Topics

1

Yoshiki / Real Gold Y/Real Gold X - Yoshiki energy drinks...

« on: May 10, 2022, 12:56:16 PM »

I'll leave that there although I guess most have seen this already





Glad to see Yoshiki is keeping busy with important matters. He certainly managed to turn himself into an immensely profitable brand, I guess that's quite an accomplishment.

2

General chat / ToshI - Valentine ROCK Matsuri "VISUAL ROCK NIGHT" [2017.02.12]

« on: December 05, 2017, 12:31:06 AM »

I apologize in advance if this was already posted elsewhere (must have been but can't find it)... How awesome is it to hear Toshi sing Vanishing Love, Sadistic Desire and even Alive at the end ? Too bad X-Japan never got to do this together in the past 2 decades

Part 1

3

General chat / 10 best X-Japan songs according to Yoshiki

« on: November 09, 2017, 12:42:42 AM »

http://teamrock.com/feature/2017-11-08/the-10-best-x-japan-songs-as-chosen-by-yoshiki

Discuss.

4

General chat / We are X, my 2 cents

« on: October 21, 2016, 02:17:06 PM »

So I finally managed to sit down and watch “We are X” properly and to my surprise, felt compelled to watch it a second time a couple of days later.

I thought I’d share my thoughts and would very much like to hear what you guys thought of it.

Some quick background, I’m a 35 years old guy, live in Canada east coast (have always), have been listening and passionate about X for over 20 years now (enough to get that tattoo 10 years ago, whatever that means).

As many here, I’ve been growing excessively tired of the stagnation since the band reunion tour in 2008 and although I’ve attend the MSG show and loved it, I don’t hold much hope for X-Japan’s future as a band at this point.

So it’s with that cynical attitude that I sat down and clicked play.

Opening with Yoshiki’s soft spoken English you could already tell that this was indeed going to be a documentary about YOSHIKI’s X-Japan – not much of a surprise but I was still bummed out to witness the overwhelming emphasis on drama from his personal perspective. Through the movie Yoshiki often speaks in poetically broken English, the result of it not being is first language and most likely also an influence of his song writing – it feels like he’s more used to think in English in terms of lyrics than a conversational vehicle. For the most part, it gives a very personal tone to his observations and I doubt serious individuals watching the documentary would be bothered by it but there were definitely a few occasions where it almost felt  forced and telegraphed (the whole piece about the swan which sings only one time before it dies was just odd). Nitpicking but after 1h30, it gets a little heavy.

The good news however is that this pseudo philosophical monologue is much more present in the first 30 minutes and gradually seems to fade away leaving room for actual content, after all this is a documentary! Ironically, I was expecting to be much more interested by the “early years” portion of the documentary as I don’t care much for their more recent stuff but to my surprise I found the second half (starting at the breakup) much more interesting and involving. Even though there was a whole lot of drama it somewhat felt much more real, interesting and to some extent sincerely moving. There actually was some real drama happening with the band through these years that are certainly worth discussing and a great opportunity to get up close and personal with Yoshiki. They support and explain his dramatic behavior that came out as overwhelming in the first portion of the movie.

The pacing and editing is mostly great all through the documentary and I found they did a great job at balancing songs in background, short snippets of live acts from different era and facts in a reasonable play time. Someone who knew nothing of X-Japan would certainly walk out of the movie theater knowing a whole lot more and possibly intrigued. What I found surprising was that they did not clearly highlight their albums release, titles, biggest hits, tours etc… from informative perspective this was severely lacking – a proper timeline, even a very quick one, would been appreciated. Trade some of that Yoshiki monologue for actual information.

Although I understand the other band members don’t speak English very well, I would have appreciated a little bit more time spent on one on one interviews, subtitles are just fine and generally well accepted in small doses by the average population.

In the end, I couldn’t help but feel ‘We are X’ was more of a massive and well-orchestrated infomercial (see multiple reviews coming out of nowhere that feel more like paid advertisement than actual reviews) as opposed to a more technical and informative documentary. The radio interview clips when Yoshiki’s X-japan is presented as an internationally famous band somewhat irked me a bit and I couldn’t help but watch movie and see such a stark contrast between the whole ambitious world domination plan Yoshiki seems to constantly bring up and the actual total lack of any progress since the band got back together save a few shows and singles.

All in all, a quality documentary, light on information, heavy on drama that should still be viewed by any X-japan fan out there. 

5

General chat / Trip to Japan, X pilgrimage? Suggestions ?

« on: October 20, 2015, 11:45:46 PM »

Well, this might be in the wrong section but as the forum isn't very active I figured I'd post here, feel free to delete, move, obliterate.

So, after over 20 years of passion for X, it looks like I'll finally get to set foot in Japan for 2 weeks in late December- early January!

Unfortunately, nothing X-japan related planned in Japan as far as I know I would have been willing to shell out quite a bit to witness a New Year's show at the big egg but I'm a couple of decades late to the party!

All this being said, any thought on places to visit, things to do that would be X related in some ways ? Landmarks, Visual Kei safe haven (haha... if anything still exists today?)... actually anything of interest in Japan that'd be worth it would be welcomed but this being and X-Japan forum I'm espcially looking for input around them.

Can't seem to find any Jrockish shows anywhere in Japan during the first 2 weeks of January either.

So.. any suggestions, very welcomed!

6

General chat / X live March 30th Forever Love Performance

« on: April 11, 2008, 04:17:33 AM »

Well, I think I've seen a lot of X live concerts and I've never seen such an emotion packed moment (outside of hide's funeral).

Pata who usually hides his emotions pretty well on stage is clearly moved. Toshi can barely sing... it's very intense.

Anyways, quite a touching moment.

7

General chat / My brand new X tattoo

« on: June 23, 2007, 11:25:52 PM »

Hi guys, I finaly got my tattoo done. Very happy with the result... I let the tattoo artist look at my Tshirt and work from there. The real thing is actually much better than the pic ...

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=5392&l=86c66&id=561316272

 :twisted:

8

Drawings / Quick advice on getting an X tattoo

« on: June 19, 2007, 02:02:45 AM »

Well finally, after thinking about it for over 12 years, I'm getting my tattoo done on Saturday.

So far, I've decided to go with the classic X (as seen on X Singles.. well you get it, the typical X logo).  However, I would greatly appreciate any suggestions as to what kind of texture/design I should go with to fill the inside of the X.  Some rusty metal like texture... some shading ? I don't know. Obviously, the tattoo artist should be able to help but I would greatly appreciate any suggestions. (anything to complement around the X would be great too although I want to keep it simple)

Thanks !

9

General chat / Looking for X-japan Piano Solo Instrument CD

« on: March 20, 2007, 02:48:33 PM »

I remember having that album in mp3 somewhere but seem to have lost it. It was very similar to X guitar Solo but was on piano. I think the CD release came with piano sheets (not sure about that). I am not refering to the X on piano CD that has much more than just piano on it. This CD is only piano.

Anybody has it and would be willing to upload it somewhere ?

Here's what it looks like :

http://cgi.ebay.com/X-JAPAN-PIANO-SOLO-SCORE-BOOK-CD-jrock-visual-kei-JPN_W0QQitemZ130073346944QQcmdZViewItem

Thanks guys