Akashic has only been together for a couple of years, and has two mini-albums under their belt, one in 2014, the other this past March. They have the kind of high energy pop sound that makes me think they would do very well doing anime intro songs, but so far I haven’t located any titles they were involved with. The first track is CG Gal posted a month or so ago, the next is Purichi from their 2014 mini-album.
Local Connect has a 2nd Mini Album out now called 7RAILS, and the first song here is the first track on that album, Gold. Their first mini-album came out in June of 2015, one of the songs on it was the closing theme for the Anime My Love Story, Where to Find Happiness. The second song here is also from their first release, called Cosmic Loop.
The band Vianka are playing a musical style known as Shimokitazawa Guitar Rock, a neighborhood of Tokyo that rose up and became the center of Japanese Indie music in the 90s, and continues to hold that place today. The first track is Sympathy of Only One, and I find myself loving it as much for the excellent animation work as I do for the music. It was posted at the beginning of March, and is from their first EP under their new name (the band used to be known as Bianca Decided to Die). The second track is Kagome, also from that same EP; sadly they haven’t posted the 3rd and 4th tracks yet. They were featured in an episode of the Colony TV show, which showcases the best musical acts coming out of Hokkaido. They have a live music performance by the band being interviewed each week, but I left it as a link rather than an embed because you have to wade through an hour of interview to get to the 15 minutes of music. Had the interview been in English I would have included it.
A less than subtle band, Contemporary Life is a blast of fresh air from Asia, an Alt Rock band from Osaka. The first track is Husky Girl, the second track is Yankee Girl, and they are both quite energetic and worth your time to check out. Then there is Let’s Go Gedo (Let’s Go heresy) Tour, also a tune of note. They might even have won some awards at some point, it appears. Enjoy.
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.
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.