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!
Carpool is a 6-piece indie band from Tokyo. They formed in Spring 2010 and feature members of haco-mofu, YOUTHS and gaudies. Golden Summer is carpool’s first mini-album and was released in January. You can pick it up at Jet Set Records.
Enjoy the early spring weather and take a listen to “Golden Summer” below.
sounddrug is an alternative rock duo made up of Japanese music maniacs Ryota Machida and Aki Takamoto. They formed in 2003 and are based in San Diego. Both members have performed in jazz ensembles and decided to earn their college degrees in music before they hit the road. Their first EP Music From Apartment was released in 2010 and is available for free download on their website. Their new single is also up for download. A second EP will be released in March/April.
They will be performing at their second anime convention this weekend and will be opening for Japan Nite March 20 in San Francisco.
Get your kicks on J-Rock 66.
Quattro may have lost half their band to The Mirraz, but they’re back with a vengeance with their fourth-coming album.
NOKIES! is a young indie band from the Kansai region. Yusuke Kume (vocals, guitar), Kotaro Matsumoto (bass), Yu Sugano (guitar) and Atsuya Kose (drums) met at college and decided to mold their passion for music into a band. Osaka based record store Flake Records signed NOKIES! last year, the first Japanese band for the label. NOKIES! is known for their guitar charged dance riffs and pop song melodies and is often compared to bands like Vampire Weekend and The Strokes.
Flake Records released an EP and a 7″ last year from the band. NOKIES! will be playing at SXSW this year for Japan Nite and the Japan Nite tour.
The Rubies is the new project from Kazuya (vocals/guitar) and Osuke (bass) from The Emeralds. They met their drummer Daisuke when they played with his band Clarabell at SXSW in 2005. The three of them formed The Rubies in 2009 along with Taro the tambourine man who they met at karaoke. All four members wear bright red pants.
The band’s first performance was at SXSW in 2010 and they’ve become known for the crazed rock’n roll show. The Rubies will be returning to SXSW for Japan Nite in 2012.
Fun fact: J-Rock Explosion turns 5 years old today! I didn’t plan anything special but here’s a new J-Rock Fridays.
Second PV from Asparagus’ 5th album, which only took 5 years to come out. Good to have you back.
There once was a band named Hystoic Vein who broke up in October last year when their vocalist decided to leave the band. Youkaku (guitar), Yukary (bass) and Lyn (drums) decided to continue on as a trio with Youkaku and Yukary splitting vocal duty. The band was reformed as ZZZ’s a month later. The girls will be coming to Austin this year for SXSW where they also played as Hystoic Vein in 2010 and 2011 and will also be joining the Japan Nite tour.
ZZZ’s plays a mixture of post-punk and experimental rock. Not a huge difference from Hystoic Vein but different enough. They have uploaded three new demos on myspace.
A lot of cool stuff for a warm February including new albums from Polysics, te’, L’arc~en~ciel, the telephones and Asparagus. Electronic act Jesse Ruins will be putting out their first EP on US label Captured Tracks as well. Don’t know what to get? The second volume in the Free Throw compilation series features 30 of the best indie acts in Japan.
2/01 The50Kaitenz- Rock’n’Roll Love Letter (CD Japan, Play-Asia)
2/01 butter butter- Recycle (CD Japan)
2/01 Triplane- V (CD Japan, Play-Asia)
2/01 Salyu- Lighthouse (CD Japan)
2/01 Spitz- Orutana (CD Japan)
2/02 SHANK- Wake me up when night falls again (CD Japan)
2/03 Veronica Veronico- Vero Und Nico (CD Japan)
2/08 6% is Mine- Idoltic Punk Covers (CD Japan)
2/08 ACIDMAN- The Best (CD Japan, Play-Asia)
2/08 Apple Saito and the Happy Hercules Boys- S/T (CD Japan)
2/08 The Bawdies- Rock Me Baby (CD Japan, Play-Asia)
2/08 Buzz the Bears- Sanjuso (CD Japan)
2/08 Calmera- Mix Modern Covers (CD Japan)
2/08 FLiP- Wonderland (CD Japan, Play-Asia)
2/08 Jake stone garage- Feels (CD Japan)
2/08 hac0-mofu- Ashita kara Ganbaru (CD Japan)
2/08 Half-Life- replay (CD Japan, Play-Asia)
2/08 L’arc~en~ciel- Butterfly (CD Japan, Play-Asia)
2/08 Meme- alku ringo (CD Japan)
2/08 mimitto- N!O! (CD Japan, Play-Asia)
2/08 Porno Graffiti- 2012Spark (CD Japan, Play-Asia)
2/08 Psysalia Psysalis Psyche- #7 (CD Japan)
2/08 ROACH- No Reason in the Pit (CD Japan)
2/08 Silent Siren- Saisai (CD Japan)
2/08 SR- Felicity (CD Japan)
2/08 VA- Free Throw Compilation Vol. 2 (CD Japan)
2/08 the telephones- D.E.N.W.A e.p. (CD Japan, Play-Asia)
2/08 Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra- on the remix (CD Japan, Play-Asia)
2/08 White Ash- Kiddie (CD Japan)
Bone machine is an alternative rock band from Kyoto. The band was formed in 2007 by Yuya Nakamura (vocals, guitar) and Jiro Fujita (bass) joined the band in 2008. They were a trio for a while until their drummer quit recently. They’re talking a break from performing until they find a new guy to play bones but are working on adding dance elements to their music. You can download a few demos and remixes at Sound Cloud while you wait.
J-Rock Explosion 