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.
Saturday, 9 January 2010
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.
Friday, 8 January 2010
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.
Tuesday, 5 January 2010
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.
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.
Friday, 1 January 2010
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
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.
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