crossparallel

holy fucking SHIT
i can't wait for all the trve shoegaze stans to congregate here...ryuutaro SNATCHED this shit
disband pt [2]

holy fuck, if the whole album is gonna sound like this..
 
pls just disband PT and go solo forever Ryu, bless the world w/ SHOEGAZE GOODNESS

The order for the tracklist has been finalized as :
幻形テープ／genkeitêpu  
浮融／fuyuu  
魔似事／manegoto  
また、堕月さま／mata,otsukisama
うフふ／ufufu    
猫夢／nekoyume
鍵時計／kagidokei
恋ト幻／rentogen

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.

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.

I agree that bands constantly retreading their old sound gets boring fast (lookin' at you, lynch.), but at the same time they've carved out a sort of niche sound for themselves that not many other bands are really doing in the VK scene, outside of acts like Kyokutou Girlfriend, Happysad, Marco and maybe Monokuro Kinema I guess. Especially cuz the whole retro/nostalgia-influenced angura kei scene kind of has been bleeding to death since around the time when Guruguru Eigakan stopped activities.
 
Basically, as long as they don't either go full-on "generic heavy '' like The Cry Against... I'll be happy, that's kind of my biggest fear in the VK realm these days, cuz the scene's already oversaturated with generic bands playing that type of sound. The world needs more stuff like 千代田線デモクラシー imo

Poor Tetsu.

Well have some more
 
 
 

@midi:netteCan you handle this? Can you?
 

 
 
 

wtf they're doing Midori cosplay now? Ayyyy bring back that eroguro & retro-influenced realness

ayyyyy always good to see someone who's into that good japanese stuff.
BT, Togawa, Merry, PT, cali=/=gari, sukekiyo, Urbangarde and Liphlich are all pretty high up there in my personal faves list too

Also happy to meet you! You can say I got into Japanese rock three years ago, only I spent the first 2 of them playing BUCK-TICK on repeat. 2016 was the year I managed to separate from the mother planet enough to really get into other bands, and now I'm on a J-rock honeymoon, where I end up losing myself in some song or album every week. MERRY are my new love, cali≠gari grow on me with every minute, hide, sukekiyo, LIPHLICH, Pura, Daisuke's bands & MUCC (see "MERRY are my new love", hahah, it was inevitable)... Outside of v-kei I'm hooked on Jun Togawa, Shiina Ringo and Urbangarde. I know I'm just in the beginning of this journey, and I'm excited for what I may discover.
 
Other plausibly relevant points:
Anything that's 20th-century, Japanese and counterculture-ish is a possible interest, though I don't know 1/10 as much as I wish I did.  I dropped out of my Math major in uni and now I'm hoping to enroll into a Japanese studies program next year. I am the kind of person who complains about the existence of ratings and reviews and indulges in them anyway   I'm not the best soul round, but I'm trying. 

@midi:netteCan you handle this? Can you?
 

 
 
 

C R Y I N G

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?

So are we limited to VK or are we free to touch any Japanese act?
 
Anyways, L'arc has been doing different rearrangements of their songs on various occasions - as P'UNK-EN-CIEL (Punk alter-ego), as "L'Arcoustic" lives (e.g. gorgeous acoustic version of Kasou) and role-switch versions (Trick, Revelation).
 
Kiyoharu did helluva lot of rearrangements (self-covers and own songs too) back in his early solo days.
 
Also, the queen of constant rearrangements: Ringo Shiina (and her 'backup' band Tokyo Jihen):
 
AND
(the latter song basically has concerto, jazz and rock versions so far...
 
She is basically rearranging songs every now and then when she has a chance to do so (unless it's some sort of staple song like NIPPON)
Basically this is the prime reason why I have her WHOLE DISCOG - including latest dvds of her eras I don't really care about anymore.
 
 

Don't have time to look into it too much at the moment so I'll just quickly drop some examples.
 
Dir en grey has rearranged too many songs to count during concerts, going all the way back to their earliest days. Some of which could be deemed more a case of evolving work in progress though, but if we count things that have been released then it goes back to the macabre era where certain GAUZE songs would be rearranged completely.
 
Shinjuku Gewalt has re-arranged tracks for live shows several times, adding and removing elements between concerts.
 
Sugar performed full acoustic lives.
 
MUCC has performed acoustic versions of tracks at instore events.
 
Lament. has performed acoustic shows with piano, acoustic guitar and vocals only, I attended one and it was amazing.
 
emmuree/the god and death stars/DIMMDIVISION/DISH/dieS/those kind of guys frequently do acoustic sets either alone (vocals+guitar only) or with the full band.
 
 

Wasn't sure if there was already a thread dedicated to this or not.. If there is one, I apologize 'cuz I didn't check. Whoops.
Anyway, this thread is dedicated to posting and discussing bands that in some way modify their songs when they play them live vs how they appear as studio versions.
Any kind of alterations are welcome, as long as they're somewhat significant enough. Swapping out song lyrics, acoustic versions, random jam sessions, just entirely rebuilding the songs from the ground up, it's all welcome.
 
I feel like it's a phenomenon that's not all that common in the VK scene, other than the occasional 'unplugged' sessions. Probably conjecture, but could it be that it's due to the fact that the whole "VK live experience" has this sort of... choreographed element to it in terms of furi moves, the audience being able to sing along, or other forms of audience participation, so it's generally avoided by the artists so as not to confuse/disappoint the fanbase?
 
Anyway, here's some examples that came to my mind:
 
Dir en grey - idk how often it happens nowadays, but Kyo used to sometimes change the lyrics for certain songs while performing them live. The most blatant example's probably with the track "Fukai"
 
Plastic Tree - PT performed at least one "unplugged" live a couple of years ago where they played acoustic versions of some of their songs, IDK if they ever did it again after that
 
I'm pretty sure MERRY's also performed some acoustic versions of some of their tracks live but I can't find any examples right now

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

omg what is this, a movie? lmao

I wonder if say Happy Life will even be on the next album? I always perceived it more as a part of the NO SMART era, but they do have a history of jamming singles into albums regardless of whether they fit or not  Recording a more straightforward album like NOnsenSe MARkeT feels right for the time, and they got to stretch their songwriting muscles a bit too with it and Beautiful Freaks, but I also miss retro guro Merry. And it's not like they have given up on that, take a song like [collector] for example! That hits all the right spots, but ended up only as a single b-side,  as have all their most out there songs really [Oriental BL Circus, Charlie, stupid x cupid...] I wonder how much of it is label pressure and how much - self-censorship. Good thing we have the concerts at least. If you're asking about current favorites, I'm so stuck on the '09 Shinjuku Loft Concert (Identity/BURST EPDVD).

Necroing because this band is literally MY. MOTHER. FUCKING. LIFE. 👅👅👅
 
They recently put up a poll asking if they should dress as メリー or Super Merries at their first Halloween live, and of course Super Merries got the most votes 👍 although I'm curious about what they'll actually look like, I'm disappointed that there will be no crossdressing Gara for halloween 💔💔💔

yaaaaaaaaaaaaassss~*~*~*~ I've actually bought my own copies of Koseiha Blend Classic & Modern Garde, since I love those songs so much ;w; they were so original back then (no t no shade), and it's a hell of a lot better than what they're doing now! I miss that guro side of Merry...
 
Of course I got into them when Fukurou was released, so I listened to more of their recent stuff. Beautiful Freaks, M.E.R.R.Y., and Nu Chemical Rhetoric are some of my faves atm. ✨ I'm also curious as to what album their last two singles will lead to~