J-Rock.

Something I used to be much more interested in than I am these days. The days when I got excited to think about watching anime when I got home from school/college. This post is a dedication to all the awesome j-rock bands there are out there, and some of my favourite animes. While I wait for my Dad to bugger off to bed so I can watch Matchstick Men :3 It may also spark my motivation to watch some more anime again.

Japanese rock is certainly a genre that is yet to reach the mainstream rock scene - I can see why it's not.. obviously it's in a totally different language, but the style is a mix of nu-wave, pop.. infact you can't really class it.. it just has that 'sound' that you know 'hey! this is a j-rock song!'. The fact they sing in Japanese often helps. I wish it was in the mainstream rock scene though, its always great to dance to, the singers are almost always hot, their voices are awesome and they're usually very talented musicians with great melodics. Some of the best Japanese musicians aren't j-rock, including Yoko Kanno.. but maybe I'll make another post on j-pop/anime soundtrack style stuff another time.

Abingdon Boys School
oo diddly foo! This is a j-rock band that frequents my Winamp playlist with some amazing melodic metal stylee songs such as 'Down To You', 'Lost Reason' (my favourite) and 'Howling'. What makes this band different to other j-rock get ups is they actually sing in English (quite poorly, but kudos for trying.. japanese accent fails at English sadly). There are a couple of songs in Japanese, but the majority is in English. From what I can tell, these boys are fairly youngish and a kind of new band. But nice, go check them out.

L'arc En Ciel
Probably the reason I got into j-rock in the first place. I found out about them a couple of years back I think.. it was Ready Steady Go from the Full Metal Alchemist series, and then after some youtubing I found Stay Away which became my favourite song by them for a while (mainly because of the awesome dancing at the end of the video HAH!)and then after much downloading and listening to how much discography they have (they go back something stupid) I fell in love. L'arc En Ciel have a deep background with many different styles and 'spin offs' such as Hyde's solo album etc. I would say they are my favourite j-rock band. And they do kick-ass concerts, which I badly want to go to.

L'arc En Ciel

Dir En Grey
Another band with a huge discography, literally huge. I'm inclined to believe this is one of the first j-rock movements with some interesting electro and experimental style music in the early days of their career. I never listened to them properly, I have all their music though. Not exactly my cup of tea to be honest though. However they inspired alot of the music I love, so I have to give them a chance right?

Miyavi
Strange man, extremely talented!

Gackt
I like Gackt - he has some slow songs and some really hardcore songs that are again, great to dance to. Some songs are a little mainstream and others a bit weirder. He has a really cool voice too.

Some others I discovered on Last.fm:

Flow
After listening to a few of their songs, they're not really 'rock' they actually have a really cool soul/jazz/electro sound. I would recommend them for sure, something I could listen to easily when working and bob my head to!

Luna Sea
Luna Sea were one of the major forces in visual rock throughout the 1990s. From what I can hear, I'm a little hit and miss with some of their songs, but dunno maybe you will like it.

Glay
Really nice style similar to the other jrock bands. And seem to have quite a large fan-base and discography!

Will keep on the look out for anymore, and give those last few bands a proper listen. My favourite is still L'arc en Ciel, with a huge range of styles and amazing talent and the best live shows I have ever seen..

Check out youtube/Last.fm for these bands!