BUCK-TICK 2017 "THE PARADE" ~30th anniversary~

Well, folks. As you may already have heard from Fish Tank, Buck-Tick have at last announced the details of their forthcoming 30th anniversary extravaganza. To call it a festival would be an overstatement, seeing as by all reports, Buck-Tick are the only band who will be performing...though who knows, maybe we can hope for some guest appearances. In any case, here are the details, according to Fish Tank.

Buck-Tick will hold a pair of concerts in honor of their 30th anniversary entitled "Buck-Tick 2017 'The Parade' ~30th Anniversary~". We're tempted to point out that it's hard to have a parade with only one band, but for now, we'll be charitable. Day One of this two-day event, entitled "Fly Side," will be held on Saturday, September 23rd, in an outdoor venue set up specially for the occasion on a vacant lot right next to Aomi Station on the Yurikamome Line, on Odaiba, the magical island made of trash piled up on the bottom of Tokyo Bay. Day Two of the event, entitled "High Side," will be held on Sunday, September 24th, at the same location.

On both days, the doors will open at 3:30PM, and the show will start at 5:30PM. Fans are free to purchase tickets to one or both dates. Single-day tickets will cost 10,000 yen each, while a two-day pass will cost 18,919 yen. Why the strangely specific price, you ask? Because in Japanese number-speak, 8-9-1-9 can be pronounced "ba-ku-chi-ku," that's why. And for the record, the pricing was the same for their 25th anniversary festival, for the same reason.

Though there is as yet no word on how the venue will be arranged, it will be divided into blocks, and tickets will be assigned by block, with line numbers. Tickets go on general sale at 10AM on June 24th, but there will be a Fish Tank presale between April 8th and April 27th, the details of which will be printed in the forthcoming Fish Tank newsletter, due to be sent out on April 6th. For the record: for most of its existence, Fish Tank has sent out its quarterly newsletter in mid-March, mid-June, mid-September, and mid-December...but since Watanabe Sayuri took over from Ikeda Rumi as Fish Tank manager, the FT newsletter has been sent out several weeks late on more occasions than it has been sent out on time. Do these delays demonstrate a lack of professionalism on the part of the new Fish Tank management? Probably.

Rants aside, however, those of you who are interested in attending this festival and would like Cayce's help in obtaining tickets should contact Cayce via email around April 6th. If you're not a member of Fish Tank but you'd like to join in order to get Fish Tank tickets to the 30th anniversary extravaganza, you'll be eligible to get tickets through the Fish Tank presale if you join Fish Tank through Fish Tank web by March 31st. If you haven't joined Fish Tank yet but you want to do so specifically for this pair of concerts, I recommend you join as soon as possible and do not leave things to the last minute, as Fish Tank has been notoriously unhelpful toward foreign fans since their new dictator took office. I still do encourage all of you to make an effort to write Fish Tank emails in English about how much you like Buck-Tick. Recent fans especially - write to Fish Tank and tell them how you just discovered Buck-Tick five minutes ago! Most of Buck-Tick's Japanese fan following have been following the band since soon after their debut, and it wouldn't be a bad thing to let Fish Tank know that the band are drawing in new blood from overseas. They might not do anything with the information, but you never know.

As to rumors that tickets for "High Side" include a package of "candies" to help enhance your concert experience... they cannot be confirmed at this time, but neither can they be denied.

We will follow up with further information as it becomes available.

51 and Still Sluttin'

Ladies and gentlemen and non-gendered non-corporeal beings of Blog-Tick, we would like to take a moment to wish a very happy birthday to our dear Mr. Sakurai Atsushi, President of Buck-Tickistan. (In fact, if you fact-checked that statement, you'd find out it's an "alternative fact" because in fact, Buck-Tickistan, as an Anarchic Republic, has no President, nor any central leader whatever. But we know you won't fact check because this is the Age of the Internet and everything you read on the internet is true.)

Anyhow, if 50 is the age for grand midlife crisis albums of epical gothical proportions, 51 is the age for a man to prove the following two things:

1. No matter how old you get, it's still cool to both be goth bondage Jesus in a music video, and wear goth bondage Jesus on your deliciously goth-kitsch t-shirt. Wearing goth bondage Jesus on your t-shirt is the new version of wearing your own face on your t-shirt.

Long live Acchan! Long live goth bondage Jesus!

(Nothing says confidence like wearing your own face on your t-shirt, but goth bondage Jesus is cooler!)

.

.

.

.

.

2. It's never too late and you're never too old to begin your new career as a stripper!

No, you're never too old to be a stripper! Pick up a megaphone and howl it to the world!

Therefore, in honor of Mr. Sakurai's new career choice, we would like to present him with the following birthday cake, compliments of The Blog-Tick Phenomenon. 

But be warned, Acchan - there is a (g) string attached! Next tour, we demand Kurumi-print panties to match that jacket! Prepare for punishment if you don't deliver. Now eat up!

(On the off-chance that Mr. Sakurai reads Blog-Tick, please feel free to post your birthday messages to him in the comments section.)

Fangirls and Special Extras

First, we would like to call your attention to a new article we've posted over in the Features section of This is NOT Greatest Site. Entitled The Fangirl Phenomenon, it explores the genesis, behaviors, and psychological motivations of Japanese fangirls, and why fangirldom in Japan is something of a unique phenomenon. For those of you who love our long-winded pretentious pontifications, this is the longest-winded, pretentious-est, and most pontificable of the bunch! If you love the word "hegemony," prepare to wallow in it! (In fact, we are sincerely sorry we used the word "hegemony" at all, but it had to be done. To find out more, read the article.)

I know, it's really a shame that we haven't posted a live report yet. Trust us: we are working on the live report. But sometimes, a subject weighs so heavily on one's mind that it demands to be written about before anything else, and lately, for us, fan mentality has been that subject. It just won't leave us alone. We'd share the details of our travails with y'all, but unfortunately, they are far too personal for posting on the internet. Therefore, we felt moved to share this analysis with you, instead. After all, that's the android's best advice for overcoming that pesky human shortcoming called "having feelings": replace all those troublesome feels with a detached face of cool logical analysis. Emotions are for chumps! The way to true enlightenment is to become totally dead inside. #TotallyDeadInside.

Anyhow, mostly, this article is meant to offer you overseas fans some insight into the strange, arcane rituals and rules of the Japanese fan scene (we know those of you who've previously visited Japan may have been confused by this already). Though it's true that there are certain fangirl behaviors we don't support, this article isn't really intended to be a critical censure. We don't mean it as a personal attack on anyone (except for the girl who hit us over the head, but we doubt she speaks English). If you want to find out why it was she hit us, read the article. But in the meantime, just remember: if we actually hated fandom that much, we'd never have given you those pics of Acchan's thighs. Never forget it was us who gave them to you. Oh, and also - never hit someone unless you're prepared for the possibility that they'll hit you back.

.

Second, the album artwork and track list for for the Atom Miraiha live DVD are up over on the Buck-Tick official site, along with info on the various special extras that will be offered along with the DVD if you purchase it at specific record stores in Japan. They are as follows:

Tower Records: a special rubber-band bracelet

HMV: a badge

Tsutaya: a clear file folder

Amazon: a postcard

Shinseido: a sticker

Victor Online: a different special rubber-band bracelet

If any of you readers would like to reserve the DVD or BluRay through us, please contact us via email by no later than April 20th. In principle, we buy new releases at Tower Records - and one big reason for that is that Tower does more than any other record store chain to support and promote local talent. For more info on that, read this article. Viva those rubber bands, I guess.

Also, we've been getting increasing inquiries about reservations for releases by other Japanese artists besides Buck-Tick (such as My Way My Love's forthcoming cassette tape - yes cassette tape yes you heard right yes it's 2017 and cassette tapes are hot shit again what you threw away your old cassette player well too bad buy a fucking new one dammit guess you're not a real fan after all you're just a poseur.) We'd just like to let you know that if you're interested in reserving any other Japanese releases through us, including the work of indie bands, just let us know, and we'll do our best to help you out. Those of you who wanted u crack irigaru CDs: they exist, but are currently only sold on-site at the live shows. If you want them, we can get them for you. But be prepared to wait for up to a few months.

.

Third, please stop asking about Cayce's personal identity. As we stated before, Cayce is a non-corporeal entity whose consciousness was uploaded to the internet and now resides there permanently. Furthermore, the corporeal lackeys who serve as Cayce's boots on the ground shall remain faceless, ageless, nameless and genderless. If you can't deal with that, we'll have you stand trial before the Identity Correctness Committee of Buck-Tickistan for failing to respect our gender and corporeality identity. For the record, we identify as "Genderless Non-Corporeal Being" and if you ever so much as think of calling us by a pronoun, we'll be mortally (get it?) offended, so stop it with the pronouns right now. Japanese doesn't have pronouns, and neither does Buck-Tickistani, and neither should you.

.