Shelltoon TV

The Big Problem With Vevo

(Just try and watch this video without ad blockers to understand the issue)

Just saying the name Vevo disgusts a lot of people, but why? When you go on YouTube and you look for that one music video, be it something recent, or nostalgic, you can be guaranteed that Vevo's name will be on it. In my experience Vevo's stuff is of a respectable quality by YouTube standards, but the issue is if you want to watch these videos, you're forced to sit through ads before you can watch them. There have also been reports of said ads interrupting the videos themselves. Normally I'd tell people to get Firefox and use adblock plus, but in this case, I can sympathize with them. It used to be I could go on YouTube and just sit there and watch a music video ad free, but now if I don't have AdBlock Plus enabled, I'm forced to sit through a 20 second ad either before the video, or somewhere in the middle of it.

Rest in Peace Holy Diver [PEOPLE][MEMOIR]

(1942-2010)

X Japan Ain't What it Used to Be! [MUSIC][RANT]

(X Japan? More like X Hide)

Once again, my writer's block has hit me. I was sitting here for a few hours trying to write a cohesive rant about how much I dislike the direction X Japan has been going, and I couldn't do it. I was writing this big rant about how much their new music is terrible, how much of a control freak Yoshiki has been since Taiji's departure, but it all ended up with me going back to the reason X Japan left a bad taste in my mouth, and it was pretending that Hide was still alive and milking his popularity and fame by printing his face all over every single thing on the face of the planet. I don't even have a problem with Hide, I feel as though he is irreplaceable, could you imagine a new Beatles album without John Lennon? There does come a time where you need to realize you can't bring him back and you either replace him and change your band name, or move on and do solo works.

Recently, X Japan got back together and Yoshiki built the song I.V. around Hide's demo works, much like The Beatles did with Free as a Bird by building the song around Lennon's demo works. However, while I thought I.V. was an okay song that felt it was lacking the spirit the band used to have when Taiji was still in the group, the video was nothing more than paying tribute to Hide by cutting to his guitar sitting there on a stand, and showing some video of him when he played live. Again, I have nothing against Hide, but was it really necessary to keep doing this? Oh, but if you think this is the worst they've done, it's not.

With the reunion, X Japan needed a new guitarist to take Hide's place, so who better than Sugizo of Luna Sea? Well, Sugizo isn't referred to as the fifth member, but the sixth member. I don't have a problem there, but in reality, he'd be the seventh member because Taiji was replaced when he left the band, and since then Yoshiki has almost adopted a behavior of "Taiji who?" However, when it comes to live, Sugizo isn't allowed to play certain parts because they MUST be played by Hide, nobody else is allowed to play his part. So is Sugizo really a part of the band, or is he just there to look pretty while Hide's solos are handled by audio playback? It's ridiculous, let Sugizo play them. If I had to guess what Hide is thinking in his grave, he's probably saying "Oh please Yoshiki, stop milking me and let him play my solos."

Honestly, this reunion has been filled with nothing more than regrets. A while back I had hoped the band members would get back together and make more music because I liked their music. The reunion happened, and from the illnesses the members suffer to the internal drama, I'm starting to wish the reunion didn't happen. We still plaster Hide's image all over X Japan live shows by not letting a new member play with the rest of the band because he's not Hide and shouldn't be playing Hide's solos. Oh well, I'll just listen to X Japan's stuff before Taiji left, because that was when the band had talent. Regardless, I'm sure some random Hide fan is going to step all over me thinking I'm tearing Hide apart, or some X Japan fanboy tells me how wrong I am, but this is about making money off of a dead man.

Dir en grey too American? [MUSIC][RANT]

Dir en grey is one of my favorite Japanese bands. I'm not going to say they're a J-Rock band, because it's a term I refuse to refer to any Japanese band. Well, it seems that some fans went off their rocker and are claiming that Dir en grey had become too Americanized in their music, and many fans lost faith in the band ever sounding any good again. I say Dir en grey sounds so much better now than they did before. Now I had gotten into them during the Kisou era, so I was into them JUST BEFORE the "drastic changes" I keep hearing about. What's wrong with a Japanese band putting music before visuals? I don't get it...

When Vulgar had come out and I gave it a listen, I fell in love with the album. I thought Dir en grey had peaked at that point, feeling it would be a difficult album to top. Their sound was more raw compared to the poppy tunes they had been putting out, and Kyo's voice was less run through a filter. Another change being made was that at this point, the band had started ditching it's visual rock roots, possibly because the band realized in the music industry, music comes before visuals. While they toned down the visuals with Kyo having less make-up, Die cutting his hair short, Kaoru getting a goatee, Toshiya just being Toshiya, and Shinya still being picked on, it didn't stop their videos from giving off any shock value. The Obscure video in its uncensored glory is one of the sickest things I've seen, and if you ever see an english translation, your mind will spiral out of control. Their sound was basically more fitting to their lyrics compared to older albums.

However, when Vulgar was coming out, many people starting to show distaste for Dir en grey by saying they were straying too far from their roots. For those of you that don't know, when Dir en grey first started, they were heavy on a visual rock look, known over there as "Visual Kei" where the band members do crazy crap with their hair, put on pounds of makeup and wear ridiculous outfits. This is one of the things that caused people to fall in love with the band the first time around. Their music had a more poppy tone to it as well, with Kyo not screaming, his voice sounding like it went through a filter. The same goes with the music, to a lot of people it seemed more energetic and more fun, despite the lyrics having a very serious tone. To a lot of people, this is what Dir en grey was, and should have been, another indie visual kei band. However, because the band got successful and was aware of people in the US interested in the band, they started changing so that more people would take them a bit more seriously. As a result, this caused fan backlash with the usual sold out comments, but what struck my nerve was a lot of these fans were not willing to give Dir en grey's new music a chance. The one comment I saw that caused me to rage like no tomorrow was "Dir en grey has become too Americanized." Is there a difference in sound between Japanese rock and rock in the US that requires Dir en grey and other Japanese bands be classified as "J-Rock?" 

I've listened to all their albums, and I don't understand why people put Gauze so high on the list. It's not a good album from a music stand point, it doesn't define what Dir en grey is for me. The songs are too poppy in the instrumentals, there's too much filtering in the music, and Kyo's voice isn't there. Do you expect upbeat, energetic pop backing lyrics about child abuse? The only song that comes out right on that album is Mazohyst of Decadence, a song about abortion from the perspective of the fetus being aborted. It's disturbing, uncomfortable, and many other things that I could list. Aside from that song, nothing felt fitting on Gauze, it seemed like their look was more important to the fanbase than Dir en grey's music. When Vulgar had come out, nobody saw the changes to the band coming. They wore a hell of a lot less make up, their look was starting to get less flashy, hair was cut, Kaoru's goatee was starting to come in, and the music was about to go through drastic changes. We probably should have seen the changes coming after Kisou's music started to fit to the lyrics. It was hard, distrubingly beautiful, and started to sound more raw. I think rather than sit through all this, I'll just list the albums in order of release and leave a short comment about each one. I'm not counting Six Ugly, Missa, or Ain't Afraid to Die because Six Ugly and Missa are mini-albums and Ain't Afraid to Die is just a single.

• Gauze - Generic indie Japanese pop rock with many filters
• Macabre - A work of art that comes off as a great concept album
• Kisou - Less generic indie pop, more hard rock
• Vulgar - Pure, raw, obscene, violent, brilliant
• Withering to Death - Their most diverse works
• Marrow of a Bone - Generic hard rock
• Uroboros - Macabre mixed with Withering to Death

This was in the order of their release, if you want to know how I list them, ask me. Anyway, I think to say the band has become too Americanized because it doesn't sound and look the way it used to is kind of judgmental and unfair. I personally think the band sounds better than when it started, and I look forward to their new stuff, provided Kyo still has a voice. Seriously Kyo, we like your music and appreciate that you guys are putting music first, but for god's sake, stop nearly killing yourself on stage!