Pretsy

Why do people look over their first mini though? Not that it's stellar but some surprising koteosa songcraft from them:
 
 

As you should!
 
I thought about including 176BIZ actually, but then I remembered their music style was all over the place (they even ripped off MUCC in one of their first singles lol) and their looks weren't really similar to the more colorful ones from the same era, save for Tara. Their first full-length (Atelier?) was really good though.
 
@CarmelzorsI vaguely remember enjoying some of AN CAFE's pre-Shikisai Moment songs, but that album was what stuck with me the most. But yeah, their early stuff wasn't actually all that happy and bubbly music they came to embrace later in their career.

Which of these three iconic songs all titled "Without you" is your fave????????????????????????
 
1
La'Cryma Christi 
 
Released at the peak of the visual kei bubble, this April 1999 single by one of the four princes of VK hit the top 10 (back when you actually had to sell to get in the top 10) with 35,000 sales. Iconic solo? Check.  Not featured on a regular album because they couldn't make it work? Check. Dancing in a futuristic grain silo? Check. 3 inch platform heels? Check. Power lesbian haircuts? Check. Overwraught nasal vocals? Oh fucking check.
 
2
Fantastic Plastic Machine 
 
The KING of Japanese electronica/dance not named Cornelius or Tetsuya or Nakata released this housey bop back in 2010. Featuring exotic Canadian vocals from the guy at Monkey Majik, this dance track is the only one here to be available on vinyl. Please consider this before voting.
 
3
X Japan 
 
Two overwraught brainwashed queens hug it out over some images of a guy who's been dead 15 years at this point and truly awful strings. 
 
 
 
 
 
which is ur fave, like comment and subscribe
 

You share common passion towards Migos, Perfume, P-Model and Baroque?
 
Man you are definitely the one with no boundaries
 
Huge welcome bruh.

If you pal around with psychopaths you kinda lose the right to feel shocked when they do something like this 

Uroboros era was the last one I think (Stuck Man, Toguro) - and as in the present day, we still *KNOW* that the album is supposed to be out in months (not a year lol) or so

Uroboros era was the last one I think (Stuck Man, Toguro) - and as in the present day, we still *KNOW* that the album is supposed to be out in months (not a year lol) or so

MH drama is so much more interesting than people thinking they're nobel laureates giving out their political insights with the confidence of David Brent and the self-awareness of Norma Desmond. 

It's truly sad when people outside the USA have a better grasp of our country's policies, than the American people in it.
 
Seriously.

Regardless of political alignments, can we at least agree that the people who
 
a ) voted for fucking Harambe
b ) voted for Clinton SOLELY based on the fact that she's a woman (i KNOW these people exist) while ignoring everything else
 
are objectively dumb?

Very touching lyricism right here.
 
And I am pretty sure "pussy in the white house" was totes intentional with those cat clips right there
 
 
 
 
Tuesday (Wednesday here) is coming, you freaks.

Very touching lyricism right here.
 
And I am pretty sure "pussy in the white house" was totes intentional with those cat clips right there
 
 
 
 
Tuesday (Wednesday here) is coming, you freaks.

this is how you open a concert.
 
 
also not vk but
 

What bothers me as a long-time member is that I actually recognize this kawaii person's trademark commentary from the past...
 
#neverwithoutMH

hey, but you were looking for job opportunities in japan, weren't you? 
coincidence? i don't think so.

What bothers me as a long-time member is that I actually recognize this kawaii person's trademark commentary from the past...
 
#neverwithoutMH

いしきはもっとかわいいです。^w^
 

What bothers me as a long-time member is that I actually recognize this kawaii person's trademark commentary from the past...
 
#neverwithoutMH

I have trouble believing that OP even has the mental wherewithal to cross the street unaided, let alone go to Japan to look for kawaii jrockers to gawk at.

In regards to listener demography (age-wise)
 
90s kids: B'z
00s kids: Bump of Chicken
10s kids: ONE OK ROCK
 
There.

It's just Terry Tate's anti-Trump advert manipulation AFAIK
 
But regardless of all the media hulabaloo, the *first* female president will step in anyway no matter what kind of campaigning is done around here tbqh. It's a real goddamn shame that folks over there really bothered to forget the fact that both candidates literally KILLED all the chances for 3rd party candidates to step in. So where was the promising Libertarian majority? Where did Ron Paul voters go (to be honest, I still respect him for staying true to his positions)?
 
I am not gonna play politics here but I do really think that there's the idea of "a plant" being more or less legit here - discrediting GOP's voters much? It's rather suspicious that voters are being put to HATE each other and especially those being stuck on the middle ground ("one vote for x is one vote for Clinton/Trump etc."), what the fuck guys?!
 
But there is no hope for a country with no centrists anyway (Perot may have been truly the last kind of figure), methinks.
 
(regards, grumpy hybrid centrist/left libertarian)

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

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.
 
 

what kind of graceful Richter Belmont LARP slayage is that

Steven Tanaka just wrote a pretty interesting blog post on this "city pop revival" that's going on within Japanese indie. Now personally, I've always thought city pop was used to refer to a subset of Jpop...stuff like HITOMITOI, especia and others, but apparently the Japanese have also been using the term to refer to this new trend of Western sounding indie bands - stuff like the fin., awesome city club, never young beach, mitsume, and others. As such, I thought it might be a topic of interest for some of you and perhaps one worth discussing. @fitear1590, @seurong, @beni, @indigo, @Carmelzors- I'd definitely be interested in hearing what you guys think on the matter.
 
http://www.nextmusicfromtokyo.com/?p=6585
 
And another article on city pop, which Steve links to in his post: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2015/07/05/music/city-pop-revival-literally-trend-name/#.WA5l7i0rKM9
 
Overall, I would have to agree with Steve. At the risk of sounding like some elitist weeb, I've always been more attracted to Japan's indie scene over a good bit of the indie stuff coming out of Europe and North America. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy indie music from all over, but Japan has always had a particular flavor to their musicality, to their rhythms, that you don't always hear replicated elsewhere. So while I do enjoy some of these up-and-coming "city pop" bands, I also can't help but feel that this is a much less exciting direction for Japan's indie scene in general. :/
 
I do disagree on a few of the minor details, though. Like siamese cats - I think those guys have only become better since "crossing over". D.A.N., is fairly enjoyable, and so is mitsume and never young beach. My major issue with these bands, though is that their styles have all gotten tiresome rather quickly for me. For instance, mitsume had some dope stuff on their EPs, but both of their full-lengths have been easily forgettable, and never young beach's new album is already snooze-worthy compared to the last. It's like all of these bands got the idea "let's play this specific style of music", but didn't think about how to expand upon that idea or truly make it their own after they exhausted said idea.
 
Let's not forget the infamous "club club":

awesome city club
and summer club
helsinki lambda club
litchi hikari club
marquee beach club
Healthy Dynamite Club
Ancient Youth Club
 
 
...etc
 
From what I've heard, most of these bands have been pretty boring and haven't really done anything to stand out. I can perfectly understand why people would be into this "city pop" sound, though. In general, it's just easy-going, feel-good music. But with Japanese indie seeming to be in a relative slump in general (at least from my perspective), it's difficult for me not to take issue with this trend.