anakuro

I'm pretty much counting down the days until the PV is released, haha.
They didn't play kowai kurai at the first oneman so I really have no idea what to expect.
Not that I really remember the other songs at the oneman besides the ones on the single.
 
But man they are really good and I'm glad to see others interested in them
 
With Kowai Kurai I highly recommend getting a copy of the CD ASAP.
Usotsuki is pretty much sold out and was sold out at most locations in a little over a month's time. And it's not being repressed. Basically, if you don't have Usotsuki yet, then you're SOL. 

Man, that preview is sounding flaw free!

It says it at the end of the trial listening, but the PV for Kowai Kurai will be uploaded on February 15th! 
 
I'm excited. And their sponsored event tickets go on sale at a live I'm actually going to so I can get one there＼(^o^)／

new look:

I'm late to comment on here, but rumors are he's getting married (once again: these are rumors)
But it makes sense with members' comments etc. from what I read
A lot of people said it would have been better if he left at the end of the oneman tour, though. And I agree with that..
 
Satoshi is the main composer. Bikkey also composed a song. I honestly can't remember if Yukihisa did. I think he did compose one? But it's basically mostly Satoshi, so I'm not particularly worried about the sound changing.
I wonder what the atmosphere will be like on stage though. 
 
I'm also curious if Yukihisa will participate in recording the CD. When was that supposed to come out again? 
And I wonder who will do support...
 
Man, he was nice. He at least attempted to talk to me (unlike Naoki) it's hard to believe that the last time I met him is... the last time I'll meet him. And he had a nice energy on stage :\ I'll miss him. 

Okay so they ARE covering Sabato, mystery solved XD
 
EDIT: he made his screams fit pretty well !
 
Also, I'm always interested to see new VK bands at their first shows. Being a new band on stage is tough enough but to present a VK "character" to an audience that has no idea who you are has to take that extra balls lol (is probably something you have to laugh about later) XD

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CztsjCthVFE

I feel youヽ(；▽；)ノ They exceeded my expectations so much 
 
 
I was highly impressed they managed to make 12 songs in such a short amount of time and they were all so good yesterday..

At the first oneman they played a total of twelve songs

The problem is that most discussions centered on visual kei (especially by non-vk fans, or anti-vk ppl) are often slathered with frightening helpings of overgeneralization, made worse by a common stereotype of vk fans that's, let's just say, not too charitable. People need to realize that not all visual kei fans are (or come anywhere near to) immature, rabid fangirls who creepily stalk twitter/ameblo and hyperventilate at their bandomen's zettai ryoiki 24/7. Oh yes, of course, there are those (and btw I don't believe there's anything wrong with that, but that's going off-topic). And there are also vk fans who refuse for whatever reason to listen to anything else but vk. So what? This "snobbishness" isn't even something peculiar to vk - just take a look at people who exclusively listen to classical music, or trance, or hip-hop, or whatever - and in my view, not necessarily something "bad".

The thing is, contrary to common presuppositions, some of these people who swear by vk have actually explored other genres, found that they didn't like them, and returned to the "sanctuary" of vk music where they feel most at ease. There's a very common tendency to feel that simply because I found a mind-blowingly good band, people are "missing out" on this gem because they don't know about it (and if they do know, then they're not being critical!). I used to feel the same way sometimes, but I've come to accept that isn't the case at all. For every 1 person who's interested I can easily find 100 others who quite honestly don't give a shit. In my case I've also occasionally checked out purported "albums of the century" (hurhur) and didn't know wtf I was listening to. But this is just as well; if there were any place for aggressive musical evangelism, all of us would be listening to AKB48 and Arashi and nothing else.

A final point. Let's face it: the music industry today is staggeringly huge and there are way too many bands/artists for anyone to listen to. For most people who are neither NEETs nor retirees, their "exploratory" phase must stop (or at least slow down) at some point. To put it crudely some sacrifice has to be made between breadth and depth of music: because no one has infinite time to sit down and listen to music leisurely, people who have less diverse tastes can channel their time to further exploring what they really like. It's not so much that vk music is irreconcilable with other genres of music; it's the practical constraint of time where spending a month to explore other genres means they will have 1 less month to explore vk bands they like. Not everyone is willing to make this sacrifice. As an anecdotal aside, I'm just a rather casual listener of classical music but I have a good friend who listens to almost nothing but Chopin since he was 14 and has developed an unbelievable familiarity with almost every single Chopin specialist from the 19th through the 21st century (he even knows who are the Nocturnes specialists, Mazurka specialists, etc. within the Chopin repertoire). I hardly think it would make any sense for me to inform him that he has wasted his time and suggest that he'd have been better off if he had traded 50% of this expertise to explore rap or J-indies instead. And if I wouldn't say that, why would it be easier to say the exact same thing to the obsessive vk fan, if not for the derogatory (and often incorrect) stereotypes usually associated with vk fans I've mentioned at the start of the post..?

If you are only now seeing the silliness... maybe you were in it for the wrong reasons...
 
*suspension of disbelief*

I think she might not have answered due to circumstances.
I live in japan and have a webshop. She placed an order and asked if I lived near there and could go. I could not (and generally can't) but I have friends. They do not offer shopping services so this was a one time thing. That is all I'll say about it. Hope it cleared things up

Nice! It's always great when customs cooperates (I'm one of the people that sends things from Japan so I've gotta worry about it too)
 
I still need to get something other than 4U but I've been lazy and like I had mentioned it hadn't particularly impressed me that much. So, it didn't light a fire under me to buy other Hysteric Panic releases. One day I'd like to see them though... I've just been too distracted by my VK bands to bother (._.; ) oops.
I'll have to check that video out at a later time. 
 
 
My next music CD purchase will possibly be RUVISH's mini album that came out in.... September? But I'm in no particular rush to buy it... 
 
Xaa Xaa's うそつき comes out on the 1st and I'm looking forward to it even if the production quality is laughable at best It's already preordered, just a matter of grabbing it on the 3rd at the in store.
 
Edit: Oh and I forgot to mention my most recent purchase...
A friend put up Souiumono's Cee (their rarest CD) for 800yen on twitter. I snatched that sucker up and she should ship it in a few days or so.

album/single
for obvious reasons
 
towel&shushu
...for lives mostly.
Some songs' dancing requires the use of a towel.
Also towels and shushus show who you are there for which can make your life easier with moving around (you can ask people to switch places with you--and it's obviously best to ask people who aren't there for the same band. You can tell by their merch..).
Towels are also great for saving your spot by setting it down on the ground. Most bands I only buy one towel for but a few I have multiple towels....
Some shushus are way overpriced and I won't buy it. I'm not desperate to have a stupid scrunchy.
 
cheki
this is what the bands make most of their money off of. It's a way to help them out and it's like a souvenir from the concert.
I don't buy used ones too often.

^Yes, but not all Japanese fans can afford to/are willing travel to whatever live it's sold at either, so I don't see it as discrimination against overseas fans. It's an annoying marketing technique, don't get me wrong, but it doesn't seem like something Kiwamu specifically does to be a dick to non-Japanese fans.

But it's not a real live tho. None of their 'live invitation' are a real live. This is a real live.

Here's my unpopular opinion so feel free to disagree.

Different ≠ Good. I'm tired of hearing "so-and-so is the 1251878th pop-rock band, therefore they are shit." I need someone to explain to me - logically - how people actually arrive at the ludicrous position that being different is a necessary condition for being good. If someone likes a certain style or sound - isn't it obviously natural to continue seeking out the same sound he enjoys so that he can derive the same satisfaction from it? People who love 90s nagoya kei are unwavering fans because of its very distinctive sound which has been arguably "lost" - and hence the nostalgia for that period. Is that really hard to understand? No. While having some originality is always welcome, it is neither necessary nor sufficient (nor even the most important) criterion for enjoying the music in question.

Pop-rock tends to be unfairly tagged as "the genre where everything-sounds-the-same" although pretty much the same thing can be said of "dark/gloomy kei", "core-ish music", electro, etc. Any counter-objection that I'm over-reducing the complexity of latter "genres" can be likewise applied to pop-rock, which I believe is more diverse than what most people (especially people who despise it) assume it to be. These days everything from Royz to Xepher to AKB48 are being carelessly chucked in the amorphous and ever-extending category of "poppish music", which allegedly (and almost by definition) sound the same. I do wonder if it isn't laughingly pretentious for people to dismiss stuff they don't like by saying "pop-rock all sound the same, hence they are garbage" while remaining willfully blind to their own human impulse to seek out the same sound/style when it comes to their pet subgenres. (I'm not going to name anyone.)

It's incredibly easy to sound different. I can record 620 minutes of belting chromatic scales non-stop, or 4 seconds of farting into the microphone. Sadly that makes for neither good nor enjoyable music.

I'm really digging 教えて先生 the most 
and then that 感電 one--mostly because I'm imagining what will become of it at a live.
And うそつき seems like a lot of 手扇子 which is boring and actually hurts my hand/arm (I have tendinitis).
 
I'm definitely going to buy it. Or maybe five who knows. Throw money at them so they can have better production next time.
 
If you need someone to buy it for you (they haven't announced where you can buy it yet, right?) you can look to me, np. I'll be up in Osaka for the oneman anyway so I'll get the CD only a couple days after...

i really like the title track :')
 
i agree that the production could have been better - but at this point i guess i'm just delighted that kazuki and co. are still around. definitely gonna buy it.

I can see how it will be translated well to lives and I'm looking forward to that,
but I'm not too terribly impressed with the recording quality itself. But what can you do, it's obvious they're broke just by looking at their photos

...here
 
they also put up another video
 
it was their announcement at midnight

...here
 
they also put up another video
 
it was their announcement at midnight

...here
 
they also put up another video
 
it was their announcement at midnight