carddass

Eins:Vier new CD (title and type not yet finalized) will be released at 2020/07/21
 

I saw that song listed on itunes a few days ago but couldn't find any information about what it meant.
This should be interesting...since they re-recorded most of their classics on Zippy Gappy Zombies last year based on the top voted fan favorites, I can only assume that they'll be picking some other deeper cuts.  Here are a few I want them to work on:

nani kara nani made
flow
Butterfly
toroimerei
MADAMADA
kimi wa itsumademo
I Cult You

Here are a few I expect them to work on but would probably be just meh about:

himawari (they re-recorded this on Forever Love in 2014 already and it wasn't better than the original)
everlast
white,daydream
Most of what's on Forever Love

munimuni and the god and death stars are having a two-man live streamed next Monday, June 29th, via the Zaiko system. The tweet says the live will be available for up to 3 days afterwards. I've purchased other Zaiko lives recently that were from Shinjuku Loft and they have used vimeo as their streaming method in which case it will be pretty easy to download the stream via a browser plugin. If that's the case for ikebukuro Chop and zaiko, it should be easily equal to rip.
https://streaming.zaiko.io/_item/327315
 
 

ZIGZO has announced that they will release a re-recorded song each month, from 2020/06/20 to 2021/05/21.
 
The first one is FOREVER YOUNG (2020 ver.), a re-take of the title track of their 4th full-length album originally released in 2014.

And here are the recent livestreams. He just did one 5 days ago too!
 
 
 

Shit....this one is heartbreaking and tragic. I just watched a few of his livestreams he did recently and he was amazing and on-point as always. I even got to say hello to him via the live chat during a steam just to send him some love from a fan outside of Japan. He actually read it, since it was one of the messages in English, and responded a bit.

I'm sure we all have our favorite songs by him. Song of a Lunatic is mine and the extended live performance is one of the rare cases where I believe it rivals the actual studio version. The CD release of this concert has this song going on for longer at 12 minutes and every second of it has always been magic to my ears.
 

Rest in peace Yuji!

Shit....this one is heartbreaking and tragic. I just watched a few of his livestreams he did recently and he was amazing and on-point as always. I even got to say hello to him via the live chat during a steam just to send him some love from a fan outside of Japan. He actually read it, since it was one of the messages in English, and responded a bit.

I'm sure we all have our favorite songs by him. Song of a Lunatic is mine and the extended live performance is one of the rare cases where I believe it rivals the actual studio version. The CD release of this concert has this song going on for longer at 12 minutes and every second of it has always been magic to my ears.
 

Rest in peace Yuji!

And here are the recent livestreams. He just did one 5 days ago too!
 
 
 

And here are the recent livestreams. He just did one 5 days ago too!
 
 
 

Shit....this one is heartbreaking and tragic. I just watched a few of his livestreams he did recently and he was amazing and on-point as always. I even got to say hello to him via the live chat during a steam just to send him some love from a fan outside of Japan. He actually read it, since it was one of the messages in English, and responded a bit.

I'm sure we all have our favorite songs by him. Song of a Lunatic is mine and the extended live performance is one of the rare cases where I believe it rivals the actual studio version. The CD release of this concert has this song going on for longer at 12 minutes and every second of it has always been magic to my ears.
 

Rest in peace Yuji!

Shit....this one is heartbreaking and tragic. I just watched a few of his livestreams he did recently and he was amazing and on-point as always. I even got to say hello to him via the live chat during a steam just to send him some love from a fan outside of Japan. He actually read it, since it was one of the messages in English, and responded a bit.

I'm sure we all have our favorite songs by him. Song of a Lunatic is mine and the extended live performance is one of the rare cases where I believe it rivals the actual studio version. The CD release of this concert has this song going on for longer at 12 minutes and every second of it has always been magic to my ears.
 

Rest in peace Yuji!

Shit....this one is heartbreaking and tragic. I just watched a few of his livestreams he did recently and he was amazing and on-point as always. I even got to say hello to him via the live chat during a steam just to send him some love from a fan outside of Japan. He actually read it, since it was one of the messages in English, and responded a bit.

I'm sure we all have our favorite songs by him. Song of a Lunatic is mine and the extended live performance is one of the rare cases where I believe it rivals the actual studio version. The CD release of this concert has this song going on for longer at 12 minutes and every second of it has always been magic to my ears.
 

Rest in peace Yuji!

True, I forgot about that. The fact that they used vimeo to distribute the stream also costs more money than average and is a good move on their part. Vimeo uses a better bitrate and the encoding generally has little to no macroblocking compared to nearly most of the other platforms except maybe Netflix and Amazon.

I just hope after everything somewhat gets back to normal that all of the Japanese artists will continue to do online lives. I've been waiting years for this to happen, whether live streaming or selling pre-recorded concerts.

I just purchased the live before they stop distributing tomorrow.
It's only 57 minutes long and it's just Tetsu Takano performing solo on plugged in acoustic guitar. In the past he has played some amazing setlists as a solo singer. This setlist is just meh. He performs songs from The Black Comet Club Band, The JuneJulyAugust , nil and Zigzo. Although none of the slower / ballady ones that would sound amazing on semi-acoustic. (Sleep, nani kara nani made, Sayonara DaVinci, etc) Here are some of the songs he plays:

nil - Longing Long
The JuneJulyAugust - Every Single Night
Zigzo - Forever Love
TBCCB - La Vie en Rose

The video and sound quality are excellent. It's 1080p from what looks like a proper camera / DSLR lens and the soundboard audio is crystal clear which hasn't been the case for many lockdown gigs I've seen so far.

As a die-hard Tetsu fan (any Mega 8 Ball love here?!), I don't mind paying 3000 yen for this. But if you subtract the intro and outro stuff, it's roughly only him playing for about 50minutes.  As a casual fan, the money would probably be better spent buying the Black Comet Club Band albums digitally.

Ah yes, my Livejournal for better or worse still lives on. And I've been going by carddass or some variation of that for the past 25 years or so on various forums, mailing lists, and even IRC so my listening habits are somewhat traceable.

Those translations look good. I actually discovered a new translating website deepl that does really excellent German / English translations that are much better than google. They are amazingly really human sounding with the grammar and phrasings. I haven't attempted to send Japanese lyrics through it yet but it potentially could be great as well.
 
https://www.deepl.com/translator
 
Here's a direct copy-and-paste of shissha ressha from deepl which can be compared with the one I posted earlier by a native speaker with some edits by me.

Train of the Dead
 
Black moth-strewn night sky
A mourning procession walks through the city.
Each with a balloon of a different color.
You slipped past the invisible me.
 
Let go of the balloon and it's high in the sky
It made me float in the air.
When we arrived at the empty moon station
It only sounded like a bellwether of departures.
The night I started running, in the open air.

I'll never forget you.
The night I started running, in the open air.
I'll never forget you.
I can't remember when I opened it, like a piece of jam bun.

Exhale clear, dry, cold air.
I can't remember when I opened it, like a piece of jam bun.
I'm leaving without anyone noticing.
The night I started running, in the open air.

I'll never forget you.
The window of the train that just started running is beautiful.
I don't want to kill you.
I'm not going to be around anymore.
I guess I'm going to die.
 
Crossing the river of flowing moths
Aiming higher than the sky
 

I totally randomly ended up at Ye Olde Livejournale Community of the band (I see you were quite an active member there @carddass I didn't even realize your name and avatar were familiar - my nick was jani_kun on LJ ) and for my own amusement tried to put some lyrics in Google Translator....... and they shockingly came out pretty great!! Not sure how accurate but at least totally comprehensible. :')))
 
Here's Fuffuu:
 
bito 4 you:
 
Power (I adjusted this one a bit):
 
(other ones I checked didn't come out as smoothly, lol)

I never listened to the original before, nor anything from BOOWY, but the first clip that came up on Youtube showed Himuro doing that pose. lol

THE BLACK COMET CLUB BAND 4th full album "LA VIE EN ROSE" has been released at 2020/05/17.
 

 

 
TrackList:
1. El Rosa
2. Mexican Standoff
3. Plan B
4. Guess Death
5. 無人島ロック
6. 車道
7. How High?
8. Red Sun
9. All Right
10. Magnolia
11. Born To Be Bone
12. La Vie En Rose
13. 明日になれば
14. Hasta La Vista
15. Elminator
 
 

No problem~

Here's a translation for munimuni's He that I'm pretty sure I did. It's timestamped September 18, 2008....so it's been kicking around on my computer for a while and I probably haven't looked at it since then so I can't guarantee the quality but I would guess it's 90% there.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ムニムニ ヒー
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The moonlight illuminates the sorrowful curtains.
We dance around. Until we return to sand...
On that day, I heard a Cry for the moonlight...
It's you, just you, I want to know.
 
The season's breeze sways the memories, the scents and the shadows
We sing out loud, to the small star above us.
On that day, we exchanged a few words.
And even now I still can't forgive what you said.
 
All of the future emotions pile up and begin to overflow.
The moonlight, the smiling face, the laughter.
All in that dark decadence.
On that day,
I heard a prayer.
 
(he, he, he is xxx...) We were making love.
(he, he, he is xxx...) I actually detest it a little.
(he, he, he is xxx...) The sound of a broken music box
(he, he, he is xxx...) imprisons your profile and fingertips...
 
All of the painful emotions pile up and begin to overflow.
It'll be forgiven in this nightmare's darkness.
Words and memories burst open.
On that day, I saw the tears flow.
 
(he, he, he is xxx...) We were making love.
(he, he, he is xxx...) I actually detest it a little.
(he, he, he is xxx...) The sound of the broken music box
(he, he, he is xxx...) imprisons that encounter to which I say goodbye...
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mugen Minus started in 2006 and was a 4 piece electro folk band started by vocalist Jinpei Endo after his previous band Cock Roach ended in 2005. Cock roach was a musically dark and heavy whereas mugen minus was quite the opposite in terms of sound. It was acoustic and folky. I consider both bands to be two different sides of the same coin. Eventually mugen minus added Cock Roach's bassist Honda Chuya in 2007 to become a 5 piece.

mugen minus released their first album '死んだはずの僕の旅行' or 'The journey in which I should have died' in 2006, from which shissha ressha was the opening track. The band released a single in 2007 with new member Honda on bass and then released another album 'Perfect World' in 2008. Unfortunately in 2010, percussionist 前川和磨 was arrested for internet fraud, the things I vaguely remember was that it might have been related to a pornography website, and in typical Japanese fashion, he left or was fired from the band, and the whole band paused activities.

In 2008, shortly after mugen minus released 'Perfect World', Jinpei and Honda released a work under the name '博士と蟋蟀',  hakase to korogi or 'The Doctor and the Cricket' which thematically was closer to Cock roach's harder and darker sound.

Eventually mugen minus reformed in 2014 or 2015 but never recorded anything again and only played a few shows before Jinpei and Honda started officially reviving their high school band Cock Roach in 2017.

More info here:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaEPaEUJYJf_F-QP00b3qDQ
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/COCK_ROACH
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/無限マイナス

(I just realized I should make an artist thread for these bands as there's virtually nothing about them in English except through this connection from munimuni)

Holy shit! I remember stumbling upon that Mugen Minus band completely randomly ages ago and not knowing who they were. Nice to suddenly find them here of all places 

I'm actually a huge fan of the original shissha ressha by mugen minus and I heard that version before munimuni released their cover. muni's cover was great too but the original is so epic to me that I consider it one of my top 5 favorite Japanese songs. While my Japanese comprehension is probably basic at best, I find the lyrics to be quite poetic. The whole train and death imagery really works well with the minimal folk electro sound mugen had.
I liked it so much that I asked a former Japanese coworker to correct my translation which was quite rough back when I did it and he essentially translated it from scratch. I'm not sure if I ever shared this with anyone before:

===================================================================================================
黒蛾を散りばめた夜空
The black moth is framed in the night sky
喪服の行列が街を歩く
A procession dressed in black walking the streets
それぞれの色の風船持って
Each and every one of them holding a different colored balloon
透明な僕をすり抜けた
(they) slipped through me being transparent
手放した風船は空高く
They release their balloons high into the sky
それにつられ僕も宙に浮いた
And I followed them (balloons) infectiously into the sky
誰もいない月の駅に着くと
And I landed on an empty station on the moon
発車のべルー度だけ響いた
the boarding bell lets out its sound just once

走り出した夜の空きれいで
the view of night sky from the running train looks so beautiful
君を忘れくないよ
I don't want to forget about you.
走り出した夜の空きれいで
the view of night sky from the running train looks so beautiful
君を忘れくないよ
I don't want to forget about you.
いつ空けたか忘れたジャムパンの様に
Just like a Jampan that I don't remember when I opened it,
(bread with Jam -a popular sweet in Japan and it usually sells being packed with plastic bag.)
透明で乾いた冷気を吐き出して
 exhaling transparent, dry cold air,
いつ空けたか忘れたジャムパンの様に
Just like a Jampan that I don't remember when I opened it,
誰にも気付かれないまま旅立つよ
I'm going to embark on this journey without anyone noticing!

走り出した夜の空きれいで
the view of night sky from the running train looks so beautiful
君を忘れくないよ
I don't want to have to forget about you!
走り出した汽車の窓きれいで
The window (or view from the window) of the running train looks so beautiful,
君を殺したくないよ
I don't want to kill you.
もう僕はこのまま
死んでしまうのだろうな。
I guess I'm supposed to pass on as I am
流るる蛾の川を渡り
Ferrying across the flowing swarm of a moth river
空より高い空を目指し
High above the sky, aiming towards the Heavens
===================================================================================================

Translator Notes:
 
I think the tricky part was
いつ開けたか忘れたジャムパンのように
透明で乾いた冷気を吐き出した
 
I think what the writer is trying to say is
Jampan was left a while ago and people don't care about it and nobody
knows when it was opened.

And this guy feels like that Jampan which is forgotten by people..  I guess.
 
But then this line contradicts earlier part of the lyrics
Just extra info on Jampan,
maybe this is just me and could be very subjective but..
 
if a guy talks about jampan, then jampan often would reminds people of
junior and high school era.  Teenage boys would buy jampan at a small
store in school as a snack.  I dont know too many guys eating Jampan
after they become adult.  (well actually then they become older than
50 or 60, I can see them eating Jampan.)
So, what i am trying to say is that "Jampan" could have a (nostalgic)
nuance of school days.
It is something teenagers used to eat before they get adult.
But I am not sure if this nuance is intended in this lyrics, though..
===================================================================================================

And for anyone who hasn't heard the original:

And extra bonus random information. Another band 'キアロスタミ' covered this song and released it a few months before mugen minus ever did. I've never listened to it as that band was very tiny and fell out of existence by the late 00s and the CDs are impossible to fine (I've been searching loosely for 15 years almost!) but it has to say something when 2 bands cover a song barely after it's been around.

I'm actually a huge fan of the original shissha ressha by mugen minus and I heard that version before munimuni released their cover. muni's cover was great too but the original is so epic to me that I consider it one of my top 5 favorite Japanese songs. While my Japanese comprehension is probably basic at best, I find the lyrics to be quite poetic. The whole train and death imagery really works well with the minimal folk electro sound mugen had.
I liked it so much that I asked a former Japanese coworker to correct my translation which was quite rough back when I did it and he essentially translated it from scratch. I'm not sure if I ever shared this with anyone before:

===================================================================================================
黒蛾を散りばめた夜空
The black moth is framed in the night sky
喪服の行列が街を歩く
A procession dressed in black walking the streets
それぞれの色の風船持って
Each and every one of them holding a different colored balloon
透明な僕をすり抜けた
(they) slipped through me being transparent
手放した風船は空高く
They release their balloons high into the sky
それにつられ僕も宙に浮いた
And I followed them (balloons) infectiously into the sky
誰もいない月の駅に着くと
And I landed on an empty station on the moon
発車のべルー度だけ響いた
the boarding bell lets out its sound just once

走り出した夜の空きれいで
the view of night sky from the running train looks so beautiful
君を忘れくないよ
I don't want to forget about you.
走り出した夜の空きれいで
the view of night sky from the running train looks so beautiful
君を忘れくないよ
I don't want to forget about you.
いつ空けたか忘れたジャムパンの様に
Just like a Jampan that I don't remember when I opened it,
(bread with Jam -a popular sweet in Japan and it usually sells being packed with plastic bag.)
透明で乾いた冷気を吐き出して
 exhaling transparent, dry cold air,
いつ空けたか忘れたジャムパンの様に
Just like a Jampan that I don't remember when I opened it,
誰にも気付かれないまま旅立つよ
I'm going to embark on this journey without anyone noticing!

走り出した夜の空きれいで
the view of night sky from the running train looks so beautiful
君を忘れくないよ
I don't want to have to forget about you!
走り出した汽車の窓きれいで
The window (or view from the window) of the running train looks so beautiful,
君を殺したくないよ
I don't want to kill you.
もう僕はこのまま
死んでしまうのだろうな。
I guess I'm supposed to pass on as I am
流るる蛾の川を渡り
Ferrying across the flowing swarm of a moth river
空より高い空を目指し
High above the sky, aiming towards the Heavens
===================================================================================================

Translator Notes:
 
I think the tricky part was
いつ開けたか忘れたジャムパンのように
透明で乾いた冷気を吐き出した
 
I think what the writer is trying to say is
Jampan was left a while ago and people don't care about it and nobody
knows when it was opened.

And this guy feels like that Jampan which is forgotten by people..  I guess.
 
But then this line contradicts earlier part of the lyrics
Just extra info on Jampan,
maybe this is just me and could be very subjective but..
 
if a guy talks about jampan, then jampan often would reminds people of
junior and high school era.  Teenage boys would buy jampan at a small
store in school as a snack.  I dont know too many guys eating Jampan
after they become adult.  (well actually then they become older than
50 or 60, I can see them eating Jampan.)
So, what i am trying to say is that "Jampan" could have a (nostalgic)
nuance of school days.
It is something teenagers used to eat before they get adult.
But I am not sure if this nuance is intended in this lyrics, though..
===================================================================================================

And for anyone who hasn't heard the original:

And extra bonus random information. Another band 'キアロスタミ' covered this song and released it a few months before mugen minus ever did. I've never listened to it as that band was very tiny and fell out of existence by the late 00s and the CDs are impossible to fine (I've been searching loosely for 15 years almost!) but it has to say something when 2 bands cover a song barely after it's been around.

Post-2010 would be:

A Kills A
The Doguu Song
ウーピーハーピー
shiranai no -kioque of bala

I liked A Diary of Mr. Moonlight as a whole....but no one track gives me that ear-worm like the above mentioned songs.

And just to round things out, here's my pre-2010 favorite list:

-Neo Fuffu (this is the definitive version of the song for me - that scream at the end right before the last chorus is amazing)
-Beat for you
-He
-Believe
-magaru sekai
-one day
-spellbound
-Moon & The Moonies
-setsudan

Also, for some more of Maternou's rapping 'skills' can be heard in the short lived 玉筋クールJ太郎 side project:
 
 

I just checked my e-mail and a munimuni newsletter arrived today stating that it is Ankou:
 
"6/2の公演からアンクー(ギター/dummy-xD)再加入しましす・・・。
※延期になってしまった「4/29ギタークレ卒業ギグ」は調整中です。（卒業ギグとしての開催をしない可能性もございますのでご了承ください。）"

Also, I  totally forgot there was an Artist thread for them! Should we be posting there or here for these little bits of news?