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J-pop on JaME

Recently we held a survey for the “Best of 2009″ at JaME’s UK and US versions, and we got a number of comments on the lack of J-pop choices in the survey. We soon came to the conclusion that we cannot make everyone happy, seeing as next to the questions for J-pop, we got complaints about only including mainstream acts or not including any J-goth acts in the pre-selected choices.

At JaME we’ve always had some problems with the balance between styles. We try to give a good representation of the Japanese music scene, which includes a lot of pop acts, but we also try to please our readers, which are predominantly a visual kei crowd.

At the same time, it is rather hard to include as much J-pop as these artists are usually less accessible than other artists. Being big in the visual kei scene means the act is still rather small in the whole of Japan, but when we talk about popular J-pop artists, it’s a whole different type of management and artist to deal with – they are really huge in Japan!

However, we do certainly aim to feature more J-pop on JaME. We’ve just run out of ideas for this, so we want to ask you, our readers, for any ideas to improve the amount of J-pop features on our website!

Posted in JaME.

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By Kay – January 10, 2010

Happy New Year 2010!

2010 is now here and we at JaME hope that you had a happy and safe holiday! 2009 was a year where we saw a lot happening within the Japanese music industry. The industry has been far from quiet– it has been a year of accomplishments, from bands switching to major labels and more US and European tours, to the delight of overseas fans. 2009 was also a year of sadness, where we mourned the passing of a well-loved artist as well as band disbandments. My, it has been quite a year, hasn’t it?

This year, just like the previous year, we’ve accumulated everyone’s Best Top 3 happenings in the Japanese music industry. Please feel free to comment on this post with your own top 3’s or comments on the selected ones by the JaME team members — We’d love to hear from you too!

Cynthia’s Choices:

Artists of the year (in no significant order)
1. miyavi
2. usagi
3. girugamesh

Albums of the year
1. usagi – yume
2. Plastic Tree – Donna Donna
3. quaff – SHAKE YOUR BOOTY!

Singles of the year
1. girugamesh – ALIVE
2. BACK-ON – flyaway
3. Sel’m – Creature

Concerts of the year
1. miyavi at Anime Matsuri
2. Japan Nite at SXSW
3. Shonen Knife in San Antonio, Texas

Disappointments of the year
1. The many deaths of musicians
2. miyavi cancelling USA leg of world tour
3. ROACH breaking their contract and being without a label

Surprises of the year
1. HIGH and MIGHTY COLOR getting a new vocalist
2. Yuta (ex-LA VIE EN ROSE) starting his solo project
3. Inugami Circus-dan being announced as one of A-Kon’s 2010 musical guests

Best newcomers/discoveries
1. ytartworks
2. usagi
3. Kitaro

Kay’s Choices:

Artists of the year
1. PUSHIM
2. OGRE YOU ASSHOLE
3. lecca

Albums of the year
1. Asai Kenichi – Sphinx Rose
2. MUNEHIRO – Neo
3. MINMI – Ashita moshi mo kimi ga inai…

Singles of the year
1. Lecca – My Measure
2. Naotaro Moriyama – Namida
3. OGRE YOU ASSHOLE – Pinhole

Concerts of the year
1. Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra in Amsterdam
2. D=OUT in Utrecht
3. I did not attend more concerts this year

Disappointments of the year
1. Everyone that passed away.
2. Jinkaku Radio still not releasing that new album!
3. Myself for not regularly updating the weblog!

Surprises of the year
1. All the reunions this year, such as Cali=Gari and DEAD END
2. miyavi
3. Utada announcing a US and UK tour

Best newcomers/artist discoveries of the year
1. Naotaro Moriyama
2. Yazima Beauty Clinic
3. Kalafina

Farah’s Choices

Artists of the year
1. Ryuichi Sakamoto
2. SUGIZO
3. GLAY

Albums of the year
1. GREAT VACATION VOL. 1 and 2 – GLAY
2. FLASH BEST – capsule
3. Ryuichi Sakamoto – Playing The Piano

Singles of the year
1. GLAY – I am XXX
2. Girugämesh – crying rain
3. Dir en grey – Hageshisa to, Kono Mune no Naka de Karamitsuita Shakunetsu no Yami

Concerts of the year
1.
2.
3.
(I didn’t go to any concerts, or watched any ._.)

Disappointments of the year
1. Gackt’s latest releases
2. X JAPAN
3. Ryuichi Kawamura

Surprises of the year
1. SUGIZO touring with JUNO REACTOR
2. Announcement of An Cafe’s hiatus
3. More J-bands finally performing Europe and US! Now I wish they’d come to Australia…

Best newcomers/artist discoveries of the year
1. INZARGI
2. VAMPS
3. capsule

Andrea’s Choices:

Artists of the year
1. Miyavi (He had some major accomplishments!)
2. SuG (Going major already?!)
3. GPKism (For their almost complete world tour and still managing to have releases)

Albums of the year
1. Matenrou Opera – Anomie
2. Koda Kumi -Trick
3.

Singles of the year
1. GLAY – I am xxx
2. Versailles – Acendead Master
3. Satsuki – Awake

Concerts of the year
1. V-Fes
2. GLAY at House of Blues in Hollywood
3. An Cafe at the Avalon in Los Angeles

Disappointments of the year
1. Deaths of talented musicians
2. Disbandment of great bands
3. Cancellation of Tours/Events

Surprises of the year
1. Miyavi doing his own thing
2. Karasu…A group of random individuals
3. That favorite/important band member(s) leaving

Best newcomers/artist discoveries of the year
1. NinjamanJapan-I hope to see more of this PLC-like band.
2. Golden Bomber-Bands that can make me laugh(and that are good) are awesome.
3. Satsuki- Great New Solo Artist

Cage’s Choices:

Artists of the year
1. ayaka
2. MUCC
3. GLAY

Albums of the year
1. cocklobin – DARK DESIGN CATALOG
2. 9GOATS BLACK OUT – Black rain
3. Merry – under-world

Singles of the year
1. Dir en grey – Hageshisa to, kono mune no naka de karamitsuita shakunetsu no yami
2. JASMINE – sad to say
3. -

Concerts of the year
1. lynch. at Nagoya Bottom Line
2. 9GOATS BLACK OUT at Nagoya ell.FITS ALL
3. Merry at Nagoya Bottom Line

Disappointments of the year
1. The death of so many influential individuals within the music industry.
2. The cancellation of Merry’s European Tour.
3. -

Surprises of the year
1. The hysteria surrounding miyavi’s marriage to melody.
2. La’cryma Christi’s announcement regarding their one year reunion.
3. The formation of new bands from experienced persons within the music industry.

Best newcomers/artist discoveries of the year
1. THE BAWDIES
2. C4
3. matryoshka

Meg’s Choices

Artists of the year
1. GReeeeN
2. Flumpool
3. BACK-ON

Albums of the year
1. GReeeeN – Ima made no A-men, B-men DEST!?
2. Girugamesh – NOW
3. Utada Hikaru – This is the one

Singles of the year
1. Flumpool – Hoshi ni negai wo
2. B’z – Ichibu to zenbu/DIVE
3. BACK-ON – Flyaway

Concerts of the year
1. Dir en Grey in NYC 11/09
2. Girugamesh at Sakuracon 4/09
3. Hangry & Angry at Sakuracon 4/09

Disappointments of the year
1. Death of Jasmine You
2. The studs’ permanent hiatus
3. Miyavi’s tour cancellation

Surprises of the year
1. Miyavi’s baby! I love her!
2. Deadman’s rereleases
3. Aie’s consistent solo activity

Best newcomers/artist discoveries of the year
1. Namie Amuro
2. Seamo
3. Mr. Children

Posted in Holidays, JaME Team.

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By Farah – January 4, 2010

Japanese Music on Twitter

An introduction of Twitter is pretty much unnecessary; by now everybody knows about the micro blogging service that allows you to tell the world in 140 characters what you’re doing. The service has gotten more and more popular lately and also pops up once in a while on news bulletins or newspapers.

Although a lot of people are fond of Twitter and Tweet about their whereabouts regularly, not everybody feels the same about it. Twitter is something that you either love, or hate because you aren’t able to see the usefulness of it. Here at JaME we’re all divided in the same way, one part of the team finds it something worthless they don’t want to be associated with, but others are enthusiastically updating the JaME Twitter. Well, these ‘others’ mentioned would be solely myself, but that’s not the point!

With our Twitter account, we are able to notify our readers of articles sooner. We tweet about new articles or interesting news items, and it will pop up on our follower’s account right away. In this way, we are bringing our content to our readers (often to their cell phones, too), instead of waiting for them to come over to JaME. And another positive effect that we found is that we receive feedback more easily in this way, which we definitely appreciate! (And many thanks to the people who helped to collect these links!)

But not only JaME is available on Twitter, there are also various Japanese artists and companies related to Japanese music that can be followed through Twitter. We’ve made a small list of the artists and companies we’ve found so far, please feel free to comment if we missed any!

AuralVampire – Electro pop group Aural Vampire, in Japanese
BAALofficial – BAAL’s official account, mostly in English.
BoA_USA – Korean pop star BoA, in English.
BBSatellites – Boom Boom Satellites, in English caps.
candypeggy – Peggy from The Candy Spooky Theater, unupdated.
direngrey – Dir en grey, run by management in English. Is currently hoping for 10.000 followers in order to make a special announcement.
DJSiSeN – DJ SiSeN in Japanese and English.
HealingWorldJP – TOSHI with T-EARTH members and staff, in English.
kaya_rose – Solo artist Kaya, tweets solely in Japanese.
livey2venus – OLIVIA (Lufkin), protected.
MasayukiOsada – Masayuki Osada, drummer for CONCERTO MOON. Mostly in Japanese.
miyavi_official – Miyavi’s brand new account on Twitter, in Japanese (so far).
momoiktkr – Akihabara pop star Momoi Halko, mostly in Japanese.
official_aira – Female electro artist Aira Mitsuki in Japanese.
sweet_vacation – Sweet Vacation in Japanese.
toddyphantom – Guitarist Masafumi Todaka of ART-SCHOOL and others, in Japanese.
RYONAI_ – Blam Honey’s RYONAI, in Japanese.
RYOtheSKYWALKER – Urban artist RYO the SKYWALKER in English and Japanese.
ryuichisakamoto – Renowned composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, in English.
takuya_angel – Fashion designer and DJ Takuya Angel in English (thanks for linking us!).

Overseas Companies:

askewmagazine – Askew Magazine
HearJapan – HearJapan
KoMEworld – KoME
marumusic – Maru Music
Rightsscale – Rightsscale
TaintedReality – Tainted Reality
tokyonorecords – Tokyo no Records

And of course:

Follow JaME!

Posted in Column.

3 comments

By Kay – September 13, 2009

Artist Recommendation: R指定－R shitei－

Recommendation by Serenity.

Here at JaME, we want you to be up to date with all the newest and best music. Unfortunately, bands sometimes get overlooked or underrated, but don’t worry! JaME is here to catch those who have slipped through the net the first time so you don’t have to.

One surprisingly overlooked band is R shitei. In the vast sea of visual kei bands, R shitei is a wonderful find deserving so much more attention. Their music primarily features slamming guitar riffs and thumping drums and is without a doubt a definite crowd-pleaser.

At the moment, R shitei is a good band with raw talent. After a few more years of experience and polishing – primarily to hone their song arrangement and composition skills a bit more – they will no doubt be an amazing band. It’s absolutely worth keeping an eye on this band.

The current line-up is MAMO (マモ) on vocals, ULTRA Z (ウルトラＺ) and KAEDE (楓) on guitar, NANAHOSHI (七星) on bass and HIROTAKA (宏崇) on drums.

Discography

Nihil party [2007]
Kirisaki Jack no Yuutsu [2007]
The dead world [2007]
Beautiful Sad Song [2007]
Occult Jigoku [2008]
Moumoku Shoujo [2008]
Oyafukou toori wa kyou mo ame. [2009]
Gyokusai Melancholy [2009]

Release Recommendation: Oyafukou toori wa kyou mo ame. [2009]

R-shitei_Oyafukoutoorihakyoumoame

Official MySpace

Posted in Recommendation.

Tagged with R shitei.

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By anna – August 9, 2009

Plastic Tree Live in Yoyogi Mini-Report

On June 10^th, 2009, an owl took flight from Yoyogi Park in Shibuya, Tokyo. Three thousand fans had gathered to attend a free live event held to celebrate the release of Plastic Tree’s new single Fukurou on the same day.

At the beginning of the event, Ryutarou Arimura, Tadashi Hasegawa and Akira Nakayama appeared on stage to talk about the free live and their new single. They didn’t forget to thank everyone for coming to see them. The event invited special guests, including three models and up and coming actors Mikie Hara, Tantan Hayashi, and Emi Takei.

In the latter half of the event, Plastic Tree did an open air live. They played Fukurou for the first time in the open space, filling Shibuya skies with sound and mixing with the movement of the trees in the wind. Then, they played well-known songs that they also play in their usual lives, and the live heated up so much so that the audience pumped their fists up into the air, jumped with band members and enjoyed the freedom of the open-air live concert.

After they finished five songs, Ryutarou shouted, “See you in Budokan!” Plastic Tree will be touring Japan until August 30^th, and a lot of fans, including JaME, are looking forward to see how Fukurou will change over the next few months until that Budokan live concert.

Posted in Gallery, Live Report.

Tagged with Plastic Tree.

4 comments

By anna – July 2, 2009

Natccu Needs Your Help!

Summer Sonic is one of Japan’s biggest music festivals, and Natccu needs you to vote her in! Simply go to the website here and cast your vote. You can vote once a day and give Natccu the chance to rock out the summer! She has toured overseas before, so make your voices heard and she may return for another round!

Directions for how to vote can be found in the screen cap below. It’s as easy as 1-2-3, and you don’t have to fill out any personal information.

Not sure if you know Natccu well enough to vote for her? Check out her videos on YouTube! She will also be touring the UK later in July.

Posted in Video.

Tagged with Natccu.

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By anna – June 27, 2009

LM.C Live in Hibiya Yagai Daiongakudou Mini-Report

Set list:

SE. NO.9
1. PUNKY ♥ HEART
2. Bell the CAT
3. BOOST BUSTERz
4. JOKER
5. Galileo
6. @FUNNY PHANTOM@
7. DAYS
8. mR.century
9. cosmology
10. marble-s
11. CRAZY A GO GO
12. CHEMICAL KING-TWOON
13. Z-MAN
14. METALLY
15. OH MY JULIET.
16. 88
17. 僕らの未来
18. BOYS & GIRLS
19. little Fat Man boy
20. JOHN
21. Boon!
22. PUNKY♥HEART
23. LIAR LIAR
24. Rock the LM.C☆

Posted in Live Report.

Tagged with LM.C.

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By anna – June 11, 2009

X JAPAN Press Conference in Taipei

Two days before their live in Taipei on May 30th, X JAPAN arrived in Taiwan and immediately held a press conference for their waiting fans. SUGIZO, HEATH, PATA and YOSHIKI were in front of cameras and reporters a mere hour after getting off the plane. Most noticeably rock in appearance were SUGIZO and HEATH: both were dressed all in black, SUGIZO in a patchwork trench coat and HEATH in a gothic-looking outfit. Upon closer inspection, YOSHIKI had skulls on his T-shirt and scarf, but PATA was refreshingly casual in a flowery shirt.

Though it had been many years since the band had been in Taiwan, they all professed to be very happy to return. PATA compared the warmth of the fans’ welcome to the hot weather in Taipei and claimed that he used to visit three times a year! A few questions about the live were posed, but as usual, YOSHIKI demurely refused to give any details. He asked the fans to wait and see, and assured them they would not be disappointed. YOSHIKI stated that he would give his all, and joked that the live might kill him!

SUGIZO was asked about his feelings on participating as a support member for X JAPAN, and he replied, “I’m very proud and blessed to be a part of this great band, and I also hope I’ll be able to do it justice my own way. When I joined, I promised to do my best.”

As HEATH and SUGIZO had known each other for a long time prior to SUGIZO joining the band, HEATH said he was very excited to be on the same stage with his good friend.

Then the topic turned to X JAPAN’s future activities. YOSHIKI admitted to plans of promoting the band in Beijing and Shanghai after the live in Taiwan, but said he’d have to make it through the live in Taipei first! No concerts were confirmed for China, however. YOSHIKI was also deliberatey vague when giving news about the band’s new album: it should be released in 2009 and will have new songs, but other than that, fans will have to wait and see…

During the reporters’ Q&A session, a question about zhong-zi (sticky rice dumplings) was asked because it was Dragon Boat Festival, a very important holiday in Taiwan. The band had received many zhong-zi from fans when they arrived at the airport, and YOSHIKI promised they would definitely eat them because, as he said, “It’s Dragon Boat Festival, we have to!”

There was also a silly question about how the members don’t seem to age, despite having been in the music scene for two decades. SUGIZO laughed and replied, “I don’t know any real secrets. I guess my heart is childlike, so I feel young and stay young!”

YOSHIKI added, “I’m doing what I love, so that’s how I stay young.”

The final question of the afternoon had to do with how lives in other countries were different from lives in Japan. HEATH felt that there was no real difference – all the fans receive them warmly, so they just reciprocate the feelings at concerts. PATA’s answer was the same: no matter where they were, seeing all the fans made him just want to shout “thank you” over and over…and of course, no whether in Japan or otherwise, he had to put on a cool show!

SUGIZO had an amusing anecdote about losing things. He said that if he lost something in Japan, he could return to find it, whereas in another country, it would be lost forever! Apparently, this was something that happens to him often and has caused him a lot of grief. Poor SUGIZO!

YOSHIKI was the last to reply, saying that even if venues and people were different, the emotions felt at each show were the same. He had an anecdote as well: “The interaction with fans will always be a little different. Last year, when I came to Taiwan, many fans met me dressed as brides. Today, I wanted to arrive dressed as a bride…but the management asked me not to do this. But at the concert…you never know!”

Faithful fans of X JAPAN, would you consider YOSHIKI a bride worth waiting for? Hopefully, you won’t have to wait much longer until the band makes it to a country near you. In the meantime, check out the live reports of X JAPAN’s concerts in Asia, available on JaME!

Posted in Column.

Tagged with X JAPAN.

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By anna – June 1, 2009

HANGRY&ANGRY at Sakura-con

Awhile ago, HANGRY&ANGRY sent a video message out to all their fans through JaME. They hoped to bring their music to different countries, and their upcoming performance at Sakura-con in Seattle is a crucial first step!

Check out the video to see the girls’ silly antics as they speak English, French and German!

The video also has subtitled versions on JaME’s YouTube channel, so take a look and see if it’s available in your langauge! There are plenty of other videos to enjoy while you’re there!

Posted in Video.

Tagged with HANGRY&ANGRY.

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By anna – March 11, 2009

Peace&Smile Carnival Photos

It’s been two months since the Peace&Smile Carnival, but many of us are still reliving the memories (or living vicariously through pictures and reports!). JaME would like to present you with a selection of photos to help you get a feel for a few of the highlights. First up is Tokyo Budokan itself!