On May 2007 (old news, yeah I know), Yoshiki (formerly in X Japan), Gackt (formerly in Malice Mizer), Sugizo (formerly in LUNA SEA), and Miyavi (formerly in Dué le quartz) announced that they're forming a band called Skin.
Here is the lineup. * Gackt – vocals, piano * Miyavi – guitar, shamisen * Sugizo – guitar, violin * Yoshiki – drums, piano
Gackt on vocals. Need I say more? On piano, I don't know on which song he played piano. But one of the songs in Mizerable has nice piano segments.
Sugizo on guitar and violin. Oh that feeling of LUNA SEA's violin and guitar.
Yoshiki. Speed drumming is back? Crazy piano again? Piano duet with Gackt?
It's so cool except for Miyavi. Why is that guy there? Good thing he doesn't sing or else I'll be knocking my head on a wall. And it's even better that he also plays the shamisen. Whatever it sounds like, it will be interesting.
I wish Tetsu from L'Arc~en~Ciel is there to cover the bass. Then it will rock big time. Or is this band only reserved for ex big band member? Whatever, I'm in.
Now I understand why Utada Hikaru is chosen as Nintendo DS's representative. She's a great Tetris player herself. So not only that she's ultra famous, she's also a gamer, a dedicated one at that, with top score 99,999,999 at Endless Mode. Watch as she beats most players with 26 wins and 4 losses. She's damn fast.
In this video, she plays against Nintendo assassins (Tetris-DS experts from Nintendo). That looks like a dangerous name. Nintendo = cute, assassin = death. What a scary name :{ She actually managed to beat one of them. And above all, she's so different from what I thought she is. She looks just like a normal girl and cute too.
Man, it makes me want to buy a DS and play Tetris..
While browsing through Tokyo Toshokan, I found a strange name: Lisa Halim. That name sounds very Indonesian Chinese. A Goggle and Yahoo later, I found her website. Shown there on top: selamat datang. Reading the Japanese words: インドネシア人の父と、日本人の母より生を受ける。 My lousy translation: Indonesian father, Japanese mother bla bla bla. Anyway, forget about my translation. Let Google translate the whole page for you instead. Looks like she's not popular yet. Maybe if they market her in Indonesia she can be big in Indonesia, and thus bringing Jpop to Indonesian mainstream? Then maybe we can see big stars performing there? L'Arc~en~Ciel concert? Yeah I wish.. Now downloading the Daddy PV. Is that a tribute to her dad or something? She writes her songs, btw. Something you hardly see in Western music industry.
That's a rocking new album from Dir en grey. It was released on 2nd March. I like this album, they're just getting better and better, or more like their style is more and more suited for me. It's a style of crazy noise followed by melodic sound.
Some gems are: CONCEIVED SORROW, THE FATAL BELIEVER, RYOUJOKU NO AME, DISABLED COMPLEXES, ROTTING ROOT, NAMAMEKASHIKI ANSOKU, TAMERAI NI HOHOEMI, THE PLEDGE, REPETITION OF HATRED, CLEVER SLEAZOID.
Almost time for Survivor Fiji. This is the first Survivor series I bother to watch. It's quite interesting. One tribe living in luxury and another living survivor style. The interesting part is that the poor tribe never wins, their morale is bad, and they don't and may never bond together.
I think I have found a solution to my MP3 tagging headache. It's MusicBrainz. Using a community generated database, this system can tag my MP3 without me typing anything. I'm using Picard as the client.
when i wanted to listen to songs, i was drawn to listen to L'Arc. which album? erm... the opening of Still I'm With You play in my head. sounds like something from heavenly album. and yup, that's right.
when listening to LUNA SEA's very first album titled LUNA SEA, i felt familiar with the songs though i've just listened for few times. this album is great. even the first album is already like this. this is really one of the greatest band ever.
finally, i'll have all LUNA SEA songs. hm.. tasty..
playing MGS 3 lately. i tried to be extra stealthy (no alert mode) with no kill. very difficult.
comencing operation snake eater now.
this game is really creative. a lot of attention to details and funny too, especially when you go to snake's first person view on the cutscene with eva. what are you looking at, snake? hideo kojima is certainly one of the best game designer.
i though the snake at this game is the same at MGS and MGS 2. but realizing the timeline, it's impossible. then i realized this must be the big boss, whom solid snake is cloned from. to be playing big boss, that's cool..
the new L'Arc single to be released on 20th July and i already have it (^o^)v the hydeless version is more enjoyable for me. i like the arrangement. but lately tetsu's bass is becoming less and less dominant in their songs.
one funny thing, the make the loud and shouting promised land into a softer version with extra echo, which is the opposite of what they usually do. but it's a nice change. tetsu plays guitar in this song, it's great.
"They are so popular that Japan's telephone system was disabled on February 15, 1998 as thousands of fans tried to book tickets for their concert tour." that's power!!
the second song, which is by PUN'K~EN~CIEL, is a PUN'K styled Kasou, titled 花葬 平成十七年. when i first heard it, i thought it's totally a music made only for fun, just shouting and playing the guitar heavily, no melody except the vocal, and i almost can't stand it. but after several times listening, hmm... it's quite good, haha..
P'UNK~EN~CIEL is L'Arc~en~Ciel swapping instrument. the formation is tetsu (Vo), hyde (G), yukihiro (B), and ken (Dr). in the old days, the swap band was called KIOTO. they played TOKIO's songs. the formation is the same except for sakura, of course.
i got l'arc~en~ciel's new pv, new world. i have listened to the song's sample before. this time tetsu's bass play is melodic and noticable and ken's guitar is somewhat playing in the backgound, just like the old times. it's the kind of song i've been waiting for.
can't wait to get the single release on 6th april. i think it will hit no. 1 again on japanese charts. what i don't really like is that their recent songs style tends to be american rock although they are still good. i know they must evolve to survive but i hope they can reinvent their old style, which is godly (IMHO).
about the pv itself, usual l'arc stuff. tipical l'arc pv, i have not much to say. when i saw killing me's pv, i thought it's not typically l'arc because the background was very studio while l'arc usually have weird background. but towards the end, when the background broke down and showed the weird things, i realized it's so their style.
it's a song by one of my favorite band, Dir en grey. this song is quite balanced, not too hard, not soft either. um... maybe i lied, heheh.. it's quite hard actually. pay attention to the vocal range too. from whispering to melodic to shouting to idon'tknowwhatwordtodescribeit.
by the lyric, this song is quite depressing. but just enjoy the song :) it's great, i tell you.
the next upload will be a song by this band too, but a real hard one, really good for head banging.
then after that? how about a soft melodic ballad song? this band does all! there is only one thing they don't do, writing a happy ending lyric.
here is the lyric translation for THE FINAL:
The intention is clear, I stare... with this left hand, unable to be worded Every time I bleed, there lies the reason to live... And I discover words being so vivid and bright
Even loved ones scatter like petals from flowers in my hand So even if I engraved the meaning that I lived in my hand, it will only be known as flowers of vanity
The final
One by one it multiplies... why be a sad bait?
Deep within the hell of my heart... I can't go back A self-torture loser, not being able to see tomorrow Suicide is the proof of life
Even loved ones scatter like petals from flowers in my hand So even if I engraved the meaning that I lived in my hand, the petals will only scatter as flowers of vanity
So I can't live What's lost can't be born again
A song that's not even seeking the proof of living Let's put an end... The Final
i've just watched GLAY sang HOWEVER (LIVE @ GLAY EXPO 2004) and what a song it is. i've listened to the song several times but i realized that it is actually a sad dong when the girls started to cry... oh how cute :)
TERU (the vocalist) also cried while singing. wow, this song is great. i'm moved...
one thing, a middle aged lady was in the concert too, singing along with the song looking sad. wow wow wow... so unusual, because this is supposedly a rock concert? such is the power of music, in this case, GLAY.
when listening to the song I'll by Dir en grey, i felt that i've heard the song before, just like the LUNA SEA song before... but i still can't figure when, where, or what song was it. weird.
at last i get all of Dir en grey albums last night. but i haven't listened to them coz i'm busy today and now i'm tired. Dir en grey songs are evil and crazy, heheheh... i'll need extra energy to listen to them. especially since i've never heard most of the songs. but i don't think i have the needed energy now.
so i'm listening to LUNA SEA - SHINE album at the moment. now at song no. 8, MILLENIUM. i've got a feeling that i've heard this song before somewhere but it was a bit different. i've been trying to figure out what is the other version of this song. maybe it was sung by ryuichi kawamura in his singin career? anybody can help? btw, the song BREATHE in this album is great too. and there is the Mulan OST version too... sweet...
look what i got these weeks. tons of music, woohooo....
let me list them..
LUNA SEA - MOTHER (Album)
LUNA SEA - SHINE (Album)
Janne Da Arc - Arcadia (Album)
Janne Da Arc - Kiss Me(Single)
Janne Da Arc - Maria no tsumeato(Single)
Janne Da Arc - Rainy ai no shirabe(Single)
Rentrer en Soi - Sphire Croid (Album) [I'm currently listening to this]
T.M.Revolution - Vertical Infinity (Album)
Matsu Takako (All albums)
Mr.Children - It's a Wonderful World (Album)
Ayaka Hirahara - ODYSSEY (Album)
Gackt - Arittake no ai de (Single)
L'Arc~en~Ciel - Killing Me (Single)
L'Arc~en~Ciel demo songs [now.. this one is funny, hyde is singing "lalalala..." in some songs. maybe because the lyrics had not been written yet at that time.]
so many of them, I'm listening one by one. i'm quite in love with Genesis of Mind from LUNA SEA. All LUNA SEA songs are great. Rentrer en Soi is good too.
Matsu Takako is sweet.
T.M.Revolution has different music style in the album, but overall nice.
L'Arc~en~Ciel, oh, I wish they make their old style songs... not that the current one is bad though, but I miss the old style.
and now let's talk Dir en grey. currently I'm in the progress of getting all their albums. I especially like THE FINAL, embryo, Machiavellism, Kasumi, and almost all songs in Gauze album (which happens to be the only album I have). News: Next Dir en grey album, Withering to death. Release:20050309. I'm waiting....
Let's learn English, hehehe... Machiavellism or Machiavellianism
definition: The political doctrine of Machiavelli, which denies the relevance of morality in political affairs and holds that craft and deceit are justified in pursuing and maintaining political power. (The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
embryo just recently hooked to this song. somehow cool..
download the clip at l'Aurora
there are several other jrock clips there. i got 3 l'arc pv i've never seen before. this was the 2nd time i saw an old time l'arc pv like vivid colors. at first, i thought tetsu was ken and ken was tetsu in this pv, heheh.. until i noticed their instruments didn't seem right.
hyde looks like a real woman (even though without make up), tetsu wears big sunglasses, ken doesn't look like bad boy. this is sooo.. different.
gakidou by baroque also rocks, but it's different from the usual baroque type of music.
then there is this miyavi guy. the pv is cool too. but the song is i think not too much to my liking :)
despite knowing that so far as i know there is no girl in visual kei band, i can't help but wondering whether aya is female or male when i saw the pv of psycho le cemu for the song gekiai merry-go-round. of course he is male. how stupid.
i'd like to see more video of this band. the para para seems interesting :)
too bad it's rare stuff. i don't know where to find it.
visual kei meets para para dancing?
check out this band, Psycho le Cému been trying to find some pictures of them but it's a rare stuff in the net.
don't you be mistaken, this band is all 100% man :)
