July 11th - Fillmore at Irving Plaza - New York, NY July 12th - Warped Tour - Hartford, CT July 14th - Warped Tour - Columbia, MD July 16th - Sonar - Baltimore, MD July 19th - Showbox at The Market - Seattle, WA July 20th - Hawthorne Theatre - Portland, OR July 25th - Grand Ballroom at the Regency Center - San Francisco, CA July 27th - Wasted Space at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino - Las Vegas, NV July 29th - Soma - San Diego, CA August 1st - Wiltern Theater - Los Angeles, CA 90010
Vamps is a new side project from L'Arc-en-Ciel front-man Hyde and Oblivion Dust guitarist K.A.Z.
K.A.Z. has flitted around many other outside projects in his time, both before and after Oblivion Dust's break up, and now once again during the band's recent re-formation. He's worked with the band Hide with Speed Beaver, with singer Anna Tsuchiya in her Spin Aqua band, with L'Arc bassist Tetsuo in TETSU69, as well on Hyde's own solo material.
Hyde himself is certainly no newcomer to the whole rockin' vampire shtick. He starred as a vampire alongside Gackt, another occasionally goth pretty boy, in the film Moon Child. Of course here it would seem more likely that the band is shooting for the slightly kitschy interpretation of "vamp," aiming for a dark and sexy femme fatale mood.
As a band, Vamps are still extremely young. In fact, as of this writing they have yet to release their first two song single for "Love Addict." The songs on the single sounds exactly like your typical up-tempo L'Arc track, perhaps a bit looser and bluesy. Hyde's vocal delivery isn't any different from his other efforts and the overall feel and production is the same. The music is still hard edged pop rock, with lavish production full of up-front guitars and Hyde's bold and syrupy vocals. The same air of elegant style and a commercial/glam fashion sense are just as prominent as they are in L'Arc.
It feels like Vamps are simply a place holder for L'Arc while they take their thee year hiatus. At any rate, this is certainly good news for L'Arc fans, as they will have plenty of new music to listen to in the meantime.
J-Pop and J-Rock are only the beginning. The modern Japanese music scene is just as vibrant and varied as any other music scene in the world. I'm Zac Bentz, writer, musician, designer and all around Japanese music fanatic. Here I hope to share with you a comprehensive (!!) list of Japanese artists and bands (with a strong focus on underground and indie acts) that you may or may not have heard of, in the hopes of expanding our mutual awareness of Japanese music.
I don't mean to suggest that everything I listen to is great. Quite the contrary, I hope that you will take the time to recommend your own favorite artists in the comments so that we can all learn a bit more about the huge range of Japanese music that's out there.
"The best Japanese music blog in the world." - Door Slam "Definitely a must-visit for J-pop and J-rock fans!" -The Otaku "Zac Bentz loves music. A lot." -Japanator "Very cool!" -J-ENT "...one of the foremost blogs and information centers on all J-pop and J-rock...the top source for tour information on Japanese bands in the US..." -YankeeOtaku "Wer mehr darüber wissen will, der sollte sich mal hier umschauen, ein sehr gutes J-Music Blog übrigens." -CommandSheep "...very well-written, and there’s an excellent range of artists...a useful resource." -International Wota "не плохая энциклопедия японских исполнителей/групп" -Diary.ru "Great resource for Japanese music fans who want to explore today's J-rhythms beyond Johnny's Entertainment bishonen music and anime music. XD" -Kaishi "If you are a J-Rock fan, [ZB's A-Z] is a must see." -Crunchyroll community "Otaku USA magazine finally got wise and hired Zac Bentz as a J-music contributing editor."-Radicalpatriot "Reviews practically every Asian band that has ever created a recording."- Zallie "Gewährt spannende Einblicke in die japanische Musikszene." -Laut.de
