hiroki

来夢's vocals is one of the most addictive things ever, lol. I've been looping ココロノコネクト the entire week (*_*)

Sorry for not understanding.. do you mean Kou has a new band? Well I always prepare myself mentally whenever bands say they have 重大発表. Still, Kou sounded quite excited about the one meant for today, so I initially thought it was going to be an announcement for an album or something. I guess I didn't see it coming after all. ;_;

Saddest news since the EVE disbandment announcement. I'm just praying Kou won't quit vk =((((((((

^ My exact sentiments. Heartless seems to be less catchy than NEXTcolor'S and (especially) ALIVe. But there's a good chance the full version will grow on me since I really love Tohma's vocals <3

Apparently Takumi and Kaoru intend to work behind the scene as label staff instead, lol. Well it's certainly an unusual reason to quit a band, but I wish them all the best ^^; In any case I really wish Kiyoto can keep his band members for longer than 1-2 years (this is his what...7th or 8th band already?!), and hopefully equal if not better the music of CELLT.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=as4TuK8sZDw

Guess this belongs to the random thoughts thread.. i wonder why people around me enjoy telling me how i should "succeed" in life. perhaps it's true that i am too inoffensive and just don't take "life" seriously enough - i can never see what i'll be doing 3 or 5 years down the road. the funny thing is that i do really well in school (i'm doing 2 degrees at supposedly the "best" university in Asia and happen to top both cohorts), but people have never realized that the very last thing i want is to be standing at the top of the world. Baudelaire is the ultimate voice of what i'm feeling right now: "Life has but one true charm: the charm of the game. But what if we’re indifferent to whether we win or lose?"

It's seriously tiring (and meaningless) to debate whether x is vk or not-vk, so let's not go there. Imo this is only partially correct. We have to remember there are broadly speaking 2 routes to becoming popular. One is for the band to throw their hands up and pander to what the average consumer wants. Think of it as the political party with no particularly interesting/good ideas and just go along with what the public happens to want at that point in time, just so they can get the largest median share of votes. At the same time, there are bands who are genuinely good at what they are doing and over time they attract the attention of people whom they otherwise wouldn't have. Case in point is SID's first live right after their transition to Ki/oon: they sold out Budokan in under 2 minutes with the kind of music that they've been consistently doing for the 3-4 years since they formed, which suggests that they already had a good number of non-vk fans who liked them even before they went major. For most vk bands that become popular and eventually go major (or at least sign with a "big vk label" like PSC), it's usually some combination of the two. The question is how far one leans to either end. Vk bands generally get very little exposure in the mainstream media so it's impossible to gain popularity if they insist on spending 100% of their time making music that no one else cares about. But that doesn't mean that popularity always means quality is sacrificed or that band members are invariably reduced to puppets manipulated by their label. Ultimately it all depends on how much of what the band is doing is up to the members and how much is up to the label. And unless we're actually in the band, it's difficult to know. Tempting as it may be, let's not be too bogged down by the stereotypical progression of "indies vk band who's not popular but good" -> "major ex-vk band who's popular but shitty" because neither category is even stable in and of itself. To stay on topic: I'm always interested to see what DIV puts out. The last single for me was a bit of a hit-and-miss. The PV spot sounded great but the full song was slightly less atmospheric that I thought it would be. Clearly they were seeking to try something new (which is always a great attitude regardless of results), but the pseudo Aqua Timez "rap" at 3.30+ didn't fit into the overall ambience of the song. B sides were better than the title track which isn't surprising given it's the kind of sound in their comfort zone. Let's see what they will do in the new single

wtf no.

So.. LUCHE. has this song "Wrap around music" which they frequently play during lives. Does anyone know if this song has been officially released? I can't seem to find a CD version of it (*_*)

hopefully it'll be good like their last album was

Period was great but in my opinion, aim (the bonus track) blew it out of the water. I must have listened to it at least 500 times... Anyway I love how vistlip announces its releases so early - it gives me time to save up lol ^^

Yay! [2]

well, this really sucks. hopefully they don't disband =(

Kazuki's leaving because his mother is terminally ill and his father can't cope with looking after her. And he's the only son in the family. So yeah, terribly sad and painful to lose him but I think that's as legit a reason as one we'll ever find for someone leaving a band. (Also, people need to stop trolling if they have nothing productive to say...)

I can't believe this

I enjoy most of Blu-BiLLioN's songs.. but Mike's glaringly off-pitch lead-in vocals of "with me" is one of the wtf moments for me. How did no one notice this? Also, I believe I have a reasonably high "tolerance" for unusual vocals and experimental tonalities, but the vocalist of Various (can't be bothered to search for his name) is simply unlistenable. Skip to 1:50 - 2:00 (please buy insurance for your ears beforehand) to hear literally one of the most ridiculous things i've ever heard not only in vk but all of music.I don't want to get started on his "harsh vocals"....

I'm not very familiar with doujin music but I happened to stumble on some circles and the more popular songs when I was living in Japan. 2 of my favorites (and they are really famous so I guess most doujin fans will be familiar with them XD): Alstroemeria Records - Bad Apple!! feat. nomico (this is super addictive) Gazelle - Last Night, Good Night (calm and peaceful, I like it)

Bon is the main reason why I like Capella. He's really really nice and exceptionally protective of his fans. A lot of times he goes out of his way (more than just being "professional") to find out what fans want and try to accede to our requests as much as possible. A lot of things we're able to get on the Starwave shop (esp. the bonuses) prob won't be possible if not for Bon. More recently he also asked fans to submit their requested songs for each of their stops on the final tour so they can plan in advance and perform them one final time before disbanding. Anyway, he admitted before that there were times he got overzealous doing that and have got into trouble (presumably with his label) for speaking his mind lol.

I really enjoyed the songs you guys have posted. Keep them coming @Saku: Ok gotcha, I'll keep that in mind next time! ^ Omg yes. I want to like this 100 times (*_*) ANYWAY, here's my own list of favorites (youtube links in spoiler). Not necessarily my all-time top 10, but close. A（エース） - 灰色の天使 (Haiiro no tenshi) Alice Nine - 夢幻-electric eden- (Mugen -electric eden-) DELUHI - 星の無い夜に (Hoshi no nai yoru ni) Jeniva - 下弦の月 (Kagen no tsuki) Kagrra, - 雫 (Shizuku) Moran - SNOWING ネオン (neon.) - 春奏OVER (Shunsou OVER) レイラ (REIRA) - Pledge シド (SID) - ハナビラ (Hanabira) 「東京指定」 (Tokyo Shitei) - One way～星に願いを～ feat.LUXAM Can't find videos for these: ALSDEAD - フライト (Flight) Clavier - Love Story Para:noir - December 24. And basically everything by SINCREA.

With all due respect, I'm not sure if I see what the problem is. No one has gone into the "New VK vs. Old VK." thread and asked the topic to be changed to "New Japanese music vs. Old Japanese music". Likewise no one has done that for Zess' thread on where VK finds inspiration. Furthermore if the topic had been "Your favorite Japanese ballads", then we'll see things like: which might be nice in itself, but probably deserves a separate thread so that people of reasonably similar interests can have some sort of focused discussion.

Haha no specific reason, although both "VK" and "ballads" are open enough for interpretation without making it too broad. I'm sure if anyone wants to recommend some ballads from indies rock etc. we'll be happy to listen to them too XD

I haven't seen a thread like this, so here goes. For me, one of the biggest attractions in VK is the quality of their ballads. Even though ballads are a staple of pop music (and perhaps for that reason not viewed favorably by some), I find vk ballads in general to be at worst a little less cheesy than the the average pop ballad playing on the radio, and at best, profoundly moving. What are your favorite vk ballads? Please share your thoughts (youtube links or samples would be nice too ^^)! Simple piano/acoustic, or symphonic/operatic, or power ballads, etc. -- any kind of ballad is fine! I really look forward to trying them out (assuming I haven't already) I'll share mine soon.

fuck this. [2]

There's literally nothing more important than for Yuki to recover. For me, that just supersedes all other considerations, and a hiatus is clearly necessary at this point for Yuki to get treatment. Alternatively they could have opted to go for a guest vocalist and continue activities (like what Purple Stone is doing with keiya recovering) but that's always a huge huge hassle. It's always hard to lose your vocalist, but with some collective determination they will emerge from this stronger. Holy crap, these are two top-notch vocalists they've managed to get. o.o Really miss 柊's work in Heartless...