Japanese Music

[Kyjin]

I'm such a J-rock fan. ^_^ Some of my faves:

L'arc~en~ciel: They did the second opening for FMA, one of the Kenshin openings, and Gundam 00 opening. Their music is very catchy, and they put on amazing concerts. (Otakon 2004!!)

MUCC- Heavy J-rock

Orange Range- Some of my favorites are the opening and ending for Code Geass as well as the Hana-Kimi opening. (Jdrama) They have a wide range of voices, so their music can be varied.

manzo- Did the Genshiken openings. I'm trying to find more by them, but haven't gotten around to it yet.

[Mih]

Miyavi - Got a love him <3 J-rock/pop, but latly aslo rap hip-hop ish music.

Last Aliance - Did the ending to ouran, but is a good band too.

Dir en gray - erm.. J-rock VK

Asian kung fu-generation - Pop/punk maby? dunno, good atleast.

Polysics - kind of fun music, electro/pop

Judy and marry - some people like em, not a big fan myself

LM.C - Love em, Think one of Mavis gitarist is in this band, (if I'm not wrong). Kind of mixed, but J-rock/pop litle bit VK

An Cafe - Like em, haven't heard there newest album thou (since bou left, or how it's spelled)

[lilatta75]

Beat Crusaders
Asian kun fu-Generation
Yui
Theres a few more for ya ^^

[Sandbar]

Crikey!!!

You guys sure know your Japanese music. Thanks lilatta75, NemesisFated, Gallarn, tenkenX6 (lots of JPop and JRock stuff there!! COOL!), Kyjin and Mih!

I reckon I would love the catchy JPop/JRock stuff personally - the kind of stuff catchy anime tunes are made out of. hehehe

Thanks again!

[Garyuu]

I think A-bee is really cool too if you like more techno type stuff.

He did a remix of the Lucky Star OP, which is awesome. Motteke! Knee Socks

Originally Posted by Worosei

ahh!!! not maximum the hormone!
:p
sorry i dont have much love for them... the real japanese metal:

Sigh - pure *ucking spectacularly awesome black metal. They are pretty much one of the only black metal bands today that are still good, and not living off their old name

Galneryus - really awesome power metal, often to compared to sonata arctica... syuu is sheer brilliant with the guitar... and they do the op/ed for mnemosyne... and their english is pretty decent actually... the english for sigh doesnt count as its all growling :p

animetal - just for laughs if u've seen some of those anime - they're really good, but it's more for fun

and then there's the popular Anthem and Loudness.

I also quite like Malice Mizer...

in terms of the jpop stuff, i dont really know much outside those that do music for anime, and the really mainstream ones such as the irritating ayumi hamasaki and Yui


What sort of music do u normally listen to?

I just listened to Sigh. They are pretty good. It is pretty cool that they have a sax player. Plus, I like that they have quite a few of their songs on there. I'm currently listening to the song Inked In Blood.

[Worosei]

Sorry mostly off topic: Yeah Hangman's Hymn is far more thrashy than their earlier stuff, but its awesome..

AND HECK YES FINLAND FOR EUROVISION 08!!! \m/!!!! Though no offence, Finland has so much better metal... Nightwish almost made it to eurovision didnt they a few years back? And what's happened to Lordi... they seemed to have faded out
Man though, one day i'm going to have to make a pilgrimage to Sweden, Finland and Norway. Sweden for melo-death, Norway for black, and Finland cause there's something in the water there that makes the people crazy and produces the best freakin metal.... I mean Amorphis, Children of Bodom (hurrah they're coming to aus!), Ensiferum, Finntroll, Moonsorrow, Nightwish, Sonata Arctica...


And Japan, pop and punk seems weird... like TommyFebruary6 making a new persona to be punk, L'arc en Ciel making a new persona to be more punk (though they already are prety punk)...

Also, i really like Mami Kawada, she's kinda industrial and punk, and i dont think she has much stuff, but from shakugan no shana, i think she's pretty awesome...

In fact... the only non-metal i really listen to comes from anime...and then pop and punk are genres i dont really like... go figure...

Though one thing i noticed is that even the pop songs have pretty complicated musical arrangements... which is different form a lot of modern pop which just seems to like synthesised sounds

edit: im trying to listen to MUCC... Zetsubou sounds like it wants to be Smells Like Teen Spirit... which is really bad

[AverageShinigami]

Originally Posted by Worosei

I mean Amorphis, Children of Bodom (hurrah they're coming to aus!), Ensiferum, Finntroll, Moonsorrow, Nightwish, Sonata Arctica...

Wintersun! I'm sure you've heard of it, though. Jari Mäenpää's (ex-Ensiferum) almost-solo project.

Teräsbetoni is a pretty fun/funny band, but I find the idea of them at Eurovision strangely disturbing. Though I guess Eurovision is quite disturbing in and of itself.

I'm completely off-topic now...

[Sandbar]

Originally Posted by Worosei

I mean Amorphis, Children of Bodom (hurrah they're coming to aus!), Ensiferum, Finntroll, Moonsorrow, Nightwish, Sonata Arctica...

You from Australia, Worosei?

Okay, I guess the next question is how can I listen to all these bands you've told me about? hehe My first guess would be Youtube...., anyone got any links for me? I'm in the mood for some hilarious JPop/JRock. hehe

Cheers!

[Worosei]

those bands listed are Finnish bands... i was just getting massively offtopic...
so i'll keep my offtopicness in spoiler format

I dunno, im not a massive fan of Wintersun, i love jari's voice, and i like the raw power of Wintersun... but i just prefer the more 'musical' elements of Ensiferum more and i surprisingly really like Petri...
Its funny, Ensiferum wouldn't have taken off if it wasnt for Jari, yet they retain a more 'viking' feel that i just really like. Wintersun also just feels a little too much of the same after a while... the only problem is buying cds are so damn expensive when they're import... and i doubt they'd ever come to australia :(

I'm not too sure where to dl most japanese music, legal or illegal, but i guess torrents work... Not sure which city ur in Sandbar but for j-music, Kinokuniya (do they have other in aus/syd or just the one in cbd?) or JB hifi has a decent collection. JB has almost everything and for cheaper... Though

In terms of dl, for metal stuff soulseek is probably the best, i dunno how much japanese pop stuff though, im sure there are separate japanese file-sharing things...

Also it also may help searching using the japanese names/characters of some artists, you can get more hits, it just may be harder to navigate :p

For anime music Gendou is pretty much the best as they have most op/ed for most animes to dl for free.. (i dunno how legal it is but somehow i think it may be)

[Sandbar]

Gendou - okay no probs, I'll check it out.

Thanks so much for your suggestions, Worosei!

I'll have to go and visit JB hifi next time I'm in Adelaide (which should be soon!). I'm out in the country with the sheep and the cows. :-(