Happy Friday!
Limited Express (has gone?)- “we love this country like banana.”
Limited Express is back singing a song about surviving nuclear bombs and earthquakes and bananas of course. Go Japan!
Archive for January, 2012
NRQ
January 25, 2012myspace band of the week
NRQ (New Residential Quarters) is an instrumental quartet from Tokyo. Its members are Hattori Masanori (contrabass), Yoshida Yuki (erhu), Makino Takuma (electric guitar) and Mr. Nakao Kanji (drums, sax, etc.). Yoshida and Makino formed NRQ as a duo in 2007 and Hattori and Mr. Kanji joined the following year. Their first album Old Ghost Town was released in 2010. NRQ blends wind and string instruments for an interesting mix of folk, country and jazz music.
NRQ’s new album Noman’s Land will be released this week and includes guests MC.sirafu on trumpet and vocals by mmm. Pick it up at CD Japan.
Superfriends
January 18, 2012myspace band of the week
Superfriends is a powerpop trio from Kyoto. Tomohiro Shiobara (vocals, guitar), Yuji Ochiai (bass) and Maki Maeda (drums) formed the band in the winter of 2005. They named themselves after the Weezer song (not the DC superheroes) who they have much respect for. Superfriends were featured on Thistime Records’ OK! Powerpop Vol. 2 compilation and have self-released three CDs.
Their newest CD, 3, was released in November and is available at Jet Set Records. Thistime Records also distributes Superfriends’ CDs on their online store.
Stuff To Look Forward To, January 2012
January 18, 2012I haven’t posted the bulk of my best of 2011 lists yet, but the show must go on. The first weeks of 2012 were slow, but we got new BIGMAMA, ent, FACT, the pillows and a few best-of compilations this month.
1/10 Corona Sessions- Corona (CD Japan)
1/11 cali gari- 11 (CD Japan)
1/11 The ChronoHEAD- Supernova (CD Japan)
1/11 CLEAVE- The Circle EP (CD Japan)
1/11 Dir en grey- Uroboros Remastered and Expanded (CD Japan)
1/11 FACT- Burundanga (CD Japan, Play-Asia)
1/11 Fear, and Loathing in Las Vegas- Just Awake. (CD Japan)
1/11 Gold & Saint- I Am You Are Me (CD Japan)
1/11 Kyary Pamyu Pamyu- Tsukema Tsukeru (CD Japan, Play-Asia)
1/11 Margaline- Let It Go
1/11 PLASTICZOOMS- Starbow (CD Japan)
1/11 shibuyamicrofuture- Sing A Song (CD Japan)
1/11 soreizenni- Jidai ni Requiem (CD Japan)
1/11 tokyo pinsalocks- Hallelujah Girls (CD Japan)
1/11 VA- Catch All Your Stuff 4 (CD Japan)
J-Rock Friday Vol. 62
January 13, 2012First new J-Rock Fridays of the year and we’re already so behind!
ent- “Airwalker”
STRAIGHTENER fans, Atsuhi Horie is back with the full-length debut of his solo project ent. “Airwalker” takes over where Welcome Stranger left off, brilliant indie pop with some electronic glitch. I don’t know what the astronaut’s about but it’s giving me Doctor Who deja vu.
Otoboke Beaver
January 11, 2012myspace band of the week
Otoboke Beaver (おとぼけビーバー) is a raucous girls rock band from Kyoto with a mean age of 20.5. The foursome formed in the summer of 2009 and named themselves after a local love hotel! They self-produced two EPs, the second of which was released by the indie label Teenage Riot in December.
Their new EP 今夜限りなんて絶対ほんとに言わせないっ! is available at Jet Set Records. Their first EP is sold out, but you can listen to samples on myspace.
Best of 2011: J-Rock Fridays
January 6, 2012Last year I asked you to vote for your favorite videos every (other) week on J-Rock Fridays. You didn’t do a very good job, but I did manage to compile a top 10 with your top voted videos and my own. So without further ado…
10. The Flickers- “White Heat”
The Flickers came out of nowhere with “White Heat.” It’s unfortunate they couldn’t keep up the flame on the rest of their mini-album, but I’ll hold this as promise.
9. 6eyes- “Big Saturday Night”
Hookers! “Big Saturday Night” has become my weekend anthem, even though I rarely go out on the weekend or at all really.
8. The_AIU- “CPU”
I bet most boys would love to have Ms. Ratna as their CPU. So sweet.
Best of 2011: Last.fm Edition
January 6, 2012Let’s get these Best of 2011 posts started Last.fm style. These are my top 20 artists, albums and tracks according to Last.fm. If you need more, feel free to peruse my charts at your leisure. The albums list is surprisingly accurate so if I never get around to writing out my top 10 albums consult that list.
Artists:
| 1 |
159
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| 2 |
134
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| 3 |
113
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| 4 |  |
94
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| 5 |
88
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||||
| 6 |
85
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||||
| 7 |
84
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||||
| 8 | |
79
|
|||
| 9 |
78
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||||
| 10 | |
77
|
|||
| 11 |
70
|
||||
| 12 |
67
|
||||
| 13 |
65
|
||||
| 14 | |
62
|
|||
| 15 |
61
|
||||
| 16 | |
60
|
|||
| 17 | |
54
|
|||
| 17 | |
54
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| 19 | |
52
|
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| 19 |
52
|
Albums:
| 1 |
110
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||||
| 2 | |
99
|
|||
| 3 | |
94
|
|||
| 4 |
88
|
||||
| 5 |
84
|
||||
| 6 |
78
|
||||
| 7 |
73
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||||
| 8 |
70
|
||||
| 9 |
62
|
||||
| 10 |
61
|
||||
| 10 |
61
|
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| 12 |
60
|
||||
| 13 |
55
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||||
| 14 |
54
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||||
| 15 |
53
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||||
| 16 | |
52
|
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| 17 |
49
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||||
| 17 |
49
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| 19 | |
48
|
|||
| 20 |
46
|
Tracks:
| 1 |  |
23
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| 2 |
22
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| 3 | |
21
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| 4 | |
19
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| 4 |
19
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||||
| 6 | |
|
16
|
||
| 6 |
16
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||||
| 8 |
15
|
||||
| 8 | |
15
|
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| 8 |
15
|
||||
| 8 | |
15
|
|||
| 12 |
14
|
||||
| 12 |
14
|
||||
| 12 | |
14
|
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| 12 |
14
|
||||
| 12 |
14
|
||||
| 12 | |
14
|
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| 18 |
13
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||||
| 18 | |
13
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| 18 | |
13
|
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| 18 | |
13
|
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| 18 | |
|
13
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Rye
January 4, 2012
Rye is a rock band that formed in Tokyo in 2008, named after the town in England. Their members are Koji (vocals, guitar), Mitsuru (guitar), Shota (bass) and Suguru (drums). The band formed after Koji graduated from the music school Vocaltech in London. Rye is inspired by music from UK and plays a hybrid between 90s Britpop and alternative music.
Their first mini-album Bright was released in 2011. You can download it at Amazon or iTunes. “Cos I” can be downloaded for free at their website.
J-Rock Explosion 