Music Corner Week 64: Awesome City Club

Awesome City Club is a three-piece band consisting of two men and a woman. Awesome City Club first started out in 2013 by Matsuza Katakumi who had the concept of the group. He started by inviting Hiroshi Ataka, also known as atagi, who worked in the same music studio as Katakumi. Afterward, Katakumi scouted Yukie Oshiro, who goes by Yukie, to be the drummer for the group. At the same time, Yukie joined the group, Koji Morishima, also known as Morishi, wanted to join the band and was accepted. Originally Katakumi wanted a foreigner to be the lead singer but ultimately atagi took up the position as lead vocalist. In April of 2014, Katakumi invited Miho Toshida, also known as PORIN, who was working as a part-timer at the studio, to be in the music video for their song “Children.” Later, PORIN was invited to formally join the band, bringing the number to five but shortly after, Katakumi left the group. Awesome City Club dropped their first single, titled “Lesson,” on January 16 of 2015. Awesome City Club has gone on to release two albums and four collections of their early works. In August of this year, Yukie decided to step away from the group bringing the total to three members. Since Yukie stepped down, the group has put out their song “ceremony” showing they have no intentions of slowing down.

Awesome City Club’s music is a fusion of city pop, funk, and R&B. This gives them an interesting and unique song composition that really pulls the listener in. The blend of synthesizers and guitar really makes their music pop with a fun sound. While not originally intended to be the singer, atagi has awesome vocals and he delivers in every song with an outstanding performance. PORIN and Morishi also provide vocals, which all of them do a fantastic job with, especially PORIN who frequently has a solo part in songs. In their song, “ceremony,” you really hear how each member works together, the harmonization in this song is done really well and has one heck of a catchy tune to boot. 

Awesome City Club stays active on their Twitter for everyone who wants to stay up to date on all their latest news, along with their official website. Be sure to check out their song “ceremony” posted in the video below. 

Members

atagi ( vocals, guitar )

PORIN (Vocal Synthesizer )

Morishi (Guitar Synthesizer Vocal)

Awesome City Club Shows Fans Their Vital Signs With Latest Music Video!

“Vital sign” Jacket

Ahead of their April 29 release, four-member rock band Awesome City Club dropped the music video for their upcoming track “Vital Signs” on their official YouTube channel. This one is set to be one of the lead tracks for their upcoming album Grow apart. The band hits the ground running by not only releasing the music video, but also the track, across all digital music streaming platforms. Turning fans’ expectations on its head once again, “Vital Signs” is an upbeat track brought to life through onion skin animation, which might seem unique to modern animation, but it’s those certainly out of the box ideas that bring the best out of Awesome City Club.

Grow apart will feature eleven tracks total and be the latest album release by the band since Catch The One last December and will be their second album overall since signing with Avex back in 2015. The album will drop with two editions including a CD-only standard edition and a CD + Blu-ray limited edition. The Blu-ray will include the entirety of their Awesome talks -Nice Buddy Tour 2019 tour which took place at Shibuya WWW X live house last December. 

Check out the music video in question along with the link for “Vital Sign” across all streaming platforms and be sure to pre-order Grow apart in the links below!

Standard edition

Limited edition

---

Awesome City Club「Grow apart」

CD

01. トビウオ

02. アンビバレンス

03. 最後の口づけの続きの口づけを

04. Heart of Gold

05. バイタルサイン

06. タイムスペース

07. Black and Blue

08. but×××

09. ブルージー

10. Okey dokey

11. STREAM

Blu-ray

Awesome talks -Nice Buddy Tour 2019- 2019.12.24 @ SHIBUYA WWW X

01. 青春の胸騒ぎ

02. 4月のマーチ

03. アウトサイダー

04. 君はグランデ

05. ブルージー

06. タイムスペース

07. アンビバレンス

08. pray

09. Don't Think, Feel

10. SUNNY GIRL

11. 今夜だけ間違いじゃないことにしてあげる

12. Catch The One

Awesome City Club Announces Details for Their First Album Catch The One

Up and coming “city pop” band, Awesome City Club announced the details for their first full album, Catch The One which will be released on December 19th (Wednesday).

This release will contain 10 tracks in total, a few of which includes: “Catch The One” which is the title track,  “愛とからさわぎ” (“Ai to Karasawagi”) a track which contains lyrics co-written by the Yukie (Drums) appointed Shuichi Mabe, “クリエイティブオールナイト” (“Kurieitibu Oorunaito”) an atagi, PORIN, and matsuzaka triple-vocalist rap-song, “ワンシーン” (“Wanshiin”) which is a PORIN-led, winter-themed song, and “台湾ロマンス” (“Taiwan Romansu”), a track which is reminiscent of another one of their songs from their indie days, “涙の上海ナイト” (“Namida no Shanhai Naito”).

As a first for the band, the First Press Limited Edition included DVD will contain over 50-minutes of footage of the band members doing various activities with the theme of: “wanting to try things unrelated to music”. Please don’t miss this opportunity to witness a never before seen side of ACC (Awesome City Club).

Be sure to visit their official website here, and you can preorder your copy of Catch The One online here.

Check out a few excerpt photos from the DVD, as well as the release information below!

---

Release Information:

Awesome City Club - Catch The One

Release Date：2018.12.19 (Wed.)

First Press Limited Edition（CD＋DVD） VIZL-1480 ￥3,800 ＋ Tax

Regular Edition（CD） VICL-65081 ￥2,800 ＋ Tax

Tracklist：

1. Catch The One

2. SUNNY GIRL

3. 君はグランデ (“Kimi wa Gurande”)

4. 愛とからさわぎ (“Ai to Karasawagi”)

5. 燃える星 (“Moeru Hoshi”)

6. クリエイティブオールナイト (“Kurieitibu Oorunaito”)

7. ダンシングファイター (“Danshingu Faitaa”)

8. ワンシーン (“Wanshiin”)

9. 台湾ロマンス (“Taiwan Romansu”)

10. ８月とモラトリー (“Hachigatsu to Moratorii”)

First Press Limited Edition DVD: “Awesome City TV”

・Awesome City Clubのはじめてのお弁当対決／全員でガチンコお弁当作り対決！(Awesome City Club’s First Bento Showdown/ The whole band tries their hardest in this bento making challenge!)

・ユキエチャレンジ／ユキエがやってみたかったアレに挑戦！(Yukie’s Challenge/ Yukie takes on the challenge of “that thing” that she wanted to try!)

・全力“松”坂／全力のマツザカをお見せします (Full Power Matsuzaka/ Matsuzaka shows off his full power!)

・PORINの乗馬レッスン／PORINが白馬に乗ります！(PORIN’s Horse Riding Lesson/ PORIN rides a white horse!)

・あたさんぽ／atagiの散歩はクセ強めです (Walking With Atagi/ Atagi goes on a walk and does something interesting.)

・The Precious Time In My Life／モリシーが父と野鳥を見に出かけます (The Precious time In My Life/ Morishii goes to visit his mother and pet bird.)