At their April 8 SKAM LIFE’S IS DEAD performance, LIPHLICH hit their fans with surprising news. Just half a year after the release of their last album CLUB FLEURET, which was, however, followed by a worrisome period of inactivity throughout the first quarter of 2018, LIPHLICH will be releasing a new album! It is titled SMELL STAR, and is scheduled to be released at an unspecified date in summer 2018. As of now, there aren’t many more details, but we will keep you updated.
The album release will be followed by a performance SMELL LIKE 3 WAY on August 2, which is bassist Shindou Wataru’s birthday. LIPHLICH’s annual ship lives have also been announced. For the curious—each September, LIPHLICH organise two acoustic performances, in Tokyo and Osaka, that take place on the deck of ships cruising the bay; they have a very classy atmosphere and a formal dress code. This year, they’re upping the number of performances to five from the usual two.
The story leading up to the new album announcement has been quite eventful, so let’s recap on what has happened thus far.
Following the tour that LIPHLICH embarked on with Kra in early 2018, the band took a break from essentially all activities. For about two months, LIPHLICH’s social media accounts remained mostly dead.
The performance that took place on April 8, SKAM LIFE’S IS DEAD, has been marketed as the end of an era. Throughout the pause from activities, all the members shared with the audience were rather cryptic blog posts about death, rebirth, and more death. They even got in contact with their departed drummer Maruyama Eiki, who’d left the band in 2015, to comment on everything, and play a song with them at the April live.
(As some fans certainly know, SKAM is a word formed from the initial letters in the last names of the four original members of LIPHLICH—Shindou, Kuga, Arai and Maruyama. SKAM LIFE is, naturally, the song Maruyama would make a guest appearance for.)
The band had disbanded their alter-ego side project Jack the Lipper in late 2017, and had decreased their social media engagement earlier in the year. Along with no lives being scheduled past SKAM LIFE’S IS DEAD, for a band who sometimes tended to plan nearly half a year ahead, and all topped off with the worrying blog posts, fans would begin to speculate that LIPHLICH just might be breaking up. The fandom spent months in uncertain anxiety.
They played us like a damn fiddle.
At SKAM LIFE’S IS DEAD, attendees were handed a flyer of sorts, sporting the title “LIPHLICH TIMES”, which detailed LIPHLICH’s future activities throughout summer and September. They were also asked not to share anything about this on social media before 11 pm of the same day. At the time of writing this article, this time had already passed in Japan—and thus we are happy to bring you all these news! At this point, you may find them on LIPHLICH’s official site as well.
The flyer detailing the live’s setlist
The LIPHLICH TIMES—revealing the band’s upcoming plans
Are you as surprised as we are?
LIPHLICH themselves claim this to be the start of a new era. The old LIPHLICH is dead, and we’re going to have to wait to see what their new reborn selves bring us. Whatever it might be, nobody knows.
So, welcome to the new era. Our condolences…and happy birthday, LIPHLICH.
More info:
Official Website
YouTube
Twitter (LIPHLICH)
Twitter (JACK THE LIPPER)
Twitter (Kuga Shingo)
Twitter (Arai Takayuki)
Twitter (Shindou Wataru)
Twitter (Kobayashi Takaaki)
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