Good news for all you people who still have cassette players. Wisconsin’s Keep It Together Records have once again teamed up with Japan’s Stiff Slack Records to release two more J-Rock tapes. First up is LITE’s Installation, which was released in Japan earlier this year. Next is SZKN’s The Present, who goes by Sizukani Hisomu Hibi in Japan. Pick up both tapes for five bucks a pop here.
12 new videos for the 12 districts of Panem. May the odds be ever in your favor lol!
Did you know Asian Kung-Fu Generation’s drummer has an instrumental side project? Here’s their first PV starring a bunch of cute cats!
Slowly plowing through the year end lists, here’s our favorite collaborations and supergroups of 2011.
After the natural disasters of 2011, it was cool to see all the “pray for Japan” benefit tracks and compilations that cropped up on the internet from all over the world. AA=AiD is a project led by Takeshi Ueda (AA=) that recorded this song to encourage reconstruction efforts. “We’re not alone” is a veritable who’s who of J-Rock and features Hayashi (Polysics), Shinichi Ubukata (Nothing’s Carved In Stone) and Akihiro Namba (Hi-STANDARD) among many others. You can download it for free here.
Kenzi Masubuchi’s Punk Ska Unity did much the same but with even more punk/ska artists.
I cut my finger on a slurpee lid. That was embarrassing.
クリープハイプ (creep hype?) knows the city is shady. Keep a bat with you at all times!
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!
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!
Whenever I try to start a new column I procrastinate like mad. So here’s Stuff To Look Forward To one week late. Stuff I want to listen to in July.
This is not Masami Mitsuoka’s first album, she released one album and four singles under her real name. But that was a failed project so she became the electro-pop princess Mizca. Mizca’s debut album contains all of her singles, including the erotic “Robotics.” The first press edition from CD Japan comes with a trading card and a a piece of paper with her lipstick smear. That’s worth forty dollars.
Turntable Films- 2steps 7″Turntable Films is finally coming to vinyl. This was supposed to come out in May but has been repeatedly pushed back. The 7″ contains “2steps” and “Welcome To Me” from their latest mini-album Parables of Fe-fum and a remix from Handsomeboy Techninque. It’s quite catchy, listen/pre-order here. (myspace)
gutevolk- Sun ChandelierThe shoegaze gods have smiled on us. First a new Luminous Orange album in June and now new gutevolk. How blessed are we. I need more pretty music to get me through the day. This would be her first album since tiny people singing over the rainbow in 2007. Make sure to download the free album sampler at Rallye Label. (myspace)
LITE- IlluminateI’m not used to post-rock bands putting out mini-albums. But hopefully the shorter time frame won’t let their creativity spread too thin. It was recorded by John McEntire at the famous Soma Studios in Chicago. “Image Game” was a lot of fun and you can already get it at HearJapan if you want. (myspace)
Various Artists- Let’s Talk About Origins-A Tribute To LAGWAGON-Back in the day I used to be able to count on at least one great pop-punk album each summer. Those days are gone. So now I’m going to put in a little faith in the Japanese tribute album of Lagwagon featuring bands such as dustbox, Sorry For A Frog, and locofrank. The samples have as much Engrish as expected, but it’s all in fun right.
High Speed Boyz- are u docono Softpunk!?I used to think of these guys as the new, more consistent, Back-On until their new single for that movie with the skull masks. It was a little more epic than I expected. Maybe they have a future as a legitimate rock band instead of a trendy dance band. In any case, it’ll be interesting to see how the softpunk’s debut album turns out.
Sandy Beach Surf Coaster- Private BeachSo I forgot about this before I wrote about Lagwagon. Their E.P.s were a lot of fun and there’s no doubt in my mind their debut album won’t be. One of the things I loved about their previous releases where the random cover songs they’d throw on. This time we get Oasis and The Beach Boys and original songs of course. (myspace)
Paraele Stripes- feyzThe duo Paraele Stripes released their first album Phirst Tense in 2007. It sounded a lot like Owl City. Although that was a few years before “Fireflies” hit mall radio. The samples for this upcoming mini-album lean more towards electronic dance party, thankfully. (myspace)
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Michael Jackson died a year ago today. There is no moonwalking here.
Finally a techno-rap unit that hasn’t been raped by Mobile Suit Gundam hey.
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
J-Rock Explosion 