Number Girl

I never said it was your duty as a fan to buy cheki. But let me paint a scenario for you.
 
Say you go to a lot of VK concerts in Japan. You discover a fairly new, very small band and you fall in love with them. After the concert you buy the only single they have. You're happy to have music you like. The band is happy to have a sale. Everyone is happy. You start following the band as much as you can, but every time you go see them you don't buy anything, which is perfectly reasonable. No one is forcing you. But the band only barely breaks even every time they perform. You want new music. The band wants to put out a new single or even a new album but they don't have the funds because they aren't making a profit. So now there's a problem. You can't get the only thing you want: music. Say you still wait it out, you follow them every concert for a year, or maybe even two years. They don't put out any new music. Now what?
 
Is it your responsibility to keep a band alive? No, it's not. But to say the only thing you care about is the music so you're not going to buy merch makes zero goddamn sense. I only care about the music. I don't even like cheki. But I buy them anyway because at least I know that money goes directly into profit and the band can use that money to *gasp* make new music.
 
But considering that some of the bands you are mentioning in this thread aren't small or indies, then I can see why you think cheki are stupid. But don't spread that across the entire scene. They exist for a reason, and bands are grateful when people buy them.

jesus fuck that last one is literally immortal's call of the wintermoon vid but vk and mexican

im crying

I think nearly everyone missed the point of this thread lol.  It's not about what describes your taste in music or what you look for in "good" music, it's about how would you tell someone else exactly why you like a band or a song without going, oh it's catchy electro-dance pop and that's my jam man.  It's not even necessarily about telling someone why a band should be considered good, but why YOU enjoy listening to them.
 
Good article, to sum up. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hsqEnF0vHE

She could join Cell and give birth on stage
 
so kvlt

For B'z, definitely try The 7th Blues album. It's a two disc set and contains a mixture of both their 80's style pop and Aerosmith-inspired rock n' roll. If you liked the former style, I'd recommend going back chronologically in their discography and trying albums like Run and In the Life. If you liked the latter style more, I recommend going forward and trying Big Machine or The Circle. 
 
Loudness' Thunder in the East is pretty essential for them, especially when it comes to their older music. Their most recent music is a bit different, I don't like it as much.
 
The Stalin's Stop Jap is a phenomenal album and definitely their most definitive work. 
 
For Anthem, I highly recommend the album Tightrope for their sampling their older material and Overload for their post-reunion stuff. 

Adding on to my "good" list . . . I enjoyed the new Cinema Staff and Suiseinoboaz albums, though the latter release was a bit more sleepy/mellow and not as dynamic as I would have preferred from this band. I also loved all the Boris releases from March/April. Praparat was lovely, the new Vein was crazy, violent, and noisy as shit, and The Thing Which Solomon Overlooked Chronicle was a droney, sludgy masterpiece, with only maybe one or two "WTF" songs on that bonus CD. 

Not sure how long this has been news, but today I visited the MxBx website and they have a sticker up there that says they are now printing a 7th album to be released (hopefully) in the Fall. 
 
More info is promised to come soon, so keep checking on the website.  
 
http://www.geocities.jp/azaplink/mb/mxbx.html
 
 

Nice, Dir en grey! Unfortunately, I don't think I've heard those songs yet. I'm somewhat of a new fan who used to be a casual observer. 
 
1. Dir en grey - 輪郭 (Eternal Slumber Mix) 
2. Onsa - H.T.M.
3. Anthem - Victim in Your Eyes
4. Number Girl - Brutal Number Girl 
5. D'espairsRay - Tainted World
6. Lynyrd Skynyrd - Gimme Three Steps
7. Molice - Pale Wind
8. Eddie Vedder - No Ceiling
9. Dropkick Murphys - Victory 
10. Gackt - Flower
 
It's an obvious choice. . . but the song IS awesome haha. 

accidentally burned down a rainforest

Recently, Gackt's Mild and Wild Bests. I mean, really? We had like 3 compilation albums since 2009! We had no albums since RE:BORN and he releases a lot of new B-sides and new singles in two CDs! And the special editions have PVs! Really, we had Red and Blue DVDs, couldn't we get something like that?

^ I think it means you've never tried at all or have tried very little, but might be interested. 
 
For people interested in Gackt - Mars, Crescent, and Rebirth are good, solid Gackt classics. Mars is an especially great choice if you liked Gackt in Malice Mizer because his vocal style was still a bit similar to when he sang in that era. Everything else afterwards is either hit or miss; a lot of the music post-2008 is just outright bland and soulless in my opinion. 
 
@jduv86
 
For Sex Pistols, Never Mind the Bollocks is basically their only studio album so that's not too difficult, lol. 
 
I downloaded "The Essential Clash" just out of curiosity from iTunes a long while ago and ended up enjoying them, though I haven't heard much else. If you don't want to shell out $15 for a digital album, I'd probably look for a smaller compilation. 
 
The Beatles is a new one for me as well. This kid at my school gave me their whole discography on a flash drive last year and I haven't listened to everything yet, but so far my favorites have been Abbey Road and Magical Mystery Tour. 

As much as I hate to say it, Vola & the Oriental Machine (while they aren't technically a "newer" band, they've been around since '05) did very poorly these past two albums when compared with what they started with. They were never exactly original, but they had this bizarre, edgy charm to them that was strangely sexy and addicting despite the fact that Inazawa had a horrible singing voice. Then they lost the downy guitarist, who was really their biggest saving grace and actually gave their music some dimension, and got this new guy who isn't really that special at all. Second, they decided to go major with Universal and Inazawa started getting into the club/dance music craze and they basically turned into Polysics II: Electric Boogaloo. Of course that doesn't mean I don't still enjoy them but that "charm" is completely gone . . . which is incredibly disappointing. 
 
I would comment on some of the others like The Cabs and Caroline Rocks who I felt were also going downhill in their later releases but they already disbanded so I guess they were losing the feeling too, haha?

I like boys

Dude look at the monitor in the back. What year was this taken, 1997?

LMAO...this was taken yesterday. And yes, I've kept that dinosaur of a monitor for a loooooooong-ass time. Had it since...'03 LOLOL

Me (right) and my best friend

[edit] PANDA UR HELLO KITTY PYAMA IS CUUUUUUUUWWWWWWL. <3
 
 
me with plunklock & calmando qual, my nervous face www
 

 

 
That shirt <3 www

Looks a bit weird. O__O

I love how this is coming from a user who has made the large majority of their posts in the god damn GAMES SECTION.


It's also really rude to just barge in as a grey user, practically DEMAND a system be put in place and then sit around waiting for everyone to do as you say.

 

LOL
Who do you think you are? You think you can came from some SH (shitty heaven), bring some shitty rules from that forum and tell people what they suppose to? You know what? Fuck you. MH is the best forum that i ever saw and here is the best people i ever met (but ofc there some black sheep among us). And by your "spam prevention system" you should be banned long time ago. So if you dont like here gtfo to your shitty heaven, otherwise stfu and have fun. 

j/k lol...But nah, cornelius is cool if you like bright, quirky and playful electronic music. Tokyo Jihen...I guess it depends on how much you like Shiina Ringo. You're either gonna love her or hate her tbh. But if you can dig the vocals, I think you'll be able to dig TJ's eccentric amalgam of jazz, rock, and pop. It's too bad they've disbanded because they were one of the best mainstream bands in Japan if you ask me. If the spirit ever moves you, check out "point" by cornelius and the first 2 albums by TJ (yes, both of them!).
 
I think if you just want to be more musically knowledgeable, then you should check out The cure, Bowie, Black Flag, Slayer, TGD, and even The White Stripes to an extent....but personally, I don't think BMTH, marina, and lana have made any kind of significant impact musically. I don't even get the hype around Lana to be honest lol...

I just got into Marina, actually. I saw her in concert with my boyfriend and hoards of teenaged girls / gays.
 

is one of my favorites by her. And I'm fairly certain was written about my life. 
I've also recently been getting into The Cure. These are some places you could start: Just Like Heaven ,
, Close to Me, and probably their most recognizable song: