(A shorter version of this article appeared in the Huffington Post)
The 3 girls of Babymetal look as if they are en route to a friend’s fancy dress party. All frills and red and black and silver. This is what I am looking at just before they go on stage to deliver, some 2 hours and 15 minutes later, one of the best concerts I can remember. Never have stage persona and real person been so mutually exclusive.
As many visitors to my once world famous food blog know I almost poisoned myself cooking with Fairy Liquid. As a consequence of this near death experience I must have suffered brain damage because all I’ve been doing since is writing about Japanese music. Aside from the obvious Babymetal, another band that really caught my ear in 2014 was the terribly controversial ‘anti girl’ Idolcore band called Brand New Idol Society. Continue reading
Miyavi is probably most famous over here for his role as the sadistic prison guard Mutsuhiro Watanabe in Angelina Jolie’s film Unbroken. But he is a killer guitarist with a most unusual style. Miyavi has toured over 250 shows across 30 countries and even opened for the magnificent Lenny Kravitz. I was lucky enough to catch up with him to talk about tattoos, headbanging children and his role in Unbroken.
Miyavi’s responses unless otherwise stated.
“Can you see the Death Star from The Big Dipper constellation?” asks Eimi from Dempagumi.inc (or simply Dempagumi). She is (of course) referring to a comic named North Star: “In the first of the North Star comic there is a faint star in the Big Dipper and if you can see it with the naked eye, death is upon you”.
Ling Tosite Sigure (AKA Sigure) returned to the UK to play London’s Inigo at the O2 on Saturday July 11.
“Hi everyone, we are Ling Tosite Sigure. Please enjoy our crazy Japanese sound. Thank you” announces lead guitarist and singer Toru ‘TK’ Kitajima, just before the band embarks on 45 minutes of one of the most compelling live shows I have seen recently.
Not be confused with the British band of the same name, this Japanese rock act have been making quite an impression internationally with their brand of hard rock and unique image.
I was fortunate to catch up with them online and asked founding members HYDE and K.A.Z their thoughts on vampires, time travel and, erm, internet marketing. Continue reading
Scandal are a Japanese all-girl rock band and while relatively unknown on our shores, are bigger than the proverbial Godzilla in their home country. The group have sold out practically every leg of their current world tour, including 2 nights at the mighty 20,000 capacity Budokan in Tokyo and were in the UK to play a capacity concert at the Islington O2 Academy on April 26.
I’m off to Malaysia for an epic two week adventure of stuffing myself with amazing food and getting a proper sun tan cos it’s about 90 degrees and sunny as f*ck! Yay!
But before I do I thought I’d share my thoughts on what Japanese bands are going to create a stir in 2015 because, well, because I feel like it.
BABYMETAL return to the UK for another round of genre-bending, guitar shredding, unbridled mayhem in front of another sold-out London audience.
After I managed to dry out from the biblical downpour before the show I was afforded the chance to watch BABYMETAL, the Japanese J-pop/metal hybrid, from many vantage points on Saturday November 8 2014; high up in the balcony, the peripherals of the stage, on top of several other people after the infamous ‘wall of death’ collapsed during ‘Ijime, Dame, Zettai’ (‘No more bullying, never’ obviously) and I can honestly say with not a hint of irony, BABYMETAL smashed it this night. Continue reading
Najinsan!!!!!!!!! 