At long last, Buck-Tick have announced the release of their new single, "Keijijou Ryuusei" ("Metaphysical Meteor"), to be released on May 14th. The track list is as follows:
1. Keijijou Ryuusei (music - Imai / lyrics - Sakurai)
2. Melancholia -ELECTRIA- (music - Imai / lyrics - Sakurai)
3. Victims of Love with Kokushoku Sumire (music - Imai / lyrics - Sakurai)
The single will be released in three versions - a regular version and two limited versions. The limited version will come in a special package and contain a bonus video disc with clips from the Day in Question 2013 live in Kooriyama on December 23rd, and will be available as either a DVD or a Blu-Ray. The track list for the bonus disc is as follows:
1. Steppers -Parade-
2. Hamushi no You ni
3. Rhapsody
4. Kiss Me Good-Bye
5. Taiyou ni Korosareta
6. Love Parade
In addition, Buck-Tick will be launching a FaceGramTweetSpace sharing campaign to promote the new single. If you FaceGram their thing and more than 200 people SpaceTweet it back, you get to listen to a sneak preview of the single. Or something. If you understand how InstaFace works, which I don't...though it was brought to my attention that apparently, the administrators of the Official Bestest Buck-Tick Fangirl FaceSpace Page refused to link to Blog-Tick because they don't like my sarcasm. To which I can only say, my dear fangirls, you do know that Mr. Sakurai makes sarcastic jokes too, right? It's not just me. In fact, for all you know, Mr. Sakurai and I are getting drunk together right now, making sarcastic jokes about you. We're just not posting them on the internet because we don't know how GramBook works. Also, we're too busy laughing at cat gifs.
Of course, what those of you who read this blog for news are probably wondering is, what is a Kokushoku Sumire? And all I can say to that is, look at the picture below and maybe you can tell me, because I have no idea. Though honestly, my biggest question is not "what," but "why?"
Actually, I have to confess that I do know who they are, and have even had the, um...pleasure...of seeing them perform live. They were so, um...good...that I just about cried.
Anyhow, their band bio: Kokushoku Sumire (whose name means Pure Black Violets) are a self-proclaimed Lolita Band who got their start in 2004 and were picked up by producer Hoppy Kamiyama. Known for their trademark matching cosplay wigs, their music boasts squeaky violins and even squeakier vocals, drawing on classical and chanson influences to evoke the fantasy Rococo world that never was but of which all the lolitas dream while they weep gently into their teacakes at night - a world where all the wine has been turned into white sakura cherry chai tea, where all the bollocks have turned into biscuits, a world where little girls never have to grow up, but can sit daintily on white doilies and eat cakes all the livelong day, till they die pure and pristine and alone, fragile and virginal as the special snowflakes that fall oh so prettily on their chantilly-clad (but NEVER scantily clad) corpses. A world where no more copies of Alice in Wonderland exist, so no pesky literati come along to point out that, judging by her misadventures and penchant for ingesting mind-altering substances, Lewis Carroll's Alice would surely have grown up to be a punk rocker and not a lolita.
Personal friends of Tim Burton and Uno Aquirax, Kokushoku Sumire have been involved in such wide-ranging activities as running a bar in Shinjuku's Goldengai district, composing music for Uno Aquirax's theatrical productions, and simply continuing to exist despite being utterly insufferable...though we suspect it was the second item that brought them into contact with Imai Hisashi, upon which meeting we have to assume that, taking a cue from Alice, they passed him a cute little brownie topped with a note reading "eat me," and Imai took that to mean this was a Special Brownie, and ate it, and was hoodwinked, because we just can't bring ourselves to imagine that he saw fit to invite them onto his record of his own free will while sane and sober (now I'm insane, but I must go when I go.) And now we all have to suffer the consequences. The lolitas are preparing for world domination, and now that Buck-Tick have fallen, I think we're all doomed.
But before they come for us, let's fill our teapots with vodka and watch this wonderful videographic retelling of Alice in Wonderland by Siouxsie and the Banshees, just so we remember that the world was once a beautiful dark creepy place before it got smothered by pink sugar ribbons and frills. You can pry the haterade from my cold, dead hands.