Kings

VioletCamicat · **on:** February 13, 2008, 08:24:34 PM

Though I know that they released only one album, I think they're worth it to be named here. At least because it was one of the projects Taiji had.

Anyone here who knows and likes the Kings?
I like them pretty much, because they had a very classical style of rock. One song reminds me of Queen's "The Show Must Go On" actually because of some melody parts. All in all they sound very melodic.
(Though Taiji must have been a little bit bored there, since the bass lines sound so easy to me. :twisted: But I'm no musician, naturally I can be wrong.

)
And I think the voice of the singer is really great. In my opinion it sounds pretty unusual for a Japanese singer.

About the other members besides Taiji:
Shuichi Aoki (vo.)
Luke Takamura (g.)
and as support Satoshi "Joe" Miyawaki (dr.)

Singer Shuichi is - believing my CD booklet - a member of Night Hawks. I know the name of that band but honestly don't know them. (Wasn't that a band, where Toshi was? :shock: I hope, I'm not wrong now!)
And as far as I got it right the drummer is that Joe - from 44Magnum and Spread Beaver.

Does anyone have a clue why they only released one album?

(Funny thing: Taiji was the King in the X card game. :twisted: What a coincidence!)

Hollywood · **Reply #1 on:** February 13, 2008, 08:41:53 PM

Quote from: "VioletCamicat"

(Wasn't that a band, where Toshi was? :shock: I hope, I'm not wrong now!)

There was a "Toshi with Night Hawks" for sure, though I don't know anything about them other than the name...

Quote from: "VioletCamicat"

And as far as I got it right the drummer is that Joe - from 44Magnum and Spread Beaver.

If I remember correctly yeah, Satoshi Miyawake IS "that Joe". And if it's him, then he was also in Ziggy and Snake Hip Shakes.

Oh, and Luke Takamura is from SeikimaII.

But I've never heard the Kings album, and I REALLY want to. Are they original songs or covers? And do they sound anything like Rock'n Roll Standard Club?

Sander · **Reply #2 on:** February 13, 2008, 08:54:30 PM

I too would like to get their album... To be honest, I have never heard about them...

Arucard · **Reply #3 on:** February 13, 2008, 09:16:54 PM

Kings is f*ckin' awesome! It took me a lot of time to manage to listen to their album, and when I did I became an instant fan of them... The music is very good, something like a mix of Hard Rock and 80's Metal... They have some amazing ballads too!

Shuichi Aoki here is a great singer... He has an amazing voice, and is a pretty good rhythm guitar player too... As far as I know he's the one who created the whole Kings project... And yeah, he's the lead singer from Night Hawks, wich is the same Night Hawks who worked with Toshi for a while...

Luke Takamura is one of my favorite guitar players in Japan... I love his solo albuns, his works with Seikima II and his new band, Canta, is pretty damn good too!

Can't say much about Satoshi "Joe" Miyawaki, but he was in 44Magnum, so he's gotta be good... xD

And I don't I need to say what I think about Taiji... :twisted:

VioletCamicat · **Reply #4 on:** February 13, 2008, 09:22:10 PM

Quote from: "Hollywood"

There was a "Toshi with Night Hawks" for sure, though I don't know anything about them other than the name...

If I remember correctly yeah, Satoshi Miyawake IS "that Joe". And if it's him, then he was also in Ziggy and Snake Hip Shakes.

Oh, and Luke Takamura is from SeikimaII.

Ah! ThanX for assuring that to me!

Quote from: "Hollywood"

But I've never heard the Kings album, and I REALLY want to. Are they original songs or covers? And do they sound anything like Rock'n Roll Standard Club?

Well, I'd say it is classic rock such as Queen - not very heavy at least. A very full sound though also with female background choirs which maybe sound a little bit like gosple.
And no covers. All songs are music and lyrics by Shuichi and some also together with Luke. Taiji hasn't written anything according to the booklet, so I'd count him also much more to support, though only Joe is called like that there.
Shuichi also produced it and it's co-produced by Kings.
And maybe I can help you a little bit that you can judge on your own concerning the music style.

So if you want..?

Edit: You'll find it, when you hit Arucard's www-button, I just saw now! xDDD In the download section.

Arucard · **Reply #5 on:** February 13, 2008, 09:33:30 PM

Quote from: "VioletCamicat"

And maybe I can help you a little bit that you can judge on your own concerning the music style. So if you want..?

Edit: You'll find it, when you hit Arucard's www-button, I just saw now! xDDD In the download section.

Surprise... xD

VioletCamicat · **Reply #6 on:** February 13, 2008, 10:13:31 PM

If someone doesn't know Otokaze - it's also there.
There I don't really like the voice (like I usually don't like female voices, less then ever female Japanese voices), but the instrumental song is great - a medly from D.T.R acoustic.
And one song is sung by Taiji - I love this voice (and he lisps so cute :twisted:).

EDIT: Oh and the lyrics from Kings are - as pretty usual - mixed. English as well as Japanese.

Arucard · **Reply #7 on:** February 13, 2008, 10:27:52 PM

Quote from: "VioletCamicat"

If someone doesn't know Otokaze - it's also there.
There I don't really like the voice (like I usually don't like female voices, less then ever female Japanese voices), but the instrumental song is great - a medly from D.T.R acoustic.
And one song is sung by Taiji - I love this voice (and he lisps so cute :twisted:).

EDIT: Oh and the lyrics from Kings are - as pretty usual - mixed. English as well as Japanese.

Yeah, but Shuchi Aoki's english is pretty good! He reminds of Masaki Yamada sometimes... I don't exactly know why...

And about Otokaze, I guess I listened to it so much that I eventually got used to the vocals... It's kinda cute... xD And c'mon, it's Taiji's little sister, give her a chance!

VioletCamicat · **Reply #8 on:** February 14, 2008, 12:17:21 AM

Quote from: "Arucard"

And about Otokaze, I guess I listened to it so much that I eventually got used to the vocals... It's kinda cute... xD And c'mon, it's Taiji's little sister, give her a chance!

:twisted: Nope! No way! I don't like cuuuuute girly voices! No matter if it's Taiji's sister, daughter, grandma or puppy is - I don't like it.

It's not bad though.

It doesn't hurt my ears.

Hollywood · **Reply #9 on:** February 14, 2008, 08:25:39 PM

Arucard, your www button makes me very sad.

Because I have dialup. :evil:

I'm sitting here drooling over all that stuff and there's no way in hell I can get a 40 MB .rar file with this connection... argh!

That site totally rocks, damn it!!

Arucard · **Reply #10 on:** February 14, 2008, 09:29:26 PM

Quote from: "Hollywood"

Arucard, your www button makes me very sad.

Because I have dialup. :evil:

I'm sitting here drooling over all that stuff and there's no way in hell I can get a 40 MB .rar file with this connection... argh!

That site totally rocks, damn it!!

Thanks... I guess... xD

It took us a while to get all that stuff up... And there are constant updates... Drool on, mate! :twisted:

AsukaMiyu · **Reply #11 on:** February 15, 2008, 08:08:59 AM

...I'm to lazy to type! >_>
I just wanted to say, that I really enjoy listening to Kings

I didn't know Taiji was in at some point though...*Shame on me*
Um...yeah...still to lazy to type more XD *wanders off...*

VioletCamicat · **Reply #12 on:** February 16, 2008, 12:01:54 PM

Quote from: "Hollywood"

Arucard, your www button makes me very sad.

Because I have dialup. :evil:

I'm sitting here drooling over all that stuff and there's no way in hell I can get a 40 MB .rar file with this connection... argh!

That site totally rocks, damn it!!

What about single songs? Would you be able to download those or is it possible to send files like that on gmail?

What is dialup? :oops:

Arucard · **Reply #13 on:** February 16, 2008, 03:37:05 PM

Yeah... If you want to I guess I can upload song by song and send you the links, Hollywood... Just name the stuff you want and I'll do it...

"Dial-up access is a form of Internet access via telephone line. The client uses a modem connected to a computer and a telephone line to dial into an Internet service provider's (ISP) node to establish a modem-to-modem link, which is then routed to the Internet."

Dial-up connections are usually 56kbps, while broadband connections are above 200kbps...

VioletCamicat · **Reply #14 on:** February 16, 2008, 05:06:47 PM

Quote from: "Arucard"

"Dial-up access is a form of Internet access via telephone line. The client uses a modem connected to a computer and a telephone line to dial into an Internet service provider's (ISP) node to establish a modem-to-modem link, which is then routed to the Internet."

Dial-up connections are usually 56kbps, while broadband connections are above 200kbps...

Ah, thank you. :oops: I know this sort of connection, but didn't know that it's called like that in English. Again learned sth new, thanX!

Hollywood · **Reply #15 on:** February 17, 2008, 08:29:13 PM

Yeah, dialup is 56k, sorry Camicat! We call it dialup (or dial-up or dial up) here because it uses a telephone line.

Are you guys really sure you want to go through the trouble to upload songs individually? I would TOTALLY appreciate that, but I don't want to put you through too much trouble.

But if you're really sure... what I want the most would be X's Rose and Blood and the Stand Proud! stuff.

(And, yeah, Kings someday... but I feel bad asking for so much!)

VioletCamicat · **Reply #16 on:** February 17, 2008, 09:14:45 PM

Well, for me it wouldn't be such a big deal, since I haven't dial-up. I got DSL, but don't ask how high (2 Mbit?.. at least)... so, yeah, no big deal for me. I just gotta find out first, where to put it, but that shouldn't be so difficult.
And when Arucard an me split up that little list, it shouldn't be a problem.

Then you could see it as thank for your lyrics job here - what about that?

So no reason for feeling bad!

Arucard · **Reply #17 on:** February 17, 2008, 10:02:16 PM

Yeah, consider it a payment for the D.T.R lyrics... Well, I have Kings album, the Rose & Blood album, and the 3 Stand Proud! albuns... I guess I'll start with the Stand Proud! stuff and if Camicat wants to upload any of the other material she can do so... ^^

Oh, and I might take a few days to do this, cause my connection is not the fastest out there, and I don't have that much spare time... But I'll get it done for sure...

VioletCamicat · **Reply #18 on:** February 17, 2008, 10:15:34 PM

Okay, I'll do Kings and Rose&Blood. No problem for me. I need an hour to upload ona album, so... *brags* :twisted: I'm such a brat!

Hollywood · **Reply #19 on:** February 17, 2008, 10:17:46 PM

Thanks so much, both of you... you guys totally rock!! I really really appreciate this.

And of course, don't ever feel like you have to rush or hurry-- it's not like this connection will let me download them all in one day (or two, or three...) anyway.

Arucard · **Reply #20 on:** February 18, 2008, 01:48:53 AM

Ok, that's it then... As soon as I finish uploading the Cats In Boots and the Stand Proud! albuns I'll send you guys the links via PM, to avoid any problems...

And returning to the topic, we were talking about Shuichi Aoki being a member of Night Hawks, and the fact that they were the support band for Toshi's early solo career... Well, I found a video of Toshi with Night Hawks, and uploaded it in Youtube... Shuichi Aoki is the big guy in the white coat...

Btw, thisis my favorite Toshi song...

Hollywood · **Reply #21 on:** February 19, 2008, 09:11:24 PM

Haven't got a chance to check out the Toshi video yet, but I will when I can. Thanks for sharing all this stuff... both of you!

Oh yeah, and KINGS FUCKING ROCKS!!!! Did they seriously only put out this one CD? That's a serious shame, I would totally listen to more of this stuff. Awesome!!

They really do have a very full sound... the songs sound HUGE! To me they sound like a cross between Whitesnake and Rock'n Roll Standard Club-- definitely classic rock/hard rock, maybe just a little metal, and I hear some Southern rock too. But they sound a lot bigger than Southern rock usually does.

The singer really is great, though to me there are some other Japanese singers who sound kinda like this too, actually I think he sounds like a cross between Kohshi Inaba and the Twinzer guy, with a little Demon Kogure thrown in.

SarahAlex · **Reply #22 on:** June 08, 2008, 07:03:30 PM

Kings = the band whose songs I listen before the exams or tests.

"Stand up to the world" and "Hard-pressed city" absolutely rulezz.

Hollywood · **Reply #23 on:** June 12, 2008, 09:32:48 PM

Random question: did Kings ever play live?

And if so does footage of that exist anywhere?

SarahAlex · **Reply #24 on:** June 16, 2008, 10:28:08 AM

Quite interesting. I almost feel sorry that I have "only" mp3s from this album. :lol:

Hollywood · **Reply #25 on:** June 16, 2008, 06:24:15 PM

They do pop up on eBay from time to time, and usually can be had for cheap. The photography in the booklet is quite nice by the way.