Genre: dance rock, electronic pop rock Song style: Daft Punk meets Owl City
This is a pretty catchy tune that I've been casually listening to on repeat as I do my research. Their other songs have been a little too Owl City for me, but this song is really fun and friendly.
It's nearing the end of the year guys!! This means I can expect to spend 2500-4000 yen a meal on Christmas parties and end-of-the year parties, oh whyyyy. Tonight, lab end of year party, tomorrow Keio Christmas party, Sunday my circle's Christmas party. All all-you-can-drink, blehhhhhh but yay?
Genre: punk, alternative Song style: makes you want to headbang, mosh around, and dance
I have run out of music. My music library had the longest gap in song additions in five years, and the last new one was a cheesy Korean pop group. During my life in Japan, I have been to concerts here and there but I somehow misguidedly thought that I had tapped out all the good Japanese indie. Well, after a three month break, I return to youtube and realize I don't recognize the bands there anymore, and some of them sound great! When I look at concert schedules, I find myself only knowing single bands here and there. I want my Japanese indie rock life back!!
While I will likely not have the daily updates of the past or pretend to be up-to-date with the industry, I will still post some of the cool music I've found while I've been here. Especially going to concerts, I realize there's a lot of unexposed talent here, much better than the "big guys". In the past three months, I've been going to some shows, meeting some awesome people in the music industry, and sincerely enjoying my life.
Here is the catchy music video from a punk group who I saw in concert two days ago. Very random, but I befriended a girl on the street when I got lost once, and she works with the drummer of this band, so we went to support their show on Saturday. The openers were also amazing, and expect some of them to appear here. The rest of the show was very energetic and exciting - they really had great charisma. The singer looked creepily similar to the My Chemical Romance guy. Overall, great show!
Genre: alternative, dance rock Song style: tough but catchy
Tomorrow gonna go see the White White Sisters at Shibuya, I'm very excited! This band will also be playing - they seem really cool and catchy. They've apparently been around for 10 years now (the members are all in their thirties), and this song is from 2003. However, seems like they're currently unsigned and the most recent album their myspace talks about is from 2006 or so. I wonder what they're up to, being old men like that and not updating their myspace but still touring around. We'll have to see! Seems like a very unknown concert in general (I got in touch with White White Sisters directly to get tickets) so it'll be interesting to see what this sort of show is all about!
Genre: melodic punk Song style: melancholic but strong guitars
Hey, it's been a while! Here's a random song I found on a Youtube hunt. I haven't even seen the video because I'm at a lab now and wouldn't want people to see a music video running around on my screen - but the song is beautiful. So I've traveled around the world (okay, around East Asia) and back. I had an amazing and strange time, and have gotten much more excited about other cultures, while learning a lot more about how people (including myself) work. Now I've settled into Tokyo and the laboratory that I'm working at. Gonna head home after updating this post.
Going to attend a concert in Shibuya with the "White White Sisters" I posted two posts ago, very excited! I e-mailed them directly for tickets and they e-mailed me back saying they'll be waiting for me ;-). Hope you've all been well and expect finally more constant posts as I waste away at the lab...
Genre: new wave, electronic Song style: very Japanese electro-indie
If you like サカナクション, you'll like this new song of theirs that came out on August 4 - it's very stereotypical of their style (almost to the point of being a little too much like them). I'm still a big fan of this band though cause they temporarily fill the hole for me where フジファブリック was (the singer died half a year ago) :-(. Speaking of which, it looks like フジファブリック has magically released a new album, which I'll be checking out shortly.
Genre: electronica, alternative Song style: catchy, satisfying for both electronica and rock lovers
I'm back in the land of awesome music, shopping, fashion, food, everything - Japan! I've been here for a couple of weeks - starting up my work at Tokyo University, vacationing in Karuizawa, and now I'm back in a hotel in Tokyo for a little bit before I travel off to Osaka, Seoul, and Shanghai. Yesterday my sister and I dropped by a Tower Records and I was so happy to see many of my favorite bands have new songs out, while there are a ton of new bands to discover.
Here's one band that I listened to briefly on a CD demo. I don't know anything about them, but plan on doing some more research. This song is off of their first mini album - "[euphoriaofeuphoria]", which came out on July 7th. My updates will be slow until I stop traveling in September, but keep an eye on the new music I find during my travels!
Genre: new wave, pop-rock, electronic Song style: catchy, dancey
Looking at this song, I actually wouldn't mind MiChi replacing The Telephones' vocalist! Seems like she's an indie songstress with a half-British, half-Japanese background. These guys made it briefly on the Oricon charts - congrats to them!
So as you can see, I've been MIA for quite some time. Being back at home got me into a routine that kept me away from Japanese indies - and I also wasn't running across any great gems. While I still have a long list waiting, I still want music to be excited about posting every once in a while! Things will continue to be irregular for a while. I leave for Japan in little over a day (almost exactly 36 hours!) I'm very excited :-) But I'll be moving around a lot for a while, so won't have internet access. But I'll definitely be discovering a lot of great music! So when I reconnect to the internet world, I will keep you posted.
Bringing Japanese indie rock music to an international audience. Info on new releases, Japanese indies concerts in the US, and previews of a wide range of artists.
