spockitty

Maybe if I start earlier than halfway through the year I'll manage to listen to all the stuff I want to~? 
 
visual kei / jrock
 
 
jpop / kpop/rock / everything else
 
 

Few months ago I would have said COFFEE!!1! but I've since quit. I was heavily dependant on caffeine, to the point of headaches and dizziness if I went too long without it (too long being few hours), which is not surprising since I could have up to 5 cups per day. I first moved onto caffeine pills and then quit those too altogether.  I now only drink it on occasion. 
 
I'd been drinking coffee since very young age I feel like, 18-19? since my parents have always had this ritual of brewing coffee in the morning and then a second one at noon, I eventually joined. I was never a coffee aficionado, neither were my parents, we just had the mid range, store bought ground coffee and I then moved to mid range, store bought instant lol 
 
Now tea though. Tea I like to get fancy with. I mostly drink green tea these days, jasmine green tea is my all time favourite, but I like black and white teas too. HATE red tea with a passion, and fruit teas to a lesser extent. I also like to drink all kinds of dried herbs like fennel, mint, chamomile, lemon balm etc. 
 
I also love my beer tea flavoured :'D
 

Few months ago I would have said COFFEE!!1! but I've since quit. I was heavily dependant on caffeine, to the point of headaches and dizziness if I went too long without it (too long being few hours), which is not surprising since I could have up to 5 cups per day. I first moved onto caffeine pills and then quit those too altogether.  I now only drink it on occasion. 
 
I'd been drinking coffee since very young age I feel like, 18-19? since my parents have always had this ritual of brewing coffee in the morning and then a second one at noon, I eventually joined. I was never a coffee aficionado, neither were my parents, we just had the mid range, store bought ground coffee and I then moved to mid range, store bought instant lol 
 
Now tea though. Tea I like to get fancy with. I mostly drink green tea these days, jasmine green tea is my all time favourite, but I like black and white teas too. HATE red tea with a passion, and fruit teas to a lesser extent. I also like to drink all kinds of dried herbs like fennel, mint, chamomile, lemon balm etc. 
 
I also love my beer tea flavoured :'D
 

Few months ago I would have said COFFEE!!1! but I've since quit. I was heavily dependant on caffeine, to the point of headaches and dizziness if I went too long without it (too long being few hours), which is not surprising since I could have up to 5 cups per day. I first moved onto caffeine pills and then quit those too altogether.  I now only drink it on occasion. 
 
I'd been drinking coffee since very young age I feel like, 18-19? since my parents have always had this ritual of brewing coffee in the morning and then a second one at noon, I eventually joined. I was never a coffee aficionado, neither were my parents, we just had the mid range, store bought ground coffee and I then moved to mid range, store bought instant lol 
 
Now tea though. Tea I like to get fancy with. I mostly drink green tea these days, jasmine green tea is my all time favourite, but I like black and white teas too. HATE red tea with a passion, and fruit teas to a lesser extent. I also like to drink all kinds of dried herbs like fennel, mint, chamomile, lemon balm etc. 
 
I also love my beer tea flavoured :'D
 

it seems like they're rolling out new rules every other day in Poland.
 
personally, I've been on and off on home office for three weeks, and other than going to work, I've been outside all of three times probably, for grocery shopping. Warsaw is pretty deserted, it's kind of eerie~ 
 
 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/uk-52177125
English Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been admitted into hospital.

Thank you. ❤

What are some of your own country favorite "old" songs (pre 1985)? Any genre is welcome (folk, pop, etc.) as both very popular or niche.
 
I would like for this thread to focus manly in non US/UK music (but if one is posted once in a while it's not a big deal, especially if it's something a bit niche), because usually classics from there are pretty know around the world and everyone and their pets has at least an idea of US/UK contemporary music history.
 
I'll start with some of my favorites from Italy:
 

By the way I just had to check if I remembered right and looks like I was correct
 
Retsu has an extremely thirsty fan from that bum town on his IG. DIMLIM is legit going to Siberia so Retsu can get laid.

it's campy, broody, and colorful

they moved Moscow to September 14th and added one new location for 16th apparently? 
 
 
 
 

they moved Moscow to September 14th and added one new location for 16th apparently? 
 
 
 
 

https://open.spotify.com/album/7u2pqpci4NKTg2pia9ltWL?si=4wEtbKuIS3qk8mgq0T9oEg
 
 
Here's the Spotify album, since finding something named "meme" is going to be fucking annoying 
 
And where to find it on other vendors: https://linkco.re/uXV3Ec6h?lang=en

Guys you know Google Translate has a function to translate text from pics?
...
I was actually shocked by Asuka saying that he suffered from Mizuki's power harassment during their first year and the fact that Mizuki has been saying that he wanted to leave for like 6 months but instead of actually leaving, (trying to) damage the reputation of the other members and leaking music related info that wasn't supposed to be shared (yet).
Natsu also mentioned that they were friends for like 10 years, so I can understand if they'd feel so betrayed.

They're better off without him. Maybe not SARIGIA, but Asuka, Natsu and Shoma for sure.
 
-I've been seeing them live often since their 1st anniversary and had no idea this was going on-

Someone who knows better about kpop imitating black culture should tackle this but yeah, it's a thing. Thankfully a thing that my Shinee boys don't do. Hopefully? 
 
I live in south east asia so kpop is unavoidable for me. I can only speak for myself, but what I noticed around me was that the people who first got into kpop weren't into jpop.
 
They were 'mainstream normies' so to speak, so 2000s kpop being more accessible from the start meant that they had much greater exposure to kpop than jpop in the first place. My general impression back then was that kpop was seen as 'fresher',  'more polished' than jpop which has been around for a few years already. So there was the general public getting into kpop + jpop/vk/etc fans getting into kpop but little to no fans gained for jpop/vk. So that was that. Though it was obvious that kpop was taking trend cues from japanese music, like how early dbsk had visual kei hairstyles lol. But they quickly found a style that simply appealed more to the foreign public than jpop/vk did imo. I mean, they had government backing, so....
 
What I dislike about kpop is how they pigeonhole members, like oh guy 1 is the singer, guy 2 is rap and so on. It's weird how they introduce themselves explicitly like that. Of course they have their own strengths but why do that?
 
I don't know about 2010 kpop but I think the surviving groups and artists from 2000s kpop are still quite good and are beginning to have their own musical input.
 
I specifically like songs (partially) written and composed by Donghae of Suju for some reason:
 
Also key's solo albums are prime kpop goodness. 
 
Odd eye best kpop album of the decade tbh, bts can't compare
 
 
 

It seems like Mizuki has been fired from the band...
If i am not wrong, he wanted to leave the band and did not respect the agreements that was settled by informing some fans before the band itself that he intended to leave. 
It seems like he was also revealing some music and band's related stuff to some fans.
 

I don't really understand the official announcement and i am so affected by this... so if someone can explain feel free to correct.
 
 

In 43 mins
 
 

Codomo Dragon have their own channel now:
 
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCD_b1hVAVMQD9-OfirLUqIw
 
 

As the person who belatedly brought this to the foreign limelight and who as also spent a ridiculous amount of time listening to Ray C, Otoiroha, and ジグザグ, I'll see if I can clarify some of your points. 
 
That being said, I'll prepend my further statements w/ additional fan-research done here: 
https://www.kokusai-singlemama.com/columns/wands-uehara1/
https://sebunoda-goodjob.com/2020/01/04/wandsの上原大史は命様なの！？ていうか、ジグザグ/
 
 
I find them pretty much identical if you put them side by side with Otoiroha pics. The distance from the chin to the lower-lip, jawline, etc. He's put on a little more weight (healthy btw) since Otoiroha (which is why he might appear differently.) I had a good comparison image in my initial status write-up, but it appears to be broken right now. If you want something more definitive, his left lateral incisor tooth is identical (and the rest of his teeth.):
*Also jawline tape is also a possibility. Japanese makeup is a hell of a thing.
He uses a different vocal inflection with WANDS, which is a bit "safer" and more appropriate since it requires him to be more technically accurate. His highs, however, are a dead giveaway.
 
He's not actually "frustrated" but more aloof (in typical Japanese fashion) of the subject. I draw parallels with mafumafu (まふまふ) in my status update because they have similar scenarios. They're both guitarists, constantly conceal part of their face, in extremely popular bands/groups, and for mafumafu's case, he's the vocalist of "神様、僕は気づいてしまった" where all the members of the group are in full costume/masks. They want that separation, and in Mikoto's case, between his indie and WANDS presence, the latter of which is pretty much being a j-idol. 
 
-
 
Trying to piece together what I wrote before, it is rumored in the time between Otoiroha and Zigzag that he was scouted by Daikō Nagato (former Being Group CEO and musician) for his indies-era voice. He's credited on a ZARD tribute album and participated in some music festival in 2018 prior to being inducted into WANDS (also from Being Group.)
 
Also attesting to this, since I've posted a large chunk of Zig Zag's earlier live-limited discography on YT, I'm able to view analytics and comments... There was an absolute flurry of viewership + comments in February indirectly mentioning WANDS which confused tf outta me. Comments ranging from older women who were 90's gya having rekindled interest in vk to how good his vocals are in Zig Zag. Other videos have comments stating how handsome he is and how he should stick with WANDS, etc. 
 
In summation, they're absolutely the same person and he's just creating separation between his two careers.
 
 
 

are they ever gonna release anything

no switch, but life, uh, finds a way...
 
 
It's running at about 10~15 fps w/ graphical glitches atm (ryujinx), but I expect it to be playable within a month-or-so.
 
-
 
Recently bought a GTX 1080 for my eGPU enclosure. Finally justifies playing FFXV Windows Edition, but I feel like I'm re-learning the game again b/c I beat it (w/ some additional sidequests) 2~ish weeks after launch and haven't touched the game since.
 
 

It's penis music lol. Okay, I'm not here to talk shit about pop music, especially not Kpop. There's more artistic merit to it than some give it, and many perfectly sane Kpop fans get unfairly lumped in with the Stans. 
 
But man, I used to be really neutral and happy towards Kpop back when I first got into VK, y'know, being like "Hey guys, let's all get along and talk music and have fun 🤗" but then some of them got into my DMs and completely disrespected my music taste, insisted that "It's all Asian, it's the same, so you should love BTS too or something's wrong with you weeb" and I even got into a fight with one because she said some super ignorant things about--not VK or the band--but just metal music in general (didn't help that she attacked Insanity Injection whom I really like but she said "this isn't music, it's people screaming into the mic" and so I just reversed the logic with "[Kpop] is not music, it's meaningless noise created for brainless consoomers"). All of this shit wasn't even on Twitter, it was on fucking anime Instagram posts and random or VK Youtube videos. And nothing, not even saying "I don't like western pop" or "I'm not fond of Jpop myself" calms them down. I've been called racist against Asians because I don't like Kpop--never mind the fact that I'm on this forum so that says something about what I think about Asian people--I'M FROM ASIA. I don't even pass for white more than like 25% of the time... Honestly, it just makes me more and more irate as the years go by, because I was so open minded about it and willing to be friendly and actually listen to their damn band recommendations. At this rate I'll be an unironic Anti before I'm legally old enough to pour my own drinks. 
 
That background is needed to understand my current stance. I did genuinely try to get into Kpop; I started with BTS like they all tell you to and I listened to about 5 different releases of theirs.
 
 I was far from impressed. They sounded behind the times. Not in a charming way, but in a way that made me feel... Uncomfortable? I recognized the electronica-infused choruses and hip-hop inspired verses from Western pop music and even some elements from 2010s fads like tropical house production [God I hated that fad] and asked myself "Why is this any better than the white people stuff?" I don't think it is. I think it's on par, personally. I think this stems from an issue Kpop fans have. They can't just call a mediocre album a mediocre album, or even acknowledge a bad song/album because of hype. It's all got to be amazing, flawless, like the second coming of Christ. Honestly, even bands I consider to be absolutely amazing have some songs I don't hype because they're a step in wrong direction or have questionable production choices, but when I say "Yeah, this album is pretty great, but stay away from track X Y Z, they're not the best" the person receiving my recommendation often finds it funny and listens anyway, and then we can have a laugh about how weird it was for a VK band to do Ska or for the vocalist to think that now's the time to try opera vocals for the first time in his life. Sometimes I even completely shit on a band I love because they're an acquired taste or have an endearing charm and originality that lacks any and all technical savoir-faire. 
 
 
Personally, I don't understand how anyone from any counterculture/alternative music group (wassup punks and Goths) could be really into something mainstream at the same time, I thought we gathered around this stuff because it was alternative and had messages in it that differ from the mainstream.  Sure, you could remark on all the Oshare bands that aren't particularly deep or meaningful to say that VK in general is artistically bankrupt but it also wouldn't be fair if I pretended that this whole scene is just deliciously layered social/political commentary like Diru or idiosyncratic cultural experimentalism like Guruguru Eigakan.  On the mainstream aspect, I mean, the mainstream kind of defines the space that creates a counterculture. It's not what they are. Well I mean, what's not mainstream is the they, and mainstream is the us. I think this sense of othering VK bands and fans experience is central to the culture's structure, as something that exists as a byproduct of failed standard conformation. 
 
 I don't know how some VK fans can up and leave for Kpop so quick. Maybe they just liked the Oshare stuff, I guess, but I can't believe they would leave behind all the great post-punk, experimental, speed metal, alt-rock, etc. groups behind when Kpop doesn't offer anything similar. When I listen to pop music, I long for that missing guitar solo, or lack of Jpop chords (if it's Western pop music). Also the PVs are completely different--least from what I see. Every Kpop group I've seen is good at dancing. Hella good. And I've been doing dance for 8 years of my life, I know good technique and stage presence when I see it. When I say that, you might be shocked to know that I still prefer VK PVs where the bandomen just stare at the camera and sulk, or dance around while playing guitar or something. There's been masterful executions of this simple formula, like in cali≠gari's 歪んだ鏡 which legit gave me nightmares of Hage Shuuji staring into my soul.  Might be a false positive because that song dredges some mental trauma other than his face but my point still stands. There's also a lot of PVs that don't have killer dance moves but have a lot of creative spirit to them, like BUCK-TICK's EMPTY GIRL or literally anything Malice Mizer filmed, and that's the stuff I like the most. I've lost interest in big-budget MVs, and prefer a smaller scale spectacle.

Funniest thing I've seen all week. Holy shit!