Disqus - Latest Comments for Elec

Re: 12-year-old boy bitten by wild animal in Rehoboth

Elec — Sun, 06 Jul 2014 09:39:42 -0000

I lost six pounds since I started taking garcinia. Go here if you want to lose weight with this http://goo.gl/L8aFbR

Re: From an interview with Toshiya about the... : jrocknyc

Elec — Wed, 05 Mar 2014 00:28:24 -0000

I've seen this happen twice-- once was "In My Dream" where Shota took forever to learn the demo which was programmed without regard for what a drummer can actually physically do, and the other was when I played drums in one of Tommy's videos and the song was similarly impossible. Then again, if he's actually making his own beats....!!!

Re: oh it’s that chick jimi likes! : jrocknyc

Elec — Tue, 04 Mar 2014 01:11:50 -0000

Haha, worlds collide!
Funny (?) story: During a taping for NHK's Music Japan (with Steve, I think), she and her band were recording their set just before ours. Our drummer Ryo used to be her drummer, around the time of her first album I think; her band is really good and Ryo got to catch up with them and they were cool. So we're standing out past the wings, and she and her band go by, and the rest of us and other staff out there do the polite 'clap and say otsukaresama desu' thing, and I'm standing next to JJ, and she comes out and I was kinda giddy because I was a huge fan at the time. She looks at both of us clapping, and I think she said something, and I don't remember what it was, but something about the whole experience made the level/amount I liked her totally dissipate. Either right before then or right after that Joe and I heard her new album and thought it really wasn't all that good, so that might have been a part of it all, but yeah! For me personally I try to avoid meeting people I really like now, haha. (This happened again when I met Miyavi and he invited us out to a club later and I was the only one that went and he either didn't show or we missed each other so I went home like a chump, lol!)
She still has a lot of neat songs and a good band and her most recent album was much better than the 2 before that, but yeah I'm not all "AAAAHHHH :3" anymore about ladies I don't know! :-P

Re: Human Rubbish

Elec — Thu, 20 Jun 2013 00:54:03 -0000

Will do! It's fun writing them, though I may not be finished until 2113!

Re: My Harlot Broker

Elec — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 03:01:25 -0000

Hi Irie, thanks! As for the title, 'harlot broker' is pretty self-explanatory of course, but as for its relation to the other song, I actually have no idea, though he did mention that song. Then again, I learned that there was often very little rhyme or reason to song titles: he told us about an old song called 'ramen', which was unnamed when they recorded it, and the engineer at the time sort of sternly asked for a title, and he just said the first word that popped into his head, with the intention of fixing it later. He forgot, though!

Re: http://jrocknyc.tumblr.com/post/21667350601

Elec — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 04:01:30 -0000

Are you kidding me? This exists? And I don't have it?

Re: http://jrocknyc.tumblr.com/post/19323153702

Elec — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 02:25:47 -0000

That drawing of Roth is kinda adorable.

Re: http://jrocknyc.tumblr.com/post/18604112129

Elec — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 23:50:38 -0000

I kind of needed a break, plus the fact that I was finding blogspot increasingly frustrating to deal with, and ameblo was doing its best to destroy any desire to attempt to blog... on top of that, Twitter was exactly what I was looking for. I have a tumblr that I hope to update from here on out once I figure out what all these buttons do. Don't fear, though, nothing TERRIBLY has happened in between! (Also, thanks :D)

Re: http://jrocknyc.tumblr.com/post/18604112129

Elec — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 23:38:41 -0000

Haha, I was sorta hoping it would be a bit longer before people found this. :-P

Re: jrocknyc: Jimi Interviewed, In-Depth :)

Elec — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 23:09:22 -0000

Hi Go, I hope you liked it! Thanks for linking it.
The author and I went back and forth a few times, but yeah, most of it was all in one go because not being a Niche-Famous Japanese Rock Star Anymore gives me lots of free time. D:

As that series has gone on, there are little small things where I'm like, "gah, I shoulda talked about that too!"

Re: jrocknyc: review: nogod | "raise a flag" (2011)

Elec — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 23:07:06 -0000

Haha. Kyrie called me up one day and asked how to say that phrase in English. I said, are we talking about one specific flag, or sort of a metaphorical flag? Which of course was the difference between 'a' and 'the'. So the song was almost called "Raise the Flag"! I'm sure this tidbit will make its way into their episode of Behind the Music. :-P

Re: jrocknyc: review: nogod | "raise a flag" (2011)

Elec — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 23:13:43 -0000

Fun Fact: I named the title song.

Re: jrocknyc: review: dir en grey | "lotus" (2011)

Elec — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 23:52:12 -0000

I agree; they guitars sound isolated. I wonder why.

Interesting point about drum mixing; I didn't really start paying attention until I started really listening to how the parts are played. I've heard a pretty even split of "which direction" they mix the drums... I have noticed that more..."technical"? Stuff tends to mix as if you're on the throne. (A cursory glance through my ipod shows that Sikth, Meshuggah, DT, etc mix this way, though I concede that I tend to be biased toward this style of drum mixing since I like to learn the parts.)

Maybe it's not so much "which direction" it's mixed that bothers me, but how isolated each drum and cymbal sounds from the rest of the kit. Everything is at 3 or 9. (In my previous comment I said 3 and 6, which is a really dumb oversight!! D:)

Re: jrocknyc: review: dir en grey | "lotus" (2011)

Elec — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 02:27:11 -0000

I see no problem with adding a harmony line to the main vocal, but where Deg gets it wrong this time (and Gazette gets wrong perpetually) is that it's mixed at the exact same volume.

In fact, I don't know if it's just because I haven't listened to Deg on headphones lately or what, but the mixing is dreadful. Guitars are panned to 3 and 6, HARD, and vocals feel like they're behind everything. Really distracting.

And the worst part--and this is the most nitpickiest--is that the drums are mixed and panned super hard in such a way that it's like I'm facing the drumset from the front (i.e. hi-hat on the right, floor tom on the left), whereas I really like it when they mix it as if I'm sitting at the kit.

However, even if this is not the case, it's like they didn't really bother making a cohesive mix and just hard-panned every single mic'ed drum and cymbal.

I don't recall their mixing jobs ever being this bad... or have I just not listened in such a long time?

Re: jrocknyc: Phase faith - "Come or we quit!" and the economics of ticket selling

Elec — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 02:36:29 -0000

I'd encourage nobody to go, just to spite them.

Re: review: chemical pictures | "sekai... case-04 derringer") (2010)

Elec — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 01:49:23 -0000

I've been saying since we recorded it that this was by far my least favorite release, so no big deal. :) I don't think Tsubasa and Kanjou are CD-worthy songs to be honest, though I do have a soft spot for Irotoridori.

I'm not sure how you'll like the last single to be honest! Still thanks for the support and the reviews no matter what sort of smiley they get. :D

Re: Your favorite albums of 2010 so far...?

Elec — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 02:13:01 -0000

Recently I've gotten to be good friends with the singer Maki and guitarist Shin. They're both huge heavy math/prog-heads, and we chatted for hours about SikTh, Cynic, *Frost, DT, etc. Super cool guys.

He gave me their album but I haven't listened to it yet for some reason; will do that soon!

Re: review: nogod | "kakera" (2010)

Elec — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 23:49:12 -0000

Knowing the guys personally, I thought that the intro track sounded much more like an homage to the first minute or so of Dream Theater's "Glass Prison". ;)
They are amazingly talented, and humble, and all around just actually nice, good people, and that's rarer than it should be here.

Re: Just a lil' Chemical Pictures ringtone ^_^

Elec — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 01:02:23 -0000

haha lookit me on dat phone

Glad you like that riff! :D

Ken: Wow, thanks for coming! I'm glad you enjoyed my MC, and glad I didn't seem to totally bomb, even though we were without a singer. Always appreciated!

Just tested it and wow, it loops pretty dang perfectly!

Re: VK 101

Elec — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 09:54:56 -0000

Very interesting!

I would break down what this guy says into a few categories, though:

1) "No duh" truths that are
a. specific to Japanese culture/business/music
b. equally applicable to how bands and the people around them operate anywhere in the world

2) Things that may have been true once upon a time? but seem cartoonish and laughable now?

3) untruths and twistings

I can't comment on anything related to big business because we don't have anything to do with it at the moment.
I'm also typically wary of these expose types of things because the interview subject has the tendency to coat much of what they say with broad "they always" or "everyone" statements, and unjournalistic cynicism. Still, I DO anticipate that some of this will serve to encourage people to take a more realistic view of not just Japan but at talent industry as a whole.

(we are totally allowed to have girlfriends and jobs and my apartment is pretty nice actually thanks :-* )

(also I can't speak for every single band and I do know of some iffy examples but in our case we absolutely do write everything and made every single creative decision on the songs we recorded in the studio)

All in all, something I'd love to discuss in length sometime... maybe in a coupla years! :-P

Re: Did "In My Dream" Have Album Art?

Elec — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 10:59:06 -0000

It's a million times better than the plain solid brown cardboard sleeve we sold it in!! :D

(Also akemashite omedetou!, very late;;)

Re: RedLetterMedia's 70-minute Review of "The Phantom Menace" is Effing Brill

Elec — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 06:37:53 -0000

Could not believe how funny this was. WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOUR FACE

Re: Chemical Motion Pictures!

Elec — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 23:04:31 -0000

Thanks for posting this here. :)

As for the Praparat single, our management did their best to get it available overseas, but they couldn't get a distributor and the ones we DID talk to really dropped the ball and I'm pretty upset and frustrated about that, so I'm sorry it's not available for purchase outside Japan.

That said, I give everyone full permission to download the hell out of it.

Re: reviews: capricorns, pelican, priestess & russian circles

Elec — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 02:53:06 -0000

The new Pelican has its moments within the songs, but they definitely peaked with Fire in our Throats. I still fire up Australasia and Fire constantly when I'm walking around.

The new Russian Circles just proves that they've been getting better and better. Hexed All into Malko might be one of the most brilliant and beautiful tracklist decisions in recent memory. A perfect twosome.

Re: Silly Goose! There's No Burger Kings in Japan!

Elec — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:03:54 -0000

There's one in Akihabara I always walk by when I'm switching to Hibiya subway from JR. :)