jaymee

In no particular order...

1. Shiina Ringo/Tokyo Jihen

2. THE NOVEMBERS

3.  フレデリック (Frederick)

4. The Checkers

5. Thee Michelle Gun Elephant

6. SIM

7. Supercar

8. The Brilliant Green

9. Shishido Kavka

10. Bugy Craxone

Honestly this list was hard to make since I like most of these and a lot of other bands about the same, so I decided to go for listing up a lot of artists from different genres instead.

Recently been listening to more Lightbringer, which would probably appeal to VK fans, esp older fans that appreciate some of the neo-classic melodies of 90s VK.

Well, since nobody else has said it yet... BUCK-TICK

Even though they technically "formed" in 1983, they didn't start performing at live houses together until 1985. They played Tokyo Dome to about 50,000 people in 1989. (An amazing feat, considering Imai had been arrested and just released for LSD possession and the political climate toward drug use was harsher than it is now.)

In that regard you could say bands like BUCK-TICK and LUNA SEA were riding the rock wave that would eventually spawn the offshoot genre of VK. I find it more interesting that VK's 4 "God Bands" never achieved as much commercial success as their predecessors, nor are they as well-remembered by the general public or even current (overseas) VK fans now.

3 hours ago, InunahX said:

 

Yea, thast quite unfortunately, i must say i never really tried all of their music,  but from what i have heard they interest me quite abit.

Might check them out more later today.

You should!

If you like their harder music, there are a lot of gems on Epilogue like "LOVE IS DEAD" and "Liberty, babies". Also semi-hard songs like "NOSFERATU" from Epilogue and "Matenrou Chaos" off their latest album.

Since they're reviving their Doppelganger concept this summer, many of their fans are hoping they play all of their harder songs off the Doppelganger album at some point during the tour. (And hopefully we'll get a DVD D:)

On 2017/5/15 at 1:20 AM, frozen_bug said:

Kamijo's voice during his time in Lareine was just obnoxious, dude was singing like a whole octave higher.

I agree his voice has improved a lot over the years, but the major autotuning on much of Kamijo's work post-Lareine is a real turn off sometimes imho. 

You can really see the improvement in his voice comparing the two:

But so much of the passion Kamijo and other other members had in Lareine is now gone. (On another note I'm really upset I wasn't able to go to this live since Machi was my favorite Lareine member. :/)

Ugh, I love Deadman and wish they'd never disbanded. I also regret never being able to see them live. I had really hoped more of VK would have gone in the direction they were taking it.  Perhaps not their best song, but my favorite:

Been listening to this old favorite a lot lately.

@InunahXI agree, or rather I prefer their harder stuff, which they had more of early in their career. Fortunately they still occasionally do hard song-only fan club lives.  

As an "old" VK fan that normally doesn't like oshare-kei (and survived that horrible phase of VK), Jack Caper sounds pretty good from that vid. I actually disagree that the vocalist is annoying compared to most oshare kei vocalists. I would sit through their show at a taiban.

I think Zig Zag's concept is pretty cool and they sound fine, but musically are not my cup of tea.

The rest... uhhhh no comment. 

But I appreciate you compiling this to keep us in the loop of what's going on in indies VK.

For anyone new to PLC or the PLC fandom/PLC lives in Japan, here's some general info about the band which you may find helpful.

PLC/Psycho le Cemu (Pronounced "Saiko-ru-Sheimu", and shortened to Saiko by fans/gya) is a five-member band from Himeji, Hyogo Prefecture. They formed in 1999 and it wasn't long before they gained popularity in the post-90s VK scene, landing them a major label contract and debut in 2003. Then, in 2005, Daishi was arrested and charged for using meth, and then the band soon went on hiatus. Unfortunately Daishi's arrest burned the band's dreams of playing Budokan, but unable to let this dream go, the members decided to reunite following their 15th anniversary in the hopes of still playing there some day.

Each member has a color and distinct character, and both are represented through costume and story concepts for each release.

Daishi (Blue) - The hero

AYA (Pink) - The girl

seek (Green) - The monster

YURA-sama (Yellow) - Warrior or mystic (Often depicted as being rich, noble, or egotistical)

Lida (Orange) - Sidekick or whatever is left over

You can find a general catalogue of their story and character concepts for each release here, almost up until their hiatus in 2005. (in Japanese) They reformed briefly in 2006 to perform a tour for the release of their Epilogue album, and then continued their hiatus status until 2009 when they toured to celebrate their 10th anniversary. Following another hiatus after that, they got back together for a 15th anniversary performance in 2015, before officially resuming activities that following September.

For the most part, their lives consist of playing their music before, between, and after skits or plays of each their story concepts. They also MC and tell jokes, often pointing fun at Lida, Yura-sama's big nose, or their (female) fans. Fans wear glow bracelets in their favorite member color(s). In the past, fans would also carry glow sticks in these same colors, but recently less fans are carrying them or have replaced them with light-up rings. Most of their songs have corresponding furitsuke, and new fans might find much of this furi difficult/overwhelming at first.

As far as stage positioning goes, despite being the leader and lead guitar, Lida takes the shimote position (audience left) while second guitar AYA takes the kamite position (audience right)

If you follow the fandom online, you'll notice that many fans and gya refer to other fans (and occasionally the members themselves) as Saiko Yarou (サイコ野郎) and the band as (最古). The former means something like "psycho punks" and the latter is a pun meaning "super old", seeing as both Lida and Daishi are already over 40. Each member also has their own nickname(s) online.

Daishi - D

Lida - リダ or リーダー (Leader)

AYA - アヤ or 彩 (AYA used to write his name with this character during their early career)

seek -シーク or  飼育 (a phonetic reading of "shiiku", literally meaning "breeding")

YURA-sama - 鼻様 (Hana-sama, or Nose-sama, because of his larger nose)

How are there so many threads for indiefag bands but none for PLC? 

Ain't nobody doin VK like this anymore,  y'all.

So yesterday they revealed these new Doppelganger revival costumes and gya are losing their shit at how ridiculous they are this time.   I included the older version on the left for reference.

PLC Members -  Previous Concept → Current Concept

Vocal: DAISHI (D) - Cri'n Hunt Revolution → Animal Crusher

Guitar: Lida  - Heaven's Wings → Space Fire

Dance/Guitar: AYA  - Alice → Pink Fighter

Bass: seek - Ura-Ashitaka → Kajiki Poseidon (Marlin Poseidon)

Dance/Vocal/Drums: Yura-sama - Purple Prince → Purple Perseus

@sakurakurakura

Thanks for that addition! I figured one of those kore/sore/are was probably a vag reference (to avoid censorship or explicitly singing the word themselves) but it's great and also hilarious that there's a special guide for this. I'll update the translation.

Def think you've hit the nail on the head for the other parts.

7 hours ago, Saishu said:

I suppose in the context of VK, a year since the last new thing is a long time. But these veteran bands are slowing down. When was the last time Gazette released something? Was it Undying?  

Which veteran bands? D:

Most veteran bands seem to already be on hiatus or only work together during their solo project down time. Even then they still manage to be releasing more frequently than DEG. BUCK-TICK is still able to release an album once every year, and while their last few albums many not be as great as their past work, it still sounds better than 90% of what is coming out in VK these days.

14 hours ago, Ro plz said:

 

Utafumi.....the alleged two new songs that @nekkichimentioned and now not only is Die and Kyo in other bands, Shinya started doing solo work. Also they stated that whatever solo is going on will siphon back into Dir en grey. They are fine and if anything the latest DVD's showed (minus Mode of DSS) that they still got it. Also @Saishuis right, these gaps in releases really ain't that big of a deal. Just let em cook. Dir en grey ain't going anywhere. 

 

This paranoia around em disbanding is starting to become tiring man. 

 

That's some really optimistic thinking... Also not usually how things happen when members embark on solo projects in VK. Hopefully for their fans' sake DEG will be the exception tho. 

14 hours ago, LIDL said:

What makes me concern just that their physical releases seems to get more and more expensive. There should be a stop to that.

I hope their next album won't cost as ridiculous as sukekiyo's CDs

 

shrugs

The yen is crap ATM and less people are buying physical releases. Can't be helped.

Personally I don't mind since I feel like sukekiyo is everything I've always thought Dir had the potential to be but didn't become.

On 2017/7/10 at 10:24 PM, Platy said:

 

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

I suggest following a lot of different music blogs. This is how I discover a lot of "good"/indies Western music.

I think with older alternative rock/rock or visual kei, the problem is that times have changed so it's going to be difficult to find that exact sound by a modern band. It's kind of like trying to find new bands playing disco music from the 70s... Some might be influenced by it and incorporate bits and pieces of that sound, but it's not going to sound exactly the same. This makes sense, since most music is made in response to the trends and cultural shifts going on at that time. But since the VK artists from the early 00s on were generally not part of that culture themselves, they have no connection to its roots, and most bands now are just imitating previous bands for fashion /expression and/or to make money off an established formula. To people who have been in the scene for some time, it looks like the music of today's artists has no soul.

But I think VK was originally born out of a lot of imitation of punk and rock bands of the generations before it, so only time will tell if today's artists will lead to newer artists carving out their own version of the genre or if the genre will continue to stagnate until it dies out and something else takes its place.

14 hours ago, Saishu said:

Utafumi was released a year ago. I'd say as far as DEG's release schedule for new music goes, this is about par the course for the last decade. 

One single in three years is par for the course? D:

20 hours ago, nekkichi said:

arche probably performed worse than expected, and they're giving fan thirst an opportunity to grow stronger in the absence of new music.

 

 

they just don't go the same route as other bands announcing "D≠ee will go on hiatus from Feb., 15 to August, 21, best-off collection still available @ selected tower records stores!!", and it's not the first album they're cooking for longer than expected.

 

two new songs during last years tour tho.

If arche had performed worse than expected, I imagine there'd be more pressure to release new stuff than just tour to bolster income.

I don't think fan thirst has gone anywhere... After they gave up the VK thing, the fans that have remained are pretty ride or die at this point. Dir could release an album of Kyo farting instead of growling/singing and I doubt their sales would tip much lol.

6 hours ago, WhirlingBlack said:

To be honest, this whole event was a disappointment in comparison to what could've been. Don't get me wrong, Dir performed excellently and based on the reactions of the Pierrot fans so did they, but it was just like watching two shorter than usual oneman sets tacked on top of each other rather than the special clash between the legendary 90s vk bands it was billed as. They barely even acknowledged each other beyond short mcs. Based on what could've been, I did leave feeling disappointed, despite that Dir performed a really good set the second day.

Neither band really looked all that into it, tbh.  I think Pierrot had the better set list but Dir gave a better performance/Dir fans were way more enthused.

On a random note... What did you think of the flyers for all of the Dir member solo projects and the Dir en grey best of album coming out? Like I hate to board the "Dir is disbanding omg" bandwagon, but no new material in 2-3 years, tour rehashes of all their albums, the only new release this year a 20th anniversary best of album, and more solo project promotion than band promotion doesn't usually mean good things in the J-music world... With that in mind, II'm going to try and make an effort to go to one of the Mode of Macabre shows since it may be the only time I ever get to hear those songs played.

14 hours ago, zombieparadise said:

Aw man, kind of disappointed nothing 'bigger' happened than this, but all the outfits looked grand.

 

Guess I'm gonna go halfsies with my girlfriend on the DVD as our favorite bands are PIERROT / DIru - woooo

Agreed. I was thought we were gonna get a special collab song at least.

Interestingly enough, it seems like quite a few current indies VK dudes made it a point to be at the show.

Here are some pics from PIERROT's fan club:

On 2017/7/9 at 11:54 PM, Chi said:

 

Since the girl wrote "I don't remember" on the second day image of Kaoru...

He was dressed in (what appeared to be) all black and had this skull make-up going on across the mouth. Possibly the first day, as well, but I wasn't close enough to see and the screen didn't pan on him a ton.

On 2017/7/10 at 8:16 AM, wildjokerleia said:

I will! And I bet it's gonna come in a box that is a pain in the ass to find a shelf for it too.

 

Oh well, at least it comes with a photobook to at least justify the possible weird-ass box dimensions for the swaggeriffic deluxe set.

THIS. I imagine it (at least the special vers) will be some honker box like the Pierrot Dictator's Circus Final one from SSA came in.

Less fancy boxes, more DVD/photo extras. D:

On 2017/7/10 at 5:49 PM, Disposable said:

Is Pierrot like, back to business or are they just existing in a limbo where they can keep the dumb fanclub for that extra income that Angelo hasn't brought? 

The latter, except the fan club is paid yearly instead of by month, and it will end at the end of January 2018. Basically they only re-open to offer ticket and other pre-orders, special events (like fan viewing parties or something), and news/fan club e-zine. Or in other words, it's all to get that coin. TBH there's no real point in joining it unless you want better/good tix that come printed on fancy paper.

On 2017/7/10 at 6:29 PM, LIDL said:

I wonder if the bands realize not many of their fans are super wealthy to justify that kind of price tag?    

Ah, but VK girls in Japan will spend an endless amount of money on their honmei. I saw multiple girls dropping 20,000 - 50,000 yen on these Pierrot lottery stickers in hopes of getting the random, special signed ones. They sold out both days.

Hell, Pierrot was selling a diamond necklace as tour goods for 50,000 yen and I imagine quite a few girls bought one, or begged their b/fs or husbands to.

I've only seen the trailer for this at VJS (and several times there, because X Japan... er Yoshiki... had it play over and over again while they were 30 min+ late to start their show per usual), but yeah it pretty much looked like an entire documentary fap to Yoshiki.

I like X and don't deny how important/influential they were to the scene, but I get tired of Yoshiki/X acting like they were they only band or even first band (because it's so debatable) that started VK, which is something he states in the trailer. I feel like some humility would go a long way, and could only add to the respect Yoshiki/the band has.

15 hours ago, kukew said:

Dir en grey - 304号室、白死の桜

Dir en grey - Cage

Dir en grey - THE FINAL

アヲイ - 哀しい歌

アヲイ - 生キル為ノ歌

アヲイ - 終夜灯

D.I.D -  A forlorn hope

D.I.D - BLEADEAR

AvelCain - 片想い

グリーヴァ - Bondage

グリーヴァ - Wish

グリーヴァ - Diary

Due le quartz - 自殺願望

Dio - Distraught Overlord - Haunting

愛狂います。 - トウメイニンゲン

愛狂います。 - ネクロノミコン

愛狂います。 - スターマイン

愛狂います。 - オカルト・キラー

Re: Due le quartz - 自殺願望 

Can you hit that one high note that Sakito always misses? XD

7 hours ago, sakurakurakura said:

蜉蝣 -  XII Dizzy

蜉蝣 - 白い鴉

蜉蝣 - 縄

Dir en grey - Garden

Dir en grey - 24個シリンダー

Dir en grey - かすみ

BUCK-TICK - 月世界

BUCK-TICK - MISS TAKE～僕はミス・テイク～

BUCK-TICK - ROMANCE

deadman - lunch box

deadman - ドリスからの手紙

Laputa - 揺れながら・・・

Laputa - Virgin cry

ゴールデンボンバー - 死 ん だ 妻 に 似 て い る

 

I applaud your excellent taste in music ♡

4 hours ago, emmny said:

banging white chicks is his secret...here's to hoping his sexy ass continues drinking from the fountain of youth

 

are there outfit sketches for diru yet? kyo's selfie delivered me from all my sins and i hope the rest of those guys pulled some sexy shit.

shinya's white ruffles were cute but...typical!

Maybe someone will post later. I didn't buy pamphlets cuz they were 5,000 yen PER DAY. Some highway robbery shit y'all lol

The special two-day live DVD/Blu-ray will include a live photo booklet tho.

BARKS did a live report for the first day which had a couple of pics and I imagine one of the VK mags or another music news outlet will eventually do a two-day report with some pics.

32 minutes ago, emmny said:

 

 

in 10 years i will be known as a REVOLUTIONARY...some discourse is just...ahead of its time .

kirito is gonna freeze his dna and replicate and be beautiful into 2057

I wouldn't have a problem with that.

And maybe he'll finally perform DNA live instead of skipping it like he's done the last four reunion shows :/

Y'all I was 3-4th row center for yesterday's show I don't even know what I did to be blessed by the VK gods like that.

Too much to quote on my phone but!

- Pierrot just got back together for the live like last time. Unlike Dir, they weren't recruiting for their fan club and all the freebies they gave out were for their solo bands. I agree with you @chemicalpicturesabout Angelo/LM.C D:

- No CD probably, but there will be DVDs/Blu-ray of both days and each day.

- @emmny I mean you're free to flaunt how wrong you are but... As much as I love Kirito, Yasu has def aged better and the proof is in the HD filming. Sorry gurl.

I'll post a few pics later but my general thoughts were:

- Dir should have played more older stuff. Most of the Dir fans were familiar with Pierrot's set (they didn't play anything off ID Attack besides their Psychadelic Lover single) while most Pierrot fans knew nothing past Macabre/Kisou/Vulgar and were just patiently waiting for Dir to be over while trying not to get knocked in the head by their more aggressive fans.

I know Dir hates their VK past and Kyo gonna do what he wants so whatev but it would have made for a much less disjointed show imho.

- Everyone looked so good both days. Personal fave was Kirito's second day outfit and Die's long hair D: Even Toshiya managed to look slightly less homeless. Like he found some rich dude's clothes his wife threw out in the dumpster after discovering he was cheating on her.

- Androgynos seemed to just be a visual theme, as Dir didn't do any old visual stuff besides Akuro no Oka and Zan, and none of the bands did any session music together at the end.

- Before the live they really harped on the Megiddo vs. Acro hill war and even renamed the stadium areas into diff zones making it hard to figure out how good your tix were until the day of lol but then at the live both Kirito and Kyo were just like wtf is this hill war anyway? I dunno guys just become one and shit lol It was cute tho

- The band themed food was a nice touch, and the goods were nice as well. Also the goods line was waaaay more efficient than Pierrot's reunion three years ago at SSA. Thankful for that cuz GD it was so hot and humid outside.

On 2017/7/2 at 5:53 AM, Keiyuu said:

IKUYA, guitarist and composer from the Nagoya band Ti+Dee (1991~1995):

 

 

 

In the "recent" pic he totally looks like Aki during his Laputa days. I think it's the eye make-up.

I'm not sure I want a funeral... And chances are I'm probably gonna have some Buddhist guy chanting crap and cremating my body to be buried with my husband/his family if I get one, but...

I think La'cryma Christi's "Eien" would be a nice song to go out with.

Or this symphonic version of PIERROT's "Kowareteiku Kono Sekai de"