Wahuhohh wahwahuhohh (this song's chorus)

Paraele Stripes - Prototype

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?

I miss my blog

Motormustang - Delusion

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!

Rocking it out tomorrow!

Hi-5 - 1.2.3.4

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!

It's been forever yet again!

Fated Lyeno - Count

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...

Identity

サカナクション - アイデンティティ

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.

Back in action!

White White Sisters - Imperfect Conflict

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!

Long time no see! And I'm off--

MiChi & The Telephones - Wonder Woman

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.

I wish to you

Miyavi - 君に願いを

Genre: guitar rock, alternative
Song style: epic and orchestral

I went and saw Miyavi's show yesterday at the 9:30 club with a couple of friends. It was pretty awesome. I didn't do enough of my research ahead of time, but Miyavi was so charismatic, elegant, and his music was much heavier than I expected. The fans were also not as otaku, though a couple of girls walked up to my friends and tried to pick them up in broken Japanese. It was amazing that he pulled off a whole show with only two people behind him, and no opening act. Seems like he's ready to release something new after a couple years of taking time off to begin his life as a father, and he played a never-before-played-song at the show yesterday. Here's one of his oldies, a very epic and nice song that contrasts nicely with the heavier one I posted a while back. Enjoy!

The Gazette

The Gazette - The Invisible Wall

Genre: metal, visual kei
Song style: a metal-ish ballad

I like the aesthetics of this video, and it's refreshing to hear the heavy guitars. Dunno much about the band though I've been exposed plenty to their guitarist Aoi, who attempted a solo career, and was a big draw for my sister a year ago. They seem pretty solid though and pretty masculine despite the makeup. Not quite in the mood for music at the moment (though gonna go see Miyavi tomorrow!) but thought I should post something since it's been a while.

Foreign look: South Korea

CNBlue - 외톨이야 (I'm a loner)

Genre: pop-rock
Song style: catchy and swingy

My friend showed me this song several times over the last year at school and I really liked it, but it never really penetrated into my music collection. But in the past couple of days I've been looking into Korean pop because of my impending trip to Seoul (which means expected clubbing as well!) and I've rediscovered this great indie band. They originally debuted in Japan, but then came back to their home country of South Korea with this popular debut song. I like the intro of this video too, where you can hear snippeted variations of the song.

Hot dog!

The Bawdies - Hot Dog

Genre: garage rock
Song style: raspy, oldiesish

While I don't listen much to these guys' music, I'm very impressed with their ability to break away from normal standards of rock music, especially in Japan. Specifically - how does such a hot, young man get such a raspy, throaty voice!? These guys have been really active on the tour circuit recently and have thus been getting a lot of press. Well they definitely deserve it and I wish them the best.

(Yet another day where I post the music I'm not actually listening to - somehow I've gotten really into Korean dance pop in the past couple of days, like Mblaq's "Y").

Crazy crazy band

モーモールルギャバン - 裸族

Genre: experimental new-wave, electronic
Song style: crazy and erratic, sorta like Of Montreal

Here is a pretty new band, fresh off the press, with their first major album out today - "クロなら結構です". They have a very fun, crazy sound, though this song is by far one of their crazier ones. For a more normal electronicky one, check out ユキちゃんの遺伝子. As I'm writing this I just realized - here is yet another Kyoto band! Kyoto has really been active these days.

In other news, Asian Kung Fu Generation's new album "マジックディスク" is out today as well, with songs like 迷子犬と雨のビート. Not quite my cup of tea, but a respectable band, so check them out too!

Happy Birthday to DSK!

Rumania Montevideo - Still for your Love & 恋するベティー

Genre: alternative
Song style: girl alternative

This post is in honor of my friend, who's celebrating a birthday today! While it's already over by now in Japan, there's still an hour to go here in America. We were talking about songs from our childhoods that inspired our current music tastes, and this song came up. This is a very unique band that sadly had a short life - they were only active for three years (1999 - 2002). It's also pretty amazing to see a female drummer also be the main vocalist! While my friend has moved onto much heavier music (which I promise will be up here soon!), it's nice to reminisce on one's childhood every once in a while. How much has changed since this band was popular - it's been 11 years now. And imagine 11 years from now too, where will we all be...

Happy birthday, my dear friend! :-)

Grapevine

Grapevine - 指先

Genre: indies
Song Style: a soft ballad

Sorry, had to break the Kyoto streak for just a little bit - though these guys formed in the next-door Osaka. Not going to write much cause things are strange tonight. Some things have come out of the blue. I quickly wanted a song to suit my mood, and this one worked for me. Though the band has been around for a while (since 1993), I know nothing about them. Don't know if I will continue my search on them, but this song is good enough for me.

Kyoto is not all just cheery smiles

Sadie - Grieving The Dead Soul

Genre: metal, visual kei
Song style: frantic and high-paced with a lot of style-switching

So looking at the past two posts, one would think Kyoto is all about happy beautiful reminiscing upon a landscape. But no, Kyoto is a source of a lot of styles of talent, and here is one example. The vocalist of the band Sadie is from Kyoto (definitely met some guys like this while I was there...) and the other band members are from around the Kansai area as well. I like seeing Japanese bands that are willing to become heavy and edgy like this, it really adds some masculinity to the makeup. I'll be in Japan a month from today!!

Bring out the electronics

いしわたり淳治 & 砂原良徳 + やくしまるえつこ - 神様のいうとおり

Genre: electronica
Song style: like a female Depeche Mode

Random coincidence of a song! It's been sitting on my list of songs to update probably because it made the Oricon rankings recently so I decided to look into it. It's very chill but I like the electronic vibe a lot. I'm a big Depeche Mode fan, and it really has a similar vibe. The producer for this song is one of my true loves - Ishiwatari Jyunji is the producer of a number of other amazing bands on here, including 9mm Parabellum Bullet, Chatmonchy, and A Flood of Circle. Yoshinori Sunahara is a talented electronic keyboardist, and singer Yakushimaru Etsuko is the vocalist of band Soutaiseiriron (相対性理論). I'll be checking out the three of these rigorously in the next days. Anyways, this song is apparently the theme song of the anime "四畳半神話大系" ("The Tatami Galaxy") about a college student of Kyoto University. Fits perfectly with the last post and my reminiscing of Kansai as I prepare for Kanto. Expect a continuing Kyoto theme (well for at least one more post)!

Being a student in Kyoto

くるり　－　京都の大学生

Genre: indie
Song style: acoustic, bluesy rock

An song in honor of the time when I was a university student in Kyoto... feels so long, long ago. This comes from band Quruli, whose members all went to Kyoto's 立命館大学 (Ritsumeikan University). I'm proud to see some Kyoto-ites make it so far in the music industry. Actually, the Kansai area has a lot of successful musicians! This post is also to celebrate Quruli's new compilation album, out "僕の住んでいた街" which came out May 26 (okay so a little bit old news but hey), which this song appears on. Also haven't had enough chill music on this blog for a while. I miss Kyoto, Kansai, and Japan...

No way news

One OK Rock - Liar

Genre: hard rock, post-hardcore
Song style: heavy but young

Okay so my friend posts this on my Facebook wall and I instantly like the vibe. Cool, heavy guitars, pretty catchy. Maybe a litttle predictable but not a style I see often in the Japanese music scene. The singer's Japanese is a bit strange but I guess intentional. Then, I Wikipedia them as I usually do. Relatively new band - 2006, this song is off their new album out 6/9 "Nicheシンドローム", cool. And then whaaaat theee. So apparently the singer is Moriuchi Takahiro, an ex-member of huge pop sensations NEWS and Kanjani8 (kicked out for underage drinking), and a recruit under Japan's hottie manufacturing company Johnny's Entertainment. Wow I didn't know things like this could happen.

Edit: I made a mistake. While he was a member of NEWS (but not Kanjani8), he was not the one kicked out, he just quit. My bad!

Stone Cold Reason

Nothing's Carved in Stone - Cold Reason

Genre: hard rock, alternative
Song style: a bit like a heavier Incubus

I really like this first impression of Nothing's Carved in Stone's new album (out yesterday, 6/9) "Sands of Time". At some points, the song can sound a little too much like early-2000s American alternative rock (Hoobastank, Incubus, Nickelback, etc). Also admittedly, Japanese music turns me off a bit when it has so much English. It's not so bad in this song, but with other bands, often the pronunciation makes lyrics incomprehensible and sound muttled, while you also wonder if the singer knows what they're saying. I'd like bands to make their own unique sound (or at least culturally relevant sound) rather than form themselves off of the American entertainment industry. I'm not saying this in reference to Nothing's Carved in Stone - just as an overall rant. I feel like this band does do a fairly good job of bilingualism and I'm very excited to hear how this new album sounds!

Concert: Miyavi

Guitar-rocker Miyavi is making his way around America as a part of his Neo Tokyo Samurai Black World Tour. Though his image may be visual-kei, his sound is very bluesy-rock, and I encourage anyone to go see! I'll try to catch him on an East Coast date. Here's the tour schedule, and you can see links to buy tickets at his site here.

2010/6/10 San Diego, House of Blues
2010/6/12 Los Angeles, Club Nokia Live
2010/6/13 Anaheim,The Grove of Anaheim
2010/6/15 San Francisco,The Fillmore
2010/6/17 Vancouver,Commodore Ballroom
2010/6/18 Seattle,Showbox
2010/6/19 Portland,Roseland Theater
2010/6/23 Chicago,House of Blues
2010/6 /24 Toronto ,Sound Academy
2010/6/25 Boston,Harpers Ferry
2010/6/27 N.Y.,The Fillmore New York at Irving Plaza
2010/6/29 Washington,9:30 Club
2010/7/01 Atlanta,Masquerade
2010/7/03 Dallas,House of Blues
2010/7/04 Houston,House of Blues