cryptomayhem

Whoa, had no idea Agalloch had a new album coming out. Woohoo!

That made my year so far.

It's good to see Def Leppard is still going strong.

Not sure about the setlist, but it was a short tour: NoGoD PREMIUM SHORT TOUR-2012- 【Rare-Material】 2012年7月6日(金) 名古屋ell.FITSALL NoGoD PREMIUM SHORT TOUR-2012- 【Rare-Material】 2012年7月7日(土) OSAKA MUSE NoGoD PREMIUM SHORT TOUR-2012- 【Rare-Material】 2012年7月14日(土) 渋谷WWW Not sure about the setlists, but I know that they haven't been playing much of their indies stuff lately, so I'd posit that that's what these shows were for.

According to Kaya's blog, Schwarz Stein will release a new album, Recurrence of Hallucination, in July. Most likely this coincides with the Recurrence of Hallucination live. There are details for overseas ordering. source: Kaya's Blog

The preorder page for the live tickets is up at cdjapan: http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/rcms/jpop/schwarzstein_concert.html

I'm totally going to this. I've been waiting for years for them to do a revival, and nothing is going to stop me from getting there. Plus, that's when my wife and I were going on vacation, anyways. Also, thanks to CDJapan, I can easily buy ticket. XD

No, but the godfather of monetizing vk. And yeah, the scene is very small. I've only been to a handful of shows, but all the girls who go to CPS shows KNOW who the white guy with the hat is when he's over on vacation.

Well, before X Japan, it seems like most visual bands tended to play smaller live houses and venues. I'm not good with names, but I know there was a punk rock act from the late 70's/early 80's that is considered the "father" of the visual scene, but other than a couple of new year's stints, they never exploded. And sure, the Japanese took thrash and glammed it all up, but those bands also tend to be footnotes now in the grand scheme of visual history. Yoshiki, through whatever magic or voodoo he used, convinced people that, not only was his band so big, they MUST have been originators of the visual scene, but to buy product in almost absurd quantities. I can't think of a visual band that played the Tokyo Dome before them. So, while X wasn't the first vk band, they were the first to figure out how to get rich doing it.

He was, however, the godfather of monetizing VK.

The new bassist has been revealed. His name is Taku, and I'm not certain where he comes from. Also, it appears that they're officially on a label now, called Front Mission. Oh, and they will be opening their fan club, called "Pictures", in January. Sources: http://http://chemical-pictures.net/ and http://www.frontmission.co.jp/profile/artist.html

From what I understand, getting and maintaining a visa can be super difficult and stressful. It's sad, but I don't really blame him for not wanting to deal with immigration and band activities at the same time. you're right but, anyway in that especific situation, isn't it something that the record laber or manager or somebody has to deal with?, i don't know, i'm just wondering, because it's something weird in this case.. i mean, visa problems anywhere it's like "normal", but here we could say that he was "working". so in that situation the "company" wich he's working for, should deal with that. don't know, i'm just making a suposition.... (and i didn't know he wasn't japanese XD) well, in the end, if it's his personal desicion....good luck in anything he wants to do lol. _ They aren't actually on a label, Speed Disk just does their distribution. So, there isn't really anyone to grant him a visa per se, as far as the music industry is concerned.

I'm just glad I got to see 'em play so many times... my wife and I planned our vacations around Chemical Pictures onemans the last couple of years. Jimi's a cool guy, and I know he'll be doin' cool things in the future.

Jimi is departing after the Dec. 20th live at Shimokitazawa Shelter. It.. is NOT musical differences. Hard to get a visa. Source

Also, their singer's CRAZY FUCKING SMILE. That freaks me out... also, I'm pretty sure half his face is paralyzed. *shudder*

He also said it at the oneman final.

CPS revealed their new guitarist at the oneman tonight. It is RUI (ex. The Pumpkinhead). Also, Ten Ten announced a name change to Kazuhiro. I didn't quite catch the kanji for it (it flashed up too fast), but Jimi confirmed the name during an MC. In addition, CPS announced a mini-album to be released in January 2011, and a 3 month consecutive oneman tour, with lives in Koenji (forgot the venue) in January and Februrary 2011, and Takadanobaba AREA in March 2011 (on 3.14, which is their anniversary). Also, the show was the shit.

I'll bet he is as German as Schwarz was. According to people that were at the secret live, he's as Japanese as Japanese can be.

Hooray! I'm gonna be at that oneman!

Jisatsu no Riyuu by Pierrot. Murder Death Kill by Psycho le Cemu. Nightcrawler by EZO. (Yes, it's cheesy as shit, and THAT'S why it's timeless. )

K from NoGoD. That dude can pull of a timing change like nobody's business... he'd be right at home in a straight up prog band. Also, even though I don't like Merry, Nero is a fantastic drummer... he's always spot on, and he has a good fill sense. Yoshiki (yes, I know), because he creates the best live energy. Oh, and none of those guys can touch Mike Portnoy from Dream Theater or Neal Pert from Rush.

I only saw one dude crowd surfing (during X), and he got taken down pretty quickly.

Here are the pictures that my wife was nice enough to take while I was busy freaking out. We were SUPER UP FRONT, only a row or two away from the very front. Still, the pictures were taken with a phone, so no cool zoom or anything like that. There's one shot in there that kinda shows how big the crowd was, though. Link: X Japan Lollapalooza Flickr

My favorite one is Donkey Vegetable Voxx. wtf.

Went to the X Japan debut at Lollapalooza yesterday and man, it was freakin' PHENOMENAL. Played 5 songs: Rusty Nail (really, as the first song?!?! WACKINESS, I know), Jade, Kurenai, I.V., and (of course) X. Yoshiki came out about 30 minutes early to fiddle with his drum setup, and we all went nuts. Toshi was extremely spot on, his voice sounded real good, and all the guys looked extremely happy to be there. Rusty Nail had the new english lyrics (I couldn't really make too much of it out), and Kurenai had english as well, but I think it was the originial Vanishing Vision version of the song. Also, they didn't play Born to Be Free, which I thought was interesting, as there were huge rumors that that was going to be played. And X as a finale was amazing... pure magic that I had been waiting 10 years to be a part of. I was also extremely impressed at the turnout.... X was on the main stage, and we had a crowd out past the soundboard... the other people there kept saying "good crowd, but not quite as big as Lady GaGa", 'cuz that's the only size crowd they could compare it to. At any rate, the crowd was waaay bigger than the band before them. Was anyone else there? I was the guy w/ blonde hair wearing the red and black X Japan track jacket thingie.