That was the tagline for the now-defunct Japanese rock band FEED. But I would like to mention the Musicwhore.org RSS feed (http://www.musicwhore.org/index.rdf).
I know I haven’t really been posting much here, and that thing called "real life" is pretty much the culprit for my negligence. So rather than taking time out of your surfing — which is wasted when you visit here and there’s nothing to see — let a service such as Bloglines take care of it for you.
Sign up for an account, then subscribe to the Musicwhore.org RSS feed. When I post an update, Bloglines will grab the content from my feed and inform you of an update.
… and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?
Core of Soul will break up after its March 24 performance in Osaka, reports Bounce.com. The band recently released its fourth album, One Love, One Day, One Life. On Feb. 22, a DVD and best album will be released.
I included Core of Soul in the original artist directory, but I didn’t really disguise how bad I thought they were. I gave the band’s debut album a good review but not after trashing their songwriting.
I’m a snob that way.
I went on vacation in New York City in April 2005, and I visited Kinokuniya for some CD shopping. Core of Soul’s third album, 3, was on the cutout table selling for less than $10. Even Kinokuniya couldn’t get rid of them fast enough.
I received an e-mail from CD Japan informing me Hatakeyama Miyuki is releasing a new album, Reflection, on April 5.
I spent a week grabbing a 6GB torrent just to hear her single, "Ai ni Melody". Her last album, Wild and Gentle, didn’t do it for me, but I kind of missed hearing her voice. "Ai ni Melody" is actually a really good single, and it’s gotten me genuinely curious about Hatakeyama’s work again.
I’m glad she’s back.
UPDATE: Bounce.com has a few more details about the new album. Some of the songwriters contributing to the album include Nagadzumi Takahashi (Super Butter Dog/Hanaregumi), Harada Ikuko (Clammbon), Horigomi Yasuyuki (Kirinji) and Nakano Yoshie (EGO WRAPPIN’). A number of the songs were premiered at Hatakeyama’s annual concert at Shinagawa Church.
Reflection will be Hatakeyama’s first album for new label, Rhythm Zone. Her management company, ChorDiary, was previously distributed by Toshiba-EMI.
Record bosses are now having to look beyond piracy to explain the latest decline in revenues, which have fallen about 20 percent globally since 1999.
“Piracy in all its forms has been the major factor in this reversal but not the only factor,” said Eric Nicoli, chairman of EMI Group PLC, the world’s No. 3 record company.
You think? Maybe perhaps the labels are putting out shit product and consumers are getting smarter about it?
Some analysts see other reasons for the industry’s current woes. “Executives have focused so much of their attention on piracy that they’ve diverted their efforts from developing new talent,” said Phil Leigh of Inside Digital Media, a U.S. market research firm.
I don’t download very much, nor do I purchase files online. What I hear doesn’t give me much incentive to do either.
I’ve been covering popular music from Japan since 2000, and I’m now familiar enough with it to see little to no difference from popular music in the US. Band politics work the same, and Japanese artists who I thought could do no wrong have shown their humanity.
2005 marked the year when the exoticism of Japanese popular music wore off for me. All that to say I’m far more willing to pan than I was when I first started listening to this music, and this round-up is perhaps an impressive collection of cookware.
After posting the last entry, a number of other release dates popped up. These artists have been covered by Musicwhore.org before, but I’m not necessarily interested in them. You may be.
(Except the Cocco release. My feelings on that are quite known.)
You can’t imagine the glee I feel by seeing those three words together in a series of sentence fragments.
Bounce.com reports the title of the new single is “Onsoku Punch”, and it contains three tracks. The coupling songs are “Dosha Furi Yozora” and “Ryuuseigun” (no indication if it’s an Onitsuka Chihiro cover, but I very much doubt it). Cocco re-teamed with former producer Takamune Negishi on the new single, and a limited edition pressing includes a DVD.
It’s Cocco’s first new release as a solo artist since announcing her retirement in 2001. Since then, she’s published two picture books, was filmed for a documentary and recorded an album with Quruli’s Kishida Shigeru as part of Singer Songer.
Folks, she’s back.
UPDATE: A reader just e-mailed me about a commercial clip available on the Speedstar web site. Hmm. This comeback should be interesting … (Thanks, Victoria!)
Slowly but surely, I’m starting to get bits and pieces here and there about upcoming releases, so it seemed like a good time to look ahead. Most of what I list are things I’m looking forward to, and many of them have been mentioned before in their own items.