東京事変

japanese

Tokyo Jihen (東京事変) or the 'Tokyo Incidents' is a Japanese band formed and fronted by the popular rock singer 椎名林檎 (Ringo Shiina). As hinted by its name, the band has a running theme modeled on '60s Japanese pulp fiction. The band debuted in September 2004 with the song 群青日和. Since their inception, Tokyo Jihen has released five studio albums, of which three peaked at number 1 on the Oricon charts. Shiina had always wished to work with a band, and selected its members while working on her third solo album, 加爾基精液栗ノ花. The band, comprised of guitarist ヒラマミキオ (Mikio Hirama), PE'Z keyboardist H ZETT M, drummer 畑利樹 (Toshiki Hata), and music producer 亀田誠治 (Seiji Kameda) as bassist, was first introduced as Tokyo Jihen during Shiina's Sugoroku Ecstasy tour. Being part of a band allowed Shiina to both share the songwriting process as well as tone down her public image. In July 2005, H ZETT M and Hirama left the band. H ZETT M returned to his duties as pianist for PE'Z and Hirama returned to his solo career. Two months later, あっぱ pianist and vocalist 伊澤一葉 (Ichiyo Izawa) and 浮雲 (Ukigumo) joined Tokyo Jihen as the replacement keyboardist and guitarist, respectively. On January 11th 2012 Shiina Ringo announced the band's breakup on their official website. January 1st, 2020,marks a new beginning for the band since Tokyo Jihen released a surprise digital single, Erabarezaru Kokumin, and announced a tour o...