I really like Onitsuka Chihiro, but I haven't heard anything from her in awhile. Does anyone know if she's doing anything new. I heard she was changing her sound to be more rock than pop. Verification please.

Oh, and Kokia is great. "Watashi no taiyou" is really nice. Reminds me of the sea.

Man, I hope the Brilliant Green gets back together soon. From what I've heard, I don't like Tommy Feb6 that much. DAI just broke up, so I haven't been listening to jpop for a while. Any examples of acousticish bands?

Out of curriosity - they're not all J-Pop right? I mean some of those bands listed... arn't they J-Rock? (Like Gackt for example o__O" ...)

Or had I just have it wrong from the start?

Every Little Thing are a rather accoustic band, certainly these days. Their accoustic album released a while back was very good.

Luckee Cookie: Some could be considered J-Rock, yes. The distinction between such things aren't black and white so something can happily be considered J-Pop and J-Rock. It's all down to personal preference I guess.

more liek YUI's "From Me to You" album rocks. I'm a sucker for female alt-rock artists.

Same here. more liek YUI pwns my soul. She's really all I listen to now; everything else is merely exposure.

WHERE YOUR FLAG GO?

OMG you're using a the flag too? okay, I'll put it back!

I think I posted this link earlier (pre-crash) but I might as well post it again:biggrin: It has a few PV's and such, but still a good enough fansite IMHO.

Excellent post !!! I was dreaming of it and you've made it !!!

Just one thing: let's not forget shang shang typhoon...

Thanks. I really do plan on doing a semi-update of the first post at some point, but life is crazy busy for me so it's not been possible to give it the time I need (certainly not with its position in my list of things to get done).

Anyways, new musics ordered. I'm expecting the new Rie fu and Natsumi Abe albums at some point in the not-too-distant future. I've also put in an order for the following:

- Angela Aki - Kiss Me Good-Bye (SINGLE+DVD)(Limited Edition)
- Misachi Kyushima - Vibrato
- May - Wonderland (Korean Single)

The Misachi Kyushima album is another "on a whim" purchase. Never heard any of her stuff so I thought why not, the YUI album working out fantastically well after all. And well MAY's WONDERLAND single I love and I'm hoping the Korean release that came out before the Japanese release, and which has other tracks on, is just as good (plus I can't wait until May for new MAY stuff).

Also, some of you know that I'm a big Do As Infinity fan, but to tell you the truth, I don't really dig Tomiko's new "jazzy" style. I dunno, I think I prefer her rock-ish voice. But so far, the 2 pvs I saw ("Hold Me.." and "Farewell") are ok. I guess we can call it musical maturity on her side.

I have the album on order (and I wish it'd hurry up as it has my copy of the latest MoMusu single in with it) so I'll let you know what I think when that arrives.

oh wow, the first post is very informative and useful.
Just recently I got into Changin' my Life. But then found out they split which sucks.
I've tried to search for Myco solo stuff but haven't been successfull at it.

Thanks OP, that's why you're so awesome, hehe. Also, anybody else listen to Orange Pekoe? They're kinda of jazz/blues band, I only have one album (Modern Lights), and I was wondering if there's some news about any upcoming anything from them?

what are m-flo up to these days? (cant read a word of their website)

nice thread btw. I remember this from way back, its been a great help.

I haven't heard of anything released from them since their concert DVD at Budokan, which was released in February. However, I figure they'll get back to the studio soon enough for some singles, they end up releasing an album about once a year.

Additionally, you can hear Verbal backing up Ryohei Yamamoto on "One Love", the theme to the drama "Kami wa Saikoro wo Furanai".

I'm still sort of confused about whether this is J-Rock discussion as well, but so be it. Rock is popular music so I can get by on that.

Came back from this live last night that was really awesome. It was my first rock concert so it was really exciting for me. The Emeralds, The Rodeo Carburettor, Ellegarden, Stance Punks, PE'Z, and Sushi Mamire all played and they were great. Ellegarden set the house on fire and PE'Z was my favorite or second indefinitely.

If they tour again, you should go see them definitely. Awesome stuff. I'm going to lives more often now :P

PE'Z is the shit. Awesome music! Any news on Hikki's new album?

When you guys refer to "PE'Z", are you talking about Peelander Z? They've a cult-like following on my campus. The come around the area every now and again... but they were here a few weeks ago and I missed them. ;_; I hear their live shows are really great, though.

Not yet. Don't worry, I'll be sure to let you know when I hear anything, most likely by shouting 'woot'. :p

I'm still totally in love with YUI and her album. I've listen to the album over and over and over, obscene numbers of times. And it still rocks my socks.

I TOLD YOU IT ROCKS! It's probably one of those albums that I never tire of (so far, I think). :)

It seems like everyone enjoys YUI's album. I have yet to speak to someone who doesn't. =p

Okay, I'm a newbie to J-Pop and discovered it via Katamari Damacy. I enjoyed most of the music, and how playful it was.
My favorite tracks:

02_Katamari_on_the_Rock_Main_Theme.mp3 - Yu Miyake, Masayuki Tanaka (GREAT intro track. It really waked you up to the far-out feel of the game. Can't get it out of my head sometimes!)

04_The_Moon_and_the_Prince [Stage 02 & Ursa Major Stage].mp3 - Akitaka Tohyama, Kenji Ninuma (Grew on me. I guess it would be alt/rock?)

10_A_Crimson_Rose_and_a_Gin_Tonic [Stage 03].mp3 - Asuka Sakai, Ado Mizumori (Never thought I'd like Japanese Swing/Jazz Music!)

11_WANDA_WANDA [Results Page].mp3 - Yu Miyake (No real lyrics, just techno from a japanese artist, still counts though, just 'safer' if people that'll look at me strange are in the car!)

12_Que_Sera_Sera [Stage 09 & Cygnus].mp3 - Asuka Sakai, Charlie Kosei (This was HILARIOUS! Japanese trying - albeit successfully - to sound like Frank Sinatra!)

14_Katamaritaino [Stage 08 & Corona Borealis Stage].mp3 - Hideki Tobeta, Yui Asaka (Just grew on me. Good feel. Calming. Fun.)

16_Cherry_Blossom_Color_Season [Pisces & Taurus Stage].mp3 - Yu Miyake, Katamari Company Jr. (School kids singing? Why do I love it so??? Heh. Very fun track)

Maybe you'd have some suggestions for stuff akin to this for me? I'll be looking for more by the artists, but don't really know what to look at for similar artists since the styles are really all over the board.
Anyway, hopefully someone's familiar with the OST . . .

As far as I'm concerned, PE'Z is just PE'Z, not Peelander Z or anything like that. They're a jazz band primarily. I actually bought the album they were selling and I was surprised to not have already had it digitally.

I really wanna hear YUI's new album and AKFG's as well, alas, no internet still. Hopefully I can grab them tomorrow.

I've seen the PV for Tiny Tiny Melody, and however beautiful her songs are, it always sounds like there's one note in every Rie Fu song that she never gets all the way too. Its not like she can't sing, but it often sticks out, and I've never really heard of any musical technique causing you to purposely not hit notes like that.

Oh well.

Lies. You didn't tell me about YUI until after I'd listened to it. Cheeky monkey. Agree about it never tiring though. *me sticks in on for the 1000th time*

The new misono (formerly of DAT, sister of one Koda Kumi) PV for her solo effort VS is well worth checking out - http://youtube.com/watch?v=WSc4NhGBwHM. Made me chuckle and it's a pretty decent song too.