wesjrocker

Amazing band, very good songs (^^)

This is an interesting topic, back in the days (more than 10 years ago) tereko used to be traded through peer to peer software, I'm putting some links related to it: https://hughstephensblog.net/2017/11/12/online-piracy-in-japan-how-big-is-the-problem-and-whats-an-effective-solution/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_sharing_in_Japan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenNap https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utatane_(P2P) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Share_(P2P) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_Dark_(P2P) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winny https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WinMX

This is a brilliant topic, unfortunately my japanese level still isn't suitable for reading message boards like tanuki or 2ch. Maybe there is still a way to view some old topics through archive.org (wayback machine), sometimes you even can download files. It is possible to visit old versions of websites but I don't know about message boards. I know this is subject for another topic but it would be nice to more about the Tereko テレコ [live recording] scene when it was allowed to record concerts in MD/tape format or even take pictures inside live houses. After recording it, japanese fans used to trade these files through Utatane and WinMX. I remember there was a ranking website for people who used to trade them, but it was almost impossible to trade anything because I didn't understand japanese and did not have anything special to exchange.

I also love Lareine, I think kamijo's voice sounds more natural when he is singing lareine's songs. I wish we could watch this concert but it was a fanclub only release: https://puresound.co.jp/user_data/sp_artist_product_detail.php?pid=102020068&aid=lareine&bck=%2Fuser_data%2Fsp_artist_product.php%3Faid%3Dlareine

DuelJewel SCHAFT (Buck Tick side project)

How did the vk boom of '09 affect you in your country? A lot of people don't know about this but in 2009, Kagrra came to my country [Brazil] and did a complete gig in the city of São Paulo, this was my first time watching a Vrock band playing live, it was a cold night and the concert was outdoors. There are some unofficial footage if you search for "kagrra anime friends" on youtube. Here is the setlist: http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/kagrra/2009/mart-center-sao-paulo-brazil-13d745c1.html I have no words to explain how good it was; What an amazing atmosphere, I don't know If I'll ever experience this again in my life because I still really care about this band even though they're gone forever. About the scene: It looks like the Neo Visual-Kei scene is still going strong in Japan but many bands sounds just like each other, not all of them, but most. I'm sure everyone knows these websites, but I'm putting them here because I think that they are examples of how Vrock isn't dead in Japan. http://www.club-zy.com/ http://www.visunavi.com/ Anyway, here in Brazil we have a band once in a while; Jupiter is coming to play here this year.

http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/NEODAI-12980

Have you watched them playing live? When was it? Was it in Japan or in the US?

I would like to buy at least the dvd box set but it is too expensive, plus I'd have to pay all the import taxes which is also very expensive. But what can we do, right? They are my favorite band. Anyway, Hayato and Yuya have a new youtube channel which is very funny: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJCX_7WgFW7zGrFLRTH9Btw

I know this may be an impossible request because these are the kind of files that people usually trade, but anyway, it would be very nice to have a Tereko 『テレコ』 section as a subcategory of the download section. For those that don't know what a tereko file is; It is simply an unofficial live recording of a concert, and there are tons of it but only for trade, so it isn't very simple to get it. It is now prohibited to take pictures and/or record audio/video inside japanese live houses, but that wasn't a problem back then, so many tereko were recorded in MD discs since the 80s. I think these files are very important to the jrock history.

Please check imdb for more info: - Soshite chichi ni naru (2013, drama): Awesome, beautiful film. - Tokyo Pop (1988, comedy): Underrated and very funny [Includes a brief appearance of all the X-Japan members], nice to see Tokyo in the 80s. - Tokyo Sonata (2008, drama): good film. - Tokyo! (2008, drama, surreal): I don't know exactly what to say about this movie except that it has 3 different stories which are made by 3 different directors, the first one is ok, the second is too crazy for me, the third one is my favorite which is a story about a hikkikomori. - Kids Return (1996, drama): awesome soundtrack, Kitano and Hisaishi, nice story too; I found out about this movie because Baru (ex.DuelJewel) drummer used to do a drum solo during DuelJewel gigs in 2003 with a track which was the theme song from this film. - A scene at the sea (1991, drama): slow-paced, beautiful silent movie. - Kikujiro no natsu (1999, drama): beautiful hisaishi soundtrack. - Ugetsu monogatari (1953, drama): Japan in the 16th century, very good film. - Suna no onna (1964, drama): slow-paced but unique. - Life of Oharu (1952, drama): tragic, very good. - Yotsuya Kaidan (1959, classic horror tale): good. Yotsuya Kaidan and Ugetsu Monogatari reminds me of Isshi from Kagrra, I think it would be the kind of movies he would enjoy because both of them are classic horror tales [ps. Isshi used to write and read classic japanese ghost stories, it was also an inspiration for some kagrra' songs].

I also used to find some stuff on the korean website, www.clubbox.co.kr There's a search bar on it, you can try to find one thing or another over there, but people use mostly for Jdramas. To download anything, you need an account, so you'll have to look for an english guide on google. I don't know if it's still worth it. I used to love these older P2P applications, it was a nice way of meeting people who enjoyed specific stuff like trading bootlegs, tereko files, stuff that I can't find anymore. I don't know if OpenNap still exists along with Utatane, but if it does, there's probably a hidden channel just for japanese users who has tons of files, so it's almost impossible to find it, unless you know someone in Japan who trades these kind of files. Anyway, it's forbidden to record concerts (audio/video) in japanese live houses, so that explains why we don't even find updated tereko lists anymore. PS. It would be nice to find and listen to all of these old tereko files, it seems like a lot of lost concerts for western jrock fans, rare gems.

What old(er) video game consoles do you still play? - Mostly SNES, but sometimes I play the N64. What are some of your favorite games? - Impossible to answer it, but I'll try. (Legend of Zelda [the classic ones], Chrono Trigger, Super Mario RPG, Harvest Moon [1996], Donkey Kong Country Trilogy, ...) Do you still buy "retro" games? If so, where? - Rarely, but when I do, I buy it on ebay. Do you feel older games offer something that the current generation games cannot? - Difficult to answer it, because we don't have just the console and pc generation nowadays, but also the mobile platforms, Indie games and/or other social media game platforms. I like to visit websites like hardcoregaming101 to find rare gems because it feels like older games has something different to offer, but at the same time, modern indie games are trying to follow this same "line" which focuses on gameplay and not just on realistic graphics or super productions. I love older generations and I miss them a lot but I can't say the new one is worst, it has just changed a lot and I don't seem to understand what new gamers want, but I don't criticize them. PS. I like Nintendo, Sega, Atari and Sony consoles plus (MS-DOS,Win9X) games. It would be impossible to choose one of these "companies" because each one of them is different from each other. Anyway, I could spend a whole day talking about this.

- Ningen Shikkaku - tatoeba boku ga shindara (1994) [really good, a dark/high-school kind of drama, unfortunately it doesn't have subtitles for all of the 12eps yet] - Shota no sushi (1996) [really good, I liked this one because it explains details about japanese food] - Mukodono (2001) [nice drama about a male jpop singer] - Densha Otoko (2005) [classic, really good] - GTO (1998) [classic, nice high-school drama] - My boss my hero (2006) [funny high-school/yakuza drama]

Instagram: Val (ex-DuelJewel) @val.on.drums Natsuki (ex-DuelJewel) @natsuki_bassist Emiru (ex-Lareine) @emiru_official

I agree with everything you said and I still think that it is important to discuss this even though we read this kind of topic many times. The most recent visual kei scene has changed a lot and isn't like the old one; It has lost its spirit and/or concept, maybe for most of the bands. Of course there may exist good bands but I just don't have the patience I had before to invest my time and look for them; If you go to websites like club-zy.com, you'll notice that bands are too similar to each other in terms of visual and sound. I still listen to the old bands I enjoy but I've also tried to "expand my horizons" and moved a bit from the vk scene and I've found out that it was a good thing to do; Now I've discovered amazing bands like 凛として時雨 and Spangle Call Lille Line. Even though it's totally different from what I used to listen, these bands make good music and that is what it matters at the end of the day, good music and art. I think this topic covers many more things, it's not just about visual kei scene, but the way the world wide web works nowadays, social media platforms, it's all too superficial for people like us that prefer to actually talk about something and know each other, I think that facebook just doesn't bring people together. That's why a forum or an old style of social media platform is better (livejournal, ... ).

I usually don't say much but I also agree that they were very underrated. I've discovered these guys in 2006 and since then I've been following them, buying their stuff and listening to their music. It's difficult to explain but this band brought many good people together from many different countries and we're still in touch even today. DuelJewel was influenced by Luna Sea, Hide, Siam Shade. Artists that don't need to be introduced. They were the first Jrock/Visual band to play overseas; In 2002 these guys toured USA and made an US official fanclub called RAG. In my opinion their whole discography is marvelous, since their demo tapes, but of course that nothing is perfect, there are songs that I usually don't listen or don't like much, just like in every other band, it's very difficult to compose a good song, sometimes it can be an impossible task. It may sound strange for some people but I started listen to "visual-kei bands" because of its sound and not because of its image, when I started listening to MUCC and Despairs Ray, I didn't know they had a strong image back then, I didn't had a clue about what was vk until I've watched Fool's Fest '03. Sugizo once said that he can't feel the soul in many vk bands nowadays because everyone is doing just to be equal like each other or to be stylish and not to be different. I totally agree with him, even though there are exceptions. I'm sure you can feel this soul he's talking about in DuelJewel's music if you care about music in the first place and not only about visual style. These guys will surely be missed but as long as we keep listening to their songs, their music will never die.

Brilliant band, I've got no words to say how these guys are a great and also under appreciated. I think they were always an Indie band with no major record company contract, but very talented artists and musicians. I like Baru because I'm also a drummer, but I like all of them, Shun is always mysterious, Yuya is very funny, Hayato is also funny and gentle, Natsuki is quiet but he's a very good bassist. I have no favorite album because their whole discography is very good, but Lapidary is also special to me because it's their first one. I've discovered these guys in 2006 and since then I've been buying their stuff(CDs/DVDs/Posters) and exchanging rare files through soulseek, winmx, utatane, livejournal, ... They were influenced by Luna Sea, Hide, Siam Shade, ... only good artists that incorporated the original visual style concept of the 80s/90s. I met DuelJewel the same time as I met Kagrra, another marvelous band. They will disband at the end of February, but I think that as long as we keep listening to good music, these bands will never be forgotten.

Lareine without a doubt. I like Versailles and I have been to one of their concerts, excellent musicians, but Lareine's music is much more diverse in terms of musical composition and ideas, plus Kamijo's voice sounds natural compared to his voice in Versailles. I think the concept behind Lareine is stronger.

I still have it on my pc but I don't use it anymore. There are good things there, for example: lots of live recordings from western concerts. It is a good software, winMX and Utatane was also nice for jrock, very rare stuff. If you can bring back a slsk jrock channel to life, I'll definitely check it out.

That's really sad, Maxis made lots of classics. It will surely be missed. SimFarm, SimAnt, Sim Earth, SimCity, SC2K, SC3K, The Sims, ... I still remember the trailer that came with the Sim City 3000 CD, a game which was never released, SimMars: SimsVille was also a cancelled project that I was expecting a lot: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SimsVille

Does anyone know good anime that focus around rock bands ? BECK (26 episodes): I think this is the best one because it explains lots of things about learning an instrument and being in a band. http://anidb.net/perl-bin/animedb.pl?show=anime&aid=2320 I've watched Kaikan Phrase which is closer to the visual kei genre, but after some episodes, it starts to get boring, too much romance and less talk about music, anyway, it was worth it because of the music and the first episodes. The band that did the soundtrack was called Lucifer. The songs are very nice. Kaikan Phrase (44 episodes): http://anidb.net/perl-bin/animedb.pl?show=anime&aid=843 To-y (1 OVA): I've found this one searching through anidb website, it looks like a classic. http://anidb.net/perl-bin/animedb.pl?show=anime&aid=2922 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2Wyj9dy__Y

D'espairs Ray Kagrra, I'll also miss DuelJewel, they are going to disband in February(2016). I know they are underrated but I think they're a great band, they were the first visual kei band to play overseas, that was in 2002. As long as we keep listening to these great bands, their music will never die.

It isn't a bad article, there are both good and bad points of view in any music scene. Has anyone seen this interview about the visual kei industry ? http://www.hellodamage.com/top/2010/03/01/interview-with-an-ex-visual-kei-record-executive/

Também sou brasileiro, de São Carlos-SP, meio ausente. （＾∇＾）