Love Psychedelico

Love Psychedelico (ラブ・サイケデリコ) is a Japanese rock band, often called Delico for short. They are popular not only in Japan but also Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Love Psychedelico
Also known asDelico
OriginJapan
GenresPop rock, blues rock, folk rock, psychedelic rock
Years active1997–present
LabelsVictor Records, HackTone Records
Associated actsHirohisa Horie
Kiyoshi Takakuwa & Kenichi Shirane (Great3)
Websitehttp://www.lovepsychedelico.net
MembersKumi
Naoki Sato
Kumi
Born (1976-04-11) April 11, 1976
OriginChiba Prefecture
Occupation(s)Singer, songwriter, guitarist, etc.
Years active1997–present
Naoki
Born (1973-07-21) July 21, 1973
OriginShizuoka Prefecture[1]
Occupation(s)Guitarist, songwriter, bassist, backing vocals, etc.
Years active1997–present

Members

  • Kumi (Born April 11, 1976, in Chiba Prefecture) – lead vocals, guitars, etc.
    • Kumi speaks English because she lived in San Francisco, the United States, in her youth. She got married on March 9, 2010.
  • Naoki (Born July 21, 1973, in Shizuoka Prefecture[1]) – guitars, bass, backing vocals, etc.
    • Naoki wrote his name in their early works as "Naoki Sato". He produces The Bawdies.

Backup band

History

The band was formed in January 1997 by singer Kumi and guitarist Naoki Sato, while studying at Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo. Only Kumi and Naoki remained finally in the band though it consisted of several members at first.

They signed with major label Victor in 1999.

Their first album, The Greatest Hits, sold over two million copies.[2] Their second album Love Psychedelic Orchestra, released on January 9, 2001, sold 690,000 copies.

Love Psychedelico visited America in March 2001 and appeared at the music festival SXSW as part of the Japan Nite event. They also toured extensively through the club and bar circuit in the United States, garnering largely positive reactions. American cities the band has said to have enjoyed playing were Nashville, Austin, and Kumi's childhood home of San Francisco.

They have released two albums since, Love Psychedelico III, in early 2004, and compilation album Early Times, in February 2005. This best-of compilation received a positive response in the Taiwanese J-pop market and the group visited Taiwan in June of that year. They held a concert in Taipei on June 22 where many fans gathered, including a sizable number of celebrity attendees. It proved to be a very successful concert for the duo who do not usually appear publicly.

For the promotion of their album, Golden Grapefruit, Love Psychedelico made their first televised music program appearance on Bokura no Ongaku in 2007. It is also notable that they were interviewed by Yoko Ono, famous experimental musician and widow of John Lennon.[3]

They released the album This is Love Psychedelico in the United States on May 20 from HackTone Records[4] because David Gorman, the president of the label, wanted a contract with them after listening to a record he got from an acquaintance. It marked their American debut. This album was also released on June 18, 2008 in Japan as This is Love Psychedelico ~U.S.Best~.

Style

Stylistically, Love Psychedelico is highly reminiscent of the British Invasion of the late 60s, both members having cited The Beatles and Led Zeppelin as influences, though the influence of American folk and blues are also present (Kumi having claimed Janis Joplin and Sheryl Crow, and Sato Bob Dylan, as influences). To pay tribute to their influences, Love Psychedelico sometimes borrow song titles from the bands that influence them.

Kumi's lyrics mix English and Japanese; while doing so is common in popular Japanese music, Kumi's performance is marked by fluent English pronunciation and an English-inflected pronunciation of Japanese, similar to that of many Japanese who have spent significant time abroad. While she did spend five years in San Francisco from the ages of 2 to 5, her spoken Japanese does not display the same affectations. This pronunciation makes the group's songs difficult to reproduce in karaoke performances in contrast bands such as Superfly who have a similar stylistic approach but without the English-affected Japanese.[5]

Discography

Studio albums
Year Album Information Chart positions
[6]
Total sales
[7]
2001 The Greatest Hits
  • Released: January 11, 2001
  • Label: Victor (VICL-60666)
  • Formats: CD, digital download
1 1,661,000
2002 Love Psychedelic Orchestra
  • Released: January 9, 2002
  • Label: Victor (VICL-60888)
  • Formats: CD, digital download
1 690,000
2004 Love Psychedelico III
  • Released: February 25, 2004
  • Label: Victor (VICL-61290)
  • Formats: CD, digital download
2 387,000
2007 Golden Grapefruit
  • Released: June 27, 2007
  • Label: Victor (VICL-62431)
  • Formats: CD, digital download
5 108,000
2010 Abbot Kinney
  • Released: January 13, 2010
  • Label: Victor (VICL-63480)
  • Formats: CD, digital download
7 67,000
2013 In This Beautiful World
  • Released: April 17, 2013
  • Label: Victor (VICL-64007)
  • Formats: CD, digital download
5
2017 LOVE YOUR LOVE
  • Released: July 5, 2017
  • Label: Victor (VICL-64802)
  • Formats: CD, 2CD, digital download
10
Other albums
Year Album Information Chart positions
[6]
Total sales
[7]
2005 Early Times
  • Compilation album
  • Released: February 9, 2005
  • Label: Victor (VICL-61579)
  • Formats: CD, digital download
1 468,000
2006 Live Psychedelico
  • Live album
  • Released: March 22, 2005
  • Label: Victor (VICL-61883)
  • Formats: CD, digital download
35 14,000
2008 This Is Love Psychedelico
  • Compilation album for US market
  • Released: May 20, 2008
  • Label: Victor (VICL-62840)
  • Formats: CD, digital download
16 27,000
2010 Remasters Box
  • Compilation box set
  • Released: June 9, 2010
  • Label: Victor (VIZL-430)
  • Formats: 5CD
139 700
2015 THE BEST SPECIAL BOX
  • Second "Greatest Hits" Collection
  • Released: February 18, 2015
  • Label: Victor (VIZL-795)
  • Formats: 3CD ("Best I and II" discs, and exclusive "The Best Live Selection" CD, with tracks from 2013 tour, included in limited box set)
2015 15th ANNIVERSARY TOUR -THE BEST- LIVE
  • Second live album, recorded during the band's 15th anniversary tour in Japan in 2015
  • Released: December 23, 2015
  • Label: Victor (VIZL-892)
  • Formats: 2CD and 2CD+Blu-ray (17 tracks across two discs; Limited Edition includes Blu-ray with concert footage, interviews, a 56-page book and more)
2018 LOVE PSYCHEDELICO Live Tour 2017 LOVE YOUR LOVE at THE NAKANO SUN PLAZA
  • Third live album, recorded during the band's 2017 tour in support of their seventh studio album, LOVE YOUR LOVE. Limited edition version included a bonus disc, Billboard Live Tokyo, of live acoustic performances.
  • Released: May 9, 2018
  • Label: Victor (VIZL-1349)
  • Formats: 2CD and 2CD+Bonus disc.
Singles
Year Title Notes Oricon
singles
charts
[6]
Oricon
sales
total
[7]
Album
2000 "Lady Madonna (Yūutsu Naru Spider)" (LADY MADONNA~憂鬱なるスパイダー~, "Depressed Spider") Initially released on tape independently. 88 19,000 The Greatest Hits
"Your Song" 17 140,000
"Last Smile" 11 270,000
2001 "Free World" 5 160,000 Love Psychedelico Orchestra
"I Will Be with You" 10 62,000
2002 "Hadaka no Ōsama" (裸の王様, "Naked King") 14 24,000 Love Psychedelico III
2003 "I Am Waiting for You" 26 14,000
"My Last Fight" 12 39,000
2004 "Fantastic World" 30 9,000 Early Times
2005 "Right Now" 28 11,000
2006 "Aha! (All We Want)" 25 10,000 Golden Grapefruit
2010 "Dry Town (Theme of Zero)/Shadow Behind" Re-cut single. 37 6,000 Love Psychedelico Orchestra/Abbot Kinney/In This Beautiful World/
2011 "It's You" In This Beautiful World
2012 "Beautiful World/Happy Xmas (War is Over)" In This Beautiful World
2014 "Good Times, Bad Times" Digital-only single. LOVE PSYCHEDELICO THE BEST II
2015 "Love Is All Around" Digital-only single.
2015 "Merry Xmas To You" Digital-only single; a Christmas "jingle" recorded as part of a 2015 collaboration campaign with the Shibuya Mark City shopping center. The only lyrics in the song are its title, which is repeated a few times by lead singer KUMI.
2016 "This moment/C'mon, it's my life" Third double A-side single and fourth consecutive digital-only single. "This moment" was used in a commercial campaign in April 2016 for JACCS Co, Ltd., a Japan-based consumer credit services company, for whom the band has licensed three other songs ("Shining On," "Good times, bad times" and "Love Is All Around"). "C'mon, it's my life" was used in a commercial campaign in March 2016 for Goodyear Tires in Japan.

DVDs

  • The Film 1999.12—2002.05 (November 21, 2002)
  • In Concert at Budokan (December 7, 2005)
  • Golden Grapefruit Box (June 18, 2008)
  • LOVE PSYCHEDELICO Live Tour 2017 LOVE YOUR LOVE at THE NAKANO SUN PLAZA (May 9, 2018)

References

Works cited

  • Moody, Andrew (2012). "Authenticity of English in Asian Popular Music". In Kirkpatrick, Andy; Sussex, Roland (eds.). English as an International Language in Asia: Implications for Language Education. Springer Science & Business Media. pp. 209–222. ISBN 978-94-007-4578-0.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.