qotka

こちらのスレを読んでTHE NOVEMBERSを聴きたくなった。 お勧めの曲は何ですか？

Name: qotka/kat Age: 30 Years studied: 6 years at uni, 4 years of self study. I could be fluent by now if I had any discipline lmao Estimated level: Moderate? I can read by my conversational skills are lacking. Knowledge of Hiragana/Katakana: All Kanji: 1000~ What is your main goal with studying Japanese?: Be able to have normal conversations with people around me. After a year and a half in Japan, I'm only just getting over my anxiety and starting to talk with people. I do end up making really silly mistakes and making up grammar, so any extra chance to practice is a treasure. Also be able to read faster. What materials have you used before?: Genki, WaniKani (nice for kanji!), random JLPT prep books. よろしくお願いします！

Welcome fellow Mucker! I'm sure you'll find plenty of discussions to join here.

@Duwangthanks! I'm pretty new to them so I wasn't sure where to look up who was playing with them after Roji departed. I could hear something was off at the twoman with Kizu, but I was like 'oh well just a session drummer, won't see him again!' - oops! Roji was definitely the strongest link the one time I saw them live before that, so I was sad to see him go. But I'm glad to hear An's slowly catching up. Maybe it'll be fine with enough practice!

when did An start performing with them? was he the guy who played with them at the twoman with kizu?

Agreed. My POV is that of a woman who's been to enough 'regular' concerts to appreciate the unique situation in vkei. What I'm saying is that if you take away this property of vkei, you leave a whole group of people with almost ZERO OPTIONS to enjoy live rock/metal music freely (something most men can do at most rock concerts in the world - including vkei concerts in Europe/America, when those happen) - the fact that they can do it surely can't be a bad thing? Not saying there aren't problems in the scene, but this particular angle is very important in my opinion.

Bangya culture is not just something that keeps vkei afloat. It's communities of (mostly) women who would never get to experience live music the way they do if they went to a 'regular' rock or metal concert. So while it kills the fun for some men who come to the show expecting one thing and getting something different, or prevents men from coming to lives, I think it's an essential part of what vkei is.

this. i've spoken to enough gya who would notice any minute change in a song arrangement and analyze lyrics/the meaning behind something artistic (or "artistic") a band has put out. but sure, some of them are in it for the fantasy, and that's awesome too. don't see much of a difference between dudes who don't know a lot about music and flail over cool guitar solos/how badass this and that musician is and gya who react pretty much the same about pretty bandoman.

yeah, non-vkei bands feel pretty much like going to a 'regular' concert in the west. i saw miyavi this year and he had the oral cigarettes opening for him, and there were more men than women there for them. it was brutal - vkei lives made me soft. i don't think i've ever been pushed like that at any other live in japan.

yassss i knew mucc would nail 3月5日 the rest doesn't sound too offensive either, waiting to hear the full versions. ok no i just listened to the whole thing and LM.C are being very offensive there.

Great thread idea! I haven't got much to add, maybe something that's not a hack but a general piece of taiband/festival etiquette - when you go to an event with more than one band, let fans of the other band(s) take the front rows when your band is done/until your band starts. Of course it's mostly relevant to events where the timetable is announced in advance. Don't worry - other-band gya will usually respect this etiquette and switch places with you when their band's performance is over. And watch out for shit crowd-surfers. I'm not sure how many bands this is relevant to (MUCC granny here), but while most of the girls know how to do it and are pretty light, some of them just sorta awkwardly spread their arms and legs in four different directions and might kick you in the face if you don't watch out (I'm talking from experience). If you feel something heavy on your head/shoulder, it's probably a gya - just help her keep rolling as best as you can and try not to drop her!

YASSSSS this is gonna be embarrassingly epic.

What is even going on there. So many questions. Dope song though.

This is really valuable information (I've only ever used Spotify in Japan and sadly they're not there at all)! Thanks, it'll be a lot easier to force, er, recommend them that way.

I know the situation. It took me about 8 years to actually get into them - I'm very slow with these things. :x I think his voice has developed a lot in the past 20 years. In the past he relied a lot on emotion/acting (which he still does, theatricality has always been a huge part of his presentation), and what notes he couldn't reach he made up for by screaming/shrieking, which was rough and amazing. Now he sounds more professional and polished, sometimes sounding more like a jazz/pop vocalist than what he used to sound like. I find it very soothing but I can totally see how it's not everyone's cup of tea.

This is so exciting to hear! I've had that experience when I first listened to Homura Uta - hours and hours of listening to every single track. It must be a lot nicer with the remastered version.

Confession: I bought the limited edition of MUCC's Shin Tsuuzetsu because I fell in love with the creepy cage doll design and it had a lenticular jacket. Can't stop looking at it.

For some reason it'll only show me my top 5. lol I've been using the same account on and off since 2004 so it's weird AF Thank you @plastic_rainbow! Now it went from being weird to positively humiliating. This is why I love last.fm!

Tracklist Disc 1: Shin Homura Uta 1. ホムラウタ (Homura Uta) 2. 絶望 (Zetsubou) 3. 幸せの終着 (Shiawase no Shuuchaku) 4. 君に幸あれ (Kimi ni Sachiare) 5. 僕が本当の僕に耐えきれず造った本当の僕 (Boku ga Hontou no Boku ni Taekirezu Tsukutta Hontou no Boku) 6. ママ (Mama) 7. 暗闇に咲く花 (Kurayami ni Saku Hana) 8. 嘘で歪む心臓 (Uso de Yugamu Shinzou) 9. およげ!たいやきくん (Oyoge! Taiyaki-kun) 10. 前へ-In its true light- (Mae e -In its true light-) 11. 黒煙 (Kokuen) 12. スイミン (Suimin) 13. 帰らぬ人 (Kaeranu Hito) 14. ズタズタ (Zutazuta) 15. 水槽 (Suisou) 16. 大嫌い2006 (Daikirai 2006) Disc 2: Homura Uta ~Remaster~ 01. ホムラウタ (Homura Uta) 02. 絶望 (Zetsubou) 03. 幸せの終着 (Shiawase no Shuuchaku) 04. 君に幸あれ (Kimi ni Sachiare) 05. 僕が本当の僕に耐えきれず造った本当の僕 (Boku ga Hontou no Boku ni Taekirezu Tsukutta Hontou no Boku) 06. ママ (Mama) 07. 暗闇に咲く花 (Kurayami ni Saku Hana) 08. 嘘で歪む心臓 (Uso de Yugamu Shinzou) 09. およげ！たいやきくん (Oyoge! Taiyaki-kun) 10. 前へ (Mae e) 11. 黒煙 (Kokuen) 12. スイミン (Suimin) 13. 帰らぬ人 (Kaeranu Hito) 14. ズタズタ (Zutazuta) 15. 水槽 Sg ver (Suisou Sg ver) | Classics are made to be tempered with Here's one band that hasn't been getting a lot of rest in 2017. 新葬ラ謳 (Shin Homura Uta) includes two versions of MUCC's 葬ラ謳 (Homura Uta) - a remastered one and a shiny, new re-recorded one. It was released along with 新痛絶 (Shin Tsuuzetsu) as part of the band's 20 year anniversary extravaganza, its announcement coming in contiguity with their '哀愁とアンティークと痛みも葬る (Aishuu to Antique to Itami mo Homoru)' summer tour, in which they exclusively performed materials from their first two EPs and first two full length studio albums. There isn't much to say about the remastered version, so this review will focus on the new recording. This release is not just about paying a nostalgic tribute to their past or reliving it. Revised 葬ラ謳 is as vibrant and relevant as the original was 15 years ago; not much has changed on the surface, yet everything sounds different. It's a great example for an album that has evolved in a similar way language does, with its tracks going through years of being performed live, re-recorded, and remixed; the result is something anyone who speaks visual-kei can understand, but with noticeable changes. 葬ラ謳 was a fairly commercially successful album. It was first released in September 2002 as a limited edition that sold out quickly; a regular edition came the next month, and a reissue of the limited edition came in 2004. This album had a story to tell - a story of distilled anguish, pain, sorrow, loss and all those other heart-wrenching emotions and experiences that have been driving people to create art throughout history. In that sense, they never offered anything revolutionary; they were just good storytellers who used heaps of murky sound and raw energy to create something people could relate to. It is also clear that grunge, alternative rock and even nu metal were among their many interests at that point, and they were learning them carefully and experimenting with them as best as they could. In 2017, the same album tells a completely different story. The muddy sound is replaced with a polished presentation, which might strike some v-kei veterans as 'lacking depth' or even 'less than genuine'. It’s true that nothing can replace those pain-driven shrieks in the original “絶望 (Zetsubou)” or “ズタズタ (Zutazuta)” that sound like someone’s soul being run over by an 18-wheeler. But this is just where the potency of the new recording lies; it doesn’t try to recreate the original, it uses it as a foundation to create something new. It doesn’t only show the experience the band has gained in the past 15 years, developing both in terms of musical skills and delivery, which can clearly be heard in Tatsuro’s crisp vocals and Satochi’s precise drumming. 新葬ラ謳 is a story that couldn’t have been told the way it is without the band’s (sometimes questionable) musical endeavors over the years and could be seen as a journey journal of sorts - one that doesn't leave out even newfound quirks, like in “前へ (Mae e)", which now includes an auto-tuned reggae moment brought to you by music nerd Miya. “前へ” was re-recorded in 2014 for the “ENDER ENDER” single, and it shows that nothing is sacred in the name of nostalgia - everything can be torn, mixed, glued on, and tempered with for the sake of trying out new things. Many of the other changes are smaller and rather conservative, like a new verse in “帰らぬ人 (Kaeranu Hito)” and an altered enunciation of the lyrics on many of the tracks, but they're enough to turn 新葬ラ謳 into something worth listening to in an of itself, even for those familiar with the original release. People who have been listening to this album for years will have a lot of fun playing ‘spot the difference’ while listening to this. This solid and clean rendition of a classic wasn’t only a chance to play around the border of nostalgia, self-cover, and re-imagine, but also a great way to introduce old material to new fans. MUCC have always been open to adapt to trends, experiment, and evolve, which means they’ve gained new listeners with every release (and probably lost some along the way). A crowd that’s been around since カルマ (Karma), SHANGRI-LA, or THE END OF THE WORLD will not necessarily bother checking out their older releases unless they keep them alive and relevant, which is something they’ve succeeded in by re-recording both 痛絶 and 葬ラ謳 and taking them on tour. This 2-CD package will probably be the first thing I’ll recommend to anyone interested in listening to the band for the first time or exploring their older materials, as well as to more old-school listeners who have been out of the loop for the past couple of years and have been wondering what they’re up to nowadays. Support your jrawk poets: the [limited] and [regular] editions are available to order!

I'm definitely glad both versions exist. The original has an irreplaceable raw quality that they probably wouldn't have been able to recreate today, and they don't need to. I see re-recordings like this as part of a long Japanese tradition of retelling the same story from several different angles, and the story MUCC tell in 2017 is infinitely different than what they could tell in 2001. I recommend to anyone who wants to listen to this (and Shin Homura Uta) to consider this lens instead of a more nostalgic one (that's what the remastered album is for!).

This is a real bummer. One of the most impressive things about their sound is his drumming.