First new J-Rock Fridays of the year and we’re already so behind!
STRAIGHTENER fans, Atsuhi Horie is back with the full-length debut of his solo project ent. “Airwalker” takes over where Welcome Stranger left off, brilliant indie pop with some electronic glitch. I don’t know what the astronaut’s about but it’s giving me Doctor Who deja vu.
Otoboke Beaver (おとぼけビーバー) is a raucous girls rock band from Kyoto with a mean age of 20.5. The foursome formed in the summer of 2009 and named themselves after a local love hotel! They self-produced two EPs, the second of which was released by the indie label Teenage Riot in December.
Their new EP 今夜限りなんて絶対ほんとに言わせないっ! is available at Jet Set Records. Their first EP is sold out, but you can listen to samples on myspace.
Last 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…
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.
Hookers! “Big Saturday Night” has become my weekend anthem, even though I rarely go out on the weekend or at all really.
I bet most boys would love to have Ms. Ratna as their CPU. So sweet.
Let’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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159
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134
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113
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94
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88
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85
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84
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79
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78
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77
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70
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67
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65
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62
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61
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60
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54
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54
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52
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52
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110
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99
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94
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88
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84
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78
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73
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70
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62
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61
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60
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46
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Rye is a rock band that formed in Tokyo in 2008, named after the town in England. Their members are Koji (vocals, guitar), Mitsuru (guitar), Shota (bass) and Suguru (drums). The band formed after Koji graduated from the music school Vocaltech in London. Rye is inspired by music from UK and plays a hybrid between 90s Britpop and alternative music.
Their first mini-album Bright was released in 2011. You can download it at Amazon or iTunes. “Cos I” can be downloaded for free at their website.
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 40,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 15 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.
One of my favorite releases of the year comes from 6eyes. The 5-piece originally formed as a quartet in 2002 in Nagoya. Their current members are Chikara Tsuchiya (vocals), Yuichi Hori (guitar), Yoshitaka Kuwayama (drums), Ren Satou (bass) and Kei Satou (sax). Both Satou boys (brothers?) joined sometime after the release of 6eyes’ second album Blank In Black in 2008. In total 6eyes has released 3 albums and a mini-album.
Just like Miila and the Geeks, 6eyes makes above average J-Rock made great by the addition of the saxophone. Their newest album Flush is available at CD Japan.
Ho ho ho! It’s that time of year when people give out presents to people they like. And since I’d probably get in trouble for uploading music on my own, I’ll just link you to the bands who want you to take their holiday tunes. Hurry! Most of these links expire by the end of the year.
the guitar plus me- Decemblues
Side project of Arai Tasuku and nica.
Otokaze & hafuka- Sound of North
Various Artists- Season’s Greetings
world’s end boyfriend- Xmas Song 2011
EeL- “Snow World Under the White Moon”
Jintana & Emeralds- “Last Christmas”
Love and Hates- “I Wanna Kill”
Shonen Knife- “We Wish You A Merry Christmas”
Posting this in the AM for a change. Is it still Friday in Japan? Last new J-Rock Fridays of 2011!
Christmas is in a couple of days. Why not start off with a couple of Christmas songs? SKAYWAY loves ska and Christmas songs so much they just released an entire album of ska Christmas covers (get Jingle belling). This band doesn’t seem to exist elsewhere on the internet so maybe they’re Santa’s little helpers after all.
Love and Hates is a twee/rap duo consisting of Yuppa (HNC) and Moe (Miila and the Geeks). The girls joined up in 2008 as a DJ unit for the fanzine Twee Grrrls Club’s party events. They self-released a number of cassette tapes through Moe’s label Pit Pony and released their debut album L.A.H. on December 7 on Yuppa’s label White Lily Records.
L.A.H. is a delightful mix of kindergarten hip hop cuteness. You can pick it up at CD Japan or on vinyl at Jet Set Records.
J-Rock Explosion 