colorful人生

My tastes are all over the place, but I can give two examples:

 

One glaring example is related to classical music. I don't really like anything in the "classical" realm (especially Russian classical) other than certain French classical composers (Satie, Ravel, Debussy, etc.) I like the calmer, whimsical style, everything else I find kind of grating.  I have a much more diverse interest in Jazz (which has crept its way/has influences other genres I like.)

 

I much prefer bluegrass over country, but I do listen to 70's/80's country (John Denver and George Strait.)  Can't stand most modern country hits/ "hick-hop", which runs rampant on my local radio stations.

Throwback to "Plastic Post Paper - nurd"  (This is what's exactly on the lyric booklet):

 

we are the "nurd"

so we brend the "22" by the "fortune"

we are the "nurd"

so  brend the "soap" by the "honey bee"

we are the "nurd"

so brend the "new wave" by the sexy.

 

i'm a honors

in my school.

in my home.

in my parents and all thig.

i was tired and sad.

she said your nurd boy.

 

my father was hit my cheak.

hit my belly and he said . . . 

lick my penis by your small rips.

 

the thistort my life.

but your kind to me.

because i love so much.

but i did sex with your mother. oh no !

 

i want to make your mother's children.

you may make a baby. 2nd is you.

so i want to a destroy your family.

and beautifultime is start of me.

 

Here's another track off the same album, which I physically own for some reason:

 

Acid Black Cherry - Re:birth (Also, every Janne Da Arc MV)

vistlip - ORDER MADE

Neverland - Evergreen

UVERworld - Gekidou

girugamesh - Inochi no Ki

D=OUT - ONE

LUNA SEA - gravity

DIE IN CRIES - Nocturne

MoNoLith - FADE OUT

xTRiPx - glitter

baroque - ila.

NEXX - METEORITE ARK

bis - DAYS

凛 - world in flames

Administrator - Promise

There's too many to count, tbh.

* Ok, I should probably stop now.

 

義の空気 -> Righteous Air (Righteousness' Air) -> Yoshi no Kuuki -> Yoshi's Cookie

If I had a better grasp of Kanji, I would totally go the Japanese pun route. Take some egregiously "deep" name that sounds hilarious when spoken.

Same dude.

( ಠ ͜ʖಠ)

Bread

Elton John

Chicago

Air Supply

Dan Fogelberg

The Doobie Brothers

Stevie Wonder

Eagles

Fleetwood Mac

America

Commodores

Earth, Wind, and Fire

Michael Jackson

Jacob Collier

Nathan East

Pat Metheny Group

Kenny G

Dr. Lonnie Smith

Andrea Bocelli

Camp Lo

Nas

J.I.D

Denzel Curry

Cise Star

Periphery

Bring Me The Horizon

I See Stars

Jamie's Elsewhere

Palisades

ERRA

Oceana

Plini

Chon

SALES

Mew

Real Estate

Mac Demarco

NU'EST

BTS

GFRIEND

WJSN

Oh My Girl
Mami Kawada

Kaori Utatsuki

KOTOKO

Aimer

dream

Annabel/Seraph

1986 Omega Tribe

Yuuki Saito

Crowd Lu

FM-84

The Midnight

Night Tempo

ECO VIRTUAL

1 hour ago, Gesu said:

Every now and again, I'll clench my teeth in my sleep and wake up with a profusely aching jaw. It usually happens during a nap as opposed to an overnight sleep. Should I bring that up with my doctor? I don't really know if they can do anything about it.

Check with your primary doctor about the cause of the clenching/bruxism (can be a range of things from stress, anxiety, sleep apnea, etc.), but I'd also see a dentist if they'd suggest a night guard to mitigate your clenching/grinding. You don't want to end up w/ TMJ disorders (like @saishuu mentioned) b/c they suck, but additionally, clenching/grinding can eat away at the tooth enamel which can lead to all sorts of issues. 

I haven't listened to Tyler before IGOR, but the instrumentals (and rap) is completely up my alley. Lately I've been bouncing between J.I.D and Denzel... 

...and holy shit, is RICKY a great track. I'm really excited for "ZUU".

 

The MV for 151 Rum came out 2 weeks ago. It's not a new track, but I still listen to the hell out of DiCaprio 2. 

 

 

 

 

glad my favorite gen 2 boi is getting some meme love

 

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2 hours ago, psychonnect_rozen said:

Does anyone get made fun of for liking Japanese music?

 

I do all the time. My friends tease me and call me a "weeb" or "emo" every fucking day so there's that.

 

Granted I'm the only one at my school who knows what visual kei is and the only Asian thing people listen to is KPOP *shudders*

Unless those comments are satirical/ in humor, those aren't real friends.

 

To be honest, I realized very early on that completely divulging to others (or pushing) my Japanese hobbies without context would really come off as weird and awkward to most people. Luckily, in high-school I perfected the craft of introducing my friends, who had varying levels of interest in video games or anime, to j-rock & visual kei. While I wasn't as successful a vk missionary in college (immediately got the "hurr durr are u gay" question), I figured the more genres I had in my "repertoire" the better I could connect w/ people and possibly introduce them to vk. To this day, my wealth of music interests has been the king of icebreakers.

 

Some successful examples:

• Late 00's - Early 2010's metalcore and post-hardcore was still huge, so I showed my metalhead friends the Crossfaith - Blue live clip (only their first album was out at the time), and they dug the shit out of that. Promptly blew up w/ their second album a year-and-a-half later.
• A friend of mine at the time liked the 14th opening to BLEACH, which was guess what, ViViD - Blue. Ended up getting him and a few others hooked on DIV.
• Friend of mine who mainly liked VGM (Video Game Music) found my earllly visual kei YouTube channel and really liked the SolariS tracks I posted, which was really interesting. I got him into the Raid.'s first mini and xTRiPx. Helped that he had a Korean-Canadian friend that introduced him to vocaloid/utaite stuff.

 

While K-pop isn't for everyone, it has made strides to change the perspective of androgyny and masculinity in the U.S, and elsewhere. I had friends who were only into K-pop be completely accepting of visual kei aesthetics b/c they had that frame of reference.

 

Damn, I had ruminate on this for a good hour... This would be my selection if I was forced to bring only 5 vk jewel cases on a long road trip. In fact, all of the ones listed below have been on my road trip rotation. I couldn't choose 5 actual "top" albums, so I went for densely packed albums/best-ofs w/ my favorites. There were artists like xTRiPx, ViViD, and クラビア (Clavier) missing b/c my favorite tracks were too scattered to include a single album.

 

Main Set:

1. パノラマ虚構ゼノン - XENON BEST SELECTION
2. キャンセル (Canzel) - BeST SONGS -SOFT TRACKS-
3.  ダウナー (DOWNER) - セットリスト
4. Royz - Revolution to New AGE
5. the Raid. - 【bo_ya SIDE】COUPLING BEST

*6 really close runner-ups (possible switch-outs):

1. NEXX - cap:cell
2. girugamesh - MUSIC
3. Janne Da Arc - SINGLES 2
4. MoNoLith- MONOLITH
5. vistlip - THEATER
6. #ロストワールド(Lost World) - 幻想世界地図

 

 

 

NOW THAT'S A LOOK

 

Individual Looks (high-res):

Koudai: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D6xk6FDUEAIdjFi.jpg:large

Fubuki: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D6xj0E2UIAAxbWl.jpg:large

Vivi: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D6xxlzwU0AAn1xV.jpg:large

Ei: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D6xlg_RUcAEUBC7.jpg:large

Miyavi: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D6xjupBU8AAtdFn.jpg:large (He's cropped his to a square. Also not the full image)

 

Promo Image (They went back and -shopped it quickly (vignette, faces, etc.) That's assuming the first isn't unedited.):

Pre-tweak: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D6xk6FCUEAIcW7W.jpg

Post-tweak: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D6xi34FV4AEIlP7.jpg

 

nobody:

 

every other j-indie band:

 

 

Like half of the bands I follow look like q-tips. Does that shit not get hot in the summer?

 

I used to dislike K-pop w/ golden-era bands (late-2000's - early-2010's) b/c I found the songs to be really "robotic" and anthemic. The motifs that pervaded western pop + kpop like heavy autotune, techno, metallic design, heavy eyeshadow, etc. weren't really my thing. This current generation of K-Pop I find is a lot more diversified in a musical sense w/ producers + composers playing with more experimental genres/sub-genres. Now, K-Pop bands will use wonky, moombahton, tropical house, 80's, r&b, etc. influences that I really vibe with. I do enjoy 1st generation and early-2nd generation (90's + early 2000's) as well, but that's because of the generally melodic pop sound at the time.

 

Here were some of my gateway songs (I find groups w/ artsy or androgynous concepts to be good segues from vk.  Now, musically, you won't be in the same territory, obv.):

 

 

 

Korean phonetics used to be a huge barrier for me, but after listening to enough Korean, I got used to it. I find a lot of the newer K-Pop I'm interested in heavily tied to my interest in certain EDM genres (I use "EDM" in this case as a blanket-term for all electronic music.)

 

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Now, I certainly haven't gotten used to the rabid, but dedicated fanbase K-pop groups have, and I don't really participate in much of the online banter + fan activities either. Over-exploitation, while obviously inexcusable, is rampant in both K-pop and J-pop (and elsewhere.) I find the J-idol exploitation a lot more sinister than K-pop (namely the "black companies" and sexual exploitation), but then again, that's just what we know of in the public sphere. I like a lot of indie J-pop and solo-artists, but I find a lot of the mainstream Japanese idol groups to be really corny/insufferable. I also find the groups to be more focused on homogeneity than individuality. I'm generalizing a bit when I say that, though. I'd say, discover music on a band-to-band basis rather than focusing on just genres (the popular bands/groups of a genre) if you really want to open yourself to different things. A certain niche band might be the first domino that catalyzes your future discoveries and interest in the larger genre.

 

*I've been referring to K-pop in the "group"-sense, so I forgot to mention K-indie and solo acts. I feel like J-indie is a bit more diverse, but both have a similar feel. There's such a huge rift between mainstream K-pop and indie to where I treat them like separate genres. I feel like Korean media always pushes to the extreme the groups from the big labels over indie acts. (Probably because the big five play huge economic roles in SK, wheras JP labels aren't as pronounced in the economic-sense idk Avex, Sony, and Johnny's numbers tho. SK has always been kinda corporatocratic, idk if that's an appropriate way to describe it.)

 

EXID going out with a BOP. I know they're not disbanding (rather, going on haitus), but w/ Hani and Junghwa not renewing their contracts in typical kpop-indefinite-hiatus-fashion... I'm a bit skeptical of a full comeback unless the rest leave Banana Culture in the future ;_;. Solji just got back, too ;__;.

 

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New Weki Meki is fun :D.

stan yoojung