Tokage

Mugen Minus started in 2006 and was a 4 piece electro folk band started by vocalist Jinpei Endo after his previous band Cock Roach ended in 2005. Cock roach was a musically dark and heavy whereas mugen minus was quite the opposite in terms of sound. It was acoustic and folky. I consider both bands to be two different sides of the same coin. Eventually mugen minus added Cock Roach's bassist Honda Chuya in 2007 to become a 5 piece.

mugen minus released their first album '死んだはずの僕の旅行' or 'The journey in which I should have died' in 2006, from which shissha ressha was the opening track. The band released a single in 2007 with new member Honda on bass and then released another album 'Perfect World' in 2008. Unfortunately in 2010, percussionist 前川和磨 was arrested for internet fraud, the things I vaguely remember was that it might have been related to a pornography website, and in typical Japanese fashion, he left or was fired from the band, and the whole band paused activities.

In 2008, shortly after mugen minus released 'Perfect World', Jinpei and Honda released a work under the name '博士と蟋蟀',  hakase to korogi or 'The Doctor and the Cricket' which thematically was closer to Cock roach's harder and darker sound.

Eventually mugen minus reformed in 2014 or 2015 but never recorded anything again and only played a few shows before Jinpei and Honda started officially reviving their high school band Cock Roach in 2017.

More info here:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaEPaEUJYJf_F-QP00b3qDQ
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/COCK_ROACH
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/無限マイナス

(I just realized I should make an artist thread for these bands as there's virtually nothing about them in English except through this connection from munimuni)

Holy shit! I remember stumbling upon that Mugen Minus band completely randomly ages ago and not knowing who they were. Nice to suddenly find them here of all places 

I'm actually a huge fan of the original shissha ressha by mugen minus and I heard that version before munimuni released their cover. muni's cover was great too but the original is so epic to me that I consider it one of my top 5 favorite Japanese songs. While my Japanese comprehension is probably basic at best, I find the lyrics to be quite poetic. The whole train and death imagery really works well with the minimal folk electro sound mugen had.
I liked it so much that I asked a former Japanese coworker to correct my translation which was quite rough back when I did it and he essentially translated it from scratch. I'm not sure if I ever shared this with anyone before:

===================================================================================================
黒蛾を散りばめた夜空
The black moth is framed in the night sky
喪服の行列が街を歩く
A procession dressed in black walking the streets
それぞれの色の風船持って
Each and every one of them holding a different colored balloon
透明な僕をすり抜けた
(they) slipped through me being transparent
手放した風船は空高く
They release their balloons high into the sky
それにつられ僕も宙に浮いた
And I followed them (balloons) infectiously into the sky
誰もいない月の駅に着くと
And I landed on an empty station on the moon
発車のべルー度だけ響いた
the boarding bell lets out its sound just once

走り出した夜の空きれいで
the view of night sky from the running train looks so beautiful
君を忘れくないよ
I don't want to forget about you.
走り出した夜の空きれいで
the view of night sky from the running train looks so beautiful
君を忘れくないよ
I don't want to forget about you.
いつ空けたか忘れたジャムパンの様に
Just like a Jampan that I don't remember when I opened it,
(bread with Jam -a popular sweet in Japan and it usually sells being packed with plastic bag.)
透明で乾いた冷気を吐き出して
 exhaling transparent, dry cold air,
いつ空けたか忘れたジャムパンの様に
Just like a Jampan that I don't remember when I opened it,
誰にも気付かれないまま旅立つよ
I'm going to embark on this journey without anyone noticing!

走り出した夜の空きれいで
the view of night sky from the running train looks so beautiful
君を忘れくないよ
I don't want to have to forget about you!
走り出した汽車の窓きれいで
The window (or view from the window) of the running train looks so beautiful,
君を殺したくないよ
I don't want to kill you.
もう僕はこのまま
死んでしまうのだろうな。
I guess I'm supposed to pass on as I am
流るる蛾の川を渡り
Ferrying across the flowing swarm of a moth river
空より高い空を目指し
High above the sky, aiming towards the Heavens
===================================================================================================

Translator Notes:
 
I think the tricky part was
いつ開けたか忘れたジャムパンのように
透明で乾いた冷気を吐き出した
 
I think what the writer is trying to say is
Jampan was left a while ago and people don't care about it and nobody
knows when it was opened.

And this guy feels like that Jampan which is forgotten by people..  I guess.
 
But then this line contradicts earlier part of the lyrics
Just extra info on Jampan,
maybe this is just me and could be very subjective but..
 
if a guy talks about jampan, then jampan often would reminds people of
junior and high school era.  Teenage boys would buy jampan at a small
store in school as a snack.  I dont know too many guys eating Jampan
after they become adult.  (well actually then they become older than
50 or 60, I can see them eating Jampan.)
So, what i am trying to say is that "Jampan" could have a (nostalgic)
nuance of school days.
It is something teenagers used to eat before they get adult.
But I am not sure if this nuance is intended in this lyrics, though..
===================================================================================================

And for anyone who hasn't heard the original:

And extra bonus random information. Another band 'キアロスタミ' covered this song and released it a few months before mugen minus ever did. I've never listened to it as that band was very tiny and fell out of existence by the late 00s and the CDs are impossible to fine (I've been searching loosely for 15 years almost!) but it has to say something when 2 bands cover a song barely after it's been around.

They need to earn some moolah yo~ If I'm not wrong, youtube does not have a ticketing system and the donation system will not work well for them IMO, if even Dir en grey's recent live streaming concert yields only an OK-ish amount as compared to what a real gig can yield.
 
BTW, I checked with my agent; the eplus account is linked to a Japanese phone number (to prevent scalping) and you can only pay for the gig via a Japanese credit card.
 
Nah, they won't put that collab song for digital sale; need to make concert goers thirsty & queue for it and then go "since I already queued for so long, might as well add a T-shirt and a pillow with Shuuji's face on it for 8000yen. Oh wait, if I spend 10000yen, I'll get a free sticker???? Add that '14' album that I already have!!!!" 

Friendly Reminder: BLUE 👏 LIVES 👏 MATTER 👏
 

I'd expect nothing more from this band. They go to great lengths to make their releases inaccessible beyond their fan club, and I just wouldn't expect them to be on board with western dominated platforms. I'm actually kind of surprised they're granting access to anyone with a Japanese credit card and phone number, and not restricting it to FC members.

reeeeeee just fucking do it on youtube like everybody elseeeeeeeeee

reeeeeee just fucking do it on youtube like everybody elseeeeeeeeee

cali≠gari is live streaming a 'no audience' gig on 7th Jun (this Sunday) via eplus's streaming platform.
 
You need a Japanese credit card and phone number to be able to register to the service, from what I gathered. Do correct me if I'm wrong. 
 
 
In other news (?). I finally got the BL manga that Ao collaborated in and created a song (& sang the vocals) for:
 
Download code for the song still works, 2 years after its initial release!
 

Talking about SHAZNA/Izam - there's also this rather unfortunately titled endorsement:

Talking about SHAZNA/Izam - there's also this rather unfortunately titled endorsement:

Talking about SHAZNA/Izam - there's also this rather unfortunately titled endorsement:

Talking about SHAZNA/Izam - there's also this rather unfortunately titled endorsement:

I was looking for a SHAZNA album cover today when I found out that Winter's Review by SHAZNA was used as the Ending theme for Japanese dub of The Rugrats Movie?!?! Now that's what I call unexpected. I saw the Rugrats movie as a kid and seeing SHAZNA play over Rugrats footage is so surreal for me.
 

linetrap found dead in the ditch teas

genuinely convinced at this point these dudes are stored in the same sweatshop where they leave the guys from kiryu in between tours

genuinely convinced at this point these dudes are stored in the same sweatshop where they leave the guys from kiryu in between tours

genuinely convinced at this point these dudes are stored in the same sweatshop where they leave the guys from kiryu in between tours

wait hold up, is this a reference to this?
 
 

Track 1 is indeed new - it was released about a month ago: 
Considering that those 2014 and 2016 CD-Rs are probably rather hard to come by in the first place it's nice to have this stuff compiled into a digital release!

"Bro this is just a one-time only thing. We're not reviving I swear!" *Releases brand-new single*
"Bro seriously I just said this is just a one-time only thing. We're NOT reviving!" *Releases new album*

It has come to my attention that I have nothing left to share with this board. While most people leave quietly unless they aim to make their departure a publicity stunt, I feel that saying goodbye to a forum where I've more or less spent every day for the past 10 years is the least I could do.
 
I've made a lot of good friends here, had fun as a mod for like 15 minutes, and loved being an official reviewer. In spite of all of that, I cannot help but feel it is time I move on.
 
I do not plan on fully deleting my account so I can still leech, but if you'd like to chat about music you can find me:
 
-On Twitter
-On the VKGY discord
-Adding scans and lyrics to ZombiexJuice
-Making half-assed unboxing videos of rejected vkei maxi-singles
 
 
 
It's been fun 💋

毒殺テロリスト (Dokusatsu TERRORIST) members have compiled together songs from a 2016 demo CD-R and some other tracks, remastered them, and now made them available digitally as an album titled 新型毒殺那2020 (Shingata dokusatsu na 2020). They reported this would be a one-time thing only, no band revival (it's just something to help ppl pass the time during the virus).
 
It can be streamed/bought at a wide variety of platforms over HERE
 
.
 
 
Vocalist Ichirou has also released a digital-only collection album of his own on 2020/06/01, under the project name ドクテロイチロウとおかしな仲間たち (DOKUTERO ICHIROU to okashi na nakamatachi) containing various tracks he did outside of Dokusatsu TERRORIST.
 
Again, available at a multitude of online platforms HERE.
 

proof once again that an endless well of raw talent and a set of good teeth can let you get away with almost anything

Oh man, I was walking and the person in front of me was phlegmy coughing with his mouth wide open for a while. I wanted to drop kick the vile bastard.  HAVE U LEARNED NOTHING