L~Lotus~ is a five-piece band comprising of three ex. as milk members – 蓮華 (Renka) on vocals, saki and Takayuki on guitars, masato on bass, and YUJI on drums. They officially began their activities on March 6th and have released three digital singles to date: 「worry」 on May 19th, 「snow」 on May 26th, and 「tree」 on June 2nd. The members of L~Lotus~ sat down with us to answer a couple of questions, so give it a read to get to know them better! We’d like to thank JapanFiles... Read→
-LEON- is a five-piece band from Gunma comprising of Yuji on vocals, Shin and Koya on guitars, Yamato on bass, and Masashi on drums. Mixing Asian cultural influences with visual rock, -LEON- has a heavy, modern sound with a distinct, ethereal flavor. On December 13th, the band released their first three track mini-album, 「REGULUS」 along with a PV for their song, 「Kokou ni Tou Tsuioku no Kagen no Tsuki」. The members of -LEON- took time to answer a few of our questions, so take a read through... Read→
GLACIER is a five-member group from Okinawa, comprising of Makoto on vocals, Nao on lead guitar, Koujirou on rhythm guitar, Aki on bass, and Yuuki on drums. The band formed in July 2007 and made their major debut a year later on July 23rd. They have released a full album and six singles to date with their seventh single, 「愛の降る街」 (Ai no Furu Machi) which is the third installment of a 7-month digital release project, coming out on June 30th through JapanFiles and on iTunes. The members... Read→
O-PARTS is a two-man unit that started in June of 2009, formed by vocalist sho-ka (ex. Vogus Image) and bassist Jun (GaGaaalinG, ex. WAIVE). On August 20th, they released their first maxi-single entitled 「向日葵」 (Himawari) which included four tracks, all of which made it into the top ten of the Oricon Indies ranking. On May 26th, their second maxi-single, 「煌[kou]」 was released and will be available through JapanFiles from June 6th. Both sho-ka and Jun took time out of their busy schedules... Read→
In 2002, Kaya made his vocal debut in the Mana produced two-man unit, Schwarz Stein. In 2004, Schwarz Stein disbanded, and departing from the label the band was signed to, Kaya became a free singer. Using “aesthetics” as his main theme, Kaya conducts his activities with the goals of “the revolution of the aesthetic senses” and the “liberation of sexuality” in mind, and manages his own lyrics, CD jacket designs, make-up and costume designs as well as the organization... Read→
born is a five member band that began together under RENNY AMY, which was active from August 2005, until December 31st, 2006. Shortly after, the same five members created D&L, and eventually changed their name to ‘born’ on April 9th, 2008 with the sponsored event at Takadanobaba AREA called “born presents 「bug scremo vol.01」”. About a week later, they released their first demonstration single, entitled 「Dust pain」, which was followed by the tour, 「Abnormal skin’s」. Since... Read→
砂月-Satsuki- began his solo career on February 14th, 2009, after spending seven years as the vocalist for RENTRER EN SOI. His first solo release, 「AWAKE」 came out via his online shop on May 9th, and that month he also started his 「AWAKENING TO MOONLIGHT」 tour, which even made a stop in Los Angeles, California. His next release, 「CRYSTAL」 was out on August 21st, which was followed by his 「PEER INTO YOUR CRYSTAL HEART」 tour, where he preformed in both Tokyo and Las Vegas, Nevada. ... Read→
There was an earlier post regarding カル・ヴァリ (Kalvary) new mini-album release, the details were announced today.
The album is entitled 「JOIN」 and will be released on June 9th, selling for 1,890 yen. The band mentioned the title “JOIN” stemmed from the word “JOY”, which will also be the overall mood of the songs! Tracklisting:
1. 君のための (Kimi no Tame no)
2. Queen’s chessman
3. ~be connected~(SE)
4. ShakexBeatxOur
5. ゆびきり (Yubikiri)
Source: Brand-X
There was an earlier post of the band’s first full album release here.
Following the release of the the first edition CD, selling out at a rapid speed, it has been officially decided today to hurry and make more prints of the album, coming out with a normal edition of「勝手にしやがれ」 (Katte ni Shiyagare). Release date will be on February 24th, 2010. The CD will also cost 3,150 yen as the previous edition and be limited to 1000 more copies. The CD will come with a band comment CD, original band member autograph card, and a band member photo card as the original print. Normal edition comes with a case, new 24-page photo booklet, and a photo sticker.
Will contain the exact same songs as the original edition:
01. 放送禁止のブルース (Housou Kinshi no Blues; Relaxation Prohibition Blues)
02. 勝手にしやがれ (Katte ni Shiyagare; Be Selfish)
03. 完全犯罪 (Kanzen Hanzai; Complete Crime)
04. 罠 (Wana; Trap)
05. 夜光虫 (Yakouchuu; Noctiluca)
06. 拝啓、売国奴の皆様 靖國の空が哭いています（SYGR MIX）(Haikei, Baikokudo no Minasama Seikoku no Sora ga Naiteimasu; To all the traitors, The sky in Yasukuni is weeping）
07. サヨナラセカイ (Sayonara Sekai; Goodbye World)
08. 縄と拡声器とヒロイン (Nawa to Kakuseiki to Heroine; Rope & Loudspeaker & Heroine)
09. 闇を嗤え＿警告（instrumental）(Yami o Warae Keikoku; Light’s Mocking Warning)
10. 堕落論（SYGR MIX）(Daraku Ron; Fallen Ring)
11. 依存 (Izon; Dependent)
12. 樹海 (Jukai; Sea of Trees)
It hasn’t been posted yet, so I’ll show you the CD cover (for those of you that haven’t seen/bought the CD yet). Normal edition CD cover is the same as the first edition release.
Sources: Brand-x, OHP
Thank you to ST reader Kairu for sending this in!
Schecter guitars now has Vidoll’s Giru, Rame, and Shun’s models featured in their photo gallery and for sale in their custom shop. My personal favorite is Rame’s design – it’d be nice to have that kind of money to spend, wouldn’t it?!
Source: ST reader Kairu, Schecter OHP
lynch. will be performing at the Japan Pop Culture Festival 2009 [POP CULTURE LIVE].
The event is basically to promote Japan’s pop-culture, things such as music, anime, games, fashion and the like.
The event will be held on September 26th at Kansai International Airport’s event square. The event will start at noon and feature other bands such as: Magical Honey *Cats/ momo*milky/ kirinsan/ crescendo/ Yumeiro Monster/ Zettai Ryouiki Shoujo./ FullMooN.13/ Denno:Oblaat/ Gurigula/ SpA
Best part is that the event is free! ;o
Source: BMA, JPP
Ku sent an email pointing out some trouble Heath was having with his management.
Well it seems to be true, due to some issues with his management . HEATH will be leaving X Japan. The news was posted today on a local news site. Apparently these issues were one of the causes to the cancellation in Korea. After weeks of negotiation nothing was resolved and yet the tickets for Tokyo Dome still went on sale. Yoshiki has stated that the show will not be canceled and they will have a session bassist step in. Even though Yoshiki is at his home in USA, he will be returning to Japan to talk to HEATH in person.
{edit}Thanks to Shinta for showing this to me. Well now the news is that Heath proposed to leave the band, but the outcome seems that he will still stay with X Japan to finish up the reunion lives on May 2nd and 3rd. Yoshiki is also denying any talk of a session bassist/replacement. I guess we will have to wait and see what happens.
Source: Sponichi.co.jp, Sanspro, Metal Banzai, Ku
Thanks to essan for letting us know: Mao from SID (シド) has announced that this week on his show Mao’s room DX(2) ～Samushiko JAPAN～, musical guests Arimura Ryutaro and Hasegawa Tadashi from Plastic Tree will be on it. The show airs this Wednesday, January 21st from 20:00 until 20:45.
source: mao’s blog
Remember when I posted about about SAW IV director Darren Lynn Bousman and Yoshiki working together? Well he isn’t just a producer for the film, he is also singing the ending title for the movie. Well the movie has already had leaked songs on youtube and more trailers and previews all over the net! The film was supposed to be out by this spring but has been pushed back to November 7th. Here is an interview telling more about the movie and his involvement. Also I just found out that the official movie soundtrack – that Yoshiki produced – will be out in stores September 30th!
Source: Youtube, REPO! Site
This might interest some of our readers. This was posted on a bulletin at MaruMusic’s myspace.
Featuring, Moi dix Mois, SaTaN, Chariots, Mix Speakers, Inc. SuG, Mana’s Not Dead, Himeichigo, Smile and Hosted by Miku from An’café and Biju the Cat.
Exclusive interviews, profiles and live clips from each band, as well as a brief history of Visual-kei.
See the trailer here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M45I5GdY1RQYou can buy it now at http://marumusic.com/store/index.php
So I’m the type of person who doesn’t download PVs (unless it’s SCREW or neu, but even in that case I buy the CD the PV came with, but anyway..). I use youtube, megavideo, and imeem for all PV watching so I don’t have to download it and waste space that I could be using for more important things (like not porn). And lucky old me stumbled upon a Visual Kei PV directory type blog.
If you look on the left there’s tags with the name of the band, and the number in parentheses is the number of PVs of that band they have put up. Here’s the best part, they aren’t only youtube videos. It’s an accumilation of PVs from all sorts of video hosting sites, so you don’t have to go search through them all.
The only drawback is that it’s not in English. But I’m sure you can find the name of your favorite band if you try~! So you should bookmark this page, it’s super convenient.
—-> http://hacri.jugem.jp/ <—–
FUGA, who we wrote a brief little introduction for back in February and is a new band that started at the end of January, has their official MySpace up and running! Actually, they’ve had the MySpace for a little while, but now there are two song samples that I think a lot of fans would enjoy, so I just wanted to let everyone know and encourage you to go check them out!
⇒ http://www.myspace.com/fugakizuna
So, go give them a listen, come back here and let us know what you think.
They’ve also been posted up on Visunavi, which you can check out here.
The so-net website has updated with a bunch of new years videos from the following bands/artists:
アリス九號. (alice nine), 12012、LM.C、Kagrra，Girugamesh, ガイズファミリー (Guy’s Family)、河村隆一 (Kawamura Riuichi)、キリト (Kirito)、Kra、CELLT、SKULL, the studs、ダリ (dari)、chariots、Daizy Stripper、DEATHGAZE、バイオレット (Viored)、heidi.、lynch., Plastic Tree、Bergerac、松本和之 (Matsumoto Kazuaki?), 雅-miyavi-、ムック (MUCC)、meth.、Metis、メリー (Merry)、RENTRER EN SOI、lynch.、Ruvie、and others.
Click here to see them. When you see the collage, click on the band you want to see the message for and drag it to the center and then click “あけおめ♪メッセージ（動画）を見る” And it should take you to the page to view the movie.
Source: So-net
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