NICKT

Speaking of gay fanfiction... When I was about 16, I was facebook friends with a mid-30ies woman who wrote gay fanfiction online. She was inspired by my relentless fascination with Gackt and wrote a story of him and me, not sure whether I should be charmed or creeped.

You could say she was lakynn some common sense. ...No? Fuck you, my mum thinks I'm funny.

4 = フォ。 headphone = ヘッドフォーン。 Let me know when you see it.

Surprisingly wholesome in a scene infamous for it's excessive fan-fucking.

One Ok Rock as well, was named so for they practice at 1 o'clock, or so I've heard. (wan okuroku) I imagine there might be at least some reasoning behind a lot of these names, whether it makes them less bad is still up for debate though...

Googling ”アボカド” and the date led me to this: http://kakaku.com/tv/channel=4/programID=20443/episodeID=1218126/ 『元人気ビジュアル系バンドOZの名人が作る極上アボカド』

Friend of mine was recently in Japan and was watching a cooking show and Natsuki showed up. Apparently he now owns or works on an avocado farm, if I remember correctly?

I never heard nor remember anything about a solo career, but he's the vocalist for Rider Chips and they had a new song out a couple months back so if he was having health issues they seem to be lessening.

Going by the fact it's a Japanese band I'm putting my money on Japan's time zone. (Or maybe they'll be nice and make it Aussie time-zone, saves us an hour.)

Makes me miss Lotus, now that was dope album art. Been only like, 7 years...

Stupid names aren't going to keep off people wanting to hear the latest releases from a pretty big name in the community, what were you expecting, people to not expose themselves to media so that they can then formulate a further opinion?

I don't care for X or Hyde, but I've seen this defence over the years several times and I've never understood the reasoning. Of course, there's a larger context but ultimately this is a preview, tease or a trailer, we're meant to look at it with an indication, considering common logic they'd be showing us the best part or part of, to entice us, to get us excited and drawn in. If that trailer, teaser, probe, is bad, then it put forwards a bad tone for what the whole product will be. It's not definitive, we've seen many a bad tease for a good product but it's not something that you could bank a defence on, in my opinion. "Stupid", it is clearly not.

Nesting Vapour-ware Albums.

I think the physicality of an object is easier to infer cost of production, or an inherent value. Whereas data is like, wind, to most people, sell bottled water and yell at people on the sidewalk for breathing, similar connotation, I suppose most ignore the implication because it's easier to.

As for why, it's easier to pirate than go out and try to find an album. When it comes to Japanese music in particular, majority of it you won't find online or in a global website that isn't being run by corporate Hitlers. (Looking at you, iTunes.) If you do find it, it'll be limited, an outdated discography and usually with a ridiculous markup or expensive shipping, why worry 'bout all that when you can just download it and be listening to the song in 2 minutes. The music label I've spent the most on is FIXT, they're indie and all their music is on Bandcamp, super easy. (Also no paying extra for FLAC which is so fucking nice.) Not only do they have music but they've also got great merch which is saddening when I try to find band shirts from JP artists I listen to I'll be fighting my way into what's effectively a small and 10 sizes below me, if I can find the merch at all. All in all, it's a segregated environment over in Japan, and to fix it they kinda need to do things on their end, and to that we can't really do much other than do our best to appreciate the small efforts they do make. All in all, that feels like I'm just rehashing previous stated points. The role this board takes in the larger scheme of things, I'd sooner have music being shared in a friendly community that's more for the focus of experiencing new things, rather than any one person trying to build themselves into a pariah. There's no elitism here, that I've seen, the general sense is that you're welcome unless you re-upload onto your shitty blogspots and only then you'll get a dodgy look. Sounds like every story I've ever heard of the London underground. It's difficult to figure the extent of the ramifications made on the community when an upload appears here, especially like stated before when you use a popular band's release as the experiment. So Gazette is popular and an upload appears quicker, they're more popular and have more sales, more money and are most likely available to be purchased internationally. A smaller band might not have the same luxuries and so what, we shouldn't share it? Seems like some sort of weird popularity policing, of which I'm not a fan. I suppose we could go to certain measures to encourage the actual purchasing of cds and goods, like we already have the Japanese itunes guide, I believe? Links to international music shops, et cetera, might help a little. I imagine to some extent it's the unknown that is a problem, be it people don't know what's available or they do know but the uncertainty of trust, the worry of international shopping, delivery. (But then again, people would probably sooner infect their computer with 20 different viruses just to get the latest Dir En Grey single, so who knows.)

I've only got an anecdote that was hearsay, but when my mother was on holiday in America she was in a Hot Topic and there was a song playing, she told me later that she thought I'd like it and knowing it was Hot Topic I straight up and said no, explaining that I was hardcore into my Japanese or nothing phase, she said it was Japanese and that when she asked the girl working the register they had to go out back and write it down. D'espairsRay, btw, just for closure on the story I guess. the disband still hurts Also for way of conversation, there has to be some credence to the easy way wins out? If you can click a youtube video of a Kpop song and it'll take you to another Kpop song, yadda yadda. The moment you have to do any digging you're bound to lose a big portion of people, it was easy for us who probably ended up here after lurking a blogspot or two but for most people it never really dawned on them that good music rests beyond the horizon of myspace. I spent a day yesterday trying to find a release by Hilcrhyme and I just couldn't, unless through a second-hand purchase, I literally couldn't find it online digitally anywhere and 99% of places had it out of stock. I ended up finding a poor recording of it playing on a phone on youtube and it's been my jam all night, but man I felt like giving up on it and just going back and listening to my United States of Whatever instead.

Didn't Nega have some stupid term for their singer too?

http://visualkei.wikia.com/wiki/†яi￠к

Japanese only? Hm, not sure about favourites, but going through my music these stand out: Beverly's Awesome. The Birthday's NOMAD. Bradio's Freedom. Defspiral's To the Galaxy. E - Girl's Love Queen. Man With A Mission's Dead End in Tokyo. Mariya Nishiuchi's Motion. The Oral Cigarettes' Unofficial. Pandora ft. Beverly's Be the One. Perfume's If you wanna. Polkadot Stingray's Dai Masayoshi. Sever Black Paranoia's FLYING LEAP. Shonan no Kaze's Odore.

Clearly you haven't been keeping up to date on my cloning blog. Why Visual Kei bandmen? I'm afraid I cannot say...

journalism

Sounds like a pussy version of a fight club.

Typical SIM, feels like I've already heard this one before. lynch./DEATHGAZE syndrome?

Probably would have helped them maybe establish more of a post-Gackt image, too.

Those pants, those shoes, ugh...