When I first heard that Polysics was going to be on the new L'Arc~en~CielTribute album, I was excited. Of course I'm always excited about Polysics. Then I saw the rest of the line-up and, well, I had to triple check.
Listed among a hand-full of other Japanese bands were rather more incongruous names. Names like Michael Monroe (Hanoi Rocks), Eric Martin (Mr. Big) and John 5 (Marilyn Manson) (itself a head-scratching paring), Vince Neil (Mötley Crüe), TLC and, get this, Boyz II Men.
Yep.
If that all sounds a little weird, well, so is the album. I'm not a huge L'Arc fan, but I do like some of their more rockin' songs. This album is not rockin'. In the slightest. It's mostly washed-up has-beens sucking the life out of songs that didn't have much life to spare. For crying out loud, Vince Neil sings the super-saccharine "Blurry Eyes" and not "Shout at the Devil." Sure, it's not the same iconic metal anthem that Crüe rode high on through the '80s, but still it was a giant missed opportunity. (I should also point out that much of this tribute is sung in English. Another jolt to the system.)
Ah well, at least Polysics managed to produce a really heavy, noisy take on "Seventh Heaven," a track otherwise totally out of place in this collection of zombies sluggishly devouring L'Arc's brains.
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.
It's almost impossible to add anything new to the staggering amount of information concerning one of the biggest pop-rock bands in Japan. When every breath and bowel movement of a band is meticulously recored and logged by its millions of fans, there's really no reason for anyone else to even bother. Besides, if anyone dares to do anything less than heap praise after praise on the band, one runs the risk of disappearing quietly and mysteriously from the face of the planet.
That doesn't mean that a band like L'Arc-en-Ciel doesn't deserve an entry here on the A-Z. Besides, I like them. Quite a bit, in fact. Not enough to dare call myself a fan, but yeah, I think Hyde has his moments and some of their songs are excellent.
So, just in case you've been living under a huge rock (a.k.a. anywhere other than Japan, Japanese music blogs or anime cons), and are completely incapable of using Google, here goes.
L'Arc-en-Ciel ("rainbow" in French) was formed in 1991 by bassist Tetsuya Ogawa. While they started out as a very visual band (a.k.a. vis-kei) they vehemently deny ever having anything to do with the genre, even walking off stage after an MC dared to call them such. To their credit, their music sounds (both then and now) nothing like the atypical vis-kei. Perhaps "glam" would be a better word to describe their early days.
While their outer appearance may have changed over the past 16 or so years, their music has not. Not in the slightest. Sure, they slide through a few genres on a song or two from album to album, breaking out of their usual arena rock for a trip into electro-town, but overall they play the same songs in the same way with the same signature style. Which is just fine. Their songs are often very strong and driving, with powerful singing from Hyde and solid backing by the band. Over the years they've become slightly more heavy and dark, yet they still focus mainly on the slower, syrupy ballads. When you buy a L'Arc album, you already know what to expect.
Perhaps this is why they've managed to last as long as they have. While they certainly don't take any risks, they do manage to keep the bar set rather high. For a band driven so much by the industry, they do manage to produce a lot of music worth more than their good looks. I mean "Jiyuu Eno Shoutai" is a damn good song. Actually all of Awake (2005) is impressive.
With the amount of momentum that L'Arc-en-Ciel has behind it, they could very well keep on rolling for another 20 years. The fans will certainly be there for them, and as long as the fans are there, so will the major label backing. L'Arc-en-Ciel may be the first entity in history to have invented the perpetual motion machine.
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.
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