This is two days late, because Cayce has been ill.
Thank you for your sympathy and concern...as we're not yet fully recovered, we're still accepting hot toddies.
Anyhow, self-congratulatory though it may be...
Monday, January 27th was the 8th anniversary of the public opening of This is NOT Greatest Site.
If This is NOT Greatest Site were a human child, it would be in third grade by now.
It has been brought to my attention that some of my readers are still not yet 14 years old. Which means that when This is NOT Greatest Site opened, you, my young readers, were only seven. Which is to say, younger than NGS is today.
Life in those days was quaint.
YouTube existed back then, but we didn't use it very much, because it had barely just been founded. Mostly, we downloaded our videos off peer-to-peer networks like soulseek. We were incredibly snotty and banned people for such small sins as liking the wrong bands. We still talked to each other via AIM.
MP3 rotation blogs were also quite popular, though they rarely lasted more than a few seasons.
People still cared what other people posted on livejournal.
People still cared what other people posted on livejournal.
There was no such thing as an "iPhone."
Dir en grey had never performed in North America.
Buck-Tick had never performed in North America either (they still haven't).
We got our j-rock news from these curious antiquated things called "magazines."
There were still bridge kids in Harajuku.
Buck-Tick's most recent release was 13kai wa Gekkou.
.
How many of you were Buck-Tick fans back then?
How many of you read NGS from its inception?
Please leave a comment and tell us how long you've been a B-T fan and how long you've been reading NGS. All readers are welcome, including our younger readers.
Many thanks to you, younger readers. You are the future. You play an important role in keeping us feeling a healthy sense of premature old age. Make sure we don't develop an inflated sense of our own temporal relevance. We owe you one.
How many of you read NGS from its inception?
Please leave a comment and tell us how long you've been a B-T fan and how long you've been reading NGS. All readers are welcome, including our younger readers.
Many thanks to you, younger readers. You are the future. You play an important role in keeping us feeling a healthy sense of premature old age. Make sure we don't develop an inflated sense of our own temporal relevance. We owe you one.
8 years? Oh god. How time flies! Congratulations! :)
ReplyDeleteReading stuff about how it was 10 years ago for fans of japanese music is somehow heartwarming...
I´m not saying that everything got worse since then, but often I ponder over how this era doesn´t have charm.
Sometimes I feel like I want to go back in time and watch people when they weren´t retarded by computers and magic mobile phones.
This world is so fast!
And...I remember that it was December 2012 when I decided to start watching another anime, which was Trinity Blood.
Honestly, it sucks balls. But the opening gave me chills!
And the rest is well known, I think :P
Since then I remember stumbling over NGS once in a while, and some day I thought "Hey, that site is actually really awesome and funny!" and read all the articles and reports on NGS, as well as all the posts on Blog-Tick afterwards. :)
I just noticed I accidently wrote 2012...
DeleteIt was actually December 2011
Yeah I was wondering about that. I think some of your comments on here predate Dec. 2012.
DeleteI'm 30 years old and have been a fan of B-T since somewhere around 2003. I haven't been paying as much attention to them as of late but still love them as one of my all time favorite bands. So amazing in their talent and for so long now. My favorite song will always be Dress. It's a very important piece of music to me. -Probably the most beautiful thing that has ever touched my ears.
ReplyDeleteI hope they continue to make music for many years to come because they are clearly capable of so many things. It boggles my mind how much talent people can have.
I love NGS. I used to love to study the lyrics and learn them from you all. It's such a wonderful thing that you've done so much hard work over the years with the songs. Thank you!
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ReplyDeleteCongratulations! Feel better Cayce :)
ReplyDeleteHappy birthday! As you know I am old but a newbie to Buck-Tick. It's about a year and it was love at first sight/listen. I found NGS not long after and it's been invaluable as a foreign fan. I love the translations and live reports and you make me laugh frequently. I also love the shopping service I now have a good selection of CDs and DVDs. Thanks for all your hard work Cayce and may you continue to enlighten and entertain us!
ReplyDeleteHappy anniversary!
ReplyDeleteI'm 24 years old and I have been a fan of B-T for roughly 9 years (NGB I've been reading for about 6 years perhaps?) I've never been more passionate about a band in my life, and I doubt I ever will. Sakurai's voice was love at first listen - the music itself grew on my slowly, slowly, until it finally exploded and burned itself into my brain, like a B-T shaped branding iron. Now I am all theirs.
Thank you for all your hard work! Cheers!
Well if you opened not long after 13kai was released, then I'm pretty sure I stumbled across NGS not long after it opened. One day I felt like reading all the garbled english BT put in their songs, so I did a search for "Buck-Tick lyrics". After some digging I found this poorly coded fansite that had not only transcriptions, but also translations of almost every song. COHERENT translations. *gasp*
ReplyDeleteI distinctly remember thinking "Wooooooow, someone had to be pretty obsessed to to waste their time doing this." And considering its now 2014 and I still follow your sites, I'd say its been 8 years well wasted. ;) Cheers!
Though it pleases me deeply to know you're such a long-time reader, I do feel compelled to point out that the poor coding of the original NGS was largely a deliberate element of the design. We had a few growing pains, but mainly, we were taking the piss out of the types of fansites that were popular in those days - fancy layouts but zero content. Also, I can't say any time spent on B-T is time wasted!
DeleteEh, time flies doesn't it?~ And yeah, if you ever thought about me being the youngest reader, you should know i'm 14 since October 2012 :P. Maybe there are younger ones. I discovered NGS soon after I discovered BT. They had(and are having. I'm a teen now apparently o.o) such a huge impact on me. They were the ones who made me so serious and passionate about music. Music (BT's music, duh) made me go through some really hard moments. It's the thing I live for, the one that keeps me going. And now I got to the year in which I shall make the most important decisions in my life, that will directly affect my future. Scary stuff.
ReplyDeleteHappy Anniversary! I became a crazy buck tick fan at around 15...I am now almost 26 ;) They've been my favourite band for 11 years, i still dream of seeing Atsushi live!
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday!
ReplyDeleteI am not a young fan, but I just could discover BT through YouTube! In fact, Japanese songs meant anime songs for me for a long time. When I saw Sakurai for the first time, I just could not believe this kind of music was made in Japan. What a fool, huh?
Well, now, although I'm late for the party, a belated but well deserved happy anniversary Cayce! Looking forward to many more retro designs, stories, articles and posts full of your one-of-a-kind irony and sing-a-long translations.
ReplyDeleteI've been reading NGS pretty much ever since I became a fan, about five years ago (although yes, I was guilty of having known 'dress' for much longer) I'm 26 right now :)
PS: What does Cayce expect from the new album? :D Could you possibly entertain us to a new round of BT gossip?