I won’t belabor the “we succeeded, now we’re out” situation that’s led to Tsubasa Fly calling it quits, and that final show happening while this is posting (no kidding, they might be on stage at this very moment). An independent to the end, they ground out a place of respect and, finally, a relative degree of commercial success in an ever-more-competitive scene.
Here are just a few of the songs that they graced us with:
Live as an idol can be grueling, especially if you’re in the indie scene and have to grind through a performance schedule just to make back your recording budget. Very much like your favorite bar band, in fact. For Tsubasa Fly, meeting their goal of charting a single ultimately meant their demise.
Via:
Relive the “Unforgettable Days”: A First Look at Tsubasa Fly’s Last DVD! https://t.co/U32K5T38Rh pic.twitter.com/hiC3xN1FYp
— Tokyo Girls' Update (@TGU_JAPAN) September 1, 2016
It wasn’t all that long ago that Tsubasa Fly was absolutely on fire: For their fifth single, they were rolling all over the place, getting into battles with other idols, doing public street performances, starring in their own movie, dropping an absolute bomb of an MV to promote “Ray of Hope” and even cracking the Oricon top 20 (#1 on the indie charts!)
【お礼】
6/7発売、つばさFly「Ray Of Hope」がオリコンインディーズチャート1位という結果をいただきました‼︎インディーズチャートとはいえ、初のオリコン1位です！応援してくださった皆様、本当にありがとうございました！ pic.twitter.com/3SVl2QTPr8— つばさFly公式アカウント (@TSUBAFULA) June 22, 2016
With all that done and three years together as a group, one could be forgiven for thinking that they’d be gearing up for a step forward — major label release, full album, Asia tour, etc. Take a month off, recharge, go for it.
Nah! They’re going to disband in September instead. Sounds like a pretty great show, though.
In no way am I trying to underestimate Tsubafula‘s ability to get nasty with their sound, but I’ll admit that I never in my life thought I’d hear them drop some actual by-gods metalcore:
“END OF THE DAYS” is, I believe, the C-side (is that a thing?), the third track, on Tsubasa Fly’s fifth single, “Ray of Hope,” which is waaaay closer to what most people probably expect from them. I still kind of can’t believe that they busted that out; musically and visually, I was having flashbacks to Momoiro Clover Z and You’ll Melt More! at the beginning, or maybe something that doofuses believe that Babymetal does, and then it’s just violent verses and pretty clean choruses and hell, cool song!
The single goes on sale tomorrow, or right now in Japan, so you’ll be able to buy it! It would make these hard-working idols happy.
[RT]#Ray_Of_Hope#渋谷スクランブル交差点#つばさFly#つばフラ#つばフラ路上#つばフラ一万枚チャレンジ pic.twitter.com/VB6qTuVobF
— つばさFly公式アカウント (@TSUBAFULA) June 6, 2016
I didn’t even notice until a late look-through of Twitter, but Tsubafula’s right now kicking off their one-man tour to promote the “Ray of Hope” single that seems a lot more like an EP but whatever. And with that, a whole bunch of goodies: Continue reading
The underappreciated Tsubasa Fly has been teasing “Ray of Hope” for a while, but now we have a little preview file:
I’m not going to lie to you; “Ray of Hope” is fine, but that B-side, “Gleaning” (shut up about the spelling), is a lot more than fine. And I’m beginning to notice a pattern with these things. Continue reading
An internal search shows that I have posted about Tsubasa Fly all of once, and that’s a damn shame, because they’ve got some of the solidest material going:
Sorry for what’s going to be a very non-exciting day; got a little family thing and a work thing and OH just a very kind if somewhat ill-timed gift from abroad that’s going to be kind of a big deal around here. Busy morning.
It’s cool when the idols follow you back, even from official accounts; you can make believe for a second that they’re interested in what you’re saying even when they’re probably just trying to either get you to follow them or at least pay closer attention to what they’re doing.
Well, joke’s on you, Tsubasa Fly, because you can follow me back all you want; I already had your profile on my schedule! All you did was make me want to go to your website and watch some of your videos and then want to share them here to remind people that you’re cool and good, especially now that a lot of people are looking at Babymetal stuff!
Wait, I think … DAMN IT!
