Introduce your fav Indie band

[advigilo]

hello, this is a thread were you can post
you're favorite indie band and tell us why you like them :-)
this way it's easier for people too get to know some new bands.
-----
my introduction is: duel jewel<--- go and see that tread:-)
it's not that far, its on the second page :wave:

[Keiichi]

Sasuke, an indie group, seems to be doing quite well in Japan lately.

[ObscureAngel]

um.... is nightmare an indies band? i love nightmare^^ yomi's voice is so great and their all very very pretty adn talanted

[Illaparatzo-sama]

Yes, Nightmare is still indies.

I'd like to introduce Lareine. (http://lareine.jp) Lareine consists of:

Kamijo(Vo.) http://rokettobaibii.net/jref/expkamijo.jpg,
Mayu(Gu.) http://rokettobaibii.net/jref/expmayu.jpg,
Emiru(Ba.) http://rokettobaibii.net/jref/expemiru.jpg,
and Kazumi(Dr.) http://rokettobaibii.net/jref/expkazumi.jpg.

Formed in November of 1994, the original lineup was Kamijo, Mayu, Akira(2nd Gu.), Emiru and Machi(Dr.). Akira left the band in 1996 and was not replaced, while Machi left in 2000 and was replaced in early 2003 by Kazumi. Emiru and Mayu also left the band in 2000 and returned in March and May of 2003, respectively.

Lareine plays largely 'romance' themed music, and Kamijo is obviously very 'romance' inspired. They have "romance" in album titles and song titles, tour titles, article titles and video titles, not to mention that most of Lareine's songs center around romance. Their OHP's name is even "The World of Romance".

Music style is rather like many VK bands of the mid-nineties, with violins and classical sounding guitar. Mayu seems to have perfected the twin guitar sound without there being a second guitar.

I suppose you could consider Lareine a story band... their CDs all have a storied theme, such as the single "Lillie Charlotte", which tells the story of Lillie and Jeremie, "Fierte no Umi to Tomo ni Kiyu", continuing the story, with Lillie and Jeremie reincarnated as Asphodel and Justicia, and the trilogy of "Knight", "Majesty" and "Princess" telling the story of Scarlet Majesty.

Kamijo is friends with Mana, and as such the sounds of Malice Mizer and Lareine were very similar to each other through each band's major stage. Lareine went major in 1999, but returned to the indies label Applause Records the following year. Their musical style has changed little over the years, simply becoming more beautiful and polished. I'm surprised at how well Lareine manages to make gorgeous costumes and release well-produced CDs while still being so... indy.

Lareine refers to their fans as "Fleur", which is also the name of the FC. Their lives are full of Fleur-tachi waving their favorite member's flower... Blue roses, purple lilies, pink daisies and birds of paradise. I dunno how to end this paragraph =(

Some samples of their music:

Saikai no Hana (single, 2003 re-release of 1994 demotape) (http://rokettobaibii.net/jref/saikainohana.mp3)
Bara wa Utsukushiku Chiru, Lareine's cover of the 70's anime "Rose of Versailles"' theme song (single, 1999) (http://rokettobaibii.net/jref/barawautsukushikuchiru.mp3)
GRAND PAIN (single, 2000, released while Kamijo was carrying the Lareine name by himself) (http://rokettobaibii.net/jref/grandpain.mp3)
Chou no Hana (single, 2003) (http://rokettobaibii.net/jref/chounohana.mp3)
Scarlet Majesty (single, 2003) (http://rokettobaibii.net/jref/scarletmajesty.mp3)
Partir ("Princess" mini-album, 2004) (http://rokettobaibii.net/jref/partir.mp3)


Hmmm... I like to talk about Lareine. Did anyone notice >_>;;
One of my favorite bands, and I hope to see them live sometime soon.

[PrincessBerriKiller]

no...Nightmare isn't anymore....or are they??...I thought they had actually made it big...

Hmmm Lariene pretty good!

I like Gazetto, Rentrer en Soi, and Merri (are they still indies?)
Oh! Sid and Scissors are good as well

[michi]

Take Illaparatzo-sama's introduction into consideration peeps. Lareine is amazing. One of my favorite j-music artists. Only second to Malice Mizer actually. Indeed, Kamijo was a MM roadie back in the day, along with Kanoma (Fatima). What draws me to Lareine most is Mayu's guitar playing, the classical influences, their romantic aura, and Kamijo's unique voice. :)

"I'm surprised at how well Lareine manages to make gorgeous costumes and release well-produced CDs while still being so... indy."

I'm surprised they've stayed indie to this day. I kind of wish they'd turn major so their music would be more widely available for purchasing...at least online. All I have is Never Cage and Blue Romance. ;__;

[PrincessBerriKiller]

ah, but indies bands tend to become less americanized so they stay safe better (for those fans in America) I get really annoyed when these things happen...

[apunno]

Not indies any more but probably could be considered it since very few people know about them. My favorite band, Analog Fish. Rock, polished chorus & vocals. I wrote a profile for them at my site, if anyone is interested. http://www.keikaku.net/profiles.php?pid=8

members:
Kentaro Sasaki Bass, Vocals
Akira Shimooka Guitar, Vocals
Syuichiro Saito Drums, Vocals

favorite album: Analog Fish [self-titled]

[advigilo]

:-) glad to see some reactions.

[ObscureAngel]

lol adn i also love DespairsRay..... their still indies..... right?

meh i love Hizumi-san^^ and Zero scares me

[PrincessBerriKiller]

mmm...D'espairs Ray is great!!

[ObscureAngel]

hizumi pretty!!!!!!!!

[PrincessBerriKiller]

I loveeee Gazetto...*nods* Uruha...*sparklely eyes* sigh....

[ObscureAngel]

and uh...... who else............ * is thinking*

............. Madyth Grey'll but they disbanded in 2000 or 2002

[PrincessBerriKiller]

Really? I don't remember hearing that...Metronome!!

[ObscureAngel]

lol... and that'a all the bands i know of that are indies ><

[Kama]

I don't knwo which bands anre indies and which are not. (I do understand the difference).

Are SADS indies or major?

[PrincessBerriKiller]

SADS is major.

[Kama]

Aaaa... Thanks. :D So I don't like any indies band. :D

[PrincessBerriKiller]

well...what bands DO you like?

SADS is great!! so is Kuroyume. I luff Kiyoharu...:love:

[advigilo]

metronome is great too :-)

[apunno]

Sads has disbanded.

Qypthone, Club Pop or Shibuya-kei, http://www.qypthone.com/
members Izumi Ookawara [Vocals], Ishikaki Kentarou [Bass, Samples] and Takeshi Nakatsuka [Keyboard].

Husking Bee, pop-punk, http://www.ini-ini.com/huskin/
members Masafumi Isobe [Vocals, Guitar], Tetsuya Kudo [Bass], Leona Hiramoto [Drums], Kazuya Hirabayashi [Guitar]

The Acoustics, rock-pop, unsigned, http://acoustics.7days.tv/
members Keiji Kadokura [Vocal, Guitar, Piano, etc], Michi Nakao [Vocal, Bass, Guitar, Recording Engineer], Seiji Yamaguchi [Guitar, Chorus] and Yuji Sugawara [Drums].

Syrup16g, vintage-rock, http://www.keycrew.jp/syrup16g/
members Igaarashi Takatsugu [vocal, guitar], Nakabatake Taiki [drums], and Kitada Maki [bass].

The Jerry Lee Phantom, garage-indie rock, http://www.jlp-web.com/
members Hisashi [vocal, guitar], Hiroshi [drums], Ayuko [piano, keyboad, vocal] and Morio [bass].

The Aprils, electro-pop, http://www.aprils.jp/en/index.html
members Kentaro Imai [vocal, guitar, and more], Miho Iguchi [vocal, synthesizer] and Yuhki Shotokuji [drums].

[PrincessBerriKiller]

The Band Apart and Art School are also pretty good...

[PrincessBerriKiller]

No way..what do you mean? I thought they were still together...Ah well at least we still have Kiyoharu....

[Kama]

I do like works of Mana/Kozi, Kiyoharu, Tak Matsumoto/Koshi Inaba (B'z).

I like Buck-Tick, Glay, Pierrot... hmmm... what else? A, Kuraki Mai. :)

There are some bands that can be not well-known, yet I don't know if they are indies or something. Never bothered about this. Anyway: Kaz Nishida (metal), Egashira World (ah! the piano sound! so great *_*)

[PrincessBerriKiller]

Wow. I guess your right...not much indies to that list...^-^

[Kama]

Yes, I suppose only Moi Dix Mois is indies. :D

How could I forget about X-Japan? XD hide-chan, forgive me. :D

[PrincessBerriKiller]

lol X rocks! I am mot a big 80's style music fan but I when it comes to X I always love it...XD

[mizerable_d]

Moi Dic Mois is indie? o.O

EEEEEEEEEEE i really like Xjapan's orgasm! and X! hehe they are very good!

[PrincessBerriKiller]

I love Art of Life, Forever Love, and Longing....

I am quite fond of Ellegarden and Shwartz Stein....I would say the Trax but I dunno, are they Indies??

[Kama]

Is Schwarz Stein indies? They are not bad... :D Ah, I like Lareine and Vidoll lately. Their music is quite nice. :)

[Illaparatzo-sama]

Schwarz Stein WAS indies.

Now they're nonexistant.

[PrincessBerriKiller]

I know.. but they were still indies and I still like them. No body said they still had to be hanging around for us to like them, did they? Well, following my own words I guess i could say I really like La: Sadies then, too....But Dir en grey's newest always makes me happiest...

[advigilo]

what about luna sea? where the indies?
i could not find it :-(

[mizerable_d]

wait wai wait... Moi Dix Mois is indies?

La:SAdies is pretty good, and um m just starting to listen ti D

[Illaparatzo-sama]

LS was indies at one time, of course, but they were major for a while by the time they split up.

And yeah, MDM is indies. Midi:Nette is an indies label.

[mizerable_d]

wow... yay! lol ok my fav indie band is definately m10m then ^^ thanks for the info Lydia! ^^

[PrincessBerriKiller]

I have to say D'espairs Ray is my favourite indies band..(they are still indies right?)

[Kiero_kun]

NIGHTMARE ...is indies..? I had no idea.... I guess I've heard indies music..but I never really knew which bands were and were not... I've heard stuff like Duel Jewel and Vidoll...if that counts.. and a bunch of other bands I've only heard 1 or 2 songs for..

[-Rudel-]

Seeing that this band was not mentioned yet:

I'd like to introduce Mongol 800. This band is from where I am currently living....OKINAWA! :) They have both Engrish songs and Japanese mixed on thier albums. Their music is fast pased with some really good love songs in them. They currently have 3 albums out and 1 single. http://www.highwave.co.jp/mongol8/

[advigilo]

-rudel- where can i download there songs?

[AkuruMeiou]

itroducing...:
madeth gray'll

madeth were formed in 1997 by hisui (as kei) on vocals and shizuru on guitar.
both were in the band vierge before.
shortly after, yukina (on bass) and hizumi (2nd guitar) joined the band.

in 1997 they published four short demo tapes and were on one sampler.
they joined kisaki's matina-lable, and were on the matina/soleil sampler in january 1998, too. (they also were on some matina-video tapes).
in the spring 1998 they released another four demo tapes...

then, in may 1998 the tragedy begun:
on the way to the burrial of hideto matsumoto (hide, the guitarist of x~japan), hizumi died in a car-crash.
shizuru left the band shortly after.

in 1998 madeth got two other members, tsubaki (on drums) and ukyou (on guitar), but tsubaki left again, still in 1998.

but madeth gray'll still existed.
in august 1998 they released a single (containing 'hakuchuumu no sangeki', written by hizumi), a video tape and a maxi single (juujika no ketsumatsu).
to the time of juujika, they were just hisui (still as kei) on vocals, yukina on bass and ukyou on guitar.

late in 1998 or early in 1999, izumi (guitar) joined the band (and ukyou left shortly after). they hadn't much releases to that time. kei changed his name to hisui.

then, late in 1999 or early in 2000, reika (on drums) joined the band.
they released their first album, lucifer, in march.
in november 2000, they released a mini album (boukai no mato ~entith de marge~), and airi (support guitar, then guitar) joined the band.

but shortly after this, early in 2001, they released their final album (higeki no shuumaku, a best of), and disbanded.
(it is said, that yukina, the only one who ever was in this band together with hisui, wanted to leave the band, and so hisui disbanded it).

from the beginning to the end madeth gray'll had 9 members.

~*~

the 'tragedy' ever was a central object in madeth's songs ('hakuchuumu no sangeki' means 'tragedy of the daydream', 'operaza no higeki' means 'opera tragedy', and the final album 'higeki no shuumaku' 'end of the tragedy')... and so i think, it was central in the history of madeth gray'll.

their music was everything, from rather soft, gothic sounding songs (mostly written by hisui), to hard, screamy songs (mostly written by yukina), some instrumentals...
it is very good written, hisuis songs are showing a great sense for chords and melodies.
they often used chirch bells and organs, so most of the songs sound kind of 'majestic'.
hisui sings, growls, screams, whispers, talks, uses his voice in every way, you may imagine.
his voice is a bit 'crying' sounding, what gives the songs a dark, sad and very emotional feeling.

their style was just gothic-visual.
using much feathers, mostly black and white clothes, flowers, lots of make-up and dyed hair, they best represent the matina-visual-style.

you can find more information and pictures here:
www.crysania.com/dream
www.jahanna.net/higeki/madeth.html
(and lyrics & discography on my own page: http://niji-iro-no-heya.fateback.com)

if someone is interested in song-samples, leave a message in my icq, i'll tell you, if i have something up somewhere, then.

sorry for any language- and other mistakes ^^"~

~*~

besides madeth gray'll i love nearly every other band i know from the matina/soleil lables and the ('new') under code label.

[DemonHunter]

BBQ chicken,great punk rock
Aioria,nice visual kei got there cd Kirameyuku Shunkan
there disbanded dont know when

[ChibiWarumono]

La:Sadie's
kaoru rocked back then too.

[pinkkillerkisou]

Hmm... everyone knows I like Rentrer en Soi already XDD

I really love 12012 right now. I would say right below Diru (cause nothing tops Diru) and ReS they are my favorite right now.

[Shin-chan]

My first Jrock band was La'cryma Christi which is an indie band. Beside that band, I also love Dispairs ray, but i'll always love La'cryma more because it was my first band. Is that made any sense? O.o

[pinkkillerkisou]

D'espairsRay is major now :souka:

[Shin-chan]

Oh. So make it only La'cryma then :lol:

[pinkkillerkisou]

They only just recently became major though. :p Only have been major about a year I think. :?

[Shin-chan]

That's great! demo, usually when indies go major they're losing their visual kei look. I hope it won't happen to them. Then again... :?

[pinkkillerkisou]

Nah I just got a magazine last month with them in it... there still visual it would seem. :-)