J-Rock Explosion

Welcome to part 1 of the J-Rock Friday’s salvo to October releases.  This was originally meant to cover the first two weeks of the month, but as it turns out, October 7 is an amazing day for Japanese music.  So much so that the videos this week is double what I normally post every column.  And I couldn’t even find videos for some of the other releases I was interested in.  So I put my five favorite videos on top and the rest after the jump.

LITE- “The Sun Sank”

LITE is one of the first bands to pop up when discussing Japanese post-rock, after Mono.  In an effort to diversify themselves, LITE decided to discofy their latest single.  I actually like this song a lot, the synthesizers are noticeable but pleasant without getting in the way of their post-rock styling.  This single is part of their Turns Red EP, the first release on their new record label I Want The Moon.  Not many post-rock bands incorporate synthesizer well, lets hope LITE is the first.  http://www.myspace.com/liteband

Skybeaver- “For A Long Time”

Skybeaver is a fun power-pop band.  This PV includes the band’s humorous portrayal of a fashion metal band.  The song is also damn catchy.  Their second album is due out October 7.  http://www.myspace.com/skybeaver

Supe- “Let Bodies Scream”

Holy Metallica!  Did those guys just rock out on a moving trailer bed?  That’s so hardcore.  Their new mini-album The Black will come out on October 7.  http://www.myspace.com/supe

New Strike Zipper- “Promise”

New Strike Zipper is an all-girl punk band that made their debut on a Blink-182 Tribute compilation.  “Promise” is taken from their second mini-album All Is Lost due out today.  This new song sounds harder than their older material, almost like Bleach 03 without the dead animal screeching.  http://www.myspace.com/newstrikezipper

sgt.- “銀河の車窓から (live)”

Sgt.’s new mini-album Capital of Gravity is actually my most anticipated of the month.  But due to the lack of an official PV, I had to scoot them to the end of the list.  Instead I found a live performance of “銀河の車窓から” from their first mini-album Perception of Causality. The new mini-album will include a remix of this song.  http://www.myspace.com/sgtofficial

Last Alliance- “Wedge”

If I watched this PV on mute, I would’ve assumed they were a hardcore band. But it’s just more pop-punk.  I guess they rock pretty hard live!  “Wedge” is taken from the new mini-album Kawasaki Relax due out October 7.  http://www.myspace.com/lastalliance

fam- “what I can do”

I can’t find much on this band, aside from being one of two bands on Plugs Records and that they are releasing their first mini-album Changes Here on October 7.  The singer reminds me of Koyuki from BECK: Mongolian Chop Squad.  A lot.

margaline- “nanana”

Nanana.  The most overused line in music history.  I guess margaline missed the memo.  Or they’re just punk.  I love how they abuse the camera equipment at the end of the video.  Their third album Everything’s Gonna Be Alright is coming out October 7 on Dustbox records, which I can only assume is owned by personal J-punk favorite dustbox but I can’t tell.  http://www.myspace.com/margalinejp

BOSSFIST- “Departure”

There’s a lot of pop-punk this week.  “Departure” is taken from their second mini-album Strike A New Cord coming out October 7.  Low budget PV but that’s to be expected.  http://www.myspace.com/bossfist

Ogre You Asshole’s third album also comes out October 7.  YouTube deleted their latest PV before I finished this column so they got the boot.  Two other releases I’m looking forward to are the debut albums by The Sun and Nice View on Sonzai Records.  This is the label that brought us Envy and they kind of sound like them (before they went mellow).

That’s it for this week.  Now that I think of it, I’ve only posted about one of the bands in this column before.  Impressive.  The next regularly scheduled column is for October 16.  I might break that if there’s simply too many videos to post.  Until then, I plan on doing a special J-Rock Fridays column for Halloween.  If anyone has any “scary” J-Rock videos to recommend, leave a comment!