Shout it Out is a J-Rock band formed in 2013; the first song here is Light Of The Song from December of 2015, the second is 17-year-old from about 6 months earlier, and the third is from just last week or so, Backlit. This band has some promise and potential, so I had to share them here.
These are the same folks who brought us the Acapella versions of such classics as The Walking Dead and The X-Files, and their latest production is true to that legacy. Be sure to stop by The Warp Zone to see their latest offerings.
Ganglion is an excellent hard core rock girl band out of Japan you should definitely be listening to. The first track is their most recent release Never Ever Again, which came out this past October and was also the name of their just completed world tour. Next is Save Your Heart from last July, also one of their songs from the tour. Then we have Black Out from last March, which means these examples are only my favorite few tunes from the last year. And trust me, if this band comes to my town, I will definitely be part of the audience, rocking my butt off.
In English Wagakki Band means a band playing traditional Japanese instruments, and that much is accurate. But it doesn’t give you any idea of the energy these people bring to the stage, or of how amazing the fusion of rock and traditional Japanese music can be when in the hands of masters like these. On Monday they will be doing a concert at Irving Plaza, NY, NY, and then they will swing south for a stage at SxSW in Austin, Texas. This is in honor of/promotion for their new album Yasou Emaki, which I am already looking forward to. And then there is the Anime they are involved in this year.
Here are a few tunes to get you ready for the concerts. The first track is Hangekino Yaiba, which means something like Blade of Counterattack, and was posted on Aug 14, 2015. The second is Akatsukino Ito, or The Intention of the Akatsuki, and is wonderfully visually dense with the Dragon. Finally, weighing in at 36+ million views and still climbing, is Senbon-Zakura, roughly A Thousand Cherry Blossom Petals, the first song by them I ever saw. If you have even a small chance of making one of these shows, do yourself a favor and be there. This is one of those bands the world will remember for decades, don’t let yourself miss this opportunity or you will be kicking yourself about it 50 years from now. Oh, and did I mention they were involved with an Anime production?
Fate Gear seems to be a Steampunk Heavy Metal girl group from Japan, a concept that may take a bit of getting used to, for me at least. The first track is named the same as the band, Fate Gear, the second is Romancer. Mina plays guitar and writes the Music & Lyrics. She used to be with the band Destrose who also released the second track, and now is separate, at first just partnered with a great vocalist, but then they picked up a quality drummer to round out the group. While the songs presented here came out in the summer of 2015, they have a lot going on this year as well.
Tessa Violet was known as Meekakitty when she recorded I’ll Be Your Star Trek Girl and her video of the ALL CAPS classic Don’t Unplug Me. Now she has another instant classic with Sorry I’m Not Sorry under her own name, the fist track presented here, and I have to say I love her music. Sadly, her Star Trek Girl video has been removed from the internet except for bootleg copies, so I can’t post it here. It sounds like her Don’t Unplug Me instance has some corrupt audio around the 3rd verse, but otherwise it appears to be both intact and legal, so I do get to include it. The third track of the set (and she has a TON more songs, please check them all out) is her Wizard Love, a Harry Potter Music Video that she recorded with heyhihello which should be in everyone’s collection. The final track is a bit of a tribute to Alice herself, and if you haven’t already been following Tessa Violet for years, now you know why you should be. For more, grab her songs on iTunes or pick up her Maker Shop album.