''Carrots and Sticks'' (stylized as ''CARROTS and STiCKS'') is the fifth album by Japanese idol group

Bish is a Japanese alternative idol girl group that was founded in 2015 by their manager Junnosuke Watanabe. The group was conceived as a successor to BiS, an idol group managed by Watanabe that disbanded in 2014. History Bish was initially ann ...

released through Avex Trax on July 3, 2019. The album was released in three parts: ''Sticks'' (stylized as ''STiCKS'', an EP) on April 3, ''Carrots'' (stylized as ''CARROTS'', also an EP) on May 3, and the full version on July 3. The two EPs contained four songs each, while the full version contained an additional six songs for a combined fourteen songs.

History

The album was first announced on April 1, 2019, during Bish's theater screening of ''Bring Icing Shit Horse Tour Final "The Nude"'', a film documenting the group's concert "Bring Icing Shit Horse Tour" at

Makuhari Messe is a Japanese convention center outside Tokyo, located in the Mihama-ku ward of Chiba City, in the northwest corner of Chiba Prefecture. Designed by Fumihiko Maki, it is accessible by Tokyo's commuter rail system. ''Makuhari'' is the name of ...

in December 2018. On the same day, a video detailing the release schedule of the album accompanied by a song in the album, "Tsuinishi", was released on YouTube. In the video, producer Kenta Matsukuma described ''Sticks'' as containing songs that were "dirty, can't sell, and noisy", while ''Carrots'' would contain "sellable, cool" songs. The EPs were distributed exclusively through

Apple Music Apple Music is a music, audio and video streaming service developed by Apple Inc. Users select music to stream to their device on-demand, or they can listen to existing playlists. The service also includes the Internet radio stations Apple M ...

. On June 12, Bish "released" the entire album through

Tower Records Tower Records is an international retail franchise and online music store that was formerly based in Sacramento, California, United States. From 1960 until 2006, Tower operated retail stores in the United States, which closed when Tower Records ...

21 days before the official release date, a stunt also pulled for the previous album, '' The Guerrilla Bish''. However, it was soon revealed that the album was a fake: all fourteen songs were performed by producers Kenta Matsukuma and JxSxK under the name "Beat Mint Boyz". The real version was released on Apple Music the following day. Nevertheless, the fake album managed to climb to 6th place on the Oricon weekly charts.

Release timeline

* April 2: "Tsuinishi" released on YouTube * April 3: ''Sticks'', an EP containing four songs, released on

* May 2: "I Am Me" released on YouTube * May 3: ''Carrots'', another EP containing four songs, released on Apple Music * June 11: "Distance" broadcast on Tokyo FM's program, "School of Lock!" * June 12: "Distance" released on YouTube; fake version sold at

* June 13: Full album pre-released on Apple Music * July 3: Official release of full album

Track listing

Charts

References

{{Authority control 2019 albums BiSH albums