“THIS.” Yes this. Three dudes. Drummer, guitarist and bassist working magic in “This.”

I’ve got that gleam in my eye, because of the excellent sounds from Gleam Garden. It’s truly bare-bones rock, simple, minor feedback and raspy screams from the lead singer. Love it. The video is just as simple. Straight up performance vid is black and white and the only thing worth watching is the drummer’s pectoral muscles working overtime.

Look forward to Gleam Garden’s Brilliant Nightmare album slated for 6.6.2012. Preorder from Yesasia.

Go green at Gleam Garden’s official website.

Dazzle Vision’s SHOCKING LOUD VOICE shines. Sometimes it’s like a beautiful twinkle but mostly it’s like a blindingly awesome spark. It’s the band’s 6th full-length release and although it’s mostly remastered and remixed versions of previously released work, it features 2 new songs and a live track.

“SECOND” (セカンド) is one of the new songs and despite the name, starts off the album and does so with a hard but melodic kick. The release further comes to life during the next track, “Child be found of…” (from Camellia Japonica), when vocalist Maiko’s screams ignite the action. She incorporates this signature technique (aka “Death Voice”) throughout much of the album. Her ability to effortlessly alternate between screaming and beautiful flourishes of vocal melody is impressive.

“HERE” (from Crystal Children) features driving guitars and shouts that supplement the melody instead of punctuate it. While stylistically similar to the tracks the precede it, the song’s execution makes it stand out.

The acoustic guitar and strings at the beginning of “left to cry there” (from Camellia Japonica) make it a beautiful midpoint. It eventually crescendos to full intensity but returns to delicate chorus. The next song, “Take My Hand” (the other new track) has an equally strong build up that pays off.

The upbeat, jazz club groove “Miss Cinderella” (from to the next) might be the only hiccup as it doesn’t match the tone of what’s come before. SHOCKING LOUD VOICE rolls to an end with “Camellia” (from Camellia Japonica). Instead of packing the punch in raw intesity, it comes in the emotion and Maiko’s vibrato.

While Maiko’s aforementioned vocals get a lot of attention, the band’s instrumentation deserves just as much. The music is heavy but not excessively so and never ventures into too-much-distortion or too-detuned territory. While Maiko’s styles seem to be opposites, John (guitar), Takuro (bass), and Haru (drums) find harmony and balance in the middle. That makes listening to Dazzle Vision really enjoyable.

In 2010, Dazzle Vision performed at Sakura-Con in the USA. They opened for Evanescence in Japan earlier this year.

Maiko has been busy, or at least her voice is. Fan magazine Gekkayo Magazine posted a download of her voice compatible with the UTAU vocal synthesizer software. Competing Vocaloid software (from Crypton Future Media) has been made famous by characters like Hatsune Miku, Kagamine Rin and Len, and Megurine Luka.

Get more info on Dazzle Vision at their official site.

Listen to track samples of SHOCKING LOUD VOICE on iTunes and buy it there or at CDJapan.

People In The Box will play for people in the UK at Liverpool Sound City. The festival runs May 17th, 18th, and 19th. They will take the stage on the first day. If that’s not enough, three previously mentioned bands 8otto, Miila and the Geeks, and NOKIES! will be there (and also at Japan Underground). All three bands perform on the same day as People in the Box.

Liverpool Sound City is a massive festival that boasts over 200 artists. It’s “the biggest musical event Liverpool has ever seen,” according to NME. It originated at SXSW 2007 as a showcase of northwestern UK bands before getting a home at home the following year. Liverpudlians are pretty lucky.

Buy tickets here. Liverpool Sound City’s site has more info as do the sites of People In The Box, 8otto, Miila and the Geeks, and NOKIES!

Enjoy the greatness of 2010′s “Kyuushigai” (旧市街, old town):

Thanks to Ting for the tip.

Update: Overlooked that Mont Blanc will also be there on May 19th. (via It Came from Japan)

Female frizzy hair power rockers LAZYgunsBRISKY announce they will disband and pursue other musical projects after one last tour this year, but they are kind enough to release their 2011 self-titled album in the U.S. through Good Charamel Records on April 24th, 2012. Above you can enjoy the high-heel hot track “B.O.Y.”

You can currently listen to all twelve tracks off their album at Good Charamel Records’ website, and they will soon be available for digital sale. At 99 cents a track, that can’t be beat!

The album LAZYgunsBRISKY is unique in that it contains lyrics sung in Japanese, which was actually a departure from their normal English-based tracks.

Full track listing:

01 A-Cha
02 B.O.Y
03 Re-Live
04 Song For Me
05 WANTED!!
06 Q
07 18
08 Here We Go
09 Freak
10 Beat You Out
11 It’s Gonna Be Alright

LAZYgunsBRISKY also contributes two songs to the just released I Love J-Rock 2 compilation that can be found at: http://www.goodcharamel.com.

Budo Grape can squish out some of the most saccharine synth pop, and their new album Kare No Namae Wo Omoidasenai goes down fairly easy for the most part.

Imagine if Candyland or Willy Wonka’s factory was turned into a video game, Budo Grape would probably provide the soundtrack. Never chip-tuney, the group has a knack with the keyboard for RPG-ish and cartoony synth hooks.

“Doggie Maggie” is a fine example of how they tweak the synth sound to something akin to Link’s Ocarina.  “Otanakomo” mixes beepy keyboards with organs and the wonderful wind instrument melodica. “Mekakushi” sounds like a pop xylophone dungeon crawler with a piercing baby chorus and a spastic saxophone.

Ultimately, the biggest obstacle in enjoying Budo Grape’s music is indeed the lead singer Quiminco’s voice. It’s babyish, cutesy and sometimes annoying. The easiest way to surpass that barrier is seeing the group perform and the woman behind the voice. SP highly recommend watching the band’s video for “Sutten Kororin.” Hopefully your perception should change, and the music is a lot easier to swallow. After that, follow up with a heavy dose of the love you to death track “True Love” and it’s pretty much a done deal.

Stand out tracks include the steel drum-esque “Hitori Uminite,” current single “Sutten Kororin,” and the notorious “True Love.” May we also recommend the last track “Senobi” which puts one of the male vocalists front and center.

Budo Grape’s album Kare No Namae Wo Omoidasenai will be released on 4.25.2012. Preorder from Amazon.jp.

Also visit Budo Grape’s official website.

Hey everybody. It’s been a while. Shen here. If you were wondering why I haven’t been posting too much as of late, I actually have a new job that has been taking up a boat load of my time. But, in my attempt to keep in touch with all you SPers, I’ve attempted to put together this special end-of-year list. Not to give myself too much credit, but I like to think that we, the SparkPlugged writers, have done an excellent job keeping you all informed of the latest artists coming out of the Japanese alternative/indie scene. Neaux also put together a really good Best Video’s of 2011 list that is tough to beat. So, to mix things up a bit, I got together a list of 5 artists/releases that came out this year that we somehow missed out on featuring here at SparkPlugged and I feel need some due attention. So, here we go!

5. LAMA - Cupid / Fantasy

LAMA certainly has the pedigree to catch our attention. Two of their members, Miki Furukawa and Koji Nakamura (aka iLL), make up the prime meat of former electro-rock group SUPERCAR. The other members of the group, Hisako Tabuchi (of toddle and bloodthirsty butchers) and Kensuke Ushio (aka agraph) are nothing to shake at either. The second double-A-side single of this supergroup of sorts is something that really should be marveled at.

4. 8otto - Ashes to Ashes

A band that truly was put to ashes in the minds of many a Japanese indie rock mogul, 8otto made a surprise return from their hiatus this year with full force with the release of the album Ashes to Ashes. Granted, their music video for “Generation 888″ came out a bit late, which could account for their lack of coverage. But, still, the song/album is too powerful to ignore as evidenced by the video above.

3. Spangle call Lilli line - New Season

A band that I championed last year as well, Spangle call Lilli line continues to impress with the release of New Season. A much more frantic and high-paced approach to their normal trip-hop selves made this one of my top releases of the year. It’s beauty and brawn with this one and how it got forgotten is beyond me.

2. メトロオンゲン (Metro-Ongen) - EDEN

With all the coverage and buzz that this indie pop band got from Keikaku, you’d think that メトロオンゲン (Metro-Ongen) wouldn’t need any more from us. But, months after being released, their newest album EDEN is still being played by yours truly. This remarkable release deserves all the press it got and even more.

1. sgt. - BIRTHDAY

You’d think one of the standout bands in the second Next Music From Tokyo tour would have gotten some attention, but somehow sgt. faded into the background. I am righting this injustice right now. This instrumental post-rock band’s latest work will blow your socks off. Trust me on that one.

So, that wraps up my list of overlooked artists of 2011. Hope you enjoyed it and join me and the rest of us at SparkPlugged in looking forward to even more great artists and releases in 2012!

Yes it is that time again.. time to count down the greatest and create-est videos of the past year 2011. If you remember my rules from last year, this was my criteria:

1) It has to rock.

2) The video must be Awesome in terms of humor, artistic stuff like creativity and video direction and camera work.

This year was actually quite easy to pick out favorites.. there was quite a few that stood out in style and sound. The problem was that there were just so many groups I wanted to highlight, and unfortunately, either the video wasn’t as special as the music or the music wasn’t as special as the video.

So after stressful consideration, I marked up my list of 10 with 2 other runner-ups.

Neaux’s pics for 2011 #10-8

Neaux’s pics for 2011 #7-5

Neaux’s pics for 2011 #4-2

Neaux’s pics for 2011 #1 and runners-up

Well-known blues rockers The Birthday announced relatively recently that their fifth album “I’M A DOG” is to be released on June 15th. For those unfamiliar with The Birthday, the group is the third major brainchild of frontman Yusuke Chiba (チバ ユウスケ). The previous two projects, ROSSO and Thee Michelle Gun Elephant, faded from the limelight but still remain major influential parts of both the current band and the Japanese alternative music community as a whole. Coupled with their announcement of “I’M A DOG”, The Birthday released the above preview video for the album. They also have come out with short previews on YouTube for the first three songs on that album and the single “なぜか今日は” (Naze ka Kyou wa, Today for Some Reason) :

なぜか今日は

ホロスコープ (Horoscope)

SとR

Buddy

The full track list is as such:

01．ホロスコープ (Horoscope)
02．SとR (S to R)
03．Buddy
04．なぜか今日は (Naze ka Kyou wa)
05．Red Eye
06．爪痕 (Tsumeato)
07．SATURDAY NIGHT KILLER KISS
08．BABY YOU CAN
09．OUTLAWII
10．シルエット (Silouette)
11．READY STEADY GO
12．I’m just a dog

For more info on The Birthday and their upcoming album, feel free to visit their offical website.

It’s that time of the year again. The time when the Japanese pull off their version of the VMA awards and we get to find out what the results are. For the 14th annual SPACE SHOWER AWARDS, over 4000 videos from 2010 were considered and ultimately it was whittled down to these winners:

BEST VIDEO OF THE YEAR
Sakanaction for “Aruku Around”

BEST ARTIST
Kimura Kaela

BEST YOUR CHOICE
RADWIMPS for “Manifest”

BEST DIRECTOR
Seki Kazuaki

BEST MALE VIDEO
Saito Kazuyoshi for “Zutto Suki Datta”

BEST FEMALE VIDEO
Kimura Kaela for “Ring a Ding Dong”

BEST ROCK VIDEO
Sakanaction for “Aruku Around”

BEST ALTERNATIVE VIDEO
POLYSICS for “How are you?”

BEST POP VIDEO
Girl’s Generation for “GENIE”

BEST GROOVE VIDEO
HIFANA for “HANABEAM”

BEST GROUP VIDEO
BUMP OF CHICKEN for “Motorcycle”

BEST SHOOTING VIDEO
RADWIMPS for “Manifest”

BEST NEW ARTIST VIDEO
Sekai no Owari for “Fantasy”

BEST HIP HOP VIDEO
AK-69 for “PUBLIC ENEMY”

BEST REGGAE VIDEO
FIRE BALL for “Dreamer”

BEST CONCEPTUAL VIDEO
Utada Hikaru for “Goodbye Happiness”

BEST ART DIRECTION VIDEO
BRAHMAN / EGO-WRAPPIN’ for “WE ARE HERE”

INTERNATIONAL VIDEO
Kanye West for “Runaway feat. Pusha T”

Source: SPACE SHOWER TV and Natalie.mu

Formed in 2004, FLOPPY are prolific on the club scene and already have half a dozen releases under their synthetic leather (or plastic) belts. They’ve contributed to video game soundtracks and developed their trademarks looks into fashion.

Here is SparkPlugged’s fun interview with Sharaku Kobayashi (小林写楽) and Hiromu Toda (戸田宏武) of FLOPPY, thanks to the fine folks at JapanFiles.com

SparkPlugged: How do you describe your music?
SHARAKU KOBAYASHI: We read different terms for our music on the internet, but I just think of it as J-POP.
HIROMU TODA: Maybe you don’t even need the “J”. Just call it “Pop music.”

SP: Why do you choose to play ‘chip-tune’ style music?
SHARAKU: Simply because I’ve always liked the sound of it.
TODA: Because I didn’t have money to buy a guitar!

SP: What other types of music influence you?
SHARAKU: Techno-pop, punk.
TODA: I like to listen to folk songs and experimental music.
SHARAKU: Folks songs? Really?
TODA: Really.

SP: What’s the inspiration for your “cyber boy” costumes and visors? Where did you get the idea?
SHARAKU: I thought that if we eliminated our individuality, the true feeling of our music would come out.
TODA: Because I’m shy to show my face. I’m a little embarrassed sometimes.

SP: What are your favorite musical instruments?
SHARAKU: Laptop computer.
TODA: That’s right. That’s an instrument. For me, it’s Macintosh.

SP: 6. Are there any musical instruments you would like to learn to play better?
SHARAKU: I’d like to be better at guitar.
TODA: I’d like to learn Windows (PC) better.

SP: Is it difficult to create your studio sound in a live performance?
SHARAKU: It’s easy.
TODA: It’s pretty easy.
SHARAKU: The music in the studio is created with the live show in mind.
TODA: We bring the same instruments and computers on stage, so it’s identical.

SP: How has your music changed since you first started?
SHARAKU: There’s no noticeable change. The basic elements are the same
TODA: I don’t think there’s any particular change. The idea behind the music is very clear for us.

SP: What plans do you have for 2010?
SHARAKU: To be happy as much as possible.
TODA: It’s cold now in Japan. I want to relax in a hot spring.

Listen to samples of every song by FLOPPY and buy their albums on JapanFiles.com and check out their official website for more electrifying info.