meat

The whole thing is here: https://jpfiles.eu/japanese/japanese-dvdiso/bdiso-dir-en-grey-落ちた事のある空-パッケージ版-blu-ray-2020-08-03/

So I just watched a bit of their first gig of this tour on 1 Aug: The lack of people (or energy) is just surreal

I've just gotten through most of the playlist and find it quite all right to have as bgm whilst I'm working from home. When Nine Inch Nalis put out Ghost, I thought that was super exciting. Whilst I'd also like to see DEG releasing a super interesting experimental 4 disc jam session extravaganza and pay mad monies for, at least they are expanding their horizons and trying something new(ish)

This whole donation thing is so wrong in so many ways. Firstly, why "donation" straight into Tetsu's personal bank account instead of setting up some kind of crowdfunding like Suji said? This just sounds like dodging legal and tax compliance and smacks of fraud. Secondly, the Japanese gov is offering reasonable grants for all artists whose livelihood are affected by the pandemic. At the very least, this includes millions for venues, so I don't see any reason why the band has to cover the cost of putting up a plastic screen at EACH venue. Thirdly, they say part of the donation is for admin and refunding ticket holders. I'm guessing this means they have not put them into a band collective account and bought business protection insurance but have probably spent most of their sales proceeds instead... This whole thing shows to me that they are clearly incapable of handling any large sums of money. If this is not the case then the band is just really desperate for money, even at the risk of fraud.

I didn't realise these guys are still going...

I'm in London and my husband had basically forced me to lie to my work (that I've come into contact with a confirmed case of COVID-19) so that I can work from home since over a week ago. He's also amassed a massive stockpile and started avoiding going out from 2 weeks ago. At the time he felt like a doomsday prepper but now he's super smug that he's called it 2 weeks ago 😭

That was quite the pit. Everybody were grinning and still managed to sing along. Thank you for making this oldie feel like she's still got it lol

London tonight. I'll be at the Camden Head before and after the gig having a few drinks with friends. PM me if you'd like join us

When my phone lit up this morning with the message that “Merry has an important announcement”, I thought oh finally that European tour! What bum news 😢 Kenichi adds so much to Merry’s sound over the years and his guitar skills is amazing. It’ll be extraordinarily hard to find someone else that talented to join. The fact that the band is not providing the reason he’s leaving for now makes me think it’s not due to a happy occasion, like “graduating” to get married, etc. After 19 years making great music with one of my favourite band, I just hope he’s found something else wonderful to focus his time and energy on 😔

Ah, can you link me to the other thread? I didn't see anything like this so I started a new topic

My two cent is that angura-kei is a music/ visual/ theatrical exploration of the post war Japanese identity. I think a lot of artists in the Heisei period (post-Bubble and pre-millennium, so basically the 90s), the so-called "lost generation", questioned their place in a post-modern Japan that went through a century of extremes of war and peace. Some found inspiration and identified with the existential anxieties expressed by the counter-cultural movements in the 1970s, led by figureheads like Terayama Shuuji and Shibusawa. And the raccoon people have carried that subversive and transgressive context on to the present time by toying with time: some like the Inugami, Guru guru eigakan, etc. deliberately dress in pre-1945 ways with ghost/ butoh white face paint and sing about folktales and myths, as if to remind their modern audience of an innate Japaneses-ness by digging into the past; whilst the bleep bloop raccoon people, such as Metronome, Shinjuku Gewalt, etc. are trying to reconcile the technologically fast advancing future Japan with the lost identity in the present. Of course, a lot of raccoon people feel the need to dress like characters from Terayama's films and make nagomu music is probably because many were born around the 1970s and be deeply influenced by all the social upheavels then. But I think it is because of their play on time, by the subversive questioning of the past and future in a transgressive fashion, that I think set angura kei bands apart from other bands that dress in kimono or sing kayoukyoku.

Fantasy question here. If you can be a member of any band, past or present, which band would that be and why? Personally, I've always fancied being an extra member of Penicillin. Not that I particularly love their music or looks, I just think all the guys have such a variety of talents and seem to have fun doing both music and non-music related side hustles.

I'm damn tempted to go to the Berlin dates. Will have to see about the finances and time off work first. But either way, see you guys at the London date!

What fresh evangelion hell is this?Or just the worst of middle age man's karaoke session?

I got hit on by a really good looking guy whilst waiting to go into a MERRY gig in Japan. He wanted to go into the gig with me but didn't have a ticket 😑