America’s first J-rock magazine is now available to purchase internationally on Hot Topics’ webstore. purple SKY is also available at all Hot Topic locations. Time to find myself a copy.
Saw Loser
July 19, 2007Saw Loser has uploaded a new tour video thingy to their myspace called “Saw Loser : Backstage Blowout Episode 1- Something Smells Fishy…” Also added are three songs from their debut album which comes out in Japan on July 25th (my mum’s birthday 🙂 ). Saw Loser is a pop-punk band from Singapore although their members come from Australia, America, and Japan.
http://www.myspace.com/sawloser
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=13501387
THE LOVESONG- World has Collided
July 19, 2007I just noticed that The Lovesong has made their song “World Has Collided” available to download on myspace. Seems as good a time as any to post about this awesome band. The Lovesong hails from West Kowloon, Hong Kong and has toured Asia with the likes of buddhistson and Whence He Came. Their music was inspired by 90s spoken word emo and all their songs are in English.
Head Phones President
July 18, 2007Head Phones President’s discography can now be downloaded legally on JapanFiles.
SUPPORT THIS BAND AND BUY LEGAL MP3s!
ALTERNATIVE JAPANESE HARD ROCK BAND “HEAD PHONES PRESIDENT” BLENDS POWER CHORDS AND FEMALE VOCALS
July 16, 2007 (Las Vegas, NV) – Alternative heavy rock band Head Phones President features ANZA (vocal), MAR (guitar), HIRO (guitar), and NARUMI (bass). They debut on japanFiles.com this week with six CDs and many songs in English.
HPP’s first Maxi Single “escapism” reached the number 1 position on the Singles Charts at the Tower Records Shibuya store in Tokyo in its first week of release, drawing a massive 300 people to their in-store performance.
HPP’s first full Album “VARY” once again captured the number 1 position on the Indies Charts at the Tower Records Shibuya store in Tokyo. Combined domestic and international sales of VARY placed it in the Top 10 on the National Full Album charts in the first week of its release.
In 2002 Head Phones President launched their international tour, including a performance in New York City.
They are currently recording a new album to follow up their successful release of 2005’s “Vacancy.”
Beat Crusaders on love hotels
July 16, 2007The Beat Crusaders talk with IMF host again on a new topic, love hotels. In the bustling streets of Shibuya there lies dozens of love hotels whose guests can stay for an hourly “rest” (used mostly for sex) or a “stay.” If you have the time IMF has a bunch of little Tokyo clips on their youtube account that are informative and hilarious at the same time.
ELLEGARDEN, back in US
July 15, 2007For those of you who haven’t visited our page lately, we wanted to make sure you knew about a couple of things we’ve got going on:
*Show in LA!
Ellegarden will be playing a rare Stateside show at LA’s Knitting Factory on Tuesday July 24th. Tickets are on sale now and you can grab them through knittingfactory.com
* Eleven Firecrackers Release!
We know you know already, but a reminder that Eleven Firecrackers will finally be in stores in the US on July 31st! If you can’t wait that long, you can grab it from iTunes USA, and while you’re there, you can check out the digital only EP Figureheads that’s available now as well.
* Videos up on myspace!
We’ve gotten 3 videos up in our myspace tv section. Feel free to check them out and leave us a comment!
*Buddy Icons!
Now you can show your love for Ellegarden while instant messaging. Download our new AIM icons from our home page on myspace.
Phew! ok, now that we’ve overwhelmed you, we’ll stop. Thank you to everyone who’s been participating in our US contest. We hope you’re having fun. We’ll keep you updated with news.
Have a great weekend!
Ellegarden’s US team
For those who are curious, here’s the tracklist for Figureheads. The album cover is a reworked version of the original Japanese cover for Riot on the Grill.
1. The Autumn Song
2. Red Hot
3. Stereoman
4. Raindrops
5. Supernova
6. Marry Me
7. Missing
8. Windy Day
9. Middle of Nowhere
10. I Hate It
more Oreskaband album news
July 15, 2007Oreskaband’s US debut will be released August 7th through Terry Dollar Records. The album will include their first full length album Wao!! (We Are Oreskaband!!) and the first EP Ore. From the looks of it, this may just be a digital release, I haven’t been able to find any listings for it on amazon or smart/interpunk. Furthermore, I haven’t been able to find so much as a website for Terry Dollar Records. Hopefully they’ll have hard copies at their Warped Tour dates at least.
mothercoat tour diary
July 10, 2007purpleSKY has uploaded mothercoat‘s exclusive tour diary from SXSW 2007. Their new album +birdless comes out August 8th in Japan.
DRUMKAN mp3
July 10, 2007DRUMKAN have launched their EPK site. What that is, I don’t know but if you click on Audio there’s free mp3s for their songs “Away” and “Against in the wall.”
Live Earth: The Concerts for a Climate in Crisis
July 9, 2007Al Gore’s Live Earth 2007 project was broadcast live on the internet and TV Friday night thru Saturday. MSN has the entire concerts available to stream by artist and by song. Japan was broken up into 2 sections, Tokyo and Kyoto. Linkin Park and a few American rappers somehow made their way into the Tokyo concert, I would guess that they were touring in the country the same time. I only got to see parts of the RIZE and Genki Rockets concerts previously when it was broadcasted live but there’s a few other’s I’m interested in. Hopefully they’ll keep it up long enough for me to do so!
Tokyo
-Abingdon Boys School (rock side project of TM Revolution’s vocalist)
-AI
-Ayaka
-Cocco
-Genki Rockets (dance, jpop)
-Koda Kumi (jpop)
-Otsuka Ai
-RIZE (punk)
Kyoto
-Bonnie Pink (jpop)
-Rip Slyme (rap)
-Yellow Magic Orchestra (old school electro)
-Ua
http://liveearth.ca.msn.com/event/
J-Rock Explosion 