Welcome to Gaia! ::

Well, hi thar.
Anyways, I just wanted to ask if anyone could give me some suggestions of other really good J-rock bands. Neh?

Pierrot, Gazette, AnCafe, Moi Dix Mios.

My best friend SWEARS by Imitation PoPs Uchuu Sentai Noiz.
They have a fun sound. xD<3

I know this doesn't really fit the thread, but I saw nowhere else to post this. Okay, Dir en grey is the first J-rock band I really started listening to, and I do still like their older stuff (despite Kyo's often questionable vocal stylings) BUT, I've been very disappointed in them lately. I think ever since Vulgar they've been selling out for a more american sound to reach foreign audiences. It was only slightly noticable in Vulgar only in the fact that most of the songs seemed to follow in the same pattern of noise and chaos, but I mean come on, WTD sounded like an hour-and-something-long Linkin Park song. And then it comes as no suprise to me that shortly following the release of it, they decide to start touring in other countries. I mean, I can't speak for anyone but myself, but the whole reason I stopped listening to american music (excluding oldies, mind you, gotta love the oldies), was because Dir en Grey's sound was so different from the rest, unconventional. But now what are they? Touring with Korn, trying to adopt the same sound, and leach popularity off of such bands by going on multi-band tours?? Do they have so little faith in their foreign fan bases as to rely on a turn-out by going with other established bands? Or are they doing just that, leaching popularity off of these bands by appearing before their fans, having adapted that same generic sound? And I became even more disappointed with them when I heard about the concert experience of one of my friends who went to see them in New York. She told me the fans weren't allowed to even see the band unless they purchased something, the fans weren't allowed to speak with the band, in upclose meetings with the bands, 3 of them basically hid, and they seemed to have some vendetta against americans by obscurely protesting the bombings on Japan in WW2. My friend also told me that on a radio program she was listening to of interviews of other bands on the tour that they weren't very friendly with them either. So them message I get from that is,"We don't really like you, but we'll take your money." (except Die, she said Die was pretty friendly xp ) I personally don't see this as very fan-friendly behaviour, and for people who seem to care about money so much, maybe that's not the best appraoch to treating their fans if they're also contributors to their income. I think maybe the last straw was after I heard the sample of their new single. They haven't evolved past the whole "sound like american rock" thing (as they've had for about 2 albums, where as before you could expect something different out of each album, each single), and I was not impressed. But I don't just bring this up for no reason. I bring it up because I wonder if anyone else also feels like Dir en Grey is selling out, or if they just hate their american fans, or what? Thoughts?

That's another good point. I also thought their name of this new single was pretty lame. It sounds like they're trying too hard to get the whole disturbing image things in their song title, like the american bands do. As if having that sort of thing in the lyrics isn't good enough, now it's like they're not even trying to go for an artisticly misleading title which doesn't really give the song away as far as sound, mood, or meaning. What's up with that? Their americanization is making them lose their creativity (which of course, is to be expected if they're just trying to copy other bands now).