Fight!

The Back Horn - 戦う君よ

Genre: hard rock, punk
Song: pretty heavy and militaristic

I can't believe I missed this! I got blindsighted by my fav 9mm's release on the 21st and managed to completely miss this new single from my second favs the Back Horn, "戦う君よ" that came out April 21st. It's not attached to any album thus far. Gotta say it sounds like their other stuff - nothing really new or unique, just "safe". But still fun to rock out to. And shoutout to all the great mothers out there who have helped their kids rock on in this world (hint: it's mother's day). Including to my own mom, who has always supported my endeavors and my love of rock music. :-) We had a wonderful day today, just the two of us, eating ice cream and walking around the mall.

The flowers of dreams

The Back Horn - 夢の花

Genre: hard rock, punk
Song style: unstereotypical of them, melodic and soft

Here's a second posting of The Back Horn in honor of the DVD they released exactly a month ago (2/10/10) entitled "Emotion Picture Vol 2". A couple of weeks after its release, it managed to reach number 10 in the Oricon music DVD charts, congrats! That's the Back Horn's highest DVD ranking yet. I decided to present a different side to them - a more contemplative, emotional side (contrasted with the Cobalt Blue post). I remember when I went to Japan alone for the first time (back in 2007) and had little access to music - no computer, just a junky PocketPC. My friend took the effort to ship a SD card over from America filled with a collection of all of the Back Horn's music. So this band was my soundtrack for a couple of months. The purple flowers in my garden bloomed for the first time today, so a fitting song to post.

We are in the wind

The Back Horn - Cobalt Blue

Genre: alternative, punk, grunge
Song Style: high energy

This band has been around for a while (since 1998) and is a pretty well-known name in terms of Japanese rock music. This is one of their big songs, back from 2004. They were my first introduction to Japanese rock with their really headbanging-inducing Requiem (check out this one too! Maybe even before Colbalt Blue). Soon I will be revisiting Japan. I just learned I got a fellowship to study at a robotics lab in Tokyo for a year! So with this post, let me also revisit my first favorite Japanese band.