Visual Kei sleepovers
Since Fridays are ‘Whee No Work!’ days this month and Mish is on holiday, lets have Visual Kei concert screenings? I have Luna Sea and Luna Sea and SUGIZO and abingdon boys school and Rentrer en Soi (and X Japan if anyone is interested in old men).
I’m willing to share fandoms 
Oct Updates
- Sushi Tei played Luna Sea’s “I For You” yesterday ♥ Chou uresshi!
- Kochan’s Best Performance & Music solo concert tour ends today. Eventho I wasn’t there, great job Kochan *thumbs up*
- Koichi has confirmed that KinKi will be celebrating New Year in Tokyo. Yay for NagasexKoichi and JunichixTsuyo!
- Chemical Pictures’ new single is absolute PWN. Sad that Schwarz won’t be apart of them anymore tho. He makes CP’s sound dreamier. T_T
- 2 more weeks to Japan… but still no confirmation from J-Horizons. sigh.
August VK Reviews
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Title: Ain Soph Aur *AWEFUCKINGSOME* Band: RENTRER EN SOI Verdict: 4.5 stars. 3 years ago, having a weakness for strong vocalists, Satsuki’s lyrical prose and emotive voice inspired me to follow them. Their guitar play and compositions changed drastically throughout their 6 year stint. Highlighted in this compilation are hits from the effeminate (pre-) Sphire Croid era with songs like the wondrous “Shinwa”, “Full Moon” and “Eyes of Forest” which I have only begun to familiarize with. Their later major albums started the expansion to Europe based tours and at that time RES’ music swerved to angura-kei territory with “THE ABYSS OF DESPAIR”, “I HATE MYSELF AND WANT TO…” and “PROTOPLASM”. The crown definitely goes to their 2008 works especially “STIGMATA” and “Last Scene” which in their final year happens to be their finest products. 32 of their best hits will not revive them, no matter how many times I replay this. They held so much promise that it’s a shame for Visual Kei to lose one of its better bands. RES’ powerful combination could’ve outdone so many bands of recent times that lack the quality they had. But they were ill fated to break during their prime. Sigh. Go for: ‘Shinwa’, ‘STIGMATA’, ‘LAST WORD [ ]‘, ‘Last Scene’, ‘JUST MAD PAIN’, ‘wither’, ‘JUDE’, ‘Eyes of Forest’, ‘I HATE MYSELF AND WANT TO…’, ‘Full Moon’. New songs: ‘STAY GOLD’ & ‘Tsuki ga Maioriru Koto no Nai Daichi’. |
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Title: UROBOROS Delux Unplugged Disk (First Press Limited Edition) Band: Dir en grey Verdict: 4 stars. Honestly there ain’t much to review about this disk except that the four unpolished songs are definitely out of character. What you have here is Kyo’s crisp voice bleeding your ears off (in a good way). The amount of changes he’s screwed his voice over has culminated into this ingenious and mature style which I can’t help but be grateful for. The packaging is a beauty in brooding black and red. And weighing at almost 2 kg, I lugged this back home on the LRT with a crick in my left shoulder for 2 days! But it and the bargain price are so worth it. I only need to figure out what to do with the LP records… *sweatdrops* Go for: - |
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Title: under-world Band: Merry Verdict: 1.5 stars. I downloaded this in February right before my old PC went kaput and after I recently successfully got to save all that data, I thought “Yay! Something to review in early August” but uhm I remember now why I don’t like Merry. There are a few acceptable songs only because the rest is poorly written and leaves you wishing they’d pick up a few copycat abilities. They used to be monotonous and boring. But now this album is just unbelievably lazy. Go for: ‘Piranha’, ‘Canary’, ‘[human farm]‘. |
+ Bonus review: I’ve been unable to download Luna Sea’s GOD BLESS YOU concert for a year so when I found this cough pirated version at Amcorp Mall… (Insert squealing fangirl). Had I not felt the inexplicable pull to enter the pirated DVD shop I always ignore, I guess until forever oso I wouldn’t be able to watch the full concert. Since it’s expensive and it’s in sucky Region 1! Sigh. Anyway, since I’d already spazzed about the performances here, I’ll only spazz review on the DVD aspect and features.
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Title: GOD BLESS YOU ~One Night Déjàvu~ DVD*AWEFUCKINGSOME* Band: LUNA SEA Verdict: 5 stars. The lighting, the passionate crowd, the unseen moments and sheer brilliance of the production captured in this DVD is the best way to experience a Luna Sea concert. There are almost no areas left untended by cameramen and seeing how vast the minimalist stage is, pretty amazing shots of the band and pans of the whole stage are abundant. I just love the swift camera work: plenty of close-ups on those legendary twirls and spins by J and Ino and oooh the beautiful shots with one or two members (especially when Sugizo and Ino are at the wings) aligned in the background of the same frame while Ryu gets emo in the foreground. I also really love the amount of screen time Inoran is given here *pinches his cheeks*. The ‘Miracle at Holy Night’ TV broadcast of the concert has a couple of missing content here and there. So now I finally get to see the Shinya drum solo get rescued by J’s rowdy bass solo and then the performances for “Fate” and “Mother”. I’ve seen the cut-down version of this concert for the nth time and this DVD twice, but it hasn’t become stale and I doubt it ever will be. So if anyone wants to try listening to Luna Sea, I’d suggest them to watch this first rather than downloading their full discography (I can pinjamkan too). The perfection of this concert will bowl you over, I promise. Go for: ‘Rosier’, ‘Déjàvu’, ‘Desire’, ‘TONIGHT’, ‘Fate’, ‘Breathe’. |
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Title: Kimi no Uta PV *HOT* Band: abingdon boys school Verdict: 5 stars. YES! A hot new song to go with an equally hot PV. 10 seconds into the intro and you instinctively know these folks won’t be disappointing you this time. I love the burnished tint and the Babylon-esque ruins as if abs dropped into a Lost-slash-Transformers movie set. Even the whole wind whipping works wonders with their cool hoodies. Can’t wait for the new single AND album. Go for: - |
To My Archangel
Happeh belated birthday to my dear (3rd) ex-husband whom I still love with all my heart and soul: SUGIZO!
I haven’t been sharing his songs much with any of you lot on Friendster, because I’ve somehow been afraid of how you would accept his type of music… Sure, I spazz a lot about Gazette and MUCC and Yasu *wipes drool* and even Abingdon Boys School. I even chucked Hyde for him. Lolz. (Thank God I did, cos Hyde’s such a disgrace now)
But not one of them can come close to the sheer magnificence of this man. Yeah so his niche is electronica, big deal. It doesn’t matter to me in what way he reaches out to people.
It’s his humbleness (uh ok so he only changed his attitude after Luna was born), his joie de vivre, his love for life and how he sees goodness in a world so bleak.
Viva Sugizo-san! So let me spread his infectious loving with a few of my most favourite songs (which I think everyone can accept and will love):
- Cosmo Miumiu | by Miu Sakamoto
- Alice | by Maki
- Dear Life | by Sugizo & the Spank Your Juice
- Deliver.. | by Sugizo
Let Me Rephrase That…
Yeah twinnie, you had me thinking about my most repeatable Shinhwa song. I kinda felt guilty and tak puas hati for not having an absolute answer to it. However, setting out my mind by naming only one or two or more songs as my utmost forever-listenable-song and conforming to that fact would make me call myself a liar.
Hmm. Probable explanations to this would be that I can’t think of any at that time. Or I couldn’t remember the titles. Or I like too many to come up with a few without thinking rationally. Perhaps…
My best reason? I guess I’ve always been the sort of girl whom regularly flits from one artiste to the next too easily. My music is always in-the-moment, at-that-exact-moment and constant-listening-right-at-that-moment. I’ll have a certain album/song/artiste that I’d like and I’d bury myself deep by frequently listening to only that obsession.
But when something else catches my fancy, then I’d as easily jump onto a different obsession. And maybe, maaaybe, all the songs that I like would be exchanged with another.
It takes a couple of reminiscing to finally get back into a certain moment. That’s why you hear me say things like “I haven’t been listening to them for a long time” which would then lead to “I feel like listening to them again” or “I feel like listening to their whole discography ALL OVER AGAIN!”
I’m really not kidding when I say I haven’t been listening to any certain band for a LONG time. Coz I’d have been busy-ing myself with something other than Shinhwa… or Luna Sea. Or any other bands that I say I’m in love with. Har har.
Yet no matter what, these two bands affect me pretty differently from any other favourites. They’d still be the ones who can time-warp me back to that exact same moment when I first giddily heard their songs. 
Memoirs of a male geisha II
The WOWOW released vids of both summit days were harshly cut up. At least the ones I got off torrent. But so far:
- Luna Sea; whom besides X managed to own Ajinomoto Stadium on Day 2. Damn, they were really in their game. Watching “In Silence” (my most favouritest song) live made me want to cry since they rarely play it during concerts.
- X Japan and Muteki Band; I skipped all the Drama King sessions, but performance-wise.. I think they (pft, Yoshiki) ought to seriously end the reunion before their
heartslegacy burns out. It was awesome when nearing the end, where all the bands except Diru came on stage for a raucous show of “X”. - D’espairs Ray; Only “Brilliant” was uploaded?! Mind you, they were brilliant so I hope someone will put up their whole session (if any).
- MUCC; Again, only ONE song. But I looooooved “Fuzz” live cos Tatsurou is just so infectious.
- Dir en grey; Still downloading. Not looking too forward to them (you know how I feel about the ‘new’ Diru) since they went absent during Muteki Band performance. Hmm.
- Spread Beaver; Yes, now I’m looking forward to something good. Bring on the best of hide’s music, baby.
A couple more bands available to download are Versailles, heidi and the Underneath. Dare I ask if
T.M.Revolution,
Phantasmagoria and
OBLIVION DUST gets uploaded? I wanna see Takenori-san!
On a more general issue, Hyung’s now back from Tokyo (Okaeri!). And guess which ultra famous blonde Jrocker she saw jaywalking at Shibuya wearing-shades-at-night, talking-oh-so-loud and ignoring-all-the-pointings-and-mutterings-and-fan-worshippings?
Holy pffffft. Yep. Yoshiki-sama. *cries* How come I only realise she was there during the festival weekend?!
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Memoirs of a male geisha
I CAN’T WAIT TO WATCH! xDD Thanks to twinnie for letting me know vids are already up. And thank God I just bought an external HDD Luna Sea @ hide Memorial Summit *rolls over and dies*
The X torrent will be next. Dunno why each group performances are being split apart. My guess would be the easier for fandoms?
X and LS and MUCC (Tats + Miya) and TMR all on one stage, together, will totally pwn my life right now. And then there are all the rest of the summit days with DesRay , Spread Beaver and Diru.. *throws work-stress out the window*
[On impulsive buyer mode]
Owh. I’ve been so tired these past few days that I hadn’t had time to update or even surf the Net much -_-. Each time I plop down on my bed, I’ll drift into a dreamless sleep and wake up still feeling tired. My stomach ache has abated so I don’t know what’s causing my exhaustion.
Yesterday was an exception because we had a surprise birthday party for Moon (Otanjyoubi omedetou!). Which then turned into a triple celebration for belated birthday girls Farah and Aunty Yong… Which then turned into a can’t-run-anywhere-anymore discussion on work. As usual, we hogged Secret Recipe with our, um, rambunctious and slightly-hamsap group 
Moonie got the new L photobook! And the rest of use were content by just meeting up with each other after such a long and strenuous month. ;D
Apparently Kak Bailah has also taken a fancy towards MatsuKen as L. She bought her own copy today. Now, while we were spazzing over the ridiculously expensive DoubleS jap photobook I saw something that made the DoubleS book literally fall from my hands… *points to below pic on farmost right*
Yep! *beams with pride* And so I bought the super duper gorgeous Luna Sea photobook since it was friggin 20% off. That’s roughly 30 ringgit cheaper than getting it from YesAsia la wei. The thing was sitting there so prettily in plain sight that I just couldn’t not have it, now could I? Besides, there didn’t seem to be any other copies apart from this one. Heheh.
H-h-h-h-heh. *wipes grin off face* I keep reminding myself I haven’t even paid for the Shinhwa albums.
Helplessly Poor
Whenever my friends ask me how I am, I’d automatically answer “I’m not OK. Actually, I’m feeling very poor.”
My bank account will be nearing zilch due to the burgeoning amount of Shinhwa CDs I’ve ordered this month. Hopefully there’s enough balance for Dongwan’s second album. =_=
And I’ve finally figured out how pathetic it is to plan a Seoul trip for the upcoming three years since Shinhwa is soon-to-be absent from the entertainment scene. So this month’s income will be streamlined to paying debts while maintaining my trip savings. Mwahah.
But. BUT. BUT!! May is going to be another month in torture when the Hide Memorial concert goes on… without me. Yet again. ARGH! Another concert where I’ll be staying at home crying my eyes out. I mean, c’mon: X JAPAN, LUNA SEA, Dir en grey, MUCC, D’espairsRay, Phantasmagoria and so many moooaarr bands performing??!!
LUNASEALUNASEALUNASEALUNASEALUNASEALUNASEAomgomgomg >_
Band-sy weekend
Tomorrow’s the FT concert day. Will be meeting Liza (gave her a mighty shocker when I mentioned this! - I forgot to tell her I already bought us tickets) at LRT KJ where Noviar&Ayu are gonna pick us up.
*sends milk, cookies and much-needed-hugs for the concert organiser. FIGHTING!!* Hope I’ll be able to see the girls tomorrow. ;_;
Am currently listening to MUCC’s “Shion” and I dare say that I’m pretty pleased with the outcome of their latest album. It took several repeats to really warm up to but the overall feel is still fundamentally post-”6″ MUCC with more experimental flavours thrown in. The arrangements are much better this time, as Miya gets a lot more limelight than usual eventhough he sounded meek on most guitar solos. A little less grunge, still as angsty and a lot more poppish. Yeah, “Shion” is still in need of more of ‘a little of this and that’ but this album is not bad. Not bad at all.
I’m a bit disconcerted over why I keep listening to Tourbillon’s “Break the Chain” (It’s the opening song for Kamen Rider Kiva after all D:). I guess I still am in awe with Ryuichi’s Luna Sea-esque voice. The little Monkichi. *pats Ryu’s head*
Oh, after my daily rations over at jrockynyc I just realised that X Japan’s concert was friggin yesterday! Oops.. my week was a little hectic that I hadn’t the patience to read Jrock news of late. Anyway, can’t wait to watch Sugizo! hihihihihihihihi xDD I love Hikkichan.
Apart from the concert, I’m also downing Juno Reactor’s newest goa trance album “Gods & Monsters”. Good stuff, this. Good stuff. MOAR Sugizo goodness, yum ♥
System (almost) shutting down
Futsal @ Sports Barn, PJ : Legs aching. Toes paining. But had lotsa fun! Got swanky GSC umbrella from lucky draw. Marcel even belanja us at Restoran Kayu after the game ;D
@ Home: Effing sleepy. Trying to stay awake and wait til Aish comes home to go for drink at Old Town White Coffee.
Tomorrow @ Ampang : Can’t wait to meet Jessjess (Luna Sea CD-Data!), Farah, Mish and whoever decides to join us for Korean lunch.
Onegai! (Please!)
CD-Data! March issue! I WANT!
*pffft* As in I seriously, seriously, seriously, MUST have it. I’d die (or bawl my eyes out) if I don’t own this particular issue. Luna Sea concert pics omgomgomg.
Don’t know when I’m able to pop into Kinokuniya to find it. Would anyone be a darling and see if it’s already there, please? Would be located at the Japanese magazines side.
I might decide to go to KLCC tomorrow. But on the account that I do not manage to find it on the shelf yet…
Please please help be on the lookout for it if you swing by KLCC anyday, eh? I’ll so worship you (and owe you) if you could purchase it too. Should be around RM25 liddat. Oh thank you thank you thank you.
This issue is pretty easy enough to recognise. It has Luna Sea as cover omgomgomg. If you don’t know how they look like…. keywords on the cover are “Luna Sea + March + Acid Black Cherry”.
Google-d
here i was, on my best behaviour, Googling for the latest Luna Sea news in CD-Data when:
wow! O_O i made 1st page from such a random keyword.
seeing is believing, dude~ huhuhuhuuu
no one on Earth really knows how Google works (genius as it is) as compared to other search engines. must’ve been sheer luck. however, seeing other blogs citing purr-fect capitalisation i’m beginning to rethink my foolish ‘No Caps’ principle.
and how come i can NEVER get my Geocities site to creep into Google when i type in my fullname? tsk tsk
beneath the waning moonlight
Surpise, surprise. ~One Night of Dejavu~ was shown on Japanese TV! *fake gasp*
Damn those lucky people who got to go for the concert AND those who watched it on their terebi set. I, on the other hand, will have to suffice with the illegal TV-rip version (mwahaha) while waiting for YesAsia to come out with the DVD. If they don’t… Then my second choice would be to try my luck with CDJapan *kaching kaching*
The torrent is around 1.6Gigs and was uploaded thanks to Hikkichan from jpopsuki.
There’s another 5Gig HD version O_O which will be my last resort if I can’t cough up enough moolah for the DVD. hnnngg But it’d be uncut leh.
Anyhoo, I got up mighty early today (6am!!) so I trudged about in naver to look for concert images. Lo and behold:
“Totoro Boy” Inoran is all grown up and looks lip-smacking HOT.
Gosh, he always looked so cute but now that he’s shed the babyfat… Amazing how I completely overlooked him after their breakup even during his Tourbillon stint with Ryuichi. And might I add that those two are extremely lovey-dovey on stage? lol. Sugizo must be torn with jealousy.
overspent x_x
i pray that Shinhwa oppa deul will forgive me for the sins i have done. *chews on fingernails* the introvert-shopper in me was caught purchasing several items that may or may not cause setbacks to my Seoul Trip Budget (let’s name it STB).
you see, with my STB plan in motion, i vowed not to indulge in materialistic endeavours apart from spending on food and necessities.
now look what i bought within just a period of TWO days! T_T
- L’Arc~en~Ciel’s KISS CD - it was only selling for RM60 which would’ve cost a TON if i bought it off YesAsia. i swear i really thought it through instead of just grabbing it off the shelf and running to the counter (who am i convincing?)
- CDData November issue - erm, i was feeling a tad excited yesterday frolicking in Kinokuniya’s newly renovated Japanese corner. besides, it has abingdon boys school and Luna Sea featured… *feels guilt pricking on skin*
- Korean to English dictionary - aha! i need this! i really really needed this. ahahahahaha. -_-
i’m not even sure how much i spent for the past 2 months. God knows what my total savings amount is since i haven’t gone to any Public Bank branch yet. clever, Arfah, clever!
mayhaps the splurging was due to the full moon? <– what a stupid excuse.
before i forget, i’d like to wish a HAPPY YULETIDE to all my beloved friends, acquaintances and oppas *points to those six guys and one other man*.
anyway, i’m in the midst of finishing my new Luna Sea Skin. errrr this was an unplanned skin, and i have like 3 or 4 skins that i should have finished 6 months ago. siiigh. couldn’t very well pass up the chance to do a tribute to their concert last night, ne?
