wildjokerleia

Jun from Braymen posts about his cat on twitter more than anything else
@jun_braymen

That’s not good when your rhythm section doesn’t get along. I wonder if Toshiya was telling Shinya to get his shit together/step up his game, lol

Nice of Koji and Michi to bring steampunk to visual kei and make it fabulous.
 
I'm loving the preview and expect great things from them. I'm gonna have a hard time picking between them and Bräymen. LOL

Nice of Koji and Michi to bring steampunk to visual kei and make it fabulous.
 
I'm loving the preview and expect great things from them. I'm gonna have a hard time picking between them and Bräymen. LOL

the fuck did they do to Kohta's face?

Bräymen 2nd single "Quintet" will be released on 2018.12.27.
 

 
01. Quintet
02. FACT
1200 yens
 
preview : https://www.braymen.jp/412
 

Yoshiki trying to beat GnR' Chinese Democracy infamous record

2 new songs "METHOD" and "Act" will be released through iTunes etc at 2018/08/13
 
Revenue will be totally donated to support people who were affected by Western Japan heavy rain disaster last July.
 

 

Start by checking bands that are similar to those that you like already, keep a list of those you find interesting to deep dive more on, dedicate some time to discover new bands, the results are always very nice, youtube is a great place for this nowadays, it's not that hard as it was at the beginning

they decide for me i am a puppet

I finally received my copy of ANDROGYNOS 2 days ago, and wow... I'm shocked by how amazing PIERROT was, I only wish they had performed more various songs among both days, because both days had almost the same songs, and compared to the reunion concerts back in 2014, only 2 new songs performed here, which were MASS GAME and パウダースノウ, both were absolutely spectacular, on the 2nd day I felt they had such a great chemistry, that I am starting to suspect they might do something more next year, I mean they even broadcasted the ANDROGYNOS live in the Yunika vision in Shinjuku, if they weren't planning on doing anything else in the future, why make such an statement LOL and well, about the DEG portion, I'm not a big fan of Kyo's scream, so I tried watching a bit very carefully xD I could just stand The Final and アクロの丘 , which were awesome, the rest I have a hard time with Kyo's voice, its a shame because the other musicians are great, but anyhow, regardless of that, I am extremely happy I bought this for the PIERROT portion, it was so much worth it, money well spent! and the documentary was cute too.

This! I wish he would stop trying too. We all know (have known for a long time) that he has more talent in one of his front lace wigs than any queen out there. I am all for more exposure, just without this western assimilation mess. The song isn’t bad and Kaya looks amazing as always, but I want my Goth synth queen back

SO is it going to be released today or nah?
 
ok bad pun I'm leaviing

I don’t know. Recently came across a video of two women who look to be late 20s/early 30s and they were screaming their heads off at L’arc videos because of Hyde. Made little to no comments about the music itself, just shrieked like banshees whenever Hyde moved. 
 
I think its safe to say we all know this scene has plenty of people that are here just for the music, but there’s also a vast majority of people hung up on the visual aspect. Then there’s that subset of fans that are fairly new to the scene, so everything they hear is new to their ears and sounds fresh and exciting. They can listen to Mejibray or 2010-2013 Gazette and not think any of that shit is derivative or uninspired because it sounds “different”. Like, motherfucker, don’t sit here and praise Gazette and DEG for being heavy in songs like Rage or Reiketsu Nariseba when they both rip off Slipknot, then turn around and say Slipknot sucks. 
 
I have attempted to break this down in my own head several times, and I really just think it boils down to people fetishizing. When your drummer wears a bear suit or whatever, you’re going to attract a few obsessed crazies. 

At least this band is very innovative lol
So what's next? They get sent to the moon and the amount of retweets will determine if they'll ever get to come back?

people like to reward garbage and seem incapable of finding and enjoying good music

I've been wanting to write some of this stuff out forever because I'm a huge digital packrat and I like to archive these types of things... I don't think any of this has been written out anywhere before, but I'm not sure how much people actually care about the fan culture part of VK here, especially the Japanese fan culture, and especially the online Japanese fan culture. But, just in case any of you are also level 50 Turbo Nerds I thought I should post it here. I hope this is a sensible place to put it??

this piece is WAY too long for how lame the subject is and i'm so sorry
tl;dr: tanuki is old as fuck and there used to be another tanuki and forums are dead, long live tanuki

edit: fixed a number i screwed up
 
 

R.I.P headphone users. 

There no worse feeling in the world than to be disappointed by a LM.C look. THEY ALWAYS HAVE THE BEST ONES, WHAT IS THIS?!

https://www.braymen.jp/wp01/wp-content/themes/rise-startbootstrap-wordpress/site.mp3
 

FABULOUS is a bop and a half are y'all drunk?? 

new band "Bräymen" has opened their OHP at 2018/5/31.
 
Members:
Vo.SaToRU (ex-EZZI-->JILLED RAY-->グラムヘイズ (glamhaze)-->BLAND'S)
Gu.健希 (Takeki) (ex-yazzmad)
Gu.潤 (Jun) (ex-Dizzy-Lizzy-->PIERROT-->ALvino)
Ba.yu-ta (HERO)
Dr.Aki (ex-蕚 (Utena)-->みんと (Mint) (support)-->plu'to-->P*Route-->GAM-->NINJAMAN JAPAN-->Lc5, AYABIE (support))
 
https://www.braymen.jp/

In regards to Latin America, the language thing may not be that important, because many people listen to English music and many don't understand it, so not many can use this argument. However, I've noticed that Japanese music is often associated with Anime... so the reaction you get from common people when they listen to a song in Japanese is "oh, from which anime is it from?"  so it's difficult for people in LATAM to take it seriously as a music on its own, this is also why you will only hear this music in Anime conventions and events... besides that, the majority of LATAM countries are more into other genres of music that are not Rock, the rock itself is not the preferred genre, people mostly listen to tropical music, ballads, R&b, hip hop, reggeaton... etc. it's very sad, I think the level of education has something to do with it. There are some countries in the South cone where there's still some popularity for Rock, and this is where sometimes Jrock bands go to (Argentina, Chile Etc.)   
 
Also, right now the Kpop is very popular from what i've seen, maybe because it's easy to get access to it. In regards to Jrock, it's not easy for common people to find resources to listen to it, so this is probably why it's only the hard core fans that still listen to it. I try to expose my friends to it, and make "Jrock concert nights" to show them bands and stuff, and the reactions are always interesting.

I was around during the j-pop/j-rock/VK "boom" in the U.S., if you can even call the small subculture following it had for a short time that.
I feel like it really comes down to a combination of these three things:
 
1.) Lack of availability/promotion
When j-rock was at its "peak" popularity overseas, it was still somewhat difficult to purchase official releases outside of Japan, especially for indies acts. Most CD shops didn't ship overseas, if they even had English language sites at all. Labels and bands were late to utilize YouTube and SNS to promote their music, and introduction into the scene still relied heavily on music sharing networks or download sites. There was too little official information available/properly translated into English. By the time labels finally started getting around to reaching out to overseas audiences, people were moving on (to K-pop or in general). In general Japanese artists/labels just weren't committed to attracting overseas audiences or embracing any audience they did have.
 
2.) Touring issues
Most bands ended up performing at anime conventions, despite if they had any real connection to cosplay or an anime show. Much of the time these acts were being consumed by people who were curious about the artist because they were from Japan, with few actual fans assembled at one place in comparison. Exoticism may get people to see you once or twice, but it usually doesn't compute into CD sales, especially when the value of the yen was so high and the cost of Japanese music so expensive compared to Western music. These acts, and even the rare show booked outside of a con was subject to poor management, planning, or promotion. Often they were cancelled. Perhaps if more acts had gone Dir en grey's route of performing at festivals, it would have made a sizable enough movement to have an impact, but it's hard to say.
 
3.) The general demise of rock music as mainstream
Sure, rock will never get old. But rock is not nearly as mainstream as it was in the 90s and early 2000s. Even as certain indie rock sounds/artists flourish, it's a much different style than what a lot of j-rock (especially VK) is doing. So on top of less people listening to rock in general, there are less people interested in the style of rock Japan is making. Even I'm not as fond of most of the rock that's popular in Japan ATM (VK or generally speaking).
 
Generally speaking, a lot of overseas VK fans I knew at the time eventually moved on to K-pop. Unlike Japan, Korean artists/labels were much more insistent on pushing for international success. They also swooped in taking advantage of YouTube and SNS promotion where Japan didn't. While this lead to a flood in the market for some time, it also give the genre the momentum that j-rock (or j-pop tbh) never had, eventually making it a powerful force to be reckoned with it's turning into today.

"OBSCURE" is one of the most graphic and notorious music videos ever crafted within visual kei, catapulting the band back into the spotlight after a sudden stylistic shift sent their fans into a frenzy. It's famous for both its shock value and its strong anti-abortion stance. Abortion isn't a dinner table conversation in any country, but I've always sensed that there's an extra level of taboo attached to this topic in Japanese circles. So naturally, Dir en grey went the extra mile with some of the best CGI 2004 could buy. Is there some actual meaning behind this imagery, or is it all shock value?
 
Watching it back now, this video isn't as extreme as a younger, more impressionable me thought. I discovered that there's mostly memorable segments, but most of the video is the band rocking out in a dingy room with bodies hanging from the ceiling. These also are the least offensive parts of the video too, unless you have a particular hate for vomit, leather, or white contact lenses. And if you do, how are you a visual kei fan? Anyway, the room resembles a hospital or a jail, although it's probably the back of an old fishing warehouse. There's nothing else to really discuss here.
 
I tried my hardest to weave together a story that makes sense. The closest I can get is depictions of their anguish over this topic and how it's treated, which could be all they were going for. The main scenes cycle throughout the course of the video, and each of these scenes seem unconnected to the others. To sum it up: there's a demon orgy, robot cocks, a monk ripping a baby's head apart covered in ofuda screaming to the Lord of Light, a dissected half robot/woman creation on a table with a mad doctor, circus performers, depictions of the band as monsters mutilating themselves, and of course the infamous demon geisha eating the apple baby head. The meaning of some scenes are obvious: the orgy depicts sexual irresponsibility, the circus is about how the topic is treated as a joke, and the doctor and robot is supposed to resemble abortion and the act of playing god.  Several elements appear in different contexts, such as the geisha and baby heads. The woman on the table is shown as not in control of her body, the doctor with the huge forceps symbolizes the invasiveness of the procedure, the ofuda which covers the monk is meant to ward off evil, and the constant depiction of monsters and demons is meant to associate abortion with bad omens. The rest of this music video is pure shock value and there's no real meaning to anything.

One thing I should mention before wrapping this up is that Dir en grey threw some serious shade at men in this music video. During the orgy scenes, the women have bare faces but the men are all covered with masks. I have several interpretations of this. One parallel I immediately noticed was to (surprisingly) porn, where it's all too common for the woman's face to be visible but the man is a secondary figure, and videos are associated with the woman and not the man. On a deeper level, it's also commentary on the unequal burden pregnancy puts on women. The men literally "don't see" what happens when they orgasm (hint: the women stop enjoying the orgy and start bleeding out their mouths with pained expressions on their faces), they don't have to deal with it, and they can carry on not caring, mouths transfixed in a smile. I dug deeper into the whole mask angle, and discovered that in Japanese mythology, oni masks refer to the belief in a spirit world in which demons carry out their roles of punishing the unjust and evil, as well as spreading disease. Double dip on the whole "spreading disease" = "venereal disease" bit if you want, but I don't think it goes that far. I think Dir en grey feel that men who do this and don't care are literally demons and worse than the women, but clearly the whole eating the baby's head idea also associates certain kinds of women with demons too. The band themselves aren't exactly human either, with Shinya's deformed body and Kyo's lovely tentacle mouth, so perhaps the band thinks everyone is a demon and that everyone is responsible?

As far as PV's go for visual kei bands, this one is near the top in terms of effort and production values, even for today's standards. I'm sure there's more left to be discussed. What do you think?