What time is it? It’s Friday. Time for videos and junk. Let’s do this shit.
I’ve listened to ent and I’ve listened to FULLARMOR, but for some reason I’ve managed to avoid Mr. Horie’s bread winner STRAIGHTENER. And that’s a shame because “Man-like Creatures” is indie-rock goodness. Full of epic soundscapes and dreamy verses. I guess all that’s left to say is HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE WORLD.
Here we are at volume 11, my favorite number. What does the new year have in store for J-Rock Fridays? We’ll see.
Out of all the dark, depressing songs on mmm’s new album, she picked the only song that personifies joy as her single. And what a joyous video this is. It’s hard not to smile at this nerdy-looking girl dancing with an amusement park bunny and an assortment of nerd friends on the beach. It made me smile for 5 minutes in this cold, bitter world.
Merry Christmas.
I posted this last year, but who cares. Here’s a little holiday cheer from the Nicotine boys. Note: drugs are bad for you. (myspace)
In the last week, I have begun the epic task of organizing my computer’s “Downloads” folder. That means finding a lot of stuff I haven’t even listened to so that I can start preparing my end of the year list. I still have a couple of hundred things to go through so forgive me. The winner of last week’s poll was sleepy.ab with Overground Acoustic Underground a point behind (I’m starting to sense a pattern here). This week we have 10 new videos from FACT, toe, winnie, and more…
I’ve said this before, but 1000say remind me of school food punishment. Except now that school food punishment has become a shit pop band (thanks, Sony!), 1000say is the only good synth-pop band left. “Holy Rain” is a lot of fun. It’s like I stepped back in the 80s for a few minutes. I can’t wait to get my hands on their new mini-album Lightning Amplifier. (myspace)
Here I am on Black Friday giving you your (bi)weekly dose of Japanese music videos. If UPS didn’t give me the night off I probably would’ve forgot altogether, but luckily I started a draft several weeks ago. The winners of last week’s poll were ar, BIGMAMA, and FREAKYFROG. I decided to keep with the polls so you’ll find a new one at the end of this column.
This was supposed to be my featured video of the week, but as it turns out I have nothing to say about it. Put them on the list of screamo bands like Nature Living and when the leaf seared who could be big in America if they tried. (myspace)
Back to our regularly scheduled program. This week we have eight new videos by eight bands. You’ll also find a poll at the very end. Thanks goes out to International Wota for the Halloween shoutout, making last week’s column the most viewed yet!
Another excellent artist from UK.PROJECT. Their sound is hard to compare, but I settled with the telephones meets Nine Inch Nails. If you’re into mysterious garage rock than this one’s for you. Their debut album Mirrored Flag was released earlier this month and it rocks. (myspace)
Greetings, and welcome to the special Halloween edition of J-Rock Fridays. Some of the videos here are fun, with a little bit of spook, and others are downright disturbing. Watch at your own risk!
WARNING: DISTURBING CONTENT In the anime Yu Yu Hakusho, former spirit detective Sensui was shown a never ending videotape detailing all the crimes and wars of humanity. I’m pretty sure these clips were taken from that video. Nothing but 6 minutes of archival footage of murder, stabbing, strangling, throat slitting, jumping out windows, jumping off buildings, and just plain death. World’s end girlfriends’s music was creepy enough but this video just put him over the edge. At least it’s in black and white. (myspace)
Welcome back to the second part of October release madness. The last column was actually the most viewed J-Rock Fridays column so far (but still no comments). I will probably continue featuring upcoming releases in future columns, but try not to be so obvious about it. While I’m here, I would like to thank indiesmusic.com for being an excellent source for upcoming release information and music videos.
This is a rather low-budget video, likely made by the band themselves, parodying the local news. It probably wouldn’t work if the song wasn’t so catchy. They remind me of a punker version of BACK-ON. The second album Necessary Evil came out this week and it’s a lot of fun.
http://www.myspace.com/themirraz
Anyone remember when this band had crazy synthesizers and punk rock choruses? Yeah, they’re way mellow now. They decided flutes and violins better fit their style. This is a rather pleasant, chill song and a humorous video. I love how the lead singer runs around town with a “FUCK YEAH” t-shirt. Their third album Days Lead comes out next week.
http://www.myspace.com/riddimsaunter
With the liberal use of the word “Oi!” and epic guitar solos, serial TV drama is bound to be the next act to climb out of the indie scene. Another good band from UK.PROJECT, who gave us BIGMAMA, the telephones, Karen, Vola & The Oriental Machine, and Ogre You Asshole.
http://www.myspace.com/serialtvdrama
I wasn’t a fan of the first single off Ooparts “Ameagari ni mita Maboroshi,” but “Your Order” fit the bill. This is another stop-motion animated PV from the band. Some pretty abstract stuff here, but a fun video.
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 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 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
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 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.’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
Why hello there. I have nothing witty to say this week. I’ve just been listening to a lot of Japanese music and attempting to job hunt. It’s been quiet around the house since my sister went back to school, so I’ve been able to “restart” my other two blogs. And here we are with this week’s assortment of Japanese music videos.
Last week, Shinichi Osawa released his 2-disc remix collection TEPPAN-YAKI. It wasn’t doing much for me, so I decided to give The One another spin. Still one of my favorite techno albums. “Star Guitar” is the lead single off The One. The video is flashy and trippy until the two and a half minute mark when the girls of Au Revoir Simone step in. But it doesn’t take long to get trippy again. Instantly catchy and unique, “Star Guitar” always makes my techno mixes. http://www.myspace.com/shinichiosawa
Similar to Omodaka, DE DE MOUSE lays heavy beats over the voice of a Japanese girl. It’s a little strange, but addictive in high quantities. “East end girl” comes from his second album Sunset Girls. The animated video is cute, but doesn’t really fit the tempo of the song. 2:15-3:00 is reminiscent of the first Naruto ED but maybe that’s just me. http://www.myspace.com/dedemouse
The astute members of Absolute Punk are accusing FACT of lip-syncing. Now, concerning the heavy use of auto-tune in “A fact of life,” I find it kind of impossible for Hiro to not sing without a back-up track. But after I watched a couple other videos I’m not so sure. Bummer if it’s true, but that doesn’t change the fact that they’ve put out several badass albums. So, what do you think? http://www.myspace.com/factjapan
Every time I have trouble figuring out what band to feature on here, I log on to myspace and pick a random band that added me (and doesn’t suck). URCHIN FARM plays a nice blend of powerpop with the addition of piano (but the drums are the stand-out instrument on this track). Kind of like ELLEGARDEN meets enie meenie. The video is flashy, but does it’s job. They seem like they could be the next indie band to blow up. http://www.myspace.com/urchinfarm
I’ve seen this band posted on Spark Plugged and a few other J-rock blogs, so I finally decided to give them a listen. “Enemy” is so great! I love the flutes in the background. It just makes me smile for no reason. KAREN is made of members of Art-School and downy, enough to make any J-Indie enthusiast wet their pants. http://www.myspace.com/karenofficial
And now this column has officially outlived the former J-Rock Fridays haha. Personal triumph, I guess. Next time I’m going to try something a little different. Or if that doesn’t work out, more random videos. Whatever. Bye.
J-Rock Explosion 