cartoon, ``Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi,'' brought younger fans to their few West Coast concerts this spring.
``It was actually the first time we toured after the cartoon started,'' Onuki said. ``We were not sure what to expect. It was a lot of little kids. It was fun to see that.''
After a decade of performing in Japan, Puffy AmiYumi began breaking into American music with a soundtrack contribution to ``Scooby-Doo 2'' and the theme for Cartoon Network's ``Teen Titans.''
Their own cartoon amps up their energy even more, with a crazy manager and madcap antics every episode on their animated tour bus. Each weekly episode also includes brief live-action skits that reveal that Oniku and Yoshimura still have great chemistry after a decade together.
``We're really good friends,'' they said.
They're also well aware that the track record for Japanese idoru (their term for pop idols) in America is - well, there isn't a track record.
``We're not really expecting anything,'' Yoshimura said. ``Our main goal is to have everyone listen to our music.''
They sound happy about their success so far.
And who's to say they couldn't be around for years to come?
After all, Godzilla, Japan's biggest import, showed up on our shores for 50 years before allegedly calling it quits this year.
Not that anyone believes that, even Puffy AmiYumi.
``No, it's not going to be final,'' they said of Godzilla. ``They're probably going to go back to when Godzilla was born. Back in time.''
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http://theedge.bostonherald.com/musi...rticleid=98913
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Riding an animated wave of success
By Stephanie Shapiro
Sun Staff
Originally published August 22, 2005
Which came first: Puffy AmiYumi the J-Pop duo? Or Puffy AmiYumi the manic cartoon characters who quibble and reconcile and surf and rock around the world?
It's a super-cute chicken-and-egg question that can be answered differently depending on whether you live in Japan or the United States.
With its catchy blend of bubble gum/surfer/punk-lite rock, the singing duo of Ami Onuki and Yumi Yoshimura has held the attention of Japan's trend-driven pop fans from their first recording, True Asia, in 1996.
Since their television debut in November, Puffy AmiYumi - the animated characters - have captivated the Saturday morning cartoon crowd in the Unites States. Meanwhile, their human counterparts have never made it big here beyond the niche of fans obsessed with all things anime.
Now, the duo hopes to parlay the popularity of their cartoon show, Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi, into greater recognition of their infectious pop rock. Tonight, they will try to expand the fan base for their live show in a stop on their national concert tour at the 9:30 Club in Washington. (On Friday, they were in Baltimore for an appearance at Otakon, the city's annual anime convention.)
For seven years, Archie Meguro, general manager of Sony Music Japan, has tried to break through the sound barrier that has kept Puffy AmiYumi and other J-Pop groups from achieving widespread acclaim in the United States.
"I kind of consider it kind of a pioneering job for people to get to know some of our artists," says Meguro, who is based in New York.
Tokyo stylists have absorbed "every type of music from around the world" and have reinterpreted it with a "Japanese twist," Meguro says. The result is music that should sound familiar, yet intriguingly original, to American ears, he says.
By his reckoning, that should make the music of Puffy AmiYumi and other Japanese groups an easy sell, Meguro says. One reviewer described a Puffy AmiYumi concert as "a survey course on the history of American pop, translated into Japanese."
So far, though, it hasn't been an easy sell.
"Initially, we kind of tried to take Japanese music through the front door, on the radio, which really didn't work out that well for a lot of other artists," Meguro says. He came to realize that just because a group is "big in Japan, that doesn't do anything for anybody [in the U.S.]."
So Meguro tried the "back door" approach, positioning Puffy AmiYumi and several other Japanese groups as "indie" rock artists at the 2000 South by Southwest music confab in Austin.
"We just did this whole indie rock campaign, distributing free samplers of various Japanese artists at college campuses and at college radio stations," Meguro says.
It took a year or two, but somebody - a key somebody - noticed. After catching snippets of Puffy AmiYumi's "Boogie Woogie No. 5" on a music video and on NPR, Cartoon Network vice president Sam Register, charmed by what he heard, connected with Sony Japan.
Puffy AmiYumi ("AmiYumi" was added to the band's name in the United States to avoid confusion - and litigation - with Sean "Puffy" Combs) signed on to record the theme song for the Teen Titans cartoon series on the Cartoon Network. That boisterous concoction led Register to create the series Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi for a U.S. audience. The show has been renewed for a third season.
Now, Meguro hopes that the animated rock queens will prompt audiences to turn out for the real thing. So does Onuki, who responded through an e-mail query translated into Japanese.
By seeing Puffy AmiYumi in the flesh, audiences will discover "that Ami and Yumi actually exist!" she says. "We're not the same as the anime characters. I hope that the audience sees us perform live and likes our music."
Yoshimura, whose edgy cartoon persona plays the foil to Onuki's sweet temperament, is a bit less concerned with making it in the flesh.
"Since we're not based in the U.S., nor can we spend much time working in the U.S., I understand that some people know us only from the cartoon show," she says. "Whatever the trigger is, I'm happy when people are interested in our music."
Naturally, the promotional push won't stop with cartoons and concerts. This fall, an ambitious marketing campaign will put Puffy AmiYumi's name on a slew of products, including eyewear, footwear, bedding, plush toys, dolls and intimate apparel. The duo also has released four CDs in this country.
Puffy AmiYumi, of course, is more than Ami and Yumi. They've stayed on top of their game with a supporting cast including writer and producer Andy Sturmer, former member of the group Jellyfish. Tamio Okuda, a Japanese rock musician and producer, also has contributed his pop chops to the Puffy AmiYumi package. As Meguro sees it, the duo, who often write their own lyrics but play no instruments, offers a return to "straight-ahead music" that is otherwise hard to come by these days with regular American music.
"It's kind of refreshing in a way," he says.
So there it is, playpen rock for baby headbangers and their parents: as inoffensive as the Cowsills, as hyper as Green Day. In short, the ideal crossover band.
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http://www.baltimoresun.com/features...ures-headlines
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22nd August 2005, 11:27 AM
Though it's great to see some J-Pop artists coming in America and getting popular, I wonder why they've choosed... PUFFY.
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