Kagrra, will release their 3rd major album on Valentine's Day next year.
Artist: Kagrra, Release: untitled new album Label: PS Company / Columbia Music Entertainment Date: 2007.02.14
Limited Edition CD + DVD Catalog Number: COZA-249～250 Price: 3,800 yen (tax in)
Normal Edition CD Catalog Number: COCP-34117 Price: 3,150 yen (tax in)
Supposedly, the album will only have 9 tracks. Kagrra,'s previous album releases contained 10 to 12 tracks. 9 tracks is almost a mini-album, not a full-length album. I really hope they add more tracks since the details haven't been finalized yet.
Who is that awkward, dashing, Japanese speaking lad with dark hair interviewing MUCC on the Bonus DVD that comes with the limited edition of their new single HORIZONT?
Why it's purple SKY magazine's very own boo. Yes, that's me dredging a print-worthy answer from a still groggy Miya. [...]
Hey, MUCC actually put footage of the purple SKY interview on the DVD of their single release. This is really nice advertising for purple SKY. Think the magazine will get a sales/subscription boost from this?
While searching for Youtube footage of this portion of the DVD (unfortunately, nothing came up), I stumbled upon the trailer for the upcoming Otakon 2006 documentary, presented by Tainted Reality.
Oh, and also a YOSHIKI interview from the same event.
Oh YOSHIKI, your shirt makes you blend right into the background wall. And I wish you'd take off your shades. Everyone at the convention knows who you are, shades or no. I just don't buy into the whole "rock stars must wear shades to maintain an air of mystery and coolness" deal. Despite his "Japanese Rock Legend/God" status, YOSHIKI seriously doesn't project that rock star persona here anyway. He really does seem like the "aww, shucks" type of guy in the video (to borrow from purple SKY's description of him).
I had such a bad urge to throw something at the screen because he said "I don't know", shrugged, and played with his hair/collar so often. He had a very defensive posture, with his arms crossed over his chest, as if he felt uncomfortable and was trying to distance himself from the audience. I thought he'd have plenty of practice giving interviews. Stop fidgeting and give us straight answers, dammit!
Wohoo! Gazette will make their appearance in HEY!HEY!HEY! Music Champ TV show as the "RANK IN" Corner Talk Guests on November 13. Tune in if you can.
First Nightmare, now Gazette, it's awesome to see my favorite J-Rock bands getting recognition on major national music shows. I'll be on the lookout for footage of this airing.
The Japanese Student Network (JSN) here in the United States will organize an event called Tokyo Night 2007 on March 31/April 1 in Los Angeles, California.
Q: What is Tokyo Night?
Our objectives of Tokyo Night are to promote a spirit of unity among those of different backgrounds, and to introduce them to both traditional and popular Japanese culture. We are also committed to helping young aspiring artists to expand their creative possibilities in the U.S. We will produce a synthetic entertainment event for our anticipated more than 2, 800 attendees by combining latest club music, visual arts and a fusion of Japanese goods and services. We strongly believe that it is important to create goodwill between people of different backgrounds: our goal remains to promote understanding and respect for differences along with a will to work together to achieve similar goals as members of the same society in order to advance harmony. These are the major themes for upcoming Tokyo Night 2007.
According to the related threads on Batsu J-Rock Forum, JSN is now in serious talks with Kagrra,'s management about the possibility of performing at Tokyo Night, but they must bring in an audience of 2000 or more. If you're pretty damn sure you can make it, please let the organizers of the event know. Bring our beloved Kagrra, to the US! (Please note that Tokyo Night is a 18+ event.)
The German company CLJ Records will be releasing the European edition of Gazette's Nameless Liberty.Six Guns live DVD set. This release will consist of the two concert discs and include both German and English subtitles. The booklet will also contain English lyrics.
Price: 24.99 EUR (about $32)
A special fan edition with DVDs and a T-shirt is also planned. Details will be announced soon.
I'm disappointed, however, that the European edition doesn't include the third disc from the Japanese limited edition. The third disc is the one that contains backstage and interview footages, and kicks absolute ass. Guess the company's too lazy to translate and subtitle it. Because the third CD's not included, I hesitate in buying this...
Bah. We Americans are so neglected. *kicks Free-Will America* Why can't you do the same for us?! PS Company is a sub-label of Free-Will, for god's sake! The euro-dollar exchange rate sucks.
Artist: D Release: Tafel Anatomie (limited edition) Label: GOD CHILD RECORDS Date: 2006.10.18 Catalog Number: DAKGCR-3 Price: 3,800 yen (tax in)
1. Phantom pain 2. Fanfare 3. 太陽を葬る日 (Taiyou wo Okuru Hi) 4. Leukocyte 5. Calling me 6. Card 7. 青い果実 (Aoi Kajitsu) 8. Humanoid 9. Glow in the sun 10. 抉る衝動 (Eguru Shoudou)
Now, just watch D release a normal edition of this album 3 months later, with 3 extra tracks. I'll cry. I swear KISAKI (of Phantasmagoria, ex Syndrome) still rubs off on them too much. Stop releasing remastering/remix CDs with bonus tracks! I'm too broke to buy them all.
Oh, no! According to honyakuno-hime's translation of Izumi's September 30 diary entry, Kagrra,'s CD jacket designer will be changed. By this, I assume he meant the artist who drew those gorgeous cover arts. If this is so, I really don't think it's a good idea to replace the talented Fukaya Yuichiro, for his beautiful artworks have essentially become trademarks of Kagrra, the band.
Normal Edition Concert disc Catalog Number: KIBM-129 Price: 3,990 yen (tax in)
I'm surprised how affordable this new live DVD release is. It's only 2/3 the price of Gazette's Nameless Liberty DVD. Now I'll actually consider buying it. Or should I wait another year or so until alice nine. performs at Budokan (actually, knowing alice nine., it'll be probably be less than a year)? But by then, the band will be way too famous/popular for their Budokan DVD to be as affordable as this one.
SID's album, play, is now available for pre-order on YesAsia.com (and no, that's not an affiliate link). I asked their customer service 2 days ago requesting for it. Today they've already e-mailed me back and told me it's now on their site. Awesomeness.
I pre-ordered the type A limited edition, with CD and photobook. I originally wanted type B (CD and DVD), but after thinking long and hard about it, I decided on type A instead. My logic is, a DVD's digital content can be easily replicated, but there's really no way to perfectly reproduce a photobook. Thus, type A with the photobook is more special. It enhances my nice feeling of exclusivity. =P
Oddly, type A is $1 cheaper than type B. I'm guessing it's because type A weighs less, so when YesAsia takes into account the "free" shipping, this weight difference is adjusted.
A new free music website has won the backing of Universal Music Group, creating a model that could challenge market leader Apple Computer's iTunes.
New York-based SpiralFrog, which plans to launch its service this year, said the world's largest music label had agreed to make its library available to US and Canadian customers of the service.
Users can download an unlimited number of songs or music videos if they register at the site and watch online advertisements.
The tracks cannot be burned to a CD, but users will be able to transfer music to portable media players equipped with Microsoft Windows digital rights management software, Ford said.
Simply take a look at Universal Music's Wikipedia entry to get yourself an idea of what kind of impact this will have on the music industry. If this project is handled properly, it can revolutionize the entire digital music scene. For a list of Japanese artists under the Universal label, see Universal J's official site. However, I suspect that since the SpiralFrog service targets North American consumers, music from Universal's Japanese division won't be made available.
The fact that the files are incompatible with iPod is rather annoying, however. Because I am an iPod owner (like many others out there), I can't derive as much benefit from this service as people who use players with Microsoft DRM (are we still hung up over that?). Whether this is an actual blow to Apple remains to be seen. But honestly, I wish the files can play on iPods. *is sad*
Spiral Frog will offer a desktop downloader for Windows Media Files (no iPods!) that can be listened to on one PC and two portable devices. Here’s the kicker - you must log in to the Spiral Frog service at least once per month, and see their ads, or your files will stop playing! The details aren’t fully set in stone, but it will be something like that. There will be links to third party sites of the record labels’ choosing if you’d like to buy your freedom to at least skip the ads.
Spiral Frog will also offer far more than just music, but also video and other digital content. The selling point here is that users will be able to access media legally, without the malware, bad network connections and pirate’s shame that comes from other online media sources. Weird Al’s new “Don’t Download This Song” must be linked to in reference to those arguments!
SpiralFrog told the Financial Times that they were in talks with Warner, EMI and Sony-BMG as well.
Looks like SpiralFrog is trying to pull in the support of all four of the "Big Four record labels". Jesus, this is about 80% of the world's music. Information on the Big Four can be found here.
YOSHIKI (formerly of X Japan, currently producer) was spotted at the Family Value Tour San Bernandino concert. (From mivanx77 of Batsu J-Rock Forum)
Two.
Kyo of Dir en grey was rushed to the hospital after falling down from a crate/platform during performance at the Family Value Tour Toronto concert.
Kyo looked fine for the first song. During the second song, he fell down. Most people thought it was part of the act. He took a long time in getting back up, and several roadies rushed to his side, concerned and helped him back up. He made it back up after an uncomfortably long time, but looked disoriented (he banged into a mic stand). None of the other band members stopped.
After the show, I talked to fans who said he was bleeding around the face, but I didn't notice myself (my eyesight's on the crummy side), and it could've been part of the act.
A couple of songs into their set, Kyo lifted a red cage-like platform. I didn't see any struggle, but it's possible he overexerted himself then.
After the Diru show, while Flyleaf was playing, people started noticing a commotion backstage. There was an ambulance and paramedics there, and someone was being taken away. It was Kyo, by all consensus. It definitely wasn't someone from another band, because the rest of Dir en grey were standing close by, looking agitated (I saw Die and Toshiya specifically, but I'm assuming Shinya and Kaoru were there, too). Then security told everyone to piss off.
There was no meet-and-greet for Toronto. I don't know if is related to Kyo's health or not. It wasn't cancelled or anything, it just wasn't planned at all.
That's the extent of public and my personal knowledge. Despite the fact that he was clearly not feeling well during the show, the band finished their set with aplomb. It was a great performance everything considered, and they have my kudos for that. I hope Kyo will be alright. :/
Blu-ray Disc players and movies expected on sale later this year in Japan and the U.S. will share the same region code, Sony said Thursday.
Current DVD discs and players on sale in the two countries use different region codes so that software bought in one country will not work on players purchased in the other country. The system was designed to allow content producers to better manage release and sale of content around the world.
The theory is that a movie can go to DVD in the U.S. before it hits movie theaters in Japan with little impact on Japanese box-office takings because the U.S. discs won’t play in Japan. In practice, the system has proved easy to hack, and multi-region players that accept software from any region are readily available and popular among consumers.
In all, there are six DVD regions but content producers and hardware makers have been discussing changes for the new Blu-ray Disc system, which is being positioned to replace DVD for high-definition content. Backers of the competing HD DVD format are waiting on a decision by the Blu-ray Disc Association with the idea of using the same region coding system to avoid confusion among consumers.
This is excellent news for us J-music/culture fans. It'll certainly save me a trip to buy a region free blu-ray player in the future.
Essentially, YOSHIKI (formerly of X Japan, currently producer) and Gackt (formerly of Malice Mizer, currently solo artist) will begin a project together later this year and recording will take place next year. A live tour is planned and will occur first in the US.
I want to weep in happiness at this news. I'll give up an arm to see them on tour in the US.
Aural Candy at Blogger is essentially the backup of my J-Rock music blog at Vox. The posts here are stripped of photos and can be at least a month behind.
