inartistic

Eh, I don't think they're much like chariots. Being honest, they need work--the band is young and hasn't written much together yet, and you can kind of hear that. But they do show promise, at least in my eyes. I would check out 償????自決????・・・, the remake of 閃光プロローグ, and maybe 断罪??雪. (I think those are the ones I like...)

Has a translation been posted? I'm really curious as to why they would jerk around for so long after "coming back" and then call it quits.

↑ they have good taste ! Good news: it seems that they'll take mail-orders for the single starting July 20th, if there are still copies left over (it's limited to 500 total)

Got nothing on NEU with the original vocalist! HONEY Bee was my jam!

I thought there were good honestly ;x But they hadn't done anything in forever, so not surprising, I suppose.

Plenty, and they're all good! I dunno why they keep featuring this one on omnibus albums though.

Oh yikes, that must have been it. I noticed that button, but the files were already gone by then. Who builds that in as a feature?!

Well, it's basically a dropbox site, but there seem to be no files uploaded... It says we have until March 23rd to download them, but, again, there's nothing in the dropbox. D:

Yes, Dejavu is probably the most succinct release. Then, if you like that, you can basically download their two REQUIEM albums and delete everything else, since those collect almost their entire discography.

You're asking if you should check out Phantasmagoria? If so, the answer is 100% yes. I like Lin, but Phantasmagoria is better; they're my favorite KISAKI band, and one of the few bands I would say has only one or two weak songs in their entire discography. If you're looking for other songs to sample, I'd say go for Pixy false, 幻想曲 -Eternal Silence-, and maybe NEO ARK.

Any theories on why Nightmare has changed labels so many times? It's a little ridiculous!

My thought: get maybe 1,000 signatures → announce at oneman that they met the quota → Japanese girls think they're popular and eat it up. Plus they have a nice little soundbite for every news article: “major-force band LOST ASH, who was begged by over 12,000 fans to release an album ...?? In the grand scheme of things, this band isn't important (in terms of setting trends, etc.), but I can definitely see them going major. And in all likelihood, they probably already are! Consider that 1. neither their look nor their sound is very vk to begin with, 2. they've already had backing from a large company for every release, and 3. they were on an omnibus featuring major artists... It reeks of major finances. My feeling is that they've already been pegged by some major label and this is just a publicity stunt to make sure they get their money's worth. If LOST ASH gets 12,000 signatures, well, great, the label will see a return on its investment quickly. And if not, I'm sure the label has a list of fake names ready to go, and they'll just strip away the fake contacts and promote with fake hype until the band really can command an audience that large. Also, I'm pretty sure the vocalist is Jessica Biel. Yes/no/crazy?

Hmmm, I guess this replaces Maple Kiss then? Very interesting! Hopefully this label will be consistently active unlike Maple Kiss. Thanks for the news--learning label information is my favorite!

Pretty sure Voiceless Records belonged to AZUMI, because he's credited with SCENARIO and TOTAL PRODUCE (well, 安見尚 is credited, but that's just another name that AZUMI uses). But that's as much as I can speculate, dunno if there were other bands and such. Interestingly, he's also credited with SCENARIO and TOTAL PRODUCE on QROSS' demotape, but that tape was published through a label called GREAGOL. That label included MERE REVEIL and QROSS, that I know of anyway. So I guess AZUMI started GREAGOL for a few bands, then later Voiceless Records for Ruellia? That's my speculation.

I know they moved over to ViSULOG, so maybe they have personal ones there? (Not sure, I don't really follow them closely.)

lol damn

Come on, the chola/orient thing is so overdone. Tweeting “saw a cute little oriental dumpster diving!?? would be racist; using the word orient instead of Asian because it has a certain number of syllables and rhymes is not racist. And besides, orient is, quite honestly, not that bad a term. I wouldn't call my friend Kimmy oriental, but that's only because it's not a word we commonly use in North American English vernacular. Orient is not in and of itself a pejorative, unless you want to set your Political Correctness sensors on high. Similarly, chola does not have a racial charge in North American, common English. It may have in the past, but modern use of the word does not mean “DIRTY PUERTO RICAN WHORE?? or whatever you want it to mean. It's simply a style. And of course someone will be offended by the word, and that's understandable, but there is someone to be offended by every word. If streams of cholas want to take to the streets and proclaim that they hate the word, then fine, it's now a pejorative. But before that, a word is not racist simply because a handful of people are offended by it. Words only have meaning within the context of a culture, and, like it or not, this culture that Lady Gaga and I and white middle class America shares does not generally consider chola to be a pejorative. And at any rate, if you want to get butthurt over two harmless words, why be selective? Why are you not offended at the word “white??? Is your skin color really the same as a sheet of computer paper? And what about the word black? Why didn't she use the term African American, or simply “of a darker skin color??? Who do you know that is beige? If we're going to be PC, let's go all the way. I propose these new lyrics: Hmm, somehow it just doesn't flow as well...

I like it ;x I have two complaints: first, it's a bit lyric-heavy. And I mean that not in the sense of content, but in the sense of quantity. Really the only repetition is in the chorus (and the drag queen bit), and that's very unusual for her. I feel like it would have been stronger and easier to memorize (= catchier) if she'd just repeated a verse or so. Second complaint: acid washed denim was ugly then and it's ugly now. I wanted to cry when I saw the extended version of the image use for the BTW cover. Those pants ;_;! --- As for the Express Yourself thing, I didn't think that at all when I was listening to BTW. They have the same general feeling I guess, but I don't hear the same song. I feel like it's the same sort of thing as when someone overlays a bunch of top 40 songs and shows that they have the same beat: something is shared between them, but they're completely different. However, swear to God, the first time I heard the song, all I could think of was . Gaga's vocal delivery is so similar to me. Hopefully a coupling tour will be announced. Edit: oh my god, the fashion parallels, I've discovered her true inspiration

Like, for real, just download their album CLIMAX and listen to it while you're not doing much, so that you can give it your full attention. Repeat until you love them. It was advertised as their “DEFINITIVE ALBUM,?? and for good reason!

Probably sounds stupid, but I much prefer to say “I like guys?? rather than gay. On one hand, sexually I'm fine with girls, but I would never have a relationship with one. (So it's a bit too much to say “basically gay, but I also like girls a little.??) And on the other hand, “gay?? just has so much baggage, at least in the USA/where I live. Every now and then I start thinking about how I'm forever my female friends' “gay friend,?? rather than just their friend, etc., and it's kind of disgusting to me. I wish sexual preference were much more mundane--“What kind of jelly do you like??? “Strawberry.?? “And which gender???

Having felt the sting of losing files once or twice, I started backing up my PC ~to the cloud~. Up until now, I've used this backup service called mozy. Service was kind of clunky, but I paid only $5.99/month for unlimited backup storage, which seemed absolutely unbeatable to me. ...And unfortunately, I guess it really was unbeatable, 'cause they've just sent an email saying that $5.99/month will now be good for only 50GB. Which is absolutely nothing if you're backing up a whole PC (and I already have more than that stored). So fuck them, I'll be cancelling my plan as soon as I get my shit, and I'll be letting them know as much. But in the mean time, do any of you use a similar service/can any of you recommend a good service? (aka lots of space for poor college student)

Wtf is NOPPIN? I'm always up for new shopping services

Maybe I'm being a bit too bio fag derrrr, but this is what I've always felt: My general thought is this: visual kei bands don't disband any more or any less than any other type of band. And there are two reasons for this: First, I think some of us forget just what level we are looking at here. Some of the bands we idolize are literally on the same level as “my brother made a little band with his friends in the basement, lol.?? And it's just a fact that such tiny bands, who can barely be considered bands, will die off left and right because they just lose interest/discover pussy. In other genres, you might not even hear about a band's existence until they've already passed that phase. Second, I think there's a different expectation/language in visual kei. That is, I think, moreso than other genres, we expect visual kei bands to explicitly explain their activity. Occasionally there are bands that we have no idea what their deal is, but that's the exception more than the rule. With the majority of vk bands, it's expected that they clearly state that they've disbanded or paused activities, or whatever. Meanwhile Black Death Metal Band #9 has just stopped putting out releases and we're free to assume that they're still together, but that the vocalist has been imprisoned for murdering his girlfriend or something. Maybe I'm wrong, but that's truly how I see it. If we have seen more disbandings than usual lately, I would chalk it up to increasing access to shit-level tiny bands and/or state of the music industry as a whole. But I bet that a true scientific survey would find the vk scene plodding happily along at the same disbandment (/inactivity) rate of other genres.

Alright!! That's cool. Now to get them to officially reform and join UCP. Ray could handle being in... 5 projects at once, right? Edit: Woah, loooove the history section!

Can't wait to hear Jui's solo stuff while in the grocery store~