Original Date: 20040606.
It's a characteristic of all BUMP OF CHICKEN's albums and singles to contain "hidden tracks", and "hidden page/print" at the back of the CD cases. (In fact, the BUMP members were so playful they used to have "hidden pages" (which usually contained their artwork) at their old homepage, teasing the webpage visitors to find them <- another random BUMP info for you ^^)
Anyway, back to hidden tracks.
They said there's the Ying (dark) and Yang (bright) side of their albums/singles. The Yang (bright) side obviously refers to the Hidden Tracks, ironically. These Hidden Tracks' were sung by all members, usually the drummer Massu-san, bassist Chama, and sometimes guitarist Masukawa-san played the main vocals (usually in high pitch voices or making funny voices),.. while Fujiwara-san's doing the backing vocals plus "guiding". Then again the vocal ensemble did varies on different hidden tracks. These tracks are all fun and experimental with the coolest guitar lines and the funniest and quirky lyrics. Basically, all the boys were having a fun time.
Personally, I find these hidden tracks adorable and addictive, and VERY FOND of them ^_^
If you've purchased the official albums and singles, you would find the information/print of the hidden tracks at the back of the CD case cover. Usually it's the lyrics of the hidden tracks (often hand-scribbled by Fujiwara-san), artwork/literature related to the track, or in the case of "Harujion" single, a photo of Oojiro - the guitarist Masukawa Hiroaki's pet dog. Also note that, more than half of these hidden tracks featured Hiroaki.
Enough of rambling, here's a list (hence more rambling) base on my collection -
1. FLAME VEIN album -
TRACKS: "Danny" and "My Best Friends" performed by Good Manners <- BUMP members themselves obviously.. (go to the first track, and reverse around 8 minutes)
"Danny" - Main vocalist of this track is Fujiwara-san, it's about a dog named Danny, it's all in English. He wrote the song when he's around 15-16 years old. BUMP performed "Danny" at a band contest and won award for the first time. The song 's a classic and is one of the favorite encore songs when they performed live.
"My Best Friends" - acoustic and addictive, started off with Massu-san singing in 'sad' way, and then picking up mid way with Fujiwara-san singing main, while the rest of the members humming "u-waah~wuu~" in the background.
CD CASE: the lyrics to "battle cry" and "my best friend".
2. THE LIVING DEAD album -
TRACK: "The Living Dead" - (track#13 forward around 13:00 minute mark) -
It's basically the members talking to and teasing the guitarist Masukawa Hiroaki, teasing Hiro of being very thin (hosoi), hence becoming his nickname "Hose".. and teasing Hiro of mispronouncing the title "Nikkei to JAL no futaritabi", hence becoming his nickname "Nikke".. I think they're driving poor Hiro-kun crazy, you can hear him screaming in pain XD <- the song/dialogue is very very funny..
WITH EXCELLENT GUITAR LINES!
CD CASE: a photo of Masukawa Hiroaki, with the "vortex" effect.. <- driven crazy.
3. JUPITER album -
TWO TRACKS: "In my heart -> In my NIKKE" (track#22, forward around the 15 minute mark)
They're by a band called "Joy" (it's the BUMP members obviously).. again, they're singing about the guitarist Masukawa Hiroaki (nickname "Nikke"). I especially love the 2nd track "In my NIKKE" starts singing: "Ore to Hiro ha Yume no Naka~"..... I can actually write out which lines sung by which members if anyone's interested xD
I Love the "live" feeling and energy of these tracks immensely, VERY addictive! And the "live" feel of the "audiences" cheerings were mostly, if not all, done by the members themselves, the high-pitched voices belong to Hiroaki Masukawa-san!
CD CASE: artwork of "Joy".
4. DIAMOND/LAUGHMAKER single -
TRACK: "OGOMAME" (continue from "laugh maker".. forward to the 12:00 minute
mark). I think it's related to the quirky story the members wrote at the back of the CD case. Another awesome track with a very bluesy feel! And somehow very tribal too.
CD CASE: Hiroaki's brush painting of themselves, and a little quirky fiction
story written by the members, in which they made themselves the characters in the story, it's quirky and very funny. Another random BUMP info: All four of them love to make up stories and characters and RPG with each other XD
Also note that the "Diamond" katakana writing on the cover was written by
Fujiwara, he wrote it using his finger dipping into calligraphy ink. Fujiwara and Naoi are the artists of the group.
5. TENTAI KANSOKU/BYE BYE THANK YOU single -
TRACK: The famous "H.I.R.O.W.A.K.I" (track#21)
This is another fun song, they sing about Takahashi Hiroaki (one
of their managers); and you guess it, Masukawa Hiroaki (<- what did the shy and quiet boy do to deserve all these attentions, that's what I'd like to know xD)
It's basically another fun and silly song about their random characteristic and sharing the same first name.
CD CASE: photo of drawings of Takahashi Hiroaki and Masukawa Hiroaki, with the
printed lyrics of "H.I.R.O.W.A.K.I".
6. HARUJION single -
TRACK: "LOVE" (track#3)
This track somehow sounded abit like death-metal O_O It's very VERY interesting!!
CD CASE: a photo of Hiroaki Masukawa-san's pet dog.
7. SAILING DAY/LOSTMAN single -
TRACK: "OMOCHI" (track#3 forward 3 minutes)
I'm still trying to work out the quirky lyrics. But LOVE the vocals/talks arrangements of this one again, plus AWESOME guitar line again! The main vocal of this track was Hideo Massu-san!
CD CASE: Fujiwara-san's scribbling note of the lyric of "omochi", and a little
erased off sketch of a bird, that mentioned in the lyric.
8. SNOWSMILE/HOLIDAY single -
TRACK: "Tinpost*Uncle On" (track#33 forward to around to just before 19 minute mark). Nice guitar and bass line again.. with minimal lyrics in this song, so it sounds more like a instrumental.
CD CASE: photo/art of "Tinpost*Uncle On" and a little story.
9. ARUE/EVER LASTING LIE single -
TRACK: "Hana ni nare" (track#2 appears around 10 seconds after "Ever Lasting Lie" completed)
It's kind of traditionally folk-song, sounds to me like the members are drinking themselves silly watching sakura or something.. although the song also sound very sincere and ernest and heart warming albeit a bit silly at the same time.. love the acoustic guitar and the tune!
CD CASE: Fujiwara's scribbling note of the lyric of the hidden track.
10. ONLY LONELY GLORY single -
TRACK: "Shadow" (track#3 - forward 10 minutes)
This one sounded awesome with great line! The production was of such a high quality too it almost didn't feel like a hidden track, but then again one would recognized that it's a hidden track because of the unique style. Main vocals were Hiroaki Masukawa and Chama, with mixing backing vocals (done by themselves and the rest of the members); also love the part where Fujiwara-san sang ".. everda~y!" Love this one immensely!
CD CASE: Chama's photography with scribble (by Hiroaki Masukawa?).
11. YGGDRASIL album -
TRACK: "O.TO.GA.ME heart" by Gekishibu Boys! (track#15, forward 2 minutes)
This gotta rank up high among my personal BOC hidden tracks list lol.
After a full album of "deep" songs, this is a complete contrast. And we welcome back Gekishibu Boys (think late 80s early 90s Japanese Boy Bands, role-played by BUMP OF CHICKEN of course, and with equally silly lyrics lol)
The track starts off with the Host/DJ (Chama) and Announcer (Fujiwara!) doing the weekly count down -
Ranking #3 - Good Manners (the group who performed the hidden track "my best friends" on FLAME VEIN)
Ranking #2 - "Shadow" by Joy (the group who performed the hidden tracks on Jupiter and recently Only Lonely Glory)
Ranking #1 - "O.TO.GA.ME heart" by Gekishibu Boys (they're the one that performed the hidden track on LAMP single)
Then the Host (Chama) interviewing Gekishibu Boys leader (Hideo Masu), talking about them video-ing at the beach of Hawaii; and you can hear the high pitched cheering voice of Hiroaki Masukawa in the background lol. Hiro-san is also good at purposely singing out of tune impersonating the typical boy bands in the line - "anmari minaide..." (which is btw sounded like a female's line lol)
And I admit I fell off chair laughing when Fujiwara-san sang "BABY~ boku no kimochi BABY~ aaah~!" in a very VERY sexy way XD
CD CASE: Chama's photography with scribble (by Hideo Massu).
00. LAMP single <- it's out of stock so I don't own it and can't check. But according to Japanese fan sites, this first single also contained hidden tracks.
Please let us know if you've heard of this track, greatly appreciated!
Will update this again upon new single/album releases
Your comments are welcome, your thoughts on these hidden tracks, which are your favorites etc. Personally, as with all BUMP songs, I can't pick... LOVE THEM ALL!
Cheers, koony
)