They are touring North America right now, promoting their latest album on their first tour with an American release, 35xxxv (DELUXE EDITION), a best of collection from all their recordings since they formed in 2005. The lyrics are all in English, and the first song posted is Last Dance, the next one here from the same album is Cry Out. Don’t let their initial ballad for the US fool you, this band is all about serious Rock-N-Roll, in a way so many bands wish they could pull off. If you have even the slimmest chance to see them, I urge you to do so; they are truly amazing. The last few tracks here are Mighty Long Fall, Decision, and Be The Light. And yes, while all of their music has been available through iTunes for the last half decade, it is nice to finally have a natively available source for it. And OK, the final track of this set might be just a bit of a ballad again, if you are going to be a stickler about formats.
There are some real interesting bands out of Japan; Hitorie is one of them! The first track is Talkie Dance from their 2nd mini-album released this July, the second is 2013’s Rula Rula from their first full album, and the third is Senseless Wonder from 2014.
Another great rock band from Japan are the Ulfuls, and they recently posted a new song, Sporty Party, that I really like. See all the athletic gear folks are wearing in this video? They recorded this as the ASICS “training ware” campaign song, which lead me to believe it might be a commercial. When I did a bit of research, it turned out the campaign was to enter a contest in which you had to answer questions on a survey. They will pull the names of 20 folks who entered and give them each a pair of premium Ulfuls live tour tickets, with a choice of venue of either Tokyo or Osaka. The contest started yesterday and runs until September 18th, so if you live near Japan or are traveling there soon and want to enter the contest go to the Sporty Party Campaign web site and fill out your entry. The tour will be recorded as part of their “Ulfuls tour 2015 Bontsubiatsuatsu (Live House ed)” release coming out later this year. The song Sporty Party will be on their new album Bonn Zwi Wai Wai being released on September 9th.
Previous Ulfuls posts: Ulfuls with Muppets, Ulfuls
Pretty much my favorite band out of Asia for the last few years, ONE OK ROCK has the chops, the attitude, and the skill set to own the rock world while based out of Japan. They started out around 2005, proving yet again that it takes about 10 years to become an overnight sensation in the music business. The first live track is called Decision, the second is Mighty Long Fall, then the official studio version of the latter song follows those. The live tracks are both from their recent Mighty Long Fall at Yokohama Stadium release, their 5th live DVD which they posted to their You Tube Channel. You have been able to get these tracks and others from them on iTunes for your permanent collection for a while now. But they signed with Warner Bros. Records recently, in a deal that includes releasing their work on CD and DVD in the US, starting with “35xxxv Deluxe Edition” in September. All songs will be in English, and the US version of the album will include two bonus tracks not on the Japanese version. They will be doing a North American tour in support of that release, with stops including Chicago, New York, Toronto, Silver Spring, and Houston.
Previous ONE OK ROCK posts, with music embeds: One OK Rock: Cry Out, Against The Current, More One OK Rock, Please!, One OK Rock: Taka!, Still More One OK Rock!, More Alt J-Rock, More J-Rock, and One OK Rock.
Associated: Rurouni Kenshin 3 trailer (movie), My First Story (band), RUROUNI KENSHIN 2 trailer (movie).
The band is Kankaku Piero (Sense Clown, approximately), and their first album Break came out at the beginning of June. They aren’t as new as that statement might make you think, because they put out 5 mini-albums before this latest release. The first track is A-Han!, new on their first full album. The second song is Mary from their 2013 mini-album, or Mary-san as they say at the beginning, and it was re-released as part of the new full album. Likewise the third song, O P P A I is also both from 2013 and the new album, I am not even going to try to guess what that tune translates into. The final track is 2014’s Japanese-Pop-Music, also on the new album.
Wake Up! is an amazing collaboration between Asian Kung-Fu Generation and Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra, two of my favorite bands out of Japan. The track after that has Mongol.800 as the featured band/vocalist playing with them, and after that comes one featuring 10-Feet as their musical partner. Let’s face it, Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra has been around forever, and they have created some world-class collaborations in that time. Enjoy!