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.

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.

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

The worst of JRock in the 2000's awards!

With so many websites and blogs looking into the best of the decades creative output I thought I would do something a little different and instead look at the worst.

This is "The worst of JRock in the 2000's" awards!

Worst Song

This turned out to be difficult to call, given that there has been so much trash released over the past ten years. If you, the reader, feel obliged to divulge a given song for this accolade then be sure to add it as a comment to this post. My choice however was in the end chosen due to my internal moral inclination threatening me with sleepless nights should I overlook it.

Lord save us all...

Clever sleazoid – Dir en Grey.

I can honestly say with little reservation that this song has wrongfully stole the best part of three minutes of my life which I would go to great ends to get back. I’ve even considered suing both the band and their record label for creating and publishing it on the grounds that it has undoubtedly made my life worse.

Laced with unintelligible screams of criminal miss-use of the English language one would more closely associate with a b-grade S&M feature film Clever Sleazoid has few, if any redeeming features or practical uses. While perhaps an adequate measure of torture for mass-murderers I would almost feel sorry for their pain, having to be subjected to such auditory faecal matter. Surely only one crime can deserve such a punishment, that being committed by those who are responsible for this songs conception, production and release.

For those who have not heard this song, save yourself the pain and mental anguish of listening to it. And for those who want to know what it feels like to listen to it, perhaps sodomising yourself with a machete whilst having a pair of pneumatic drills rip into your ears will bring you close, but even then you’re getting off lightly in comparison.

Most annoying artist

Sugary and gimmick-laden pop rock at its worst, that's right, you got it.

They make me physically ill

An Café are an example of why the Visual Kei scene in Japan is so often maligned both inside and outside of Asia. They truely are a solid example of image being paramount over, you know, actual substance - and that just sickens me to the pit of my stomach.

This afterall is the music industry, and as such shouldn't music always come first? Sure in this day and age we like our musicians to have a public face we can recognise as a brand, it makes the product easier to sell, but An Café were just top heavy in image and predictable, generic and uninspiring in the aspects that really matter. Bands like An Café seemingly pop up and disband every 5 minutes in the present Visual Kei scene, and that's quite fine by me. Perhaps I'm being a little cruel to An Café in particular when there were and are many other clone groups akin to them which this award could have been easily bestowed upon, and as such I think An Café should be kind and share this accolade with them, as despite being probably the biggest Oshare Kei band of their kind their sins alone do not account for all that is wrong in the scene.

But yeah, they’ve called it a day now. Good riddance.

Most overrated artist

Come on Kyo, smile, you can do it!

It looks like the 2000’s have been a successful year for Dir en Grey, picking up 2 accolades from our worst of the decade awards! Despite having these two awards from the wrong end of the honours I would like to take this time to remind readers that it’s the taking part that counts, right?

Dir en Grey have managed to secure an ever expanding world fan base, and as such are quite possibly the most popular Japanese music export ever – and to me that just feels… unfair.

Let’s think about this for a minute; what have this band done to be so successful? Is it down to hard work? Maybe, but I can think of countless other Japanese bands who put in a great deal more effort with little or no return. Is it down to their musical ability and collective virtuosity? I don’t even need to answer that, while their members are all clearly musically proficient I think it would take a very wild imagination to label them as being particularly special. Is it down to their originality and creative endeavour? Again, I don't think they stand out as being so radically different from other post-hardcore bands, if not a little more melodic at times.

And as such I just don't understand their success, they are quite simply not that great.

And as such I think Dir en Grey almost deserve their own award category, “The Dir en Grey award for being in the right place at the right time”.

Biggest scandal

Why so gloomy, Tetsuya?

Everyone loves a scandal, right? Good old Tetsuya Komuro got caught with his pants down in 2008 in high profile scandal which gripped much of the Japanese public. Clearly still financially reeling after his previous divorce had taken him to the cleaners the Globe and former TM Network superstar with over 170 million record sales to his name decided that he would play foul to bring in some money by trying to sell the rights to his songs for a substantial cash sum having already sold the rights previously.

Many expected he would be imprisoned for his actions, but having pleaded guilty to fraud he was spared jail and instead given a three year suspended sentence.

As this is purely for Japanese music I am unable to give the award to Canto Pop star Edison Chen for his 2008 antics, although I can’t help but give him an honourable mention.

Biggest JRock Fail

This one is a three-way tie!

S.K.I.N

S.K.I.N. You know, that band with all those Visual Kei big-guns that played one show at an anime convention and haven’t been heard of since? Stirring up crazed enthusiasm on both sides of the pacific were S.K.I.N, the 2007 super group of Yoshiki, Gackt, Sugizo and Miyavi. As is often with projects involving Yoshiki in recent days, it promised much but has delivered very little, nothing, in fact, since their sole concert at Long Beach California. While many fans still wait with hope/delusion of something to come from this project and Yoshiki, Gackt, Sugizo and Miyavi all pursue different endeavours the majority stopped caring a long time ago. With the three year anniversary of S.K.I.N’s sole outing coming up in a couple of months it’s not unreasonable at all to assume that in three more the situation will be any different.

As a side note, I only found out what S.K.I.N stood for the other day, apparently it means the “Status Kaput Imitation Narcissists”. Who’d have thought, eh?

X Japan’s (2008, I mean 2009, ugh never mind) World Tour.

Neck injuries, tendonitis, venue problems, management problems, internal disharmony, endless side projects, intercostal neuralgia, constant contradiction, missed deadlines and no real focus at all. I don’t think anyone really expects anything anymore from X Japan, it could be years before anything actually happens – and that’s if it even does, or anyone actually wants to see them anymore.

Violet UK

Back in 2003 thousands of South Korean X Japan fans co-ordinated amongst themselves and bombarded Yoshiki with letters begging him to bring X Japan back out of oblivion and perform a concert in South Korea. With Toshi looking unlikely to retract his self imposed retirement from rock music and the death of Hide still fresh in Yoshiki’s mind, he instead organised a “Film Gig” in Seoul and chose to use the opportunity to launch his latest project, Violet UK, a project he claimed he had been secretly building for the last ten years of his life. With an album release date penned in for September 22nd, 2005, things all seemed to be falling into shape – only for it all to, quite typically of Yoshiki, fall apart. Instead of an album we got a single, and not even a finished version at that. Since 2005 there have been a few songs released here and there usually attached to B-Grade Hollywood movies, as well as a couple of brief and bizarre live performances (if you can call them that) bundled into a few of X Japan’s performances post reunion. Some people draw comparisons to the much delayed “Chinese Democracy” of Guns ‘N Roses, the main differences of course being that Axl Rose has eventually made good and released his effort, Yoshiki on the other hand doesn’t look like he ever will at this rate.

Therefore, having been the mastermind behind the three biggest fails in JRock over the last decade, this award can really only be taken home by one man.

You got it.

Yoshiki proudly wearing his award