(Ms.) Tomo Kimura’s Translation/Tokyo Notes

I was at Studio Cube 326 yesterday for this event, yesterday being a national holiday here. The concept of this event is: “Tokyo Alice, an avant-garde state by Tokyo girls for Tokyo girls. A choice cult program which reflects the reality of girls in Tokyo, and fired at this chaotic, difficult-to-live world. A romantic and homey Tokyo Girls’ State provided for girls who have nowhere to go.”

I was there for the second half, so I saw two lives. Zombie Lolita was a death metal band where girls wear lolita clothes and paint their face like zombies. And shout. Urbangarde started out sounding somewhat like Pizzicato Five, but in the next song, the male vocalist started throwing packets of condoms into the audience, shouting “Protect your virginity!” (@_@)

In between was a burlesque show where the dancer ended up in just her purple bra and thong (and you could see a big butterfly tattoo just above the thong on the back). She was one sexy lady (^^)

Together with the DJ time, the event was an interesting mix of various performances.

I was at Daikanyama Unit for this live on Saturday. This unit consists of KEN.MORIOKA (ex. soft ballet) and Deguchi Masayuki (ex. Grass Valley). At his solo live in August, Moriken-san mentioned that they decided to name themselves this not after the Japan song “Gentlement Take Polaroids”, but because they wanted to do music aimed at an older audience. And the words and music reflected that. The music was a mixture of rock and pop, with some jazzy and latin songs mixed in too. The majority of the audience was late thirtyish-early fortyish, so it looked like they were right on target.

I was at Studio Cube 326 yesterday for this gothic & lolita club event. A friend and I went dressed in black, but when we got there, we realized we looked…uh, plain…compared to the majority of the audience. There were lolita-chans wearing mounds of lace, gothic madams and aristocrats, couples wearing futuristic cyber costumes, and girls wearing feathered corsets. A lot of them were the “did you take the train here wearing that?” type of clothes.

There were several lives with DJ times in between. The stage had a runway sticking out in the center, so during the DJ time, you could climb up on the runway and dance. The special guest live was HeavensDust, and this was their last live in Japan before they head for an extended stay in the U.S. Pudding Alamode, a girl duo that the company that runs the event is producing, did their debut live. I saw five bands, and one was goth-rock (poetry reading was combined with the songs), while Seileen was goth/classical.

There was a Dangerous Nude fashion show as well. The shop specializes in corsets, so most of the fashion featured corsets in various colors.

Amongst all the flyers I got at yesterday’s live was a black envelope with the Kalafina logo on it. Inside was a “Yoroshiku onegaishimasu” message from Kajiura-san mentioning the release of the second single, that there’re four vocalists from the second single, and how much fun she’s having creating works for Kalafina.

I just got back from her second live at Shibuya O-East. (The first one was held in April, but when I found about it, tickets had already sold out.)

The opening act was kalafina, who sings the theme songs for the movie Kara no Kyoukai. The second single, sprinter/ARIA dropped yesterday, so they were four for the first time, and sang four of the five songs.

For the main live, the vocalists were Kaida Yuriko, Kaori, Keiko, and Wakana. They sang songs from soundtracks such as the various .hack works, Portrait of Petit Cosette, NOIR, and Aquarian Age. Kajiura-san had posted the “lyrics” for Aquarian Age in her blog, so you could practice the Kajiura-ese and sing along.

Ito Eri appeared as guest vocalist, and she sang songs from tsubasa chronicle and Xenosaga2.

The first time I heard Kajiura-san’s work was in NOIR, so I was very happy I got to hear Kaida-san sing “canta per me” and “salva nos”.

Because there were four vocalists for each song, you got to hear the beautiful thickly-layered choruses that’s so distinctive of her works. And the band had a violinist playing, which was great with songs like “the world” and “canta per me”.

Kajiura-san promised there will be a third live. There was also an announcement that a DVD of today’s live will be released sometime this fall.

Visual-kei CDs come with all sorts of extras, and the omake you get may differ depending on where you buy your CD. Some visual-kei/indies CD shops offer their own omake too. I wonder how many fans buy multiple copies to get the different extras…

I usually go to 自主盤倶楽部 in Shinjuku for new CDs, and to the nearby closet child for used CDs.

An Cafe’s new album came with a set of photo postcards:

Neu’s new single came with an autographed photo:

I hope people don’t mind these non-manga entries. Not every tankobon has notes that need to be written up, so I’ve decided to write a bit more about my life in Tokyo.

I just got back a while ago from the live at Omotesando FAB.

I first saw Moriken-san at a techno event in 2006, when he appeared as a surprise guest DJ. After that I started to listen to soft ballet and some of his solo works.

Today it was him on keyboards, his brother on guitar, and two guys supporting him with a Mac, DJ equipments and lots of controllers. The set was about half instrumental.

The first encore had Deguchi Masayuki (ex Grass Valley) as guest vocalist. The two will be teaming up to do some stuff this year. If you have the Tokyo Babylon Single Triple, Grass Valley has one song (”My Lover”) as Seishirosan’s image song.

I just got their first CD, 音を孕む (Oto wo Haramu - Pregnant with Sound). This is Fujii Maki (ex-soft ballet)’s new unit. The music is very Japanese/Asian, with an ambient pop feel.

Other recent purchases: Kagrra’s Core, Perfume’s Baby Cruising Love, and 人格ラヂオ’s 朧月 (a Tower Records exclusive for now).

A huge kissing photo of the L’Arc en Ciel members for their new single:

At the bottom are life-size pics of the members so you can become the fifth member and take photos together with them.

I went to Tower Records to pick up my copy of the indies band The.Last’s album, which dropped today. I also picked up a copy of Alice Nine’s new album. I got a poster when I paid for it, got a ticket for a lottery, and got different poster (^^)

I went to this event, which was held at club asia in Shibuya, last month. It was held on the day Matsuoka Hideaki’s 20th anniversary best album (2CDs+DVD) went on sale.

If you’ve seen the Tokyo Babylon OVAs or listened to the soundtracks, you’ve heard some of his songs. The live started with Matsuoka-san wearing a gorgeous princely costume. He then appeared as TV-NOIZ, a techno trio with him, a DJ, and a VJ, plus two dancers dressed up as maids. (I saw TV-NOIZ at a techno event last year, and they did his songs in punched-up techno style.) The last third was done rock-band style, with him and guitar/bass/drums.

He sang the theme songs from the OVAs, “Kiss Kiss” and “Deja Vu”. I didn’t think I’d get to hear the songs performed live, almost 15 years after the series has ended.