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Purple Stone (2013 - present) Vo. keiya (twitter) Ba. 風麻 (FUMA) (twitter) Gt.&Programming. GAK (twitter) Support Dr. スピカ (Spica) (twitter) Purple Stone began their activities on March 30th, 2013, and are based in Osaka. They're currently under the label CRIMZON, a subsidiary of GIZA studio. The band's OHP is here, and their discography here. ========================================== Ok. Now can we talk about how amazing they are?

I disagree that it's pointless news. If you want it badly enough there are always ways to get it - as long as it's a band that operates in Tokyo/Osaka, there's a low but significant chance you can find someone who's going to the live to buy it for you, or even to go to the live on your behalf. I've done that before. People may think it's kinda silly; but if you want it badly enough, who cares what others think? If all else fails, stalk shops/auctions for a copy. If we eliminate all news of live-limited releases, most of us wouldn't even be aware that they exist in the first place. Another point: live-limited releases don't only affect foreign fans, so we should disabuse ourselves of this 'us vs them' notion. I have a friend living in Hokkaido who's a huge Xepher fan but couldn't go for any of their lives until their final one-man where she had to leave her graduation ceremony early to fly down to Osaka from Shin-Chitose. A lot of Japanese fans share our sentiments w.r.t. live-limited releases.

Supply and demand. Also, for most indie bands overseas fans are not of the utmost importance. Some indie bands give no fucks about overseas fans at all, and why should they? We are an unreliable source of income. Indie bands have little money to work with, so they need to cater activities and funds to where they get the most return for their money to continue band activities. Teenagers halfway across the globe do not factor into that at all. If enticing people to come to your concert by releasing a CD available only at that concert brings fans into the hall, more power to them! At the end of the day, continuing band activities takes prime precedence. I don't like them as much as the next person but it's a more viable way to boost ticket sales than releasing a single in multiple types. In that context I can understand why they exist. If the song were made more easily available at a later date, there would be little incentive for live-limited releases. They would lose almost all their "appeal". Now what I don't like are predatory practices in which you have to spend way more money than the song is subjectively worth but this isn't common. A good example of this is during Lycaon's erotic era, where you had to attend three different concerts and bring the stubs to the tour final to get a CD. That sounds like a gigantic pain in the ass and they're using the lure of an exclusive song to get fans to part with money. This kind of activities I don't like, but I can't find it within myself to care if I'm not even the target audience to begin with. Really, the only reason why none of us like them is because it's a pain in the ass for us to acquire most of them. But I don't remember anyone complaining when ALSDEAD released Fragile only in Europe during a tour so it goes both ways.

A potential market is a potential market only if it has potential. I'm going to guesstimate some numbers now to arrive at my conclusion from earlier. Let's assume three things to begin with to make math simpler: Monochrome Heaven is the only community on the internet that cares about visual kei. Everyone that visits MH is a gaijin. Everyone on MH is active and interested in visual kei. MH has 7588 members so let's round that down to 7500. That means that the likelihood of an indie band gaining a fan overseas out of a total of 7 billion people across 196.9 million square miles is 0.00000107142%. If this were distributed across all 196 countries evenly, each country would have approximately 38 fans. Even if I were to estimate the number of fans that would show up to a live, one concert for a reasonably popular visual kei band would have "two overseas countries" worth of fans supporting them (approximately 100). And the band doesn't even have to do anything except aggressively promote themselves within their prefecture(s)! Those numbers are a reasonable representation of the popularity of visual kei in the world. We aren't even the 1% of the 1%! We are not a potential market. We aren't even a market because it's not like there are droves of people lining up to buy their music. So why would a band care about overseas fans when they can see 3x to 4x the returns in a single concert at home? Like any other small-time band, local fans take first priority. Live-limited releases are for the local fans. We're just lucky if one of them happens to share it with us.

The way I've always seen it has partially something to do with Japanese work culture. Every person I know who works in Japan(therefor has money to blow on a million cheki and other goods), might be lucky to have the free time to attend 1 live a week due to the brutal work hours there. By offering something that's live-limited, you're giving that person a reason to go to your live instead of the 10 other lives or whatever that are happening on that same day. Also realize that bands get paid according to how many people enter the venue and say they came for band X(at least in event lives). It doesn't matter if 1000 people showed up for a live, if nobody said they came for band X, then they get no money. So offering live-limited things is another way to get people to say they came for your band and not one of the other bands at the event.

Watching Kazuki and Soushi being a couple of BAMF's in the last two episodes of Fafnir Seriously some pretty awesome mecha action in the last few episodes.

spoiler: it will sound like gazette and everyone waiting for something "fresh" will be disappointed as usual. The chorus from that clip would honestly fit every album they've made since DIM like a glove. The visuals and the other shit are just something extra that Ruki is into personally and don't really reflect anything in particular regarding the music, although the possible Marilyn Manson influence isn't too far fetched... unfortunately. That said, I like everything they've ever made save a few odd songs here and there.

I found the lyrics on Yoshiatsu's (vo.) blog. Japanese, Romaji and my English translation below. 「溺れる魚」 透き通った水槽の世界 こぼした墨はもう掬えない 魚たちは口をひろげて それに浸かっているんだ 金で買える事実 並べられた模型 馴れ合いの踏み台 痛くないくせに 溺れる魚 水槽の中 鳥かごの鳥 窮屈な空 いつしか僕ら気づかないまま 愛も憎しみも 消えて 消えて 暗い ただ ただ ただ テレビに映る 綺麗なものが 僕たちの目を 悪くするんだ わずかに残る 温もりにさえ 値をつけるのだろう？ 消えて 消えて 暗い ただ ただ ただ 溺れる魚 水槽の中 ライトの上に 積もったホコリ スーツのそれは 偉そうにして 英雄を名乗り ここが ここが すべて？ 飛行機が落ちて たくさん死んで テレビの数字 明日には忘れ 幼馴染の よく遊んだ子 自殺したってさ かわいそう そうね 名前も思い出せない さあ 夜には眠ろう 明かり 消して 「本当」の 人は 欲望は 世界は 夜蠢く おやすみ Oboreru Sakana sukitootta suisou no sekai koboshita sumi wa mou sukuenai sakanatachi wa kuchi wo hirogete sore ni tsukatteiru nda kane de kaeru jijitsu naraberareta mokei nareai no fumidai itakunai kuse ni oboreru sakana suisou no naka torikago no tori kyuukutsu na sora itsushika bokura kidzukanai mama ai mo nikushimi mo kiete kiete kurai tada tada tada TEREBI ni utsuru kirei na mono ga bokutachi no me wo warukusuru nda wazuka ni nokoru nukumori ni sae ne wo tsukeru no darou? kiete kiete kurai tada tada tada oboreru sakana suisou no naka RAITO no ue ni tsumotta HOKORI SU-TSU no sore wa erasou ni shite eiyuu wo nanori koko ga koko ga subete? hikouki ga ochite takusan shinde TEREBI no suuji asu ni wa wasure osananajimi no yoku asonda ko jisatsu shita tte sa kawaisou sou ne namae mo omoidasenai sa yoru ni wa nemurou akari keshite ‘hontou’ no hito wa, yokubou wa, sekai wa yoru ugomeku oyasumi Drowning Fish In the transparent world of a fish tank The spilled ink can no longer be extracted The fish open their mouths And are immersed in the ink The truth that money can buy Dolls lined up in a row A stand* of conspiracy Despite the lack of pain The fish drowning in their tank The caged bird in a confined sky Unaware, we don’t even notice Neither love nor hate Fading… It’s the dark reality The beautiful things on television Worsen our vision Do we assign a price To even the little warmth that remains? Fading… It’s the dark reality The fish drowning in their tank The dust gathering on the light The suit looking proud about it Calling himself a hero Is this… All there is? A plane crashes and many die The figures on television forgotten by tomorrow A childhood friend I often played with Committed suicide It’s so pitiful I can’t even remember their name So try to sleep at night Turn off the lights The ‘real’ world, people, desire Squirm in the night Goodnight *fumidai refers to a kind of step ladder, imagine that dolls are arranged on each step.

It wass announced on 13th Anniversary Concert new album ''DOGMA'' will be released on 8/2015 details to be REVEALED. They also played one new song from the Album on the show.

WING WORKS new maxi single "RAVVE OF MY TRINITY" will be released at 2015/05/27 (2 TYPE) TYPE-α (1,890yen) will include CD+DVD, and TYPE-β (1,480yen) will include CD only

new band "Despite from Greed" will hold their first demo live at Ikebukuro EDGE at 2014/12/26, and they will commence their formal activities at their free one-man live "此ノ指止マレ(kono yubi tomare)" at Takadanobaba AREA at 2015/05/29 "Despite from Greed" members: Vo.ZAKU (ex-Xeno Head-->-ASSAULT--->REDRUM, now in I.T.G) Gt.エマ(ema) (ex-Annabyss Coast-->アメリア銀河.(ameria galaxy)(support)) Ba.瑠可(luca) (ex-アメリア銀河.(ameria galaxy)) Dr.Nyaoki-SUN http://despitefromgreed.com/

I'm not sure if live limited releases have always been as common as they are now but it seems most new and underground bands take this kind of approach. Even some of the bigger bands release several live limited stuff. My problem with it is that the music is never available in any other way unless the bands post their songs on youtube or something else. This is obviously bad for overseas fans because they are only limited to a few amount of people that attend their lives. What I want to know is, why not release their music digitally at least so that all of their fans can buy and listen to their music? If manufacturing of cd's is the issue this seems like the obvious thing to do. Do bands just not think about it or could they just not care any less about fans outside of japan? What is your opinion on them?

Ha! So I got Pierrot's Agitator single for a song (¥50!) with my last adumaya-honpo order and check out the "Dictator ID CARD" that came with it: It's credit card plastic too... not some cheap cardboard shit. Definitely going in the wallet.

Blood Music, who released Gallows Gallery on vinyl, will rellease Graveward on vinyl as well, so fans of Sigh and vinyls will have something awesome to look forward to. Some quotes from Blood Music: This is gonna be good. This is gonna be very good!

Still not feeling it. Mostly sounds like any generic American metalcore-poppunk band. The riffs have been done many times before and the drums are so cheesy. The melodic break is decent at least, but not nearly enough to redeem the song. I keep hoping for something as awesome as Mind of the Sun, but I should accept that that's never going to happen.

I find that funny how they put the Arlequin song as regular edition track, so that fans have to buy both editions to hear the new song AND watch their live xD

Yess!

The "potential market" you have in mind is disproportionately larger than the one that actually exists. Making a release easier to get is actually the best way to kill demand since someone can simply buy it and upload a rip publicly or share it with everyone who wants it. Not only are live-limited releases harder to procure, they are also less likely to be shared due to a variety of pragmatic and psychological reasons. (I'll also note here that a good proportion of people who complain about live-limited releases probably won't buy them even if they are a few clicks away, but would instead wait for someone else to buy and upload a rip. I'm not referring to specific people; it's just the way things work today.) Also, don't forget that physical/online CD shops get a cut of the sales, so there's that too. Live tickets have always been and will continue to be the main profit avenue for bands, so it makes the most sense to maximize it. Chekis too, but obviously someone has to be at the live before he/she can buy chekis.

Yell you can be sure, if they take care about other country, they will diband after their first month... because how fan around the world can have a band like Gretel (actually disbanded) ? How many people has bought their single for exemple ? Seriously, it's ridiculous to think than the fan around the world have more power to support the band, if you're not able to going to their live. Ok they can open their mind and try to sell their music for oversea fan.. well imagine they are more popular in other country, how the band can survive if nobody go to their live ? no way ! because they survive only because poeple buy their live ticket, and they attire more pople to their live because they sell cd only for poeple who come to see them in live... Theu didn't care anything about you or other oversea fans, because it's not you who give them the money who they need to continue the band... it's is not the three/four idiot in oversea who can give them a chance to survivre more than one month... If you can't understand that, maybe you are as close-minded than they... LOL ! I mail a lot of band and, (the one who answer me) never same me "'don't ask again" or "don't ask japanese band for help" xD do you already try to contact a band ? Off course, I receive a lot of "sorry, it's only avaible in live venue" and I can understand. But some of band answer me yes (like Gretel or Liberal) they send me the mp3 of their music.

They would maybe make more money. But they simply don't want to try it out. They simply only want to sell/give for free to those who attent the lives. All we can do is accept such thing. sometimes we can be lucky that they will SELL it to you. But 99,999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999% they simply say "no. please don't ask again, please don't ask japanese fan for help"

bask in the deep live-limited one-coin EP "メロウ(mellow) / 露光(rokou)" will be released at their live since Ikebukuro CHOP at 2015/03/18 (500yen) [track list] 01.メロウ(mellow) 02.露光(rokou)

That chorus would fit nearly every song they've written. As for the musical content, I'm expecting what the GazettE has pretty much always done: mid-tempo rock tracks with a few ballads tossed in for variation; but what has me interested is whether they're going to transfer the theme from the teaser to the album, or if it's just marketing. It would be pretty cool with the atmosphere set in the teaser to have an album that compliments it in some form or the other to fit a concept.

New video:

^ just listened Hone and I think it's their best release.

nice live btw, I want to buy the dvd

man, I wish they'd release a DVD one day... edit: rockin' a Depeche Mode cover with minus:

check it guys \m/

In my opinion the album had so many of the old song's, that even though I love those song's it felt like all the fun and excitement of waiting for an album release then finally getting your chance to listen to the album was taken away by hearing song's that made me wonder if this was the new album or just a compilation of their song's playing. I love DIV so it's hard to say bad thing's about them but I just found it so hard to get into an album that feels like they just wanted a reason to put all the old song's on an album. A lot of people probably wont have a problem with this album but personally it just didn't catch me, plus the track placement had a good amount of old song's back to back so I lost interest very quickly.

LETS HEAR IT FOR kyoselflove FOR GIVING US A BIT OF DADAISM TODAY <3

What started out as a rumor quickly became a truth with it's constant trailers and teaser's. Sonic Runners is a new mobile game featuring Sonic & Friends in a somewhat endless runner with it's pro's and con's. What Sonic Runner's is as I stated earlier, an endless runner like it's predecessor "Sonic Dash" or The Overseas version "Sonic Dash S". This game features RPG elements along with a short kiddie esque storyline that revolves around Sonic,Tails and Knuckles stopping Dr.Robotnik from doing what he used to do back in the classic era, Imprison woodland creatures in his machines and whatnot. As far as game play the gameplay is pretty okay, but needs work....alot of work to be exact. There are undodgable obstacles that will frustrate you at almost every turn, not to mention they also have character specific stages. Stages to suit a certain characters playstyle, Sonic - Windy Hill Tails - Sky Stage Knuckles - Volcanic Stage All of these stages are from one of the most recent awful sonic titles named "Sonic Lost Worlds" on the wii u. Anyway's many other characters make their re-appearance such as, Shadow,Silver, Omega, Team Chaotix ect. These characters were only discovered because of modder's and hackers going through the games software and discovering these character files. So The characters are ingame, Sega just wont release them until an event such as Christmas or Easter or some shit. This game's regional releases are only in Canada and Japan, both being released on February 25th of this year. I downloaded this app by getting the apk file and installing it on my phone. You need an internet connection to play though, like Sonic Dash S. What are your thoughts on this?

their new maxi single "罪状「グルトニー」(zaijou「gluttony」)" will be released at 2015/06/24 (2 TYPE, 3 songs, 1,620yen each) [track list] 01.good bye...GODDESS 02.Beautiful +different bonus track

various sessions will perform at Lycaon 緋遊(hiyuu) & 一朗(ichirou) birthday presents live "Dear my… Birth day / Love is 彦根～浴衣Ver.～" at NAGOYA HOLIDAY NEXT at 2015/07/30 "緋遊&一朗祝い隊 今池紅サソリ組" members: Vo.&Gt.渚(nagisa) (ex-Avidit.) Gt.時雨(shigure) (ex-Re:dis) Gt.怜稀(reiki) (ex-Re:dis) Ba.美央(mio) (ex-Lycaon) Dr.いずみ(izumi) (ex-Juliette) "緋遊&一朗祝い隊 メルヘン組" members: Vo.うきる(ukiru) (ex-Juliette) Gt.涼太(ryouta) (ex-Avidit.) Ba.マキ(maki) (ex-ワン★スター(One Star)) Dr.いずみ(izumi) (ex-Juliette) "緋遊&一朗祝い隊 GIFU組" members: Vo.トライチ(toraichi) (ex-ワン★スター(One Star)) Gt.三浦憂(miura yuu) (ex-ワン★スター(One Star)) Ba.マキ(maki) (ex-ワン★スター(One Star)) Dr.いずみ(izumi) (ex-Juliette) ex-MoNoLith members session "緋遊&一朗祝い隊" will perform at Lycaon 緋遊(hiyuu) & 一朗(ichirou) birthday presents live at Shibuya REX at 2015/07/22 "緋遊&一朗祝い隊" members: Vo.柳(ryuu) (ex-MoNoLith) Gt.Naoto (ex-AMARANYX, PSYCHE-プシュケ-) Gt.Masahito (ex-AMARANYX, PSYCHE-プシュケ-) Ba.たかふみ(takafumi) (ex-MoNoLith) Dr.HAYATO (ex-MoNoLith)

"昏睡(konsui)" [CD track list] 01.弔いの鐘(tomurai no kane) 02.ANITYA 03.NAMU AMIDA BUDDHA. 04.ARE YOU READY? (included in regular edition) 05.MAD MAX 06.REMEMBER ME [limited edition TYPE A DVD track list] 01.ANITYA Video Clip 02.ANITYA Video Clip -鋲(byou) ver.- 03.ANITYA Video Clip -和己(kazuki) ver.- 04.ANITYA Video Clip -マナブ(manabu) ver.- 05.ANITYA Video Clip -ジン(jin) ver.- 06.ANITYA Video Clip -MAKING- [limited edition TYPE B DVD track list] <STUDIO LIVE SHOOTING> 01.Barbed wire 02.FUGLY 03.ANITYA 04.Teardrop 05.Get You Back

DOGMA SPOT!! BEGINING OF THE DARK AGE PROJECT! THIS GIVES ME GOOSEBUMBS"!!

ESP VIPER 330 Got this last year.

Holy shit this week's episode of Shigatsu was super heavy... man that was tough to get through without tearing up a bit. The more I watch the more I think that the show is going down the "bad end" route and is gonna be super sad and will make me cry a lot. Also the most recent two episodes of Death Parade were superb, and really well done.

YES YEEES YEEEEEESSS

lord do you have any idea of how expensive recording studio equipment is or the expertise required to mix and master? anyone can record at home but it's gonna sound like you recorded at home. being a working musician is a full time job. you can't hold down a 9-5 and be travelling the country whilst soundchecking/publicising/practising/recording/mastering throughout the day and playing gigs at night. ok ayn rand ok marx a lot of musicians love performing. but even more musicians love eating and being able to pay rent. how dare these musicians charge us, the fans!, for taking time out of their schedule to pretend to be interested in hugging you. ---- crowdfunding is the future, while it is open to abuse, it pretty much self-regulates as most fans aren't willing to be stung twice on musicians who promise and don't deliver or musicians who con (amanda palmer). crowdfunding gives fans a chance to help from the ground up new music/live tours/etc - and I hope it'll be really embraced within the vk community in japan after this as a way of getting overseas fans to finally put their money where their mouths are with complaining about accessibility to music. however i won't be contributing to alice nine's as they are trash

I think crowdfunding can definitely be done right. A while ago the VK band Lacroix Despheres started up an indiegogo campaign for their 3rd album. It was going to be released either way, but they were raising money in order to increase the album budget and hopefully work with Video Game Orchestra to get a live orchestra on their new album. I ended up tossing in $35 to get a signed CD and some goodies, which I though was a pretty fair price. Unfortunately overseas VK fans are uber cheap and they only got a total of 33 backers with an average amount of about $35 per person totaling up to $1140(with ~$6131 donated through the Japanese crowdfunding site MotionGallery). Now they didn't end up hitting their goals to record with a live orchestra. I guess you could say that the campaign "failed", but they still get that money to help increase the production values, which is good. The way I look at crowd-funding stuff like this is just a glorified pre-order system where you get to choose your own pre-order bonus. I think it's a great system for smaller bands who can't get the backing of labels, but still want to do the best that they can. Honestly, I would absolutely love it if more indie VK bands would jump on the bandwagon.