I had to write a report of roughly four-five pages for one of my english classes, and this is what i ended up with. The topic is as the title says, online music piracy and its supposed and real effects on the industry. I know it’s not such a great writing, but derp.
The Crazy Rider 横浜銀蝿 Rolling Special
昨夜変ゼミの最終話を翻訳した。そのなか車のラジオからいいロックンロール曲が流れた。ラジオのディスプレイに書いてあったのは「横浜銀蝿」ってバンドの「羯徒毘璐薫狼琉」って曲だった。当然曲名はそのまま読めなかったし、もしかして本当にある曲かなと、グーグった（グーグる、グーグって、グーグります、グーグればなど、グーグルで検査するって意味）。タイトルの読み方は「愛餓斗魔羅姐」と似たように「かっとびロックンロール」だ。こう漢字の読み方だけ使って言葉を書くことはもうであったことあるから、びっくりはしない。けど、それは本当にある曲、それに本当にいい曲だとはちょっとびっくりした。
気に入ったんで色々調べて、数個のシングルはユーチューブなどネットで見つけた（聞きつけた）し、ほとんどの曲は同じくいい感じのちょっとパンクっぽいロックンロールで、アマゾンから一番新しいベストオフアルバムを買っちゃった。まだ届いてないけど。
軽音部でも横浜銀蝿を知ってる人はいるから、合宿とかでやろうかなと思ってる。この感じのベースはマジ楽しいし。（楽譜まだ探してないけど。）
Artas – Riotology
As the Angry Metal Guy points out, Riotology by Artas might not be the most original piece of music in any way, it’s still good. You won’t hear anything that In Flames or Killswitch Engage or anything close to those lines haven’t done before, but the solution to that is simple: don’t expect anything original. Mediafada, etc.
L’Arc~en~Ciel is not visual kei
As i learnt on friday.
We had a club dinner and many of the new first-years were there too. One of them mentioned that he likes L’Arc~en~Ciel and asked me if i knew it. (Yeah, every japanese is surprised when i reveal that i actually do know a bit of the japanese music scene, even if it’s really just a bit. Of course they are first and foremost surprised by the fact that i can communicate in japanese without destroying all cultural conventions. Or at all, for that matter.) I was like, sure, i’ve heard about it, and probably heard a few songs, but i’m not really into visual kei…
I assumed that L’Arc was kind of visual kei from the fact that most of my acquaintances who like the band are into viskei bands a bit too creepy for my tastes.
The face of the first-year in question showed his thoughts. First: “did he really just say that?”, then “did he really intend to say that?”, then “how am i supposed to tell a scary gaijin senpai that he’s stupid?”. Then another guy told me, “L’Arc fans get mad when told that”…
Thus i learnt that L’Arc~en~Ciel is not visual kei. The hard way. Okay.
卒業ライブ
週末(金曜~日曜)は軽音楽部の卒業ライブだった。ただし、3日間のライブの前に2日間の準備もあって、そして月曜も片付けで、合計6日間で結構しんどかった。でもこれは卒業生の先輩たちの最後のライブでみんな盛り上がって楽しかった。飲み会もいろいろ話できてよかった。
俺もライブに出演したが、6回生の先輩を中心にするランシドのコピーバンドは一日目の第2番で、曲も二つしかやってなかったのでなんか出てなかったって感じになっちゃう。
先輩方の上手さは相変わらずすごい。日本のバンドそんなに詳しくないのでそれはオリジナルと比較できないけど、数少ない洋楽のバンド(例え今回はLed Zeppelin、Mötley Crüe、Story of the Yearなどがあって)で俺にも分かる。後3年で俺もそんなに上手くなれるかな…ま、一応練習頑張る。今もIron MaidenのAces Highのベース・ボーカル練習してる。
Stratovarius + Helloween @ Namba Hatch
Sunday was the day of my first real gig in the year, Helloween with guest Stratovarius in Namba Hatch, Osaka.
Getting there was a bit troublesome, because i started out late and i also forgot my ticket at home so by the time i got there, Stratovarius were already in the middle of their first song. Shame on me.
The Stratovarius tracklist was pretty amazing. They played great songs, like Legions, Twilight Symphony, Forever and Hunting High and Low among others. The only problem was it felt way too short, they played “only” for an hour or so.
After a break came Helloween. I couldn’t really enjoy the first two songs (both from the most recent album), because some guy behind me was screaming into my ears like a madman. Later however i let a six-or-so years old little boy sit on my shoulder so he could see at least one song.
The Helloween tracklist wasn’t as good as i hoped, but it had many of their classics, and also a medley of their longer songs like Keeper of the Seven Keys and Halloween. Even after the so-so start with recent songs, later the show turned great. The japanese seemed unfamiliar with the “happy happy Helloween” chant, so i showed them that too.
To put it short: fun!
On music pirates
Reading an article on the topic on Ars made me think. The graphs there show that the overwhelming percentage of music pirates are teens—which can be either because they are the new generation that grew up on the net, or because they don’t have enough money to buy all the music they want. Yet.
More or less still kids i guess at first they just start downloading music because they can and they will of course try it, since it’s free, and it gets you good music. It’s obvious that free samples to good to sales: all online music stores have previews. Just consider teen piracy as a preview. They get what they want, check it out, love it or hate it, and probably when they have money they’ll go to the live performances of the artists, and buy the albums. Usually first the lives, and then the records: it takes a lot more enthusiasm (and/or maturity) to give out money for something you already have, but as for me, i consider downloaded music something bought but not yet paid.
Just as how i’ll start collecting books on the grand scale once i have a place to put them and the money to buy them, i will start collecting music just the same fashion. (Actually i already started with music since that takes up much less space. I’m expecting a cd tomorrow from CDJapan.)
Best anime openings?
What are the best anime openings ever? The first few that came to my mind were…
- Rolling Star by Yui
- Daydream Syndrome by Fujiwara Marina
- Ichirin no hana by High and Mighty Color
Any suggestions?
Dream Theater
According to my last.fm charts, Dream Theater is my second most played artist with about three thousand scrobbles as of now. According to Normalisr though, DT is my most listened artist with about two weeks’ worth of time.
I always had some Dream Theater music around, though until Octavarium, this was limited to two albums, Six degrees of inner turbulence and Train of thought. To be honest, the song As i am from Train of Thought was the one that made Dream Theater stay, even when i wasn’t yet that fond of prog metal. But then Octavarium came, and that and my then-newfound Stratovarius pulled me in. But even though i was at two DT gigs before the release of Systematic Chaos, that was the album that i just couldn’t stop listening to, and i still consider that my favourite DT album, whatever the “hardcore fans” say about it.
Recent in music
Not so recent by the way, but it was very shocking news for me when not so long ago i found out that Mike Portnoy left Dream Theater. Which means that i was there on their last gig in Japan where Mike was drumming. I will be very interested, first to see who the new drummer will be (though probably i’ll have never heard of him/her before), second to hear what kind of musical direction Dream Theater will turn to from now on. It’s undeniable that Mike was a very defining character in the band. I don’t know if they have written the music for the album coming out this year before he left or they will write it with the new drummer, but either way i’ll be interested to hear it.
Yesterday i bought my ticket for the march Iron Maiden gig in Tokyo. I find it outraging that even though it’s a two-day event held in the biggest arena in Japan (Saitama), standing tickets were already sold out–please note that the tickets only went on sale yesterday! This is what i can’t stand about the japanese way of pre-sale, and pre-ordering the stuff on pre-sale, and reserving a place in the queue for pre-ordering the pre-sale. And that i have to feel lucky to have gotten a ticket at all with all the fanclubs enjoying absolute precedence. People like me, who like the band but wouldn’t want to get daily n+1 spam ad mail on their phones can gtfo.
