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desparejo86

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Posts posted by desparejo86

  2. Posted · Edited by desparejo86

     

    On 10/1/2018 at 5:55 PM, Furik said:

    Who?

     

    is this that on VK band with Chinese members or something?

     

    On 10/1/2018 at 6:05 PM, Paraph said:

    I think that was Silver Ash, but man I totally forgot about them. 

     

    I don't know why, but I thought these guys were the Chinese VK band as well.

     

    C'mon everyone, lets go see what Silver Ash's members are up to!

     

     

    ....wow.

  3. Posted · Edited by desparejo86

    On 7/17/2018 at 7:41 PM, inertia said:

    I lived in Tokyo and went to all their local shows and many of the away ones too during their second period in the 2000s. Something that I think isn’t fully appreciated among international fans is just how unpopular and broke Lareine was during that time, and how desperately and passionately they worked despite the obstacles. But every concert was magical. It had to be. There was no reason to do it otherwise, and a million reasons to quit. It felt like borrowed time, and I was always so happy and grateful to be able to see them despite the bittersweet feeling they would have been better off doing something else.

     

    They always looked exhausted at events, rarely had new costumes, rarely even had new goods because I think they had trouble coming up with deposits. Cheki didn’t start to become a thing until late in their history (2005-ish?) when they’d already spent years grinding away with little return. I suspect the reason why they were able to put out as many releases as they did is because back during Lareine’s Sony days Kamijo invested in buying a bunch of his own production equipment. I think normally an indie band at that level wouldn’t have had those resources.

     

    But time to write and rehearse seemed like a scarce commodity too back then. There were times when Kamijo looked half dead. And every time Lareine did a little tour we could watch Kamijo perk up day by day, at the same time as us fans with normal lives were getting more and more tired as the tour went on. It always made me wonder what on earth kind of awful schedule he normally had in Tokyo, juggling the band and probably a part-time job, that going on tour would feel like a vacation to him. (Later on when I read Versailles interviews, they mentioned that Kamijo and Hizaki first met while working at Third Stage.)

     

    Unfortunately by 2003 Lareine was already perceived as old, out of date, and uncool. A ‘90s band. If they hadn’t paused in 2000 maybe things would have been different, maybe they could have built a solid base like Dir or Pierrot. But coming back in 2003 it was too late, the trends had already changed. Lareine had few fans back then, and it seemed like all of us were fans from before. I never met any Japanese fans who said they were new. (only international fans) Young VK fans didn’t care. Lareine wrote some of the currently trendy themes into their music in ways that were interesting instead of pure copy/paste, and us old fans had fun, but nobody else cared. They did some amazing experimental stuff on stage, and nobody saw it except us few old fans. To give you an idea of how young fans perceived them, there was a big outcry when Versailles was announced because people didn’t think a pansy weak vocalist with a thin high voice like Kamijo should be playing with awesome (but unknown) guitarists like Hizaki and Teru. They really got outraged when we heard Versailles was going to have a heavy sound. I got in a lot of arguments online at that time with people who clearly thought I was a delusional fangirl for saying that Kamijo’s voice is powerful enough to sing heavier music.

     

    In February 2006 Kazumi announced that he was leaving Lareine and retiring from music. I never blamed him, I was thankful that he had done his best to help bring us great music for so long despite the hardships. But this was really the beginning of the end. Lareine put out big ads in the major VK magazines looking for a new drummer, and they even went out of their way to explicitly write that they would take applications from anybody regardless of age or sex or nationality, as long as they could play and would love the band. I think that would be shocking to see in a band’s want ad even today, and this was in 2006 before the explosion of international tours had happened. But they weren’t able to find a drummer, and then during the summer Mayu vanished again. Honestly I can’t even blame Mayu either for wanting to quit under the circumstances, but it was terrible that he vanished without communication or warning. The Club Citta live they did in October was originally supposed to be a Halloween Party event live with multiple bands, not their last live.

     

    I went to as many of Kamijo’s anniversary tour dates as I could, since it was so special. The Tokyo final with everyone was amazing. So glad I went.

     

    p.s. “Drama” was so great live that to this day I can still half-hear the performance in my memory, even though they only played it twice in Sapporo in February 2006 before Kazumi left. It was so powerful. Kazumi and Emiru were much louder than on the studio version; this song actually has a really sexy rhythm when you can hear them. Mayu took the electric part instead of the acoustic one. They came together solid and strong booming on the beat in that last chorus on the song, Kamijo singing powerfully instead of gently, and hard on the beat like the others. I regret not bringing my MD recorder to Sapporo, but I never imagined that those 2 nights would be the last times we could enjoy Lareine normally.

     

    Thank you so much for sharing that.

     

    Lareine were one of the greats who, due to bad personal decisions, bad management and just some bad luck, never got anywhere near what they deserved. They never recovered from imploding right after their major debut. I had no interest in Scream. I remember buying New Sodmy's debut a little later and being so into them.... and then being so annoyed when they pulled the plug on that and went back to trying Lareine again, but in retrospect I guess you can't "sell out" if none of the major labels will take a chance on you. It was just a mess. Never Cage had some good songs, but it was really out of step with the times. Can't blame the fans or the labels for leaving the band behind.... I was a huge fan and flat out forgot they existed after that. It was many years later before I circled back and listened to the rest of their releases.

     

    Mayu is/was a really special guitarist. A once in a lifetime type of player who could write songs just as well as he could rip, but was also an extremely sensible and tasteful player. It's an absolute crime he isn't one of the most successful and revered players in the scene. 

     

    I don't care for Versailles one bit, but was happy to see Kamijo enjoy some success. God knows he's earned it.

     

  4. Posted

    This is some dark shit. Thanks for translating, OP.

     

    Of course Kisaki won't be charged with anything if he and the child's mother reached a settlement. A prosecutor would have no case if the woman doesn't cooperate.

     

    Back to selling fake demotapes on Yahoo Auctions and touching children he goes. Living the dream.

     

     

  8. Posted

    It's impossible to assess because Dir en Grey was the only Japanese band that made a legitimate run, and it was an uphill battle the whole way. They were trying to establish themselves as credible artists alongside their western contemporaries, notably avoiding the anime con angle like the plague, but they still had people coming to their shows in kimonos and Naruto headbands and shit. Harsh as it is, they were never going to get any respect from the press or be seen as dangerous/cool if they drew awkward, antisocial weaboos en mass to their gigs..... which they did.

     

    I'm just keeping it real here. 

     

    Bands like L'arc, B'z, X Japan have played a few gigs stateside, filmed 'em, and sold DVDs back in Japan playing up the "Live from the USA!!" angle. It was just marketing for Japanese consumers. Oblivion Dust did a US tour or two early in their career and were like "Fuck this shit."

     

  9. Posted · Edited by desparejo86

    On 11/8/2017 at 4:15 PM, seikun said:

     

    Where is Klaha?

    Come on, an island nation. It can't be so difficult to find his whereabaouts.

    He doesn't want to be found. He's been working at the tire yard for almost a decade and has probably worked his way up to night foreman. He isn't about to throw all that away for the $263 cash infusion he'd receive by participating in a Malice Mizer reunion. 

    emmny reacted to this

  11. Posted · Edited by desparejo86

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    Ordinarily, Yoshiki should remain in the hospital for at least a few days after the surgery. After waking up from general anesthesia and under heavy analgesics, he expressed that he wanted to record a song he was writing from up until the night before surgery. Persuading his doctor into releasing him from the hospital a few hours after surgery, he headed for the studio and stayed there for half an hour. However, since his condition after surgery was too extreme, his staff and the accompanying nurse managed to get him back home to rest under his physician’s care.

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    suji, Zeus and Furik reacted to this

  13. Posted

    Yeah, same for me on Eliott Smith. Like him in high school, find that shit incredibly embarrassing as an adult.

     

    Same goes for The Smiths. I was a hardcore fan when I was younger, CANNOT STAND that stuff now. I like a new Moz solo tunes still, but I'm just not miserable enough to listen to The Smiths anymore.

     

    I can't listen to L'arc~en~Ciel's 'Heavenly' anymore. I like other records, but that one bores me to tears now.

  14. Posted

    Who would want to hear a Japanese guy calling himself something like 'Blind Smokey Jackson Jr" playing note-for-note delta blues songs? Maybe for the laughs, but same applies to foreign VK bands.... you might get a laugh out of it, but that's about it.

     

    No need to bother with an imitation when you can get the real thing.

  19. Posted

    On 2/16/2017 at 9:42 AM, carddass said:

     

    Anyway, Toshi and his backing band might be more X than X Japan is these days. He's pretty much playing all of the songs X fans want to hear live.  I mean look at this fricken setlist from a recent live!

     

    Dear Loser

    Vanishing Love

    Sadistic Desire

    WEEK END

    Standing Sex

    Desperate Angel

    Celebration

    Say Anything

    World Anthem

    Blue Blood

    Alive

    Stab Me in the Back

    Joker

    Orgasm

     

    Encore:

    Toki no Umi e

     

     

    Holy shit.

  24. Posted

    I remember these guys.

     

    The band didn't catch on and they were getting older. Seeing guys a decade younger than you drawing bigger crowds and getting signed is pretty disheartening.  They aged out; plain and simple.

     

    And when that happens some guys find ways to keep going part time, others just stop. 

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