Japan Files 2.0

JapanFiles.com 2.0 debuts with new features and new… Noodles!

March 04, 2008 - Celebrating over three years as the largest website devoted to Japanese MP3s, JapanFiles.com premieres a new design and special features today, just in time for its newest band - Noodles!

JapanFiles.com continues to build its catalog of over 200 bands with new artists/labels added every month. J-Music fans from around the world can find the newest rock, pop, punk, techno, and alternative music, plus exclusive digital releases of music you could previously find only in Japan, like the newest tracks from BESPA KUMAMERO and ketchup mania.

This month, JapanFiles.com is happy to announce the addition of veteran Japanese girl-rock trio Noodles just in time for their upcoming USA tour with the Pillows (see band links below for tour dates). Noodles has toured America several times, including two back-to-back appearances at SXSW. Fans can now download their latest albums "Metropolis" and "Cover me Shakespeare" at JapanFiles.com for only 99 cents a track.

JapanFiles.com is dedicated to bringing Japanese artists together with music lovers from around the globe. Sales from music at JapanFiles.com directly support the artists, so the fans really do make a difference. In addition, JapanFiles.com sponsors several band tours a year at anime conventions and live houses. Upcoming events in 2008 include: Swinging Popsicle (Mexico); ketchup mania (Japan Nite tour and Sakura-Con); tokyo pinsalocks (Anime Boston/Knitting Factory New York); and Budo Grape (A-Kon).

"Top 10 Websites for Japanese Music." – SeekJapan

"The top publisher of Japanese music in the U.S. - an amazing resource." – play Magazine



New features now available on JapanFiles.com 2.0:

ALBUM PRICING
Full albums are always $9.90 or less, no matter how many tracks are on the album.

ZIP DOWNLOADS
Customers can choose to download their purchases in one complete zip file (albums and single tracks).

MONTHLY SPECIALS
Staff picks every month are discounted 50% or more to help music fans find undiscovered gems among our large library of great indie bands.

GUEST PICKS
Japanese entertainment industry guests also get in on the action and choose their favorites from our catalog. The Guest Picks feature a special introduction and a discount price. Our March 2008 guest is Dennis A. Amith (KNDY) of the respected, long-running Japanese and Asian entertainment website J!-ENT (www.j-entonline.com).

USER FORUM
Discuss favorite artists, discover new bands, share info on tours and events. This is open to fans of all styles of Japanese music, and not limited to the bands sold on our retail site.

ARTIST VIDEOS AND LINKS
Visitors to the JapanFiles.com website can find artist interviews, links, and videos on the same page as the MP3 samples. Over the coming months, more links and videos will be added to every available artist, but fans can start exploring these features right away with artists like BESPA KUMAMERO, advantage Lucy, ketchup mania, and Electric Eel Shock.

PLUS - MORE FEATURES COMING SOON!



LINKS

JapanFiles.com MP3 store - www.japanfiles.com
JapanFiles.com MySpace - www.myspace.com/japanfiles
JapanFiles.com on Last.fm (full album previews) - www.last.fm/label/japanfiles.com

Noodles - Official website (English/Japanese) - http://noodles.velvet.jp/
Noodles MySpace - http://www.myspace.com/noodlesvelvet

VIDEO

noodles - "Grease" [PV]

Swinging Popsicle go South of the Border

February 13, 2008 - Japanese pop pioneers Swinging Popsicle have been invited as the first-ever musical guest for the 32nd Convencion de Juegos de Mesa y Comics in Monterrey, Mexico. The event will be held March 7-9, 2008, at Monterrey's Cintermex Center, hosting thousands of Mexican fans of Japanese entertainment.

Swinging Popsicle was requested by the event's coordinators based on their 10-year history and their status as one of JapanFiles.com's all-time best-selling artists. The band is currently nominated for Best Japanese Pop Band by Shojo Beat magazine.

Swinging Popsicle has appeared previously at Fanime Con (San Jose, CA) and Anime Mid Atlantic (Richmond, VA). In February 2008 they played a special concert in Seoul, Korea for their Korean partner-label, Pastel Music.

Swinging Popsicle appears at Convencion de Juegos de Mesa y Comics by special arrangement with JapanFiles.com and Entretenimiento Creativo.


Swinging Popsicle links!
MP3s - www.japanfiles.com/popsicle
MySpace - www.myspace.com/swingingpopsicle

Event website (Spanish) - http://www.ecreativo.com/xxxiicjmc/index.html

tokyo pinsalocks in NYC

February 5, 2008 - Japanese electronic rockers tokyo pinsalocks announced their New York City debut this week. Just days after their USA premiere at Anime Boston, fans of the all-girl trio can see them at a special performance at the Knitting Factory in Manhattan with special guests Sakura Madams and DJs Mar Galo and Hayden Honey.

tokyo pinsalocks will perform songs from their hit CD "Plutonium 07" and their upcoming release "Planet Rita." The band is currently nominated for Best All-Girl Band in the Shojo Beat magazine Japanese Music Awards.

tokyo pinsalocks
w/ Sakura Madams
Knitting Factory - New York
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Doors open 7:30
Admission: $10

Presented by JapanFiles.com and Karaterice


tokyo pinsalocks links!
MP3s - www.japanfiles.com/pinsalocks
MySpace - www.myspace.com/tokyopinsalocks

New BESPA KUMAMERO album on JapanFiles

Still haven't done the Leopard thing, so here's another post for your delectation:


January 20, 2008 - Cyber-punk hit-makers BESPA KUMAMERO have released their new CD "Romantic Waves" on JapanFiles.com. The indie-Japanese music website is the only place outside of Japan where fans can purchase the new tracks.

BESPA KUMAMERO is currently nominated as "Best Rising Star" in the 2008 Shojo Beat Music Awards, highlighting the best in contemporary Japanese music. Fans can vote for the band at Shojo Beat's website: http://www.shojobeat.com/music/ma.php

The new 14-track CD "Romantic Waves" contains 8 all new songs.plus remastered versions of the 6 tracks from their previous UK Tour Limited EP.

BESPA KUMAMERO will make their USA debut at Anime Matsuri in Houston, TX, in March of 2008.


BESPA KUMAMERO links!

MP3s - www.japanfiles.com/bespakumamero
MySpace - www.myspace.com/bespakumamero
Official Site - www.kumamero.net

It's been a while

I foolishly updated my website design software not realising that the new version I installed only works on Leopard. I do have a copy of Leopard but I haven't got round to installing it yet. That means that for now I have to go back to using this blog. Given the relative lack of updates on the Tokyo Guide site, that probably isn't a huge problem. Anyway, news of a historic live show in Tokyo (as ever, it's been cut and pasted):

Jimmy Binks and The Shakehorns, Live in Kichijoji

With crucial Shakehorn Sam Berry leaving for Spain in March, this could be the last gig for Jimmy Binks and the Shakehorns. The venue is Kichijoji's Mandala, a beautifully intimate venue which has hosted the likes of Beadroads, Osa and Killing Floor. We will kick off the show at 7pm. Doors are open from 6. Come before 7, innit.

Unfortunately, again there is a 2000yen door charge, but again there are 4 bands playing. Hopefully it will be as an eclectic bunch as last time.

This is our last and hopefully biggest gig to date. We hope a lot of you can make it.

WE'RE MOVING..............

That's right, everything must go, closing down sale etc etc. Not really closing down, moving onto a trial site that's got a few more whistles and bells. I'm in the process of transferring some of the content from here to the new site but all future updates will be at the new site, not here. Please bookmark the new one, come back again and again and tell all your friends about the wonder that is.......


Tokyo Guide

CAR Event, and more of our Nationalist buddies.

As the video that I uploaded to YouTube (the first one, aren't I great?) shows, yesterday the Nationalists were out in force making speeches, waving flags and generally looking thuggish and in-bred. To paraphrase Bill Hicks, why do most people who believe in their racial superiority look so unevolved? The picture below was taken at the Hachiko crossing in Shibuya where the only people paying much attention to the blokes giving speeches (apart from their own rent-a-crowd of discount-Yakuza wannabes) were the foreign tourists stopping to take pictures. It's such a pity that irony is probably lost on the sad, sad individuals.


Almost equally as shite, but in a completely different way is Omotesando Hills. It seems like these kinds of buildings are springing up all over the place at the moment and they are little more than upmarket versions of the soulless malls that mar the landscape in other countries. The usual suspects are there - Dunhill, D&G, Chanel, along with overpriced restaurants and coffee shops staffed by assistants who look down their nose at you despite the fact they're probably only getting paid a thousand yen an hour and they haven't had a break in six weeks. Bottom line, it's air-conned, and in this heat that's all you care about. At any other time there is no reason to go in there unless you want to laugh at the sad poseurs who pout their way around Tokyo putting in far too much effort to be cool.


On a brighter note, there is another CAR event coming up. I implore you to go - not only is the line-up a great one, but Ian's home and final scraps of food are on the line here too. It's your moral duty to go, look:

Call And Response & 20000V Presents:
Tanz Tanz Tanz!
8月17日（金）高円寺20000V
6.00 open / 6.30 start
1800 yen +drink (adv)
2000 yen +drink (door)
バンド：
サラダバー
UMIBACHI
ぴあぴあーず
worst taste
アゴーレーカルキン
cottonioo (opening act)
DJs:
Hiroki (Mir)
Ian (CAR)
Special wine bar: 1 cup, 100 yen (as usual)

The Shittest Tokyo Music?

Ah, the nationalists out to play on August 15th - it's not really what you want to hear or see at the best of times but it's even worse when the temperature is hovering somewhere in the high 30s and you're waiting on a friend who's got on the wrong train.

Guitarist wo Korosanaide, bloodthirsty butchers

“Expectations can be a wicked thing to overcome, especially for a band with a career as illustrious as bloodthirsty butchers.” - James Route, review of Guitarist wo Korosanaide on Keikaku a couple of weeks ago. This is undoubtedly true but I have a confession to make - even though I write regularly about Japanese music, Guitarist wo Korosanaide is the first bloodthirsty butchers album I’ve ever bought (I also killed the class hamster when I was in primary school but that was in self-defence and it’s a story for another day). There, I said it, I feel so much better. Now that my bloodthirsty butchers cherry has been popped, the question is, “How was it for me?” Short answer - probably better than anyone who is coming to this album with previous knowledge of the band.

bloodthirsty butchers have been making music since 1987, and twenty years down the line this album does sound like a blast from an earlier era. Do you remember when shirts were plaid, hair was greasy and the Cult of Kurt still revolved around a living figurehead? Do you pine for raggedy-arsed vocals backed up with guitar parts you can park a bus on? Do you want some retro-sounding rock that wasn’t made by a group of pale Gang of Four fans in skinny ties and shite haircuts? If you answered “yes” to any of the above questions then this album is one you should probably seek out.

For me, “yeah#1” is one of the best opening songs I’ve heard on an album in recent times, and it was an obvious choice for the first single. It’s hardly going to rival dubstep in terms of innovation or originality but it’s an exhilarating way to kick things off - the drums sound like they’re being pummeled to within an inch of their lives, the riffs are huge and the vocals unashamedly shouty. It sounds early Nineties and there isn’t a lot on here that breaks that mould. For some people that may make this album something of a drag but I’ve found myself coming back to this album again and again. The only complaint I’d have about Guitarist wo Korosanaide is that most of the tracks could have done with some more judicious editing. Most of them clock in at between five and six minutes, and more often than not the final minute is little more than instrumental fluff that adds little to the song.

If you’re already a fan of the band then you’re probably going to find this record disappointing, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Guitarist wo Korosanaide earns bloodthirsty butchers a few more fans. There’s more than enough here to draw in casual listeners, a lot of whom will go on and seek out some of the band’s earlier work, me included.