They may be inspired by One OK Rock or they may just share a similar style, but My First Story is quite a good band in their own right. The first track is Irreversible Replacement, which you will no doubt recognize as the theme song for the Anime series Nobunaga Concerto, which just came out a few months ago. The second track is the song Second Limit from their first full album, a self-titled disc released in 2012. The third one is The Story Is My Life, from their second full album released in 2013. As usual you can pick up their music on iTunes and from Amazon Japan.
Just a few tracks from the world class Tokyo Ska Paradise to travel with you on your journey through this holiday weekend, starting with their 2009 release Pride Of Lions. The next song is a collaboration between Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra and Asian Kung Fu Generation called Wake Up which came out this past June, and I admit that was not a combination I saw coming. Finally, 2013’s 10 Feet to keep you dancing through the weekend. If you are a fan of Ska, this is a band you should seek out and listen to more of; they have a huge library of music for you to explore.
The new incarnation of Evangelion is taking forever to be released but Hikaru Utada’s excellent closing theme for it, Beautiful World, became available online the other week, so I had to post it here. The music video is directed by Tsurumaki Kazuya, who also co-directs the films in the reboot of the franchise, and the visuals do justice to the music. I am still waiting to see the third and fourth movies for the new series, but this will do for now; it promises that the balance of the story will still be making it to the big screen and out on disc. Thanks to Crunchyroll for the heads up on this one, and the info that there is a new CD coming out from Hikaru. The video ends before the song does, but it is enough to let us know what it sounds like.
The first track is 2014’s Elektryczny, the second is 2012’s Ognia!, and the third is 2013’s Jutro jest dziś. The Męskie Granie Orkiestra (Men Playing Orchestra) is one of the more interesting bands to come out of Poland this decade. A big chunk of the reason is they are more of a project than a band, with a ton of quality artists drifting in and out of the core group, contributing their talents to each song they are involved with. These few songs give you an idea what they are up to; there are a lot more in their discography. If you like what you hear you should check the rest of them out, you can find lots of them on You Tube and iTunes.
Ex Hex is Pop Punk for today, and they do sound quite tasty. The tracks below are from their recent live visit to Soundcheck WNYC-FM, and should give you an idea of what this band is about. You can hear more of their songs at their home page, including some from their recent session at WAMU-FM. And as you can probably tell from the studio music video below, they are a D.C. band.
SCANDAL are four women who can seriously rock, and they have announced there will be US dates on their upcoming world tour, Hello World. So far they only have dates and cities listed for Japan, with the tour there scheduled from January through March, to be followed by stops in Hong Kong, Taiwan, France, the UK, and the USA, not necessarily in that order. If you are wondering what they sound like, here is a taste; the first track is Shunkan Sentimental , the second is Awanaitsumorino; Genkidene (I Don’t Plan On Seeing You; Take Care), and the third is Kagen no Tsuki (The Waning Moon). Note that the third song title was the name of a Manga that was turned into a live action movie in 2004, and also the name of the opening song in 2007’s Princess Mononoke anime; this song has nothing to do with either of those things.