J-Punk, D.A and Droogs.

OK, so this is a post that almost has nothing to do with Seikima II. In any case, tonight I discovered that people on certain substances really enjoy songs written by Daisuke Asakura (He is a solo artist, in addition to writing the music for T.M. Revolution and Abingdon Boy's School, in addition to being one of the core members of ICEMAN).

Honestly I am not particularly surprised by this, as it seems like many of his compositions are written either being aimed towards the techno/industrial crowd. I was greatly amused by this however, seeing as I have recieved comments that said 'I would so love to listen to this when I was doing xxxxxx *drug*.'

Since my last post, I haven't experienced anything new that was actually worthwile, except many listenings to that new Cali=Gari pv's song :D

I did have a nice conversation with a youth, earlier this evening, about Japanese punk bands, which honestly.. I have no idea about, aside from Balzac (the Japanese Misfits), a few obscure 90's bands like The Blue Hearts and The Star Club. There are a few bands that I could loosely calssify as punk in the Visual scene, like the Piass for instance, but ultimately the Japanese punks would likely scoff at my taste.

My observation of "real" Japanese punks, of whom I have had plenty of exposure to, is that they listen to many super underground (unpleasantly noisy and underproduced) bands that I have never heard of, and seem to be MUCH cleaner and hygenic than American punk fans. Which is kind of ridiculous because I saw one of my Japanese punk friends lay a police officer the fuck out in Harajuku. (they are pretty hardcore when they're wasted!)

I guess my point is, that I see Japanese and American punk as very similar. I have a feeling that some kind of language barrier exists, keeping the Japanese punks from grasping what the true fundementals of punk music/culture is really like.

Regardless of how awesome these J-Punk bands might be, I cant get into the spirit, or relate to it in the way that I can about some of the old American punk I used to listen to frequently.

Often I find that the Japanese will emulate a foreign trend, and ultimately improve what it is that they are emulating...

Japanes punk is an exception to that rule.

Today's BAND OF THE DAY! is Seikima II (translated to 'end of the century') and their song El Dorado. Seikima II was a Japanese heavy metal band, active december of 1989 and actually broke up on 12/31/99 at minight on new years eve, informing fans that it was the end of the world. That was actually the premise of the entire band. But lead singer Demon Kogure still lives on..

P.S. I would like to apologize in advance for any rambling I may have done this evening :D

Enjoy your weekend, everyone~

I reform, along with Cali=Gari~

OK, so I am officially back.

I was really un-inspired to write about Japanese music for a while. Seemingly nothing new or interesting was coming out.. I ended up creating 2 podcasts and distributed them to people I know personally, ultimately I got positive reviews from everyone, but got lazy and didn't upload it anywhere. I don't think the files exist anymore though.

I don't know for sure if that is still the case, there are a few things from mid-late 2008 that were pretty good, but not in a high enough volume for me to care that much.

HOWEVER!

Freakin' Cali=Gari has reformed.* (a month or two ago officially) They put out 'Cali=Gari no Sekai' (Cali=Gari World) which is a sort of best-of album with an update to Oto-Sex lol. But next month they are putting out a new single, coming in 2 forms '9 - To - Hen' and '9 School Zone Hen' I suppose these singles are a ~sequel~ to the actual '9' (Kyuu) Dvd which was of their "last" live performance.

But the icing on the cake is, they are releasing a full album '10' on August 26th.

*I would like to point out that my last blog entry, over a year ago made this prediction :3

cali≠gari／－踏－【PV】

To make up for my being away for so long, I will be uploading a song every time I post (which should be a few times a week) I will be choosing a BAND OF THE DAY! and sharing whatever song grabs me that day. So please enjoy and if you like it, check the band out more!

Today's BAND OF THE DAY! is Lynch.

They are releasing a new album called Shadows on July 8th.

Beautiful.

The real.

Wow this post is LOADED..

I have a few things I would like to discuss with you, internets. I have recently come to the conclusion that Syu from Galneryus, Aushvitz and Animetal is the best guitarist in Japanese rock music. I don't particularly like Animetal or Galneryus but I respect them both for having great musicians. Aushvitz on the other hand is actually considered a visual band, and I love it.. It's like just as intense as Galneryus but really damn dark and about subsequently much more unhappy subjects (this is a video of Syu playing at a Galneryus gig).

In other news, I mentioned something earlier in this blog (not this post tho) about D would become really big if they went major.. And just a few weeks ago D went major~ HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR!!!

Also Lynch. put out a PV finally, it's called 'Adore' and only watch it in high quality otherwise it looks awful. I really like the song and the PV is freakin cool too. (Sorry I can't find it in higher quality ;_;)

My last order of business is to make a PREDICTION.

I have been informed that both Goatbed and Lab. The basement are disbanding, these bands holding the majority of Cali=Gari's band members. Kenjirou (the bassist) is the only one who is not in a disbanding group.. He's playing support bass for Coaltar of the Deepers XD!!

Anyhow following some kind of logic, all these former Cali=Gari members going back into circulation PROBABLY = reformation of Cali=Gari. Which I would like to see nothing more than. For me this is like a ZOMG thing. <3

Next post you get the first 2 episodes of my Podcast :D

Neo-Visual!?

Well I can't say I have anything to do with the Japanese writing about 'Neo-Visual' bands, but I started using this term about 3 years ago specifically for the bands Girugamesh and Sadie which at the time were very new. While not exactly a genre, its more of a generation of bands. I'd say as a general rule of thumb (though not 100% of the time) Neo-Visual bands were formed after 2001.

If that is a bit vague, I will explain what Neo-Visual is REALLY supposed to mean: A generation of visual band, usually out of Tokyo, directly influenced by visual bands (indie and major) that came directly before them ~1996-1999. One quality many of these bands share is having more substance, full-bodied sound and often more bass driven than their predecessors. My favorite examples are bands like Dio and -Oz- and SKULL, but also refer to bands as far back as Kagerou, the Gazette and even Kagrra. Many people refer to Neo-Visual as 'New School Visual Kei"

For example think of the difference (or similarities) between Dir en grey from Kisou and Sadie. Of course half of the Japanese bands around today roadie'd for Dir en grey.. I think a great many of these bands were also took notes from whatever American hardcore and metal bands, trying to sound much more western than older visual bands.

Sorry I can't give you a simple answer for 'what is NeoVK?' but.. it's a very complex and amorphous place. ;D

Still kicking.

What's up internets? Long time no see.. I don't have a whole lot to say, but there have been some really noteworthy releases appearing from various bands..



Recently these bands have been on my mind and playlists a lot.



The Studs



UnsraW



Sadie



Deadman



BUG



BLAST



Coaltar of the Deepers



CROWS



D



Deathgaze



Sel'm



Meth.



Dio



GULLET (and now 9GOATS BLACK OUT)



and always MUCC



Check these out.. you won't be unhappy. As long as you like it hard ;D



I was recently given the opportunity to do some work on a radio show, playing Jrock and this gave me the idea to make a Podcast weekly so people can check out whats new, whats good and whats hella classic.



I will have more information on this shortly.

Bear with me my lovely readers~

Sexy~

OK! Finally some noteworthy news!

Sex Machineguns is back! With an all new lineup that will be announced on Oct. 26th, a new single which will be available by download only, called Jacky, coming out on Nov. 2nd!

I can't wait to hear this, and I'm always surprised by who Anchang can dig up for his totally rad band. These guys have real life heavy metal power!

Hora is coming out with a 2 disc album this November, I seem to really enjoy his stuff, more than Kaya's anyway I hope it's very industrial XD.

Girugamesh is going to be putting out a self titled album (first REAL album?) with 10 or 13 tracks depending on the version you buy. This one is coming on Dec. 26th. I have come to REALLY enjoy and respect this band so hopefully this album will kick some major ass.

And one of the most exciting things I've seen in a while; MACHINE is putting out a new single called Ooh Yeah, on November 21st! It seems like November is gonna be big this year~

I love MACHINE and I can't wait to see what kind of craziness they are gonna drop next.

I'll keep ya up to date~

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..