platy

Tried this game the other day. I was already very, very familiar with the soundtrack which is amazing, but the gameplay was really fucking nice. Will start playing through this game next week.
 
 
And that soundtrack, boiz. Holy fuck!

Gosan got my attention last year because they seem to be the only band trying to add something refreshing to oshare. ( Also, I lol'd at "all the members are handsome")
 
Their sound is fun enough to keep me interested, but after seeing them live I want nothing to do with them apart from downloading their music. Weird af bangya and the vocalist is a huge douchebag (and ugly af). My veredict: follow from a distance
 
I'll be checking out the other bands recommended! 
(a cult concept band? count me in!)

I'm the same position.
My library is 70% game OST's. I have a ton of new bands I have downloaded in hopes of adding something fresh and interesting to my list of favorites but I haven't got around to it yet. I got a spotify account in the hopes that it would help me expand my western repertoire but I don't even know where to begin with this. There's some experimental Pop artists that I enjoy, but in terms of rock bands I'm clueless. I also find myself listening more to audiobooks than music lol

About spotify, just use it to listen what you already know and the next week it will give you recs in the "discover" tab based on what you listened.  It's a feature I use the most.

Directed by Stephen Kijak
 
Starring 
 
X Japan
 
 
 
June 30th came and went, and while we may have not gotten the album, we might have gotten something arguably more interesting. To the misfortune of the initiated non-Japanese speaking fan of visual kei, there is an inarguable drought of first hand accounts outside of the handful vague magazine articles that are passable at best; and it is to this need that a film about X Japan would seem like an heaven-sent. I still think that the most interesting aspect of the whole story of visual kei is how it exactly got started, and what the people involved were feeling at the time of its inception. "We are X" would seemingly be able to fit the bill, seemingly. I was able to see that it definitely wasn't going to live up to expectations based on its short runtime alone, but I'd be lying if I said that I didn't enjoy a good A&E music documentary so either, and the X story is definitely very interesting. So how does it fare? 
 
We Are X” is a moderately entertaining and a rather brief 90 minute promotional package for Yoshiki’s upcoming world conquest ( it’s still coming you guys. ) that is simply not what it could be. The basic gist of the film is Yoshiki reminiscing about everything that happened in his life leading up to their long awaited [citation needed] debut at the Madison Square Garden, encompassing his thoughts on life, death and all things Yoshiki with bits of historical retrospective sequenced in between. You know what you’re in for right from the start, when the film opens with such grand spectacle that’s only befitting of a man of Yoshiki’s stature ( if you ask him, that is ); dramatic piano music wailing under a Yoshiki monologue lead up to the graphic designer and pyrotechnics ejaculating all over video deck all at once, and after the initial shock of the grand spectacle of it all, it becomes apparent that the film starts to work in two different ways; the slick albeit dripping with cheese rockumentary with interesting historical footage on the one end, and the absolutely stunning character worship of Yoshiki on the other. Although there’s something to be said about the devil reading the bible, I think a cynical reading of this glossy piece of PR is if not perfectly warranted, then at least an amusing exercise for the viewer.
 
The way the story is told is through Yoshiki’s own biography and musings and, the film’s story arch spans X’s career from the beginning to the show at the MSG largely from his perspective, and from here we are beset with the greatest structural problems of the film that completely slaughters it from being of great interest. X and the other band members are established only as they come into his story and information about them is related only in a manner as it specifically relates to him. A central feature of X’s story, which is the Toshi’s cult debacle, gets so much time only because it plays a role in the breakup and reformation, and the way hide is presented is that his greatest asset along with strange magnetism and philanthropy was being Yoshiki’s “producer,” as it was told. Heath and Pata each hardly get word in; is it because they didn’t want to, or that their input is inconsequential to the narrative? Who’s narrative by the way, X’s or Yoshiki’s? Or is Yoshiki X? These characters are attached to the spine of Yoshiki’s project through which they are even allowed exist in this film. You can probably already see what’s going on here.
 
The lost opportunity of having comprehensive member bios becomes perfectly evident when Yoshiki’s own childhood and early bijuaru years are reflected on, and what little was shown of it was easily the highlight of the film. Their lives at this point were danger, death, excessive drinking and the most thrashing cockrock around, so what caused it? What were the motivations, influences and the rest of it? Yoshiki’s dad dying and him getting a drum set. After this he conjured willing and able session members from the nether realm - & Saver Tiger - and he invented X in the vacuum of his own persona! Poor fucking Pata gets literally nothing, probably ending up sharing the same total screen time with Yoshikitty or the hide doll. A proper biography of hide is unjustly totally omitted, and while the whole Toshi cult debacle does occupy a central position the last third of the film, it is terribly vague the way it goes about; he married an unspecified woman and joined an unspecified cult that brainwashed him in a rather unspecific manner for unspecific ends. The film also goes over no songs or albums in any detail, and I mean there is hardly word said about any single note of music they’ve done in specific, nor about their influences and creative process for that matter. For a music documentary it’s exceptionally light on anything musical, except when it’s something that particularly relates to the story of the visual kei grand wizard Yoshiki.
 
Another aspect of the story that is completely absent is a proper survey of visual kei. The culture is hardly explored in any way, nor does X get drawn into the larger context of things and is merely portrayed as a hugely popular rock band that was quite influential in the domestic market. I have a theory on why this is so: the film is aimed at an all-American market as a promotional piece: the 90-minute mark cannot be exceeded under any circumstance, and visual kei may only be brought up as an object to prop up the band. One segment of the film has a few lines by members of bands such as Dir en grey, Luna Sea, Mucc etc. and the total of what they were allowed to say was: “ekkusu kakkoi sugoi desu ne.” One might have been able to set this aside if it weren’t for the fact that a couple of minutes later Yoshiki’s American entourage gets MINUTES of screen time, including Gene Simmons who even gets to have a personal anecdote on how X would be huge in the west if it weren’t for the Anglo-centrism of the American audiences. 
With these direction choices in mind, I feel that X was portrayed more in the way that the American public would like to digest the band: a big insular arena rock sensation that’d be the biggest band in the world if it weren’t for unfortunate circumstance. This doesn't kill the film exactly, but it makes it of lesser importance and interest. 
 
Now why the film is like this is because all this is after all, it is a promotional package for X’s long delayed triumphant conquest of the western music market. Its structure is built around the MSG show, with the original attempt at the west sequined in the latter middle part of the run time so it could be later brought up as a setup for their return. After going through the disbandment and the tragic deaths set to an image of Yoshiki being outrageously portrayed with wings behind him, it’s right at the end of the film where he is still standing defiant and fully convinced that he still has to do it, he has to besiege the billboard and he must do it for hide and Taiji; and then cue to an awesome cringe inducing montage of weeaboos wearing bootleg shirts and an assorted collection of Yoshiki’s cool celebrity “friends,” as they were called. It depends on your point of view whether this is amusing or just simply enraging. At this point, I admit to subscribing to the former school of thought. 
 
So, for people who are interested in visual kei and X, it falls short of expectation. What does it have for the outsider? Well, it’s a mixed bag. First of all, it is a cheesy TV documentary level production made by a guy who’s previous documentary was about the hardcore musical renegades The Backstreet Boys, so the emphasis is on the word production; and still despite all this it occasionally appears to assume general knowledge from the viewer while totally catering to people who’d be exposed to X for the first time. The music isn’t spoken of and only clips of it are played, so you either must know it beforehand or take the word of everyone in the film that X is this great band from Japan you haven’t heard of. Obviously, my memory isn’t 100% but I’m fairly confident that the only song mentioned by name in the film was Art of Life.
I’ll have to say that it’s not boring though, because the bare bones of the saga are interesting and all the early X stuff is awesome. So considering that anyone with the misfortune of having read this is most likely quite well versed in the bijuarus, I can say there's worse ways of spending your time. I'd watch a Japanese record store employee telling about the best selling vk records for two hours ( probably rather than this, actually ) so I'm definitely biased towards everything even remotely related to visual kei. You’re should be good as well if you go into it with the same mindset you would have watching some Vice documentary on a Sunday morning while eating breakfast.
 
                                                                               

Psycho le Cemu will embark on their new tour, "Doppelganger ~Next Generations~", while serving back to school realness from August 11 to September 24.
 
Tour dates:
8.11  @ Fukuoka DRUM Be-1
8.19 @ Nagoya ELL
8.20 @ Umeda Club Quattro
8.27 @ Sendai darwin
9.24 @ Toyosu PIT
 

Their new single 「puzzle」 will be released on 2017.09.06.
 
TYPE A : 1940 yen
CD : 2 songs
DVD : 1 PV
 
TYPE B : 1620 yen
CD : 3 songs
 
 
 
 
 

 
From 2017.09.02 at 新宿BLAZE to 2018.01.13 at 大阪BIG CAT , they will hold their 4th anniversary one man tour.
 
Here are the details :
9.02(土)新宿BLAZE 「kaleidoscope 限定」 
9.09(土)岡山IMAGE 
9.10(日)高松DIME 
9.12(火)神戸Valit. 
9.14(木)熊本B.9 V2
9.16(土)福岡DRUM Be-1 
9.18(月祝)広島SECOND CRUTCH 
11.03(金祝)名古屋Electric Lady Land 
11.05(日)青山RiZM「男限定」 
11.10(金)水戸LIGHT HOUSE 
11.11(土)仙台MACANA 
11.15(水)HEAVEN'S ROCK さいたま新都心 VJ-3 
11.18(土)金沢AZ 
11.20(月)高崎FLEEZ 
11.23(木祝)長野J 
11.25(土)新潟GOLDENPIGS-RED STAGE- 
11.30(木)青森Quarter 
12.2(土)札幌KRAPSHALL
12.3(日)札幌KRAPSHALL
12.10(日)新横浜NEW SIDE BEACH!!
12.17(日)柏PALOOZA
01.13(土)大阪BIG CAT 

Dangan played their last 3man with their labelmates, LEZARD and Jack Caper, last Sunday at Shibuya REX!

 
Dangan is so loved by their labelmates! <33 Sora was saying how when he first came to Tokyo his only friends were Miyuu and Chika so he's SUPER sad that Chika is retiring. All of LEZARD were saying that they have faith the rest of the Dangan guys will continue on with music. Kousuke said that there are a lot of bands you meet in the scene, but Dangan are one of the few bands that he could truly call friends <333
 
 
Here's Dangan's setlist for the night:

 
I fucking love Dangan lives!!! <3333333333 I wish everyone could experience them at least once T_T I was super lucky too cos REX was packed, but some Jack Caper fans didn't wanna be in the front for Dangan's set so some girl asked me if I wanted to trade with her friends in the second row so I got to be dead center, 2nd row, right in front of Miyuu @_@ I was kind of dying though. I'm pretty sure I didn't stop jumping that entire set and so much clapping and waving of the arms... it's literally a full body workout going to a Dangan live haha 
and it was just SUCH A GOOD SET LIST <3333333333 I mean. Every Dangan live is a good setlist... I don't think they could have a bad set list if they tried *not biased* 
I love how Miyuu will also sing to his bandmates on stage <3 and during one of the songs he went back to the drumset and put the mic in front of Yusuke and Yusuke yelled KAMITE MOSSHU! and all the Yusuke gya squealed haha <3333 I hope he makes Chika do it one day haha
 
AND I'M SO GLAD THAT LEO'S INJURIES DON'T SEEM TO BE CAUSING HIM ANY TROUBLE!!!
 
I was really surprised when they didn't play BULLET, but was glad when they played it at the end in the huge session! 
After Dangan's set (they played last) Jack Caper and LEZARD came back and out and talked for a while about Dangan. They mentioned how Dangan basically started Riostar and then invited LEZARD and Jack Caper came in after that. Jack Caper's Hinata and U fucking love Leo haha <333 When Dangan came back out to join everyone, they were both like hanging on Leo a lot <3333 Apparently U is just a huge Dangan fan in general <3333 and all the LEZARD guys are super close to Dangan. It was really nice seeing all the bands of the same label being so close on the same stage. 
 
For the huge session set Jack Caper played a song.. idk their songs, but it's the one where they just make us do random dumb shit haha and lots of gyakudai. Miyuu was grabbing people and kissing their hands!! I'm pretty sure Yusuke loves gyakudai when he doesn't have to sit behind his drums haha <333 Dangan played next and Hiro asked Miyuu if Dangan had any dumb songs where the crowd can mess around with and Miyuu was like... no... we have BULLET... where you make a gun with your hand and shoot it at us... that's like the closest thing?? And Hiro was just like wtf?? haha
 
BULLET IS SO GOOD LIVE UGGGHHHHH LEO'S GUITAR SOLO WHAT <33333333333 and literally EVERYONE saku's him. Like you can't NOT saku him in that song haha <333333333333
 
LEZARD had the last song in the huge session... I'm not really familiar with their songs either, but the Dangan guys seemed to be. haha and Kousuke said it was a song that he really wanted Leo to play! So Leo played that song and Kousuke... sang? I'm not sure what he did haha
 
After all the bands played each vocalist said a few words and had to to  a "Riostar pose" w/e that is. The bandmen didn't even know. One of them was even like "wtf is a Riostar pose anyway???" and everyone looked around like "idk???" haha Sora had to go first and he was kinda nervous cos he's the newest person to Riostar lol but he did this like super dramatic circular arm sweep thing like Sailor Moon and the crowd seemed pleased and everyone was like WooooOOOooOOOOOOO haha. Next was Miyuu. I forget what they were saying, but he wanted to do a new pose cos his Riostar pose last time was super lame, and the bandmen were like no do the old one!! and Miyuu was like nooooo and they were like fine do both!! and he was like uggghh I don't wanna do both so I'll just do the old one.... and he did... and it was lame... hahahaha he did it and everyone just stood there like -____- and after a brief pause everyone just laughed hahaha <3333 Hiro was last and did the same like last time too I think. It was like make an "L" for LEZARD with one hand, and the shape of a gun for Dangan with the other, then thrust your hands forward from your hip kamehameha style with the power of Jack Caper... or something. haha 
 
After that the bandmen tried to make Chika do something cos it was his last live with everyone.  He was super wtf about it though cos he was caught off guard. I think he's the type who like rehearses what he wants to say haha so he kinda refused for a while then finally went up and said thanks and all that and tried to leave and the bandmen were all like NO YOU HAVE TO DO THE RIOSTAR POSE!!! and Chika got super whiny like GUYSS WHYYYYY I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DOOOOOO hahaha so he said he'd do something if they make it up for him but then he pointed to Hiro and was like "anyone but you" cos Hiro is weird af haha He was like, idk... Natsume, you choose. And Natsume was like "huh?? uh sure?" and he put Chika up on the vocalist box, back facing the crowd, had him spread his legs then hold his arms out so he looked like a starfish lol. Then he told Chika something and did some gestures, and it was really obvious that he wanted Chika to bend over and stick his head between his legs hahaah and Chika freaked out like WTF NO I CAN'T DO THAT! hahaha so then he made, I think Suguru? make something up for him, but he just did the exact same thing as Natsume hahaha I think Chika legit got kind of annoyed. He was stalling for so long finally Miyuu saved him and was like "okay that's enough THANKS EVERYONE!" kinda thing haha and finally ended it. <333 Chika's so awkward haha <33
 
Anyway, it was a really good live. I'm glad Dangan is loved by so many people <3333 I'm really sad that there are only a few more lives left T_T but I hope lots of people go see them!! <333
 

 
More picspam from after the live:
 

ぞんび (Zonbi) new maxi-single will be released at 2017/09/27
 
they will hold their live tour "グロフェス vol.5〜東名阪主催ツアー編〜" at 2017/10/06 at Nagoya ell.FITS ALL at 2017/10/07 at Abeno ROCK TOWN and at 2017/10/21 at Harajuku ASTRO HALL
 
they will hold their Halloween oneman live "グロフェス vol.6" at 2017/10/27 at Ikebukuro EDGE 

XX - A brand new anthology horror film featuring 4 short films directed by four female directors, as well as the main frame. Which was pointless IMO:
 
Main frame (Sofia Carrillo)
A stop-motion film that's beautifully animated, but that's it. Thought it was awful.
 
The Box (Jovanka Vuckovic)
Wile not perfect, this was a nice one. It's more drama/mystery oriented tho, and not much of a horror film. 6/10
 
The Birthday Party (Annie Clark aka St. Vincent)
This looks excellent and it's hard to believe that St. Vincent is new to the game of directing. Visually stunning and beautifully shot, but the story doesn't quite do it for me. 5/10
 
Don't Fall (Roxanne Benjamin)
Roxanne Benjamin has already directed a short film for the anthology Southbound, and this time she really let us know she's one to look out for. Don't Fall are easily the best short of XX. It's a familiar story and all that, but it's lots of fun and it's horror as fuck. 8/10
 
Her Only Living Son (Karyn Kusama)
Karyn Kuasa might be best known for directing the abysmal Æon Flux, but ten years later she actually directed the masterpiece that is The Invitation. And while this is no new The Invitation, this one's very good and interesting. 7/10
 
This is another example of how shitty the IMDB rating system is. 4 point fuckin' 6. Ridiculous!

PMed  

"Urusei yatsura" and sukekiyo? Interesting.

aryu from morrigan is literally dreadful he hasn't been mentioned enough here
 
 

Aqui também, porque sim
 
 

yeah you're right i can't view it lol rip

https://www.buzzfeed.com/nataliaw2/who-is-gretchen-a-long-overdue-post-on-the-brazil-6hpv?utm_term=.cbyaeP8YP&ref=mobile_share#.udAge4J34
 
Eu queria que fosse a Inês Brasil mas... Olha a gretchen e sua fama internacional 
 

My name is Jasmine Masters and I have something to say. Yoshiki has done fucked X Japan and Visual Kei, bottom line cut and dry!

Hello ^ ^ ' I happened to come across this site by just looking for Visual Kei things and places where people sell their old merch , and just over all a community of Visual Kei fans . Please be aware I do have some anxiety issues ^ ^ ' so please be kind and forgive me for any late reply and being overwhelmed easily ó _ ò 
More stuff 
Also please call me by Koukai ^ ^ ' ~ ♡
I go by he / him and they / them pronouns 
I do have discord so I may join the server soon ^ ^ just give me some time to get comfortable 

I can already say that ADORATIO is the most engaging sukekiyo release to date.
 
I've been following them since day one, but always had trouble getting into their music (don't know why). With IMMORTALIS, I loved "elizabeth addict," and I've probably listened to it 1,000 times by now, but the rest of the album only got one listen; nothing after that really captured my attention, and it felt too long to go back to. VITIUM I also only listened to once a long time ago, while at work (back in my kitchen days);  it was a nice album, pretty chill, but nothing really stood out to me. ADORATIO I've listened to once and already intend to listen to more; every track had something that stood out, something to love, and I grew to appreciate 耳ゾゾ even more (another song that I listened to once then ignored). This album also encourages me to go back to previous material and pay closer attention to further releases.
 
ADORATIO is the sukekiyo release I've been waiting for since they formed. The album cover is hideous as shit, though (lol).
 
Also, speaking of 耳ゾゾ, does anyone know how to translate the title? I managed to translate every other title on the album, but I couldn't come up with anything for ゾゾ that made sense...

^ I guess I get what you're saying. It's just that it's still kinda unbelievable for me that such a thoroughly interesting and 'otherworldly' musical entity as sukekiyo can exist within (or spawned from) visual kei that I'm still just kinda in 'mind = blown' mode and perfectly content with whatever they do. Not to discredit the VK scene as a whole, but ya know, it's rarely the breeding ground for experimental and high-quality acts like this.

I'm not about the theremin, it's just, people take so many things for granted. Kyo's work still gives me feels (which is why I'm listening to him and not other singers named and unnamed).  sukekiyo's evolution's been pretty exciting, and not just in terms of trying new things musically - it's always a slightly different feeling, new imagery, and I think Kyo deserves some of the credit for that. Don't know who of your faves can live up to the standards being set for Kyo in this thread (mine sure don't, lol).

I don't get it, Kyo's far from my fave but - he writes lyrics and music, comes up with concepts for the live shows, hell the live shows are some of the best I've ever seen. And you're telling me we're hanging on some fucking theremin to determine his worth?