Leaderboard

Here's the link for the ones not finding the original tweet [you must have a premium account to access this data]

UPD: CANCELLED!! gibkiy gibkiy gibkiy's oneman at Zirco Tokyo on 10th April was cancelled, but they are going to livestream it on this YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNpfjp2IjbvDQc1KSrDLLtg April 10, 20:00 JP time

https://mega.nz/#F!vlgziSjB!AlswDePmPTklTLketnu3vA CURRENT FIXES: https://mega.nz/folder/ObAj0abI#QY7fHuHePXSiXevgEui7QQ PLEASE PM ME IF THERE ARE ANY OTHER VIDEOS WITH STUTTERING/ HLS STITCHING ISSUES. - Videos have been updated 🤫

They released PV spots for Another Side and Shigoumizakura, but never full versions. They remain on Niconico if I am correct, and watermarked versions can be seen on YT. These were made very early in their career, way before they got the record deal with BP, however I don't think full versions were ever made. If they do, then hopefully someone uploads them lol

@WhirlingBlack said: Mejibray revival but they only play 8P-SB songs

tricot have posted one song from their live perfomance (with no audience). On the 13th of April, they'll put on a live online gig which you can buy tickets for 1,000 yen. I'm definitely supporting this. INFO tricot SARUSHIBAI 7pm April 13th Ticket: 1,000 yen https://tricot.zaiko.io/_item/325384

ドーリスマリィ「Ash」 https://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm2355167 Actually found the song through here after typing the lyrics:

i'm disappointed no one posted The "XJ*p*n album release date confirmed" thread but it's safe to say we have about three more years of april foolsies for this joke to descend correctly

Now you mention it, some users and I discussed this hypothesis a months ago, and the agreement was over the fact that it may be true. It is almost impossible to explain other way how a group of little to no known indie musicians (yeah, I know Lime was in Lezard, but anyway... who the fuck are them?) launched from night to morning a project with such level of excellence both in music (compositions, recording), looks, videoclips and overall advertising campaign (remember the whole thing of the telephone number where bangya could talk to Lime to make catharsis of their suicidal thoughts? Crazy!). They definitely had a ton of money behind them to do such, and if someone risked that amount of money for funding a band of nobodies in an currently almost dead genre/scene, I think it's obvious that those investors still now take every chance and tool they have acces to to make Kizu deliver profit in the most effective and eficient way. I'm still amazed about the fact that someone decided to take said risk; if I had the money I'm not sure if I would do it considering the situation, tbh. And I'm not against it at all, because it was Kizu the band that (along Dimlim) retained the dignity of VK all this time within a scene full of ultra cringe-worthy newcomers and slowly-dying big fishes...

videos of Mahiros OG Nose ❤️

I'll add onto this post because I too would love to see the full PV some time. So far there's only this short 1:04 long preview of the PV of [アナザーサイド] and one for [獅噛ミ桜], I shall link the two for the ones who want to see what is being asked here and maybe want to help. I also am not very good with the Japanese language and so far only know the basics, any help is appreciated. アナザーサイド 獅噛ミ桜

This. +1 --- Lo-fi could sound cool in some bands, but for the bunch of guys that just released one poor song I don't think they had a better choice, and still there are some good only-songs by bands that surely didn't exist at all. I mean, I take lo-fi as a natural thing in vk. The strange one is hi-fi lol

I got you fam

アルルカン's Shohei is a snack.

Generic vk taking influence from generic WWFcore is such a cross-pollination of two extra potent brands generic that I can barely breathe here

Thanks for catching that. Seems like it screwed that one up since it's actually 41 min. long. I'll re-download tomorrow at noon~ish when it's not peak streaming hours.

Thank you! Getting the perspective somewhat accurate was the toughest part as the reference I used didn't show scales. Had to use a bit of imagination there. I'm glad you said that, it's the vibe I was going for 😊 Thanks! 😄

Leetspeak Monsters [STREAM IS NOW AVAILABLE ON MAIN CHANNEL] They go on in about 6 hours from my posting. Since archival is inconsistent among bands, I suggest anyone who is a fan record if they're inclined to. This will occur during my sleeping hours 😴 - LMAO. Ok this is the fucking thing that confused me when I thought premium was free: Okay, adding a couple things to finish out the night: ViSULOG is what's free to premium members for a month. Unfortunately, I seemed to miss out on a oneman and two-man, but they aired in very-early March prior to topic creation: https://live2.nicovideo.jp/watch/lv324650484 https://live2.nicovideo.jp/watch/lv324587619 This is what WILL air: Benjamin & Fantasy Twenty-Seven has a One-Man Tour Program. I'm not sure if it's Covid related so I won't link it for now ZOMBIE is doing an "emergency broadcast" digest of their new album on 4/4 https://live2.nicovideo.jp/watch/lv325059530 レイヴ (rave) is having a "non-spectator" live + Nagi's (Dr.) Birthday on 4/6 https://live2.nicovideo.jp/watch/lv325078437

...are people taking this seriously?

just like their name huh

キズ (Kizu) new single, "地獄" (jigoku) will be released on 4/28 They will also hold their oneman live, "糸" on 4/18 at 下北沢GARDEN, and will also hold a separate oneman tour "地獄巡り", beginning in May!

Related to this, I wonder if there's any bands that actually had good production (i.e., not compressed to death "hi-fi", not poorly recorded). The early-mid 2000s stand out in my opinion for vk production (indies and major)...then the loudness war swept vk LOL

We commented at the same time lmao

NGL the slap bass is pretty cool but on the flip side, although it's a pretty generic chugging riff it sounds awfully similar to:

Nice! Maybe I should give them a listen, the song was pretty good.

I have to say it somewhere After 7 years of not really following up on dir en grey i come back to realize kyo is finally a man 😱 And not a schoolgirl-gremlin anymore (Please dont hate me for this 🙏)

I tried that too and also found nothing lol it really is mysterious! I appreciate you giving it a listen though, thank you!

New Digital Single｢# 配信のすゝめ〜桜花爛漫〜｣ (Haishin no Susume〜Oukaranman〜 2020.04.06 1.春は短し恋せよバンギャ (Haru wa Mijikashi Koiseyo Bangya) 2.愛してるなんて言葉より (Aishiteru nante Kotoba yori) https://linkco.re/d23SqXuV?lang=en

ウソツキ (Usotsuki) Their oneman live "USOTSUKA NIGHT FOREVER" on 4/1 was cancelled, so they streamed "Usotsuka Night At Home". It will be up as an archive for 24 hours. SHISHAMO potekomuzin

I literally was shocked then I realized it's still April Fool's Day. I was not ready, now it's just a disappointment, but hey, 8P-SB still bops so haters can exit stage left.

I have no information on this but I believe the band themselves have no idea what to reward for attending all 6 concerts so 9 months later, they haphazardly remixed "不均衡キネマ" (a song that they heavily pushed back in 2011), slapped the 5 remixes onto a cassette tape ("its retro cos its old technology so it fits our retrock image!!!!") and called it a day. Definitely not demos IMO. By the way, the date found on the cassette tape is the same date as "MERRY 【collector】Tour EXTRA～謎の日～＠恵比寿LIQUID ROOM" which the attendee in the blog that @crossparallel cited so ya, you got to attend 6 concerts to collect the stubs in Nov 2011 and then pay to attend that 1 gig in Aug 2012 to get that mystery gift WTF

Nice drawings . I like it.

I can't find that Tweet ??

There was a time I recorded random snippets of melody ideas I had, most of them being on piano. Last year I revisited my library of recordings and found one I really liked. I put on a chillhop rhythm to it and then recorded a guitar part for it just a couple weeks ago. Still learning how to mix and produce so it's definitely not professional, but hey I'm just a bedroom hobbyist doing something he enjoys.

The drawing looks really good! I think the work on the koi fish's scales paid off; they are beautiful ❤️ Love the peaceful aesthetic in the drawing; the pink/light purple(?) feels easy and nice on the eyes

Fricking love the new banner. Reminds me of the drawings of Jrockers I used to do on my 3DS a few years ago, bonus points if you can tell who's who:

it's April 2 in Japan and it's Yuu's birthday!

retsu (ex. DIMLIM) solo live scheduled 6/24/20

April Fools visual with the new members the day before: [lineup] Vo.罪 Gt.狂 Gt.死期 spBa.卍羅鬼卍 spDr.🔰

Oh, we got an update

This is probably an April Fools joke from their session band since all their accounts became active on April 1st... or is this just really coincidental... I DON'T KNOWWW. Then again, who names their band "AAAA", though weird band names like that aren't unusual nowadays.

It depends on the circumstances. Some lo-fi recordings hold up because the guitars still have mids, the bass still has low end, etc. Basically, it has what I call the "minimal EQ required" to sound good to the ear. Songs like "Machibouke no Kouen De" by The GazettE, or pretty much anything from Vice Risk. Others hold up because the low fidelity works with the aesthetic. For example, DEViL KiTTY's "Hello Katty" is probably meant to sound like a bad MP3 download. Or how Guruguru Eigakan songs are based on Japanese popular music from the 1900's to 1945, so some of the older songs kinda have the lo-fi feel of older music. However, some low-fidelity recordings do not hold up. A good example is, weirdly, of Devil Kitty again. After Sasaki switched to guitar and Shita joined on bass, Yuuga had the wonderful idea of scooping all the mids and low end from the guitars, making it sound like it has a phaser effect, but "stuck" somehow. This is seriously ear grating and a serious step down from "Ese Ikare Rockstar", which imo had really great production, not just by DK standards but also by early 2000's vkei standards. Basically, I would say there are different tiers of Lo-Fi. You got S-tier, which sounds good to the ear, fits with the aesthetic, and holds up. And then you have F-tier which is the worst of the worst, garbage, would make Black Metal jealous lo-fi. Most Vkei falls somewhere in between

I was in a few local bands and some of our sets got decent turnouts (bare in mind we lived in a small city) but I was always late to join bands so I could never really make their sound my own. The best group I was in was called 'Flock North' and we played political fuelled rock...I had no interest in politics so it was a bit like how The Smiths sang about meat being murder but Morrisey was the only vegetarian. As for now I'm a small time hobbyist producing lofi hip hop and Breakcore although I did have a breakcore track released on a compilation a few years ago which is my crowning achievement. I'm trying to incorporate VK somehow but I'm still finding the best way to do it.

It's penis music lol. Okay, I'm not here to talk shit about pop music, especially not Kpop. There's more artistic merit to it than some give it, and many perfectly sane Kpop fans get unfairly lumped in with the Stans. But man, I used to be really neutral and happy towards Kpop back when I first got into VK, y'know, being like "Hey guys, let's all get along and talk music and have fun 🤗" but then some of them got into my DMs and completely disrespected my music taste, insisted that "It's all Asian, it's the same, so you should love BTS too or something's wrong with you weeb" and I even got into a fight with one because she said some super ignorant things about--not VK or the band--but just metal music in general (didn't help that she attacked Insanity Injection whom I really like but she said "this isn't music, it's people screaming into the mic" and so I just reversed the logic with "[Kpop] is not music, it's meaningless noise created for brainless consoomers"). All of this shit wasn't even on Twitter, it was on fucking anime Instagram posts and random or VK Youtube videos. And nothing, not even saying "I don't like western pop" or "I'm not fond of Jpop myself" calms them down. I've been called racist against Asians because I don't like Kpop--never mind the fact that I'm on this forum so that says something about what I think about Asian people--I'M FROM ASIA. I don't even pass for white more than like 25% of the time... Honestly, it just makes me more and more irate as the years go by, because I was so open minded about it and willing to be friendly and actually listen to their damn band recommendations. At this rate I'll be an unironic Anti before I'm legally old enough to pour my own drinks. That background is needed to understand my current stance. I did genuinely try to get into Kpop; I started with BTS like they all tell you to and I listened to about 5 different releases of theirs. I was far from impressed. They sounded behind the times. Not in a charming way, but in a way that made me feel... Uncomfortable? I recognized the electronica-infused choruses and hip-hop inspired verses from Western pop music and even some elements from 2010s fads like tropical house production [God I hated that fad] and asked myself "Why is this any better than the white people stuff?" I don't think it is. I think it's on par, personally. I think this stems from an issue Kpop fans have. They can't just call a mediocre album a mediocre album, or even acknowledge a bad song/album because of hype. It's all got to be amazing, flawless, like the second coming of Christ. Honestly, even bands I consider to be absolutely amazing have some songs I don't hype because they're a step in wrong direction or have questionable production choices, but when I say "Yeah, this album is pretty great, but stay away from track X Y Z, they're not the best" the person receiving my recommendation often finds it funny and listens anyway, and then we can have a laugh about how weird it was for a VK band to do Ska or for the vocalist to think that now's the time to try opera vocals for the first time in his life. Sometimes I even completely shit on a band I love because they're an acquired taste or have an endearing charm and originality that lacks any and all technical savoir-faire. Personally, I don't understand how anyone from any counterculture/alternative music group (wassup punks and Goths) could be really into something mainstream at the same time, I thought we gathered around this stuff because it was alternative and had messages in it that differ from the mainstream. Sure, you could remark on all the Oshare bands that aren't particularly deep or meaningful to say that VK in general is artistically bankrupt but it also wouldn't be fair if I pretended that this whole scene is just deliciously layered social/political commentary like Diru or idiosyncratic cultural experimentalism like Guruguru Eigakan. On the mainstream aspect, I mean, the mainstream kind of defines the space that creates a counterculture. It's not what they are. Well I mean, what's not mainstream is the they, and mainstream is the us. I think this sense of othering VK bands and fans experience is central to the culture's structure, as something that exists as a byproduct of failed standard conformation. I don't know how some VK fans can up and leave for Kpop so quick. Maybe they just liked the Oshare stuff, I guess, but I can't believe they would leave behind all the great post-punk, experimental, speed metal, alt-rock, etc. groups behind when Kpop doesn't offer anything similar. When I listen to pop music, I long for that missing guitar solo, or lack of Jpop chords (if it's Western pop music). Also the PVs are completely different--least from what I see. Every Kpop group I've seen is good at dancing. Hella good. And I've been doing dance for 8 years of my life, I know good technique and stage presence when I see it. When I say that, you might be shocked to know that I still prefer VK PVs where the bandomen just stare at the camera and sulk, or dance around while playing guitar or something. There's been masterful executions of this simple formula, like in cali≠gari's 歪んだ鏡 which legit gave me nightmares of Hage Shuuji staring into my soul. Might be a false positive because that song dredges some mental trauma other than his face but my point still stands. There's also a lot of PVs that don't have killer dance moves but have a lot of creative spirit to them, like BUCK-TICK's EMPTY GIRL or literally anything Malice Mizer filmed, and that's the stuff I like the most. I've lost interest in big-budget MVs, and prefer a smaller scale spectacle.

Absolutely love, because yes, AESTHETIC. I was trying to explain my love for 90s vkei demo tapes and it ended up with conclusion that the main point of this love is nostalgic vibes.

https://vk.gy/blog/an-interview-with-clack-inc/ Big thanks to Kenbo! He helped with translating a few questions to Japanese. And surely also that every member answered the interview very nicely! It's an interview everybody enjoys, so please read even if you aren't a fan! ^^ EDIT: Why did we choose this band for an interview? CLACK inc. is maybe not the most popular or best band around (for some of us), but if a band changes their members it's always interesting to dig in them a little bit. I'm also glad that Jae_agent33399 helped us with giving a good direction of questions we could ask. Looking at the history of this band and members and current members it's a good band to have interviewed too, because hey it's interesting what they have been up to and if they can hit more people hearts! Because this band starts a new area I won't share their music in this topic. Still I hope that people are exited to discover more about their upcoming single. I'm looking forward to it! So keep tuned okay? A really big thanks to Kenbo, without him, this interview maybe wouldn't be possible at all.

I came back to see if anyone was discussing the subject further and I realized a I got plenty of reactions, and am finding it kind of funny, so maybe I should explain my point a bit further because it all seemed like a big wall of text without a clear point. I really wasn't saying a lot though, I just ended up addressing different replies without quoting. All I really wanted to say is, from the point of view of someone who really liked j-rock and despised k-pop for the better part of their lives, you can't really deny that there's always (and by always I mean in the last 20-something years of course because K-pop didn't exist before nor had Korea been too influenced by the US) been some degree of cultural overlap or influencing because that's what pop culture worldwide always does, and it's not really fair to compare or put one against the other as if they're Polar Opposites In A War because it's quite out of context, it's just not how it works. I mean, media and cultural industries do run deeper than that. So Japan started embracing Korea and Korean products because of dramas, AFAIK, and games and manhwa kind of found their way as counterparts (almost counterfeits, really) to whatever Japan had been doing ages before, before K-pop music emerged as one more kind of product. No real artistic appeal, but I did listen to Japanese music way back when BoA started becoming really popular. Japan was all over Namie Amuro or Ayumi Hamasaki and all of a sudden there were (the half-American) Utada Hikaru and BoA in the spotlight as well. And SME was pretty keen on exporting their artists since H.O.T. so after BoA kind of managed to Be It they made TVXQ debut alongside with her. And this is where the MV of Tri-Angle which I mentioned before kicks in. I'm no expert but I believe Japan had been exporting a lot of pop culture to SK for years and that was more a reply. Which was... quite a thing. And by thing I mean quite a cultural appropriation as the kids of nowadays would put. (Final Fantasy? Visual kei? You decide.) And it worked, lol, because soon enough (the fandom of TVXQ which was quite hugeee in Japan) Cassiopeia was formed, SNSD and SuJu (and Big Bang, etc) were pretty popular overseas as well and that's when the whole Hallyu 2.0 thing kicked in. So basically SK was just trying to export stuff - really, trying hard, because being so closely dominated by US and Japan-originated products Probably Sucks - and that's how we ended up with the most seemingly random but not really mix of cultural influences in k-pop. Because it worked, it sold, and yeah. Cue seemingly out-of-place Pocky/Pepero game levels of fanservice, colorful hairstyles and clear imitations of whatever j-pop boy/girlgroups were doing. And because there's always been this kind of insurgence of j-rock in j-pop music as well, it's thrown in the mix somehow. So when I did that video, it was more as a joke because I ... kind of started digging deeper for j-rock/visual kei music after years of just listening to ONE OK ROCK or whatever was "pop j-rock" at the time, and I was talking to a friend and we were like, oh, ok, it's definitely being influenced the other way around now. Understandably so, especially because since k-pop made successful breakthroughs into the US market and, with it being the biggest music (actually, general pop culture) market/export in the world, of course it's a huge influence to Japan as well. So we were kidding about how even visual kei PVs nowadays sometimes looked less like 2000s or 90s visual kei PVs and more like k-pop MVs, although they're still distinguishable to the non-casual viewer (but yeah, if you go solely by commonplace stereotypes like "k-pop artists don't create songs/play instruments", "k-pop has no Japanese language music", "k-pop has no foreigners", "K-pop is cuter", "but fanservice" "but makeup" etc... you're just prone to go wrong). As I was saying, pop cultures in general do overlap always, regardless of nationality. That's characteristic of, well, pop culture in a globalized world. But that's really as far as my enlightenment goes, lol. And then you have the western fans of Asian music whose preferences seemed to change, not so much because it did change, much more so because of the shift in East Asian music market and accessibility (I remember it was super hard finding subbed Korean videos back in 2008 so I was much more a NEWS fan than a TVXQ one, although I listened to both - but nowadays it's harder to find Johnnys videos because they're all taken down LOL) and promotion, stuff like that. What you subjectively make out of this is just what you make out of this, bro. I literally don't think I can delve any deeper than this.

Some of your opinions remind me of this meme

Gee, off the top of my head, Sui (David)'s the type who goes hunting for pussy on tanuki (allegedly), but as for more severe actions, Gara would be another one. There's that rumor going around of Kyo and his posse raping groupies back in the day when Daisuke was still alive, and I'm pretty sure Gara was one of them. He's also fucked around with other girls even when he had a girlfriend/was engaged???? As for non-jrock artists, I've listened to plenty of black metal/dungeon synth artists who are self-proclaimed murderers and Neo-Nazis (Burzum, Bacchia Neraida, etc.), but at the end of the day, I don't let that get in the way of listening to their incredible music. Their actions shouldn't affect the band as a whole (although I can't really say much about 90s black metal artists LOL), it's just one person fucking up immensely and it would be really petty to drag the rest of the band into it (ie, Egoist guy who killed his mistress was smart enough to say he's a part-timer instead of bringing up his band), unless they appeared to be condoning it (ie, people who still work with Kisaki and treat him as indies Yoshiki or whatever). As long as they don't glorify their actions thru their music, they should be separate from the actions of one dude.