Abracadabra! and Other Magic Spells

At last, after many delays and much anticipation, Buck-Tick have announced that their 22nd studio album, Abracadabra, will be released on September 21st, 2020, which also happens to be the exact 33rd anniversary of Buck-Tick's major debut. When the band released Atom Miraiha No. 9, Imai Hisashi claimed that numerology had nothing whatever to do with his choice of album title... but he also claimed that use of the word "Atom" in the title had nothing whatever to do with Tezuka Osamu's Tetsuwan Atom (known in English as Astro Boy), yet shortly thereafter, he appeared onstage with his hair styled just like Astro Boy, and the band released officially licensed Buck-Tick x Astro Boy collaborative tour goods, so y'all can decide for yourselves whether to believe everything that comes out of Imai Hisashi's mouth. Buck-Tick then followed Atom Miraiha No. 9 with the album No. 0, adding further evidence to the claim that they have absolutely zero fucks to give about numerology. 

Fun fact about No. 0: the reign of the new Japanese emperor, Naruhito, which began on May 1st, 2019, is titled "Reiwa" (令和). This name was announced in March 2019, after much top-secret deliberation. The first kanji, 令, means "command of God," while the second kanji, 和, means "harmony," and is also used to refer to Japan and Japanese culture. So the meaning of Reiwa could be seen as "harmony [in Japan] under the divine order," or "the gods declare, thou shalt create harmony [in Japan]". However, Reiwa has a second double meaning: "zero-zero." Why? Because "rei" (零) is the word for "zero," and "wa" (輪) means "circle" (and of course, a zero is a circle). It was a Shinto priest who explained to us just how much there is to unpack here - one could imagine the gods ordering humanity to "reset to zero" for a new era, and create harmony in the image of the world's people holding hands in a circle around the earth. In numerology, the zero represents coming full circle, the end of an old cycle and the beginning of a new one, the alpha and omega in one, the emptiness of the void out of which arises all of creation. Meanwhile, as we discussed when Atom Miraiha No. 9 was released, in numerology, 9 represents the ending and completion of a cycle. That Buck-Tick followed No. 9 with No. 0 is definitely not a coincidence. But what's even more intriguing is the fact that No. 0 was released in March 2018, a whole year before Reiwa was announced. It's almost like they knew in advance. Spooky!

Now, they're releasing their 22nd studio album on their 33rd anniversary. This is an unusual move - in Japan, new musical releases are nearly always released on a Wednesday, and Buck-Tick has stuck with this release schedule for the entire length of time we've been following the band, and probably much longer. However, September 21st, 2020 is a Monday, and not only that, it's a national holiday - Respect for the Aged Day (Grandparents' Day). Buck-Tick have released a lot of albums in September - One Life, One Death (September 20th, 2000), Tenshi no Revolver (September 19th, 2007), Yumemiru Uchuu (September 19th, 2012), and Atom Miraiha No. 9 (September 28th, 2016) - but you can see that never before have they bothered to time the release date exactly to their anniversary. Why this time? 

It might have something to do with numerology. For the most part, numerology only uses the single-digit numbers 0-9, but the exceptions to this rule are the so-called "master numbers": 11, 22, and 33. In numerology, the master numbers are considered to have higher, more powerful vibrations. The 11 is the number of intuition, inspiration, awakening, and non-duality (the push-pull of the yin and the yang). The 22 is called the "master builder," because it is the number of taking the ideas inspired by the 11 and making them into realities. The 33 is called the "master teacher," because it is the number of transmitting messages from higher dimensions of the cosmos to the earthly realm. 

The number 33 is found throughout the lore of many religious, mystical and esoteric traditions. Lunar calendars, such as those used to calculate the timing of various religious holy days such as Ramadan, operate on 33-year cycles - that is to say, it takes 33 years for the months of a lunar calendar to return to their original position in the year. There are also 33 bones in the human spine - significant because many mystical traditions speak of spiritual awakening as the vital force rising up from the base of the spine to the pineal gland in the brain (the actual "third eye" structure in the brain), opening one up to experience of higher consciousness. The 33 can also be seen to represent the two triangles of the merkaba or Star of David, which in turn represent the principle "as above, so below" - the micro reflected in the macro, and vice versa. The upward-facing triangle represents the flow of energy downward from heaven to earth, while the downward-facing triangle represents the flow of energy upward from earth to heaven (or was it the other way around? or does it even matter?), with the human consciousness in the middle, living bound by earthly reality, while seeking for higher awareness. The 33 is a doubling of the 3, the triangle, considered the most basic magic number by magicians, witches and alchemists of all stripes since ancient times... and intimately connected to the magic of "Abracadabra," but we'll get to that in a bit.

The Star of David / Merbaka (3D Star of David, two interpenetrating tetrahedrons, said to be the structure of the human aura)

Then there's the whole study of the mystery of "angel numbers," also known as synchronicity numbers - those numbers you just keep happening to notice everywhere. Does this happen to y'all? Like every time you happen to look at the clock, you see that it's 11:11, or 2:22, or 4:44, or what have you. Or you pay for something in a shop and the total comes out to be 11.11 or some other repdigit. Or you see repdigits on you social media accounts, in the number of likes on your tweet or views on your video. Or you see them on license plates, billboards - the list goes on. And it seems to happen a lot, completely spontaneously. Maybe you see the same non-repdigit numbers over and over, for example, double numbers like 1313 or 2020, or palindrome numbers like 3223 or 4884. Maybe you keep seeing the digits of your birthday, or some other personal lucky number. It's not just you. It happens to lots of people, often far too often to be mere random coincidences (do random coincidences even exist? We're not sure they do. If you want to have fun with this, speak this spell out loud, and mean it: "Hey, universe, show me 2357!" Watch and wait for 2357 to show up. If you meant what you asked, it will.)

As the name "angel numbers" suggests, many people believe that these numbers are messages from guardian angels or higher dimensions, and numerologists, occultists and psychics have used the principles of numerology to attempt to translate the meaning of the messages (for in-depth further reading on this topic for those interested, we recommend this site). Because of the fact that the 33 is a higher octave of 3 (the Trinity), and the fact that 33 represents the link between heaven and earth, 33 (and longer sequences of 3's) as an angel number is seen as indicating the protective presence of angels (or spirit guides or whatever you want to call them). As we discussed in our article on "Datenshi," angels and heaven are a major theme in Buck-Tick's work, going right back to Seventh Heaven and "Angelic Conversation" (which is jam-packed with esoteric symbolism, but that's a topic for another article). Not directly relevant, since Buck-Tick are probably not scholars of synchronicity number meanings, but interesting all the same. The foundational belief behind numerology is that numbers express the fundamental truth of the universe - a belief shared by quantum physicists, just not in the same way. So, maybe it's not necessary to have overt knowledge of the numbers in order to employ their meaning. Maybe they just come out.

All in all, 33 is one special number! It might just be coincidence that Abracadabra is Buck-Tick's 22nd original studio album, but since they have the chance, it seems like a one-of-a-kind chance for some magical hoodoo that they should release their 22nd album on their 33rd anniversary. The 22 - building inspirations into realities. The 33 - sharing transcendental magic with the world. That's exactly what B-T do, right? And Abracadabra is magic that goes back a long, long time.

These days, when most people hear the word "abracadabra," they think of stage magic - the guy in the fancy suit waves a black stick over his silk tophat, says "abracadabra!" and pop! out of the hat comes a rabbit. Everyone knows that stage "magic" isn't magic at all - just deftly worked illusion. Real magic - that's an entirely different idea, spanning thousands of years of occult study, and in fact, "abracadabra" was once used as a serious magic spell.

In fact, the word "abracadabra" is so old that no one knows where it originated from, and some even claim that it pre-dates Babylon and the mythical Tower of Babel, and is therefore a word from the universal language which humanity supposedly spoke before the destruction of Babel. The reason cited for this is that "abracadabra" even today is used more or less universally across human languages without being translated. Obviously, evidence doesn't support the idea that everyone spoke a universal language before the time of Babylon - language is constantly evolving, and groups of people separated from one another will naturally evolve different languages over time, that's just how language works. But the idea of an ancient language of the universe, handed down by mystic scholars and used to work magic, is an idea that surely goes back to before Babylon, so the notion that "abracadabra" is a word from such a language isn't as silly as you might think.

There are various other theories about the origins of abracadabra, though none of them can be substantiated, because the archaeological evidence is long gone. According to one theory, abracadabra comes from the similarly ancient magic word "abraxas" or "abrasax," found in Gnostic texts and on ancient carved stone talismans. Just like abracadabra, nobody can say for certain where abraxas originated (Greece? Egypt? the Middle East?). The seven letters are thought to represent the seven planets that were known to the ancient world, and the word itself was used to refer to the "Archon of the 365 heavenly spheres," the Gnostic supreme being. The word itself may have been derived from the Ancient Hebrew words "ab, ben, ruach hakodesh," or the similar Ancient Greek words, "ab, ben, rouach, hakadōs," meaning "Father, Son, Holy Spirit"... which brings us back to abracadabra, because another theory is that abracadabra was derived from those words, and rather than abracadabra being derived from abraxas, abraxas was derived from abracadabra.

Another theory posits that abracadabra was derived from the Aramaic phrase "avra kehdabra," meaning "I create as I speak," or "I create like the Word." That's a powerful idea, considering that real magic is, in its essence, the act of directly reality through force of will. Alternatively, others believe that abracadabra was derived from a similar phrase, "avra kadavra," meaning "let it be destroyed." Whether these are actually two different phrases, two different translations of the same phrase and one of the translations is wrong, or they're two different meanings of the same phrase and both of the translations are right is not something we've been able to discover, and perhaps nobody knows - Aramaic is a very old, very dead language. But if "avra kadavra" makes you think of avada kedavra in Harry Potter, you're right on the money - this is indeed where J.K. Rowling got the idea for her killing curse incantation.

So, were the ancients using "abracadabra" as a spell to kill each other? Far from it! In addition to divining the future, one of the most important applications of magic in pre-modern times was for protection and healing. Since pre-history, healers, witches and shamans were often one in the same - the people with knowledge of both medicinal herbs and of the unseen realms of spirit and energy. These days, we've been taught to laugh at the crazy or silly-seeming medical practices of the past - but there was often a lot more to them than Westerners brainwashed by Big Pharma like to admit, and not only are the effectiveness of herbal remedies and traditional therapies such as acupuncture and sound healing being verified by high and mighty modern research, but the real therapeutic value of plant medicines such cannabis and magic mushrooms, which were used by shamans since ancient times, is being re-acknowledged. (Did y'all know that used correctly, psychedelics can be far more effective at treating depression than any anti-depressant ever? Studies in peer-reviewed journals show! No wonder Imai's so happy!) This ancient healing magic was not all hooey, not remotely.

However, "abracadabra" was most likely not effective at what it was designed for - as a ward against the plague. Yes, you heard right. That's why the original meaning of the phrase may be "let it be destroyed." The aim was to destroy the plague. The first known appearance of "abracadabra" in print was in the writings of Serenus Sammonicus, physician to the Roman emperor Caracalla in the 2nd century C.E. Sammonicus recommended that sick people should wear an amulet around their necks with the word abracadabra inscribed as an inverted triangle, losing one letter per line. The gradual reduction in the letters was supposed to slowly drive the sickness from the body. This triangle is called an "abracadabrangle." (And you thought "abracadabra" was an awesome word!)

The concept caught on, and these abracadabra talismans were all the rage throughout Europe during plagues, even as late as the 1700's, when Daniel Defoe scoffed at them, writing,

"People deceiv'd; and this was in wearing Charms, Philters, Exorcisms,  Amulets, and I know not what Preparations, to fortify the Body with them against the Plague; as if the Plague was but a kind of a Possession of an evil Spirit; and that it was to be kept off with Crossings, Signs of the Zodiac, Papers tied up with so many Knots; and certain Words, or Figures written on them, as particularly the Word Abracadabra, form'd in Triangle, or Pyramid...

How the poor People found the Insufficiency of those things, and how many of them were afterwards carried away in the Dead-Carts."

We can only imagine what a field day he'd have had in 2020, smugly looking down his nose and feeling superior both to conspiracy theorists and people who dare to go outside and have fun alike. (It's a fact that complaining about the behavior of others so that you can feel superior provides 100% immunity to the coronavirus!!!)

Honestly, Danny (can we call you Danny?) If you're gonna die of the plague, you might as well do it in style... and these abracadabra charms are stylish as fuck! They're even more stylish than Buck-Tick printed masks! And they're still in production today, based on the old designs.

(Please, guys. Tour goods. Even if there's no tour. Please make us some silver Buck-Tick Abracadabrangle necklaces. We will gladly wear them even if it means we get smugly sniffed at by Daniel Defoe. You will pry our gothic occult jewelry from our cold, dead bodies as they lie pickled in hand sanitizer in refrigerated morgue trucks in the queue for another slapdash coronafuneral... just kidding, goths are immune to the coronavirus!)

Abracadabrangle charms were also often put over the doorways of houses to keep the plague out, possibly in a nod to the final plague of Egypt in the Bible.

Anyhow, it wasn't until much more recently that "abracadabra" became adopted as a word of choice for stage magicians. In a now-scientific world, with the microbial causes of disease understood, magic wards against illness began to seem silly (then again... people in 2020 are drinking bleach and dying, to try and stop themselves dying of the coronavirus, so... compared to that, an Abracadabrangle seems quite sane and logical.) Anything resembling "real" magic came to be ridiculed by the global hegemony of materialist science. Abracadabra and other magic words are lol. Let's cut naked ladies in half with saws, pull rabbits out of hats, and drink to the fact that now, at last, we know everything there is to know, go to bed snug at night knowing that no witches, ghosts, gods, or aliens exist, and they never have. We are very smart, with very selfish genes. Ancient peoples were primitive and superstitious savages.

The thing is, it's actually a big, mysterious world out there, full of a vast number of things we don't understand. We don't even understand gravity! So many years and so many particle accelerators later, and physicists still have not a clue what made Newton's apple fall. What we call "matter" is 99.9999% "empty space." Why? What is the universe, really? Those primitive and superstitious savages claimed it was a living, breathing, conscious being. So did Sakurai Atsushi, on Yumemiru Uchuu. Can we be so sure that they're wrong? 

Meanwhile, the US government just announced last week that UFOs are real, and that the extraterrestrial explanation appears to be the most likely one, and we have exactly zero idea what the UFOs are or how they work. And guys... didn't we tell you at the beginning of the year that 2020 was going to be the year the aliens landed? Keep your eyes, hearts, and minds open, and your alchemical homunculus flasks at the ready. The world just might turn out to be far more magical than you think. Buck-Tick knew Reiwa was coming. The ancient wisdom of Buck-Tickistan is a very, very deep well. What else do they know that they have yet to reveal?

Whatever it is, it's surely not on the English version of the special website promoting the release of the Abracadabra album. This website, which in addition to being the most boring, lazily designed site we have ever seen, was very definitely NOT written by Cayce, tells us:

"The latest album "ABRACADABRA" released by BUCK-TICK, a rock band that has been shocking many times with its own musicality, on the anniversary of its 33rd debut.

Along with the rapid changes in the way music was delivered, the band continued to evolve as an immobile and lonely entity."

Here, kids, we're going to teach you another cool-sounding word: "gobbledygook." The definition: "language characterized by circumlocution and jargon, usually hard to understand." What exactly does that mean, "immobile and lonely entity"? Do they mean like a lone UFO just floating up there in the sky, not moving? We're pretty sure Buck-Tick *did* come from outer space, so that's plausible, but... no. What they were trying to say is "unshakable and fiercely independent." Translators: proving to you that yes, words ARE magic, every day of the year. Have a word problem? Hire a translator today! (Real talk, it actually hurt us with physical pain to read the English version of this site. Buck-Tick badly need a different web management team.)

Anyway, the big news about the release of this album is that, for the first time since Taboo, the album will be released not only to CD, but also to cassette tape and *drumroll* VINYL! (And, you know, digital download and streaming services, yawn, snore. But oh wait... it was because of us putting pressure on them that they did that! You rock, Blog-Tickers! And for overseas fans in this age of no-international-shipping-from-Japan, it's a damn good thing they took our advice or they'd have lost out on a lot of potential money from their overseas fanbase.)

As far as the vinyl thing goes, we have a personal confession to make. After every Buck-Tick concert, the venue staff pass out feedback questionnaires about the show to all the fans, and we've noticed over the years that they really take this feedback to heart. Over the course of the past few tours, we've been consistently offering three specific suggestions on the questionnaires: 1) release an acoustic album or play an acoustic show, 2) offer a fanclub-sanctioned ticket trading service, 3) if you want to play something catchy and repetitive, please play "Ai no Uta" instead of all those bop-bop songs, 4) release commemorative LP versions of your post-Taboo back catalog.

The ticket trading service is a shambles, but they did it. The acoustic section of Locus Solus was almost as surprising and exciting as finally hearing "Ai no Uta" for the first time in our thirteen years of following the band on every tour. And now, an LP version of Abracadabra!  Knowing the Japanese fanbase, we find it unlikely that many other fans besides us, if indeed any at all, would have made these same suggestions. The type of Buck-Tick fan who goes to shows and writes questionnaires is, to put it politely, not the kind who owns record players. Yeah, vinyl is having a major comeback and all the cool kids are doing it. Maybe it's all coincidence. And it's not like we signed our questionnaires "Hocus Pocus, Alacazam, Love, Cayce." But we kind of don't believe in coincidences. We're pretty sure that words are magic. Abra-ca-fucking-dabra!

All told, the album will be released in five versions, one for each of the five band members. They are, as follows:

Special Precious Limited Edition CD (Acchan version because he's the most special, precious band member said all the fangirls who will buy this version of the album)

5,500 yen + tax / with BluRay

5,000 yen + tax/ with DVD

(ooh look it's a 555 Abracadabrangle! Acchan-chan's life path number is 5! Spooooooky!)

The BluRay/DVD will contain a music video for the new YOW-ROW mix of "Kemono-tachi no Yoru," otherwise known as "Night of the Beasts ~tryhard fanboy mix~". It will also contain a multi-angle version of the music video for "Moonlight Escape," with one cut for each band member, as well as the music video for "Kogoeru."

In addition, the limited edition will come with special packaging, as well as a lottery ticket to enter to win goods signed by the band members* (please please please let it be a signed Abracadabrangle!) and a link for streaming the contents to your love, companion, and codependent addiction in this time of social distancing especially smartphone until September 30th, 2021.

*Please note that though the Buck-Tick members are immune, YOU can get coronavirus from signatures. Enter this lottery at your own risk.

**That was a joke don't take it seriously also don't microwave your mail.

Regular CD Edition (Toll version, because he is simple and honest, and the regular CD was the older brother of the limited edition CD)

3,000 yen + tax

No frills on this one - just the album, on high-fidelity SHM-CD that can be played in all players. Also contains a lottery ticket to enter the lottery to win signed goods, and a link for streaming the contents to your smartphone until September 30th, 2021.

Analog LP Edition (Hide version because of that fake or are they real wall of records he keeps getting photographed in front of, and because he's a trendy hipster)

4,500 yen + tax

Contains a 2-disc set of 180 gram vinyl LPs, with the whole album on four sides. Also comes with a special poster, a lottery ticket to enter the lottery to win signed goods, and a link for streaming the contents to your smartphone until September 30th, 2021. Doesn't contain a free download code like every other record released these days, because the B-T management are money-grubbing bastards, and they want you to punish you for wanting the album on vinyl by forcing you to buy the album twice if you want it in high-fi digital instead of ripping it by hand from the vinyl to your computer. Yes, Cayce has software for digitally ripping vinyl. Yes, digitally ripping vinyl is a pain-in-the-ass process that requires manually dividing up the tracks in a DAW (for those of you laypeople, that's a Digital Audio Workstation, sound-editing software). Yes, Cayce will also buy the limited edition CD in order to get the DVD. But come on.

Cassette Tape (Imai version because the curly reels of tape look like the curlicues on his guitar, and on his shoes)

2,800 yen

Contains a lottery ticket to enter the lottery to win signed goods, and a link for streaming the contents to your smartphone until September 30th, 2021. And super hipster bragging rights that you bought the album in the cheapest physical format and that format is a cassette tape. Listen to it on your Walkman. (Fun fact: yes Cayce has a cassette tape player. Yes, we also have software for digitally ripping cassette tapes. No, we're not going to rip the Abracadabra casette tape and those cheap fucking bastards should have provided a download code.)

High-Resolution Streaming (Yutaka version. Yutaka himself is a high-resolution stream.)

48kHz 24-bit format, close to the original master tapes. To be streamable by special software apps: Rekochoku, mora Hi-Res, and mora qualitas. No word on the price but they'll probably make you pay 500 yen each time as if it were a gacha-gacha. Because if you are gullible enough to buy into the scam of streaming, you deserve to be scammed.

Digital Download/General Streaming Services (One streaming service per B-T behind-the-scenes collaborator, including Yokoyama Kazutoshi, Cube Juice, Yow-Row, Mr. Tanaka, etc. - they couldn't do it without you) 

No word on the price, but the album will be available on major digital download and streaming platforms starting September 21st. For details on the streaming and download platforms, go to the Abracadabra official site.

Whoops, that was six formats, not five. Numerology is hard work!

As we mentioned before, the Japan Post is not currently shipping internationally, less out of a fear of the virus and more out of a lack of sufficient transportation, it seems. However, it's unlikely that this lame situation will continue forever, so if any of y'all are interested in ordering any of these items through Cayce, shoot us an email. We will purchase them for you and hold them for you until international shipping to your country resumes.

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As if that weren't enough new info already... Buck-Tick have also released the new album's song titles and writing credits, though they say that the order of the tracks has yet to be determined. So, in no particular order, here goes.

PEACE（SE） (music: Imai Hisashi)

"SE" stands for "stage entrance." This is the instrumental music that plays while the band comes on stage during live shows. Raise your hand if you, too, wish Buck-Tick would release an SE compilation album. That's a questionnaire suggestion we made that they haven't taken us up on.

URAHARA-JUKU (lyrics: Sakurai Atsushi / music: Imai Hisashi)

Ura-Harajuku, or "backstreet Harajuku" is the internal area of Harajuku between Omotesando and Meiji-doori, away from Harajuku station. For many years, especially in the 80's and 90's, this was one of the edgiest, most interesting fashion spots in all Tokyo. These days, it's gentrified as hell like the rest of the district, and its glory is mostly gone, though a few vestiges remain here and there. This title is a pun, however. "Urahara" means "reverse" or "contrary," and "juku" means "cram school." A cram school on how to be punk? Yeah, Buck-Tick could definitely teach that school.

Datenshi - YOW-ROW ver.  (lyrics: Sakurai Atsushi / music: Imai Hisashi)

I know, you know, I know this song already. (Singable with the original melody!)

MOONLIGHT ESCAPE  (lyrics: Sakurai Atsushi / music: Imai Hisashi)

Reportedly a catchy, retro number in which Sakurai passes on some wisdom from his hard-knock life to the sad boys and girls of the world. More on this one soon.

Kogoeru ("Frozen") - Crystal CUBE ver. (lyrics: Sakurai Atsushi / music: Hoshino Hidehiko)

Mixed by Cube Juice. A Hide song that gets its own PV. Amazing! We have our fingers crossed that Sakurai wears a pale blue sparkly dress and lets it GO!

Kemono-tachi no Yoru ("Night of the Beasts") - YOW-ROW ver. (lyrics: Sakurai Atsushi / music: Imai Hisashi)

Cube Juice already had his way with the song and proved himself to be an artistic, tender, and passionate lover. We bet Yow-Row's version is full of dubstep and finishes fast, like a teenage boy. The robot who writes the English version of the official site translated the title of this song as "Beasts' Night," because not only do robots have no sense of poetry, they also don't read Not Greatest Site.

Tsuki no Sabaku ("Desert of the Moon") (lyrics: Sakurai Atsushi / music: Hoshino Hidehiko)

Reportedly a medium-tempo number with a Japanese-style tribal beat (according to Sakurai).

Maimu -Mime- ("Dancing Dream") (lyrics: Sakurai Atsushi / music: Imai Hisashi)

Another pun here - Sakurai spells "mime" with the kanji "mai" (dance) and "mu" (dream).

Villain (lyrics: Sakurai Atsushi + Imai Hisashi / music: Imai Hisashi)

Interesting title! Must be about the past life in which Acchan-chan was a Romanian vampire and Imai was Hugo Ball.

Dance Tengoku ("Dance Paradise") (lyrics: Sakurai Atsushi / music: Hoshino Hidehiko)

A dance number by Hoshino Hidehiko. This one must be tropical rock for sure.

Que Sera Sera Elegy (lyrics: Imai Hisashi / music: Imai Hisashi)

"Que sera sera, whatever will be will be? The future's too hard to see, que sera sera" - go the lyrics to the original song. If this is an elegy for that philosophy, does that mean we get to learn to see the future?

SOPHIA DREAM  (lyrics: Imai Hisashi / music: Imai Hisashi)

Omg is Imai dreaming of another woman? How dare you cheat, Imai! Shame! And with the Goddess of Wisdom, no less! Then again, given that Sophia is known for her wisdom, not her sensuality, perhaps it's a merely intellectual affair. Or perhaps, this is about Jung's archetype Sophia, the most highly evolved stage of anima integration, in which a man has fully integrated his feminine aspect to the point that he sees women as fully developed individuals with all the same range of qualities as men. A man at this level of anima integration has fully accepted, and can make full use of, his feminine energy. See what we wrote about the Divine Feminine in this article.

Eureka (lyrics: Sakurai Atsushi + Imai Hisashi / music: Imai Hisashi)

Ancient Greek for "I've found it!" Famously, Ancient Greek polymath Archimedes ran out of his house naked shouting "eureka!" after stepping into his overflowing bathtub gave him the idea to measure the purity of gold alloys through displacement of water (other metals are less dense than gold, and thus take up more space than pure gold, and thus displace more water - this is how you tell if the goldsmith is cheating you.) Imai says that he wrote this song last, and it took him about five minutes. He says it was born out of his nebulous sense of rage and frustration at the pandemic. Rage, Imai, rage!

Boukyaku ("Forgotten") (lyrics: Sakurai Atsushi / music: Imai Hisashi)

The official album site has this translated as "oblivion," but the kanji literally mean "forgetting and retreating," so this is only oblivion in the sense of something completely forgotten, not the nothingness of the great void. Therefore, we're better than "forgotten" is a better translation. But we'll have to see the lyrics to know for sure.

So that's the album! There are a total of 14 tracks, which is generous of them, though we don't understand why "Rondo," masterpiece as it is, was not included... but who knows, maybe it just didn't fit the vibe. We'll have to wait and see.

More info on the other news from Buck-Tickistan coming soon.

Dazzling Coincidence!

This may very likely be simple coincidence, but even if it is, we're pleased that Mr. Imai's brainwaves happened to coincide with ours.  In these promo photos from Buck-Tick's new guitar book,  we can see how Imai's new guitar model has a special message written on the back of the neck...

Django the Dazzler!  My my, if that isn't how Cayce translated the title of "Genwaku no Django" back when Razzle Dazzle was first released.  We know he didn't get this from Google Translate, because Google Translate renders "Genwaku no Django" as "Django Daze" (sounds like something Imai would enjoy putting up his nose.)  Nor is it the way "Genwaku no Django" was translated on Buck-Tick's appearance on NHK International's program J-MELO...edit: on this program it was translated as "Dazzling Django."  But anyhow, if Imai didn't get this phrase from us, we can only assume that great minds think alike, and it was just something he pulled out of his ass randomly in 2003, like the album title Mona Lisa Overdrive.  

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P.S. To those Blog-Tick readers who are crafty with YouTube videos and have a desire to express your appreciation for Blog-Tick, here's a way you can: make us a video clip from the J-Melo interview.  Just the part where Sakurai speaks English.  Repeated over and over.  That's it.  Mmm....yeah...okay...letsu enjoy preez!  Come on, yeahh.  Nice Madam!

Edit: special thanks to Juli for actually making this video.  Yeah, let's enjoy please!

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Utakata no Razzle Dazzle Tour @ Akasaka Blitz

After nine long months, Buck-Tick is back, and boy are we glad to see them again! According to Sakurai, they rescheduled the tour because they didn't feel they were in any kind of mood to play a good show, and they were worried the fans wouldn't be in the mood to enjoy a show, either. While at the time, I thought a good Buck-Tick show might be just what everyone needed to get their minds off their troubles, looking back on it now I think they made the right decision. In Tokyo in the weeks after the earthquake, aftershocks happened several times a day, train service was erratic, blackouts were frequent, food was missing from store shelves, businesses were operating reduced hours, and everyone was trembling in fear and anger about the nuclear accident. While certain problems that began that day won't be solved for years or even decades, things are a lot calmer in the capitol now. Life is a lot more secure. It's a good time to go to a rock show.

Rescheduling the tour meant that a lot of the rescheduled shows fell on weekdays, and that the order of the performances was switched such that some of us who couldn't manage to get tickets to the tour final the first time around discovered that magically, we now had tickets to the final show without having to do anything, and the final shows will be at Zepp Tokyo, not Akasaka Blitz...personally I think it's a wise choice; Blitz is an intimate venue and it can be really hard to get tickets to shows there. But despite the fact that the November 23rd show was the first of the rescheduled shows in the Tokyo area, and that they'd conveniently placed it on a national holiday, only a handful of fans showed up much in advance of the door time, to sit shivering on the brick walls lining the wide staircase beside the venue and get glared at by skaters on the temporary ice rink next door. Once inside the venue, however, it almost felt as if the intervening months had never happened...but for the fact that Imai is spinning quite a different DJ set this time than last time, featuring a lot less Django Reinhardt and a lot more Allison Mosshart, singing everything from the Dead Weather's fantastic grunge-blues number "Gasoline" to The Kills funky-folky-hip-hoppy "Gettin' Down," to a remix of "Satellite" off The Kills fantastic new album Blood Pressures, which definitely isn't as good as the original song. (Oh Imai, won't you please bring the Dead Weather to Japan? I want to see me a Buck-Tick vs. Dead Weather showdown.)

When the band came onstage at last, to the same stage entrance music as they'd used before rescheduling the tour, they were even largely dressed in the same costumes, with Sakurai in his shiny leopard-print coat and Imai in his horrible plasticized horizontal-stripes hipster jacket that now, I suppose, he is only wearing ironically because hipsters are totally over wearing brightly colored plastic jackets now. As usual, Yutaka came onstage first, looking distinctly older and heavier than he did nine months ago, no doubt due to the Law of Conservation of Buck-Tick Mass, which states that the total weight of the five band members must remain constant at all times. When Sakurai was at his heaviest Imai was at his most anorexic, but now with Sakurai and Imai both looking slim but healthy, Yutaka has to pick up the slack, or should we say, fat. Luckily, a round face looks good on him and he's still all smiles.

The one big fashion surprise came to us courtesy of Sakurai's hair. In 1988, with the release of Taboo, Sakurai stopped wearing his hair up, and was promptly asked by magazine writer bimbettes, "why did you stop?" Sakurai's answer? "Because I felt like it." The real reason? Because he was sick of being typecast as "that guy with the hair that sticks straight up." Soon the other members, excluding Toll, stopped wearing their hair up. "When will you put your hair up again?" they were asked. "When we feel like it," was their answer. And now, a whole twenty-three years later, here comes that day. Dear Mr. Yagami will always win at mohawks, but Sakurai was making a very respectable effort at the old Buck-Tick style, with his shorter, blacker hair combed back from his face and sprayed up into a bristling crown that took us all swoonily back to 1980's London. Back in 1988, the hairstyle I might call "the yellow dandelion" didn't do much to flatter Sakurai's looks (though perhaps they didn't require much in the way of flattery.) Now, however, at age 45 and with black hair instead of deader-than-dead-straw bleached hair, Sakurai had fans gasping and screaming as he took the stage. Could the paint-it-black dandelion possibly look that good? Yes, oh yes it can.

And no, there are no photos, cell phones and cameras are banned at all Japanese concerts and it's for the better. You can stroke the screen of your iphone every minute of the day, you don't need to do it while Buck-Tick are onstage. There will be photos once they get released by the press.

The set list stayed largely the same as the earlier shows on the tour, featuring a number of songs off Razzle Dazzle, a number of them not quite as good as "Sakuran Baby" which for some reason the band is still refusing to play. The projection screen of swimming sperm is long gone but Sakurai hasn't forgotten his dance moves, and when "Kyoki no Deadheat" came along, he was swimming up a storm, and enthusiastic enough to sex up the utterly forgettable "Mugen" with self-stimulation completely inappropriate to the tone of the song. Luckily, the show took a darker turn with "Zekkai." It's particularly poignant considering the circumstances of the earthquake, and how quite probably, some fans never lived long enough to attend the rest of the tour, mercy be on their souls. Many of the fans remaining broke into silent tears.

But since Yutaka already had his standup bass out and ready, there was only one song that could follow "Zekkai" and lighten the mood--"Lullaby III," of course. I'm guessing the fans will never vote it onto the new best collection, but all I have to say is, if you don't vote for it, y'all suck. This is a great song, and Sakurai even pulled out his old Tenshi no Revolver boa for the occasion (sure not to get caught in his hair now that his hair was pointed safely out of the way of the feathers.) The band members weren't at the height of their energy levels, but while, with the exception of Sakurai, they stayed fairly mellow all night, they were practiced and ready and made no mistakes.

Unfortunately, it wasn't always possible to hear their studio-perfect playing due to the sound troubles the venue was having. Halfway through the set, Sakurai pulled out his earphones and tapped at his microphone.

"Can you hear me?" he asked the audience.

"KYAAAAAA!" they screamed, but he didn't look convinced.

And for the record, as a vocalist if you are not getting your own voice fed back to you through the monitor, you have absolutely no way to tell if the audience can hear you or not. (Cue the Dead Weather's song "I Can't Hear You" if you have not heard this song listen to it immediately.) But soon it wasn't just Sakurai's problem, soon Hoshino was having problems, too.

"Are you okay, Hide?" Sakurai called, as Hoshino ran off stage and returned with a new guitar.

Apparently he was okay, and they rounded off the set with the red hot rock of "Makka na Yoru" and "Jonathan Jet-Coaster," interspersed with the tear-inducing "memento mori" and a very beautiful, somber, stripped-down version of "Rain."

Overcome with excitement, fans started screaming for an encore as soon as the band left the stage, but long minutes passed and still the band wasn't coming back. Venue staff ran frantically back and forth across the stage. More sound problems! It was taking them long enough to fix whatever the issue was that the head staff member had to come out and make an announcement.

"There's trouble," he said. "But we should have it fixed in a few minutes, so if you'll just wait patiently for us, we'll give you your encore."

And amazingly enough, this being Japan, they actually did have it fixed within five minutes. More Hoshino guitar troubles! But with a pop and a buzz, Hoshino's guitar came back online, and now the band was back onstage and slamming straight into "love letter." The sound balance had gotten an overhaul, and now Imai's vocals were huge, filling the whole hall without him really trying, a welcome change from straining to hear him all night. After "love letter" came "Spider," which Sakurai announced in an exaggerated haunted-house drawl of a voice.

"Spiiiiiiiiiiideeeeer!" he called, then started laughing at his own joke.

And then they were offstage, then back again for the second encore, with "Kuchizuke SERIAL THRILL KISSER," the cheap synth-heavy album mix, which in my opinion is a lot less fun to listen to when performed live than the single mix is, but at least the song is strong enough to make both versions satisfying.

The night was winding down. Toll had already thrown an autographed banana into the crowd, and now it was the last encore set (we could tell because Sakurai had changed into a tour t-shirt.) But he had one more surprise in store for the crowd before the band finished with "Rendezvous." Sick of wasting the potential inherent in his clothing choice of that flimsy kilt-over-tights combination, with a smirk and a flourish, he pulled the kilt straight off, and proceeded to parade around the stage in nothing but his t-shirt, belt, patent-leather high-heeled boots, and skin-tight matte-black Batman hose. There's this thing called a "dance belt" that male ballet dancers wear to keep everything "under control" as they fearlessly take the stage wearing nothing but tights, but, Sakurai isn't a ballet dancer and he doesn't own a dance belt...apparently he prefers to "let it all hang out," as it were. Just to add to the excitement of the fans in the first few rows.

"...A lot of things happened, but well...see you again soon," he said, and the audience laughed.

On the way offstage, Toll inadvertently slapped his little brother's posterior, and giggled to the audience about it once Yutaka had bounced away.

Well, shucks. What a rendezvous.

Set List:

01. Dokudanjou Beauty

02. Baby, I Want You

03. Madman Blues

04. Razzle Dazzle

05. Kyouki no Deadheat

06. Mugen

07. Django!!!

08. Zekkai

09. Lullaby III

10. Tango Swanka

11. Hamushi no You ni

12. Memento Mori

13. Jonathan Jet-Coaster

14. RAIN

15. Makka na Yoru

~en. 1

16. love letter

17. Spider

~en. 2

18. Kuchizuke -Serial Thrill Kisser-

19. Alice in Wonder Underground

20. Rendezvous

...

寿記 23.03.2011 March 23rd (Wednesday) Live DVD

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The new date for the release of our postponed live DVD has been decided.

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It's April 6th.

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IMAI 20:13

寿記 23.03.2011 March 23rd (Wednesday) Live DVD

寿記 13.03.2011 March 13th (Sunday) Meeting

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We just had a meeting with the staff.

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About the scheduling for the remaining shows on our tour.

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We'll be announcing it tomorrow afternoon, so be sure to check the official home page.

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There were things we had to decide right away,

And I know we are informing all of you at the last minute, and that it's all very sudden,

...but, well, wait for it.

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We're really trying to make the best possible decision we can, under the circumstances.

So please, bear with us.

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I think all the staff members and the band members were in agreement.

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There were at least 100 people from Tohoku who had tickets to the shows next weekend at Zepp Tokyo.

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Are you all okay?

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Hang in there.

We're strong.

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I'm praying for you.

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IMAI 19:29

寿記 05.03.2011 Utakata no Razzle Dazzle Niigata

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3/2

Niigata LOTS

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This show was great again, everyone was really up

I love it when you guys are so into it.

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But, if the crowd just pushes and pushes and you can't take it anymore, be sure to let a nearby staff member know that you want help getting out of the pit.

And if the person next to you looks like they're in trouble, be sure to help them out.

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Let's have fun next time, too.

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This is the amazing snow that I saw from the window of the train.

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Also, to Yoko-chan's papa

Thanks for always sending us so many heaps of presents!

IMAI 00:00

Love From the Far East

With rolling blackouts sweeping Kanto, two thirds of train service down, an impending food shortage, and more explosions at the Fukushima nuclear power plants, it's clear that the quake crisis is merely beginning to unfold. Wouldn't you know it, Honshu actually moved 2.4 meters east. This is a big, big deal.

For those of you in Kanto/Tohoku: shut down all extraneous appliances. Make sure you have bottled water on hand (saving tap water in your bathtub and/or cooking pots and/or extra plastic bottles is a good strategy). To protect against possible radiation exposure, wear a hat and long sleeves outside. Go outside only when necessary. Eating kelp and brown rice also helps. Kelp contains high levels of iodine that can help protect against radiation-induced thyroid cancer (don't eat too much, though, because you can overdose), and brown rice can help protect against the damaging effects of radioactive cesium. Everyone, try to get plenty of sleep, and if possible, go and stay at a friend's house--it's easier to save power when you stick together, and less lonely, too.

Because, we're all going to be really lonely without Buck-Tick. A new announcement was posted on their official home page today:

IMPORTANT NOTICE

Tour 2011 "Utakata no Razzle Dazzle" Live Performances

Saturday 3-12 (Zepp Osaka)

Monday 3-21 (Zepp Tokyo)

Saturday 3-26 (Okinawa Namura Hall)

Saturday 4-2 (Akasaka Blitz)

Sunday 4-3 (Akasaka Blitz)

Fish Tanker's Only 2011

Sunday 3-13 (Namba Hatch)

Sunday 3-20 (Zepp Tokyo)

By decision of the band members and the staff, due to the major earthquake off the Pacific coast of Tohoku on March 11th, the live performances listed above have been postponed indefinitely.

Fans who have tickets in their possession will be reimbursed for postponed/cancelled performances. Be sure not to lose/throw away your tickets.

The fan club tickets for the performances on April 2nd and 3rd at Akasaka Blitz have not been shipped yet. Please wait for more details on the procedure for these performances. More information will be posted soon on Buck-Tick's official home page (this site), and the Love and Media Portable page.

We extend our heartfelt prayers to all the victims of this disaster, pray that all those who lost their lives will rest in peace, and pray for a swift recovery for the damaged regions.

MESSAGES FROM THE BUCK-TICK MEMBERS

"All you fans who were looking forward to the live performances in Tokyo, Osaka, and Okinawa, we are very, very sorry. A terrible disaster has occurred. It is very sad, and very real. I'm sure many of you are worried and scared. If there's anything that we, the band, and you, the fans, can do, it's to help send a little more aid to those in need--food, emergency supplies, and anything else that may be required. All of you who carefully saved your pocket money to come and see our tour, please, send it to the earthquake victims instead. However you choose to donate, it doesn't matter, just try your best to do your part.

Spring may be a long time in coming for eastern Japan, but I know that the spring will come. I promise you, we will all meet again. We will sing together again. Looking forward to that time, let's keep our heads up.

Thank you for reading all the way to the end.

All those many, many souls who passed away in this calamity, may you find peace in the next world. All the families you have left behind send you their prayers of mourning."

-Sakurai Atsushi

"When I think about this disaster, words fail me. Please...just stay alive.

I'm praying for you.

Let's hang in there together.

We're strong."

-Imai Hisashi

"After discussing things carefully, we decided to postpone the rest of the shows on the tour. Many lives were lost in this disaster, and those who were left behind cannot run away, from sadness, pain, and fear.

My heart is full of pain when I think about how this is actually happening.

We haven't decided when yet, but when the time is right, we promise you, we'll play you some shows again, and show you all a great time, so please just wait patiently with us.

Let's each pray, that at least one more life may be saved."

-Hoshino Hidehiko

"After conferring with the other members and the staff, we decided to postpone the rest of the tour. We sincerely apologize to all the fans who were looking forward to the shows. We'll announce the new tour dates when we set them, so until then, just wait patiently.

I look forward to the time when we can meet again.

In the meantime, I'm praying from my heart for everyone's safety and swift recovery."

-Higuchi Yutaka

"When I think about how terrible things are for so many of the earthquake victims, I have no words.

All I can do is hope that we'll be able to get things back together into a normal routine as quickly as possible. I'm praying from my heart."

-Yagami Toll

If that doesn't have you in tears, you probably don't deserve to be a Buck-Tick fan. Also I might add that the band members are victims, too. Everyone is a victim. Society is in chaos, people are stuck at home without power, half the businesses in the city are shuttered. All you readers around the world, please pray with us...it's not about religion, it's about human hope.

寿記 12.03.2011 POSTPONED -Osaka Razzle Dazzle-

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The show is postponed.

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This situation is just too unstable.

Everyone, be careful.

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Are you all okay?

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Have you gotten in touch with your family, friends, and all your loved ones?

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Earthquake victims, and everyone near the epicenter

Hang in there!!

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Yeah, hang in there.

IMAI 03:19

Memento Razzle Dazzle

They may look like a normal white towel and de-labeled bottle of Volvic, and they are. But that misses the point of mad fan fetishism, which is: that towel may be bone dry now, but it started its little life soaked in water, curled up and tightly gripped in the dexterous guitarists' fingers of Hoshino Hidehiko!

And the water bottle, oh the water bottle! It may have never been unsealed and had its contents sucked out by that smeary lipsticked mouth, but...for a brief period of time, it was in fact the possession of Sakurai Atsushi! Zomg!

If the pick looks like confetti, that's just because Higuchi Yutaka showers them upon the audience several times per show. But, it belonged to lil U-ta~~!!! Come on guys, ain't it time for a squee?

Gifts from the band members to some lucky fans on the latest tour. And, to put your minds at ease, I can tell you all that no one was kicked, clawed or black-eyed in the receiving.

寿記 19.02.2011 B.G.M. List ~utakata no Razzle Dazzle~

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This is the track list of the songs I've been playing in the live houses before the show starts.

I think these are mostly songs by pretty major artists.

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Give them a listen.

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This Town Ain’t Big Enough For Both Of Us ・・Sparks

Burger Bar Baby ・・Alien Sex Fiend Curse

Ball Of Confusion (That’s What the World Is Today) ・・Love & Rockets

bohemian like you ・・THE DANDY WARHOLS

This Town Ain’t Big Enough For Both Of Us (with Faith No More) ・・Sparks

Rock Show ・・Peaches

Girls and Boys 　・・Blur

Driving South ・・The Stone Roses

Ddiamondd ・・Battles

Der Mussolini ・・D.A.F.

Anarchy In The U.K./God Save The Queen/Pretty Vacant/No One Is Innocent (Medley) ・・Sex Pistols

Anarchy In The U.K. ・・Sex Pistols

Genocide ・・Meat Beat Manifesto

Delicate Terror ・・My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult

The Prestidigitator ・・Naked City

Cities In Dust ・・The Newlydeads

American Porn Song ・・16Volt

Dirty Window ・・Metallica

Aisha ・・Death In Vegas

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I might change it up soon...

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IMAI 12:15

寿記 07.02.2011 Utakata no Razzle Dazzle -Sapporo, Sendai-

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2/11

Sapporo Factory Hall

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I always had this image of Sapporo fans being chilled out

But it was crazy!

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It was hot.

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Everyone was so into it, you were all smiling and it was a great show.

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2/13

Zepp Sendai

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Sendai was great too.

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Hot, and full of smiles, and just bangin' sexy.

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It was so much fun I kept smiling in spite of myself.

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In Sapporo, the restaurant we've always gone to was celebrating its 30th anniversary.

We had a party with everyone.

Congrats Hide! And thanks!

IMAI 12:00

寿記 07.02.2011 UTAKATANO RAZZLE DAZZLE Shinkiba

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2/06

Shinkiba Studio Coast

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We were feeling the excitement!

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It was great.

Awesome.

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I saw lots and lots of happy faces

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I just feel wrapped up in your passion, and your sweat and all sorts of other things

From head to toe, it's like you clean out my body and clear my mind

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It feels great

Makes me wanna do it more and more.

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Come see us again.

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Oh yeah...and this is me.

Because I got email from fans asking, "who is this?"

This is also me.

...and, the guy who took this without my permission

is Higuchi Yutaka (bass)

IMAI 16:00

寿記 06.02.2011 Utakata no Razzle Dazzle -Shinkiba-

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2/05

Shinkiba STUDIO COAST -mobile site members only live-

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It was hot~

It was reeeally, really awesome~!

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Let's have fun again today

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Oh yeah, today I tried putting my hair up, for the first time in a really long time

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And just as I was thinking..."This will be a pain in the ass since I don't remember how..."

My hands and fingers just remembered how to do it, all on their own (haha)

Yeah, so come see the show tonight.

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IMAI 16:00

寿記 06.02.2011 night

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Kouchi

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Photographed by Higuchi Yutaka (bass)

IMAI 15:00

寿記 04.02.2011 Utakata no Razzle Dazzle -Hiroshima, Kouchi-

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1/28

Hiroshima CLUB QUATTRO

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We did it like bang bang bang bang bang bang BANG!

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Something like that?

Hiroshima.

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Yeah, cause rock-n-roll is wonderful.

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1/30

Kouchi BAYS SQUARE

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Awesome~!!

Way too much fun~!!

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Really, wonderful.

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...honestly, it's not a fetish, or something...but I am a "factory fancier."

When we're riding the night bus on tour, and we go past these giant factories, my heart starts beating faster.

Yeah, they're best at night.

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IMAI 20:00

Utakata no Razzle Dazzle Tour @ Studio Coast

Another fantastic show. More fantastic than usual, in fact. Perhaps a live report will make its appearance on here, if I have time.

Utakata no Razzle Dazzle Live Report

BUCK-TICK

FISH TANKer's Only Tour 2011

Tour 2011 "Utakata no Razzle Dazzle"

January 22 & 23

Live @ Yokohama Blitz

With the growing visibility of hipster culture, irony is all the rage. Here on Not Greatest Site, we’ve been cultivating irony since long before American Apparel was able to charge $50 for a simple t-shirt, and handlebar mustaches came back in fashion (wait, handlebar mustaches were ever in fashion?) Really, I think we were cultivating that irony for our own amusement and the amusement of our lovely readers…I don’t think we ever expected that Buck-Tick was going to do the irony thing. But judging from the first two days of Buck-Tick’s Razzle Dazzle standing tour, I’m getting the impression that this time around, intentionally or unintentionally, irony is a part of their game. Imai even started the evening off with a little nod to all those kids over in North America with their sampling machines and big ugly glasses, by playing the Dandy Warhols’ “Bohemian Like You” first thing over the PA as the fans filed (or rather, ran like foaming wild dogs) into the venue.

Not that anyone bicycled onto the stage in skinny jeans and no socks, or that Imogen Heap showed up as a guest vocalist on “Dokudanjou Beauty,” or that Sakurai has decided to experiment with facial hair again (underage fangirls can be pleased to note that he’s still clean-shavenly pretending to be less than his 44 years). But when you try to take the big, brassy, Broadway bravado of the Razzle Dazzle live experience off a dressed-up theater stage and pack it into a rock club, you have to either take it down a peg, or poke some fun. For those of you who are not familiar with the touring conventions of Japanese bands: last fall was the hall tour, and the band played in auditorium venues, with big stages and assigned seating. But this winter is the live house tour, and now the band is playing in more intimate live venues that are mostly standing room only. The smaller stages can’t accommodate the big sets and stage effects of the hall tour, so the live house tour is more about direct interaction between the band and the fans, and the fans and the fans—boy do things get sweaty and hands-on in that mosh pit! But, Razzle Dazzle. There were top hats and scene changes and Hollywood lights. Without all the pomp and circumstance, wouldn’t the grandeur of the experience suffer?

Enter the irony. What the band wants to say to you is, “We’re Buck-Tick. We don’t need lights, or sets, or cool costumes, to dazzle you little pixies all the way to Solaris. All we need is our own strange, eccentric selves.”

On the first night of the tour, Imai seemed to be the one who was taking this idea the most seriously. He wandered onstage with his usual oblivious expression, but he shocked all the fans anyway—after Cher tresses for Kuchizuke, diagonal bangs for the Razzle Dazzle hall tour, and finally, for the Day in Question, a red and black two-tone bob that would have looked at home on a female My Chemical Romance fangirl just entering the 8th grade, Imai has finally simply given up, returned his hair to a neat dark brown, and cut it all off like a regular old salaryman. His businessman look didn’t stop at his hair, either—this time, he’d ditched the white satin balloon pants and elf shoes of last fall for a straight, simple pinstriped navy suit. At least the suit was velveteen, and he was wearing wraparound sunglasses, otherwise I’d have start to worrying that we’d all ended up working for Buck-Tick, Inc.

Sakurai, for his part, was employing another classic hipster fashion tactic—the “everything ridiculous and retro is cool” strategy. He appeared on the stage to wild cheers, dressed in a sort of re-interpretation of his outfit from the “SPEED” PV so many years earlier—broad-brimmed black hat trimmed with peacock feathers, ruffled wine-red shirt, and a loose, swishy black sarong, over a pair of lizard skin boots and skin-tight matte black spandex tights. “Noo, don’t tell me Acchan is wearing tights, that’s just terrible!” the girls immediately began whining, but seeing as the first thing he did when he got onto the stage was turn his back to the audience, hike up the sarong and run a narrow, black-fingernailed hand over one of his muscular buttocks, I’m not quite sure I can reconstruct the logic of the fangirl mind.

Hoshino, Higuchi, and Toll weren’t bothering to participate in fashion irony, and had instead chosen to appear in their usual minimalist suit-clad elegance, with Toll’s hair as razor-sharp and gravity-defying as ever, but perhaps this was some sort of statement in and of itself (actually I suspect they just don’t give a damn.)

Of course, as per usual, they made the fans wait for a good hour before coming onstage. But this being a fanclub-only show, they had extra special treats to entertain the eager crowd—footage from the Razzle Dazzle tour final, held on December 29th at the Budoukan, projected in tantalizing little snippets onto a good old-fashioned movie screen that had been set up in front of the stage. They went through two or so rounds of the Budoukan footage before hauling the screen offstage and, in keeping with the “we’re so over it” vibe of the evening, the roadies came onstage in full view of the audience to make last minute checks of the band members’ instruments. This happens quite frequently at small-scale indie shows, but Buck-Tick usually keeps it all out of sight behind a curtain. This time, I guess they were just feeling Bohemian like us! The roadie tuning Imai’s guitar, clearly not capable of Ziggy Stardust-style left-handing, had flipped the strap around so he could hold it right-handed. Behind him stood several sound techs with silver laptops that had been pasted over with large Buck-Tick tour stickers, one of them left over from Buck-Tick’s original “Buck-Tick Phenomenon” concerts more than 20 years ago.

They tapped the drums, thrummed the bass, and then, at last, took the lights down. But even before the lights went down, the crowd had already compacted violently and instantaneously into the railing, leaving the fans in the front row gasping and screaming in pain as elbows, shins, and the pyramid studs on leather belts dug invasively into their soft tissues.

“Please, calm down,” a venue security guard called into the crowd. “The fans in the front row are having trouble breathing, please, please, stop pushing and step back a little.”

It was nice that they even bothered saying that, but of course, it fell on deaf ears…though I might add that I really don’t understand why fans can’t be a wee bit more considerate of each other at shows like these. Twenty centimeters doesn’t make much of a difference in your ability to view Sakurai’s superhero tights (oh wait I forgot, you don’t want to see them anyway!) but it does make a hell of a lot of difference to the people in the front row…or more specifically, to their ability to breathe.

Since this first night was fanclub-only, the stage entrance music was “Theme of B-T,” in the same classical strings arrangement as the Day in Question 2008. The band members slouched onto the stage looking a little sleep deprived, like they always do at the start of a tour. Sakurai, in particular, had bloodshot eyes and seemed a little glazed, but this ended up being quite appropriate for the opening set, the point of which seemed to be “vampires ARE, they are not dreamed up by Mormon soccer moms.”

To capture this dark mood, the stage lights stayed very dim as the band opened with “Kuchizuke,” then continued with “Gekka Reijin.” Then, as if things weren’t dark enough already, they followed “Gekka Reijin” with a very beautiful rendition of “Yougetsu.” Sakurai stalked and swished across the stage, trailing his sarong behind him, as eerie lights shone up from the floor, making it appear that his skin had turned a vivid, acid green. On the instrumental break, the band members turned and looked at each other, jumping up and down and striking their instruments in unison while Sakurai just glared at an arbitrary spot on the floor. But just as they’d lulled us into the perfect intoxication of their dark world, the lights came up and Sakurai hailed the crowd.

“Fish Tank!!” he cackled, looking as always as though he wasn’t quite sure what he was saying, and was even less sure of what he was going to say next. “Our first concert this year, and it’s for all of you in Fish Tank! I love you all…Happy New Year…please come to the rest of the tour…now, let’s Razzle Dazzle!”

Toll clicked the drums, Imai whispered “one…two…three…ACTION!” And the band ripped into the eponymous song.

Though I was initially unsure about it, “Razzle Dazzle” has begun to emerge for me as one of the star tracks on the album. There’s something so glam rock and something so Broadway about it; part Chicago (yes Imai admits being inspired by Chicago the musical), part West Side Story, part Gypsy, with those sleazy burlesque brass riffs and Sakurai poking the round head of his skull cane through the round hole he was miming with his other hand, thrusting it a few times for good measure, just to make his meaning abundantly clear. Yes, he’s sure got a gimmick (if you’re wondering what the hell I’m talking about, watch this video). It was great to see this song with all the Hollywood lights but it doesn’t even need it. The band are more than in-your-face enough to carry it off without sets, and in the live house, the bass vibrated in a much more satisfying, full-body manner.

Likewise, with “Deadheat,” which the band played next, now that they have established a set of stage directions with the hall tour, they don’t even need the tech bits anymore to keep it going. Gone was the background projection screen and the computer-animated sperm along with it, but that didn’t stop Sakurai from miming swimming along with them as if they were still there. During the hall tour, his rendition of “Deadheat” had grown more and more explicit, including not only bouts of sperm-swimming but also a ridiculous move he kept performing on the line “Whatever could be left of love...” (here he rubs his hand suggestively between his thighs) “…it’s a one-way ticket…” (here he pulls his hand away, turns it over, and looks at it, scrutinizing carefully) “…no way!” (he pulls his head back as if surprised by what he has just seen, then tosses it away, turns to the audience, and grimaces). Hoshino, in this intimate setting, was even able to muster up a little attitude, strutting along the edge of the stage and wailing out his big guitar solo, but with an awkward smile on his face, he still seemed reluctant to make eye contact with the fans. This is another one of the best tracks on the album, mostly because it leaves the listener with the distinct feeling that the entire thing is a big, backhanded joke. If this doesn’t survive into the set lists of future tours, it will be a damn shame.

“Mugen” followed “Deadheat,” and then Sakurai addressed the audience again.

“Fish Tank! Since I love Fish Tank, I wanted to, you know…do all sorts of stuff…like this, or that…” he winked, and paused while the audience laughed. “But we don’t have much time, so…what I mean is…let’s…let’s tango, tango, tango …Tango Swanka!”

Watch out, Buck-Tick…if you keep this up you will already have played all my favorite songs before the encore. I know the most popular track on the album is “Hamushi no You ni” but personally, I’ll cast my vote to “Tango” for the catchiest. It’s clear the band loves to play it, and there’s something about its musical similarity to Lucy’s “Anaconda a Go Go” that allows Imai to show off a little more of his front-man style…though he still didn’t manage to do a high kick on the line “one, two, high kick!” I am still waiting! Come on, Imai, you can’t sing and kick at the same time?

But perhaps he was just saving his energy for the next song, “Hamushi no You ni,” the popularity of which indicates to me that Buck-Tick fans all secretly just wish Sakurai Atsushi were actually Kylie Minogue. Then, though there was no lowering of a special glittering curtain this time, the swagger in Sakurai’s step as he settled his hat back on his head let us know what was coming next—“Django!” They couldn’t not play it at the standing tour. Sakurai held the microphone stand out horizontally at arm’s length, shoving the microphone into the faces of random fans just in time to get them to scream “Django!” Imai, meanwhile, has added his own mouth to the song’s already robust percussion—during the instrumental break after the first chorus, he stuck his finger into the side of his mouth and pulled it out to make a popping noise that, with the help of electronic amplification, filled the whole hall (that’s right, hall, with “Django,” Imai’s got you all popping in his mouth…I didn’t say that yes I did.)

When “Django” had finished, the band members paused for a moment to sip some water, and Sakurai addressed the audience again.

“Since it’s a live house tour, after all…” he began, then lost his thread, and paused before starting again. “Since it’s a live house tour, there are some songs we thought we should definitely play…this is one of them.”

And all of a sudden, the band crashed into the violent opening chords of “love letter.” How fans manage to dance in such close quarters is beyond me, but it’s certainly painful. Luckily, “love letter” was followed by a more static, less violent, but no less anticipated song—“Madman Blues,” which I ought to add to my list of the best Buck-Tick songs you’ve never bothered to listen to. Lately Toll has been getting a lot of mileage out of playing up his “old man” act (he’s not quite there yet—Takahashi Makoto, who was the drummer of Boowy, is ten years older than Toll and still drumming up a storm.) Anyone who’s ever tried playing the drum part of a Buck-Tick song knows that the rhythms can be oddly stiff and unexpected. Toll hunched over the toms, striking them as if he was trying to surprise someone with his next move, but though his face may have looked tired, his rhythm never faltered. Meanwhile, his brother seems to grow younger with every passing year—in contrast to his stone-faced look from the Darker Than Darkness tour, Higuchi was now smiling and swaying while he played the “Madman Blues” bass line, which has got to be one of the best bass lines Buck-Tick has ever created. Sakurai fell back from the front of the stage, leaning toward the back curtain and letting Imai take center stage for these vocals, but vocally, the best part of this song is the end, with Sakurai singing the Japanese lyrics layered over by Imai’s calls of “Welcome to my Territory!” Those words never sounded better than when spoken by the one-of-a-kind strangeness that is Imai’s voice. Who would you sing along with?

They followed “Madman Blues” with another surprise—“Voo Doo,” in its first live performance ever. The recorded version of this song may have lacked a little something, but that something was there in the spark of the live performance. Not quite as psychedelic-rock fabulous as “Motel 13,” but edging in that direction and perfect for a live house tour.

Next came a series of (new-ish) old favorites—“Spider,” “Dokudanjou Beauty,” and “Baby I Want You,” before the band finished off the main set with a rousing “Memento Mori.” But coming back on for the encore, the band members were forced to play out the commercialistic fantasies of their hard-selling promotional manager. Sakurai still sounded confused as he made the announcement.

“Since it’s a fanclub show, after all…and soon, Yutaka’s gonna be THAT…” Yutaka ran past Sakurai, wiggling his behind. “I mean, we’d like to take a commemorative photo. And we have our photographer here.” Sakurai reached out his hand to the photographer, who bowed to the audience, then lined up the band so they were standing in front of the fans, facing the back of the hall. These photos of the band with the fans are being distributed in another completely pointless promotional lottery campaign, but I’m sorry, I didn’t bother to read the details.

Luckily, the photo-taking didn’t take long, and then it was back to the show. Now it was time for the real fanclub-pleasing. Time to play really OLD songs! First, the band played “Hurry Up Mode,” followed by “Empty Girl.” I couldn’t help but think about just how smooth and cool Sakurai was on “Hurry Up Mode,” as compared with his nervous, jerky dancing of 20+ years ago. “Empty Girl,” too, was so slick and smooth it was hard to recognize at first—Imai had ditched the clean guitar for a more fuzzy effect, punctuated by liberal use of the whammy. The old-song fun continued in the next encore, with “Sexual XXXXX!” (not quite as sexual as it could have been, but the band did seem tired) and “Physical Neurose” (clearly, Imai loves this one.)

Lucky Fish Tankers—they even came back for a third encore, with “Makka na Yoru.”

“We’re playing another show here tomorrow,” Sakurai said. “This is the last song now…but come back tomorrow for some more this and that. I love Fish Tank!”

And, in a slightly surprising but certainly not unwelcome move, the band ended the show on as dark a note as they had started it, with “Diabolo.”

FISH TANKer’s ONLY Tour 2011

January 22nd live at Yokohama Blitz

Set List

SE. Theme of B-T

01. Kuchizuke

02. Gekka Reijin

03. Yougetsu

04. RAZZLE DAZZLE

05. Kyouki na Deadheat

06. Mugen

07. TANGO Swanka

08. Hamushi no You ni

09. Django!!! –Django the Dazzler-

10. love letter

11. Madman Blues –Minashigo no Yuu’utsu-

12. Voo Doo

13. Spider

14. Dokudanjou Beauty

15. Baby, I want you

16. memento mori

~en. 1

Commemorative Photoshoot

17. HURRY UP MODE

18. SEXUAL XXXXX!

~en. 2

19. EMPTY GIRL

20. PHYSICAL NEUROSE

~en. 3

21. Makka na Yoru

22. DIABOLO

The next day, more or less the same crowd of fans was back in the windy wastes in front of Yokohama Blitz once again, huddled together against the cold but stripping off their outer layers anyway, in preparation to dive headlong into the sweaty tangle in front of the stage. The tour had only just started but that hadn’t stopped fans from decking themselves out in tour goods right away; the designs this time are based on vintage playbills and make obvious use of the Broadway/showbiz theme. So far, the item with the most unique design is the tour pamphlet, which comes in the form of a deck of oversized playing cards, each bearing the image of a band member, sometimes embellished with details from the Aquirax Uno album cover (most of the queens are close-up shots of musical instruments, but naturally, Atsushi Sakurai is the Ace of Spades.)

This being a general admission show, it could be considered the official start of the tour. This time, the stage entrance music was not “Theme of B-T,” but Imai’s new remix of “Razzle Dazzle Fragile,” which sounds more or less nothing like the original version, but which was hard to concentrate on between the ecstatic screams of the crowd as Higuchi bounced out onto the stage, followed by a more stately procession of the rest of the band members. This time, the band opened with “Dokudanjou Beauty,” again mercifully free of any female backing vocals—for the record, Lucy, the vocalist featured on the album mix of this track, is Japanese. Most of the Japanese Buck-Tick fan base seems to think that she’s foreign because she has an English name and sings in English, but actually she is the vocalist of Lazy Guns Brisky, a Japanese all-female punk band, and “Lucy” is a stage name.

Tonight, as well, Sakurai and Imai at least could arguably have been borrowing more elements of hipster fashion—this time Imai having ditched his “I’m so ironic” businessman outfit in favor of the hipster favorite “I’m so cool because I’m wearing a really, really ugly jacket.” The Jacket in Question was made of a thick, semi-rigid plasticized material patterned with narrow, horizontal stripes in black and tomato red. Sakurai, for his part, was trying out the “animal-themed costume party” look, in a close-fitting suit of sleek-furred leopard-print fabric, with high-heeled boots to match, accessorized with a red silk neck kerchief and a vaguely Spanish-looking black hat. It was a brave attempt; what broke it down partway through was that the suit with its matching boots was so designer-label beautiful that it made Sakurai look more like a runway model than a loft party leopard wannabe. And on mentioning runway models I might add that some close field inspection confirms my previous suspicions that rumors of Sakurai having developed a beer gut were unwarranted. He might have been a bit thicker at the beginning of the hall tour, but the Law of Conservation of Buck-Tick Mass states that while individual band members may lose or gain weight, the total weight of the band members must remain the same at all times—thus, as Imai has stopped looking dangerously anorexic (was it all those New Year’s gyoza?) Sakurai has gotten nice and slim again (but there never was a beer gut, only extra flesh and a lack of Mr. Yagi being able to outfit Sakurai with pants and shirts that actually fit him).

Maybe it was thanks to the warm-up period of yesterday’s live, or maybe it was thanks to that hot leopard print, but whatever the reason, the band were much more energized and engaged with the crowd this evening. Though the first half of the set list consisted largely of songs the band had also played the day before, the band members all seemed more animated and interested in interacting with the crowd. Sakurai, who the staff members had provided with a legion of pre-opened, label-free bottles of Volvic, showered the crowd liberally with water, often via the intermediary of disposable paper cups, which he used and then cast aside until they littered the stage.

With “Baby I Want You,” the second song in the lineup, the band was already revved up to full power; Sakurai playing his usual games of tag with the grasping hands of the fans in the front row, and Imai and Hoshino coming down front and center for guitar solos, but still not deigning to actually touch anyone. After “Baby” came the heavy drone of “Madman Blues” again, followed by “Razzle Dazzle,” “Deadheat,” and “Mugen,” even more up and kicking than last night. On “Django,” Imai kicked and spun all over the stage, repeating his lip-popping performance during the instrumental break, while Sakurai stomped the tall heels of his leopard boots on the floor to great effect. Throughout the hall tour, Sakurai had been pointing to Imai on the line “the bastard’s a trickster,” but now, instead, he wiggled his finger in circles at a spot near the front of the crowd. I guess we’re all tricksters, now.

As “Django” finished, the lights went down and roadies rushed onto the stage, furiously exchanging instruments and cables. Time for something different—Higuchi’s much-loved standup bass. This could mean only one of several things, but the jangling Spanish chords emanating from Imai’s guitar were starting to make things clear pretty quickly—time for “Zekkai,” one of Sakurai’s perennial favorites and so much better with that acoustic bass. When “Zekkai” had finished, the roadies didn’t even come on to take the bass away again…we were in for another treat.

“Alcohol?” Sakurai cooed softly into the microphone, as Imai began tapping out a few chromatic notes on his guitar. The audience giggled.

“Alcohol?” Sakurai asked again. “Come on…give me some…sake?” The fans laughed again.

“Oh…sake…” Sakurai repeated. “Oh…sake? O-sake?” he wandered in the direction of Imai, who was playing more chromatic chords.

“Oh…Sakurai?” he said at last. The audience roared with laughter, and the lights came up on Imai’s guitar as the band launched into “Lullaby III.” No cheap barstool this time, and (too bad) no skull-baby either, but this is a great song, another one of Sakurai’s favorites, and probably in a minority when it comes to popularity, so I was particularly glad they played it.

From here, they took the heat back up, with “Tango Swanka,” followed by “Hamushi no You ni,” and “Memento Mori.” After “Memento Mori,” as if bringing the album track listing to life, they continued with “Jonathan Jet-Coaster.” This time, with his physical performance, Sakurai made the second verse more about death than sex, singing “my body’s a honeycomb gushing flowing Virgin Oil” while miming shooting himself full of holes.

Then, unexpectedly, the lights went down low and silver, and the band struck up the second Tenshi no Revolver track of the evening, “RAIN.” It’s possible that they haven’t played this song since the album tour, and while it seemed a little bit cheesy and overblown in comparison to the rest of the album, in retrospect, it sounds sober and mature compared to the Hoshino faux pas of “Message” and “Mugen” (the latter redeemed by Sakurai’s excellent vocals, the former redeemed by just about nothing.) But in this context, the retro kayoukyoku style of “RAIN” blended elegantly with the dance and show tune elements in many of the Razzle Dazzle tracks. “RAIN” could just as easily have been the end of the main set, but the band chose instead to finish on a more violent, rock-n-roll note, with “Makka na Yoru.”

Almost as soon as the lights had gone down and the band members left the stage, the fans near the front of the hall began singing happy birthday to Higuchi. It was likely that some sort of public acknowledgement of the bassist’s birthday had been planned, but perhaps the fans were jumping the gun a bit. It took the band a long time to come back onstage, and when they did, it was with a cake with no candles, and Sakurai back in his sarong and tights, but with a tour t-shirt on top, as if he’d intended to make a full costume change but had decided to give up halfway. “Noo, Acchan’s wearing a tour t-shirt? That’s horrible!” the fans started whining again…but they were missing the point. Superhero tights, a sarong, and a big, sloppy, sweaty band t-shirt…how much more ironic can you get?

But naturally, it was Higuchi himself who ran onstage first, fairly bubbling over with excitement, going down the front edge of the stage from one side of the hall to the other, slapping the hands of the fans in the front row.

“Since, you all came here for the tour,” Sakurai began haltingly, standing over the unlit cake. “Thank you all for coming here for the beginning of the tour, and celebrating U-ta’s birthday. Happy birthday, U-ta!”

Higuchi smiled and waved again, coming over to the microphone. “Thank you all!” he called to the audience. “I’m…forty-four now!” He’s 44 and he still looks 15. Fans should be lining up for the privilege of genetic recombination with some of this miraculous age-resistance! In fact, it’s like he’s growing younger every year.

Without bothering to cut the cake or show its design to the fans, Sakurai carted the cake offstage again. Was the cake decorated with another one of Sakurai’s amusingly spot-on caricatures of the band members? We may never know, since Imai’s blog has yet to tell us. But back onstage once more, things weren’t going as planned. Imai was strumming his guitar, but no sound was coming out.

“Looks like we’re having some technical difficulties,” Sakurai said after a few minutes. “I guess we’ll just have to be patient…”

After five minutes or so of frenzied efforts from the guitar techs, Imai’s guitar was back online for “Kuchizuke.” But when they tried to follow up with “Gekka Reijin,” it lost its sound once more, meaning that the band played almost the entire song sans Imai. Too bad.

It was a Sunday night and it wasn’t a fanclub-only show, so evidently the band wanted to finish things up early and not bother to grace us with a third encore. Still, they had some tricks up their sleeve. When they came back onstage again, it was Toll who came out first, and stood in the corner of stage right, Sharpie in hand, meticulously autographing a single firm, yellow banana, which he then tossed into the waiting arms of the crowd. Imai wiped his face ostentatiously with a towel and tossed that in too, then Higuchi, not to be outdone, followed up with a shower of bass picks. Even Sakurai handed out a Volvic bottle or two before the band members took their places once more, and started up with a much-loved song they haven’t played in a while—“Zangai”!

“You make me so happy,” Sakurai said after the song was finished. “We only have one more song, but…” he paused as the crowd shouted that they wanted more than just one more song. “We only have one more song tonight, but we’re playing more shows soon, so please come! But before then…sing it with me, in honor of U-ta!”

If they’d played a rock version of “Happy Birthday to You,” with Sakurai singing in English, it would have been pretty damn ironic, but instead, they played “Rendezvous.” Guess they really are serious after all.

For more information on hipster culture, click here.

Tour 2011 Utakata no Razzle Dazzle

January 23rd live at Yokohama Blitz

Set List

SE. Utakata no RAZZLE DAZZLE

01. Dokudanjou Beauty

02. Baby, I Want You

03. Madman Blues –Minashigo no Yuu’utsu-

-MC-

04. RAZZLE DAZZLE

05. Kyouki na Deadheat

06. Mugen

07. Django!!! –Django the Dazzler-

08. Zekkai

09. Lullaby-III

10. TANGO Swanka

11. Hamushi no You ni

-MC-

12. memento mori

13. Jonathan Jet-Coaster

14. RAIN

15. Makka na Yoru

~en. 1

Happy Birthday to U-ta

16. Kuchizuke

17. Gekka Reijin

~en. 2

18. Zangai

19 .RENDEZVOUS