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The Brilliant Green: Tomoko (Tommy) on vocal, Ryo on guitar, Jun on
bass. TBG image courtesy of J*Star Gallery. Rainy Days
Never Stays released on 31.07.02.
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NOVEMBER BIRTHDAYS
11/4 PATA
[X Japan/Dope HEADz, guitar]
11/8 A.O.I.
[Shazna, guitar]
11/15 SHIINA RINGO
[solo, vocal]
11/16 TADASHI
[Plastic Tree, bass]
11/17 AIJI
[Pierrot, guitar]
11/17 HIRO
[Raphael, drums]
11/17 TOMOI
[Laputa, drums]
11/20 SAKURA
[L'Arc~en~Ciel/Zigzo, drums]
11/20 YOSHIKI
[X Japan, drums and piano]
11/21 SHUJI
[Janne da Arc, drums]
11/21 TETSU
[Merry, bass]
11/24 YUKIHIRO
[L'Arc~en~Ciel, drums]
11/28 KEN
[L'Arc~en~Ciel, guitar]
11/28 TOWA
[/\ucifer, bass]
11/29 REIKA
[Madeth Gray'll, drums]
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THE JROCK FAMILY TREE
If you've ever wondered who was in what band with who and performed where with what, here it is. This is nowhere near complete and I'm sure that there are thousands of little ties that we left out, but here are the main connections between people in the jrock world.
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Spotlight on recently released songs. This is a rotating mp3 list and will be changed regularly to make room for newer songs, so get 'em while you can!
[Glay]
We All Feel His Strength of Tender
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B'Z GREEN VIDEO
I know we don't usually announce vid news here...but...just in case anyone wants to know XD
BEAUTIFUL REEL
Release date: November 27, 2002
Footage from B'z first USA live-concerts, B'z LiveGym 2002 "Rock'n California Roll" in L.A., on September 24. Also from their live-gig in Hibiyaon, B'z LiveGym 2002 "Rock'n California Roll" in Tokyo, on October 5.
More info is here at the B'z Net Party BBS.
Also, before I forget, go read Insanity's great reviews on the new cali//gari and Psycho le Cemu singles on the Shiroi BBS!
- Gerald -
- Comment -
It's 09:36 p.m., and Kaoru's still playing air guitar.
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Wednesday, October 30, 2002
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ORIGINAL LAREINE AT HALLOWEEN LIVE
Just a short blurb here cause I don't have all the details. I'm sure someone will post on the BBS with the full story later, but at the Applause Records Halloween Party (here in the archives if you missed it), on the night of the 30th, there had been 4 blank spaces next to the "Lareine" band listing. I don't think anyone had dared get their hopes up, but apparently last night's live was a real Lareine reunion...with all four members, including Mayu.
^_^
[EDIT] Read a live report of the concert on Inertia's LJ!
- Gerald -
- Comment -
It's 10:20 a.m., and Kaoru's still playing air guitar.
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Tuesday, October 29, 2002
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NEXT SOAP LIVE
SOAP (Sons of All Pussys - Ken of L'Arc~en~Ciel's solo project with former Laruku drummer Sakura) will be holding their next live on 29 December. That's quite a long time away, but can't hurt to announce the news early!
Details:
29 DEC at Kawasaki Club Chitta (holds 300)
doors open : 5:00pm
live start : 6:00pm
price: 5000 yen
ticket sell date: 14 Dec
22MAGUNUM?BUG and MUCC will also be guests there. Never heard of 22MAGNUM?BUG, but I guess all of you have heard of MUCC. *waiting for Cali//Gari to be invited @_@*
- Gerald -
- Comment -
It's 12:00 a.m., and Kaoru's still playing air guitar.
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THE WOMEN OF JROCK: KANA
I know I haven't continued this series in a while, so I finaly got off my lazy butt and have decided to bring you another installment, exploring the talented female artists in the Japanese rock industry. Today's featured artist is...KANA!
What to say about Kana?
If you haven't heard of Kana, that's not surprising. She's the symbol of a movement that has remained pretty much underground and will probably continue to remain underground: the fascinating, mysterious, and ephemeral world of lolita culture in Japan. Visual-kei, angura-kei, and gothic lolita all seem to blend together these days, but those hard-core fans can step up and tell you that there are clear dividing lines between those. In any case, Kana is an artist that manages to blur those lines together.
I would classify Kana as more of an "artist" in the all around sense of the word than a singer or musician. She doesn't write her own music or have a wonderful singing voice. Instead, she depends on her image to make a statment, and in a world dominated by men, Kana has managed to make her mark. True, her image is, in a sense, not too extreme, since she has decided to enter a profession in which most people go to great lengths to try and appear female, but Kana is unique because she IS female.
I have heard Kana described as a "female Kyo, "female Ryutarou," and "the offspring of Kiyoharu and Hamasaki Ayumi," with "the voice of a dying cat." These observations are actually pretty accurate, because Kana is definitely not too musically talented. Her songs are actually more mainstream than most songs you might find in visual kei culture, but only probably because she doesn't write them herself. Her singing voice is very nasal, high-pitched, and weak, and does bear a very strong resemblance to the voice of Ryutarou from Plastic Tree. She also can't seem to stay in tune no matter how hard she tries.
So she doesn't try. Instead of trying to become just another singer, Kana twists her voice to produce some very weird and very cool sound effects, with breathy screaming, wailing, and throaty groaning, just to name a few. Think of Kyo of Dir en grey, but...female. It's hard to describe without actually having the songs for you to listen to, but it is very fascinating if you throw away the idea of vocalists having to stay in tune to be "good." Her voice effects add a very different dimension to each of her songs, which all carry odd titles to begin with, adding to the strange and mysterious feeling she tries to work into them.
Kana is also a lolita model (not really gothic lolita, since she seems to favor a lot of white and simple children's clothes instead of the styles of Mana or Machi). The pictures on her CDs are always fun to look at just because of her different clothing styles. They also seem to tell a story, to complement the song with which they come so that hearing the song without looking at the pictures is only half the experience. Kana also has a thing for pandas. She can be seen holding stuffed pandas or adopting a panda-like look in many of her photo shoots. She even seems to think of herself as a panda, or in any case, an animal (her recent songs have been part of a series called ""Ningen ni Tsuite Utau," or "Concering the Human that Sings.")
If you're intrigued by this unique artist, you might want to sample a few of her songs and photos. Momo is a nice, slower song, while her newest single Anzen Pin is faster and more rock. Fair and Noble Hostess and Kana-P no Mori are excellent Kana fanpages that offer a lot of multimedia.
- Gerald -
- Comment -
It's 11:13 a.m., and Kaoru's still playing air guitar.
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VIOLET UK
from Chris and Katrin's X Japan Page:
YOSHIKI & TOKYO CITY PHILHARMONIC featuring VIOLET UK debut show! (~ SYN-PHONIC CONCERT)
YOSHIKI:
Symphonic Concert ~This is the beginning of the Violet UK 2003 launch!
piano: Yoshiki
vocal: Violet UK (who I've been told her name is Sara....)
performance: Tokyo City Philharmonic
Day and time: December 3rd (Tuesday), 4 days (Wednesday)
translated statement:
It's only the beginning...
As before, this live show is in the classical style which is the musical roots of YOSHIKI. YOSHIKI sees the real restarting of his music in 2003. The numerous impressive melodies which are produced for this show is released with collaboration of the orchestra. It is a magnificant revison, of his famous musical work, and long-awaited Violet UK unpublished song of " X JAPAN ", with participation of the vocalist of Violet UK together for a new start in musical history. Promised to echo with the a similar feel, it is now the time to share, the dream of YOSHIKI which this is the 1st step to discover the new history which has the expectation that makes it now a reality."
Go to the link above for more details. Nice to know that Violet UK is getting its feet off the ground finally. ^^;
- Gerald -
- Comment -
It's 11:36 a.m., and Kaoru's still playing air guitar.
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REVIEW: 15 1/2 [TETSU69]
Tracklist:
1. Tez-man no Theme
2. 15 1/2
3. Shinkirou [BACKYARD REMIX]
4. 15 1/2 (instrumental)
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The backbone of this song is the soft, pulsing guitar, accompanied by the expansive synthesizer in the background. "Soothing" is what this song promises in the introduction before Tetsu actually comes in with the vocals, and it remains soothing on most levels throughout its entire length. The intro actually reminds me of an anime ending theme because of the blend of all the instrumentation seeming to mark some kind of "closure." More on that later.
As Tetsu comes in, the instruments don't really tone down any, which is my only gripe about this song. He doesn't have a strong voice to begin with; it's fuzzy around the edges and really doesn't have a center to its tone. With the accompaniment also being pretty wide and having no "center" to the sound, it takes a listen or two to adjust. The overall effect, however, is a soothing one. The guitar does fade away a bit into the background, and if you listen to the bassline as the verse transitions into the chorus, it really sounds like a Laruku bassline, for the first time in 4 songs.
The chorus attempts to break free and soar. Unfortunately, it doesn't do that very well, probably just because Tetsu has a hard time reaching the highs he wrote for himself. The overdrive in the guitars becomes much more intense during the chorus also, and it seems like his voice is dueling with the guitars and drums for dominance. The end result is a kind of muddy effect. I'm pretty sure that some of that might be due to the quality of the mp3 I downloaded, but I believe some of it is the actual arrangement.
A short and simple guitar solo follows the first chorus, and then Tetsu sings the second verse in the same style as the first. The only difference I can hear is the rhythm, which seems to be have been replaced by actual drums here instead of the breakbeat electronic rhythm of the first verse. The guitar also plays short little ditties between each line, a nice little addition that serves to complement Tetsu's voice and give the verse a center it didn't have before.
The second chorus is sung the same as the first, but Tetsu climbs high at the end of it, ending on an A flat that is a little too high for him but which serves well as a segue into the second guitar solo, which is a lot higher and more sweeping than the first. Neither are up to Ken's level, of course, but it's not Laruku. Tetsu then repeats the first chorus and then a third chorus, ending on the same high A flat as the instrumentation fades away.
I promised I would talk more about the "closure" I mentioned above, and I'll do that here, since that has to do directly with how I felt about the song. Those of you who are L'Arc~en~Ciel fans might have heard the song Bravery, a very bitter and angry song that Tetsu wrote for the album Real criticizing the fans. In it, he speaks of people who don't appreciate the band, who make up stories about it instead of listening to the real thing, and an "unhealing wound." It is pretty obvious that that "unhealing wound" is their old drummer, Sakura.
The thing that most struck me about this song wasn't the instrumentation or the vocals, but its similarity to the melody of Bravery. If you have both songs, I strongly suggest you listen to them side-by-side. Tetsu isn't an inexperienced song-writer by any means, having written tons of songs, each vastly different, for Laruku in the past, and I refuse to believe that he reused the melody for Bravery because he ran out of ideas or forgot that he'd already written a song that sounded like that. And Tetsu did say that "15 1/2" had some special meaning...and he is also releasing his album on Sakura's birthday.
So what I think? I believe that 15 1/2 is the closure to the story started with Bravery. With Sakura reappearing and joining Ken on SOAP, and with him and Hyde apparently having made their peace, the only one left is Tetsu. I think this is Tetsu's way of bringing the band full-circle. The lyrics are a direct contrast to Bravery. The bassline isn't what he's been writing in the past for his other three songs: it's a real, true-to-life, Laruku bassline. I don't think I'm reading too much into this song when I say that he meant it to be the other side of Bravery.
A translation of the song, done by me and Ri-chan, is here. Tetsu's album Suite November (ha ha, get the pun? -_-) comes out on 20 November. Go to CD Japan for more details and to preorder.
Single information:
15 1/2
Released: 2002.10.23
HDDA-10008 [1575 Yen]
Dream Machine (Warner Music Japan)
- Gerald -
- Comment -
It's 11:03 a.m., and Kaoru's still playing air guitar.
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