secret_no_03

I was looking these guys up on Twitter and saw about it, but is like 5 people really a shit storm?

I don't know much about the infrastructure of Japan as far as internet availability and speed goes, but in the west it's still miles behind what it should be. This is partly why streaming video games isn't very popular and things like redbox have found a market in rural America. Plenty of people have 20mb down, like I said not sure how speeds are in Japan, but I myself came from dial up to satellite to DSL to fiber, so from crawling to 20ish to 50 and now around 200 down. It's a little off topic, but this 5G thing has plenty of people worried because of how powerful it is and the effects it may have on humans, especially since plenty of radiation already comes from cell phones already.

I'll never forget the 8cm of hide's Pink Spider single.

Yeah, Japan hates piracy, which is funny how VK created a monster of piracy with their galapogosian ways. Coming from a good stint in Japanese hip hop which is even more niche in Japan, Japanese piracy laws are a scary thing.

CD shops are like antique shops in the west. I wouldn't worry too much about them going belly up in Japan until Tower Records shuts down. Hell, by then all of the small shops will most likely already be gone.

The prices would be nowhere near as much as buying a physical CD and having it shipped to you. It would only affect anyone who for whatever reason doesn't have access to iTunes or Google music or Amazon etc, some form of digital distribution. The market would dictate prices just like it does with everything else and iTunes and the others could have a war to see who makes stuff cheaper. I guess my way of thinking is strictly from a gaijin standpoint.

The talk of loving to buy physical CDs/DVDs and all of the perks that come with it got me thinking about the (near?) future of the scene in a world where all music is digital. Very few computers come with a CD drive, Spotify and Apple Music are growing more than ever; Apple even dropping iTunes for a plain music app, and although the retro music renaissance is a thing with vinyl making a comeback, the future of physical media is looking grim. I definitely see Japan (especially since they still have CD rentals, something that is very rare or non-existent in the west) being dragged into the future of music distribution kicking and screaming; Visual Kei especially. VK popularized multi-type albums, single release campaigns and as far as I know (please correct me if I'm wrong) the live only singles. If Japan gets to a point where you need to buy a separate device to burn a CD and God forbid CD players in cars go by the way side, then their CDs will be a relic of a bygone era. Honestly, the day video game consoles stop having CD drives, the DVD will die and DVD players will become VHS players (those are harder than hell to find), I'll be very upset as someone who's amassed a great many movies and such. There is also the fear of everything being lost forever. I'm sure all of us have cursed the heavens when we lose files and don't have a physical copy to back them up. I suppose itunes would be a solution, but if that ever crashed...well I don't want to think about it. Anyway, I look forward to seeing what everyone else thinks, the pros and cons of all of our cherished CDs and DVDs becoming not only obsolete, but useless...

I wouldn't like everything to be on Spotify (although you could save stuff offline), but I would like for everything to be available on iTunes globally. It will never happen for plenty of reasons, but it would make stuff more accessible and cheaper and they could charge whatever they want in theory (not sure if iTunes has guidelines for pricing.).

Very good point. It's easy to forget that majority of these guys have day jobs and are the modern day equivalent of the starving artist, just in this case they're working at a gas station during the day and performing at night. I suppose there's those who make it as a host as well, but majority are surviving on the minimum.

A perfect example of art imitating life. I'm excited to see the whole thing.

I'm firmly of the belief that the reason TRNTY D:CODE have had so much trouble since forming, whether it be delaying releases or just having issues with the mixing, etc is because they're managed by YOHIO who has no business managing a label when he lives on another continent.

That predatory multi-type release thing would never fly in the west, but it's been a staple of VK, more than likely the labels rather than the bands coming up with the idea. This is another reason the industry doesn't want to move to streaming because you can't do that when you can just purchase individual songs from the other types.

Yeah, I can't think of any band in the west that tries to actually make money on music sales. Like you said, they supplement it with merch and the percentage from shows. I mean I guess if Japan does ever move to digital; I mean they still have CD rental stores and most computers don't have a disc drive these days lol, Japan will probably be pushed into the future by force at some point.

I'll always love MEJIBRAY, but I have to agree, there's plenty that's just not good. Most singles aren't worth listening to, but I've enjoyed every album.

Good point. The same could be said for those massive tours.

So, I harp on this all of the time, so I thought I'd make a topic to dig into this. I come from the era of VK i.e. the mid 2000s where releases were every few months, if not every month and albums came at least once a year, at the bare minimum every 9 months. Today, I look at all of these new bands, sarigia, DEXCORE, TRNTY D:CODE, DIMLIM, so many I can name that have been around going on two years and their releases are few and far between and no album yet. Hell, SARIGIA have fallen off the face of the planet unless you go to their shows. Anyway, I'm just wondering what you think it may be the reason for the lack of releases, especially albums from these and many other new bands? Is it lack of making new songs, a new marketing gimmick that's predicated on live only releases and stretching out time between releases or is it something else? I mean NAZARE are pretty much brand new and for better or worse they've released a wealth of stuff. I think it might be something to do with these coupling shows being more prevalent so they only have to play five songs or so a show, so they don't have to worry about stretching out a set list. Anyway, I'm suspecting that the true reason will be blatantly obvious.

Well, I tried. When I first heard them last year, I thought they sounded like a Diru rip-off, and now they're moving towards finding their own style, but it just doesn't do anything for me. Probably just not my cup of tea.

I swear I've seen this quarry before.

Either Atsushi from DĂLLE/Lüstzöe, he's a chill fellow, or KENZI from Dead Pop Stars/ANTI FEMINISM, we could go to either a baseball game or wrestling show. I'd love to pick the brain of a few people, Akane, Akira Yamaoka and Joe Hisaishi.

Yeah, that's what I meant, full stuff, but thank you. I just started following Kagami so I'll have to go through it all and check it out.

RENTRER EN SOI - Shinwa DIR EN GREY - Akuro no Oka GACKT - Last Song, MEJIBRAY - Sou to utsu to Kyoukai, Emily DEATHGAZE - SINNER, Love Song GACKT & HYDE - Orenji no Taiyou I'll add as I think of more.

I was wondering if anyone knows of bands that it's nearly impossible to find live audio or video of? The first that comes to mind for me is DEXCORE, TRNTY D:CODE and a few others. I don't know if it's a thing where they ban phones at shows or people just keep it for themselves or what. I mean you go on Youtube and look at for instance this video Kiyoharu's show last December and the crowd was full of phones lol.

I enjoyed that, it's nice to see that they're forging an identity of their own now.

Kagami's cover of PtP Weight of My Pride (RIP K)

I'd have to go with Kisaki and that's coming from someone who's been a fan of both UCP and DIR EN GREY concurrently for fifteen years. I personally don't see anything special about Toshiya and there are plenty better than the both of them.