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Gastunk
Gastunk (stylized as GASTUNK) is an influential Japanese rock band, first active from 1983 to 1988. Initially a hardcore punk band, guitarist Tatsu later recalled that when Gastunk made their major label debut they were dubbed heavy metal by the media. They reunited for one-off concerts in 1999 and 2006, before fully restarting activities in 2010. History Formed in 1983 by bassist Baby, Gastunk went through several lineup changes in their early years. In 1984, they contributed three songs to the ''Holdup Omnibus'' compilation. A self-titled EP was released in February 1985, followed by their first album, ''Dead Song'', in August. That month saw Gastunk appear on the NHK TV show ''Indies no Shūrai'', and perform at an event sponsored by Takarajimasha. In 1986, the band released the single "Geronimo" and two EPs, ''The Vanishing Signs'' and ''To Fans''. They also performed at the Indies Festival 1986 at Hibiya Open-Air Concert Hall that September. The album ''Under the Sun'', fe ...
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The Comes
The Comes was a Japanese hardcore punk band formed in Tokyo, Japan in 1982. They were one of the first Japanese hardcore bands alongside GISM, Gauze (band), Gauze and Lip Cream. The Comes were fronted by female vocalist Chitose, who went to sing in the metal band Virgin Rocks. Chitose was the first vocalist of female-fronted hardcore punk bands to gain fame. Guitarist Naoki and drummer Matsumura both went on to Gastunk. Minoru Ogawa went on to join Naoki in Lip Cream. Discography ;Compilations *''Outsider'' (City Rocker Records, 1982) *''Live 1982-1984'' (SS Recordings 2008) *''Live 1985-1986'' (SS Recordings 2010) ;Albums: *''No Side'' (Dogma Records, 1984) *''Power Never Die'' (Captain Records/Dear Records, 1986) References External linksPortraits of Japanese Punk Culture
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Laputa (band)
Laputa was a Japanese Nagoya kei rock band, active from 1993 to 2004. The band chose its name from the flying island in ''Gulliver's Travels'' and tried to portray a similar unrealistic view of the world with their performance. Their 1997 album ''Emadera'' was named one of the top albums from 1989 to 1998 in a 2004 issue of the music magazine ''Band Yarouze''. History Laputa was formed in July 1993 by aki and Tomoi, high school friends who were previously in the band Ai SICK FACE together. Laputa recorded their two demos "Saddist no Yume" and "Naraku no Soko"(Okazaki Yukito from Eternal Elysium worked as an engineer.) in later 1993. extrax Laputa(1999) p.104 They met some success in 1995 in the visual indie scene with their first indie album ''Memai'', and shot a music video for Vertigo. They released a mini-album (Kurumeku Haijin) in 1996, and also released a live video (Hakoniwa) featuring performances from the concert at SHIBUYA ON AIR WEST from the Paradoxical Reality TOUR I ...
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Penicillin (band)
Penicillin (stylized as PENICILLIN) is a Japanese visual kei alternative rock band, formed in Tokyo in 1992. History Formed by friends at Tokai University in Tokyo, Japan on February 14, 1992. Penicillin began with Chisato on vocals, Gisho on bass, O-Jiro on drums and both Yuuji and Shaisuke on guitar. Before anything was recorded however the band's line-up changed to Hakuei on vocals, Gisho on bass, O-Jiro on drums and both Shaisuke and Chisato on guitar. Their name was taken from the punk rock group "Penicillin Shock" in the manga series '' To-y'' and they titled their first album, which was released in 1994 and produced by Kiyoshi of Media Youth, after the fictional band. Hakuei later stated that when the band started, he wanted to play hardcore punk in a violent and flashy style like Gastunk. To his recollection, the term "visual kei" did not exist when they formed, but Penicillin were quickly labeled as such. After their first album, Shaisuke left the band to join Deshabill ...
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Hyde (musician)
, known by his stage name Hyde (stylized as HYDE or hyde), is a Japanese musician, singer-songwriter, record producer, and actor. Best known as the lead vocalist of the rock band L'Arc-en-Ciel since 1991, he is also the lead vocalist of Vamps and has a solo career. Hyde rose to fame in the 1990s as part of L'Arc-en-Ciel, who have sold over 40 million records and were the first Japanese act to perform a solo show at Madison Square Garden. He began a successful solo career in 2001, releasing several number one singles, and many of his albums have reached the top five on the Oricon chart. In 2008, Hyde teamed up with K.A.Z to form the hard rock duo Vamps. Through both his solo career and Vamps, Hyde has collaborated/toured with artists such as Apocalyptica, Motionless in White, Starset, Yoshiki, Sixx:A.M., In This Moment, and Danzig, and producers such as Kane Churko, Nicholas Furlong, Drew Fulk, and Howard Benson. Career L'Arc-en-Ciel In 1991, Hyde left his band Jelsarem's ...
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Visual Kei
is a movement among Japanese musicians that is characterized by the use of varying levels of make-up, elaborate hair styles and flamboyant costumes, often, but not always, coupled with androgynous aesthetics, similar to Western glam rock. Some Western sources consider visual kei a music genre, with its sound usually related to glam rock, punk rock and heavy metal. However, visual kei acts play various genres, including those considered by some as unrelated to rock such as electronic, pop, etc. Other sources, including members of the movement themselves, state that it is not a music genre and that the freedom of expression, fashion, and participation in the related subculture is what exemplifies the use of the term. Etymology The term "visual kei" was derived from one of X Japan's slogans, "Psychedelic Violence Crime of Visual Shock", seen on the cover of their second studio album '' Blue Blood'' (1989). This derivation is credited as being coined by Seiichi Hoshiko, the fou ...
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Tokyo
Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 million residents ; the city proper has a population of 13.99 million people. Located at the head of Tokyo Bay, the prefecture forms part of the Kantō region on the central coast of Honshu, Japan's largest island. Tokyo serves as Japan's economic center and is the seat of both the Japanese government and the Emperor of Japan. Originally a fishing village named Edo, the city became politically prominent in 1603, when it became the seat of the Tokugawa shogunate. By the mid-18th century, Edo was one of the most populous cities in the world with a population of over one million people. Following the Meiji Restoration of 1868, the imperial capital in Kyoto was moved to Edo, which was renamed "Tokyo" (). Tokyo was devastate ...
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Hide (musician)
, known professionally as hide, was a Japanese musician, singer-songwriter and record producer. He achieved international fame as the lead guitarist of the rock band X Japan from 1987 to 1997 and a solo artist from 1993 onward. He also formed the United States-based rock supergroup Zilch in 1996. Hide sold millions of records, both solo and as a member of X Japan. X Japan rose to prominence in the late 1980s and early 1990s, credited as founders of the Japanese visual kei movement. When they disbanded in 1997, he focused on his solo career which started four years prior and went on to enjoy significant popularity. At the height of his fame, while recording his third studio album and about to launch an international career with the newly formed Zilch, he died in 1998 of what was ruled a suicide by hanging. He was seen as an icon for Japanese youth rebelling against their country's conformist society, and his death was labeled "the end of an era". Life and career 1964–1987: ...
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Drum Kit
A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player ( drummer) typically holds a pair of matching drumsticks, one in each hand, and uses their feet to operate a foot-controlled hi-hat and bass drum pedal. A standard kit may contain: * A snare drum, mounted on a stand * A bass drum, played with a beater moved by a foot-operated pedal * One or more tom-toms, including rack toms and/or floor toms * One or more cymbals, including a ride cymbal and crash cymbal * Hi-hat cymbals, a pair of cymbals that can be manipulated by a foot-operated pedal The drum kit is a part of the standard rhythm section and is used in many types of popular and traditional music styles, ranging from rock and pop to blues and jazz. __TOC__ History Early development Before the development of the drum set, drums and cymbals used in military and orchestral m ...
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Guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strings against frets with the fingers of the opposite hand. A plectrum or individual finger picks may also be used to strike the strings. The sound of the guitar is projected either acoustically, by means of a resonant chamber on the instrument, or amplified by an electronic pickup and an amplifier. The guitar is classified as a chordophone – meaning the sound is produced by a vibrating string stretched between two fixed points. Historically, a guitar was constructed from wood with its strings made of catgut. Steel guitar strings were introduced near the end of the nineteenth century in the United States; nylon strings came in the 1940s. The guitar's ancestors include the gittern, the vihuela, the four- course Renaissance guitar, and the ...
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Bass Guitar
The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and scale length, and typically four to six strings or courses. Since the mid-1950s, the bass guitar has largely replaced the double bass in popular music. The four-string bass is usually tuned the same as the double bass, which corresponds to pitches one octave lower than the four lowest-pitched strings of a guitar (typically E, A, D, and G). It is played primarily with the fingers or thumb, or with a pick. To be heard at normal performance volumes, electric basses require external amplification. Terminology According to the ''New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', an "Electric bass guitar sa Guitar, usually with four heavy strings tuned E1'–A1'–D2–G2." It also defines ''bass'' as "Bass (iv). A contraction of Double bas ...
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Kanji
are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are still used, along with the subsequently-derived syllabic scripts of ''hiragana'' and ''katakana''. The characters have Japanese pronunciation, pronunciations; most have two, with one based on the Chinese sound. A few characters were invented in Japan by constructing character components derived from other Chinese characters. After World War II, Japan made its own efforts to simplify the characters, now known as shinjitai, by a process similar to China's simplified Chinese characters, simplification efforts, with the intention to increase literacy among the common folk. Since the 1920s, the Japanese government has published character lists periodically to help direct the education of its citizenry through the myriad Chinese characte ...
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Morrie (musician)
, known mononymously as Morrie, is a Japanese singer-songwriter. He is best known as vocalist and co-founder of the influential heavy metal band Dead End, active from 1984 to 1990, and Morrie's distinctive visual appearance and rough vocal style inspired many later prominent musicians in Japan's visual kei movement. When they disbanded, he began a solo career for five years, before moving to New York City and going into hiatus. He reemerged in 2005 with the solo project Creature Creature, which utilizes several well-known Japanese musicians, reunited with Dead End four years later, and released his first solo album in twenty years in 2015. History 1984–1995: Dead End and solo career In December 1984, Morrie formed Dead End alongside his fellow former-Liar bandmate, Takahiro Kagawa, Tadashi Masumoto ("Crazy Cool Joe") and Masaaki Tano. Only he and Joe remained, and until the 1987 were joined by Yuji Adachi ("You") and Masafumi Minato, just before they signed a major contrac ...
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