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 😑

I was hanging out at Tokyo Dark Castle once and got chatting to a Japanese goth girl about her beautiful spider tattoos on her arm. She then pulled on the sleeve of a sharply suited man next to her and said he has even better tats than her. The man didn't want to show his tats off but did eventually lift his sleeve up a little to reveal a full irezumi sleeve. It turns out he's a yakuza member. That was the only time I came in contact with a bona fide yakuza man that I know of because they almost always wear long sleeves to cover their irezumi up (even in the height of summer). A lot more people in Japan are aware of the difference between "tattoo" and "irezumi" these days but in general, the separation of public and private is so strong in Japan that tattoos of any sort is seen as a private matter and people are expected to wear clothes to cover them up whilst in public. So if you display your tattoos, it's not only an association of you being a shady character but that you are infringing on that separation and being deliberately intimidating to others. A supreme court case highlighted this problem a few years ago: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/11/14/national/crime-legal/supreme-court-upholds-osaka-citys-tattoo-check-workers-legal/#.XS3veOhKiUk

I know loads of people who thought they were old when they lost their virginity, even though they were barely legal or whatever, which makes me think there is no ideal age, just an ideal mental state. Do you like and trust your partner? Are you looking forward to some sexy fun time with them, or are you just looking forward to getting rid of the "virgin" label? etc. Many questions and a lot of pressure there but there is no perfect answer. I think the only thing that helps is understanding what your prorities are

I'm pretty sure Penicillin's Inazuma is 100% about sex. And it still makes me giggle 😆

I'm gonna try to go to London show as well if the ticket price is not prohibitive

Yeah you have pretty much summed up that news article. Can't believe he went to Sanrio though! lol The article quotes Kyo: "They (Sanrio) may want to avoid a slightly scary character. I don't like normal happy endings. I will publish this for people who resonate with the realism it depicts." And it also says he may do a sequel or create a mascot character ("yuru kyara") I would love to see his yuru-kyara XD And the article opens with an introduction of Kyo as "vocalist of visual-kei rock band, DIR EN GREY". So yeah, DEG is still only recognised as a vk band.

Just bought 10,000 pairs in each colour via my Brazilian PayPal account

Now that 2 musicians in his backing band have dropped out and both the French and German gigs cancelled and everybody are slagging the guy off, you might think the world is against Threatin the Rock God. Show your support and join the er... official fan club whilst most of the website is still working to keep up this rock phenomenon: https://www.threatin.com/fan-club The piss take version is here: https://twitter.com/ThreatinFanClub And don't forget the merch whilst they last https://www.threatin.com/shop

Yeah not surprised that they've quit just surprised that it's taken so many gigs with no audience for them to realise something is seriously wrong. I was amused about this whole thing at first but I now realise the human and economic costs to real committed musicians and reputable venues who have been dragged along on this hoax train, so I hope no one is seriously hurt from this, apart from Threatin's humungous ego of course.

This is great news. I've been listening to M-ology to death and need some new Merry-ness

I came across the story of "Threatin" this morning via my facebook and just cannot stop sipping this delicious tea. The basic story is, Jered Threatin, aka Threatin, is a supposedly amazing 'Top Rock Artist of the Year 2017' hailed from LA and is currently embarking on a UK and Europe tour. He's got millions of views on his YT channel, thousands of followers on his FB and twitter, and sold thousands of records etc. etc. Watch and behold his fabulousness!!!!! Except no one has ever heard of the guy and it turns out the whole rock star career has been elaborately fabricated, with Jered shelling out at least £30,000 of his own money to make this tour happen whilst pretending to be his own label, management, PR, and more. http://www.metalsucks.net/2018/11/09/l-a-band-threatin-faked-a-fanbase-to-land-a-european-tour-no-one-attended/ https://www.sickchirpse.com/guy-paid-thousands-pounds-tour-uks-most-prestigious-venues-play-nobody/ Since Threatin's incredible story has gone viral on the internet, his European tour is now ironically starting to sell! I don't know whether this is out of pity or simple curiousity, but please do report back if you are attending!