Japanese Shtuff.

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I figured there were enough people discussing Japanese music in the international music thread, that it deserved a discussion of its own.
So who're your favorite Jpop/Jrock artists?
Mine are:
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X Japan
Dir en Grey
Miyavi
the Gazette
LM.C
Merry
Mucc
Gackt
Utada Hikaru
YUI
Anna tsuchiya

I saw Dir en grey in concert two summers ago and they were FREAKIN AMAZING! And I managed to get Die's autograph, which I've been meaning to frame for a long time.

Here's some of the Japanese bands that I like:

Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting UFO Paraiso
Boris
Boredoms
Cornelius
DMBQ
Eternal Elysium
Flower Travellin' Band
F**k On The Beach
Fushitsusha/Keiji Haino
Gauze
The Gerogerigegege (First couple of releases only)
G.I.S.M. (Detestation release)
Guitar Wolf
Hanatarash
Koenji Hyakkei/ Ruins/ Tetsuya Yoshida
Les Rallizes Denudes
Masonna
Melt Banana
Merzbow
Osamu Kitajima
Speed Glue & Shinki
The Stalin
Zeni Geva

Japanese has always had a good music scene since the 70's, and currently they seem to have a better music scene that the US.

Can't add anything to Fogman's list except for the Taj Mahal Travellers who were my favourite of all.

Oh! i forgot to add the Pillows to my list. I love what they did for the fooly cooly soundtrack!
And Oreskaband! I'm looking out for their movie Lock and roll forever.

L'arc en Ciel are my fav.

I've seen the above, Miyavi, Gazette, Dir en Grey live. L'arc was just unreal live, best concert I have ever been to.

Not sure why this whole J Rock is considered a special style. Apart from visual kei, several J Rock bands I heard sound very much like any other rock, so if you would not tell the bands were Japanese you would not know. Visual kei is different and more distinctive Japanese, however J Rock ... I havent really heard any band in that style that I really liked a lot, have heard some decent ones but nothing that really sticks to my brain. I wonder where that growing fascination for Japanese music is coming from.

IMO Chinas music scene is more interesting because of the censorship bands still have to deal with. Underground music in the west is a vague term, but in China underground really means underground in the purest sense of the word. Some bands still play in very small bars for limited crowds because they cannot properly announce their gigs and tour dates, otherwise they would face commands to forbid the gig. On YouTube there is some very interesting coverage of a gig by the all female wave band Cobra from China, they could never play for more than low hundreds of fans because the only way to avoid censorship was simply not publicly announcing their concerts.

I like a couple of Shonen Knife's songs, specifically "Top of The World", "Buttercup (I'm a Supergirl)", "Anime Phenomenon" and "Rock Society".

i like Hikaru, L'arc, and Hamasaki...but enjoy the others in the genre!

Almost forgot the add Beat Crusaders. they're amazing too!

This is true, as well as very analogous to the underground rock scene in the Soviet Union, and other Soviet Bloc countries during the 1980's. The current scene for underground music in China seems to be a bit more free than the music underground that emerged in some of the Soviet Bloc countries like Czechoslovakia and Russia during the 80's.

Also, there is the aspect of PC/ Mac basedDigital recording suites which are relatively inexpensive, and vastly improved over the Analog recording equipment used in the 80's. Every decent PC is a potential recording studio with proper VST software that is often bootlegged, which is potentially equal to hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of analog gear that was needed for a proper recording studio in the 80's that the average citzen of a Soviet Bloc country coudn't afford to access outside of official State Controlled channels, let alone afford to purchase outright. -- In this, the Chinese have a distinct advantage over the old Soviet Bloc underground scene.

For the record, Martin Atkin's China Dub Sound System from last years showcases a lot of current Chinese Talent that he recorded when he was in China.

This being said though, yes, a lot of Japanese music is quite similar to music being played and recorded in the US and the EU, however we now have fairly reliable access to Japanese music that was incredibly difficult to find in the US and EU due to a lack of distribution. Thankfully this is changing, and we now have more access to Rock music from a coutry that has a long history of producing good Rock music that was very difficult to find outside of Japan until this past decade.

but why is there a such hype about J Rock when the music is basically not much different from any other rock? OK, a japanese guy sings it, but without watching a live video you could hardly tell the difference with a western band. They sound so identical. Visual kei is a specifically Japanese genre, J Rock pretty much sounds the same as any other rock from the States or Europe really.

I think Southeast Asia has a lot more interesting things to offer. The underground scene in China which (due to censorship) is still really underground, or any country whose rock bands incorporate oriental sounds in their music. That would interest me a lot, while J Rock to me is not really deserving a musical tag on its own: it sounds like normal rock, but performed by a japanese. If we not apply tags on such criteria, then why not having R Rock for Romanian bands, or BY Rock for Belarussian bands? In the end, only visual kei is very different from the standard European or American rock band, J Rock is not that different so I dont understand the hype. The Chinese music scene, due to the political influence on it, is much more interesting in my opinion. And so are the music scenes of specific other Asian countries ; India, Saudi Arabia, Israel and such all have a music scene that feels very authentic. I miss that in J Rock, which to me sounds a bit like Japanese people playing music that sounds like the CDs they bought from British and American bands.

Wondered when someone would mention them! Happy Hour is a real fun album...

There is Jrock music out there which is typically Japanese sounding. The CJK territories tend to use similar melodies and progressions in their music, this style is mostly found in the pop bands. But yeah I agree a lot of VK bands just sound like Western metal bands.

I know Cobra! I have their CD and its really good. AFAIK it was only available in Germany, so I'm guessing you already have it Are they still active?

There was a chinese VK band called Silver Ash, I think they were censored.

I have never seen the Cobra CD in any store, you have a real gem and a rarity in your collection which is probably worth a lot on Ebay (but I would never even consider selling it if I were you!). Hmmm, you cannot make me a copy on CD ROM and send it? Cause no shop here will have it, I never saw it in any store anyway even though Berlin usually does have some really obscure record stores selling rare items.

Cobra unfortunately are not active at the moment. I doubt you can keep such a band going for a long time, because with the censorship they could never promote or organise big concerts or sell their records in a regular way ; this means limited income and without money you cannot keep the band going, apart from the fact that all the censorship issues probably demotivate. Knowing that Cobra was around before internet started, I wonder if new wave was any popular in China or not back in the eighties ; if not then Cobra must have been totally unique in creating such a sound without having previously heard any western new-wave act that could have inspired them.

If you could upload some mp3s from the album, would be superb. I only have a few demos in very bad audio quality

T.M. Revolution and high and Mighty Color

I can't wait for Dir en Grey's new cd to come out. they just announced that they're releasing Uroboros in the US first, before any other country! On. Nov. 11th.
And I'm waiting to hear when X Japan will have its first US concert.