Number Girl

Exactly, that's what I mean. It's the band who's saying that, not me. I understand it well that someone may not be able to buy music (for various reasons) and it's not a reason to treat them like that, but the band thinks different. They could say it in a different way, without offending fans. I like their music and looks, but at this point I just refuse to be their fan anymore. Music is about entertainment. If it makes me upset, it's not what it's supposed to be. If I have money again one day, I will support a band that keeps entertaining me, not the one that makes me upset with their attitude.
 
iTunes prices are shit, really. They just convert the euro price to pln here (in the Polish iTunes) and it costs the same for us, even if we have much less money than people in other countries. The prices should be lower too. 1 euro for a song in mp3 is way too overpriced. It would be cheap for me if it was 1pln (~0,25eur). But still, with no cash, spending any money on music is a bad idea. I can't imagine why would someone pick music, instead of food. I'm sure these musicians wouldn't support another band if they were hungry. No, they would also try to get food, first. iTunes is an option only for a person who has some income, but not enough to buy tons of CDs each month. Suggesting people to use it instead, is a sign of insensitivity. I understand the attitude towards people who say "why buy, when I can download?", who have money, but not all fans are in this position.

I've honestly only heard one NB release, but I wouldn't spend money on it because I wasn't that into it.  However, personally, I'm on the whole I have no money, my girlfriend and I live with her parents and feeding myself is more of a priority than feeding a musician.  And, as such, pirating doesn't seem that bad when there are people who are the band's target audience in their actual country who probably can and will buy their stuff when they can--this goes for any band, not just NB.  There are certain times where I have extra cash and I buy a CD, but let's be real, it'd be virtually impossible for me to afford every single release I enjoy at this time.  But, threatening to sue your fans?  Kinda shitting where you eat, imo.

I get where NB are coming from, and I kind of agree with the comments in the first post.
 
Let me first say that I used to download loads of music illegally, but since the advent of Spotify, that's become my main thing to listen to music. As for Jap music, I still mostly download. But... if I think  a certain band or release is good/epic, I will buy the original. I have about 300 CDs, and loads of vinyl, DVDs, and casettes.
 
I think that if you claim to be a fan of a band, you should support them in any way you can. Buy an album, buy a T-shirt, I don't care. If physical stuff isn't readily available, email them and you'll probably be able to work something out (I did this with Tokyo Heroes), or bring it to their attention that there's fans willing to buy their stuff in other countries as well. If not, platforms such as Itunes exist. You can't claim to be a diehard fan of a band but be unwilling to support them.
A non-Jap band I'm fan of released 3 singles, all for $1. I bought each of em for $3-5(Bandcamp), just because I love their music and sincerity and want to support them. Each time I got a personal email back saying "Thank you Bryan, this means more to us than you think!" They make music for their fans, and if their fans support them, they give their personal gratitude in return.
 
I agree with what Tokage said about music as a form of art. I have to add though, that many artists, and even mostly the smaller ones, also put time and creativity in the CD's artwork and packaging. If you just get the music, you only get 75% of the complete piece of art.
Then again, I also agree with his remark about originality, haha.
 
Oh and also, I'm pro-buying directly from the band, no intermediates. Tons of bands use bigcartel or bandcamp or their own webstore and sell CDs, downloads and merch through those channels. If you buy it from there, you'll know the money ends up where it belongs - in the hands of the artists.
 
TL;DR I think you should support bands financially when you claim to be a fan, in any small way you can. I have no problem with downloading music to try it out, but if you like it enough to call yourself a fan, fuck'n buy it and don't be a pretentious freeloader.

To be honest, I don't blame anyonone, "artist" or not, for wanting to make money. Hey, I want to make money too, don't we all? Money is good. And I don't think the expectation that the effort put into a record should result in some cash return is unreasonable.
 
 
However. It seems that piracy is giving some artists a false sense of scale. Artists and labels tend to equate each illegal download with a lost sale. 5000 people have pirated a record? So they calculate 5000 x ???$ in lost revenue and mourn all the money they didn't make.
 
The cold hard truth however is that probably only a minority of those 5000 cares enough for the music that they would pay for it. Especially in vk, where people tend to just grab stuff because it's vk (probably applies to other genres too though.)
 
If there was no piracy artists still have to make their fans interested enough that they are actually want to spend money on them.
 
 
Oh, and acting against people on Youtube is even more pointless. I have yet to meet a single person that says "I don't buy CDs because I can listen to songs on YT."

How many of those that have pirated NB's latest release would have actually bought it if they hadn't had the chance to download it? Maybe 10%? How many of those only know of the band because they pirated the music at some point? 90%? Right.
 
 
Fact is: people pirate music because it's so easy. If they couldn't, most of them just wouldn't listen to the music. I already spend about 150 Euro a month on japanese CDs, I pirate the rest. If I couldn't pirate, well, tough luck, but I still wouldn't spend more on music than I already do. I would just listen to less.

NB basically killed themselves when going visual kei lmfao
 
I agree with whoever said that today's music industry is awfully outdated, especially in Japan. There are not a lot of artists in VK that distribute their stuff digitally, and when they do it's only in the Japanese iTunes store. Websites like HearJapan offered cheaper digital releases compared to other digital distributors, so I think the website was for a good cause (especially since they also offered bonuses and higher bitrates). It's a shame that not many people bothered to pay less than 500 yen for a full album they actually really enjoyed; most full lengths on iTunes cost 2000yen, physical copies usually 3000yen. With HearJapan gone, in order for fans to buy digital copies now, they'd have to make a Japanese iTunes account and buy Japanese iTunes cards online; purchasing the physical copy from CDJapan therefore is much easier, even though it costs more (of course there's also amazon, but we don't talk about amazon's digital quality lmao). Besides, I know people similar to me who prefer to have the music in the bitrate they desire; iTunes offers 256kbps rips that sometimes sound like shit, especially on high quality headphones. Websites like bandcamp offer a solution to this, and perhaps putting their music on bandcamp costs less than putting it on iTunes, but I wouldn't dare state this as fact.
 
These artists keep complaining about overseas fans that download their stuff while they're not even their target audience. If my target audience was Japan and I had people outside of Japan buying my stuff here and there, I'd see it as something nice on the side, unless these people would encourage my Japanese audience to buy less. If that's what's going on, then I understand why bands like NB are upset. If not, I don't see how they're making huge losses from it if they're not putting any sort of money into promotion outside of Japan.
 
Not everyone can buy everything, but most musicians understand that; most visual kei fans are teenagers who are still in high school and have no income except for their montly allowance they get from their parents, and you can't blame them for not spending that allowance on CDs every single time. If you however DO have the money to support your favourite artist, I feel like you should. I know not many VK fans feel up to that, but how can you make people purchase more?
 
I feel like Korean pop companies found the answer to that question and it's called packaging. EXO for example sold more than 1 million copies of their first album, and even though Kpop has a way bigger target audience because pop music is just more mainstream than VK is, I wouldn't deny that the packaging and price have something to do with it. I know that in Japan prices for CDs are just regularly high, but Korean pop CDs usually cost about 15 euros and are packaged in boxes, books, metal cases etc. with the CD, a thick photobook, a card signed by one of the band members and usually a big poster for free as well. I love buying Kpop CDs because of this; of course I buy a CD when I think it's good, but that fantastic packaging just gives it a little bit extra. I can understand some indie VK bands can not afford this kind of packaging, but I know plenty of bands can. Make it desireable to purchase the CD, give it extra things that a downloaded copy could not give you. If VK is so oriented on looks, why not add in a seperate photobook, for example? You'd have to pay extra for a photographer and the printing, but if it made you sell more copies in the end and raise the profit, why not?
 
Though selling more copies in general only enriches the record company, not so much the artist, as we all know. In Europe, 25$ for a newly released CD is a normal price and the least you can do (legally) is listen to 30 second samples in the store itself (if it even offers that option). That alone is not going to make me buy an album.
 
Anyway this became way too long and doesn't make any sense probably but I hope you at least understood what I was trying to say lol.

Pirates don't care if we're taking food out of someone else's mouth. We don't care if we make it difficult to continue band activities. Historically speaking, pirates weren't nice people. We want music and we want it now and it's hard for a band to compete with free, easy access and still turn a profit.
It's the reality of the music scene in 2014. We suck as human beings, we care about a band enough to follow them but not enough to give them money to continue. Don't worry about us pirates because if the only two choices were to pay up or not hear the music we probably wouldn't buy it because then that band would have to compete with every other musician out there for the few cents in my pocket and honestly they probably aren't first in line. NB should just assume that pirates weren't going to buy their music in the first place so there's no money being "lost" because there was no money to be "gained".
Piracy is a double-edged sword, because at least people care enough about your band to continuously download your releases for free. It gets your name out there but it also does take food off your table. Piracy is great when you're trying to get known; not so much when you're trying to make money after you build up a fanbase. Try to profit off the free PR you get from piracy as best as you can. I have no other magic bullets or solutions or kind words.

I don't know, man. It always rubs me a little wrong when bands guilt or threaten fans in order to get them to stop participating in piracy. DELETING FUCKING EVERYTHING from YouTube, declaring "war" on pirates, or calling your fans demeaning names (a la Kiwamu) is just going to make people lose respect for you and it certainly won't help you widen your fanbase. 
 
Sure, I have no problem if an artist wants to encourage fans to buy their music/merch/show tickets, but the attitude you have about it is important to consider too. Fact is, no one responds well to people who come across as whiny assholes, even if their music is the blessed gift of God to humanity. I'm not saying that musicians shouldn't feel angry at fans if their careers are clearly suffering, but there are appropriate ways to get people to sympathize with you and see things your way as opposed to alienating and punishing them. Especially since there's no possible way of knowing the reasons behind why every fan does what they do.  
 
Personally, I'm neutral about piracy as I'm not exactly well versed on copyright laws, issues, or ethics in that area. I don't think people should always pirate when they really do care about the artists and they have the means to donate a small sum to BandCamp or buy a CD, but I would be kidding myself if I tried to say that piracy was a force of evil that is killing the music industry and is always more harmful than helpful. I wouldn't have bought the massive pile of Japanese discs or have half as much of the digital downloads on my laptop if it weren't for people breaking the rules and uploading YouTube videos, torrents, etc. 
 
Just my two cents in response to the OP, I haven't had the chance to really read through the whole topic just yet. 

@CAT5: I ordered it! Speaking of which, it shipped today.
 
And yeah sorry for the duplicate update! I had no idea how long the news had been out. I just learned about it in mid-late July. 

Hey, wasn't sure how long this news has been out, but 八十八ヶ所巡礼 is having a new album coming out in a few days called 攻撃的国民的音楽. (If someone could give me a translation, that would be awesome). Feel free to let me know if this is a double post or something! It's been a while since I've been on here. D: 
 
Here's the promo video:
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D90AOhojK3M
 
Not bad! 

Well, I wonder why no one has stated the obvious question yet... THE GAZETTE. Why? Precisely what do people find so affecting about them? I want to know.
 
DIR EN GREY doesn't need any explanation if one knows at least randomly every "era" of their discography. And not only this. It's the affection a lot of people have to Kyo especially. He's real to a big part of his fans, to put it in harmless words. And this gets furthermore underlined by the band's history, always going overboard and provoking their fans either with unusually personal lyrics, gore-eske performances or eventually dropping the visual aspects as a whole. I'd not say they're just a "starting point" for j-rock fans. There have been other bands since 2000 quite as much at the front as them (D'espa, MUCC; Nightmare, The Gazette etc). It's just that their unpredictable behaviour and their wide range of dark rock/metal styles keeps many people affected in the process of stumbling across them. (I personally didn't start with them precisely because everyone talked about them and I therefore expected some Bieber-eske hype.)

Seriously. Nobody here would openly mock a person for showing signs of age, being overweight  or simply not having been born good-looking- and think that behaviour is acceptable, right?
Then why should it suddenly change when the person in question is wearing nonconformist clothes?
 
Why do you have to be either young, beautiful or famous to wear certain things?
 
I'm not saying I never make fun of other people. Or other peoples clothing style, if they suck at it. It's just that I don't get why there should be something like an ~unwritten rule~

I tried to avoid getting involved in this one, however just to simply state my understanding of how it works:

I feel that overseas fans downloading music really doesn't effect their sales. (as stated quite a few times). As of right now, we're not really a target audience since money has not been spent to promote and distribute their goods. cds etc to overseas fans. The fact that some overseas fans even go out of their way to spend the money and buy a cd would be a bonus considering what was spent to only promote and distribute in Japan. Yes in the long run, cd and goods purchased in overseas countries will most certainly play a role in deciding a tour here or not. I don't see a bunch of uploads coming from sources in Japan, they're usually uploaded and shared through overseas fans anyway.

The one thing that annoys me most is the fact that people still pull the whole. "Well if you love the band so much you'll find a way to purchase their stuff." 
I'd like to address the fact that a large percentage of people in to visual kei overseas are teenagers who don't have the means to even buy themselves their own shampoo let alone a $40 album. Plus from personal experience, I could love a band as much as i want to but if it's between keeping my water on or making sure I have gas money to get to work and buying a cd... hell, sorry for being responsible but i'm going to choose to pay my bills. I won't have a damn thing to play that cd on if my electricity gets shut off. but at least it will look nice on the shelf. 

Another thing that was brought up was the numbers that fill the live houses this band plays at. I don't listen to Nocturnal Bloodlust so i don't have a solid opinion of their style. Regardless, whether people are downloading or not, if they like the band and have the money and are able to go see them, they'll go. Whether it be promotion and marketing, or the band just not really hitting home with their style choices... overseas downloads do not play a part in how successful they are in their own country. 

I'm not saying downloading music illegally is all A+ okay now, no. Every artist deserves the support and i can understand. I'd be pissed off too if someone started handing out something I spent a shit ton of money on and hard work and efforts to make to just anyone. I'd feel under appreciated for the amount of people who claim to like it. But it should be common sense with the way the industry is and how file sharing has been for YEARS before NB even formed. 

File sharing is and always will be there, so they need a game change because as stated somewhat before... NB has 99 problems and file sharing ain't one of them.

Well yes of course, by all means if you have the budget and save for things go ahead and buy the thing. But I mean in a generalization, a highschool student who doesn't have a job (majority here in the US) can't really be expected to have a budget to begin with. I mean yeah you have to work for the things you want but people use that statement "If you like it, buy it" like money grows on trees. Even as a college student, if the parents are putting you through college, which is thousands and thousands of dollars... I'd feel a little guilty asking them to buy me every release of all the bands I like. 
I myself don't even have the privilege to have supportive parents enough to put me through college so i work a full-time job and pay for classes out of pocket while maintaining a budget for rent, food, gas, and other necessary things for a stable life.
If you have a job, great. But what I'm saying is people have other financial priorities and in comparison to the economic state of a lot of countries, importing CDs and goods are expensive.

it's not quite up there, but the guys from "byee the round"

 
and "nothing is carved in stone"

 
are quite raspy.
 
most filth in the voice would be (both) singers of church of misery, but they're quite stoner-y

 
but yes, it's quite the rare sight

^Maybe some of MO'SOME TONEBENDER's older stuff? Doubt it qualifies as grunge, but some of their songs definitely have an angsty 90s vibe.

 

I snorted the coke out of my nose at the title. Should I be expecting some rap influence in this album?

AMEN!

I've only heard that phrase when applied to (not visual kei) metal artists and I'm personally conflicted on how I feel about those statements. On one hand, I have a personal preference for music where overly elaborate or drawn-out guitar solos are not the main focus, but when it comes to metal or similar genres, guitar solos have been pretty much all about "showing off." It's supposed to get the audience pumped up, get the adrenaline racing, and to be dramatic, loud, and aggressive as possible. 
 
I think as long as the "larger picture" of the song is good, then it doesn't really matter to me, but if you're just slapping guitar solos together and don't really have a strongly overall written song going for you, you just make people bored after a while. I think that's really what people mean when they say things like that. 

Score: | The Japanese noise rock titans are back!!


...although it's debatable if they ever went anywhere to begin with.

Fetch is a righteous kick in the ass. It has everything I've come to love about Melt-Banana - the chirpy vocals with unintelligible lyrics, the smorgasboard of guitar sounds that even Sigh would be jealous of, spastic drums, meaty bass, and songs that race by at a mile a minute. All has been quiet on the melty banana front for a while, and the three-piece is now a two-piece, but the band proves they still have what it takes to be considered noise rock titans.

Fetch isn't about the music; it's about the experience (much like how you probably don't want to be strapped to the top of a speeding car but the adrenaline rush is undeniable). It's pure energy pressed to disc and the production is acceptably lo-fi, which adds to the overall craziness Melt-Banana embodies. There is a definite improvement over Cell-Scape and Bambi's Dilemma here in that the songs fit together very well. Short songs and long songs work well together and the pace doesn't stop right up until the end, where it slows down just enough to speed right back up and end the album with a bang. Or bang#53, since there are about 52 other sound effects that did the same thing in all the previous tracks. On multiple listens, once you peel back the layers, you'll come to have an appreciation for how well the noise is integrated into the music. It's simple but complex at the same time.

Fetch isn't an easy album to listen to. It disregards a lot of what people have come to expect from their musical experience. It blends noise and music in a way that makes you either like it or hate it. There is no middle ground. If you don't mind high-pitched female vocals, evolving song structures and a lot of experimentation, Fetch may find a place in your heart. Stick with the title track Candy Gun, which serves as a composite for the entire album. If you like it, you'll like Fetch. If you don't, you won't.

Or if you've ever wondered what Pikachu sounds like fronting a metal band, that's cool too.

wuh oh we've got a self-important look at me I know everything manbaby, delivered fresh from the degbox

I thought the tribute album was just alright, despite having been blown away by the lineup, which if I read correctly from that Morrie x Kiyoharu natalie.mu intereview, took upwards of a year to assemble.
 
I think tribute albums can fall into two categories, ones that try to faithfully reproduce the songs they are being covered and ones that try to actually put their own spin on a song. This album was mostly the former with the exception of the tracks written primarily by one person or band (Kiyoharu, Cali Gari and Boris). It was largely a cut-and-paste affair by the producer where the artists involved got to add their own flair but for the most part had to stay within the lines of what the original song was. You could almost feel like the musicians, while amazingly talented and varied in their own right across the Jrock / Vkei spectrum, weren't even in the same room together when recording these songs and just individually came in and recorded their parts. Maybe I'm wrong about this but considering the lineup, I'm a bit doubtful these sessions had everyone in the room at the same time.
 
So yea, it's enjoyable in an all-star cast sort of way but I think no artist really got to take control of the song they were covering with the exception of the ones mentioned.
 
That said, I did appreciate the vocals of Hyde, Tetsu and Baki, who I'm most familiar with, and the other musicians spotted throughout. Hyde is a dead-on replica of Morrie especially with the reverb cranked to 11 like most the covers off Dead End's first album. I'm a huge Tetsu fan and although I've heard him sing like that on some songs he rarely does so for a whole song. It either shows that he's trying too hard or just having fun with it. Who knows? I didn't care for the Serafine cover. It had no power to it and seemed like it was being different for the sake of it. "How would this sound with female vocals?!" Why not have Morrie sing a Utada Hikaru cover next!
 
And in defense of artists reliving their past glories or just leaving it behind, I don't think it's a fair to suggest they should leave it behind just because we personally don't think it sounds any better than the original. If anything, as fans, if we don't like newer renditions or newer work we should simply just leave the artist behind. Move on, that's it, no need to tell new fans they're stupid for listening to the artist now. There's plenty of bands that I only like a certain style of. It would be foolish, and ultimately frustrating, to think that one could possibly like every path of artistic growth of a musician or any artist for that matter.
 
Anyway, most of these artists are creating new work on their own and so what if they go back and relive or try to recreate their older work? Whether it's a cash-grab move or a legitimate artistic one, so be it. Sure, they don't have the power they used to and I totally agree that Morrie's voice is weaker now, Ryuichi doesn't sing like he used to, or Hyde doesn't wear white frock gowns, etc. but does that mean they can never touch the past again just because it doesn't please fans now?

Bo Ningen are the band I've been constantly dry humping lately.
 
Noisy. Psychedelic. Real dank kush. They'll will make you want to throw up and cry and and scream and pee blood at the same time.
 

 


  

This I find particularly annoying. As recently is also happening with Korean music, record companies blocking videos on YouTube for people outside of Japan/Korea is something that really bugs me. I know foreigners aren't their targeted audience, but actually giving your bands exposure so that foreigners will buy your stuff isn't THAT bad, is it?
 
I don't have the cash to buy every single release from all my favourite artists, but I try to chip in when I can. I also like having a physical copy in my hands, especially when they have fancy packaging.

I WROTE A WHOLE BUNCHA STUFF BUT MY BROWSER CRASHED >:U
 
tl;dr
 
I am not anti-file sharing and I agree that the "industry" needs to get with the times or die out like the newspaper and stop trying to pass broken and invasive laws to protect their failing business model. I agree with all that.
 
I just don't believe music should be free and all that other hippy faggot anarcho bullshit people try to spew. If you are a fan, you will do your part to support your favorite artist. Music isn't free and there are a lot of people trying to live off of it. Whether it's the artist themselves, the producer, the ghost writer, the graphic designer and just so many more. It's fine if someone can't afford every single release, I know I can't but just buying something here and there to show your support goes a long way, especially for smaller artists.
 
Basically when I start having fits is when ignorant "fans" try to justify why they shouldn't have to pay for music or how it's soooooo unfair that their super duper indies band can't release a CD in bumbfuck nowhere Paraguay or Canada. Then when said band makes their music available and affordable via digital outlets they still just can't be arsed to spend a few bucks to support the artist.