WhirlingBlack

Don't have time to look into it too much at the moment so I'll just quickly drop some examples.
 
Dir en grey has rearranged too many songs to count during concerts, going all the way back to their earliest days. Some of which could be deemed more a case of evolving work in progress though, but if we count things that have been released then it goes back to the macabre era where certain GAUZE songs would be rearranged completely.
 
Shinjuku Gewalt has re-arranged tracks for live shows several times, adding and removing elements between concerts.
 
Sugar performed full acoustic lives.
 
MUCC has performed acoustic versions of tracks at instore events.
 
Lament. has performed acoustic shows with piano, acoustic guitar and vocals only, I attended one and it was amazing.
 
emmuree/the god and death stars/DIMMDIVISION/DISH/dieS/those kind of guys frequently do acoustic sets either alone (vocals+guitar only) or with the full band.
 
 

Don't have time to look into it too much at the moment so I'll just quickly drop some examples.
 
Dir en grey has rearranged too many songs to count during concerts, going all the way back to their earliest days. Some of which could be deemed more a case of evolving work in progress though, but if we count things that have been released then it goes back to the macabre era where certain GAUZE songs would be rearranged completely.
 
Shinjuku Gewalt has re-arranged tracks for live shows several times, adding and removing elements between concerts.
 
Sugar performed full acoustic lives.
 
MUCC has performed acoustic versions of tracks at instore events.
 
Lament. has performed acoustic shows with piano, acoustic guitar and vocals only, I attended one and it was amazing.
 
emmuree/the god and death stars/DIMMDIVISION/DISH/dieS/those kind of guys frequently do acoustic sets either alone (vocals+guitar only) or with the full band.
 
 

The previous trend was to name the band differently but play the same music as the original.
 
Perhaps the new trend will be to name the band the same but play different music compared to the original?
 
Can't wait for the new glittery pop band ディル・アン・グレイ!

Some people don't like sex, that's cool. Some people like it, and that's cool too.
It's not so much about what people want out of their relationships and judging others by that, but rather that people should try to find someone who have similar needs and goals when it comes to such relationships. And there's plenty of other things than opinion on sex that needs to align in order for it to work out. Mismatched couples rarely last because they get on each others nerves due to one party feeling neglected and the other smothered. A lot of these situations could be avoided if people were just slightly more open to talking about these things.
 
At least that's my take on it.

The last show of the tour was definitely the best, in my opinion.
The band and especially Kyo was really fired up and even though this in general has been a more energetic and "positive" tour (in the sense of the band actually being happy to interact with the audience) this last show was really a stand out. I think out of the many performances of Rinkaku I've seen this was probably the best also. When the show ended and the lights came back on people just kept screaming for another encore until the venue staff started forcing us out. I also managed to catch Shinyas wristband after the concert, which was a first for me. Nice to have some real Dir artifacts to wear to future gigs.
 
A funny anecdote from the second to last show though is that not only did Die manage to lodge a waterbottle in the ceiling of the live house when throwing stuff, he also managed to break his guitar during one of the songs and just ran around teasing the crowd instead of getting a backup and continuing playing. Similarly, Toshiya broke off a string from his bass during THE IIID EMPIRE on the last show and then proceeded to just pull the rest off as well.
 
I want to add that this was probably the most visually interesting Dir en grey lives I've attended too, lots and lots of lightning and laser effects and clever use of video screens and light in combination. I'm hoping they will release at least some partial footage from this tour since they did film at least some footage at most of the dates, but you never know.
 
Finally, some advice for people who want to attend lives in Japan, never stand next to Japanese guys during concerts if you want to have a good time. They generally just stand around or at most halfheartedly wave their arm a bit. I did that mistake during parts of the last show and I ended up having to move because they were so boring. The girls always go all in so just stick by them if you want to actually participate in the headbanging and stuff.
 
This was it for this tour for me but if anyone has any questions about it I'll do my best to answer them. I won't be participating in DSS but I'll most likely end up at parts of the kisou tour at least so expect some kind of reports then.
 

Some people don't like sex, that's cool. Some people like it, and that's cool too.
It's not so much about what people want out of their relationships and judging others by that, but rather that people should try to find someone who have similar needs and goals when it comes to such relationships. And there's plenty of other things than opinion on sex that needs to align in order for it to work out. Mismatched couples rarely last because they get on each others nerves due to one party feeling neglected and the other smothered. A lot of these situations could be avoided if people were just slightly more open to talking about these things.
 
At least that's my take on it.

Ok so this is basically the story, remember that a lot of this is from 2ch so everything may not be 100% true, but the people there seem agree on most of this and a friend of mine says that it's true. So I am presuming that this is the truth.
 
Anyway, as you know this was rockstar records bands:
Avanchick
Devil Kitty
Betty
Meary
THE EGOIST
Dear
Takashi
 
And this is what's left:
Avanchick
Betty
Takashi
 
Dear disbanded (probably just a way to get out of the contract), and the other bands have decided to leave by themselves based on Yayoi and the staff at Rockstar Records not being able to support them as a label is supposed to.
 
As I said earlier in this thread, Yayoi has NO money. No money in this case doesn't mean he has some money he uses himself, but actually no money. He has no apartment/house, he stays with friends from day to day apparently. This has made him put himself in quite a debt with other people, one is Kiryu (Betty) another person is his wife (who I have no idea what she's doing???). Kiryu is one of his kouhai's (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senpai_and_kōhai) and he apparently trusts Yayoi way too much because according to everyone on 2ch (and the bands who already left RR) Yayoi is not going to pay him back. So currently Kiryu (and what Avanchick gets to the label) is paying the expenses of the label (and what's not being payed by that money is going to backfire on Yayoi eventually...). Leona (Merry), Yuuga (DK), Ruchi (DK), have all told my friend how much they hate Yayoi. Now, Yuuga and Yayoi have a past that includes a lot of fighting (both with eachother and with other people), but my friend thinks this is the last straw for Yuuga. He apparently unfollowed him on twitter as well. 
 
As some of you may know, Yayoi has been saying that he was running 2 businesses (one in Yokohama and one in Okinawa (the one in Yokohama was proved to not exist by fans)). This means that with both RR and his bar he was running 4 business at the same time (and he was supposed to open a kyabkura (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Host_and_hostess_clubs) as well, he actually told me that in person (but it ended up never happening)) and through that he tricked the bands into believing he had money to put into the label as well as being a successful businessman so they could success as bands. 
 
Now, some of the fans at 2ch says that he's surprised that people fell for it because apparently this is what he's been doing ever since he ran the eternal label back in 2000 (people call him a spoiled brat for using his dad's cash (the guy who earlier ran EXCEL)). I personally don't know if I believe that because why would people stick with him for so long if that was true? Anyway, as said earlier not only all of the above but because he has no money most bands got little to no studio time (look at Betty who pays a lot of label expenses but haven't had a single release yet) so the label was mainly holding the bands back. And well, as said Rui from THE EGOIST says he was threatened to get beat up if he said they were leaving the label. Some VK-twitters have caught up on the drama/news as well, here's an example:
 
The last part says 
"Yappari
yoyuu no aru
ikikata
shitaiyone
neyou wara"
 
So they're having a bit of fun I guess, because the red part (first character on all lines) would be read as "Yayoi shine" which means "Die Yayoi!". I'm sure it's just a coincidence but still pretty fun lmao.
 
I guess we'll see how everything ends up. At 2ch they're saying that the label will close before the new year comes, and that Betty and Takashi might stay with the label until then. Oh and one more thing, Noa from Avanchick has said in a tweetcast (that I cba to look for because I don't care about them) that he wants to leave the label as well.
 
So based on this I'm sure Yayoi is just as intersting as Kisaki when it comes to business and scandals. He's just never been as ~famous~so we probably haven't heard of most shit he does. I have personally met Yayoi for a couple of hours and spoke to him quite a lot and he always seemed like a cool guy who got his shit together so I'm very surprised about all of this.
 
Sorry for the long post, and shitty english. I'm not native lol. 
 

The previous trend was to name the band differently but play the same music as the original.
 
Perhaps the new trend will be to name the band the same but play different music compared to the original?
 
Can't wait for the new glittery pop band ディル・アン・グレイ!

The previous trend was to name the band differently but play the same music as the original.
 
Perhaps the new trend will be to name the band the same but play different music compared to the original?
 
Can't wait for the new glittery pop band ディル・アン・グレイ!

BRING YUINA BACK

I own this CD and I can confirm what was just posted by inartistic.

I own this CD and I can confirm what was just posted by inartistic.

I own this CD and I can confirm what was just posted by inartistic.

Heading for a bachelors degree in Japanese at the moment, just started my third year/fifth semester of full time Japanese studies. Focus on reading and translating as it's what I'm going to use the language for in a work setting in the future. 
I'd say I'm decently proficient at reading at this point (1000+ kanji) but if you asked me to write them by hand the number would shrink by a lot, but then again I've heard it's the same for a lot of Japanese people.

jfc STOP trying to make gross looking beards happen.
 
yuuki had better looks before but I don't hate it; bae on the far left is plain ugly though, please depart soon.
 
also, splitting a mini-album worth # of tracks into a 3 type single is pretty ambitious for a band with, like, one notable member

my wish list
絶望ノ朝
Fake
君ノ存在理論
Wish
潔癖性ノ僕。
黒い涙
中絶
孤独人形症候群
殺戮ノ情景
Lost tears
解離性同一性障害
Dead[en]D

A lot of vk bands are on radio, problem is Japan has like two radio stations for every citizen so you're bound to never finding the right channel. 
 
I'd say the problem is that the teenagers aren't socially awkward and angry anymore. Don't know what happened but the "I dress in black and hate the world, also im misunderstood and poetic"-kids, which formed the faceless masses of casual vk listeners, are all but gone. Only the hardcore are left and they always just formed a tiny piece of the fandom.

I think they did some decent remixes of ain't afraid to die back in the day too.

a formal apology

If he had actually hanged himself on stage at the end of their indies era, even by mistake, he would've been the greatest legend in vk by far.
 
Also agree with everything you two just posted, couldn't say it better myself.

Totally agree. I don't listen to Kuroyume much nowadays but Ikiteita Chuuzetsuji, Nakigara wo... and Mayoeru Yuritachi ~Romance of scarlet~ are amazing releases. It's sad to see how bad Kuroyume turned out after SHIN left. I mean I appreciate the punk-era of Kuroyume as well but I feel it could've just been early SADS/a totally different band.
 
And they were really dark/hardcore at the beginning of their career. Kiyoharu used to pretend to hang himself on stage which made pretty big news in Japan during the 90's. There's a clip of him pretending to hang himself and it goes wrong so he almost hangs himself for real (the staff of the live venue has to pull him away).

I'm listening to the Nakigara wo tape rip that was uploaded here recently, which you should go download if you haven't done so already, and it's healthy to be reminded every now and then how incredible this band was. Fuck d'erlanger, x japan and the whole lot, nobody was playing music like this. Outside of the odd Luna Sea track like Shade, there's no instances of any other band at the time conjuring this kind of darkness and depravity. The sound of this album has been ripped off on a regular basis for over two decades now. Kuroyume invented visual kei and I pay no heed to any other opinion on the matter. They realised the sound that everyone else had only flirted with at the time. 

Idk where to put this or how to title it... sorry mods! But I came across an old thread (Wtf is Ains), and thought I'd dump a short history of Yukika/Ains. Only it turned out to be way longer than I expected, and had some crossover with non-Ains labels. So... I thought I'd dump it in the general section. Maybe this can turn into a general discussion of vk labels? (Didn't see anything similar extant when I searched.) Anyway, here:
Yukika (雪花) is a dude who was vocalist of a band called ETCETERA (エトセトラ). They were on their own label, called ● drop cafe, which I think he owned. Later, they joined a bigger label called ● CLIMAX ENTERPRISE.
 
------------------------------------------------------------
Yayoi (弥生) is a dude who was in the bands Vice†risk and La'miss fairy, among many others. Back in the day, he owned a label called ● Eternal, which was in turn a sublabel of KISAKI's ● Matina label.
Eventually, ● Matina closed, and so did ● Eternal. Later―around the same time that KISAKI opened his new label ● UNDER CODE PRODUCTION―Yayoi opened a new label called ● CLIMAX ENTERPRISE.
------------------------------------------------------------
ETCETERA eventually disbands, and ● CLIMAX ENTERPRISE closes, whatever. Afterward, Yukika forms a band called Fils, but they operate without a label and disband pretty quickly. Yukika then forms the band CLUTCH (クラッチ) under his own record label, ● Culminate Screen.
 
------------------------------------------------------------
● Culminate Screen mostly had shitty bands, but there was this one group called CATHELINE (キャサリン)... They got a little popularity, jumped ship to Speed-disk, and became R-18, then R-15, then R Shitei (R指定).
------------------------------------------------------------
CLUTCH disbands, ● Culminate Screen closes, whatever. Yukika keeps at it, forms a new band called Buddy, and starts a new label, ● A heretic sound music.. Here's where it starts getting interesting:
Yukika gets lucky, and signs this band called ALSDEAD to his label. Somehow, they get a little popular, and he's probably making money from his label for the first time ever. Meanwhile, this little band called Valluna (ヴァルナ) starts hanging out around label (without actually joining), so that's pretty cool.
Cut to late 2009. Remember that Yayoi guy, the president of the label that Yukika's band ETCETERA used to be on? Yeah, that guy suddenly has a new label called ● FIREBALL―which has no artists, btw―and Yukika slides ● A heretic sound music. right in there as a sublabel of ● FIREBALL. That's definitely some tax evasion shit, right?
Like 3 minutes later, ALSDEAD mysteriously announces that they're “graduating” from ● A heretic sound music.. The next month, Yukika's like, “Hey guys, ● A heretic sound music. is closing.” (Haq;ch. and Navir, the two unsuccessful bands on the label, are just left to fend for themselves.) But don't worry! Yukika has formed a new label: ● Galaxy, which is also a sublabel of ● FIREBALL. (Yukika even co-sponsors one-day revivals of ● Eternal and ● CLIMAX ENTERPRISE with Yayoi, 'cause they're totes great friends now.)
 
------------------------------------------------------------
Btw, did you catch that? He transforms his label into a sublabel, then immediately closes it and forms a new sublabel under the same company. He keeps the one band who was somewhat successful, and drops off the other two in some barren desert somewhere. That's definitely some tax wizardry, right? Or maybe just a cute way to end those other bands' contracts?
------------------------------------------------------------
So ● Galaxy is here, and they've got the somewhat successful ALSDEAD band. Then, surprise surprise, Valluna (ヴァルナ) joins ● Galaxy.
 
------------------------------------------------------------
ALSDEAD was, like, doing pretty good. But right after their first release through ● Galaxy, they jumped ship to their own label, ● CTA Works ('cause they're assholes?). ● Danger Crue scooped them up after, which is a pretty big deal, 'cause, like... ● Danger Crue isn't major, but it's as close as most visual bands will ever get, and it has major distribution through ● SONY. It seems like they really fell off after that, but maybe that's just in the overseas community.
------------------------------------------------------------
That Valluna (ヴァルナ) band is doing well, like really well. Which, in the VK world, means it's time for a disbandment. So, Valluna (ヴァルナ) disbands, and the important members immediately come back as DIAURA.
DIAURA is doing super well; so much so that their album is distributed by the major label ● CROWN, which is rare for a tiny label like ● Galaxy. So Yukika and Yayaoi must be dragging home small bags of money every day, which is great. But eventually, Yukika gets smart, and is like “fuck this, I want all the bags of money”; so in early 2012, mentions of something called ● Ains start springing up. ● Galaxy is still publishing releases and sponsoring lives, but this ● Ains thing is being mentioned too.
Smash cut to March of 2012, and ● Galaxy has, like, lowkey disappeared, and all of DIAURA's activities are going through ● Ains now. Considering ● FIREBALL seemed to only ever be a shell company for ● Galaxy, I guess it closed too.
------------------------------------------------------------
I wanna talk about Yayoi some more.
Way back in 1979 (supposedly), some dude founded an entertainment company called EXCEL. That dude turns out to be Yayoi's father! In the 90s, ● EXCEL RECORDS released some omnibus CDs featuring Yayoi's then-current band, ANGEL DUST. (KISAKI's band, MIRAGE, was also on those CDs, so I guess that's how KISAKI and Yayoi hooked up, which lead to KISAKI giving Yayoi the ● Eternal sublabel of ● Matina.)
Anyway, around the time when Yukika closed ● Galaxy and formed ● Ains, EXCEL was reorganized into ● EXCEL ENTERTAINMENT, with Yayoi as the new president. The new ● EXCEL ENTERTAINMENT has had several clients―including KISAKI and some people from bands belonging to ● Eternal/● CLIMAX ENTERPRISE―but the company doesn't actually do anything, as far as I can tell. I guess it acts as a talent agency, but all of its clients are already being managed by record labels, so what's the point?
More recently, Yayoi formed the new record label ROCKSTAR RECORDS. (And, of course, all of that label's artists are simultaneously signed with ● EXCEL ENTERTAINMENT.)
------------------------------------------------------------
Ok, ok, it's 2012, ● Ains exists as its own entity, and DIAURA is helping Yukika drag home bags of money, which he gets to keep to himself this time. Now that he's making Trump Checks™, Yukika can afford to sign a new act, so he snipes people from the band RELOAD (リロード) to form Grieva (グリーヴァ). Just for shits and giggles, they're on their own ● Ains sublabel called ● MadWink.. (I truly assumed that ● MadWink. was created just for aesthetic reasons, but maybe it's some weird tax evasion thing too, idk.)
Grieva (グリーヴァ) is literally (literally, kids) a Dir en grey cover band (with other influences thrown in there, but it's mostly Deg), but they're like, killin' it. So Yukika tries to strike lightning twice, and creates a GAZETTE (ガゼット) cover band, Gossip (ゴシップ), also under the ● MadWink. sublabel. At the same time, KUROYURI TO KAGE (黒百合と影) forms under a different ● Ains sublabel called ● yamikakumei (闇革命). (Again, I assume the sublabel is for aesthetic purposes.)
Soon after, Grieva, Gossip, and KUROYURI TO KAGE release a coupling CD which is published by ● UNIVERSAL MUSIC. (This doesn't mean they're major, or that they left ● Ains. I'd assume it's probably some sort of test for ● UNIVERSAL MUSIC to see if they want to deal with ● Ains more in the future.)
Now, here's the most recent weirdness:
Some new band MEDIENA (メディーナ) appears, and they give off major “● Ains vibes”―in the sense that their graphic design is clearly done by the ● Ains graphic designer, and their release schedule is put together in a way that's similar to ● Ains bands. They're also always playing at ● Ains lives, but they clearly state that they're on a label called ● V-eyes RECORDS, which has nothing to do with ● Ains. ...Or does it? When their release was put up on iTunes, the publisher was listed as ● Ains; so I guess that explains that, lol. I personally consider ● V-eyes RECORDS to be a “secret sublabel” of ● Ains, though I have no official statement to back that up, and can't give a reason why they'd do that (tax stuff?).
There's also a new band called MALISEND, whom some people assumed to belong to ● Ains. I actually think that's wrong, at least when they formed.
Early on, MALISEND was clearly not using the ● Ains graphic designer, and their first releases were not announced in the same way that ● Ains releases are (ie. not using the same marketing staff). Also, tbh, their first look was not up to ● Ains quality. And finally, I want to mention that their first releases were completely independent (independent UPC & no label listed). However, their most recent release was through a new label called ● Culminate―and was published by ● Ains, according to Brand X. So, in my opinion, MALISEND did not form under ● Ains (like MEDIENA probably did), but is now signed to another “secret sublabel” of ● Ains. (Might the name ● Culminate be a tribute to Yukika's early label, ● Culminate Screen?)
And here we are
------------------------------------------------------------
To recap...
Yukika forms drop cafe
↓
Yukika's band joins CLIMAX ENTERPRISE
↓
Yukika forms Culminate Screen
↓
Yukika forms A heretic sound music.
↓
Yukika meets up with Yayoi, the former president of CLIMAX ENTERPRISE
↓
Yayoi forms FIREBALL, and Yukika transforms A heretic sound music. to a sublabel of FIREBALL
↓
Yukika closes A heretic sound music. and makes a new FIREBALL sublabel called Galaxy
↓
Yukika forms a new, standalone label called Ains
↓
Yukika transfers DIAURA to Ains and closes A heretic sound music., and Yayoi goes to EXCEL ENTERTAINMENT
↓
Yukika makes an Ains sublabel, MadWink., for Grieva
↓
Gossip joins the sublabel MadWink.
↓
KUROYURI TO KAGE joins the new Ains sublabel, yamikakumei
↓
Grieva, Gossip, and KUROYURI TO KAGE release a coupling CD which is published/distributed by UNIVERSAL (but they're not major)
↓
MEDIENA forms under an unofficial/secret Ains sublabel, V-eyes RECORDS
↓
MALISEND forms independently, but joins what might be another unofficial/secret Ains sublabel, Culminate
------------------------------------------------------------
Idk, I hope that was enlightening or entertaining to someone! Please let me know if you have any comments or corrections!
I've always found the world of VK record labels to be really fascinating. KISAKI's label history is deliciously convoluted, but I think Yukika actually beats him out, lol.

A lot of vk bands are on radio, problem is Japan has like two radio stations for every citizen so you're bound to never finding the right channel. 
 
I'd say the problem is that the teenagers aren't socially awkward and angry anymore. Don't know what happened but the "I dress in black and hate the world, also im misunderstood and poetic"-kids, which formed the faceless masses of casual vk listeners, are all but gone. Only the hardcore are left and they always just formed a tiny piece of the fandom.

A lot of vk bands are on radio, problem is Japan has like two radio stations for every citizen so you're bound to never finding the right channel. 
 
I'd say the problem is that the teenagers aren't socially awkward and angry anymore. Don't know what happened but the "I dress in black and hate the world, also im misunderstood and poetic"-kids, which formed the faceless masses of casual vk listeners, are all but gone. Only the hardcore are left and they always just formed a tiny piece of the fandom.