ZB's A-Z of J-Music

Let's BABYMETAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2013-01-14T20:11:00.000-06:00

There is a new BABYMETAL single out and all is right with the world.

FUN FACT (DID YOU KNOW?): All the members of BABYMETAL have the name metal in their, er, name? It's true: Suzuka (SU-METAL), Yui (YUIMETAL) and Moa (MOAMETAL).

Yes.

New album from Matryoska / Free song

2012-11-25T10:51:00.001-06:00

It's been five years since we last heard the super lush, whispery, twee sounds from Matryoska. So what have they been up to? Something huge, it would seem. Their new album Laideronnette is due out on 12/12/12. The first track "Monotonous Purgatory" (above) is a sad, expansive, glitchy orchestral dream. The rest of the album (see the sampler below) looks to be more of the same, which is all fine by me.

You can download "Monotonous Purgatory" for free direct from their site and order the album there as well. You can also get it at CDJapan.

10 Japanese acts that would have been way way better choices than AKB48 for the Wreck-It Ralph soundtrack

2012-11-07T19:17:00.000-06:00

I just saw that the super-creepy Japanese pop act AKB48 is on the soundtrack for the video game themed animated film Wreck-It Ralph*. While I suppose it should come as no surprise that such factory processed mega-sleaze could manage to shlerm its way onto the soundtrack (we are talking about Disney here after all), it does send this fanboy into something of a tailspin. Because for God's sake, there are exactly ONE ZILLION better Japanese acts to choose from for this sort of fun, nostalgic, vibrant love letter to video games. (I'm assuming most of that. Haven't seen it.)

So I took two seconds and wrote a list of the first ten acts I could think of. HERE IT IS, in order of relevance and everything, just in case you get bored of listening to incredibly awesome music halfway through like a moron who deserves total junk like AKB48 forced into your slack jaws and down your bloated food-chute.

*Looking up the correct punctuation is the beginning and ending of the research I did for this post.

#1 Sexy Synthesizer

If you get 15 seconds into this and don't know why it's number one then stop reading and smash your damn fool face into a brick wall until it's nap time. COME ON. Sexy Synthesizer is amazing and uses a handful of Namco arcade game sounds in just about every song he writes. Including Galaga which is the best game ever made. Disagree? See above advice.

You can hear his entire ROCK album below.

ROCK-DELUXE EDITION- by SEXY-SYNTHESIZER

#2 Plugnet

THIS IS THE COOLEST CHIPTUNE ALBUM EVER CREATED. Why? LISTEN TO THE RAPPING OH MY GOD. Oh, and it should be obvious unless you're a dummy but Sexy Synthesizer had a hand in its creation. GOT MORE SPICES.

#3 Omodaka

OK, so we've been pretty spastic right out of the gate. Maybe what you'd expect. And then BOOOOM. Omodaka. That's right, funk-tastic chip driven funky funk courtesy of a Stevie Wonder bass line and some wickedly weird traditional folk singing layered over the top. If Disney really wanted to blow people's minds, THIS would be playing through Wreck-It (I'm too busy to bother with the Ralph and more) non-stop.

#4 YMCK

"Y! M! C! K! Let's go! Let's go! *clap clap* Y! M! C! K! Let's go! Let's go! *clap clap* Y! M! C! K! Let's go! Let's go! *clap clap* Y! M! C! K! Waaaaaaaa!"

I rest my case. (They also built their own chiptune software.)

#5 Perfume

I mean come on, it's called "Electro World" for crying out loud. And Perfume is HUUUGE. And waaay less creepy than those dead-eyed AKB slaves. Much more family-friendly and all that. And the bass line rules my soul.

#6 The Aprils

Alright, if the over-the-top commercialism is getting to you, then The Aprils are here to wash it away with a blissful wave of super duper cute synthpop. Absolutely non-ironic and just plain happy. All in a way only Japan can pull off. This should be the ending theme to every happy animated film, in my totally factual analysis.

#7 Halcali

Remember when people made good, clever videos? This is one of them! And it has blurred out Super Mario Bros in it! And it's an amazing song! COME ON GUYS JEEEZUS! AKB48? Really? When THIS IS A THING THAT EXISTS???

#8 Capsule

Screw Tron. THIS is what living in a video game from the 2000s would sound like.

#9 Floppy

Sorry if I fell off the chiptune tip for a second there. Back on track! Floppy brings a more rock/punk/weirdo vibe to their tunes. A nice foil to all the happy crappy girls, am I right? Look, we can all get along because chiptunes!

#10 Polysics

BECAUSE I WILL NOT REST UNTIL POLYSICS RULES THE ENTIRE WORLD. Because reasons, that's why.

So there you go. Take your stupid factory-pre-set J-pop and CHOKE.

NEW POLYSICS VIDEO "Everybody Say No"

2012-10-21T09:40:00.000-05:00

Here's the video for the new Polysics single "Everybody Say No." It's not super exciting, but you have to admit, the 303 traffic cone head thing is pretty awesome. The song is also not super exciting, but as always Fumi manages to bring the heat on bass and make it almost impossibly groovy.

The single is out on October 24th and their new album Weeeeeeeeee!!! is out in December. GET!

MO'SOME TONEBENDER "Shining"

2012-10-20T09:17:00.000-05:00

I tend to be a little overenthusiastic about things in the morning. It's not that I'm a morning person, far from it. Maybe it's the first blast of coffee slamming into my brain that gives me just enough lift to actually enjoying things for a while, before the rest of life slowly presses it all back down.

Whatever that case, when I see things like this new-ish video from MO'SOME TONEBENDER as my eyes remember how to focus and my mouth tastes like burning manna from heaven, I feel like things are sometimes OK.

It also reminds me that I need to listen to these guys more often. See below for reasons. (Hint: "Green & Gold" is one of my favorite songs of all time.)

[Get the album]

Listen to the new Polysics single "Lucky Star" while you still can!

2012-08-21T08:53:00.001-05:00

Not sure how long this video will last, so enjoy it now!

New Polysics! "Lucky Star" is the first single from what is presumably their next album. The song is a snappy, poppy one along the lines of "Black Out Fall Out" and "You You You." Fumi is no Kayo when it comes to pop vocals, but she has always been able to hold her own and does so here just fine. But I miss Kayo.

Anyway, it's Polysics in a nutshell. Chugging synths, retro blips, odd patterns and pure energetic fun. It's a bit repetitive, a bit shallow on a surface level, but there's plenty to dig into on repeat listens. The CD/DVD version includes what seems to be a full live show. Well worth it!

(via @Mistabeen)

[Update: According to the above mentioned Mistabeen, the DVD is actually a collection of short clips totaling 20 minutes. Bummer!]

Free Witch-House Akira OST Tribute

2012-07-13T09:43:00.000-05:00

アキラ by Various

Check out this free tribute to the Akira OST done in a gritty, low-bit witch-house style. Proper dark/industrial/noise-scape stuff.

(via the always enlightening Fokkawolfe)

L'Arc~en~Ciel tribute album...wait...WTF?

2012-07-08T17:30:00.000-05:00

When I first heard that Polysics was going to be on the new L'Arc~en~Ciel Tribute album, I was excited. Of course I'm always excited about Polysics. Then I saw the rest of the line-up and, well, I had to triple check.

Listed among a hand-full of other Japanese bands were rather more incongruous names. Names like Michael Monroe (Hanoi Rocks), Eric Martin (Mr. Big) and John 5 (Marilyn Manson) (itself a head-scratching paring), Vince Neil (Mötley Crüe), TLC and, get this, Boyz II Men.

Yep.

If that all sounds a little weird, well, so is the album. I'm not a huge L'Arc fan, but I do like some of their more rockin' songs. This album is not rockin'. In the slightest. It's mostly washed-up has-beens sucking the life out of songs that didn't have much life to spare. For crying out loud, Vince Neil sings the super-saccharine "Blurry Eyes" and not "Shout at the Devil." Sure, it's not the same iconic metal anthem that Crüe rode high on through the '80s, but still it was a giant missed opportunity. (I should also point out that much of this tribute is sung in English. Another jolt to the system.)

Ah well, at least Polysics managed to produce a really heavy, noisy take on "Seventh Heaven," a track otherwise totally out of place in this collection of zombies sluggishly devouring L'Arc's brains.

Listen to more of the carnage below.

TK from Ling Tosite Sigure solo is just like TK from Ling Tosite Sigure

2012-07-06T16:35:00.000-05:00

I've been working on and off trying to unpack everything that's in the new solo album titled Flowering from TK, front-man for the band Ling Tosite Sigure. The short version: It's just like Ling Tosite Sigure. I can't really think of anything that's on Flowering that I would be at all surprised to hear on a regular LTS release. Not that that's a bad thing. If anything, TK solo is even more intense and dense, more chaotic and frantic. And what LTS fan wouldn't want that?

(Special thanks to @jakcadden for reminding me about this album.)

Babymetal demands you bang your head!

2012-07-05T09:56:00.000-05:00

Dear Gods of the Great Head-o-bang! Please! Here my plea! Bestow unto me your Sacred Neck Brace so that I, your mortal servant, may continue to bang my head long after my unworthy neck muscles have slackened and withered. Grant me the power to headbang long into the night, my hair tracing your sacred symbols in the air, my limbs beckoning others into your glorious mosh pits. HEAR ME, OH GREAT ONES!

HEAD O BANG!
HEAD O BANG!
HEAD O BANG!
HEAD O BANG!
HEAD O BANG!
HEAD O BANG!
BANG! BANG! BA BANG!

How I Spent My J-Rock Vacation

2012-07-02T10:35:00.000-05:00

It's been a year and a half since I last posted something here. That's not because I've given up on Japanese music. Not in the slightest. It's because I've been swimming in other work for Otaku USA Magazine and HearJapan. Previous to that I was madly working for Japantor and the Japanator Radio podcast. (Oh, and I've been releasing music like a frothing loon.) Well, I've finally stepped away from all of those. (Not the music releasing bit. I've got four more albums to finish this year...)

But! You may have recently seen me pop up on CNN and/or Red Bull Music Academy talking about J-rock and J-pop. Both of these were really fun stories to work on and I hope to be doing more work like this from time to time.

Until then, I'll try and do the occasional fast post here in an effort to both keep myself fresh and to continue spreading the good word of modern Japanese music.

New Plasticzooms tracks not like old Plasticzooms tracks

2011-01-17T10:37:00.003-06:00

Up above is "Pink Snow," one of two new videos from Plasticzooms. To say it's different from their past material would be a bit of an understatement. It's catchy and downright pretty, not words I would have used to describe their sound until now. Below is the video for "Bug," a song a bit more like what we would expect from them, but it too is more well-produced and clean than we've heard before.

Don't get me wrong, a really like their older material and I really like this new stuff. I'm just wondering what to expect next. Something that's always a good thing in my book.

"Bug"

Holy shit, the new Mo'Some Tonebender video for "Hammmmer" is great!

2011-01-10T19:17:00.003-06:00

I like where this is going.

Calendar 2011 - Blood Stain Child - A-Kon

2010-11-15T08:29:00.004-06:00

June 10-12
Blood Stain Child
A-Kon - Dallas - TX

Source: MySpace

Calendar 2010 - Aural Vampire - US Tour

2010-10-08T09:41:00.003-05:00

November 03-28
Aural Vampire
US Tour (Supporting The Birthday Massacre and Black Veil Brides)

Nov 03 - Orlando, FL - The Club at Firestone
Nov 04 - Tampa, FL - The State Theatre
Nov 05 - Atlanta, GA - The Masquerade
Nov 06 - Metarie, LA - The High Ground
Nov 07 - San Antonio, TX - White Rabbit
Nov 08 - Houston, TX - Warehouse Live 　　　　　　　
Nov 09 - Corpus Christi, TX - House of Rock
Nov 11 - El Paso, TX - Club 101
Nov 13 - Phoenix, AZ - Nile Theatre
Nov 14 - Anaheim, CA - House of Blues 　　　　　　　
Nov 15 - San Diego, CA - Soma Sidestage
Nov 17 - San Francisco, CA - Slims
Nov 18 - Portland, OR - Hawthorne Theatre　　　　　　　
Nov 20 - Seattle, WA - Studio Seven 　　　　　　　
Nov 21 - Boise, ID - The Big Easy
Nov 22 - Salt Lake City, UT - Club Sound
Nov 23 - Denver, CO - The Summit Music Hall
Nov 24 - Des Moines, IA - People’s Court
Nov 26 - Detroit, MI - Harpo’s Concert Theatre
Nov 27 - Louisville, KY - Expo Five
Nov 28 - Cleveland, OH - Peabody’s Down Under

Source: Facebook

Calendar 2010 - Boom Boom Satellites - US Tour

2010-09-27T15:00:00.001-05:00

October 10-31
Boom Boom Satellites
US Tour

Oct 10 - Irving Plaza - New York, NY
New York ComicCon and Anime Festival - Far East To East Showcase (FETES)
w/ Puffy Amiyumi, Zazen Boys, Echostream

Oct 13 - 9:30 Club - Washington DC

Oct 16 - The Wonder Bar - Asbury Park, NJ

Oct 17 - North Star Bar - Philadelphia, PA

Oct 20 - Backstage Bar - New York, NY
CMJ Music Marathon & Film Festival 2010 Official Showcase

Oct 23 - Best Buy Theatre - New York, NY
w/ Gary Numan

Oct 24 - GR2 - Los Angeles, CA (In-Store)

Oct 25 - Troubadour - Los Angeles, CA

Oct 26 - GRSF - San Francisco, CA (In-Store)

Oct 27 - The Independent - San Francisco, CA

Oct 31 - Peter's Room (Roseland) - Portland, OR
Halloween Show

Japanator Radio 150

2010-09-22T13:00:00.001-05:00

New Japanator Radio is up! It's the special 3 year anniversary, episode number 150, show. You would think that with all that that I would have done something extra special to celebrate. Nope. Not a thing! Check it out anyway, I guess.

Explore the Unexplored 36

2010-09-22T12:35:00.001-05:00

New Explore the Unexplored post is up at HearJapan.com! Ten great new albums from Japan! Rock and electro and shoegaze and Vocaloid! Check them out! Why am I shouting?!

Otaku USA Magazine October 2010

2010-09-22T12:30:00.001-05:00

Seems like I forgot to mention this. Shock!

The October 2010 issue of Otaku USA Magazine is out an I've got a butt-load of new album reviews in it. Lillies and Remains' Meru, D'espairsRay's IMMORTAL, Dazzle Vision's to the next, Aural Vampire's Zoltank and Boom Boom Satellites' 19972007. Pfew!

And of course there are the usual anime, manga, cosplay and video game goods and much much more. Sorry for the delay in letting you know. Run and and see if you can still find a copy before it's too late!

VIDEO - Base Ball Bear "十字架 YOU and I"

2010-09-18T09:00:00.001-05:00

Base Ball Bear are set to release two new albums simultaneously at the end of September, Detective Boys and Cypress Girls. For the past few months they've been releasing short clips of songs from the albums along with rough video of the band in the studio fooling around. This video for "十字架 YOU and I" is the first that features an entire song as well as a proper video. It's animated in a style that seems to cross bits of Evangelion, FLCL and classic Gainax imagery. There's also some nice water coloring going on. The song isn't spectacular, but along with the video it makes for an enjoyable few minutes.

VIDEO - World's End Girlfriend "Les Enfants du Paradis"

2010-09-17T08:51:00.003-05:00

It's too early to call Album of the Year, but boy, let me tell you, Seven Idiots by World's End Girlfriend is currently at the top of my list. Every song is challenging yet full of melody and infectious ideas. As soon as you think you know what's going on, they shift into some other space. This video for "Les Enfants du Paradis" is the prefect example. While it's the most user-friendly song on the album, it also makes people pay attention and stay alert for sharp turns. I'm no fan of modern dance, but Masako Yasumoto's performance* is perfect for the music. She seems to be some lonely spirit unable to stop herself from dancing, while at the same time longing for a partner to dance with. Of course, this being World's End Girlfriend, she never finds one.

You can buy Seven Idiots directly from them here.

*Masako also performed in Omodaka's "Kyoteizinc" video:

Calendar 2010 - X-Japan - North American Tour

2010-09-13T14:33:00.005-05:00

September 25 - October 10
X-Japan
North American Tour

Sep 25 - Wiltern Theater, Los Angeles, CA
Sep 28 - Fox Theater, Oakland, CA
Oct 01 - Paramount Theater, Seattle, WA
Oct 03 - Queen Elizabeth Theater, Vancouver, BC CANADA
Oct 06 - Riviera, Chicago, IL
Oct 07 - Massey Hall, Toronto, ON CANADA
Oct 10 - Roseland Ballroom, New York, NY

Source: X-Japan Music

Calendar 2010 - Luna Sea - LA gig

2010-09-13T08:00:00.000-05:00

December 4th
Luna Sea
Hollywood Palladium, Los Angeles, CA

Source: Maru Music

Calendar 2010 - Peelander Z and Tsushimamire - US Tour

2010-09-11T08:00:00.002-05:00

August 26 - November 20
Peelander Z
* = with Tsushimamire
US Tour

08/26 Baltimore, MD @ Ottobar
08/28 Cambridge, MA @ The Middle East
08/29 Providence, RI @ AS220
08/31 Hamilton, ON @ The Casbah
09/01 Toronto, ON @ Velvet Underground
09/02 Toronto, ON @ The Silver Dollar Room
09/03 London, ON @ Call The Office
09/04 Montreal, PQ @ Il Motore
09/05 Kingston, ON @ The Mansion
09/23 New York, NY @ Santo’s Party House w/ Guitar Wolf
09/28 Baltimore, MD @ Ottobar
09/29 Richmond, VA @ The Camel
10/01 Nashville, TN @ Grimey’s In-Store
10/02 Nashville, TN @ Next Big Nashville
10/05 New Orleans, LA @ One Eyed Jacks
10/07 Austin, TX @ End of an Ear In-Store
10/07 San Marcos, TX @ Triple Crown
10/09 El Paso, TX @ Chalk The Block Festival
10/11 Denton, TX @ Rubber Gloves
10/12 Oklahoma City, OK @ Conservatory
10/13 Lawrence, KS @ Replay Lounge
10/14 Indianapolis, IN @ Melody Inn
10/15 Detroit, MI @ Lager House w/ Birthday Suits
10/17 Minneapolis, MN @ Turf Club w/ Birthday Suits
10/18 Fargo, ND @ The Aquarium
10/19 Sioux Falls, SD @ Nutty’s North w/ Birthday Suits
10/20 Lincoln, NE @ Knickerbockers
10/21 Denver, CO @ Hi – Dive
10/22 Salt Lake City, UT @ Burt’s Tiki Lounge
10/23 Boise, ID @ Neurolux
10/24 Seattle, WA @ Fun House
10/25 Portland, OR @ Berbati’s Pan
10/31 Las Vegas, NV @ Double Down Saloon *
11/02 Albuquerque, NM @ Atomic Cantina *
11/03 El Paso, TX @ Low Brow *
11/05 Dallas, TX @ Double Wide *
11/06 Austin, TX @ Fun Fun Fun Fest
11/07 Austin, TX @ Fun Fun Fun Fest
11/09 Pensacola, FL @ Sluggos *
11/10 Tampa, FL @ The Orpheum *
11/11 Sarasota, FL @ Paddy Wagon *
11/12 Gainesville, FL @ Common Grounds *
11/13 Atlanta, GA @ The Earl *
11/14 Chapel Hill, NC @ Local 506 *
11/16 Charlotte, NC @ Milestone *
11/17 Washington, DC @ Black Cat
11/18 Philadelphia, PA @ North Star Bar *
11/19 Bordentown, NJ @ Record Collector In-Store
11/20 Cambridge, MA @ Middle East

Source: This Is Book's Music

Calendar 2010 - Molice - Anime Weekend Atlanta

2010-09-09T10:45:00.000-05:00

September 18th
Molice
Anime Weekend Atlanta

Source: Good Charamel