Jigsaw9

A1afnFexvXw In an old-school thrash mood lately. Plus, a played a cover of this song at a gig last night, was pretty intense.

Good news.

Ehh, sucks to hear. They were pretty good.

Whoah... the new song/PV is fuckin' awesome. Faith restored. (after their IMO mediocre mini album)

Wow, a new album! Cool.

Men in Black 3 Fun movie. ^^

Writing new songs? Awesome.

I think this is all: - Hizumi: currently no new band; designing stuff under his own brand UMBRELLA - Karyu: plays guitar in Angelo - Zero: plays bass in THE MICRO HEAD 4N'S - Tsukasa: plays drums in THE MICRO HEAD 4N'S as well All of them except Hizumi were in a temporary session band called LUV PARADE (with Taka of defspiral as guest vocalist) that had a really small number of concerts right around the disbandment of D'espairsRay. This short-lived formation played cover songs, while Hizumi designed their merchandise.

Indeed.

SHERBETS will release their new album titled STRIPE PANTHER on 2012/08/29 in 2 types: regular edition CD (3,000Y), limited edition 2CD (3,800Y). The limited edition will come in a hardcover case with a 32-page booklet, and the bonus CD will contain 5 songs.

^ Thx for the info! At first I thought "oh good, their previous site looked really pedestrian/bad" but this one actually looks almost the same, LOL (well I hope they'll make the PC version a bit more stylish or something xD).

^ A good start I guess. But yeah, would be even better if they actually announced something.

After a looong~ time I'm watching some anime again: - Shirokuma Café (Polar Bear Café) (too cute, lol xD) - Sakamichi no Apollon (Kids on the Slope)

CFmjd1IeFRk Hmm not really feelin' this one...

These are my favorite albums so far this year, in order: Japanese music 1. ZIZ - GIFT 2. cali≠gari - 11 3. MEJIBRAY - Emotional【KARMA】 close but no cake: Alice Nine - "9", NEGA - VANITAS Other international music 1. Die Antwoord - Ten$ion 2. Marilyn Manson - Born Villain 3. Cannibal Corpse - Torture close but no cake: Meshuggah - Koloss, Marduk - Serpent Sermon There are still a few albums I left off - they were good but I didn't really spin them that much (because I was busy with listening to these more xD). Overall lots of great stuff! This year has been pretty kickass so far in terms of music (and there's still some cool things to come).

Another one, from Pay money To my Pain (not bad!) cmgogdI0pS0

Regarding the shortage of CDs, from ZIZ's official Facebook:

The girls will begin their first world tour "NEW EVOLUTION" at the end of July in Seoul. They will go to 10 cities in 7 countries in total. (source & not too many details)

Preview of cali≠gari's cover from the PARADE II tribute album: UNuFCvtAydw I luv it.

CD Track List 01. DAY 1 02. FUTURISTIC LOVE 2012 03. DAY 1 (instrumental) CD-EXTRA Track List 01. WHAT’S MY NAME? 02. SURVIVE 03. FUTURISTIC LOVE The three CD-extra tracks are videos from MIYAVI's performance at EMI ROCKS 2012 in February. (cover & other details)

Tower Records has the track durations listed! Regular: http://tower.jp/item/3112805/DIVISION%E ... 4%EF%BC%9E Limited: http://tower.jp/item/3112804/DIVISION-% ... 4%EF%BC%9E Pretty regular 3-4 minute stuff, hmmm... so the 2-disc limited edition in total is like 47-48 minutes or something like that, LOL.

Hmmm pretty interesting. Actually kinda looking forward to it. Hoping it'll have more of a dark/epic DIM-like vibe.

^ Yeah, that's a cool one. And on the topic of indies-VK, some Noir Fleurir & Aliene Ma'riage:

So how do you guys like the album so far? Here are my thoughts, song-by-song: Ö: The album starts out with a rather monotonous, pointless intro. It could've at least used a bit more variation, lol. RayD5: Cool energetic first song, kinda noisy rock'n'roll tune, reminds me of the sound of Közi's 2nd solo album. I love the overall dirty sound, and somehow even the synths fit right into it. Nice playful mood. 8/10 Ill: Whoah, this one's pretty crazy and dissonant in the beginning, switching to almost spoken vocals, then to weird filtered singing (kinda Eastern-sounding?). Pretty wild and hectic song, not sure what to think of it yet. It has its memorable parts though (mainly the chorus). 6/10 Besque: Kinda suppressed atmosphere, laid back but a bit crazy at the same time. It's a slowly burning tune with a catchy chorus. I like it~ 7/10 Kosmostill: A more ethereal song, with more prominent synths and electronics. I love the whole hypnotic vibe the vocals create, and how it builds and "blooms" so nicely in the chorus. The "watery" sounding little guitar riffs are awesome too. One of my favorite songs from the album. 9/10 Night Creature: An interesting slow/jazzy version of a Közi song. Personally I like the original tons better (much more quirky and unique-sounding) but this one's not bad either I guess. It's cool to hear a different take on the original material. 7/10 Super Naked Disko: Well this one's different, lol. I guess the title perfectly implies how crazy and nonsensical this whole track is. I suspect this one will be the obligatory "everybody go crazy and party your asses off!" type of song at gigs, haha. A bit repetitive, but all in good fun. 7/10 Sanityman: This has gotta be my favorite song on here. It stars out as a kind of melancholic Közified take on reggae (?), then goes into a stomping riff, switching back to lighter guitars and synths, then exploding into an amazingly catchy chorus with an upped tempo. Awesome! 10/10 With Fu: An awesome slower closing track with a typical Közi atmosphere, nostalgic melodies merging with loud synths and delicate guitars. 9/10 All in all, I'm really pleased with how the album turned out. It might be a bit too short but it's really packed with cool stuff at least. I like how you can hear that this is kinda like a new Közi solo album but also a bit of an expansion on his sound, thanks to the other musicians (all of whom took part in writing music for the album, to some extent). A cool and refreshing listen among the "usual" faces of VK and J-rock. I give the album an 8/10.

MERRY has some pretty cool ones.