WhirlingBlack

Jag funderade på om man skulle försöka dra igång någon form av lätthanterad grupp för Svenska fans av J-rock/Visual Kei? Det känns som om det finns många fler än man tror men de verkar vara utspridda över en massa olika plattformar och ganska svåra att få tag på, i alla fall för traditionalister som inte använder instagram och tumblr och sånt... Men om man försökte göra någon typ Skype chattgrupp eller på Facebook så kunde ju folk bjuda in varandra och så får man kanske någon form av överskådlighet? Förr fanns ju konserterna för att hålla ihop "scenen" någorlunda men idag finns det inte riktigt något sånt. Och det verkar som om folk drar sig för att gå med i forum nuförtiden av någon anledning, för mycket arbete kanske? Hur som helst, vad tycker ni? Skulle vara kul att ha ett utrymme där alla kunde hänga och prata med varandra.

Tvärt om så är jag väldigt glad när det finns nya fans som är villiga och intresserade att lära sig, och jag har spenderat mycket av de fjorton år jag hållit på med vk med att visa nya fans band och försöka sprida kunskap, så jag sitter verkligen inte i något elfenbenstorn och tittar ned på andra. Det är nog mer det att jag drabbats av några motgångar på sistone och de jag försökt visa de äldre grejerna inte alls varit mottagliga, och det är egentligen inte sådär jättemärkligt eftersom musiken är väldigt olika. Hoppas vi förstår varandra nu, behöver inte missämja bland de sista fans som finns kvar, haha. Sen angående det här stället, jag har varit här sedan början, då jag känner folket som driver stället, men har aldrig skrivit mycket, jag har dock faktiskt träffat på er alla på olika ställen tidigare, haha.

Ska svara mer utförligt sen men ville poängtera för att undvika missförstånd (som redan uppstått) att det var på en personlig nivå, alltså en sorg över att inte kunna relatera till människorna även om vi gillar samma genre i grunden. Såklart får de lyssna på vilka band de vill.

Även Finland börjar bli en mindre och mindre marknad nu, enligt mina kontakter där i alla fall så börjar även eftersläntrarna dö av nu. känns som om Tyskland och Frankrike är de enda säkra länderna nu, även om Östeuropa verkar ha gått fram starkt. Länder som Ryssland, Ukraina m.fl. känns som om de får konserter varje turné, ofta till och med två shower i Ryssland. Om någon sagt till mig för fem år sedan att Dir en grey skulle spela konsert i Vitryssland så skulle jag nog ifrågasatt deras verklighetsuppfattning. Och jo, sista spiken i kistan, utöver att fansen flydde för att lyssna på k-pop, var ju när New Nippon gick i konkurs i och med att UnsraW bara sålde runt 70 (!) biljetter till sin konsert. Efter det hade vi ingen som bokade band hit förutom några ströspelningar på konvent. Utan band som kommer så var det väl lätt att fler tappade intresset. Nästan ännu sorgligare på en personlig nivå är att även när jag träffar nya visual kei fans, det finns några stycken, så kan jag ändå inte relatera till dem för deras referenspunkter är helt annorlunda. Folk som har Grieva och/eller Mejibray som favoritband och på allvar aldrig hört talas om något äldre än slutet av 2000-talets grejer. Säkert någon av er som känner igen er i min situation, haha.

Du menar "var". J-rock har varit totalt dött i Sverige senaste fyra åren eller så, i alla fall folk som faktiskt är fans av visual kei. Räknar inte Yohio och co. eller folk som bara håller på med stilen men inte är intresserade av musiken. Därför så har vi tyvärr i princip inga svenska fans här, tråkigt men sant. Om ni lyckas gräva upp några fler eller råkar känna folk så bjud in dem hit.

Hi, what was your username on Batsu? Whenever people mention that place I have to check if I recognize them from back in the day.

So it's basically watching Satsuki do karaoke on a large stage? Glad I'm not paying to see this...

MUCC has released 12 full-length albums, not "19-20". And playing Ranchuu is about as interesting as watching paint dry, since it's in pretty much every single show they play. It's a good track but hardly enough variation when it comes to older material. Still, they've done some shows lately with older material, they played a two-man live with caligari sometime last year where they almost exclusively performed material from the first few years. http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/mucc/2015/route-fourteen-ichikawa-japan-7bf25e64.html http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/mucc/2015/route-fourteen-ichikawa-japan-7bf25e40.html The coupling tour with lynch. had a pretty balanced setlist as well at times, http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/mucc/2015/diamond-hall-nagoya-japan-1bf509ac.html Finally, earlier this current tour they've done a few interesting semi-old tracks like Waga, Arubeki Basho and others. Compared to most other bands that have deteriorated on such a massive scale, MUCC seems to at least be aware that a sizeable portion of their audience are most interested in their older music, at least at times.

Missed opportunity to invite some Japanese band along. If they are trying to profile themselves towards fans of Japanese music it would've been a great chance to draw people with the jap band and hope that people would stick around to see theirs too. Now its just going to be another event for Yohios 12 year old fangirls (which I'm sure he doesn't mind)

It's not even related is the point I'm trying to make. Yasukuni is a shrine to honour the people who have died in various wars since the mid 19th century, not to glorify war crimes. It's like saying that the buddhists better remove the swastika everywhere because Hitler took the symbol and rebranded it for his purposes. It's full of ordinary people and there hasn't been any questionable "far-right" rallies any of the times I've visited the place. I also agree that Japan has a lot to answer for when it comes to the War, but when people mix apples and oranges in a highly sensitive area like this, it's no surprise that Japan has been unable to offer up a fair apology, in my opinion. And in my opinion the relentlessness with which anti-japanese sentiments are still spread especially in China, I have seriously doubts whether they even want or would accept a proper apology in the first place, sadly. Things aren't always as simple as one would like them to be.

I really wish people would stop taking Yasukuni visits as some form of condoning imperialism and/or especially war crimes, there's hundreds of thousands of people not guilty of committing war crimes that are interred and honoured there as well, including family members of a lot of people still alive today. But that's what happens when people take sensationalized Korean/Chinese newspaper articles combined with a complete lack of understanding of Japanese religious practices, where paying respect to the dead is an important factor, and uncritically accept their view ostensibly because they were oppressed during a period of this time. The fact that I've heard it being compared to German leaders saluting SS leaders at concentration camps just sort of shows how little people actually know about it.

Sounds more sad than anything else from the sound of it, and perhaps a bit whiny. "I'm not sure if the people who are uploading sees this but, please stop doing it..." I'm surprised why they would think no one would upload their songs and DVDs on youtube though, and why they seemingly haven't cared to notice or comment on it previously. But at least he's not lashing out and being angry at people left and right like some other VK people were doing a while back, so it's still alright, people aren't going to stop though so he should probably try to save his grief for something more worthwhile.

Er Ist Weider Da is a really funny book, I enjoyed reading it a lot despite having to read a Swedish translation, the languages are close enough to carry over at least some of the unique phrasing that makes it so good, it literally does feel like reading a very absurd and humorous continuation of Mein Kampf, which I've also read extensively. And to contribute to this post, I'm reading The Prince by Machiavelli currently, slowly, because I'm trying to ponder the application of 16th century political wisdom to 21st century conditions. It's only 80-90 or so pages but I've been at it for almost two weeks already. Really enjoying it and seeing a lot of relevance in some of the theories presented, even today.

Hi, nice to see another aie fan. Write me if you want to discuss aie and/or his related concerts, I've been to quite a few and I always enjoy sharing stories and random trivia from them.

Single vs. Maxi-Single originally referred to different physical formats, a single was a 7 inch vinyl with one song on each side while a maxi single was either a 7 inch with more than one track on one side, or a 12 inch disc cut different from an LP so it didn't fit as many tracks, and a different physical format compared to an EP. It's complex and apparently it involved different definitions in different countries as well. In Japan though, I generally get the feeling that VK bands arbitrarily tack "maxi" onto anything shorter than an EP in order to squeeze and extra 500yen out of their fans, despite that the content not always warrants it.

Remaking Unknown...Despair...a Lost was a crime in every way. One of few things I can't accept when it comes to Dir en grey and I'm generally in favor of most of their remakes. Anyone here planning on hitting the VULGAR tour though? I was planning on joining it from Osaka and onwards and meeting other fans is always fun. And to speculate a bit, I wonder if the tour will contain other tracks of the era, I'm expecting Fukai but I'm wondering whether they'll go for full on VULGAR era setlists with six Ugly material too or if they'll do it like the GAUZE tour and mix it up with their latest material.

I might be familiar with the username Tetsu, did you have a specific area you used to post in?

What was your username on Batsu? I was around there at that time.

As far as I understand it, in terms of the current style of bangya culture, is that it's not new but it certainly hasn't been going on forever. Visual Kei has gone through a lot of changes and while there's always been parts of the scene more affected by this than others, it's much more prevalent now than it was 15 years ago, according to people I've spoken to. Just like the commercialisation of the genre have reached new heights due to the safety of this economic system that have developed between the two. Talentless hacks would not have lasted like they do today. Would be interesting to research deeper into the connections there.

My main issue with the visual kei scene isn't really represented in the options here, and it's something you generally get more in touch with once you get to Japan and get to experience the scene. Firstly, the fact that a large majority of visual kei musicians more or less openly admits they don't have any artistic or personal integrity, they don't care what they produce and they don't care that their sound is exactly like every other band out there, because they know that as long as the members are pretty enough there WILL be fans, and they WILL pay you money for "company" and "favors" so that you can survive comfortably and keep rehashing the same song for a couple of years until you feel like calling it quits and do something more worthwhile with your life, or more likely, go into full time hosting business now that you have a decent circle of clients already. This sort of leads me into my second issue and it's the bangya culture. It's generally really vile, and the way the girls not only talk about the musicians but also each other is quite disgusting. If the bangyas decide that a member has done something they do not approve of, that doesn't live up to their perfect ideals that they hold them all to (because god knows the fangirls don't live up to any of them) they can easily start enough shit to cause a band to break up or force a member out of the band. The issues doesn't end there though, because the few foreign bangya that exists generally adapt to this mentality and lifestyle too. They openly shun other foreigners who dare attend the lives of "their" band and ruin their "specialness", they participate in this completely daft saizen system where a designated person basically decides who gets what spot at a concert so everyone can enjoy playing ten year olds doing the "you're not allowed to play with us"-games... And the obviousness of what really drives people to be fans of these bands become so apparent when they get to this level, and it's certainly not the music. To be honest, in a lot of ways I never realized how bad this was until I got there and could see it all for myself, and that's despite a 13 year stint in the scene by now.

I was actually looking for the EVE featuring the vocalist of Since1889, but thanks for clearing it up for me!

Thanks, does the tape anywhere list the bandmembers? Sorry for the inconvenience.

I noticed your EVE tape was on hold, but is it possible that you could help me identify which of the many EVE bands it is?

Very glad to see that the staff appreciated the KEEL albums. I feel like the way Ito reviewed it sums it up very well, it does bring you back to the early 2000s when you were really excited about all things visual kei and good bands were plentiful. To feel that just for a bit again, after being jaded from many years of mediocre musicians alienating you from the things you used to like, is the greatest musical gift this year, to me.

Well, if you listen to a how a lot of visual kei sounds like today, it'd be pretty obvious some bands are trying to emulate (and failing to do so, mostly) more recent Dir material.