Friday, May 26, 2006

Angela's J-rock Primer

This will go along the same lines as the j-pop primer.
Read and learn.
1. Miyavi

Miyavi...ah, where to start. His music took a lot of getting used to for me. Miyavi has a very large fan-base online (I'm speaking of his American fanbase, primarily.) I would never call Miyavi j-pop, but I don't consider him complete rock, either. Rock, to me, is things like Dir en grey and Malice Mizer. A lot of his songs (Girls, Be Ambitious, for example) sound very pop-punk, which is why I think I've been able to find more people who tolerate him than some other artists/bands. Miyavi was in the (now disbanded) Due'le Quartz as Miyabi, but changed his name to Miyavi (which is phonetically the same, I do believe.) and announced his solo career.














2. AYA
Yes, that's right folks, a female j-rocker. Also, another Japanese artist with strong American influences. Her music is very grunge oriented, and I must say I haven't heard much like it. Music by her is very hard to come by, though. I actually found out about her from an MP3 rotation site. She has worked with the American producer Adam Kasper who has worked with artists such as Foo Fighters, Pearl Jam, and Sound Garden. AYA has worked with famous Seattle artists like Krist Novoselic (Nirvana), Matt Cameron (Soundgarden, Pearl Jam), Kim Thayil (Soundgarden), John McBain (Monster Magnet), and Glenn Slater (Walkabouts) to name a few.

















3. Dir en grey

It will annoy a lot of people that I listed this band here, but frankly, I don't care. These days musical talent is cast aside and bands who play three cords several times are considered rock gods while bands that actually know what they're doing are considered weird.
Dir en grey is of the second set, and while they have a large fanbase in both American and Asia, many peo ple decide to take the band only at face value, and be disgusted, and refuse to give the band credit for what they are. You can think a band is stupid, but why cast aside their actual musical talent? Back to the point: Dir en grey was formed from the band La: Sadies with one change: the original bassist left and was replaced by Toshiya. Their first mini-album, Missa, was released in 1997, followed by Gauze in 1999. The most recent album was Withering to Death in 2005. Over all this time, Dir en grey has dropped the visual image, and their musical style has also changed significantly. I first became a fan of this band in November of 2005, and I bought one of their albums last month, and plan on buying Withering to Death soon, as it is now available in American stores. Dir en grey is currently touring in America as their fanbase in Japan is much less than it was before.






4. Malice Mizer

Another band that people are probably groaning that I mentioned, but again, I don't care. Malice Mizer was one of the most influential bands of their time. They've also suffered many, many line-up changes. Most of MM's music is a blend of classical and rock music, though during the Gackt era many other genre's were brought into play.
For a short time MM was on Mana's personal indies label, Midi:nette, until shortly signing to the major label Nippon Columbia, until Gackt left for his own solo career, when they switched, again, to Midi:nette.
See what I mean about changes? Malice Mizer eventually disbanded but Mana now leads the band Moi dix Mois.







PV's


Jibun Kakumei - Miyavi




Crazy Mermaid - AYA




Saku - Dir en grey




Au Revoir - Malice Mizer (Gackt era)


Recommended Listening:
Malice Mizer: Au Revoir, Le Ciel, Beast Of Blood, Colour Me Blood Red, Gardenia.
Dir en grey: Clever Sleazoid, Drain Away, Marmalade Chainsaw, Macabre, Mazohyst of Decadence.
Aya: Chains, Crazy Mermaid, Hands.
Miyavi: Pop Is Dead, Girls Be Ambitious, Freedom Fighters, Shinde Mo Boogie Woogie.




















posted by Angela at 6:34 PM

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