Introduction to Japanese emo and screamo!

[CAT5 9075]

Just figured that I'd pass this information along for those of you who are interested in the Japanese emo and screamo scenes. it's pretty informative!
 


Where To Start: Japanese Screamo <----click this link to read the full post

 

   Screamo (or Emotional Hardcore) came to Japan in the early 90's. There are early traces of Japanese people contributing and sending in stuff to Heart Attack magazine, and appearances by Sawpit on the label, Ebullition, and Bonescratch doing splits with foreign bands. The late 90's saw the Tokyo and Sapporo scenes both getting pretty busy. Tokyo had bands like Swipe, Envy, and Kulara; Sapporo had bands like Next Style, The Carnival of Dark-Split, and Black Film Dance. From there, screamo blossomed, spawning small scenes in nearly every large city in Japan. There have been countless bands over the past 20 or so years to play this awesome style, so let's dig in! These four groups represent the four pillars of Japanese screamo to me. Yes there are more! And I'm already sorry that I may or may not have included your favorite band. This is all just my opinion...

Where to Start: Japanese Emo <----click this link to read the full post

 

As far as I can tell, emo came to Japan at around the early 90's. Bloodthirsty Butchers was one of the earliest bands, releasing their first album in 1990. Eastern Youth changed their sound from punk/oi to bring in a lot more emo influences in the early 90's. [Note: those bands are both huge, so I'm not going to bother mentioning them otherwise.] Dignity For All was one of the breakout bands in the late 90's, doing a split with Jejune which was release in the USA by BigWheelRecreation. Naht was another, touring Japan with Fugazi, Bluetip, and Burning Airlines, and even doing a North American tour in early 2000. From there, the sound spread throughout Japan with bands popping up all over. Lately, there has been a bit of a resurgence with the "jangly" emo sound, ala Cap'n Jazz & Algernon Cadwallader.....

 

 

[filth_y 189]

I feel like many people get into the scene by reading the blog, saw it pop-up many times But its good imo.

 

My 3 favorites (not sure if all fit really into emo/screamo tho, at least i feel the are somewhat known/active in the scene atm  ):

 

 

(just one of these albums you can listen from start to finish over and over again)

 

(somewhat anoying to get their stuff... fck rarez; their latest tape is great!)

 

(more recent one, took me some time to get used to them; still need to check out their new album released this month; was at the show were the vid was recorded btw )

 

Saw all three live several times, hiha always makes me shiver for the whole show. Definitly recommend them for anyone who has the chance! hiha just toured europe and i bet theyll do again in the future!