Saturday, August 4, 2001

ore no uta o kikeba... Greetings from Japan! The reason I haven't blogged in so long is I've been away...at field training and in Japan. Yes, that's right. I'm in the land of jrock, and proud to admit it. The past week has been a jrock adventure, rocking and rolling, and I decided that before I left, I would share what I've experienced in Japan, jrock wise. First of all, to any jrock fan, BEWARE OF SHOCK OVERLOAD. You heard me. It's that experience that any jrock fan will get when you walk into the department store. Take the escalator to the second floor or sixth floor or eighth floor. Spot the CD section. Hear the music blasting from the speakers and walk towards it in a daze. Spot the rows and rows and ROWS of shelves lined with music. And not just any music. JAPANESE music. You walk in a daze around the aisles, as if in a holy place, not even daring to touch the CDs around you as if they might suddenly disappear. As if this was a dream too good to be true, and that you might suddenly just wake up. Stacks and stacks of CDs gleaming in the flourescent lights like jewels. L'Arc~en~Ciel. Aucifer. Luna Sea. Siam Shade. X Japan. Hide. Lareine. Malice Mizer. Pierrot. Penicillin. Gackt. Himuro Kyosuke. Glay. And then suddenly you realize that this isn't a dream and you have two choices. Either faint from sheer happiness or run from row to row pulling out CDs from the shelves. As you can probably tell, XD XD, I chose the second option. In my sojourn in Japan I bought no less than 11 jrock CDs. The list: B'z: Loose The Brilliant Green: The Brilliant Green Glay: Pure Soul Hide: Hi-Ho/Goodbye single Hide Tribute Spirits Himuro Kyosuke: Mellow L'Arc~en~Ciel: True Lareine: Fierte Luna Sea: Lunacy Malice Mizer: Merveilles Siam Shade: Siam Shade V Tetsu 69: Wonderful World/Tightrope There were more...lots more...that I would have loved to get, but my limited budget unfortunately did not allow for such luxuries. A tip to anyone shopping for jrock in Japan: get the used CDs. They're in just as good condition as new CDs and half as expensive. A real bargain, when the normal price of a jrock CD is around 3000 yen. The real point of this post, however, is to uphold my stance on jrock. I've been advocating for ages about how jrock is deeper and more meaningful than any English rock I've ever heard, and my trip has only reinforced this fact. Talking to any random housewife, you'll hear about how X Japan is the greatest band ever. How Hide's death was tragic. How Luna Sea broke up. Random facts that you wouldn't expect just any old person to know. To me, it was like I had finally found people who understood me. My aunt doesn't even listen to much popular music, yet she knew these facts. Something about the jrock culture sticks to people in Japan. As a tribute to my trip, I've changed my picks on the sidebar. I'd love to write a more detailed essay in the style of Moonsong's below, on my own personal technical definition of jrock (tangible as opposed to emotional) but that will have to wait, as I am on my uncle's computer and tying up the phone line. Right now all I can say is...LONG LIVE JROCK! ^______^ - Gerald - at 08:49 p.m., Kamijo still can't hit high E

Friday, August 3, 2001

Living on with Dreams and Forever with Tears I'm rediscovering X Japan for what- the 3rd time now? Maybe the 3rd time's the charm. Just because I feel like writing it all down, let me tell you my "How I discovered X Japan" story. It's rather pathetic considering my ignorance and their legendary status but oh well. =P Here we go! The first time I'd heard X Japan was about a year ago on an anime mix CD Ari burned for me. The track was "Forever Love" from the X soundtrack. I'd heard of the song before- heard other fans go on and on about how wonderful it was, how beautiful and sad, how it made them cry. But I'd never heard the song. When I finally did, I thought it was a nice song and all but it didn't "hit" me. Maybe it's because I hadn't watched X . Maybe it's because I didn't understand the lyrics. I don't know. To this day, while I'm starting to like the song, it still doesn't affect me as much as "Tears" or "Say Anything." At this point, I had begun thinking of X Japan as an older jpop band- kind of like the Beatles of Japan- a pack of clean-cut older guys who sang ballads and made girls swoon. That impression was shot down rather quickly when I finally saw a picture of the band. But I'm getting ahead of myself. A few months passed, I kept seeing the name around. Didn't really pay attention to it. Until "Crucify My Love." I'm not sure who first had it on their blog- Ger or Laurel but I know it was Ger who gave me the mp3. And I could have died right there. The song was haunting. Beautiful. A delicately-woven tapestry of piano and voice. And it was in English! I'm normally not a person who cares what language a piece of music is in but being able to understand the lyrics on first listen just made the impact all the greater. After that came "Say Anything." Then "Tears." And X Japan became a known name in Moonsong household. And still I hadn't seen what they looked like or known what they were really about. I loved the songs, but didn't get into the band. It wasn't until Ger and Lyra finally got me hooked on Gackt and Malice Mizer that I finally started getting into the whole jrock scene. So I surfed. And began gathering more and more information about X Japan- not because I was looking for it, but it seemed like every general jrock site I went to had SOMEthing to say about them. I discovered that they were THE rock band in Japan. That they had only made a few records but had lasted for over a decade. They had split up. Their guitarist had died. They were the pioneers of jrock. Yoshiki was the jrock GOD. Hide had pink hair. Toshi joined a cult. And so on and so forth. But since I was hunting for Malice Mizer info, I really didn't pay much attention still. Just sort of stored the tidbits in the back of my head. And since most of the pics that came with these overviews were either small, of lousy quality, or were of Yoshiki in more recent times (i.e. short hair, no makeup), I still hadn't really dispelled my impression that they had just been a heavier version of the Beatles. Looking back on it, I did see random pics of Hide, Yoshiki, Toshi, Pata, Taiji, and Heath but never recognized them, so I never associated the visual look with X Japan. And then I finally came upon a decent pic of the entire band during their earlier stages. When they were still X. At least I got the girls swooning part right. But there was nothing "clean-cut" or "old" about THIS band. There was Hide with his blinding, gravity-defying hair. Two dark-haired metallers sporting enough leather, chains, eyeliner, and hairspray to make an entire barn of cows keel over in fright. Then a blond in the center who Ger identified as Toshi when I asked him. But where was Yoshiki? The pretty, fragile, angst-ridden leader of the band? To his credit, Ger didn't laugh. Or at least, he was nice enough not to let on if he was. Yoshiki of course, he explained patiently, was that creature near the front with the foot-long black spikes shooting straight up from half his head, looking straight at the camera as if he were about to jump up and maul the photographer if he as much as breathed wrong. Oh. What else could I say? I just meekly turned away from the pic and hit the net for more songs. Not ballads- I'd had a taste of those- but the harder songs. Ones that showcased Yoshiki's insane drumming, Toshi's unique on-key screeching, and Hide's teeth-grinding guitars. I found "Rusty Nail." All I had to say was *________________*. To this day, I adore that song. Ger then gave me "I'll Kill You" after screaming the same during several AIM conversations. It was disconcerting but interesting to say the least. The song I mean. Not Ger screaming random lyrics during a conversation. XD XD After "I'll Kill You," I put X Japan on the back burner YET again to pursue Lareine, Gackt, and other bands. This time though, when I actually found information on the band or any of it's members, I read it avidly. I picked up more and more songs here and there, but the obsession never grew to the level of my Malice Mizer, Gackt, and Lareine phases. It's been there though. Like a candle burning merrily away as I toiled late into the night in search of other bands, other songs, that flame was always burning there lighting my way. Maybe it's because I discovered X Japan almost 3 years after that last live performance at the Tokyo Dome that I never felt the urgency to obsess over them the way I latched on to the other bands. I knew that whatever material was out there was already there and it didn't matter if I discovered it now or a year from now. All the music that could be released already was. The band will remain apart. Nothing would change if I waited. So I did. I'm slowly learning more and more as I go along- of Yoshiki's current projects, Hide's solo releases- a friend of mine had even sent me "Rocket Dive" by Hide & Spread Beaver a few months back and I hadn't realized it was the same Hide! The pace is actually a little strange for me. I'm used to falling for a band all at once, spending the next three or so months frantically amassing everything I can find on them, then moving on to the next obsession. With X Japan, I seem to pick out some facet of their history- whether it be a song, learning how Yoshiki coped with Hide's death, a piano instrumental, a lyric translation, a fan's reaction to the last live- just at a time when I need to hear/see/feel something to keep me going. These discoveries are usually accidental- I don't really go out of my way to FIND X Japan things but they seem to come about at just the right moment. So that's my story. I'm currently on my 3rd serious X Japan phase- brought on mostly by the rediscovery of "Tears" -the live version from Tokyo Dome. The deeper meaning behind the song, the simple poetry in the lyrics, the basic chord progression... it was like walking out in the middle of a light rainstorm and seeing a flower- the same flower you'd walked by a million times before- but now, ever so lightly dusted with raindrops, lending it a magical, almost unearthly beauty. You stand there watching the petals of this flower bend slightly as each droplet falls and smile, feeling the rain washing the weight from your shoulders. After the storm passes, nothing has changed as you continue on your way, but when you look back, it seems like the flower has bloomed just a little more. So that is X Japan according to Moonsong. No matter where this phase leads, if it leads anywhere at all, Yoshiki, Hide, Toshi, Heath, Pata, and even Taiji have already made a difference in my life. Cliche but true. And even though the band is gone, the legacy will always remain. (The quote/title is from Ger's romanization of "Tears") - MS - at 05:34 p.m., Kamijo still can't hit high E

Thursday, August 2, 2001

In Memory of the Pink Spider To those of you who loved hide, who followed his music, who listened to his words, if you knew him only as "that pink-haired nut from X Japan, or even if you didn't know him at all, please visit this Memorial and read the speech the webmaster gave regarding his death if you haven't already. And for heaven's sake, don't listen to "Tears" during the speech... - MS - at 02:56 p.m., Kamijo still can't hit high E

Thursday, July 19, 2001

My Winamp Is Possessed Okay- tell me this isn't odd... those of you who have Winamp know that whenever you ask it to play a CD (and if you're connected to the net), it automatically searches through its database and tries to match that CD to list the tracks in the playlist. If it doesn't find an exact match, it finds the closest and assigns it those tracks. Does anyone know what Winamp uses to determine what CD it's playing? I just put in a CD I burned with 4 songs on it: Bel Air - Malice Mizer Brise - Malice Mizer Kimi no Tame ni Dekiru koto - Gackt Cube - Gackt It found a match- the No Religion single by Van Morrison with the following tracks: No Religion [5:17] Whenever God Shines His Light [5:02] Have I Told You Lately that I Love You [4:20] Gloria [5:15] O_o;; Do they just go by time or is there some embedded code it searches by? Another really odd thing is that the songs match up somewhat if you think about it enough. Bel Air/No Religion Both hint at love and loss; it can almost be inferred that the songs are about a lost love and that there's nothing else to believe in. Indeed, if you watch the PV of Bel Air , there was certainly No Religion there. The vid was practically a mockery of a typical Christian tableau with Gackt as a renegade priest in his flowing white robes presiding over an altar of death. Brise/When God Shines His Light The first reference is the obvious one that comes to my mind: the chorus of Brise revolves around a certain "white room's window" where certainly God must "shine his light." The speaker in Brise reaches through that window for someone in the sky. Yeah, yeah, far stretch but there it is. Kimi no Tame ni Dekiru koto/Have I Told You Lately that I Love You First, the obvious. The length of names! >< Second, Kimi no Tame ni... is one of Gackt's only (if not his only) commercial sappy love song. The title roughly translates to "I will always protect you." ¬.¬ I think the connection's pretty clear. Cube/Gloria At first glance, there's nothing similar at all between the two save for the one-word titles. Cube is a rather angsty thing and Gloria goes on and on about a woman named, well, Gloria. If you skew your view on Cube a bit and turn it into some twisted love song... that's *really* pushing it though. That might have been why Winamp didn't think it was a perfect match. Assuming it wasn't just going by track lengths that is. -_-;; *is still slightly unnerved* - MS - at 10:59 a.m., Kamijo still can't hit high E

Wednesday, June 27, 2001

Kamijo fans rejoice! Information regarding his new band has been officially announced: NEW SODMY Vocals: Kamijo Guitar: Mayu (formerly of Lareine) Guitar: Aya (formerly of Blue-B) Bass: You (formerly of Arege) Visit the band's official website at http://www.new-sodmy.com/ for more info and music clips. You will need Flash to view the site. Info from a post by Sin at the Lareine ML. - MS - at 12:12 a.m., Kamijo still can't hit high E

Thursday, June 14, 2001

Sorry about the lack of updates! ^^ Ger's away for a bit and my monitor decided to just up and DIE last Friday. ><;; So I sneak on at work. ^^ ANYway, I do have an interesting piece of news for you Jrock musicians/fans or anyone obsessed with Gackt. ^_~ He's released his own guitar! No, really. Poor man hasn't figured out how to re-design a baby grand (though just give him some time I imagine) so he put out this gorgeous instrument, the Caparison Marcury. The body is solid mahogany with a white/gray marbled finish. It comes with a funky custom case, plush and snug as a coffin on the inside, the outside vaguely outlined in a cobwebby pattern with a small bat carved near the top. Guess he still hasn't gotten over that "Transylvania" phase, eh? ^.~ All in all, I still prefer Mana's "Jeune fille" but this piece of equipment definately ranks up there in looks. Now to see if the thing sounds as good as it shows... - MS - at 03:28 p.m., Kamijo still can't hit high E

Wednesday, June 6, 2001

First, a couple of random quotes... "You've been singing your heart out until now. But it's up to the listeners to make what they will of it. Maybe it worth while to think a little about why you've been singing, and why you're going to keep singing." "The enemy had sound protectors on, so how could they hear the music?" "It was not just the music. Their hearts touched the Protodevlin." OK now before you think I'm going all crazy on you...where do you think those quotes are from? I'll give you three guesses... And if you know me at all, you won't need to guess. Those quotes are, of course, from the anime Macross 7, my favorite anime. Why is it my favorite anime? Any anime dealing with music and jrock automatically makes it to the top of my anime list, and Macross 7 is as jrock-y as you'll get. Yes, I know this is a Jrock blog and not an anime one, but let me explain. Macross as a series touches upon and explores the effect music has on human (and even non-human minds), but Macross 7 takes the concept to a whole new level. Why sing? Why make music at all? Why does music exist? And how can music, a collection of frequencies that vibrate in the ear, touch souls so deeply? Macross 7 explores all those question in great detail, and I think that it has a great relevance to the jrock world. In fact, Macross 7, is the only Macross series to base itself around a jrock band instead of idol pop stars. Macross 7 is also the anime which explores the power of music to the deepest extent. Coincidence? I think not. There's something about rock music that is able to take music to a new level of feeling unprecedented by just any other kind of popular music. That's what jrock, and rock music in general, are all about. The right combination of notes and lyrics can touch a human spirit deeper than just words or actions ever could. Not that pop music is bad. After all, Lynn Minmay's songs stopped a war. But Fire Bomber's songs stopped an invasion of a galaxy. Hard to beat that. More than anything, I believe that Japanese rock music carries the music of hope. In a country with one of the highest suicide rates in the world, that may seem a little odd, but that's probably precisely why jrock lyrics are the way they are. Compared to the endlessly angsty and depressing and death-filled lyrics of English rock artists, jrock lyrics can be poignant, beautiful, and full of optimism at the same time, without sounding corny. Read the lyrics of three of Fire Bomber's most sung songs: Planet Dance, Holy Lonely Light, and Totsugeki Love Heart. The lyrics spend little time bemoaning sad fates and cursing life. Why make a bad situation worse? In an age where cynicism is the fashion, it seems to me that it's braver and more innovative to make songs like that than to compose the same angsty stuff that everyone else is singing. Interviews with jrock artists all reveal an intrinsic desire to shape the world around them with their music, to bend it and mold it and reform it according to their sound. Malice Mizer. Lareine. L'Arc~en~Ciel. Gackt. Even bands like Glay. Why do they do it? As Gackt said, "making the song come alive" is the ultimate goal. The rock band in Macross 7, Fire Bomber, is also out for something different. The overarching theme of Macross 7 is that music is far more powerful than words, war, even death. Music is what binds the entire universe, and universes beyond ours, in harmony. Through Fire Bomber, the creators of Macross 7 show us what Macross is really about. Lynn Minmay was only the beginning of a musical revolution that stretches across galaxies and time and space. I believe the reason that the creators of Macross 7 based it around a jrock band is the same reason why I like jrock: in an age of less-than-stellar bands and artists singing just for the money (especially in Japan, where jpop artists appear and disappear overnight) there's something about jrock that refuses to let go. Jrock isn't just about rock. It's about music. And that might just be why Macross was so incredibly popular in Japan...and why it receives poor ratings in the West. That might be why jrock bands seem so much more sincere than other rock bands. Because they believe in music. I bet you if you go out on the street and ask people about the power of music, nine out of ten people will either give you strange looks or laugh. Music? Music is nice to listen to, to dance to...but there are so many other things to do besides obsess over music, right? Macross 7 is cheesy because it talks endlessly about music, and why does the singer guy sing the same three songs over and over anyway? Where's the plot? Why does Basara sing the same three songs over and over, each time with a plea "Listen to my song! Why don't you understand yet?" Why do artists like Gackt sleep two hours a night, preferring to stay up and write a song? Why did X Japan keep going for so long when they only had three albums out in almost two decades? Today, the message in the music industry seems to be quantity, not quality. The more songs an artist releases, the more popular he or she is going to be, apparently. Sadly, it's true. I'm not going to name names, but I'm sure many of you can see for yourselves. And even more sadly, jrock seems to be going that way as well. As the great names begin to fade away, new bands are springing up as thickly as weeds, and just as ephemeral. But when it comes down to the bottom line, it's not about the lyrics, the singer, the guitarist, or even the band as a whole. It's about the music. If the vocalist doesn't work well with the band, it's all over. If the melody doesn't fit with the lyrics, it won't work, no matter how catchy the tune is. That's what Macross 7 is about. And in the end, it wasn't even because of the music. It was because the listeners felt the hearts of those making the music. It was because they understood. Do you understand? Listen...listen to the music. - If you will listen to my song...it's so easy... - at 12:04 a.m., Kamijo still can't hit high E