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.
I have been waiting for years for Cowboy Bebop to come out in Blue Ray, and it finally happened today. I am going to try not to watch them in one non-stop marathon. I am going to try to savor them, maybe one episode a day. OK, maybe two, and four per weekend day. And I will be listening to the soundtrack a lot, possibly the most amazing Anime soundtrack ever recorded (go Yoko Kanno!).
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.
Rurouni Kenshin 2: Kyoto Inferno looks to be every bit as intense as the first film, and there is one more to go after this before the series is complete. A former assassin wanders through Japan promising to defend those in need without killing. If the story seems familiar and you haven’t seen the 2012 movie that began the live action film series, you may have read the manga it is based on, or perhaps seen the 1996 through 2008 anime series Rurouni Kenshin: Wandering Samurai. The anime ran 95 episodes, with breaks of several years sometimes between story segments, so it took a while to make. The song you hear playing in the background in the trailer is One OK Rock‘s hit Mighty Long Fall, which I posted here previously if you want to hear the whole thing. They are an amazing band, and you can pick up their songs on iTunes.
The new Superfly release comes out Tuesday, called By Blowing the Love to the Body (approximately) for the regular edition, they change the word order a bit for the special edition. They are a great rock band who have been cranking out music since 2007, you can pick up their stuff on iTunes.