Artists

BONNIE PINK

Posts

Bonnie Pink releases new album in September

Source: Bounce.com

Bonnie Pink will release a new studio album on Sept. 21, 10 years after she released her debut album. The 13-track album was produced by Tore Johannsen and Burning Chicken. Pink also releases a new single, “So Wonderful”, on Aug. 3, and in June, she released a covers album, Reminiscence.

Bonnie Pink releases new single in August

Source: Bounce.com

Bonnie Pink will release a new single on Aug. 3. It’s been a year and four months since Pink released new material, and once again, she enlists producer Tore Johannsen, who worked on the 2003 single “Tonight, the Night” and the 2004 album Even So. Bonnie Pink will also perform a one-woman live show on Sept. 21 to commemorate the 10th anniversary of her debut. Details for the show have yet to be announced.

Bonnie Pink records cover album

Source: Bounce.com

Bonnie Pink’s next release out on June 22 will be a covers album, according to her official web site. Title and album details have yet to be determined. The album comes a year after the release of Even So, her seventh album. Pink recently finished a series of appearances at music festivals in the US and Canada.

Bonnie Pink, Shonen Knife vie for SXSW 2005

Source: Bounce.com

Bonnie Pink, Shonen Knife, DMBQ and the Pillows are among the 16 artists applying for showcases at the SXSW 2005 music festival in Texas, the festival’s Asian office announced. Scheduled for March 16-19, SXSW hosts a number of Asian-themed events, including the ever-popular Japan Nite. Past performers include Number Girl, Love Psychedelico, Lolita 18, FOE and Romz Record Crew. A full festival schedule will be announced in February.

SXSW 2005 artists tenatively scheduled include:

Bleach

Bonnie Pink

Clara Bell

DMBQ

Electric Eel Shock

The Emeralds

Gito Gito Hustler

Guitar Wolf

The Hot Shots

Mono

Noodles

Petty Booka

The Pillows

Shonen Knife

Suns Owl

Titan Go King’s

Extroversion suits her

Publish or perish.

It’s the driving force behind both academia and the Japanese music industry. (How strange such a connection can be made between the two.)

Following the creative success of 2003’s Present, Bonnie Pink returns a year later with Even So.

The pressure to produce continually can result in spotty work. For Bonnie Pink, the clarity of 2000’s Let go collapsed on 2001’s Just a Girl.

Would Even So fall under the same fate?

The album does have one obvious weak moment. Who thought it was a good idea to rip off Olivia Newton-John’s “Physical” for the opening riff of “1 2 3”?

But for the most part, Even So and Present are actually two sides of the same coin.

There’s not much different about Pink’s writing on Even So — it’s the same kind of earnest singer-songwriter material that’s been the basis of her career.

But where Present was mostly introspective, Even So is quite extroverted.

The chorus of “5 More Minutes” bursts into some uncharacteristic rock guitars. “Private Laughter” starts off sounding slightly robotic, but its chorus also unleashes a storm.

“The answer ~Hitostu ni Naru Toki~” has a dark, dramatic quality that edges Pink closer to Cocco’s terrain, while “Shinsei Game” finds her delivering one of her fastest songs yet.

Pink makes room for some moments of introspection, notably “Ocean” and “I Just Want to Make You Happy”, but even a ballad such as “Last Kiss” makes room for some power chords.

Even So isn’t a totally different album from Present — or any of her other work, for that matter — but the way Pink is willing to rock out is quite distinctive.

It would have been nice if her label backed off a bit and spaced out her release schedule. Who knows how much more powerful the album would have been with just a few more months to write?

But as it stands, Even So is still a solid work.

Bonnie Pink releases new album in May

Source: Bounce.com

Bonnie Pink is set to release her next album on May 12. Pink once again works with Swedish producer Tore Johansson, with whom she’s collaborated since 1998’s Evil and Flowers. Johansson also produced Pink’s most recent singles, “Private Laughter” and “Last Kiss”, which sees an April 7 release.

In the red

A lot of things can go wrong with live albums.

Sound quality may go sour. Technical problems can go awry. Performances may miss the mark.

But the problem with live albums also highlight the problem of studio albums. Recording studios can process out every imperfection, resulting in works that give an impression not borne out on stage.

In the studio, Bonnie Pink possesses a sweet flower of a voice, at times fragile, at times emotive. It’s not a voice suited to the theatre-size capacity of Akasaka Blitz, as evidenced on the singer-songwriter’s first live album, Pink in Red.

Right from the start, Pink sings like she’s trying to hear herself over her band, her voice straining to project. And her tender falsetto? Positively drowned out. In fact, it’s downright painful to hear her flub a note at the beginning of “Over the Brown Bridge”.

Pink works best when the band backs off. “Rope Dancer”, on which she’s accompanied by nothing but piano, allows her voice to inhabit the song more comfortably. “Need You” scales back the busyness of the opening “Your Butterfly”, and Pink sounds like she own the song.

Does that mean Pink should be exiled to little more than intimate club gigs? Not necessarily.

It does mean, however, that in translating her songs to stage, she could perhaps stray from the studio arrangement a lot more, especially if it means highlighting her voice.

Another flaw of Pink in Red is its concentration on one performance at one venue. It’s not uncommon for a live album to be collect different performances from various venues. Concentrating on one performance risks catching a performer on an off-night. (See Do As Infinity’s Do the Live.)

If Pink in Red demonstrates nothing else, it shows the studio album for which this live performance supported, Present, is one of her strongest ever.

Most of the CD portion of Pink in Red — it also includes a DVD — focuses on tracks from that album, and it’s tough to get “Rope Dancer”, “Present”, “April Shower” and “Need You” out of your head hours after the album has played.

The album ends with a new song, “Soldiers”, which only highlights further the fallibility of the live recording. Pink sounds gorgeous as usual on the track.

As my brother suggested when he listened to Pink in Red, maybe it’s time to give Bonnie Pink her own Unplugged special.

Bonnie Pink releases new single in January

Source: Bounce.com

Bonnie Pink will release a new single on Jan. 21, 2004. No details about the single were determined, but the track will be produced by Tore Johannsen, who’s worked with Pink most recently on her hit single, “Tonight, the Night”. The new single follows Pink’s most recent success with 2003’s album Present and a live CD/DVD, Pink in Red.