Toshi leaves his wife, Masaya, Healing World and speaks of betrayal

Rumours of brainwashing don't seem so hard to believe now, here's the word from Toshi himself, kindly translated by BXtE.

Check it

I can't help but feel so bad for him, he has been used and controlled his entire life. And when finding something which he thought could bring happiness to his life in marriage and friendship with Masaya he only ended up falling into an evil and contrived scheme to rid him of his money and use his name for personal gain.

I truely hope that Yoshiki does the right thing, Toshi needs him more than ever.

The plot thickens, WTF is going on with X Japan?

And you thought that Yoshiki was hogging all the drama?


According to Tokyo Graph Toshi has filed for divorce from his wife and is currently in the process of seperating himself from both Masaya and his Home of Heart organisation.

Tokyo Graph have had a very hit and miss relationship with X Japan since the reunion and have posted some material which has eventually turned out to be false.

Watch this space.

Just when you thought Yoshiki couldn't mess up anymore...

Full credit goes to the JRock Online blog for a superb piece of investigative journalism.

The eagle-eyed poster at JRock Online has given one of the images which was released by Japanese newspapers from the X Japan Hollywood filming event a closer look to uncover a blatant act of fakery. I have it on good authority that these images were given to Japanese news sources such as Oricon directly by X Japan's management, so what you are about to see is the image exactly as it was when it was released.



Looks packed right? Now let's look a little closer.



Either there were a couple of doppelgangers hanging out at the X Japan event or the powers that be within the X Japan brand wanted to save face to cover for a disappointing turn out. I think the evidence is quite compelling for the latter of the two conclusions.

Also, I have been given a tip-off by my source in LA that it was more than likely that the crowd was seeded by the band with planted models and attractive people posing as genuine X Japan fans to help bulk up the numbers.

This wouldn’t the first time X Japan has pulled off something like this, and as such it wouldn’t surprise me if more compelling evidence were to become available. I refer you to another fantastic piece of investigative journalism by Lee Miller from The Other East which can be found here

Does Jrock Revolution know something we don't?

Posted on the JRock Revolution website:

X Japan is not only the biggest band in Japan rock history, their popularity is spreading overseas, to Asia, to Europe, and about to explode in the US. X Japan has sold over 30 million albums/singles/videos to date. They also pioneered Visual-Kei, which is infecting worldwide Anime fans through the unique style of music and fashion.

The statements made in this press release that are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements." These forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties. The Company cautions readers of this press release that a number of important factors could cause X JAPAN¹s actual future results to differ materially from those expressed in any such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, without limitation, product delays, industry competition, rapid changes in technology and industry standards, protection of proprietary rights, maintenance of relationships with key personnel, vendors and third-party developers, international economic and political conditions. The Company may change its intention, belief or expectation, at any time and without notice, based upon any changes in such factors, in the Company's assumptions or otherwise. The Company undertakes no obligation to release publicly any revisions to any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

Don’t you just love disclaimers? Ignoring all the dubious and easily contestable statements intertwined in that little blurb I can’t help but read it and look over the events of the past few days and think to myself that JRock Revolution knows something that we don’t.

Yoshiki himself has been quoted as saying that the Hollywood shoot was a “business card” for which he has paid around $4 million for the privilege of displaying in the entertainment capitol of the world. While perhaps more of publicity stunt than anything else Yoshiki would appear to be no stranger to promoting his own products for the right price. If you can scan your mind back to early 2008 when I.V. was released world-wide via ITunes you may remember that the single was promoted on the front page of the US Store for several days – a premium advertisement slot which it would appear Yoshiki acquired to the lightening of his wallet, or perhaps not even his own (the Japanese Visual Kei label Nexstar has almost driven itself to financial ruin due to it’s commitment to aiding the funding of X Japan’s return). But I’m sidetracking from the point, despite his many inconsistencies Yoshiki certainly has both the contacts and the money to put X Japan in the shop window in America, and given the above JRR blurb and associated disclaimer I can’t help but think he’s planning something big this year.

Back in 2007 JRock Revolution was the brainchild of Yoshiki and Jonathan Platt, and at one time in its earliest incarnation was certainly helmed by the two making it a powerful and well funded outfit. How much or how little authority the current embodiment of the organisation still possesses is a debatable subject, especially given that Yoshiki and Platt appear to have all but severed ties and funding with the organisation, leaving it entirely ran by volunteers with little or no actual previous journalism experience. The few times when Yoshiki has bothered with the company since it’s inauguration have been to promote his own ventures, such as the X Japan re-union shows or his “JShock” record label which he also seems to have also abandoned now (presumably because it wasn’t a very profitable venture).

So bearing in mind that Yoshiki is willing to call on the organisation when it suits him, we now look to the developments which have occurred merely days after the above text appeared on the JRR website. The latest news which has emerged include that X Japan have been offered a chance to appear at the Lollapalooza festival in California and that notable figures such as Myspace’s Chief Operating Officer Mike Jones were present at the Hollywood shooting event. If Yoshiki really intends to take X Japan to America these are looking to be promising signs, having your band take stage at one of the countries largest music festivals and potentially playing sweet for a product tie-in on one of the most used websites in America certainly seem to be big moves. Also when taken into account the fact that the band has been recording videos for older music in their back catalogue in an attempt to give old songs a modern appeal for release upon the world market a bigger picture begins to fall into place, and as such perhaps a big promotional push in America is just around the corner.

And now, with that said – the guessing, or more likely in the case of X Japan, waiting, game begins. Which aces does Yoshiki have up his sleeve? Which business contacts is he going to call upon this time? Yoshiki’s cronyism is neither myth nor fabrication and can be seen at the heart of many of his recent stateside ventures for X Japan. For example, I.V. making its way into the Saw Franchise can be looked at in a very different light given the knowledge that the musical supervisor for the film was none other than Yoshiki’s brother in arms Jonathan Platt. And of the four directors involved in the Hollywood filming events Dean Karr is by far the most notable, having extensive music video directing credits of his own and a former associate of the late Hide (he was actually present on the boat which released half of Hide’s ashes into the water off LA), but even his appointment is not a surprising choice for Yoshiki, given Karr’s apparent friendship with Mandy Jordan, better known to Myspace users as “Punk Skandal” who is known to be a close friend of Yoshiki and the intended bassist for Yoshiki’s Violet UK project.

So, are we about to see X Japan “about to explode in America”? Don’t get me wrong, I wish Yoshiki the best of luck on his ventures – as history tells me I suspect he’s going to need it.

Further details of X Japan’s video shoot:

- Around 8000 fans apparently attended the shoot (I find these figures hard to believe as they are almost certainly fiddled, from my sources in LA there was perhaps 1000 at the most during the night shoot, during the day there was maybe 150 lingering people)

- The overall shoot cost around $4 million

- X Japan’s “new” album is going to be a video collection, with apparently, revised versions of I.V., Weekend, Rusty Nail and Endless Rain

- Another shoot is scheduled for later in the month to film a video for Kurenai

- The video for Jade was mostly filmed indoors, apparently the theme of the video was an “animal masquerade” at which Yoshiki played the wolf. I guess he was just personifying his business-man personality

Yoshiki screws up again

Sorry gaiz, my bad!

The four music videos the band are recording are for the songs "Rusty Nail", "Endless Rain", "I.V." and "Jade". Only one new song recieving a music video and three older songs being given new ones. A video for Kurenai is set to be filmed later this month.

Come on Yoshiki, are you really so devoid of creativity you have to keep on trying to sell the same old songs over and over again? Are you even listening to the fans? Or maybe you finally want people to see you for who you are, a money-grubbing has-been.

Read the LA Weekly article

Pictures from X Japan indoor PV shooting and further information

A reader kindly informed me that the band has been shooting a seperate video at an indoor Hollywood location, images of which have now been posted on the internet.

Credit goes to Karma Kollective for the images and the following information. This particular video was directed by Dean Karr, a video director who has filmed many videos for artists such as Marilyn Manson and Velvet Revolver. Dean was also the director of Zilch's video for "Electric Cucumber".

Very interesting developments indeed, I will keep people updated as best I can.

Half of our readers think the new Versailles album will suck!

The poll results are on the right of the page. Maybe my cynicism is rubbing off on people! Oh well, I guess we will find out either way how the album is in a few days.

JRock Revolution release X Japan set construction images

Check it

X Japan Filming in Hollywood

As you may or may not know, X Japan are due to record 4 music videos in Hollywood tomorrow night with many fans having signed up to participate in the event. There is still a great deal of mystery surrounding the event and nobody is entirely sure what the nature of these music videos are. All we have to go on is the news that several streets in Hollywood will be closed for "filming purposes" between the night of the 9th and the early morning of the 10th and this website which invited fans to sign up to 'participate'

Here's some possibilities which have crossed my mind as to the nature of these videos that X Japan are recording, let's see if they come to pass:

A music video for Jade

We’ve known about Jade since Yoshiki mentioned he had written a new song inspired by his visit to Hide’s grave in 2008. A first glimpse of it appeared in a brief YouTube clip from a Japanese TV show depicting Yoshiki working in his studio on an unknown song. Following the publishing of a public poll on the X Japan official website asking the public which songs they would like to hear at the two Tokyo Dome shows a particularly interesting option was “New tune”, which seemingly proved a popular choice, given that Jade was officially unveiled and performed on both days. Floating around YouTube is also recording of the “studio demo” of Jade, featuring auto-tuned Toshi vocals, MIDI Drum programming and synthesised strings. In short, Jade is the obvious choice to film a music video for – in that it’s actually new material.

Possibly two music videos for Without You (Yoshiki stated in 2007 there would be both an English and Japanese version of the song)

We’ve known about Without You for a decade. In the aftermath of Hide’s death Yoshiki released an instrumental of the aforementioned song in a video clip depicting him performing on the piano in an ambiently-lit recording studio live room. The song was then re-recorded and released on Yoshiki’s 2002 sophomore solo album “Eternal Melody II” and played over the PA at the end of the 2003 Korean Film Gig along with lyrics displayed on a giant screen. With the 2007 announcement of the re-union, Yoshiki stated that the band would release both an English and Japanese version of the song, either has yet to surface but the band has performed more than one version of the song at different concerts since they returned to the stage in 2008. Behind Jade surely this song is a fore-running candidate for X Japan’s filming purposes, with possibly more than one video in the pipeline, supposing Yoshiki still intends to release more than one version – although it’s not exactly easy to tell.

A music video for the mystery new song, which Yoshiki mentioned having finished in a recent Ustream blog

There’s not much to say about this other than the fact that Yoshiki has said the band had finished recording a brand new song and as such we can surely assume there is at least one un-heard song in the pipeline.

A music video for an older song

It seems like a really dumb idea but this, after all is a 'best of' album, and of course involves Yoshiki, so it would be outright stupid to assume this isn’t something he’d try to pull off. It wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if Yoshiki has become so creatively-dry he is considering taking this course of action.

An unrelated project, perhaps not a PV in the sense we immediately expect. Perhaps promotional material for another project.

Filming 4 music videos in just a few Hollywood streets comes across as being a very strange move, even by Yoshiki’s standards. I can easily imagine there being numerous costume changes for each session of filming, but having 4 distinct sets for filming or shooting 4 videos in the same setting both seem to be quite bizarre courses of action. Perhaps things are not as they seem, and these 4 videos are to serve a different promotional purpose, perhaps adverts ala Yoshiki’s Violet UK 7-11 tie-ins could be on the cards.

Whatever happens, it sounds a very gruelling filming schedule and I’m quite excited as to what comes of it. I’m just hoping that, you know, Yoshiki doesn’t let us down… again. Maybe it’s my own fault for expecting anything anymore.

Anyone else got any ideas or conjecture as to X Japan’s plans? I will try to keep people up-to-date with what is going on in LA as I have a number of friends attending the event.

The JRock pioneers that haven’t made a comeback.

With the likes of X Japan and Dead End back on the landscape and Luna Sea ostensibly on the threshold of a return it can be very easy to overlook the fact that many more highly influential Japanese acts have so far decided against making a comeback. For this article I will be looking into the hugely influential Boøwy, why they disbanded, why they haven’t reunited and where the members of the band are now.



Without little doubt Boøwy are the biggest Japanese rock band to never really be given the credit overseas they deserve for pioneering the JRock movement. Throughout the 80’s this band paved the way for rock bands in Japan to have an impact both on popular culture and the Oricon charts and as such many people believe that without their tenure rock music may never have became a mainstream commodity in Japan, or indeed in some parts of Asia where their influence has also been able to penetrate.

The band formed outright in 1980, a punk-based collaboration between Kyosuke Himuro on vocals and a freshly-expelled-from-school Tomoyasu Hotei on guitar, flanked by a plethora of musicians originally from Himuro’s and Hotei’s previous projects. Success wasn’t an instant accolade for the band but after weathering the financial hardships of being independent they were signed to the major label Victor in 1982. Deciding to henceforth call themselves “Boøwy” and wanting to take a more pop-rock approach, the band sprang a series of line-up changes to eventually form the core 4 members which would persist for the rest of the band’s tenure. 1983 proved to be a transitional year for the band as they struggled to gain recognition in the music industry and cut ties with their record label. After strenuously touring throughout 1984 to try and make a name for themselves they eventually landed a deal with Toshiba-EMI the following year and used the major label backing as a platform for commercial success.

Having generated huge levels of popularity and enthusiasm within the Japanese public the friendship between Hotei and Himuro began to fall apart, culminating in the band breaking up in 1988 at the height of their commercial success. Not being ones to step away from the limelight quietly, they played their farewell shows on April 4th and 5th at the recently constructed super-venue of Tokyo Dome.

While Hotei’s and Himuro’s mutual animosity shows no sign of ending 22 years after Boøwy disbanded a brief indulgence for Boøwy fans occurred in 2004 when Himuro hosted a sell out concert at Tokyo Dome where he sang many Boøwy songs for the first time since the unanimous break-up. While being a solid vindication of the endearing nature of Boøwy’s music to transcend the generation gap the concert also reiterated, as if it was ever required, that the insatiable demand for a reformation remains as strong as ever.

Kyosuke Himuro now joins the likes of Yoshiki and Morrie as JRock exiles living in America, owning a mansion in Los Angeles formerly owned by Shaquille O'Neal of all people and having launched a prolific solo career which has so far spanned 11 albums and 25 singles as well as collaborating with artists such as Glay, Gerard Way of the My Chemical Romance fame and Billy Idol guitarist Steve Stevens. On more than one occasion Himuro has been closely associated to the Final Fantasy franchise, offering his music as tie-in media and has even been cited as being an influence by Square Enix royalty Tetsuya Nomura.

Soon after Boøwy’s dissolution Hotei featured in the band “Complex”, a short lived collaboration with his friend Koji Kikkawa, which despite its lack of longevity was able to generate moderate success. Today Tomoyasu Hotei remains a popular guitarist and figure in the Japanese public lexicon, having launched a successful solo career with a string of chart-topping releases and also owing his talents to acting on occasion. Outside of Japan Hotei is best known for his song “Fight without honour and humanity” used by Quentin Tarantino in the Kill Bill films and for contributing music to Terry Gillian’s Hollywood adaptation of Hunter. S. Thompson’s “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”.

Boøwy’s music breached the margins between pop and rock in a band format in Japan and still remains fondly remembered by many as being the defining sound of the 1980’s. While many hardcore fans still hold out a glimmer of hope for a reunion the majority believe hell would sooner freeze over than Hotei and Himuro reconcile, and as of January 2010 the latter certainly does seem to be the more likely state of affairs.

JRock NYC Readers vote "The Final" by Dir en Grey as the best song of the decade

Look at us! We're all macho and gritty now that we're not wearing makeup and making music videos in gay-clubs

A friend of mine sent me this link earlier and reminded me of what I had said in my earlier blog post about Dir en Grey being the most overrated band of the decade and their song, 'Clever Sleazoid' being an intolerable piece of garbage.

I think the reaction she was perhaps looking for from me involved a spoon and a slice of humble pie with my name on it, given that it would appear that Dir en Grey's huge popularity within overseas fan-circles is not simply because they were in the right place at the right time, as I put it, but instead due to their high quality creative output and innovation of craft.

Unfortunately for she who prepared me the pie, I'm not hungry and certainly do not feel convinced to change my mind on this one.

To this writer Dir en Grey are an exceptionally mediocre band, that despite overcoming the clutches of their Visual Kei routes for the better, are nothing more than a two-a-penny post-hardcore band with formulaic song structures and occasionally a little more melody than their counterparts. Very little, if anything, separates their sound from many other western groups which have existed longer than them and received no where near as much exposure or success.

As for the song in question, "The Final", probably Dir en Grey's most tolerable single in latter years in my eyes, I can't help but think that such billing as the "best JRock song of the decade" is ever so slightly blasphemous in the name of Japanese rock itself. Sure, it's got a catchy chorus – great! It's got some crazy industrial sounding production inserts – neato! The guitarists have clearly bought POD effect units – wowza! But despite all of these truly smashing elements in "the final" analysis I find it to be quite dreary and bland in that never really amounts to anything musically and misses so many avenues which could have taken it to a higher level, avenues which were not crossed due to a restrictive and formulaic song structure or the short-sightedness of the composer(s).

Sorry Diru fans, it's nothing personal - I just don't see what's so special about the band, or indeed this song, at all.

New Sugizo Blog

Sugizo has posted a new blog on his myspace, in which he talks about his solo work and heading to LA to work with X Japan, presummably for the filming of the fabled 4 music videos. He says he will be in LA for quite some time, perhaps Yoshiki is up to something.


The two days of performances in Tokyo, followed by two days in Taipei, are finally over.
After coming back to Japan, I went immediately to Ashinoko Lake yesterday
and had a photo session from six in the morning.
On top of that, today and tomorrow are TD for the new song to be released in February.
I don’t know how much more of this my body can take... (>_<)

NEXT PHASE OF COSMIC DANCE was beset by all sorts of problems and troubles,
and it didn’t go exactly as I had planned,
but it was still great to be able to ascend to the heavens in both Tokyo and Taipei.
There are lots of problems that we have to resolve for next time,
and I plan to seriously take on these challenges.
And I also want to further evolve the many wonderful things that happened at the shows.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart to the fantastic musicians who participated, the staff,
all the people involved, and all the fans.
Everyone was beautiful, and I look forward to putting on an even more amazing performance together next time.

Ten hours after returning from Taipei,
I went to Ashinoko Lake for a photo session with a fantastic photographer who came from Singapore.
I was so sleep deprived that I felt like I might die,
and didn’t think I’d make it through the photography at the freezing cold lakeside (>_<).
But the photographs turned out wonderfully, and it was a lot of fun!
She’s a genius photographer, and I believe that she’ll be able to take her work to amazing places.
I’ll tell you more about it at some point in the future!

Today and tomorrow I’m doing TD on the new song to be released in February,
marking the last of my work for 2009!
The new song has a “new wave electro guitar rock” feel, and I’m sure it’s going to turn out great,
so I hope you’re looking forward to it!

On the 31st. 1st, and 2nd, I’m taking a brief break. Then on the 3rd, I head to LA to do some work with X JAPAN.
I’m going to stay there for quite a while,
and there are tons of things I have to do – so many that thinking of it makes me dizzy. (^_^;)
Somebody, please help me!

2010, the year I’ve been waiting for, is finally almost here.
I’m going to devote myself body and soul to my work next year as well,
and I’d like to say “thank you” once again to everyone.
I’m going to move forward at a blinding pace next year, and I hope you’re all there with me!

SGZ

Happy New Year!

I'm not one for singing Robbie Burns' greatest hit, so the minimalistic nature of this post will have to suffice. Hopefully 2010 will be less despotic than 2009.