Air.wav Update #1!

1. today is a special update
2. WE HAVE A TRIPLE FEATURE
3. Today I want to spend a bit of time talking about 3 of my favorite albums, the Juban Trilogy of albums by 80s Japanese city pop style musician, Ginger Root, real name Cameron Lew. City Slicker, Nisemono, and Shinbangumi. I haven't been a Ginger Root fan for very long. I only discovered him in late 2022, in the latter half of his music videos releasing off of his latest album at the time, the aforementioned Nisemono. I didn't realize at the time how much this album and both its prequal and sequel would mean to me later on, but I spent all of 2023 listening to Ginger Root, even loving Nisemono so much I brought the vinyl late last year.
   
4. When he started releasing singles for his latest album, Shinbangumi, it actually took me a bit to warm up to them. They had a different vibe to them, that I wasn't sure if I liked compared to the homely vibes of Nisemono, or the almost hammy approach to City Slicker. It wasn't until the full album released a few weeks ago that I truly saw the vision. And as I've kept listening to Shinbangumi, and listening to Nisemono and City Slicker with it, it's slowly hit me just how much these albums and the silly, yet engaging stories they tell mean to me. With all the context out of the way, what are these albums even? The Juban Trilogy is a series of concept albums all centered around the musical career of one Cameron Lew (named after, played by, and pretty much just the real guy), as he navigates his way through the woes of being a musical celebrity in 80s Japan and US. I won't be spoiling the overarching plotlines, to encourage you to go listen to the albums and the music videos by yourselves, but I will talk about what City Slicker introduces, as well as the very beginning of Nisemono. City Slicker introduces us to the world these albums take place in, laying out details and hinting at the figures that will play a large role through the story.

These include Cameron himself, who at this point is a small producer in Cali under the name Ginger Root Productions, who has been hired to work on the American adaptation of a Japanese action cop movie, renamed in the west as City Slicker. Other important players in this story are the JOSN news network, and the titular Juban TV company, a multi-media production house in the fictional Juban District of Tokyo. Eyes turn to Cameron when one of the songs he made for City Slicker, Loretta, blows up as a hit single. With more ears aware of his music than ever, he waits until another project finds it's way into his hands. This would happen in Nisemono, when Japanese pop idol Kimiko, under Juban TV, hires him to write and produce her next album. With a huge opportunity in front of him, Cameron gets to work on the music. The album needs to be a hit, because this album will also be Kimiko's American debut. She'll be preforming the first single, "Loneliness", on the popular late show, the "Tonight's The Night! Show with Gene Everstein" with millions of eyes on her. If this flops, it could spell disaster for his career. And so comes the night of the performance. Kimiko and her manager are arguing about something in the back halls of the studio, but with minutes before the show comes back from commercial, Kimiko announces that she quits, and storms out. In a panic, the manager runs to Cameron, saying he can preform the single instead. And so, with millions of eyes expecting Kimiko, Cameron walks out on stage and preforms Loneliness. And it's a hit. With a proper deal with Juban TV made, Cameron continues to release the rest of the album under their company. But how does the sudden fame affect Cameron? How does Kimiko feel seeing herself replaced so easily? Why did she quit Juban in the first place? Find out by listening to the album yourself, I don't want to ruin that for you.

1. Shinbangumi follows up on almost exactly where Nisemono ends, but that would obviously require spoiling the ending of Nisemono, so I won't be doing that.

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2. Finally, I want to talk about why these albums mean so much to me. Honestly, it's not that interesting, so feel free to skip over this part of the update. The honest answer is just how everything about them fits into place. The music, the music videos, the story, the aesthetic, the characters, just everything. The creativity on display throughout every aspect of the Juban Trilogy resonates with me so much, along with the music. Shinbangumi is my album of the year, and I can't wait for the story to continue in the B-side music videos.