Into the haystack

Japanese rock music is a massive genre. The best way to describe how giant it is would be with scientific classification, I'll actually try to do that..

Kingdom:	Audio
Phylum:	Music
Class:	Japanese
Order:	Rock
Family:	Visual Kei
Genus:	Nagoya Kei
Species:	Lynch.

That's about how complex it is, there are so many subtypes of Japanese music (music in general even) that it could easily make one's head explode. Now I don't presume to know all of them or all of the bands, and this is really my point.

I basically cut ties with music from all other countries, save for very select bands/songs, because it was just way too much to keep track of. I hope at some point to be one of the most knowledgeable people when it comes to Japanese rock, but there are so many bands that intersect with the Rock (order) lol.

Now I started out listening to bands from Visual Kei; Glay, L'arc~en~Ciel, X-Japan, Malice Mizer.. even in that small selection there is a huge amount of explanation required to understand the structure of visual kei. For example all 4 bands started out as visual kei, however X-Japan is also a heavy metal band and Malice Mizer is kind of gothic.. Both Glay and L'arc~en~Ciel have become pop/rock and have lost the Visual kei aspect to their music, but L'arc~en~Ciel when they were a relatively new band started a trend of dressing in white and coining the term "shiro-kei" which bands still use today. On a completely different note, there are many bands that can just be considered Japanese rock without being Visual Kei or being associated with it, Mr. Children and B'z are two that come to mind immediately. Although I'm not sure when they became active.

Honestly I can't listen to every new band that comes out, I just don't care enough and most of it is pretty terrible. But I do follow the trends and pay attention to bands that become major in the rock scene. For the most part I follow specific bands, bands that those bands play with and bands made of former members from bands I enjoyed, that has been the best way for me to find more music that I enjoy.

Anyway, I'd really like to discuss more of this and upload some new music for you guys at a later time. Again, I'll apologize for not updating regularly, I just haven't cared much about the stuff that's been released recently ;p

Talk to you soon internets, keep reading.

Moonies and the moon.

Why hello there my internet neighbors, it's been a while. A few things have happened since the last time I posted here and I will get to all of them in good time. First order of business.. After great deliberation and concentration, I have decided that my favorite band is now Coaltar of the Deepers. MUCC was #1 for as long as I can remember, but they have been putting out music that doesn't mesh well with my tastes (for the past 5 years or so) and have lost the top spot.

So far 2010 has had many Japanese releases.. few of which I feel have been notable. As of right now 9Goats Black Out are on indefinite hiatus, somehow Cali=Gari who revived for (a supposedly short time) is still together and we don't really know what's happening there. Cali=Gari released "≠" which is actually the symbol in their name but rotated 90 degrees. *I'm just too lazy to find that symbol each time I write their name. 9Goats Black Out released their actual first full length album, which I don't like very much.. UnsraW released a mini album called "GUILTY" which is actually really good. There was some other release that underwhelmed me so much that I can't even think of it now.. But the true heroes of 2010 so far have been Munimuni, with their first full album release Magical Moonies.

Completely out of left field Magical Moonies delighted the shit out of me, it's 11 songs, maybe about half of them are re-recordings of their older songs and there might be 1 or 2 songs on the album that are difficult for me to listen to, but overall it's a SUPER solid album that I wasn't expecting to make such an impression on me.

Munimuni is an Angura-kei band, self described as "Sadistical Punk" and I saw someone recently refer to them as "a dirty mix between Lunasea and the Cure" which I think is a fair way to put it. It makes me think of a band full of bat-shit insane people who are extremely musically talented. In fact, it's quite difficult for me to describe their music in any kind of coherent way.. I think you just need to listen to it.

I apologize for not posting much recently, but soon I will get back into the swing of things, and with a new trip to the land of the rising sun on the horizon, I will have some great stories for you, but until then I will continue being extremely lazy.

No song of the day today, I guess you could call Munimuni the band of the day.. but I will have more to say next time we speak, adieu intarwebs~

FINALLY

I have been goddamned waiting for some new UnsraW, it's finally here and it's just what the metal doctor ordered. Honestly I've been getting tired of such weak music coming out.. Don't get me wrong I love the new Cali=Gari, 9Goats and a few other recent releases, they have been pretty good and I will write about them soon, but seriously.. once in a while I need my metal bone scratched nice and deep. AND FUKKEN UNSRAW TO THE RESCUE!

The new single "REBORN" which came out on the 23rd (yesterday) has 3 tracks, which is ideal for a single, and to boot all of the songs are original. Track 1 is called 'Nightmare' when I first heard it, at first I wasn't satisfied that it was heavy enough, but by the end of the track I was begging for more. The 2nd track is the title track called 'REBORN' and it's pretty intense, real classic sounding UnsraW, but it's more melodic than I was expecting.. Nice and heavy though. 3rd track is called 'Switch' it's more on the softer side, but at almost 5 minutes you can really start to get into it. This new single is such a breath of *blisteringly painful metal air* I freakin' want more RIGHT NOW!@!!

I'm super impressed, usually singles don't make much of an impact on me, but leave it to UnsraW to kick some ass and leave me bleeding on the floor. Obviously, today's BAND OF THE DAY is UnsraW with their title track off the 'REBORN' single.

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~

Oldskool

So, tonight I wanted to talk a little bit about Lunasea. Most likely if you are familiar with Japanese music, you are also familiar with Lunasea, they formed in 1989 and kept the same members the entire life of the band, up til they disbanded in 2000. Thats a pretty good run for a Japanese band. Their name is a take off of the word Lunacy, which was what the band was originally called.

In the beginning... Lunasea was scouted by "hide" Hideto Matsumoto of X-JAPAN and signed to their Extasy records. Pretty much everything that LunaSea put out, is important in the history of Japanese rock. I'm pretty sure that Lunasea is one of the most influential Japanese bands ever, next to X-Japan and Dead End.

LunaSea was one of my first Japanese bands actually, I really liked Rosier, Gravity and 1999.. I think those were my first songs. This was also at a time where it was difficult to find full albums as we were using Napster or WinMX so I managed to scrounge up songs here and there. In any case, I really enjoyed their music when I was younger.. now when I listen to it, there is a strange phenomena that occurs: I notice that other bands since have copied sounds from many LunaSea songs! I'm sure it's more of a tribute thing than a failing at being original, but I found it really interesting that I notice it now. I guess my point is that LunaSea was/is HUGELY influential in Visual Kei. ;D

Anyhow, LunaSea was active for a pretty long time, put out seven albums and a bunch of singles, pretty much all of it being good in my oppinion. These days the members of LunaSea are, for the most part still very active. J, the Bassist has his own solo career, just as "J" and has put out a bunch of music. Ryuichi the vocalist has since been in a band called Tourbillon, and puts out solo music. Lead guitarrist Sugizo, who is probably the most active, playing now with Sugizo and the Spank Your Juice (lol), A member in super group S.K.I.N. with Yoshiki, Gackt, Miyavi and Ju-Ken(support), and I believe was recently made an official member of X-JAPAN replacing the deceased hide. Inoran, the rythm guitarrist was also in Tourbillon and a member of Fake? for a while, but also has a solo career (I actually like his solo work). Finally, the Drummer of LunaSea Shinya, was also in a band called Potbelly, which I don't know very well, but I believe Shinya also played support drums for a number of high profile bands, (possibly including Creature Creature?). A note about Shinya is that, the drummer of Dir en Grey, also called Shinya, took his name and his drum style directly from LunaSea's Shinya. This may be of interest as Dir en Grey is hugely popular now.

LunaSea has recently played a few revival shows and at the hide memorial summit, this activity may lead to the band actually reforming! I don't know, but there are a lot of bands doing this recently. Honestly I hope they do, it would be cool to see something new from LunaSea.

Today's BAND OF THE DAY! is... well, Lunasea.. With their song Symptom from 1992 album 'Image', this song is one of the main reasons I think Lunasea is so influential. You can really hear all kinds of visual kei that sounds very similar to this song.

Hope you all enjoy~ TTYLD00D!

Something new!

Ok tonight, I am really drunk and waiting for my friend to drive 8+ hours up to NJ from VA. This may or may not detract from my post. Either way.. this evening my good friend who also lives down south(and may write for this blog in the future), sent me the new Cali=Gari single which he recieved in the mail today! So I will do my best to review, at least the A-sides on these singles!

As you guys know by now, I pretty much think of Cali=Gari as my favoite, or one of my quite favorites( in top 5 at least)!

I have come to the conclusion that, these two singles are for this day and age, with my musical taste, for the most part, perfect. (also, picture unrelated)

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Cali=Gari '9-to-hen' and '9-school zone-hen' are an amazing release for 2009 I havent heard music like this released since Cali=Gari broke up, which was in 2003, and since then, I haven't been exceptionally impressed with a whole lot of Japanese rock. (there are a few exceptions of course!)

Anyhow, the A-sides are both very unique songs. The song 'to', written by Ishii Shuuji, has a definite sound of his project, GOATBED, but also has that something extra that can only be found in Cali=Gari, I would go so far as to describe it as unique, a little bit of insanity, added to the fantastic musical composition, and fantastic musicianship. I am truly glad they decided to put this out.

The video isn't a PV, but is one of my favorite examples of Cali=Gari's music ;D

The other A-side, 'School Zone' is composed by AO, the guitarrist and usual composer of most of Cali=Gari's previous music. This single definitely has a sound of his side project, LAB the Basement. However, as he composed much of Cali=Gari's old music, this song sounds much more like traditional Cali=Gari, but definitely has some aspects of his solo music in it. The simple melodies are carried through out the song are definitely recognizable as Ao's style, but again, can't be classified, especially with Shuuji's voice, as anything but Cali=Gari.

The B-sides are really strange, which isn't unexpected, sounding like they were recorded in someone's bedroom (as my friend put it). In any case, they are very entertaining.

Overall I give Cali=Gari's two new '9' singles a 92% on the awesome meter.

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Beautiful.

Today doesn't have a band of the day, but as you've already heard To, on the PV I posted earlier, please enjoy the other A-side: School Zone.

Also, I would like to note that both of these singles are offically released today in Japan :]

Another Tool.

One thing, that I feel I haven't talked much about, is Guniw Tools.

Guniw Tools are among my top 5 bands. *Along with MUCC, Cali=Gari, Coaltar of the Deepers and UnsraW (in no particular order)*

Guniw Tools formed, I believe in 1992, and were signed to Buck-Tick's *major* label 'Victor Records' in 1996. Ultimately I think Guniw Tools is fairly unknown as far as really famous or popular Japanese rock, but by the fans who know them, are VERY well respected.

The style of Guniw Tools ranges widely, from very atmospheric ambient music, jazz, full on acoustic rock, to industrial and has hints of inspiration from Nepal, India and other countries around the world. It's really impossible to catagorize Guniw Tools at all. Somehow when I was a freshman or sophomore in highschool (2001?) I started listening to them, and gained a huge respect for their very strange music.

Now thinking about it, any music fan with an open mind would really appreciate their sounds, if I showed Guniw Tools to somebody who was super into a style of music, they wouldn't be able to understand it, somewhat like how many people reacted to Cali=Gari at about that time.

Guniw Tools was composed of FULL, Jake and Asaki, with other notable support members Dinah (who is an extremely unusual character) and Okazaki (who plays with Asaki now in Age of Punk). FULL is an artist.. he does pretty much every kind of visual and performing art you could think of, and makes some of the most unusual and unique art pieces I have ever seen.

Originally about 1989 Guniw was FULL's creative project, where he would do performing and visual art on stage, with home-made props and music, but after Jake approached him about starting a band, Guniw turned into Guniw Tools, and became a musical experience to be reckoned with.

Honestly the best way to learn about Guniw Tools is to experience it.

So todays BAND OF THE DAY is Guniw Tools, with Hush and Cool, which was actually my very first Guniw Tools song. It's definitely a song to relax and enjoy..