The Solar Budoukan

It has been announced that Buck-Tick will be performing at The Solar Budoukan, an outdoor rock festival in Nakatsugawa, Gifu prefecture.  The festival will be happening on Saturday, September 21st and Sunday, September 22nd.  Buck-Tick will be playing on the 22nd.  Other artists playing on the 22nd include: Theater Brook, Acidman, Soil & "Pimp" Sessions, Triceratops, and many, many more.  For more info on the lineup, click here. Two-day passes to the festival are 11,690 yen, while a single-day pass for Sunday is 7900 yen.  Now all you need is Shinkansen fare to Nagoya, plus train fare from Nagoya to Nakatsugawa.  On the day of the festival, the trains will be running on a special schedule, and a shuttle bus will carry fans to and from the station and the festival arena.  Campsites are also available for rent.  Make a weekend of it!

More Shopping Service Updates

I have posted new items on the shopping service page of NGS.  I plan on updating this page frequently, so from now on, I will not be posting separate update notices about it, unless I find something particularly noteworthy.  If you're curious about whether there are new items, check the page.  Orders are first come, first serve.  If two people want the same item at the same time, the person who sent the email with the earlier time stamp gets it.  As always, I fill individual personal requests on a private basis.

Shopping Service Update

*UPDATE*

Currently available at Disk Union:

Razzle Dazzle First Press (4500 yen)
Kuchizuke First Press (1500 yen)
Seventh Heaven (price on request)
Miu single (price on request)
BT best album (price on request)

If you want any of the above, let me know asap, though there's always a chance it will be gone tomorrow.

If you really want something specific, send me a request.

Shopping Service and FT Only DVDs

This is NOT Greatest Site is proud to announce the launch of an all-new feature: This is NOT Greatest Shopping Service!

What does this mean, in practice?

It means that you can request that I, living in Tokyo, hit the used record shops to find that rare, out-of-print item that you, living overseas, can't manage to find online.

This is a direct, you-to-me transaction.  There are no third parties involved, and no auctions.  You can request that I try to find you any item you like.  I can't promise that I can find everything, but I will look.

I can also help you buy concert tickets, so long as they are not fanclub only tickets, and are not sold out.  Email me for details!

In addition, I will also be posting selected items for sale in the Shopping Service section of NGS.  These items are in my possession already, and I will sell them directly to you, on a first-come, first-serve basis.  I accept payments via PayPal, in Japanese yen.  Registered/tracked shipping on request.

All proceeds go to support Cayce, and by extension, This is NOT Greatest Site.  We live in tough times and I struggle like everyone else.  Know that your each purchase you make here makes it easier for me to keep bringing you the content you enjoy.

And one more thing: the limited edition of Buck-Tick's new live DVD for the 2013 Cosmic Dreamer Tour Fish Tanker's Only show at Tokyo Dome City Hall on March 2nd is available for pre-order up to August 9th.  If you are an overseas fan who isn't in the fanclub, but you want this DVD, contact me, and I will help you.  I will accept requests through August 7th.

For those of you who don't already know, my email address is themadaristocrat [at] gmail [dot] com.

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My Thoughts For Today.

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The end.

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Kishidan Festival Update

An update on Kishidan's upcoming September festival: big-name bands Vamps and Kuroyume have been added to the lineup on Sunday, September 15th.  Buck-Tick will be performing on Saturday, September 14th, but the two remaining big-name guests for this date have yet to be announced.  Let's cross our fingers and hope they're so good they make it worth it to pay 10,000 yen plus train fare to all the way to Sodegaura, all to see Acchan-chan sweating bullets under the scorching sun and singing "Speed," "Aku no Hana" and "Baby I Want You" before running away in desperate search of cold beer.

Festival lineup here.

To Search

Found today in Disk Union Shimokitazawa.

Buck-Tick's first record ever.

"To-Search," coupling with "Plastic Syndrome Type II," the only Buck-Tick song with music writing credited to Sakurai.

It came with an ancient sticker inside.

This, my friends, does not happen often.

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One Night Ballet

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Whoops, I mean Soft Ballet.

I mean, we've added them

To the Not Greatest Site lyrics archive.

By popular demand!

(I'm looking at you, Lawrence, Victor, and Adrian.)

Kenny would be so pleased if he knew!

Whoops, I mean Mr. Morioka.

Would be pleased, that is.

Probably.

My apologies that it took so long.

Only four songs are currently up.  Feel free to email and request others, but I can't fulfill your requests unless you can send me the lyrics in kanji.  Also, I've got time for individual songs, but not whole albums.

Go check it out!

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Suica Furigana

....and now for something completely different.

For those of you interested in the Japanese language and writing system in particular, a great article on the history of furigana.

And, for my Russian readers -

"Russian Rich Fancy Cubic Watermelons"

A most ambiguous headline for a most ridiculous article.

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Buck-Tick on Buck-Tick: The Movie

In the pamphlet for Buck-Tick: The Two Movies, the Buck-Tick members were asked to answer a short set of questions.  Here are their responses.

What was your first reaction to appearing in a movie?

Yutaka: Pleased

Toll: Overjoyed

Sakurai: Happy, very happy

Hide: I selfishly inflicted my presence on you all...

Imai: I didn't actually do anything myself, but I'm embarrassed anyway.

When you watched the movie in full, is there anything that particularly stood out to you about Buck-Tick's 25th anniversary year?

Imai: Thank you all so much!

Toll: We were busy.

Yutaka: We got to celebrate with the fans and play a lot of great shows.

Hide: One hell of a year.

Sakurai: Dense with activity.  I never stopped singing!

How well do you think the movies represented your daily activities as a band?  What impression does the film give of the other band members?

Hide: It's like that.

Toll: This is how we are.

Yutaka: You got to see all sorts of parts of us.

Imai: Like, "uhhh" or like "yeah..." or like "say wut"

Sakurai: Aren't we all sexy??

What was your favorite scene in the movie?

Sakurai: The scenes were the staff are being so helpful.

Toll: The scenes comparing us 25 years ago to how we are now.

Hide: The scene of us recording 25 years ago.

Imai: The part where our bassist is backstage doing OOOO and then XXXX and then YYYY.

Yutaka: All of them!

Was there any incident on your 25th anniversary tour that particularly stood out?

Yutaka: Again, all of them!

Toll: We played showed in places we've never performed before (Shiga, Tokushima.)

Hide: Rain, rain, rain!

Imai: Our serious faces while we were having so much fun. And I ate nothing but salad.

Sakurai: Drink or sing.

If a band were a marriage, the five of you would be celebrating your silver wedding. That's a big deal! Why do you think you decided to keep running around with these guys for 25 years?

Imai: It's like, of course.

Hide: Because how we are in the movie is how we've always been.

Toll: It's fate. (I know it's long but it feels short.)

Sakurai: Cuz it's Anii, and Yuta, and Hide, and Imai! [aw, shucks]

Yutaka: RESPECT.

While you watched the movies, did you have any thoughts on Buck-Tick's future?

Yutaka: We'll keep running!

Hide: We'll keep rolling

Toll: We'll do as much as we can do

Sakurai: We'll go as far as we can go

Imai: Now that you mentioned it, I had no thoughts.

What new challenge would you like to take on in the future?

Hide: Mm not really?

Sakurai: Touring Asia.

Toll: I want to run a rock bar.

Yutaka: Every day is a challenge!

Imai: No challenges for me.

If you got the chance, would you make another movie?

Sakurai: Sure

Toll: Maybe for our 30th anniversary?

Yutaka: If it would make the fans happy.

Hide: If there were a chance.

Imai: What about a film soundtrack?

How would you like the fans to view the movie?

Yutaka: This is a documentary of the fans, and the staff, and the artists we performed with, and we wouldn't have been able to do it without your love, so enjoy watching it!

Toll: This is how we are.  This is Buck-Tick.

Hide: Just chill and watch it.

Imai: While you're drinking beer.  You should be drinking beer.

Sakurai: With popcorn and cola, and beer (ouch your butts are going to hurt before the end.)

Please tell us your message to the fans.

Hide: Thanks for coming to the show. See you again at the next show.

Toll: We'll just keep working, so lend us your support.

Yutaka: We'll just keep on running, so lend us your support everybody.

Imai: Wait for the new Buck-Tick.

Sakurai: Enjoy your music, and your life. Till you meet B-T again in the flesh. Thank you with love.

A Wild Night of Loud Noises

Buck-Tick have announced that they will be performing at the Kishidan Banpaku ("Kishidan World's Fair"), a summer outdoor music festival organized by their good friends in the band Kishidan.  The subtitle of the festival could be loosely translated as "Wild Night Loud Noise Forum." The festival will take place in Sodegaura, Chiba Prefecture, on Saturday, September 14th and Sunday, September 15th.  Buck-Tick will be performing on the 14th. , alongside Hy, Sendai Kamotsu, Man With A Mission, warm-up act Scandal, and some girls idol group I've never heard of that has like 27 members.  Bands performing on September 15th include SharanQ, Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra, Maximum the Hormone, and not one but THREE idol groups: warm-up act Shiritsu Ebisu Chuugaku ("Private Ebisu Jr. High")...i.e. a zillion hyperactive girls in school uniforms, Choushinsei ("Ultra New Star"), who appear to be a run-of-the-mill five-member boyband, and Momoiro Clover Z, an idol group famous enough that regretfully, even I have actually heard of them.  Naturally, this being Kishidan's festival, Kishidan will be headlining both days.

A two-day pass costs 19000 yen, and one-day passes are each 10000 yen.  This is more expensive than Buck-Tick's festival, in case you wondered...the one-day passes to Buck-Tick's festival were only 8919 yen, which reads "bakuchiku" in Japanese number-speak.    I guess you get off easy when you don't have to pay an entire school-full of girls to dance like energetic robots.  Now raise your hands if you, like me, wish that Buck-Tick, Skapara, and Maximum the Hormone were all on the same day.

More acts will be announced soon.  Also, this festival is operating on an earlier time schedule than Buck-Tick's festival.  It opens at 9AM and the performances start at 11:30AM.  Everything is scheduled to finish up before 8PM both days.

The timetable has not yet been announced.