2016 was an amazing year for music, so to wave bye-bye to it I wanted to add a few tunes I hadn’t had the chance to post earlier. The first track is One OK Rock’s I Was King from their upcoming album Ambitions, which will be released on January 13th. The next one is Blood On The Edge (the theme from the Anime Strike the Blood, OVA version) from Kishidan Cult & THE Akishin Rockets, posted online in November and just released a few weeks ago. The third is Never Gave Up by All Off, a band that’s been rocking Japan since 2004; that track was posted in January of this year. Their single Refrain Boy is the ending theme for Anime Mob Psycho 100, if you thought they sounded familiar.
Merry Chrismas, all! A present for your ears; Chu’s Day rocking out with All I Want For Christmas Is You.
The music just gets better with each new track they release, and this time is no different. We start off with Leo Imai doing Bird Of Paradise, posted on November 17th, and recorded on November 9th at Fever, Tokyo. Next we have the official METAFIVE Musical Chairs track, posted on November 9th, and I couldn’t help but include Maisie’s Avenue yet again, one of my favorite tracks of 2016, or perhaps even my favorite. This is my new favorite group from Japan, assembled around Yukihiro Takahashi of Yellow Magic Orchestra fame, you should listen to everything they have recorded.
James Patterson’s bestselling YA book series Maximum Ride made the transition to movie format, but it didn’t play anywhere near me; now I get a chance to see it as they release it to DVD. The animated film Storks may be the best bet this time around, good silly fun from the studio that did The Lego Movie. There are also a couple of documentaries that look interesting, Oasis: Supersonic being about the rise, reign, and implosion of the band, while Hitchcock/Truffaut is all about the 1962 week long meeting those two had when they dissected the film industry.
Anime has an unusual release either this week or next, depending on which web site you believe: Attack on Titan 20 Special Edition w/DVD is a manga/graphic novel that included a DVD with an anime episode not released anywhere else. Owarimonogatari 2 is only 6 episodes long, being the second half of the season, but it does tell the complete Shinobu Mail story arc. Finally Shakugan No Shana S: OVA Series is now available in a S.A.V.E. edition, but considering it only contains four 23 minute episodes being able to pick it up for just under $20 doesn’t seem like much of a deal.
Crimson Apple is a band from Hawaii (now based in LA) made up of 4 sisters and sometimes a friend or two, who have cranked out some excellent music. The first song is Run Along, the second is called Hello, the third is One Time, and they finish up with the track Replace This Heartbeat, all from their Hi Sessions episode. Hi Sessions brings Hawaii’s best music to the world from their studios which appear to be located most of the way up on the side of a volcano. They write their own original music, but they have also posted some great covers of One OK Rock songs which are well worth watching.
New music from One OK Rock is always worth celebrating, and there are a few recent tracks to enjoy. The first is Taking Off, posted on November 30th, a nice acoustic track from a Studio Jam Session which has Taka sporting a new look. The track after that is the full official version of the song, followed by Bedroom Warefare. These are from their new album Ambitions, their tour to support the new release began 4 weeks ago, the album becomes digitally available worldwide on January 13th, and yes, that means on iTunes, Amazon, and the other usual outlets.