Kagerou

LOL, gotta love that picture.. XD. The word Kagerou, which means 'Mayfly' or what I assume literally translates to something like 'shadow fly' is severely overused in Japanese music. This article is mainly concerning the visual band actually called Kagerou, but when I type the word Kagerou into my iTunes search, a vast ocean of different songs/bands comes up including, but not limited to: Kiyoharu (of Sads and Kuroyume), Laputa, Buck-Tick and T.M. Revolution.. I suppose the ephemeral notion of a mayfly is a very Jrock thing.

Kagerou the band, is a strange topic for me, mainly because I have mixed feelings about them.. Kagerou formed in 1999 by the vocalist Daisuki and the bassist MASAYA, shortly thereafter they would be joined by guitarist Yuana. At the beginning their music was a slightly dirtier sounding version of the popular (dir en grey-ish) visual kei sound at the time, and progressed into something that was fairly unique, heavy and a little jazzy. During their lifespan Kagerou put out a total of 4 studio albums and one best of album and a bunch of singles and maxi singles.. Kagerou ended up disbanding in 2006. [as an aside, I would like to mention that when I met MUCC's vocalist at the Ebisu Liquidroom in 2005, he was with Daisuki]

Now this is where I become conflicted. I can't honestly say that I can sit down and listen to an entire Kagerou album (with perhaps the exception of Gore Shock). However! There are a number of Kagerou songs which I like the hell out of. Something from a single here and an album there, this small pocket of songs, I absolutely adore, like holy crap. I don't know what it is, but a few other bands have a similar trend.. which is, most of the songs are passable, but the songs I like, I REALLY like.

The aftermath of Kagerou is interesting to me, because it meshes with some of my favorite Japanese musicians. After they disbanded, Yuana was part of the formation of boogieman and Daisuki formed a band with some Nagoya band musicians called The Studs. Now there's something to talk about! Musicians from some of my favorite bands, Deadman, Gullet,Blast, and Lynch. The composer of the Studs is Yukino, who is one of my favorite bassists and a fantastic composer, he's worked with Lynch, Deadman, Gullet and (oldschool kein). The drummer from Blast, who I think actually left the band recently, the guitarist from Deadman, and of course the vocalist of Kagerou make up the Studs. (I will do a seperate entry on Nagoya bands in the near future!)

Todays BAND OF THE DAY! is Kagerou, with their song Shibire Gokoro from the 2004 album Rakushu. Here's to a really cracked out, unique and pretty brutal Japanese metal band. Definitely some of the strangest characters I've seen in Jrawk. Hope you all enjoy~