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Archive for the ‘Year End Lists’ Category
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December 25, 2014Best of 2012: J-Rock Fridays Part II
January 18, 2013The last batch of the best J-Rock videos of 2012, although hopefully not the last list of the year. We’ve been to many places this year and it’s time to revisit.
The Novembers- “Harem”
Starting off part II of the best J-Rock videos of 2012 is another “weird stuff happens in the woods” video! The Novembers’ follow a mysterious gypsy into the woods where she does a sword dance while they look on like Twilight vampires. Haunting!
Aureole- “Live Again”
I really do love these woods videos! This time a mysterious schoolgirl stumbles into the woods and finds a magic sword while Aureole plays their flute song behind a bed sheet. She will protect them from harm.
matryoshka- “Monotonous Purgatory”
A beautiful animated video about a soul leaving its body that could have probably been expanded to a short film and submitted to certain film festivals. A wonderful treat for the 5 year album wait.
Best of 2012: J-Rock Fridays Part I
January 4, 2013Time to look back at all the great J-Rock videos of 2012. Instead of struggling with a top 10, I decided to pick my 12 favorites from the first half of the year. As expected, poll turnout was abysmal this year so I had to use my own discretion on these (seriously, if you want to see J-Rock Fridays reach 100 I need to see A LOT more participation!).
Bertoia- “Snow Slide”
What do you do when you find a floating door in your room in the middle of the night? Enter a mystical land where all your bandmates have weird forest grass growing on their faces. A little bit Narnia, a little bit Alice in Wonderland, “Snow Slide” is a fantastical video from one of the best female fronted shoegaze bands out there.
Turntable Films- “Misleading Interpretations”
Stabbed in the heart, Yosuke Inoue defies the impossible and gets his zombie butt off the ground and heads toward the concert venue. Many obstacles later, including being hit by a car, he makes it to his band’s show on time. A well choreographed video shot in one take.
Nile Long- “See Your Eyes”
Do you like those trendy Apple commercials where they have random people play fake instruments on their phones and tablets? Nile Long takes it to the next level in “See Your Eyes.”
Best of 2012: Last.fm Edition
January 4, 2013It’s that time of year when I start making belated year end lists. These are my top 25 artists, albums and tracks according to last.fm. As per usual, I didn’t have time to rig the stats so just ignore the western artists. Post your lists in the comments, I know several of you guys have a last.fm account!
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Best of 2011: Covers
February 9, 2012Today we’re looking at some our favorite cover songs and cover albums of 2011
AFROHEAD 7 LINE- “YMCA”
SECRET 7 LINE has been trying to court me for years now. All it takes is afro wigs and classic rock songs, though. You can’t hurry poops. (web, CD Japan,Play-Asia)
Best of 2011: Collaborations
February 8, 2012Slowly plowing through the year end lists, here’s our favorite collaborations and supergroups of 2011.
AA=AiD- “We’re not alone”
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.
Best of 2011: J-Pop Moment
February 2, 2012Seeing as I took this week off of work, I figured I should probably get going on those best of 2011 posts. J-Pop Moment was supposed to be an irregular feature, but it looks like I only got around to posting one in 2011. Since that’s just not cool I decided I should put together a J-Pop wrap up for the year.
Towa Tei with Yukihiro Takahashi & Kiko Mizuhara- “The Burning Plain”
As an avid DVD collector, Towa Tei had me at “you just set up the DVD I’ve waited to see.” And then model Kiko Mizuhara chimes in with the chorus and it’s LOVE. I haven’t seen The Burning Plain (I hear Charlize Theron is naked in it) but I’ll pick it up when I see it in the bargain bins. (CD Japan/Play-Asia)
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.
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J-Rock Fridays: Best of 2010
December 24, 2010Hey, 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!
J-Rock Explosion 