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The Brilliant Green: Tomoko (Tommy) on vocal, Ryo on guitar, Jun on
bass. TBG image courtesy of J*Star Gallery. Rainy Days
Never Stays released on 31.07.02.
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OCTOBER BIRTHDAYS
10/3 TETSU [L'Arc~en~Ciel, bass]
10/4 CHISATO [Penicillin, guitar]
10/6 TAKA [La'cryma Christi, vocal]
10/7 HIMURO KYOSUKE [Boowy/solo, vocal]
10/10 AKI [Laputa, vocal]
10/10 TOSHI [X Japan, vocal]
10/11 KAZ [Oblivion Dust/Hide with Spread Beaver, guitar]
10/15 NATIN [Siam Shade, bass]
10/17 JIRO [Glay, bass]
10/19 TAKUI [solo, vocal]
10/20 SHINOBU [Zephyr, guitar]
10/20 SHION [Syndrome, drums]
10/21 HISASHI [Buck-Tick, guitar]
10/29 NIY [Shazna, bass]
10/30 KA-NON [Duel Jewel, bass]
10/30 KIYOHARU [Kuroyume/SADS, vocal]
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THE JROCK FAMILY TREE
If you've ever wondered who was in what band with who and performed where with what, here it is. This is nowhere near complete and I'm sure that there are thousands of little ties that we left out, but here are the main connections between people in the jrock world.
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Spotlight on recently released songs. This is a rotating mp3 list and will be changed regularly to make room for newer songs, so get 'em while you can!
[Glay]
We All Feel His Strength of Tender
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http://jrock.pitas.com
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LIVE NEWS
(Edited 10/20/02)
In case some of you were interested:
Applause Records presents: HALLOWEEN PARTY
Where: Meguro Rokumeikan
- October 30, 2002
Artists: Lareine, Jyakura, Luci'fer Luscious Violenoue, Maya (ex Charuru), Sephiroth
- October 31, 2002
Artists: Lareine, Ribbon, Chanton L'amour, S, Aiorosu
If you buy a premium pass to this event (5,800 yen), you get an omnibus CD present.
Looks like a Lareine reunion (Kamijo - Lareine; Emiru - Ribbon; Machi - Chanton L'amour). o.o Not to mention Aioria. Syndrome- who were originally on the bill- cancelled. Only thing left is... where's Mayu? ;_;
Thanks to Inertia for the updated info! ^_^/ More details at the bbs- here.
PS. I'm alive. ^^;; Will get working on those reviews... soon. *hides from wrath of Ger (TM)*
- MS -
- Comment -
It's 12:02 p.m., and Kaoru's still playing air guitar.
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REVIEW: 「花園キネマ」 [PENICILLIN]
Hanazono Kinema
Release date: 2002.09.19
This is a pretty simple song overall, with the usual Penicillin flavor. It starts with guitars: acoustic and electric, joined by the drums after a few seconds. The beat is a faster one, but still slow enough to be considered mid-tempo (it actually reminds me a lot of the beat in Himuro Kyosuke's Squall, for those of you who have heard that song.) The harmony here definitely isn't cheerful and catchy - a change from a lot of the songs being released nowadays.
Hakuei enters at around 22 seconds in. At first, in the relatively tame first verse, it seems like he's lost his convulsing edge. But never fear - as he goes into the second part of the verse, we hear the old Hakuei that we all know and love. Or, if not love, then at least recognize.
The chorus is a bit more melodic than the rest of the song, but doesn't really catch my ear. The real meat of this song is Chisato's guitar solo from to 2:25 to 2:56. Though not especially technically challenging, it's nice to hear an old-style guitar solo in at least one of these songs that I'm reviewing. I don't know what it is, but guitar solos seem to be going out of fashion nowadays in the jrock world.
Hakuei repeats the chorus again a few times, with some distortion applied to his voice on some of those repetitions. On the last repetition, he sing half the chorus, then lets a weird echoing effect take over for a few seconds before he sings the last lines. The song finishes with the same beat from the beginning slowly fading out, replaced by the acoustic guitar, which strums a final chord to signal its end.
I'm not a HUGE Penicillin fan, but I do listen to them pretty often. I'm not partial to this song one way or another. I don't dislike it but it's not on my favorites list, probably just because nothing about it sticks out. Yes, it's a solid song, but so are tons of Penicillin's other songs and tons of the other songs that have been released lately. Of course, the pinnacle of their works which I measure everything against is their song Romance, and they have yet to top that...
- Gerald -
- Comment -
It's 09:05 p.m., and Kaoru's still playing air guitar.
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KLAHA (EX-MALICE MIZER) INFORMATION
Klaha's site has been updated with his first solo album and live information! His first album, Nostal Lab, will be out on 4 December (￥2,800). There's no track list yet. His first live is the following day, 5 December: Nostal Lab ~Shinshou Prism~ (Shibuya On Air Live).
- Gerald -
- Comment -
It's 12:10 p.m., and Kaoru's still playing air guitar.
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SOMETHING SILLY
It's been a while since we've had something stupid-funny up here, so I thought I'd share with you the products of my boredom as I was procrastinating from studying yesterday. Those of you who read my LJ have already seen it. XD
WHY DON'T YOU TOUCH MY HEART?
And to make it interesting...who can name the songs where I stole all those lines from? XD
- Gerald -
- Comment -
It's 02:29 a.m., and Kaoru's still playing air guitar.
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Saturday, October 5, 2002
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REVIEW: RAINY DAYS NEVER STAYS [THE BRILLIANT GREEN]
Tracklist:
1. Rainy Days Never Stays
2. MOLDY HOLE!!
3. Wishing You
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In a season where it seems that grassroots female singer/songwriters are dominating the Western rock/pop scene, this single curiously reflects that. Coincidence? Maybe not. In any case, Rainy Days Never Stays definitely is a departure from the usually heavy, blues-guitar-driven song style of The Brilliant Green. Lighter, poppier without being pop, this is a reflection of how far the band has come.
Ever since their break, TBG has been coming out with innovative (at least, innovative by their standards) tunes. Rainy Days Never Stays opens with breakbeat rhythm, under which you can hear Ryo's acoustic guitar. However, this isn't the familiar chord-laden introduction, but rather a light-hearted, floating mirage of plucked arpeggios. Under that is a soothing synthesized orchestral thing. There's no bass yet.
Tommy's voice is probably the best thing about this song...she has definitely improved so much since her Tommy February6 break. As I mentioned in the Forever to Me review, her range has expanded dramatically and she's apparently learned how to use falsetto. Good for her. The range of notes that she actually sings now isn't that much higher than what she used to sing in older BuriGuri songs, but the difference is that she's actually in tune now. Her voice has also developed a fuller sound to it as opposed to the breathy sound it had before. You can definitely tell it's Tommy, but a more mature sounding Tommy.
As I mentioned above, this single sounds more like a song you'd find on a Michelle Branch album than a BuriGuri one, with the acoustic guitar and Tommy's voice above a sparse accompaniment through the verses. The chorus, however, is a pleasant surprise, bursting from the understated harmonies of the verse and giving us all the heady emotion of a BuriGuri song without the "heaviness." Jun's bass is definitely a highlight here - simple as always, but a strong presence that can almost, it seems, carry the accompaniment on its own. Tommy sings up to high D in her nice, strong, falsetto, and the orchestrated synthesizer is a nice juxtaposited effect to the guitar chords and percussion. Before they swing into the second verse, there is actually a nice little synthsized break. I can't help thinking that this is a replacement for all those cool blues riffs that Ryo usually plays between the chorus and verse, but then again, this isn't your usual BuriGuri song.
The second verse is much like the first, but with the added presence of the bass and a stronger orchestral accompaniment. Then comes chorus B and as Tommy sings "rainy days never stays," we segue into a instrumental bridge. This is the first time we hear actual percussion - a savvy drum riff with Ryo's acoustic guitar chords over it, leading into a harmonized choral part: "hurry now it's time to say goodbye, goodbye...sun is waiting for you to arrive, alive..." The synthesized orchestral backing is great in contrast to Tommy's (electronically altered) voice.
The chorus then repeats, with the first part of it above understated accompaniment. All the instruments come back in for a "grand finale" of sorts and as Tommy sings "rainy days never stays" for the last time, everyone drops out except for the drums, which continue beating out a snazzy pattern as they slowly fade out.
As you've probably guessed from my review, I fell in love with this song the first time I heard it and have been forcing everyone that I know to download it. The main difference between this and other TBG songs it that there is much less (if at all) of a blues influence on here. The chord progression is definitely more suited to pop than usual BuriGuri rock, which is probably what led the folks at CD Japan to state: "The title track uses a rhythm that's first for them" and Nathan Adams from terrafirma to note "a definate tommy february6 influence in the vocals." The c/w tracks to this single (MOLDY HOLE!! ^^;; and Wishing You) are much more BuriGuri-flavored, so don't worry...I don't think TBG is turning jpop on us.
Single information:
RAINY DAYS NEVER STAYS
Released: 2002.07.31
DFCL-1074 [1223 Yen]
Sony Music Japan (Ken-on Records)
- Gerald -
- Comment -
It's 06:21 p.m., and Kaoru's still playing air guitar.
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Monday, September 30, 2002
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JROCK NEWS!
Aikawa Nanase
02 October 09 - Single Roppongi Shinjyu out
The Brilliant Green
02 October 09 - Single I'm So Sorry Baby, pre-album release.
Chachamaru
02 October 23 - Solo album out
Glay
02 October 13 - JAL presents: Glay ~One Love~ in Beijing. Glay was supposed to have been in Beijing in July but the visit was cancelled. This is the make-up date for that appearance.
Penicillin
02 October 30 - Album No.53 out
Psycho le cemu
02 October 02 - Single Ai no Uta out (major debut single!)
Sex Machineguns
02 October 09 - Album Ignition out
Takui
02 October 23 - Album Swanky God Pop out
Tetsu69
02 October 23 - Single 15 1/2 out, pre-album release
Tomoyasu Hotei
02 October 17 - Single Destiny Rose out
Transtic Nerve
02 September 28 - Mini-album Metabolism #2 out (yeah it's already out but I forgot to announce it)
Wyse
02 October 09 - Album Calm out
02 October 31 - 02 November 30 - Wyse Tour 2002 "雷魚"
- Gerald -
- Comment -
It's 09:22 p.m., and Kaoru's still playing air guitar.
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Saturday, September 28, 2002
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REVIEW: UNITY ROOTS & FAMILY, AWAY [GLAY]
I got Glay's new album. It's very...interesting. Not my favorite of theirs by any means, but it's a very well-done piece of work. Most of the songs are softer things, excluding the first one, and the thing that differs from previous albums is that there are few, if any, "fun" songs on here. This is a pretty serious album, even more so than Heavy Gauge, I think. I'm not quite sure why it's so serious, but I suggest we all listen and try to understand what Takuro's trying to tell us. ^_^
On to the review!
[1] WE ALL FEEL HIS STRENGTH OF TENDER
The introduction to this made me wonder for a second if I hadn't accidentally gotten the wrong album and had put in Glay's Soundtrack album instead. But no, it really does begin with a full orchestra playing a really gorgeous, sweeping melody line that sounds like it comes straight out of Escaflowne. Culminating in a grand climax at around 1:14, the orchestra winds down until at 1:42, and the mood of the song changes to...
NOT Glay rock. There's Hisashi on guitar above the orchestra, all right, but not as he usually is. Understated guitar seems to be the theme of this album, beginning right here with the soft rhythmic chords in the background. As Teru enters, the chords continue to build as he sings the chorus: "Rainy days I hear the thunder/So we all feel his strength of tender" (whatever THAT means o.o). Anyone remember the gospel chorus from Will Be King? It's back. The flowing, almost over-the-top arrangement of this song does remind me much of a gospel song. And, it's pretty much an indication that, like One Love, the rest of this album is going to be something we've never heard Glay do before.
[2] MATA KOKO DE AIMASHOU
What to say about this one...I think Moonsong is reviewing it later, and I'm sure you've all heard it by now. Yeah. Pretty song ^_^
[3] GIRLISH MOON
What a title. The soft introduction and the way Teru's voice is mixed in the first verse makes me think of one of those 40's songs. Slow, soft, and rather lounge-y, complete with cello accompaniment. It picks up a bit in the first chorus, and Teru actually manages to go all the way up to a high F in falsetto (though he's pretty flat throughout the whole song otherwise). Overall, it's a good song but doesn't really catch my ear. If you like Goodbye Bye Sunday you'll probably enjoy it.
[4] WAY OF DIFFERENCE
Reviewed a little earlier on. Look in the archives for it. ^_^ This version is slightly different than the single version, but not by much...longer instrumental introduction and a more pronounced guitar solo in the middle. Hisashi is great!
[5] KOUKAI
You can actually hear the guitar on this one! A little more upbeat song with a swing in it. The beat is very pop, but that hasn't stopped us from enjoying Glay songs yet...I hope! The entire song as a whole is more "Glay" than the previous few and Teru does a really good job on the chorus of staying in tune. Good for him *claps* Actually, this is one of the more "mellow-fun" songs on the this album, reminiscent of songs like Miyako Wasure.
[6] YURUGINAI MONOTACHI
A string, piano, and acoustic guitar introduction begins this slower offering. Teru's voice has definitely improved ballad-wise since Zutto Futari de, and here it's very soothing and (surprise) in tune. I don't find this song particularly memorable, but it's well put together and pleasant.
[7] NATSU NO KANATA E
This song reminds me of the beach. The acoustic guitars and the background chorus are just too reminiscent of summer days, little huts, grass skirts, coconuts and Hawaii. Maybe it's just me, though the title seems to suggest that Takuro wanted this to be the case. And that's the entire song. Seriously. Grass skirts and coconuts, honestly.
[8] NEVERLAND
I wouldn't mind this so much if it didn't come right after Natsu no Kanata e, another slow song with much the same beat to it. Though there's no background chorus on this one, I don't find much to distinguish the two songs besides the addition of piano here and a little bit of tambourine. I miss Hisashi's electric guitar!
[9] KARERA NO HOLY X'MAS
Apparently, Christmas Ring wasn't enough, because Takuro was willing to try his hand at another Christmas song. Like the rest of the album, this one is pretty mellow, starting from the synthesized intro to the computer-mixed bridge which contains an interesting plethora of sounds (including one that sounds like a kid screaming o.o...Hisashi must have had a hand in that). Again, I don't find much in this song to distinguish it from the past two, though the background noises are kind of freaky.
[10] FATHER AND SON
The synthesized beginning of this sounds almost exactly like Karen's theme from the X Character Files Soundtrack. I'm glad to hear some electric guitar in this after three tracks with almost none, though it's still very understated. The tempo here is also a little more upbeat, much more like Koukai. And Takuro seems to be having an obsession with children lately in his song titles.
[11] SOTSUGYOU MADE ATO SUKOSHI DAKE
You've probably already heard this before, as it was the c/w to Way of Difference - another slower song where Teru isn't quite in tune. Anyway...
[12] FRIEND OF MINE
The gospel choir is back! A chorus of "Oooh...don't say goodbye" leads into this song which strikes back with a hint of Teru's old "I can speak Japanese faster than you" syndrome. The beat itself is pretty mellow, but Takuro fit a lot of lyrics into each line, knowing that by now Teru should be good enough to sound like one of those people reading the small print on car commercials. The melody sounds to me a lot like Way of Difference but the song itself is a lot more relaxed.
[13] ALL STANDARD IS YOU ~END ROLL~
Glay and rap...whoever thought they'd get along? Apparently, Takuro did, because this is what this song is - someone rapping along in English to a new, more mellow (of course) version of All Standard is You with Teru singing the original lyrics. I'm not quite sure what to make of this. I like the toned-down version of the song a lot, but I'm not a big fan of rap, and I enjoyed the original and One Love ~All Standard is You~ much more.
My general sentiments on this album: it's very...mellow. I think that's an appropriate word describing it, and you can thank Moonsong for coming up with it. This is definitely something I could NOT have imagined Glay putting out two years ago, or even half a year ago. Both with One Love and now this, they've managed to make me do a double-take and change how I evaluate their music. Glay is definitely a band that is still evolving and changing. I like to think of them as in an "experimental" stage right now, trying to break out of the "loud and fast" mode that has characterized them pretty much since they were formed but still exploring different niches. It's fascinating to see how much their music has changed over the years.
Some people might accuse Glay of "selling out." I can't help but think that that accusation is as far from the truth as humanly possible. If you look at what other bands put out in order to become "popular" and then at Glay's latest offering, I don't believe that's the case at all. If Glay wanted to cater to public taste, they'd have put out something mainstream, something boppy and catchy and fun. Instead, we have this. Glay is not a static band. Glay is a band that has a mission and statement, and that statement is "one love." No matter what kind of music they make, it's not to please fans. It's for Takuro and the rest of them to express themselves in music that THEY want to make.
The one thing I WILL complain about here though...I miss Takuro's and Hisashi's guitars. ^^;;
One Love was a study in wildly differing song styles, from techno to harder rock to pop to songs almost childlike in quality. Unity Roots & Family, Away is, in contrast, an album that is brought together by one single song style, one that Glay isn't known for. As I look at the titles of the songs in this album, the album title seems to make a little more sense. This is an album about coming together, finding love in others, whether it be parents, children, friends, or the general humanity.
After all, that's what "one love" is about, right? ^^
- Gerald -
- Comment -
It's 10:52 p.m., and Kaoru's still playing air guitar.
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