wesjrocker

I don't think visual kei is dead. People have been saying that rock music is dead for decades... but there are still people, who like it. It just changes, evolves... the negativity of this tread irritates me, because I think that the foreign audience has completely no influence on this scene. We're only responsible for keeping the interest abroad, which these bands are completely not interested in. Their only aim is the Japanese market. For us it's a niche interest. I've been a fan for 11 years and I saw changes, all I think is that people who really love it will never stop loving it. As for the bands, they evolve... maybe some people won't like them, but the trends will change and it's always good to keep an eye on them. Many bands small in Japan were just treated as music gods abroad, so... it all depends on where the fans are from.

I definitely agree. It was just a thought that somehow it would generate interest.  vk's roots could even be traced back to kabuki performance (read that somewhere). 
At the end of the day it isn't a matter of looks or merch, the genre just needs a musical and creative revival if we have any chance of bringing new people to the darker side. Although I don't think it's a necessarily a bad thing if it stays small, some genres are just meant to stay that way.

As far as my knowledge on the topic goes, gender non-conformism in the aesthetics of Visual Kei is not necessarily from a social cause perspective though... I mean, they are not dressing like that for awareness and empathy with gender non-conforming people; the looks of Visual Kei started as disruptive and  provoking elements to shock a very conformist and rigid society and, as time went by it became just a form of artistic expression which can be exerted from many angles.
 
Being gender non-conforming isn't a ticket to liking Visual Kei. The interest in it is a matter of personal taste regardless of gender expression.

Hey everyone. 
Here's a little idea that's been going through my mind for a few days now.

I've been gathering tabs (I mean like real, effective, faithful tabs) from so many bands since like 2008, and even yesterday I just discovered a website where we can buy music sheets from popular Japanese bands. I've found in half a second 3 of the songs I've wanted to play the most and haven't been able to find a tab in like years.
 
So what about open a Dropbox (& a topic) where everyone could drop the tabs he's found ?

It would be organized this way, let's take Versailles for an example :
 
Folder : Versailles
>Band Folder (All instruments tabs)
>Guitar Folder (Only guitar tabs)
>Bass Folder (Only Bass tabs)
>Drums Folder (Only Drum tabs)
>Others Folder (Ukulele or whatever the fck I don't know tabs)

Then, on the topic we would make about it, each time someone adds a tab, he can just comment.
We'd need to make sure the file's name is correct (not 144bGUITARsound but more like The Revenant Choir - NOBLE), or even create subfolders for each album or whatever.
 
I would obviously take care of writing the rules and guides to post tabs, etc.

I have like 100 tabs from many different bands to share.

Of course, the DropBox would be locked by a password so it is *mainly* open for MH Users.

Any comments ?

Gackt was just one of three different singers Malice Mizer had, he had nothing to do with their breakup.
 
Never heard that rumor before; 100% started by a western fan who was pulling stuff out of her ass. Anyone with a musical ear can tell that Mana and Kozi had no hand in writing Gackt's solo material. Apples and Oranges.
 
Gackt was likely not at Kamis funeral for the reason listed in my reply below. 
 
 
I don't know what official statements Gackt, Mana, or Kozi have made because we don't really need to, ya know? None of them will tell you what occam's razor will, because it's not flattering to either party.
 
Nippon Columbia decided that Malice Mizer were small potatoes and Gackt was the star. And they were right! Gackt wrote the highest charting single on Mervilles, Le Ciel, which also happened to be the most commercial song on the album. Gackt had the great voice, incredible looks, a legion of female fans and he wrote the biggest hit on the album. He was poised for stardom, Malice Mizer could hold him back. 
 
So Nippon Columbia put their money on Gackt solo and ditched the band, and their gamble paid off in spades. People tend to gloss over/forget, possibly due to Kamis death, that not only did Malice Mizer's label give Gackt a solo deal, but they dropped Malice Mizer. That wasn't a coincidence.
 
It is what it is. I hate Gackt solo, but wouldn't trade Bara no Seidou or the Klaha singles for anything. I just wish we'd get one more album out of MM.... instrumental, with Klaha, a new singer... I don't care.

Yes. I saw them when they came to the US back in 2007.

Seeing them disband has left my heart heavy. Almost 20 years in the visual scene is really incredible. I'm happy I got to see them at least. 

... 16000 * 2 => 32000 yens for a bonus DVD... funny

Conselho de amigo: juntem dinheiro, vendam suas roupas de baixo, seu corpo, sua alma, mas viajem para o Japão pelo menos uma vez na vida. É maneiríssimo.
 
É mais barato do que se imagina, contato que se planeje direitinho e com antecedência. Fui com o dobro de grana que deveria e voltei com dinheiro suficiente pra passar outro mês lá. Ano que vem!
 
E quando forem, falem que são do Brasil, ainda mais se decidirem ver shows (recomendo!). Ganhei um monte de coisa grátis de empresário de banda só por esse migué; pôster, CD, chance de conhecer os caras das bandas, palheta, etc. Do caralho.

What download forum? There never was a download forum

not enough demand for a new subforum , it wouldn't have enough threads to justify it and really you can just tag the topic with 'tereko' and find them all in one place that way.

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].

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].

Pretty sure this kind of thread should belong in here...
 

 
This makes me oddly satisfied and extremely relatable on a deep level... as deep as it can get. 
 
I really like "zutto/itsumo" for some reason. Probably the way its said, and just the definition of it (pretty much "always"). I'm a sap.

This is the full text provided by shattered tranquility. Link below as always (also pro-tip S-T admins: disabling right click does not stop me from diving into the page source and copying your HTML you might want to fix that )

http://shattered-tranquility.net/index.php/08/28/yohio-declared-ambassador-for-new-visual-kei-app/


 
Who declared YOHIO the ambassador for this app? I understand the rationale behind why him (to be frank there isn't anyone better) and I think it's pretty cool that someone remembers international fans exist, but everything from the creation and marketing of this app sounds vague. No but seriously what company is writing this app? Usually when building a phone app you mention the company at least once at the beginning, even briefly. "pre-order requests" sounds like this is a paid app. "show support for your favorite artists" I have a really hard time interpreting this as either a veiled attempt at donating funds to bands or some type of page where you click a button, look at pretty previews, and then go do something else "Modernizing the promotion and participation in the visual kei scene" sounds...promising actually. Will bands use this to promote exclusive PVs, secret lives, or previews of songs ahead of release dates? Would you be able to buy tickets to a show through the app and give the band a cut? Or will lives and tour finals actually be streamed through the app? There's lot of potential here to be honest. "this can include opportunities [for the band] to participate in events, magazine coverage, ads, and more" sounds dangerous to be honest. any sort of "rewards for rewards" system will incentivize people to cheat the system. unless they mean this as another avenue of exposure for bands and that the app creators themselves aren't promising anything...which seems kind of stupid. why market your app as being able to cause events you can't guarantee? "earn rewards" So do we get cool rewards like CDs or trash rewards like cheki which probably cost more to ship than they're worth? Or do we get useless rewards like tickets that none of us can cash in? And will these rewards actually be shipped overseas? Rewards needs to be carefully thought out if you want international fans to participate.

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.

I tried WinMX again after some years and it was crap. Searches all returned garbage files no matter what I searched for. Then the solution that I found on the WinMX forum was a waste of time because OpenNap was unpopular and no one shared Japanese files using that connection.
Utatane is pretty dead as well.
I think no rare Jap stuff anymore on p2p.

We need a nice thread to discuss the classic video game consoles. I mean stuff like the Sega Genesis (Mega Drive), Super Nintendo, the original PlayStation, etc. Basically, anything older than our current XBOX 360/PS3/Wii era, haha.
I recently went to the "Art of Video Games" exhibit in the Smithsonian Art Museum in Washington DC, just for kicks. It made me extremely nostalgic and when I got home, I instantly broke out my old systems. I'm somewhat of a Sega fanboy, so I have a Genesis, a Saturn, and a Dreamcast. I know Sega was kind of an outcast console developer, in the US at least, but I have a pretty big library. According to people's "top 10" type lists all over the internet, I do have quite a few of the classics and highly collectible games for the Genesis and the Saturn!
Some of my personal Sega favorites are games like the Virtua Fighter series, pretty much the entire Sonic the Hedgehog series, Super Street Fighter II, Shining Force III, Nights into Dreams, Saturn Bomberman, Guardian Heroes (which actually got a re-release in the XBLA), Power Stone 2, etc.
I'm currently scouring any "retro" video game stores I come across to continue building my collection. Kinda sucks that you mostly find sports games and scratched up discs everywhere, but you occasionally do find a gem. Ebay/Amazon also helps. I also learned that my Saturn, thanks to a special cartridge that I happen to own, can actually play games of all regions (aka, I can play European and Japanese games without any problem, besides the potential language barrier). I'm looking into importing some of those awesome 2D fighting classics that never made it to the US, like X-Men vs. Street Fighter (the Saturn port is considered vastly superior to the PlayStation one), among other things. I also want to look into some of the lesser known Sega "add-on" consoles that I never really checked out, like the 32X and the Sega CD (Sega Mega CD). I know they were largely considered failures, but there were some games that are still sought after today.
ANYWAY, enough out of me.
What old(er) video game consoles do you still play? What are some of your favorite games? Do you still buy "retro" games? If so, where? Do you feel older games offer something that the current generation games cannot? Etc.
Discuss!
ps: if you have any old Sega games you're thinking about selling, we should talk, haha.

DMC is the shit :D Beck is one of my all-time favorites. there was this anime with VK-ish theme, a bit boys love involved. but kept me kind of entertained. too bad i can't remember it's name i'll be sure to post it once i somehow manage to remember it........

Cara, eu não reclamo...acho desnecessário bater boca por causa disso. Se vc gosta de uma banda, só ignora o que falam mal dela, quem gosta é vc, então foadse XD

He should probably remove that, it's nothing to be proud over

I wonder if anyone else likes them?
"Metronome is a gamewave/visual kei band that was formed in 1998. They claimed to have come from the year 2005 to boost their record sales."
Vocals: Sharaku
Guitar: Fukusuke
Bass: Riu
Drums: Yuichiro
They're very interesting. Sharaku's other project, FLOPPY is really good too. I think I like them better than Metronome too... But Metronome's awesome too.
Sharaku's voice is probably not for everyone though, it's really unique!

Hmm, what to say... Perhaps that most Visual Kei bands lack the spirit that older bands used to have. The creation of a character oR certain personality that distinguised members in a band, the weird and playful personalities, etc.
 
Look at Lareine, every member was a character and they deliberately played with femininity. Mana-sama, a mysterious silent being who communicates via a middleman and all Malice Mizer members also being weird and elegant, etc. Missalina Rei's vocal ARISU ARISUGAWA who was something like a weird crazy little girl having some fun around. Kyouka (Aliene Ma'riage) conceived by Mast and Ray, "menatlly asolated".
 
All that playfulness, those characters, those personalities are pretty much something of the past. Perhaps all it could be created to enrich Visual Kei was already done and nothing new can rise from the ashes...
 
Probably most fans of Visual Kei today are not really interested in the theatrical side of Visual Kei to tell the truth...

I was just listening through some VK top lists of 2015.
This may not be very representative, but... UGH. Sorry, just in case I'm going to offend anybody here.
I am not surprised that, despite their skills and dedication, half of that stuff sounds so fucking similar. Maybe because they're in the same key, using similar chord progressions. But I think to myself: Damn, VK has gotten stale as hell. The chorus is mostly just a nod to their other material. I don't even know how or why they produce B-sides on top of that. MEJIBRAY had two funny examples, just showing the chorus, and ugh. Same key, similar chord progression.
This just shows me why I've gotten sick of VK. There might be a few exceptions, but they're what they are: Exceptions. Listening to 30 samples of different songs basically tells me: Hey, here we are. Lyrically, we use the same tropes over and over, just worded differently. The prettier you are, the better. There's like two notes that are different in our main melody than in our previous single. Wow.
The rest of the song may sound different, but it all sounds so damn similar.
It's not that it sounds bad, it's just getting indistinguishable. I used to be able to tell these bands apart, but now I simply can't. It's just like a big pile of mashed potatoes without taste, nor salt. That's BORING.
Seriously, no wonder I've gotten away from it. Same formula everywhere. It's as if every single band is aiming to make their song usable for an anime intro or outro. IT ALL STARTS TO SOUND THE FUCKING SAME.
I know it's close to impossible to innovate in a certain genre, but these bands aren't even trying. They're just using the same means to an end over and over and over and over. And people are still wondering why VK has lost so much popularity overseas? Well, you know, cool/pretty looks/makeup aren't everything. The music has to be recognisable. And whatever I heard just now is just something utterly and completely replaceable.
They all need to step out of their comfort zone ASAP, or else they'll be deadweight over here in Europe. I keep hearing of new bands all the time, and out of 100, maybe 2 to 5 are interesting. That makes for a really awful statistic, peeps. It's horrible, and I'm starting to get ashamed about the fact that I used to like this.
I suspect the main reason is the horrid music industry in Japan. But somebody has to counter it. I'm sure that some bands try, but they just fail to get recognition due to their innovation. But this scene needs just that in order to survive. Otherwise, it's pretty much dead - and only clings to hardcore fans buying their Type A, B, C, D, E, special edition singles for ridiculous prices.
 
It just doesn't give me anything anymore. Does anybody feel the same? Can somebody name me artists that are exceptions to this rule? Please elaborate.
Thank you kindly.
 
TL;DR: Excusing myself upfront. Stating that VK is stale as fuck nowadays. Or maybe I didn't notice before, and now I do. Captain Obvious. Moved on. Asking for your thoughts.