Love Psychedelico
Love Psychedelico | |
|---|---|
| Also known as | Delico |
| Origin | Tokyo, Japan |
| Genres | |
| Years active | 1997–present |
| Labels | Victor, Hacktone |
| Members | Kumi Naoki |
| Website | http://www.lovepsychedelico.net |
Love Psychedelico (Japanese: ラブ・サイケデリコ, Hepburn: Rabu Saikederiko), sometimes abbreviated as Delico (デリコ, Deriko), is a Japanese rock duo formed in Tokyo in 1997 and consisting of vocalist and rhythm guitarist Kumi and lead guitarist Naoki. They are popular not only in Japan but also Hong Kong and Taiwan.
History
Love Psychedelico was formed in January 1997 by singer Kumi and guitarist Naoki Sato, while studying at Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo. They went through several other members, until only they were the only two remaining. The group's original name was "Love Psychedelic Orchestra",[1] but the third word was eventually dropped and its first letter added to the end of the second word.
Love Psychedelico 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, was released on January 9, 2001, and went on to sell 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 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~.
Musical style
Stylistically, Love Psychedelico is highly reminiscent of the British Invasion of the late 1960s, both members having cited The Beatles and Led Zeppelin as influences, though the influence of American folk and blues are also present. Kumi has claimed Janis Joplin and Sheryl Crow as influences, while Sato likes Bob Dylan. 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 three 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 to bands such as Superfly who have a similar stylistic approach but without the English-affected Japanese.[4]
Members
- Kumi (Born April 11, 1976, in Chiba Prefecture) – lead vocals, guitars, etc.
- Kumi speaks English because she lived in San Francisco, California between the ages of two and seven.[5] She was married to a non-celebrity man from March 9, 2010, until getting divorced in 2015.[6][7] In 2018, she married musician Motoaki Fukunuma, who had been working as a support member for Love Psychedelico.[8] The couple formed the band Uniolla in 2021 with Koji Hayashi (Triceratops) and Hideaki Iwanaka (Barbars, I Love You Orchestra, Brainchild's).[9]
- Naoki (Born July 21, 1973, in Shizuoka Prefecture[10]) – guitars, bass, backing vocals, etc.
- Naoki was credited by his full name, Naoki Sato (佐藤直樹), in their early works. He produces The Bawdies.
Backing band
- Current support members
- Nobumasa Yamada (Amp'box Recording Studio): recording engineer, drums (2004–present)
- Kiyoshi Takakuwa (Curly Giraffe, ex-Great3): bass (2004–present)
- Satoshi Bandoh (T-Square): drums (2015–present)
- Motoaki Fukanuma (Plagues, Mellowhead, Gheee): guitar (2017–present)
- Masahiko Tomita: drums (2017–present)
- Keiji Matsumoto (ex:T-Square): keyboards (2017–present)
- Masao Fukunaga: percussion (2017–present)
- Former support members
- Hirohisa Horie (Neil & Iraiza): keyboards, guitar (2004–2015)
- Kenichi Shirane (Great3): drums (2004–2015)
- Tomohiko Gondo (Metafive): programming (2004–2015)
- Ryosuke Nagaoka (Tokyo Jihen): guitar (2015)
- Hiroki Chiba (Kinetic, Rabbitoo): bass (2015)
Discography
Studio albums
| Year | Album Information | Chart positions [11] |
Total sales [12] |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | The Greatest Hits
|
1 | 1,661,000 |
| 2002 | Love Psychedelic Orchestra
|
1 | 690,000 |
| 2004 | Love Psychedelico III
|
2 | 387,000 |
| 2007 | Golden Grapefruit
|
5 | 108,000 |
| 2010 | Abbot Kinney
|
7 | 67,000 |
| 2013 | In This Beautiful World
|
5 | — |
| 2017 | Love Your Love
|
10 | — |
| 2022 | A Revolution
|
20 | — |
Other albums
| Year | Album Information | Chart positions [11] |
Total sales [12] |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Early Times
|
1 | 468,000 |
| 2006 | Live Psychedelico
|
35 | 14,000 |
| 2008 | This Is Love Psychedelico
|
16 | 27,000 |
| 2010 | Remasters Box
|
139 | 700 |
| 2015 | The Best I
|
8 | — |
The Best II
|
9 | — | |
The Best Special Box
|
— | — | |
15th Anniversary Tour -The Best- Live
|
— | — | |
| 2018 | Live Tour 2017 Love Your Love at the Nakano Sun Plaza
|
— | — |
| 2020 | Complete Singles 2000–2019
|
47 | — |
| 2022 | 20th Anniversary Tour 2021 Live at Line Cube Shibuya
|
— | — |
| 2023 | Live Tour 2022 "A Revolution" at Showa Women's University Hitomi Memorial Hall
|
— | — |
Singles
| Year | Title | Notes | Oricon singles charts [13] |
Oricon sales total [12] |
Album |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | "Lady Madonna (Yūutsu Naru Spider)" (LADY MADONNA 〜憂鬱なるスパイダー〜, "Depressed Spider") | A different recording of the song was previously released independently at Tower Records stores in January 2000. | 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 | — | |
| 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 | Abbot Kinney ("Shadow Behind") |
| 2011 | "It's You" | 34 | — | In This Beautiful World | |
| 2012 | "Beautiful World/Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" | 33 | — | ||
| 2014 | "Good Times, Bad Times" | Digital-only single | — | — | Love Your Love |
| 2015 | "Love Is All Around" | Digital-only single | — | — | |
| "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. | — | — | — | |
| 2016 | "This Moment/C'mon, It's My Life" | Digital-only single; "This Moment" was used in a commercial campaign in April 2016 for JACCS Co, Ltd.. "C'mon, It's My Life" was used in a commercial campaign in March 2016 for Goodyear Tires. | — | — | Love Your Love |
| 2018 | "Sally" | Digital-only single | — | — | A Revolution |
| 2020 | "Swingin'" | Digital-only single | — | — | |
| 2022 | "It's Not Too Late" | Digital-only single | — | — | |
| "A Revolution" | Digital-only single | — | — | ||
| 2023 | "All the Best to You" | Digital-only single | — | — | — |
Home videos
- 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)
- "Two of Us" Acoustic Session at Recording at Victor Studio 302 (May 26, 2019)
- Premium Acoustic Live "Two of Us" Tour 2019 at EX Theater Roppongi (March 25, 2020)
- Live the Greatest Hits 2020 (May 15, 2021)
- 20th Anniversary Tour 2021 Live at Line Cube Shibuya (March 30, 2022)
- Live Tour 2022 "A Revolution" at Showa Women's University Hitomi Memorial Hall (March 29, 2023)
References
- ^ "LOVE PSYCHEDELICO(3)". Tower Records (in Japanese). Retrieved October 9, 2023.
- ^ Nippop | Love Psychedelico | Profile
- ^ Love Psychedelico
- ^ Moody 2012, p. 217.
- ^ "LOVE PSYCHEDELICOが60～70年代の洋楽を日本でアップデイトした『THE GREATEST HITS』". OK Music (in Japanese). August 30, 2017. Retrieved October 9, 2023.
- ^ "LOVE PSYCHEDELICOのボーカル・KUMIが結婚 お相手は10歳年上の一般人". Oricon (in Japanese). April 10, 2010. Retrieved October 9, 2023.
- ^ "ＫＵＭＩ、一般男性と離婚していた！ツアーなどですれ違い生活に". Sankei Sports (in Japanese). July 13, 2015. Retrieved October 9, 2023.
- ^ "LOVE PSYCHEDELICO KUMIと深沼元昭が結婚". Natalie (in Japanese). January 2, 2018. Retrieved October 9, 2023.
- ^ "デリコKUMI×深沼元昭×林幸治×岩中英明がバンド「Uniolla」結成、アルバムリリース". Natalie (in Japanese). September 21, 2021. Retrieved October 11, 2023.
- ^ LOVE PSYCHEDELICO FAN SITE-delico delico
- ^ a b "LOVE PSYCHEDELICOのランキング情報". Oricon (in Japanese). Retrieved October 11, 2023.
- ^ a b c "オリコンランキング情報サービス「you大樹」". Oricon (in Japanese). Retrieved September 15, 2010. (subscription only)
- ^ "LOVE PSYCHEDELICOのランキング情報". Oricon (in Japanese). Retrieved October 11, 2023.
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.
External links
- Official site
- Love Psychedelico at Musicjapanplus
- Love Psychedelico – The Film DVD Review at cityonfire.com
- Early Times CD Review
- Nippon Project interview
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