Archive for the ‘Best of 2010’ Category

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Turntable Films

January 6, 2011

myspace band of the year (RUNNER-UP)

Second Royal had a good year.  Great albums were released by label veterans and newbies.  But no one topped Parables of Fe-Fum by Turntable Films.

Turntable Films is a Kyoto based alternative-folk-rock band.  It started as a bedroom project by founding members Yosuke Inoue (Vocals,Guitar) and Kento Tani (Bass) and turned into a band when Natsuki Tamura(Drums) and Nozomi Funada(Keyboard) joined in 2008.  They self-produced a self-titled mini-album by the end of the year.  In 2010 Second Royal signed them and they released two more mini-albums, Parables of Fe-Fum and 10 Days Plus One.  They describe their music as “sensitive romantic song-writing, expressive improvisation-smelled performance, and the nostalgic sound influenced from American roots would let you show an alternative view in modern times??”

“2steps” was the single from Parables and it’s a fun Brit-influenced rock song with nice flute work.  “Collection of You” from 10 Days follows suit with more flute.  The one song from their self-titled release, “Music River,” is another beast.  It has more of a country-folk vibe as did the rest of the songs on this release.  The last song on their myspace is Handsomeboy Technique’s remix of “2steps” from their 7″ 2steps EP.

Although “Collection of You” was similar to Parables material the samples of the rest of the album indicate that they went back to the folk sound of their self-titled debut.  Another Parables would be more successful for the band but I would still like to get my hands on 10 Days.

Buy Turntable Films’ stuff at CD Japan and Jet Set Records.

http://www.myspace.com/turntablefilms

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WordPress 2010 stats and stuff

January 2, 2011

Got this email from WordPress this morning and thought I’d might as well share.  Thanks for visiting J-Rock Explosion!  Tell all your friends!

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

Healthy blog!

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

Featured image

A helper monkey made this abstract painting, inspired by your stats.

About 3 million people visit the Taj Mahal every year. This blog was viewed about 36,000 times in 2010. If it were the Taj Mahal, it would take about 4 days for that many people to see it.

In 2010, there were 131 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 390 posts.

The busiest day of the year was October 16th with 179 views. The most popular post that day was Flavored Animal Droppings.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were twitter.com, Google Reader, neauxclicks.wordpress.com, absolutepunk.net, and en.wordpress.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for gackt, j rock, dir en grey, ellegarden, and gackt camui.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

Flavored Animal Droppings August 2007
4 comments

2

Gackt Goes Hollywood April 2008
6 comments

3

buddhistson- SLOWDANCE ~wisely and slow, they stumble that dance fast~ (LYRICS) February 2009
5 comments

4

Don’t wake up the KIDS!! May 2010

5

world’s end girlfriend starts his own label, fills it with awesome July 2010
1 comment

Posted in announcements, Best of 2010 | 3 Comments »

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The Brixton Academy

December 30, 2010

myspace band of the year

We’ve covered dozens of bands this year on myspace band of the week, but there were a few that got passed over for exceeding awesomeness.  This year’s myspace band of the year goes to The Brixton Academy.

The Brixton Academy named themselves after the concert hall in Britain.  And the British influence is pretty evident in their music.  “Take four lively lads, stick them in a basement club two floors underground in a far flung corner of a sprawling metropolis. Feed them on a diet of 70’s New Wave, pumped up early 80’s New Romantic Electro, and a 90’s hunger for indie Hacienda dance floor guitar rock. Top it off with identical black mop top haircuts then wrap in monochrome vertical stripes and you’ve just about got TBA.”

The first four songs on their myspace come from their debut album Vivid and they range from the club-ready “See You In A Dream” and the crooning love song “Shy Shy.”   The last two “Turn Around” and “Nightclub” come from their EP TBA.  They’re a little less synth-heavy but it’s nice to hear real bass.  No samples of their new EP L.O.T. are available but it’s more along the lines of “See You In A Dream.”  TBA likes to think of themselves as four mysterious dudes, but I think they’ll be “very much known all over the damn place” soon.

Buy TBA releases at CD Japan and Amazon.com.

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J-Rock Fridays: Best of 2010

December 24, 2010

Hey, those polls meant something!  Here’s your top voted videos for 2010.  The final 14 videos had a total of 5 votes or more.  I felt sorry for those with only 4 votes so they made the runners-up list.  Honestly, there were a lot of great videos with even less votes than that so I decided to make a personal list in the future.  Vote for your top 3 videos of the year and I’ll give the winner a “fan favorite” award!

0.8秒と衝撃。- ビートニクキラーズ

The pants-dropping 0.8syooogeki had the most voted video.  Definitely one of the craziest videos I’ve seen this year.  If no one votes this week consider them the default winner!

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Posted in 0.8秒と衝撃。, andymori, Best of 2010, Bradberry Orchestra, Champagne, cold kitchen, J-Rock Fridays, Jinn, LITE, Negoto, Nothing's Carved In Stone, Noughts and Exes, Ogre You Asshole, STRAIGHTENER, UNCHAIN, white white sisters, Year End Lists | 2 Comments »

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Best of 2010: Last.fm Edition

December 19, 2010

Well I suppose it’s that time of year when blogs tell you about all the things you missed out on.  I seem to have forgotten to make a best of list last year, but I’m planning a series of posts over the next month or two.  First up is the lazy list.  My top 25 bands, albums, and songs of 2010 as told by last.fm.  Play around with my charts if 25 isn’t good enough for you.  There’s probably a lot of stuff that’s not Japanese or 2010 material, but I’m okay with that.

Top 25 Artists of 2010

1
199
2
167
3
158
4
144
5
140
6
127
6
127
8
124
9
123
10
113
11
112
12
109
13
107
14
103
14
103
14
103
17
101
18
100
18
100
20
92
20
92
22
86
23
85
24
80
25
79

Top 25 Albums of 2010

1
162
2
148
3
141
4
108
5
103
6
98
7
90
8
88
9
85
9
85
11
82
12
81
13
78
14
77
15
76
16
72
16
72
18
71
19
Kuh – KY!
66
19
66
21
64
21
64
23
62
23
62
25
61

Top 25 Songs of 2010

1
Loved track
22
1
22
1 Loved track
22
4 Loved track
20
5
18
5
Loved track
18
7
Loved track
17
7 Loved track
17
7
17
10 Loved track
16
10
16
10
16
10 Loved track
16
10
16
15 Loved track
15
15 Loved track
15
15
15
15
15
19 Loved track
14
19
14
19
14
19
14
19 Loved track
14
24 Loved track
13
24
13
24
13
24
Loved track
13
24 Loved track
13
24
13
24
13

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