Shmilly

1: Do you buy multiple versions of releases, or buy at all? (Judgement-Free-Zone)
 
I buy new and old releases all the time, but usually only one version. Since I'm a music person first and foremost, I tend to choose the edition with the bonus track(s) where available. I only have a couple of items in more than one version, and that's because I found an alternate super cheap while in Japan.
 
2: Do you collect cheki or other non-music related items from bands?
 
Nope, this is what makes me a collector more than a fan. My interest in buying items is purely down to the discography. Live-dist and store exclusive CD/DVDs are the crown of my collection. I'm also a fan of lossless so the more I can get hold of, the better.
 
3: Follow them on Ameblo, Twitter?
 
No, I don't have either of those. Occasionally I look through a band member's Ameblog, though usually for high-res album art or live setlists rather than much interest in their personal life. I have a bit of a thing for making playlists out of one-man setlists, particularly tour finals.
 
4: Would you follow them on the street?
 
I want to say no, since I'm definitely not that kind of fan, but if I could be certain it was someone from one of my favourite bands or a musician or vocalist in the scene that I really respect, I would of course try to approach them for a photo or something.
 
5: Dig through their trash? (Judgment-Free-Zone)
 
Nope, no interest there. Not really sure what people would aim to find there. I mean, it's unlikely they'd throw out something valuable like clothing or accessories in their regular trash. Especially in Japan, where it's divided into burnable and non-burnable, and that's it.
 
6: Does Visual Kei or other forms of your musical taste influence your style or personal life?
 
Absolutely, music is such an important part of my life. I have some distinctly visual kei clothing, which I wear most to concerts and the like where I'll be with the crowd, but for the most part I like a more toned-down style - think DELUHI toward the end. That said, clothes are super expensive and with my music collector side I don't often get to buy a lot of them.
 
7: Desire to move or visit Japan influenced by music?
 
Hahahahaha. This message brought to you from Hino, Tokyo. Welcome to the summary of the last few years of my life.
 
8: Do you read dirt-sheets of bands, like rumours, gossip, etc...?
 
Only if it crops up on one of the blogs or forums like this site that I frequent. Like I said before, I have little interest in the band members' personal lives - I don't subscribe to celebrity culture and I hate the way 'famous' peoples' lives are so exposed to the media. It's really none of our business.
 
9: Ever fantasize about being friends with band members? (JFZ)
 
Yeah, sometimes. It would be cool to hang out at a bar with a couple of the guys and just chat about the VK scene, have a good time. A friend of mine met Kihiro from UNDIVIDE/LOKA once and he sounds like a lot of fun to go out with. Meeting band members outside of their performance persona would be a really cool way to get to know them.
 
10: Do you want to be in a Visual Kei band (or any other kind of band)?
 
Well I do still have that childhood dream of fronting a rock band, but at this point I'm pretty convinced it's not gonna happen. Thank God for karaoke and nights when I'm home alone then.

These covers are pretty awesome. Although I think if the GazettE disbanded it would put most of them out of the music scene, not see them split up into different directions. Being one of the most long lasting globally recognised and successful visual kei bands is a tough act to follow.

On the furigana discussion, that's the band's intention I think. Their first album title when just listening sounds like 'demon lizard', but the way it's written is 'demon and shadow'. You can tell it's a play on the sound because the album cover features a lizard.

1: Do you buy multiple versions of releases, or buy at all? (Judgement-Free-Zone)
 
I buy new and old releases all the time, but usually only one version. Since I'm a music person first and foremost, I tend to choose the edition with the bonus track(s) where available. I only have a couple of items in more than one version, and that's because I found an alternate super cheap while in Japan.
 
2: Do you collect cheki or other non-music related items from bands?
 
Nope, this is what makes me a collector more than a fan. My interest in buying items is purely down to the discography. Live-dist and store exclusive CD/DVDs are the crown of my collection. I'm also a fan of lossless so the more I can get hold of, the better.
 
3: Follow them on Ameblo, Twitter?
 
No, I don't have either of those. Occasionally I look through a band member's Ameblog, though usually for high-res album art or live setlists rather than much interest in their personal life. I have a bit of a thing for making playlists out of one-man setlists, particularly tour finals.
 
4: Would you follow them on the street?
 
I want to say no, since I'm definitely not that kind of fan, but if I could be certain it was someone from one of my favourite bands or a musician or vocalist in the scene that I really respect, I would of course try to approach them for a photo or something.
 
5: Dig through their trash? (Judgment-Free-Zone)
 
Nope, no interest there. Not really sure what people would aim to find there. I mean, it's unlikely they'd throw out something valuable like clothing or accessories in their regular trash. Especially in Japan, where it's divided into burnable and non-burnable, and that's it.
 
6: Does Visual Kei or other forms of your musical taste influence your style or personal life?
 
Absolutely, music is such an important part of my life. I have some distinctly visual kei clothing, which I wear most to concerts and the like where I'll be with the crowd, but for the most part I like a more toned-down style - think DELUHI toward the end. That said, clothes are super expensive and with my music collector side I don't often get to buy a lot of them.
 
7: Desire to move or visit Japan influenced by music?
 
Hahahahaha. This message brought to you from Hino, Tokyo. Welcome to the summary of the last few years of my life.
 
8: Do you read dirt-sheets of bands, like rumours, gossip, etc...?
 
Only if it crops up on one of the blogs or forums like this site that I frequent. Like I said before, I have little interest in the band members' personal lives - I don't subscribe to celebrity culture and I hate the way 'famous' peoples' lives are so exposed to the media. It's really none of our business.
 
9: Ever fantasize about being friends with band members? (JFZ)
 
Yeah, sometimes. It would be cool to hang out at a bar with a couple of the guys and just chat about the VK scene, have a good time. A friend of mine met Kihiro from UNDIVIDE/LOKA once and he sounds like a lot of fun to go out with. Meeting band members outside of their performance persona would be a really cool way to get to know them.
 
10: Do you want to be in a Visual Kei band (or any other kind of band)?
 
Well I do still have that childhood dream of fronting a rock band, but at this point I'm pretty convinced it's not gonna happen. Thank God for karaoke and nights when I'm home alone then.

1: Don`t worry about others, is Visual Kei a genre, or a scene, or something else, to you?
 
First and foremost, I would argue that visual kei is a scene, since a genre typically defines some quality of the sound or style of the music. What makes visual kei different is the 'visual' aspect. VK bands incorporate such a huge range of genres that it would be wrong to call them all 'visual kei' and be done with it. However, hypocrite that I am, I also personally find it convenient to think of VK as a genre too to some extent. I categorize my Japanese music for the most part into visual kei and non-, which then becomes rock, metal, or whatever umbrella I think the band falls under.
 
2: Most of the time can you tell the genre, or if you will like a band based on their look?
 
It's difficult to tell exactly what kind of sound a band is going for based solely on their image, although as a long-time listener of visual kei there are certain characteristics that give you a hint. For example, lolita styled bands like Versailles tend to have a kind of classical, technical style, while dark outfits and gloomy makeup make me think Nagoya or eroguro. The poppy bands like oshare kei conversely dress very brightly. Despite obviously knowing my own taste in music though, guessing a band's sound from the outset is not the same as listening to their music and their look alone won't suffice to tell me if they're worth my time.
 
3: Do the looks matter to you? If the same band dressed in Jeans and T-shirts with short hair, would you be as interested?
 
In a genre called 'visual' kei, of course the looks are important. But if my favourite visual band suddenly turned to casual clothing, that doesn't mean their sound would change too. The only thing that would stop me listening to a band I like is if their style changes too much to something I don't personally appreciate. If Signal had decided to switch to jeans and T-shirts, they would still be one of my favourite metalcore bands. I guess that's the difference - lose the visuals, and it's not really 'visual kei' any more.
 
4: Do you search for music by sub-genre, such as Nu-Metal, Alt. Rock, etc?
 
I'm aware of the infinite sub-genres people try to define rock and metal music under, but it doesn't really bother me. I tend not to search for music much anyway, a majority of new bands I come across are from news forums like these, or recommendations from friends. I have attempted to some degree to categorize my non-visual library into the broader sub-genres, but as I said before, that's reserved for anything I haven't deemed 'visual kei'.
 
5: Do you get annoyed when others label your favorite music as genres which you don`t agree with?
 
I haven't really encountered this. If I did, I think it would only bother me if it was clearly something very different from the style the band is going for. My real pet hate is people tagging Japanese bands in unicode for things like Last.fm, purely because it categorizes them uniquely. The only time you should tag a band name in unicode is if that is the band's official styling. Otherwise, well, you're tagging them with a different band name.
 
Bonus: If a band starts as Visual Kei, even if they change, are they Visual Kei 4 Lyfe?
 
I know this is a rule we enforce on the download forums here, but in my opinion, no. I can see how it is much easier in this case, where time is saved searching up bands' past releases, but there's no reason to continue calling a band visual kei if they lose the visual aspect. That's the defining feature of the scene, genre, whatever you decide to call it.

bless them for giving Kamijo time to re-record versailles discography with a full orchestra, a choir of 69 catholic nuns and a Mana-sama composing cameo to release as "「the REAL vampire best 〜do not purchase cheap replicas〜 death of Asagi」box set

Well this happens occasionally in iTunes for me, but it's easy to fix. Select all the files and either add or remove the 'album artist' field as necessary. That's all there is to it.

Japanese:
ALSDEAD – Separator
the GazettE – BEAUTIFUL DEFORMITY
Jupiter – CLASSICAL ELEMENT
NOCTURNAL BLOODLUST – GRIMOIRE
ONE OK ROCK – 人生×君=
Sadie – MADRIGAL de MARIA
Sujk – ARKHELISM 2
ギルガメッシュ – MONSTER
マキシマム ザ ホルモン – 予襲復讐
雅-MIYAVI-  – MIYAVI   Non-Japanese: Arctic Monkeys – AM Area 11 – All The Lights In The Sky Breakdown of Sanity – Perception Bring Me the Horizon – Sempiternal SingerSen – The world in my eyes   Might add non-Japanese later. These days I don't listen to a lot of it.   Edit: Updated at last. I'm counting full length albums here only - there's been a ton of great minis this year too.

I don't think that's the complete picture. Yes, overwork and suicide are common, women are choosing a working lifestyle, and saving face is one of the biggest problems(?) with Japanese culture. But having now been here for over a month staying in a university dorm I would beg to differ. The younger generation is coming out of that rut and while showing affection in public is still pretty rare, I would say that a majority of the Japanese students in the dorm are in a committed relationship, and they're all aged 18-22 or so. Because it's an international dorm a couple of them are actually dating foreigners, even after they returned to their home country. Hell, I even started dating a Japanese girl last week. So don't think it's all doom and gloom for Japan, in the next 50 years or so I expect the more open-minded younger generations to start making a change on the country's public image.

Thank you a lot for what you've shared so far, and have a good moment living in Japan.

As some of you already know, next week I'm moving to Tokyo for a year's study. As a result of this, and a healthy dose of paranoia, I will be closing all my filesharing accounts and deleting the files. By the end of next Sunday 15th September, any links I have shared will be dead. This might come across as slightly arrogant and that's not my intention, I just wanted to give people fair warning before they start asking me to re-upload things (in particular my lossless rips). I'm perfectly happy for you to mirror the files, but I will no longer take credit for them. As for whether or not I will resume sharing after my year in Japan is complete, I have yet to decide. I would like to thank the community for its appreciation, and you can still expect to see me posting here - just no more downloads, at least for a while!

Not really sure where to post this, but time is running out and I'm in an unfortunate situation.

 

Signal have been one of my favourite new bands in recent memory, and I'm gutted they're disbanding this month. I've followed them since their formation and bought everything they've put out that I could get hold of.

 

Even worse though, I can't attend their last ever one man because I don't arrive in Japan until just 3 days afterwards!

 

I need someone who is going/willing to go to it and get a copy of their final single Crossing fate for me. I will of course pay for the CD, and the service too if necessary.

 

The live will be held on 9/14 at Meguru Live Station, and attendance is based on the 'promise' method - the link to contact the venue about it is on Signal's page here.

 

Thanks so much if you can help me out. I believe the single is actually an attendance gift rather than a purchase-able item, so if you're willing to do this you would probably have to forfeit your own copy ^^;

I never really listened to NB before this album, but I'm glad I gave it a try. This is an awesome album and is now on my "need-to-buy" list. Epic debut, my favourite tracks so far are PANDEMIC and Aster - the two extremes xD