Formed around 2006, Scandal began its life just like so many others, in high school. The group of four girls began playing smalls shows on the street and quickly grew a substantial following. They were scooped up by Tower Records who released their first single in early 2008. The band hopped on America's Japan Nite tour later that year, and then even later in 2008 they were signed to the Sony label. Now that's a whirlwind career!
Scandal is essentially the reincarnation of Zone, only with their amps turned up to eleven and the sappy ballads tossed out the door (at least, so far.) That's not to say they are a hard rockin' punk band of anything. They are straight up pop rock, but with a bit more bite than your average safe rock group. They have the same positive, can-do outlook as seen in so many other teen/school-based groups like Morning Musume or Puffy, and just happen to all play their own instruments.
Speaking of which, the few live performances out there are, well, rough. On the one hand it's refreshing to hear such a heavily scrutinized band actually play live (for real). The fact that they are obviously new to the whole thing fits the pop idol model, where fans are also a part of the group's growth. On the other hand, it's a little disconcerting to hear just how different they sound in the studio after what must be some heavy practicing and editing wizardry.
The band started their life in the media spotlight as illustrated and animated anime characters, instead of the usual fan-service photo-shoots more common to the female idol scene. The cover to their Yah! Yah! Yah! Hello Scandal EP features these characters in a format much like that of the Beatles album Let It Be. This also goes a long way to describing their sound, which is full of four part harmonies and simple, direct song-writing. Their production is straight up guitar, bass, vocals and drums. No frills, but very poppy and catchy. Much like their transition from simple caricatures to the real girls behind the instruments, their sound and their proficiency also seems to be maturing. Their first full length album from Sony should be very interesting.
Koi Moyou
Official Site
MySpace
Members:
Haruna Ono - Vocals, Guitar
Tomomi Ogawa - Bass, Vocals
Mami Sasazaki - Guitar, Vocals
Rina Suzuki - Drums, Vocals
Albums:
Yah! Yah! Yah! Hello Scandal - 2008
Koi Moyou (animated version)
Space Ranger
Live
2 comments:
they are better than zone for sure! space ranger is my fave track from them..really raw!
http://japansugoi.com/wordpress/scandals-new-single-doll-rocks/
they sure know how to kick some ass! haha
one of the better girlrockpop bands
but why sony?
they ruined halcali (sorry but cyborg oretachi was..oh well whatever) and now they'll ruin scandal next?
just look at their recent change of looks.
now they dress up sexykawaiipoppunkgal-like with checkerboard sweatbands and buttons on their 'school uniforms'
yeah all for the sake of cd sales eh.
as long as they don't put their fingers in the way of their songs too much i don't really mind but still it's not good..at least that's how i feel.
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