Largely unknown until she became involved in Studio Ghibli's Gedo Senki (adapted from Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea novels), Teshima Aoi is the voice of Therru in the movie. She also sings the song which can be heard both trailers. That song, Teru no Uta (or Therru's Song), became her first single and was released in June this year. Its lyrics are ( Read more... )

If you follow the Japanese music, fashion, anime or movie scenes, chances are that you've heard of Nana. The story revolves around two girls, both named Nana, one of whom is the vocalist of a punk rock band while the other, well, is not. I could go into more detail, but then, you would never be able to shut me up. I'll just say that I love it. (My ( Read more... )

Sorry, everyone, for the lack of updates. I've been taking advantage of the holidays to go travelling a bit, and haven't had many days with internet at all. Here is a little something to pass the time while the rest of the rotation gets uploaded and written up. after_tears, the re-upload will be posted later too ( Read more... )

He may still be more obscure in the jrock scene than other solo artists, but Takui's popularity has risen dramatically over the last few years. More jrock fans tend to have heard of him, making Takui-related media much less difficult to come by. Takui composes his own music and writes beautiful lyrics unlike what one would typically expect. As a ( Read more... )

The jrock band L'Arc~en~Ciel probably needs no introduction, so I will just preface these tracks by saying that they are Nobuyuki Hirakura's acoustic guitar covers of twelve Laruku songs. They're very different from the originals, obviously, but I enjoy listening to them a lot. In fact, I found myself noticing parts of the originals that escaped me ( Read more... )

The Boom is a Japanese band which began with punk rock roots. Changes began in 1990, when vocalist Miyazawa Kazufumi visited Okinawa for a photo shoot and was drawn in by its culture, history and music.

I went to Okinawa to take some photos for The Boom's third album, to a very beautiful and natural area called Yanbaru and for the first time saw a ( Read more... )

As requested by a friend, here are Remioromen's Ether and Horizon. This Japanese rock band consists of Fujimaki Ryota on vocals and guitar, Maeda Keisuke on bass and Jinguji Osamu on drums. The band name has no particular meaning; I remember reading somewhere that it was the result of each member choosing random characters and meshing them together ( Read more... )

I found Famureuta in a bargain bin while CD-shopping. After hazarding a guess about Natsukawa Rimi's musical style from the cover, I decided I might as well give her a try. A google search when I returned home revealed that she was an Okinawan musician born on Ishigaki island, and had (as artists tend to do) covered Shimauta. I chuckled to myself, ( Read more... )

I listen to jrock more than I do jpop, but I seem to have been neglecting jrock on this journal. Here is something to make up for that.

Another Story was my first JDA album, and was the one that convinced me to listen to albums as a whole. Up until that point, I only owned compilation CDs (most of them were 'best of' collections), and it took ( Read more... )

Requested by a friend. Fayray is a Japanese artist, but lived enough of her life in the US that her English is fairly good. Craving is an earlier album of hers, and I would describe it as typical pop more than anything else. If you want something more upbeat, you may like to try a song or two.

Her style has evolved over time, however, and ( Read more... )