Midori has been my latest Japanese obsession. I know I throw out the word “genius” too much but it’s not often you find a band like this. Midori combines jazz piano with hardcore punk vocals (sung by a girl in a sailor suit!). Think of a cross between Polysics and Shiina Ringo. This is the video for “Ezo Shika Dance!” A truly crazy song and crazier video. For more videos, search Youtube for ミドリ
HearJapan
December 13, 2007So I guess I was emailed this for a reason. HearJapan is a new digital music store that exclusively sells Japanese music for English speaking audiences. According to the press release, all mp3s are LAME V1 encoded, DRM free, and cost 100-150 yen per song. Each artist will receive a band profile, concert information, album information, and a “news” section. You will also be able to download albums at midnight the day they are released in Japan. Here is a sample pic of Vidoll’s profile. Here is a sample pic of D’espairsRay’s album page. Currently, the site is still in Beta. It should go live in a few days.
capsule- FLASH BACK
December 5, 2007Capsule’s 9th studio album FLASH BACK was released today. You can stream 2-minute clips of the album on their myspace. I’m really loving “You Are The Reason.”
Cornelius on Darfur Benefit CD
November 28, 2007Now you can support a good cause and J-rock at the same time!
“Causes 1 is a limited edition charity CD to benefit Darfur, which includes exclusive and rare tracks donated by Animal Collective, The Black Keys, Bloc Party, Bright Eyes, Cornelius, The Cure, David Sylvian, Death Cab for Cutie, The (International) Noise Conspiracy, The Shins remixed by Clint Mansell, Spoon, Teargas & Plateglass, Thievery Corporation and Travis.
100% of the proceeds from the sale of this CD will go to three non-profit organizations: Doctors Without Borders, Human Rights Watch, and Oxfam America.
We urge you to help those working in Darfur by picking up your copy of the album.
Although estimates of the number of people killed by the conflict in Darfur vary widely from 200,000 to 400,000, what is certain is that more than 2 million people have fled their homes because of the fighting, and 4 million are now in need of humanitarian assistance—making this one of the worst crises in the world today.”
MUCC and D’espairsRay on Taste of Chaos 2008
November 28, 2007It’s confirmed, MUCC and D’espairsRay will play 46 unconfirmed dates on next year’s Taste of Chaos festival. Warcon Records released Dir en grey’s Withering to Death album after they played at Taste of Chaos. Does that mean these two bands will be seeing American releases as well? MUCC have already announced they’re new album will be seeing a March 2008 release in the U.S. and Europe. No further details are available. I’ve never listened to either of these two bands but it’s always exciting to see more Japanese bands touring in the states.
Happy Thanksgiving, all
November 24, 2007A few days late but better than never. I hope that everyone had a blessed holiday of stuffing their faces full of turkey. Last week, this blog hit 20,000 views, a milestone perhaps. Thanks to all the people who visit this site everyday. You’d be happy to know that I do intend on posting a mixtape here within the next few weeks, depends on how many papers I need to hand in by the end of the semester. In the meantime, here’s a humorous video I found the other day. Backstreet Boys vs. SMAP. It’s from some kind of music show from Japan, I don’t care to figure out which. The look on Nick Carter’s face when one of the SMAP guys rubs up on him is priceless.
Polysics-Rocket
November 21, 2007Here’s this week’s release of the week. Polysics new single “Rocket” comes out in Japan today. It is used as the end theme song for the anime Tales of Agriculture. From what I gather at Anime News Network, the premise of the series is a college student who “can see and communicate with bacteria and other microorganisms.” Sounds trippy.
Yakkun Sakurazuka- Geki Maji Mukatsuku
November 17, 2007Long story short, Dish Network has provided us with a free preview of IMF (International Music Feed) the last couple of weeks. Unfortunately, I haven’t seen many Japanese bands on the channel except this one. Yakkun Sakurazuka was apparently an anime voice actor (seiyū) before starting his musical career. Now he plays in a punk band and…cross-dresses. This is a very interesting video indeed.
DRUMKAN 1995-2007
November 14, 2007Tonight, DRUMKAN will play their last show at the Tokyo LOFT in Japan. You can read more about their split here. DRUMKAN was one of the first bands I listened to when I first started getting into Japanese music. It’s a shame to see them break up. Later I’ll post their song “Who Saves the World” on my Box.net player, in remembrance. I urge you to pick up their only U.S. released album As Life, their final album, on Interpunk.
purpleSKY- it does exist!
November 6, 2007So, over the weekend I stopped by the Hot Topic in my mall to look for some new band t-shirts. Sadly, I haven’t found a good one there in years but I did find purpleSKY! I haven’t gotten around to reading many articles but it’s pretty cool so far. There’s a lot of visual kei coverage but I assume that was because they interviewed just about everyone from the Jrock Revolution festival. The album reviews are nice even though the Beat Crusaders review for EPopMaking was terrible. The Bleach 03 feature has also got me interested in learning more about the band.
Recently, they released pre-order details on myspace for their Fall 2007 issue. On the cover is the band The Captains whose “best of” album Last Group Sounds in now available to purchase from Tokyo no Records. I received the album last month and was pleasantly surprised by it. Highly recommended. More details about this issue’s content is available on their myspace.
J-Rock Explosion 