Base Ball Bear is a Japanese

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band Band or BAND may refer to: Places *Bánd, a village in Hungary *Band, Iran, a village in Urmia County, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran * Band, Mureș, a commune in Romania *Band-e Majid Khan, a village in Bukan County, West Azerbaijan Province, I ...

from

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

that made its major debut in 2006 with

EMI Music Japan , formerly , was one of Japan's leading music companies. It became a wholly owned subsidiary of British music company EMI Group Ltd. on June 30, 2007, after Toshiba sold off its previous 45% stake. Its CEO and president was Kazuhiko Koike. When ...

. Although assembled in autumn 2001, the band formally began in 2002, and started off with self-produced releases. Their style influences include Japanese

indie rock Indie rock is a subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the music they produc ...

bands

Number Girl was a rock band formed in Fukuoka, Japan in August, 1995 by guitarist and vocalist Shutoku Mukai. They first disbanded in 2002 following bassist Kentaro Nakao's departure from the band. Number Girl played fast, guitar-driven rock similar to th ...

and

Supercar A supercar – also called exotic car – is a loosely defined description of street-legal, high-performance sports cars. Since the 2010s, the term hypercar has come into use for the highest performing supercars. Supercars commonly serve as t ...

, and British rock bands such as Oasis. They have been noted for the "nostalgic" feel of band leader Yūsuke Koide's lyrics, often about teenage life and memories. Base Ball Bear are also known for their contributions to the soundtrack of the movie '' Linda Linda Linda'' (in which bassist Shiori Sekine had a leading role) and performing the themes to the

anime is hand-drawn and computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening of ...

series ''

Toshokan Sensō is a Japanese light novel series by Hiro Arikawa, with illustrations by Sukumo Adabana. There are four novels in the series, though only the first novel is called ''Toshokan Sensō''; the subsequent novels are named ''Toshokan Nairan'', ...

'', '' Ōkiku Furikabutte'' and ''

Gintama is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hideaki Sorachi. It was serialized in Shueisha's ''shōnen'' manga magazine ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' from December 2003 to September 2018, later in ''Jump Giga'' from December 2 ...

''. The band, initially named Planet, was formed for a one-time performance at a

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

culture festival, but decided to continue due to how well-received they were and the fun they had at the festival. The name Planet had likely come from the Supercar song of the same name, and the band's current name also derives partially from a song name. Koide had thought of Japanese singer Chocolat's song "Base Ball and Elvis Presley" and suggested the name "Base Ball". Guitarist Shohei Yuasa thought it would be better if one more word was added to it, and the rest of the band agreed, eventually settling on the word "bear". In 2016, the band announced the departure of Shohei Yuasa and that they would continue with 3 members.

Members

Current members

* ** Born December 9, 1984 in

Edogawa, Tokyo is a special ward located in Tokyo Metropolis, Japan. It takes its name from the Edo River that runs from north to south along the eastern edge of the ward. In English, it uses the name Edogawa City. The easternmost of the wards, it shares b ...

** Vocalist and guitarist ** Primary lyricist and composer of the band's music ** Likes

old school hip hop Old-school hip hop (also spelled old skool) is the earliest commercially recorded hip hop music and original style of the genre. It typically refers to the music created around 1979 to 1983, as well as any hip hop that does not adhere to contem ...

and favorite artists include

XTC XTC were an English rock band formed in Swindon in 1972. Fronted by songwriters Andy Partridge (guitars, vocals) and Colin Moulding (bass, vocals), the band gained popularity during the rise of punk and new wave in the 1970s, later playing in ...

, Happy End, Berryz Koubou and

Perfume Perfume (, ; french: parfum) is a mixture of fragrant essential oils or aroma compounds (fragrances), fixatives and solvents, usually in liquid form, used to give the human body, animals, food, objects, and living-spaces an agreeable scent. Th ...

* ** Born December 8, 1985 in Saitama Prefecture (youngest member) ** Bassist and backing vocalist ** The only female member and had no experience playing bass before joining ** Favorite artists include Jethro Tull, Caravan,

Keiichi Suzuki is a Japanese musician, singer, and record producer who co-founded the Moonriders, a group that became one of Japan's most innovative rock bands. He is known to audiences outside Japan for his musical contributions to the video games ''Mother'' ...

Yui Yui may refer to: People * Yui (name), a Japanese name *Yui (singer) (born 1987), Japanese singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and actress * Yui people or Ibi, a Timucuan-speaking people in what now is Georgia, United States Places * Yui, Sh ...

and

GO!GO!7188 GO!GO!7188 (Go Go Nana Ichi Hachi Hachi), also known simply as Gogo, was a Japanese rock band with influences spanning from surf rock to punk rock to enka. History In June 1998, Yumi Nakashima (nicknamed Yuu) and Akiko Hamada (nicknamed Akk ...

** Also bassist of Paranmaum band from the 2005 movie Linda Linda Linda * ** Born January 17, 1985 in

** Drummer and chorus ** Favorite artists include

The Police The Police were an English rock band formed in London in 1977. For most of their history the line-up consisted of primary songwriter Sting (lead vocals, bass guitar), Andy Summers (guitar) and Stewart Copeland (drums, percussion). The Polic ...

, the

Red Hot Chili Peppers Red Hot Chili Peppers are an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1983, comprising vocalist Anthony Kiedis, bassist Flea, drummer Chad Smith, and guitarist John Frusciante. Their music incorporates elements of alternative rock, funk ...

John Frusciante John Anthony Frusciante (; born March 5, 1970) is an American musician, best known as the guitarist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers across three stints since 1988. He has released 11 solo albums and 7 EPs, ranging in style from acoustic guitar to e ...

, and Nile Rodgers

Past members

* ** Born April 16, 1984 in

Chiba Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Chiba Prefecture has a population of 6,278,060 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Chiba Prefecture borders Ibaraki Prefecture to the north, Saitama Prefecture to t ...

** Guitarist ** Favorite artists include

Thee Michelle Gun Elephant Thee Michelle Gun Elephant (often abbreviated to TMGE) was a Japanese garage rock band formed in 1991. History The band was formed in 1991,Strong, Martin C. (2003) ''The Great Indie Discography'', Canongate, , p. 1025-6 while Chiba, Ueno, and Ku ...

and

Sly & the Family Stone Sly and the Family Stone was an American band from San Francisco. Active from 1966 to 1983, it was pivotal in the development of funk, soul, rock, and psychedelic music. Its core line-up was led by singer-songwriter, record producer, and multi- ...

History

Formation and early years

Koide originally assembled the band in 2001 under the name "Planet," to perform at their high school's fall festival. They performed covers of the songs ''OOYeah!!'' and ''OOKeah!!'' by the band

. Following their festival performance, they decided to continue with the band as a hobby. In March 2002, the band formally assembled. In April they began sending demo tapes to record labels, whereupon they were advised by

Toshiba EMI , formerly , was one of Japan's leading music companies. It became a wholly owned subsidiary of British music company EMI Group Ltd. on June 30, 2007, after Toshiba sold off its previous 45% stake. Its CEO and president was Kazuhiko Koike. When ...

to change their name. They eventually chose "Base Ball Bear," the name under which they performed their first gig at Shimokitazawa Garage that July. Throughout the rest of the year, they continued playing in the

Shibuya Shibuya (wikt:渋谷, 渋谷wikt:区, 区 ''Shibuya-ku'') is a Special wards of Tokyo, special ward in Tokyo, Japan. As a major commercial and finance center, it houses two of the busiest railway stations in the world, Shinjuku Station (southern ...

and

Shimokitazawa is a commercial and entertainment area in Kitazawa, Setagaya, Tokyo. It is located in the southwestern corner of the Kitazawa district, hence the name "Shimo-kitazawa" (literally ''lower Kitazawa''). Also known as "Shimokita", the neighbourhood ...

areas of Tokyo as their fan base began to grow. In November 2003, Base Ball Bear signed with Blitz Pia Records, an independent label. They immediately released their first mini-album ''Yūgata Generation'' on November 26. The band released its first single, ''Yume is Vision'', in April of the following year. It was the first of the band's songs to be accompanied by a music video, which was created in collaboration with Yūki, a Japanese fashion magazine model and Base Ball Bear fan. The band spent the rest of 2004 practicing and writing new songs, some of where were featured on compilation CDs. The band released its first full-length album, ''High Color Times'', on March 16, 2005, and started playing concerts to sold-out crowds in larger venues. Also, Shiori Sekine was cast in one of the lead roles in the film '' Linda Linda Linda'', which featured some of the band's music.

Major debut and increasing popularity

Base Ball Bear signed with

in January 2006, and immediately released an introductory album, ''Band B ni Tsuite'', on January 12. Although they had previously released another version of ''Band B ni Tsuite'' on October 14, 2005, this new release included one new song and other remastering. They then played on the "Nyakunyaku Nannyo Summer Tour" with

Chatmonchy was a three-piece all-female rock band which consisted of Eriko Hashimoto (guitar, vocals), Akiko Fukuoka (bass, chorus), and formerly Kumiko Takahashi (drums, chorus) who are from Tokushima Prefecture on the island of Shikoku, Japan. Since 20 ...

and

Snowkel is a Japanese rock band from Fukuoka, Japan. Its members are Kaba, Nishi, and Yama. Immediately after forming in January 2004, their height of degree of completion of music is appraised and acquires a grand prix in the audition of local end in ...

and released their first major album, ''C'', on October 29. Their first solo tour "Live by the C" took place in the spring of 2007. Over the course of the year, they released four more singles, as well as their second major album, ''Jūnanasai''. Their live performances included the

Rock in Japan Festival The Rock in Japan Festival is an annual three-day rock festival held during early August at the Hitachi Seaside Park, in Hitachinaka, Ibaraki, Japan, organized by ''Rockin'on ''Rockin'On Japan'', often stylized in all caps, is a monthly magazin ...

, another round on the "Nyakunyaku Nannyo Summer Tour", and the "B-Pop High School Tour". In 2008, the band went on a solo tour called "17-sai Kara Yattemasu Tour" that ran from the middle to the end of March. Their first single of the year, ''Changes'', was released on May 8, 2008 and was the ending theme to the

Production I.G is a Japanese animation studio and production enterprise, founded on December 15, 1987, by Mitsuhisa Ishikawa and headquartered in Musashino, Tokyo, Japan. The letters I and G derive from the names of the company founders: producer Mitsuhisa Ish ...

series ''

''. The band then made its first appearance on the popular music program

Music Station is a Japanese music television program. Broadcasting live weekly on TV Asahi since October 24, 1986, it currently airs from 9PM-10PM on Fridays. The program is also colloquially known as , , and . The show is currently syndicated throughout th ...

on May 9 and performed ''Changes'' on the show. Base Ball Bear also performed a two-day show at Shibuya C.C. Lemon Hall in late September. In January 2009, they released their eighth single ''Love Mathematics'' and a compilation album ''Kanzenban Band B ni Tsuite'' containing all their indies songs. Following the releases, the band went on a tour called "Live Mathematics Tour 2009" starting in March. They also held a show named "Hibiya Nonfiction" at Hibiya Open-Air Concert Hall on June 27. With a total of four singles in 2009, the band closed out the year by releasing their third album ''(What Is The) Love & Pop?'' in September and achieving ninth place on the

Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan and Western music. It started as, which was founded by Sōkō Koike in ...

Weekly Albums Chart. It was their first album to reach the top ten, and they held a five-venue tour at

Zepp The Zepp music halls are a group of Japanese music venues covering every area of the country. They play host to many international tours and are a popular stop among Japanese musicians. Each venue takes the Zepp name, along with the city in whic ...

halls to promote the album. Base Ball Bear managed their first solo concert at the Nippon Budokan on January 3, 2010, titled "Live;(This Is The) Base Ball Bear".

Departure of Shohei Yuasa

In 2016, also the band's 10th anniversary of debut and their 15th year together, it was announced that guitarist Shohei Yuasa would be leaving the band. According to their management agency, since mid-February that year, Yuasa had been uncontactable and did not turn up at the studio when they were scheduled for production work. He then declared his intention through a third party that he was unable to continue his activities in Base Ball Bear. After that, the staff and members tried to contact Yuasa directly for several days but no one managed to reach him. On February 27, Base Ball Bear went through with a scheduled appearance at a festival with the remaining 3 members, announcing that Yuasa could not participate as he was not well. However, with the band's own tour "Live By The C2" due to kick off on March 5, the agency had no choice but to make the decision public on March 2 that it would be difficult for them to continue as four. The tour would instead have ex-Doping Panda member Yutaka Furukawa perform as a support guitarist. To this, the band's members and staff felt unable to comprehend the situation and expressed regret. Vocalist Koide said that they had spent more than half their lives together and it was "very regretful" that Yuasa would leave the band. Horinouchi said it was "vexing" because he had believed the band would be 4 members "for 20 or even 30 years." Having taken for granted that they would always be four, he could not understand why this had happened and "even feels anger." Bassist Sekine said that she was "extremely bewildered at first by this sudden development", and that she had never thought about anyone leaving. She expressed that she was uneasy that something precious to her had "crumbled", but no matter what she wanted to continue Base Ball Bear, and Koide and Horinouchi felt the same.

Discography

Self-produced works

Indies

Singles

Albums

Various artist compilations

Major label

Singles

Digital download releases

Albums

Mini-albums

Live albums

Best-of albums

Various artist compilations

Video releases

Live DVDs

Music video compilations

Other releases

*Band B ni Tsuite (バンドBについて ''About Band B'') (2006-01-12) **Special introducing album limited to 5000 copies. **This is the same as the indies release except for track eight "Girl of Arms", which was replaced by "Labyrinth e no Timing" as track two for this release. *Yoakemae no Yoakemae (2011-04-07) **Limited edition single only sold at live venues on the band's "Base Ball Bear 10th Anniversary 'Sayonara-Nostalgia Tour'". **Contains live performance audio recordings of two songs, "Yoakemae" and "Changes".

Other collaborative works

Yusuke Koide only

*Shiho Nanba (2011-06-15) **Lyricist *Shiho Nanba (2012-03-07) **Lyricist * Becky "15 ~Spring Flag~" (2012-06-27) **Co-lyricist and composer *

Okamoto's is a Japanese rock band, formed in 2006. They made their major label debut on May 26, 2010, and were signed by Ariola Japan. Career Okamoto's was formed by four junior high school students. Fans of influential Japanese avant-garde artist Tar ...

(2012-07-18) **Co-lyricist with Okamoto's * Chocolat (2012-12-05) **Lyricist and composer * Mai Endo "Today is the Day"(2013-07-31) **Co-lyricist with copywriter Hikaru Arashida, composer *

Tokyo Girls' Style (stylized as TOKYO GIRLS' STYLE) is a Japanese girl group formed in 2009, and was the first idol group created under Avex Trax after SweetS. The idol group originally consisted of five members: Miyu Yamabe, Hitomi Arai, Yuri Nakae, Konishi Aya ...

"Partition Love" (2013-09-25) **Lyricist and composer *

Yasuyuki Okamura (born 14 August 1965) is a singer-songwriter and music producer active in the Japanese music market. Alternate pen name . He started his professional career in 1985, and is known internationally for the ''City Hunter 2'' ending theme "Super Girl" ...

w Yusuke Koide (2014-04-02) **Vocalist and lyricist

As Base Ball Bear

iLL ILL may refer to: * '' I Love Lucy'', a landmark American television sitcom * Illorsuit Heliport (location identifier: ILL), a heliport in Illorsuit, Greenland * Institut Laue–Langevin, an internationally financed scientific facility * Interlibra ...

(2010-06-23) **Co-lyricist and co-composer with Koji Nakamura, vocals *

Hyadain , also known as , is a Japanese composer, lyricist, and musician. His primary work is composing anime theme songs and for J-pop musicians. He contracts through Supalove, a Japanese record label. He has released a number of anime and video game mu ...

(2013-01-13) **Arrangement and guest vocals

Media appearances

Film

* '' Linda Linda Linda'' (2005) - Sekine as Nozomi Shirakawa * '' Library War: The Wings of Revolution'' (2012) - Koide as Rikudō Mark Ingram (voice acting)

Television

* Base Ball Bear no Base Ball Variety (Space Shower TV) * Base Ball Bear no Base Ball Variety 2 (Space Shower TV) * Base Ball Bear no Base Ball Variety 3 (Space Shower TV) * Base Ball Bear no Base Ball Variety 4 (Space Shower TV)

Radio

* Base Ball Bear no All Night Nippon R ( JOLF, December 2, 2006, March 3, 2007) * Base Ball Bear no Soft Ball Dōkō-kai ( JFN, 2009) * School of Lock "Bebobe Locks!" ( TFM, 2009–present)

References

External links

Base Ball Bear Official Website

Base Ball Bear @ Nippop
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bear, Base Ball Japanese alternative rock groups Musical groups established in 2002 2002 establishments in Japan Musical groups from Tokyo Universal Music Japan artists

Members

Current members

Past members

History

Formation and early years

Major debut and increasing popularity

Departure of Shohei Yuasa

Discography

Self-produced works

Indies

Singles

Albums

Various artist compilations

Major label

Singles

Digital download releases

Albums

Mini-albums

Live albums

Best-of albums

Various artist compilations

Video releases

Live DVDs

Music video compilations

Other releases

Other collaborative works

Yusuke Koide only

As Base Ball Bear

Media appearances

Film

Television

Radio

See also

References

External links