¡Viva La Revolution!

I have been meaning to do this for a while, I don’t know how many peoplewill actually benefit from this anyway, but here is a guide to some Japanese bands. Obviously I don’t know hundreds of them, but here are some of the more well known ones, and where I know anything about them, I’ll write it,. I’ll also try and recommend songs if I can.
I’ll organise it into categories.

My favourites.
Porno Graffiti (Saboten, Innervisions, Apollo)
Porno Graffiti are a somewhat versatile band, and what I am listening to in my MD right now. Some songs are similar to Red Hot Chili Peppers, some to Radiohead, and then there are a few other tunes you might recognise as well. I think if you like Rock and Roll you will probably like these guys.
L’Arc en Ciel (Stay Away)
I can’t recommend these guys enough. Unfortunately I do not know the names of the songs except for Stay Away because that is on drummania. They are a solid Rock band who have been going for quite a while now in Japan. If you ask a Japanese person about them be sure to say Rakuenshieru because if you use a French accent they can’t understand you. It happens to me all the time. They also did a Japanese and English theme song that runs in the credits of the Final Fantasy movie.
Dragon Ash (Amploud, Deep Impact, Love goes on, Cowboy Fuck, Drugs can’t kill teens)
I have the same problem here as with L’Arc en Ciel. I don’t know too many names of the songs I know well. They are a Hip Hop band, and probably the most famous one in Japan. The lead singer is the son of a famous actor over there. If you don’t like Hip Hop I still recommend you get some of the ballad style tracks, or the soft rock ones. Dragon Ash change quite a lot depending on what album you listen to. I guess out of the softer songs I would advise Sunset Beach, and of course Viva la Revolution!
Judy and Mary (Motto)
Honestly I have only heard motto and I have been told by Japanese people that it is quite different to a lot of their other stuff. I think that they have broken up now, and the lead singer went and joined some band in the U.K. She also sung the theme song for a Japanese drama. But Motto is an excellent song regardless.
Whiteberry (or Winterberry, I can’t quite remember)
They did a cover of an older Japanese song and it is really good, and it is the only song I have heard by them. The problem is that I can’t remember what the song is called, but it is in Japanese. I am sure it would just be the most frequently occurring song if you were trying to download it anyway.
Nitro Microphone Underground.
Industrial Japanese Hip Hop. It is good, but not as good, or as catchy as Dragon Ash. They were number 1 in Japan sometime last year with their debut album. I can only remember one track name and that is Pyramid, and I can’t remember how that goes. But on track 21 or 22 they do sample James Brown, so that’s something.
The Brilliant Green.
A Japanese band from way, way back. Well the nineties. I haven’t heard anything by them for quite a longtime, and I can’t really remember their music, except for the fact that I liked it. So there is your guide for them. They have a female lead singer, I think.
Buddha Brand.
I want to recommend a song here, because this Hip Hop is quite underground in Japan, and so it will be hard to find any anyway, but just get what you can. I recommend everything I have heard, except ‘Don’t test da master’. On one or two of their tracks the background music reminds me of Cowboy Bebop.
Pizzicato Five.
This is the first Japanese band I listened to, I first plugged into them at about seven or eight years old. They are a pop band and I remember I did like them. I just can’t remember what I liked about them. I think I’ll go and put them on the CD player in a minute. Ah, nostalgia. Get them, get them, get them! If not for the music, for me!
Glay
They have an album called ‘Drive’. They are very popular in Japan and they are a Rock band. ‘Nuff said. No? Well I don’t know anymore so there.

Here are the bands to which I am impartial.
Morning Musume (Happy Summer Wedding, Love Machine).
What do you get when you put ten girls in an ultra cute machine and then make them sing songs in pretty and novel questions? Well, you would probably have Morning Musume. Ten cute girls. If you can find music videos, get them! They are so manufactured but oh so cute! I heard a rumor that they were being boosted up to sixteen members. I don’t think it is true though. However there is a girl group in Japan with sixteen members. Go S club 7? Some of my Japanese friends met them on a plane flying to Tokyo- pretty, but not too smart apparently. When I was in Japan I saw collectable stuff with them on it. They are the pop equivalent of Pokémon. Their music tolerable in a novel way, but not particularly inspiring.
Smap (Lionheart).
I recollect that I don’t much like the music this band makes, none of the members have great voices and the background noise leaves much to the imagination. I tolerate them though, in fact I love them because of a sketch TV show they have called SmapxSmap. Hilarious, even without subtitles. Get the show don’t worry with the music. They also have quite a good New Year drama special.
Misia (Everything).
Everything was Misia’s new song when I was in Japan, and my friend Kouhei listened to it so much. I heard that so many times in the car driving around Izumo. It is R&B-ish and six or seven minutes long. I can listen to it, but I am not likely to put it on. If you like Utada Hikaru then…

Then there are the bands which I really don’t like listening to, and there is a chance I will protest at them being played.
Da Pump.
Over a year since I have listened to these backstreetish boys. I was not impressed. Their bad English is novel for a while and then they are just annoying. You might like them if you like English pop music though. Can’t remember their song titles now though.
Utada Hikaru.
Unlike most people I find Utada Hikaru’s music boring. However good luck to her at college in America, and good luck with her American music scene breakthrough.

Poor old Aiko is the only singer left. I just cannot remember her sound at all. Get her and play to me! I am sure she would be up on my enjoy a lot list.

Well that’s this list. I might add to this list later. Anyway happy hunting and downloading for those of you that actually want to bother.
Ja Na.
PS. Learn to use a Diabolo!

Auralphilia. Aural delirium. The sirens were doing it in the time of the Roman Empire. Music has so many possibilities. It is a drug, just like any, only taken with the ears. It alters senses, it changes emotions, it controls actions. What if instead of a physical world existing, relying on number patterns, lines, colour, light and all the other ideas of physics, what if the world were a completely aural place?
What if every person was just a creation of some kind of aural manifestation, what if everything in the world was completely based off rhythm and tempo, bass and treble. Everything has its own aural pattern, and just like songs are mixed out of samples and melodies, worlds were also created by different mixes? Earth might have its own frequency, different to that of Venus, Mars and Pluto, but when all the planets are put together they form a greater rhythm, a solar system, then a universe and so it goes.
Music does have that formation ability. Groups, fans form around different kinds of music, different musicians and create smaller solar systems that rely on a certain kind of harmony to survive, a band breaks up, that solar system can no longer exist. Hip Hop…the ghetto – space, an area thriving on one kind of music. Working songs (the seven dwarfs, USSR, the Nazis) can summon up spirit and inspiration so much that they have been banned in the past to prevent uprisings. In ‘A Clockwork Orange’ music has a large role that leads to chaos and destruction. Music definitely contains some kind of power in it, and people often rely on it for support. Singing in the shower, walking along the road and humming, music makes people feel secure. It is a way of comparing the real world to a dream world.
Music allows things to be seen in different ways, like mirrors tilted at different angles. What at one point looks sad, can look happy. What looks like a leaf can also look like a flame. Music inspires everyone to aim at something, however big or small and plays a large role in determining how lives are lived, and how responsive people are to change and so forth. Travel through music, and not physical reality.

Get back in the swing of things!
Mum is in Europe, I could be in heaven! So much to say, until it comes time to say it!
Eeto, the last few weeks have been fun indeed. I have settled into my life this year, I find myself comfortably in the groove of things, taking whatever bad there is (and there is little of that) in my stride and spending all my time in positive environments, who needs a god to make you happy?

I have been enjoying the musical talents of Jurassic 5, Chemical Brothers, Garbage, New Order, Daft Punk and Porno Graffiti of late. Staying healthy with my excessive not eating then eating a lot. My walking, Kendo, and Dance Dance Revolutioning probably has something to do with it as well.
The only thing which has gone wrong at all? I cannot find my mother’s first edition copy of "the Virgin Suicides".

I need new clothes!

I love it, I love it all! And in a true sense, not a "I love everyone" kind of way. To be colloquial, "It’s all good".
These song lyrics say it all…"Give me some of that emotion, let me feel the satisfaction, what you have’s an innervision". Well actually it has little relevance, but hey, I can write what I like here.

Take it away!