hiroki

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roxrroPqyag

Fuck this shit. Is there any band I like that isn't going on hiatus or disbanding?

This so much.

Ok now i really hate myself for checking out those bands LOL. WHY did i do it?? NOOOOOO ;_;

New look:

I thought they were lyrics at first...although I'm not sure. I've no idea how bad his condition is but I suspect he isn't in a state to be consciously "writing" lyrics. It's probably more a reflection of the kind of thoughts running through his mind at the moment? Either way they are heart-wrenching to read. I've done quite a bit of trauma studies myself and we often analyze "textbook examples" of reflexive writings etc.; but when you start connecting the words to a face, an actual person, and what he might possibly be feeling, everything just gets a lot more real and sad at the same time.

Same.. I almost feel like I don't even care whether D.I.D. is coming back, as long as Akane can lead a reasonably normal life. Also, reading the stuff he doodled was just..painful ;_;

He's been struggling with this since Para:noir so it's about time he takes some time off to get it treated - hopefully he'll be back some day

You can find it on Brand X! It's limited to VK specialist shops I think. I ordered my copy from Like an Edison for the photoset lol.

i really didn't want to comment on depressing threads like these anymore, but yeah, i still have to say that i hope Rikuto doesn't retire. I've always felt like he was never as close to the LEM members as he was to the Neon guys (especially Shikano), so I can't say I'm surprised. Still, it doesn't make this any easier to stomach..

Full version of PSYCHOANALYZE ("live" PV that isn't live, lol):

Let me first say that I don't believe we are all entitled to music in principle. If we have to pay to consume a product (chips, cars, etc.), why should music be any different? Nevertheless I don't think anyone should be demonized for not buying music, only by virtue of the fact that no sane person will prefer to pay for something they can get for free. And this "free access" to music is an inevitable consequence of the digitization of music over the last 2 decades and how the Internet works. Nothing can be done about this, as unfortunate as it may be. Record labels have tried all kinds of weird tactics to ameliorate this (wiki "cccd" for starters) but in the end it always either backfires spectacularly or turns out to be a waste of everyone's time. That's why I feel that there's a sense in which this whole "fight against piracy" thing is misguided, because it's akin to fighting the entire landscape of how music is digitized, stored, and circulated. Let us accept that pirates are not going to be "persuaded" to stop pirating. If they're threatened by law, they will just find a more covert/discreet way of going about their business. Get rid of megaupload and now we have Mega.nz. So, rather than tweeting their disappointment and dealing with the x% of fans who will pirate music regardless of how cheap/available the music is (again, I don't think piracy is a service issue), how about actually coming up with ways to grow the pie so that the x% is rendered numerically insignificant? The reason pop music etc. survive is not because they suffer less piracy (seriously I don't even want to know how many people have pirated Adele), but because their fanbase is large enough for them to financially survive in spite of the piracy problem.

Some people seem to believe that piracy is (only) a service problem - Masa's first point gives me this impression too. The implication is that if you make music as accessible as possible, piracy is going to magically disappear. Sadly this is true only in the limiting case where the music in question is rare to the extent that it hasn't surfaced on the internet. If anything, vk is among the least affected by piracy (in relative terms) as opposed to games, movies, pop music, whatever., because the obscure live-limited releases and distro's are impossible to pirate if they don't even exist on the network to begin with. Yet it hurts them more because in absolute terms as they have a far smaller slice of the consumers' pie. For stuff that people can buy from shops or online, releases are only "immune" to piracy for the first 24-48 hours or so. The artists know this as well; that's why fans are always being bugged to "pre-order" upcoming releases. The reality is that more and more people today who actually BUY music do so not because they want to listen to the music, but as a symbolic act of pledging their support. It's like making a "donation" to affirm that you like what the artists are doing. Why else would I want to spend money on a CD and wait for it to arrive, when I can simply click on a link to get it for free instantly? Most of my friends who buy CDs (not many do anymore, admittedly) don't even open their CDs when they arrive at their house, cuz they've pirated the digital files long ago. The industry realizes this as well, so they have stuff like in-store events and promotional lucky-draws to encourage purchase. Anyway, I should say that I don't want to endorse piracy. I do, however, wish that bands like NB would stop whining and direct their effort to formulating a marketing model to sell their stuff in our current age where music doesn't sell the same way it had used to (something for people to buy, take home, and listen). If there's only one thing AKB48 or any of their countless analogs can be praised for, it's being incredibly successful at this.

OMG they are beautiful!!!! (*_*) Welcome to MH by the way ^^

live-limited.. WHYYYYYYYYY??

The first thing that came to my mind was DELUHI's "HYBRID TRUTH" (1:17-1:30 and a longer breakdown after the chorus @ 1:50+): Not exactly a big fan of metalcore in general but I consider this song a vk masterpiece.

I also received my order from him today. Everything was great and I'll buy from him again ^^

lol, that was fast. at least now they have 2 guitarists instead of 3 XD

Appears to be the case.. dammit... SPYAIR won't be the same anymore without him ;_;

LOL @ at the name. Great to have Yuuka back though.. i'm interested to hear what kind of sound they will have

absolutely love their new look (*_*) yousuke's costume is especially interesting... it looks more like street fashion than vk XD

YESSSSSSSS <3