Jigsaw9

I feel like this deserves to be mentioned here: on 2020/04/25, the 1-year anniversary of Michirou's death, some of his fellow musicians got together for an epic livestream performance celebrating his work. Thankfully the footage is still online in the YT archives of livehouse APIA40. It's a pretty long live so I haven't watched all of it yet, but it seems to be pretty outstanding. The musicians involved and their connection to Michirou (where applicable): 中村達也 (Nakamura Tatsuya) - played in THE STALIN and TOUCH-ME 山本久土 (Yamamoto Hisato) - played in M.J.Q and Shidamyoujin クハラカズユキ (Kuhara Kazuyuki) - played in M.J.Q スガダイロー (Suga Dairou) - pianist, I don't know how he's connected but he is associated with Tatsuya for sure 西村雄介 (Nishimura Yuusuke) - played in STALIN, THE END and on some Michirou solo works (The craziest thing out of all of this is that I didn't realize until now that Tatsuya used to be one of THE STALIN's drummers, haha.)

I'm more excited for the fact that apparently they will upload some "rare videos" too, whatever that might entail... At least I hope this is what this means, lol.

@Tokage Yeah, looks like it. I also looked around a bit and it seems these songs are indeed mostly "older" stuff just remastered: track 1 seems to be new (?), while all the other songs were previously released on their 2016 "20th anniversary" demo CD-R (and three of those were already released even before that, on a 2014 demo CD-R). I guess it's nice to have these in an updated form now in one place.

MAMIRETA has announced that the band will go on indefinite hiatus after their 3-night live series「まみれたの顔も3度まで」(Mamireta no kao mo 3-do made) on 2020/09/01, 09/02, 09/03 at Ikebukuro BlackHole. The members didn't give an exact reason for the break as far as I could see, but the guitarist mentioned it's because a multitude of factors and the drummer's comment seemed to be a bit more depressing than the others (mentioning he has been feeling more and more overwhelmed and burdened, and even thought about quitting drums for the first time in his life). The announcement as well as the members' comments can be found HERE. Honestly, I haven't really been following these guys after 2018, they kinda became more and more mediocre for me... but the early stuff is still rad. I hope they can rest and then either come back stronger or just start new projects that will be worthwhile (cuz we all know "indefinite" hiatuses are kinda code for "disbandment").

Well, technically they aren't... but who knows, haha. One of the members mentioned on Twitter that the last time they met was back in 2016 during their short revival.

毒殺テロリスト (Dokusatsu TERRORIST) members have compiled together songs from a 2016 demo CD-R and some other tracks, remastered them, and now made them available digitally as an album titled 新型毒殺那2020 (Shingata dokusatsu na 2020). They reported this would be a one-time thing only, no band revival (it's just something to help ppl pass the time during the virus). It can be streamed/bought at a wide variety of platforms over HERE . Vocalist Ichirou has also released a digital-only collection album of his own on 2020/06/01, under the project name ドクテロイチロウとおかしな仲間たち (DOKUTERO ICHIROU to okashi na nakamatachi) containing various tracks he did outside of Dokusatsu TERRORIST. Again, available at a multitude of online platforms HERE.

The first track オリゾン (ORIZON) can now be streamed/bought digitally thru a number of platforms HERE. Sounds good so far.

HOW DARE YOU (jk ♥) See you around on Twitter and the Discord I guess. ;c

This is proably the least favorite of mine out of Kaya's projects, but once again he killlllled it!

@saishuu Sure enough this is one of the more bearable tracks on the last album for me too... I'm still waiting for a new full-length where I can enjoy most of the songs, I haven't given up hope yet, lol (as of now if I compiled the songs I like from the post-reunion material they would juuuust fill out a decent album).

Fair point, hehe. To be honest I can't judge if he's a good or a bad singer, I never had an urge to check anything more than just this one song.

@saiko Hmmmm interesting, I really love the original version while I think Kaya's is cute but not as great as IZAM's (it's close tho). But maybe that's just because the original song is so burnt into my mind. Anyway, Kaya did a good job with it for sure!

I just remembered this truly iconic TV performance from 1995 where Imai just does not give a single fuck anymore and proceeds to switch between "look ma', no hands!" and tuning his guitar during the solo. Also some amusing flailing all throughout. (jeez this video quality is abysmal tho, I couldn't find a better one sry) Maybe he doesn't particularly enjoy having to pretend to play to a backing track (I don't blame him, lol). It seems this has become somewhat of a running gag for him in the '90s btw, like this riveting guitar wizardry during Candy (even Hide checks out at the end of the solo). I also remember some tomfoolery during another 1996 TV appearance and an earlier occasion where both Hisashi and Hide pretended to play giant-ass sitars in a song clearly not arranged for that (it might have been Dress?), but I can't seem to find those on YT sadly.

Good question... The website isn't available in English so it's a bit hard to tell, haha. What I could glean from it is that donations can be made via credit card on this platform, but not sure if foreigners are allowed to register or use it.

Finally started Euphoria (yeah I know I'm behind, I think I just forgot about this series existing). Shit's wild. But just as good as expected, so far at least (I'm halfway through currently).

Ikebukuro CHOP will livestream the gigs of FOXPILL CULT and MUNIMUNI on 2020/06/02 from 20:00 (Japan time).

FOXPILL CULT / MUNIMUNI livestream on 2020/06/02!!! ♥

Seems like there's no stopping Kaya with the VK covers! Just yesterday he covered MALICE MIZER, and now a SHAZNA classic! Curious to see what he will sing next~

The cover we always needed. ♥

I gotta admit I don't really remember this guy or his old band that much, but the demo snippets so far sound pretty promising! Just the kind of VK style that's my musical comfort food, haha. ...and he also tweeted in English awww

Finally, the recognition Kafka deserves.

...and the album recording continues! MOONIES NOT DEAD!!

Nice of them to randomly drop a full MV for a surprise new song. I'm not too fond of the track itself (it pales compared to what we heard on the album imo) but I appreciate the effort.

A kind soul uploaded a bootleg audio recording of the band's gig at Shinjuku Jam on 1985/12/04. Not only was this one of the very earliest shows under the BUCK-TICK name, but it was the debut live of Atsushi as the vocalist and Toll as the drummer (and the lineup remains unchanged ever since )! Obviously the recording quality is what it is, but for a random 35-year-old bootleg cassette recording from a small venue it's very nice.