crossparallel

Thank you for the list. I've been low-key interested in the genre for years and always thinking I should check out more, but I never got to it. Got sold on the aesthetics of it before the actual music ^^ It was this album that first caught my interest:

Already posted a link in the MERRY thread, there you go. @midi:netteMaking gifs anyway, give me a few days

It's not silly, that's why I have the videos as unlisted and only link to them - I want them to be found by the same people who care just enough to buy the official release anyway. Though I may just be trying to put my conscience to sleep. (IDM doesn't work for me at all, trying out kakoroku now... Edit: kakoroku worked! Thank you for the help, sads123!) EDIT2: Here's the result of today's efforts, mega.nz link for the concert in original quality.

I mean, last time I tried to look up downloading from niconico the only instructions I found looked more like this

Holy hell, you mean there is a way to download niconico videos that isn't more arcane than a physics paper and a grimoire taken together? My niconico timeshift surprisingly still works (how long do these last, 24h? 'cause if that's the case, we only have a few hours.) Worth giving this a try.

Oh hey! Sadly, I am yet to join the ranks of the godly beings who can set up and use a proper niconico recorder (I did try). This is all bandicam, and I recorded it in pieces, because the broadcast would interrupt and having to start the whole thing again each time that happened - yeah, not happening. I can give you the original .avi files bandicam produced (yeah, avi, *head to desk*) - but they are only a slight improvement over youtube's reencoding, most of the butchering happened on my part. I still have my fingers crossed for someone to upload a proper rip myself.

The new song from yesterday's show ^^ Band ver.: Acoustic ver.:

There you go, YouTube playlists of yesterday's concert: White Sheep + Black Sheep @sads123and anyone else interested, enjoy!

@midi:nette, I adore you, but did you just suggest for them to try out everything except for Gendai Stoic and under-world? [And why exclude those? ] Anyway, I'll be more modest with recommendations just in case. I think Modern-garde is a real classic, so it is a must, but also because I love each of their albums, maybe check out their MERRY VERY BEST double compilation album? Normally I don't like compilations, but I think it did a good job showcasing their diversity. Maybe it works for me because it went with the whole white sheep / black sheep dual concept for the two discs, so it feels a bit more organic than other compilations - rather than greatest hits, it is more like a concert setlist. Edit: Oh, and I believe everyone should hear this Gekisei live at least once in their lives. @sads123I got it, uploading now. Sorry, it will take a while - my internet isn't the fastest now and also I suck at choosing encoding settings, so it ended up quite large *sigh*

What, there was a second encore? Damn niconico But I'm really happy, the crowd totally deserved it.

Well I did record it, will probably sort out the files and upload somewhere tomorrow. What a great show it was today! Fingers crossed for a DVD. And *littlelamb is 100% right on the vocals, impeccable.

Very likely. Man this sounded so good in the live! I'll push back the part of my brain that tries to figure out which old Mery song it reminds me of, because it's so lit.

Don't have any information you don't, but If I can make a guess, I think it's just a performance/comedy thing. (Wish we had video...)

Tomorrow morning means in less than 3h, just saying. Will try to record ^^

@*littlelambOh no, your posts were very helpful and not cringey at all! There was this one about Gara's radio dorama that still makes my day any time I think about it. (If you remember that, would you happen to have a link to the actual recording still?) By the way, recently made subtitles for the BURST EP DVD concert, the translation a mix of my imperfect efforts, mitsu's and Dely's (Russian) translations. If it could be useful to anyone, here (video here).

Smiled so much while reading this - it is true! Preach, preach, preach.

Oh yesss littlelamb! <3 Sorry for the over-familiarity, ever since I fell for Merry and started looking up things on them I've just happened on so many old posts by you around the internet. Just thank you for loving them, ok? The way I remember that interview, Kyo and Gara were still speaking, just not about music. May be mistranslation or just information getting corrupted along the way, shouldn't really matter now. I agree, it is miraculous how Merry survived everything and... do I have the right to say I am proud with them, or at least proud of being their fan? Because I am. I also love NO SMART, there's just so much humanity and integrity to that album. [ @midi:netteNah, I loved Happy Life too. Straightforward songs like that are also needed, and the message is just right. Though my favorite song on the single is 臆病者の眠り方 by far.] I also believe Merry can still grow. So many new songs by Nero and Tetsu! And they did eventually get better at writing songs out of their mold. Time will show on that one. Still about the lives, I may be misjudging here. I do feel Gara's voice hasn't been at his strongest (even as his control is stellar), but I have been watching the '09 concerts a lot recently, so that may be setting the bar too high and screwing my perspective. The fact that we are talking about a niconico recording (and a crappy rip in the case of the last DVD, as I can't afford to buy it at this point) isn't helping. I really hope you are right, as it is something I've been worried about - at this point I have reason to believe they can survive anything else. So hyped up for tomorrow!

It may be the case that the Kyo connection was emphasized for the purpose of rebranding MERRY and selling them to the Diru fanbase, we'll never know. But to retell that interview, yes Gara was their roadie, and he also used to brainstorm with Kyo, bouncing ideas off of him, when Merry were just starting. Kyo thought Gara's vision was all wrong and backwards , but he let Gara do as he please, as he thought Merry were forming to be a fascinating band. They stopped talking music when Merry signed to Victor. Gara would send Kyo his CDs, Kyo would say stuff like "it sounds like karaoke" (this specifically was re:Ringo to Uso), so of course Gara would be too stubborn to ask for his opinion later Until the critical year 2009, and the rest is history. For the record, I also love under-world, it was a really fresh direction for them and they pulled it off wonderfully, but I guess the fans didn't take to it, punk, noisy production and all. Re:lives, Gara's voice sounds fine in the recordings we have from 2012 and 2014, but he's been hit-or-miss again recently. At least he seems to be more careful now, no more shouting at the top of his lungs when he reaches his limit as he used to. And just performance-wise, their concerts have more color again compared to Beautiful Freaks era. A MERRY cover album will be a dream come true. I love about all of their covers.

@TokageEither that or Kyo's influence. I mean, there was this joint interview with Gara and Kyo from around the time MERRY changed labels that just infuriated me. It was all about how MERRY had lost their way according to Kyo, and how he was always keeping an eye on them and ready to help. So as they didn't have much other support from inside the industry (leaving Victor, not being constantly featured in Fool's Mate any more etc.) and as their popularity was on a downward slope, they finally gave in and signed to Firewall Div., and started taking his advice. (Seems like Gara has/had? this respectful-slash-competitive attitude towards Kyo that I just hope he outgrew, as I think he is the more interesting artist out of the two). Anyway, Kyo oversaw the recording of Beautiful Freaks. If you combine that with MERRY genuinely looking for a direction to change and grow, I can see The Cry Against... materializing from that even without supposed label pressure. @BearYesss, the Gekisei b-sides, eternal favorites <3

Aye, 千代田線デモクラシー was great, and I thought 平日の女 was a step in the right direction too. It sounds like it could be from one of their old albums, only with that added weight in Gara's voice that comes with experience and the arrangement was beautiful too. Wherever they head to, I don't see them going back to The Cry Against... and such, that was an identity crisis of epic proportions.

That was for Halloween but... Gara's been having Suehiro Maruo phonecases and such for years, he's basically "eroguro4life", and he chose to perform covers of old pop songs all through his birthday live this year, so we can just wait and hope. I'm not sure I want old Merry back exactly - no point in repeating themselves, and I appreciate the newfound light and resolve in their music - but bring back that originality and shimmering intelligence.

Well have some more

@midi:netteCan you handle this? Can you?

Here's your MERRY example ^^ The NO SMART bonus CD had some pretty awesome acoustic recordings too. Lots of material to dig now. I'm pretty new to emmurée, didn't know they did acoustic sets. Is there a recording on youtube / downloadable from somewhere?

Well, you see, IT WAS HAPPENED! Gosh, the music, the subtitles... this gives me life. Edit: Unlisted? Guess someone decided they went too far with the "diy crappy montage" aesthetic? XD