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").