What's up?

Holy crikey, I won't even try to excuse myself from NOT posting recently.. Honestly though, I've had pretty much nothing to write about in the Japanese Rock world. A new Buck-Tick album, some new Sadie, UnsraW, leeching older music from friends.. but nothing new has caught my ear.

I do however have something I'd like to discuss; Visual Kei. Sounds intense huh?

Well, Visual Kei is somewhat of a super genre, encompassing every band who wants to have a strong appearance. Can that be a music genre? If it's defined by the appearance and not the music? I don't think it could be, BUT most bands have musical elements in common; most are rock bands, usually on the harder side with a similar set of vocal styles, and chord progression.

But wait! What about bands that are NOTHING like 99% of the other visual bands? Guniw Tools for instance, when I was in Japan last month I asked if the record shop I was at had Coaltar of the Deepers, and he said 'no, they aren't visual kei, but I like them', and when I asked if they had Guniw Tools he said 'no, they ARE visual kei, but it's been out of print for years'. I had NO idea that Guniw Tools was considered visual, I mean it seems obvious to me looking at it now, but I really thought of it more as Full's art project than a 'band'.

TO BE CONTINUED..

A trip.

So I just got back from a successful business trip to my favorite country ;D JAPAN. I kicked all kinds of ass, met lots of people and networked my little ass off.

Not much news on the music front, as apparently even being a few weeks behind on whats really going on in the Jrock scene, I was still way ahead of everyone over there haha.. Towards the end of my trip I went to see a show in Saitama at HEAVENS ROCK, which is a nice little livehouse near one of the Saitama-city stations (not sure exactly which one >_>;) I was speaking to the manager about my endeavors and he was extremely impressed with my knowledge but he also told me I was crazy because I knew more than pretty much anyone he knows.

At this live show, which lasted close to 5 hours, we saw bis, MaveRick, meth., Scar., Sel'm, Like absolute myself, Wednesday and heidi. The only 2 bands I was previously familiar with their music were bis and Sel'm, but I had heard of all of the others except Like absolute myself. It was really full of oldschool visual-kei goodness, which is exactly what the doctor ordered ;D

bis- was pretty crappy live, they sounded like they were trying to be extra punky, but the band members were making all kinds of mistakes, and they only played one song I knew hah.

MaveRick- kicked probably the most ass out of all the performers, they were obviously a very small/new/super indie band that I found out later is from Nagoya <3 But these guys honestly had their act together REALLY well, every band member did their part, none tried to steal the show and it was just really fun and pleasant to listen to, I didnt want it to end ;_;

meth.- we got to the show right as meth. (which was the first band up) was starting their set, and let me tell you, GOOD first impression, if they had fucked up or been crappy, I probably would have enjoyed the entire show much less than I did. meth.'s music is good, hard, fast and no bullshit, just enjoyable VK awesomeness.

Scar. - didnt leave much of an impression on me.. but I can say it was enjoyable, but unfortunately there was nothing that really stuck out for me.

Sel'm - was definitely the most popular band that played at the show, I knew a few of the songs, but again there is nothing about Sel'm that really stands out for me... The drummer looked like he belonged in Girugamesh though.. There was a high amount of talent present from these guys, everyone doing their job well, and a large amount of presence. Both meth. and Like absolute myself came into the venue to watch when Sel'm came on.. but again, I really wasn't that impressed.

Like absolute myself - these guys put on the weakest set in the show.. I really didnt enjoy the music very much. I have a feeling that this was one of their first live events and they are pretty much super indies n00b band, however the band members approached me and we talked about music a little bit, they were really nice so I have nothing bad to say about the band itself, I really hope they continue making music, growing as a band and get a large fanbase :D

Wednesday - This band was so cracked out, I really had no idea what was going on, everyone was dressed up in Psycho le Cemu-esque outfits doing really strange crap and confusing the hell out of me, honestly though, I can say I completely enjoyed it, they were so bizarre and crowd surfing and the drummer looked like a cross between a dog and boy george. Everyone in the band, despite the massive costumes they were wearing, performed very well with music that I enjoyed quite a bit.

heidi. - wow.. heidi. was probably the best performance of the night, with meth., MaveRick and Wednesday just slightly behind, but in no particular order hah. There were more males that came to see heidi. than any of the other bands, besides the band members who were watching Sel'm (it was like 95% girls 5% boys for basically the whole show) Now, I was impressed like hell by heidi.'s guitarrist (Nao) who i would say is on par with Aie from Deadman and Miya from MUCC, which is saying something, I was mesmerized by his playing. heidi. is 2 ex-members from Kalimero (one of them being Nao) But in any case, heidi.'s live was even better than their recorded material, which impresses the hell out of me.


I highly recommend giving heidi., MaveRick, meth., and Wednesday a try if you havent already, in the oldschool visual rock tradition, these bands kicked some MAJOR ass, leaving me with a greater appreciation for the current generation of musicians. <3

Fresh!

OK.. Sorry I haven't been writing much recently, I have been busy getting ready for my trip over to Japan later this month! As a few of you know, I will be (at some point) opening a live house in either Tokyo or Nagoya, and this trip is basically just preliminary scouting, I have a number of contacts that I will be speaking with while I'm over there and meeting with people who might also help my cause ;D

Now for the real stuff..

Recently I have been enjoying BLOOD STAIN CHILD quite a bit, their album IDOLATOR will be released here in the States later this summer, I definitely suggest giving it a listen. BLOOD STAIN CHILD is a fairly old band, they play what they call "Melodic Death Metal" which I suppose isn't too far from the truth, to me it sounds more like Alternative Metal, mixed with some Trance and electronic elements, which honestly fuse to become some of the most enjoyable and unique music I have heard in months.

Even more recently.. I obtained the new COALTAR OF THE DEEPERS album "Yukari Telepath". COALTAR OF THE DEEPERS has been around since 1991 which makes them one of the oldest Japanese rock bands that still exist today, (Buck-Tick has been around since 1987 congrats to them on 20 years!) COALTAR OF THE DEEPERS is classified as Shoegaze, which I had never heard of before I started listening to them, Shoegaze is a type of alternative rock that was started in the 80's by English bands, and was named because of the bands tendency of not moving around during performances and 'gazing at their shoes. Yukari Telepath is EXCELLENT, it's mostly electronic music with distorted guitars and Nackie's cracked out voice, in one song he will sound like a girl and the next song he will be screaming like the vocalist of a grindcore band. The music is very calming, and works very well for me as music I have on while I sleep or while I am doing something else on my computer.. overall it is really a great album!

By the way guys I plan to post more and hopefully I can write some blogs while I'm in Japan too :D

The Worst and Best

A few days ago MUCC released their 'Best' album and a 'Worst' album. I'm pretty amused that a band would put out a 'worst' album, but in any case these are some REALLY nice albums. I usually can't stand MUCC's newer singles but somehow these compilation albums capture everything I don't mind too much and stick it into an album. Tastefully done with some spice to keep people like me happy :D

My only complaint here is about production, now I've had many discussions with people about 'overproduced' music, and if you listen to the original versions of each song, there is an intangible element, being recorded in a cheap studio with the equipment that they already had and progressing musicianship skillz gives the old songs this added creepiness factor, particularly in songs like Yoru, Tsubasa wo kudasai, Ieji and Shoufu. But holy crap. The coolness factor of these albums is through the roof. It's really refreshing to hear old songs getting some love after all this time. Now I can honestly enjoy listening to MUCC's current musics again, even if they are actually old tracks~

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Best of MUCC


The Best of MUCC is mostly a collection of their major record label single releases and happier songs (usually) on the more recent albums. However there are some completely unexpected tracks like Yume no gai (Yume no machi) and Na mo naki yume. The spice that I mentioned earlier is that most of the older songs are re-recorded and some of the more recent stuff is remixed a bit. MUCC really managed to make this album interesting enough for me to seriously enjoy it. I always look forward to what these crazy cats are gonna do next :D

Best of MUCC gets a 72% on the Awesome meter.

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Worst of MUCC

The Worst of MUCC is probably the BEST release MUCC has put out in the past year+, somehow they managed to put all of my favorite songs, save for Nukegara on an album. Zetsubou, Bouzenjishitsu, Hakanakutomo, Tsubasa wo kudasai, Yoru, Suimin, Ieji, Rankyuu, Danzetsu, Dilemma. Holy crap. Again many of the songs are re-recorded, so they gain sound quality in exchange for classic charm but my guess is that some of the songs now sound as they were originally written to sound but unable to because of lack of available recording resources.

I'm not too huge of a 'best of' album fan, but seriously if you're going to put one out, this is absolutely how you do it. They get mad props for this, but if you can remake your old GREAT songs so well, why can't you write new material that's on par? :\

I give Worst of MUCC an 89% on the Awesome meter.

Catastrophe trend!

I just noticed that theres a lot of song titles recently about natural disasters. I wonder why, is this a subconscious message from indie jrock bands telling us that the world is about to end!? D'espairsRay had the Squall single, Gilgamesh had the Volcano single and 12012 had some single about a Cyclone or something. WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN!?

The other possibility is that they just think its cool to sing about nature beating the crap out of us.. and come to think of it, that is pretty cool. I think im going to go write a song about a mud slide destroying someones shed.

In unrelated news, there's basically nothing interesting happening in Jrock.. save maybe for Buck-Tick releasing a new single celebrating their 20th anniversary.

In a hole..

I was thinking about how much of a self righteous close minded elitist bastard I am about Japanese rock. So this post is to tell you all how I am NOT a self righteous close minded elitist bastard about Japanese rock.

I definitely play favorites, I like some bands and hate others, mind you there is a reason behind all of it, but they aren't necessarily good reasons. (except miyavi.. thats a personal grudge) In any case, it's usually because I don't like the band's sound due to poor musicianship or really dislike the band's songs specifically. I really try to stay away from the band politics.. which doesn't always work, but these things happen I guess ;p

However; if you believe that I am wrong about a band or musician, then please let me know, I am completely open to more musics I can enjoy! The only thing is, you have to prove that I really don't know and I'm actually wrong about said band. Which shouldn't be hard, just let me hear some songs that I enjoy and you've won.

But no miyavi ploz.

On another note, on my attitude towards fangirls, I don't hate the fans of Jrock, at all, but when people start being retarded and listening to bands 'because they're hot' or some lame crap, calling the band members by some pet name and writing yaoi fanfics about the singers you like, then you can GTFO my website and commit seppuku with a rusty butter knife.

I also recieved a picture of me in the line for Jrock Revolution that really amused me, so you can all see it too :D

Revival

So apparently I was even more right than I could possibly imagine.

X-Japan is reviving, and hide is NOT coming back for the revival. Heath, Pata, Toshi and Yoshiki already have plans for new releases, they have a new recording already AND they are planning lives.

I do not agree with the decisions made by Yoshiki. Everyone is losing hardcore points on the awesome meter.. This business with Miyavi joining up with Gackt, Sugizo and Yoshiki pisses me off for one, and now reviving X.. It really seems like a tasteless publicity move, as does having SKIN's first live at an ANIME convention.. This is all leaving a bad taste in my mouth.

I support the Japanese music scene in the USA, REALLY I do. I will go see SKIN just for kicks and I will go see X-Japan as well. I really don't enjoy many of the people who listen to Japanese rock in our country but I can put up with them to support my cause. I just hope everyone can get on the ball and stop being retarded. Some of my close friends are already losing interest in Jrock because of the stupidity involved with its introduction to America.

COMON GUYS! The way you are doing this is just going to breed more retarded fangirls. D: