Just a heads-up...the lyrics and translations to all the songs on Spirit are now up over at Not Greatest Site, so go ahead and read them! If you have comments, please leave them on this post.
Perhaps when the full album comes out, I'll write a review, but in the meantime, I have one comment, and it is this: there is nothing more goth than claiming in an interview that you see the word "mortal" in a positive light, as representing the essence of humanity, and then releasing an album in which you sing about the following themes -
1. Ecstatic Grief and Excruciating Pain (oh yeah, and some crying and weeping and pouring rain and razorblades and shooting for good measure)
2. The Joys of Theater (doesn't count because Mr. Sakurai didn't write that one)
3. Literally wanting to make out with Death so badly that you cut yourself and then pour your blood over some candles till it smokes and sizzles just like that strange boner you have for Death who you naturally imagine as someone hot because you are just that fucking goth, DEAL WITH IT
4. The Complete Annihilation of Cities (and possibly some good old post-destruction sexual tacos atop the smoking remains!)
5. Slowly forgetting the only memories you had of someone you loved who is now gone, but deciding that it's okay after all because everything dies but dreams are forever (shucks Hallmark should make a card out of that one!)
Now let's pour the wine, gaze somberly into the candlelit darkness of our solitary rooms, and ponder the brevity of joy and the pointlessness of existence, while touching ourselves. Because goth is nothing unless it hurts so good.
All photos shot by Cayce on a flip-phone, using no filters nor any Photoshop effects whatsoever. Literally all of Shibuya is showing up in de-saturated high-contrast monochrome with high-saturated red accents under intense pin spots right now. This, my friends, is the pervasive effect Mr. Sakurai has on his environment.
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Update: The Mortal will appear on the cover of the magazine PHY volume 5, due out on November 11th. In addition, Mr. Sakurai will be interviewed for the November issue of Rolling Stone Japan, due out on November 10th. Mr. Sakurai will also be appearing as a live guest on the Dave Fromm show on InterFM radio this Friday at 6PM. If one of you lovely readers can record the broadcast and send it to us, then Satan bless you, because at that time of day we will be tied up in our Satanic day job.
Also, if you'd like to order copies of either of the new magazines, write to us asap.
So, for those of you who hadn't heard, our crystal ball voodoo fortune teller prediction for the three cover songs on The Mortal's debut EP were as follows:
1) A cover of "Spirit," by Bauhaus.
2) A cover of a song originally sung by a female vocalist.
3) A cover of a song nobody thought Mr. Sakurai would cover.
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And now, friends, the track list has been announced, as follows:
01. Pain Drop
02. Spirit (Bauhaus cover)
03. Shadow of Love (The Damned cover)
04. Cities in Dust (Siouxsie and the Banshees cover)
05. Yume
. Interestingly, the covers of "Shadow of Love" and "Cities in Dust" will have lyrics in Japanese, written by Mr. Sakurai, possibly with the help of a translator...or then again, possibly not, since the man speaks English surprisingly well.
Unless you thought it likely that Mr. Sakurai would cover a song by The Damned, we believe our prediction gets full marks here! If you would like us to read your tea leaves or tarot, please queue to the left. The cost of a reading starts at 3000 yen plus a shot of whiskey. The whiskey only makes our readings more accurate, so have no fear of drunken miscalculations. . Now, to move on to the educational section of our program! For those of you who never graduated from goth school (I'm looking at YOU, Anonymous Genesis-Snogger) - THIS IS BAUHAUS.
BAUHAUS ARE VERY IMPORTANT. (They will also be on the test, so take notes!) Why are Bauhaus important? For one thing, they are band who more or less started the goth movement. And for another, their vocalist, Peter Murphy, is one of the main figures who inspired Mr. Sakurai to wander down the dark and spooky road less traveled that he has since traveled almost constantly since that fateful day. Let's not mention the part where Hamlet Machine (otherwise known as one of those other bands that Batman I mean Issay started while Der Zibet were busy having ego-measuring contests with each other and going on a thirteen-year hiatus) already covered the song "Spirit" for the Japanese Bauhaus tribute album entitled Satori - A Tribute to Bauhaus, which was released in 1998, when many of you were not even born yet. Let's also not mention the part where Issay was basically the other guy who inspired Mr. Sakurai to follow the dark and spooky road to Gothdom via Transylvania (to pick up some custom spider-spun clothes along the way). Actually, never mind, we might as well mention it, since this album is clearly a major tour of Sakurai's gnarly, twisted old Black Forest tree roots, and at age almost-fifty, he's certainly earned it. . And this is The Damned, who are also indisputably one of the major acts of the early goth movement. Fangirls, if you thought Mr. Sakurai was a vampire prince, this ought to be all the proof you need that you're wrong. THIS is what a vampire prince looks like, my friends. Pay close attention, this will also be on the test! . But for us, the most significant choice of song in this list is the third one: "Cities In Dust," possibly the greatest hit ever of Siouxsie and the Banshees, off the album Tinderbox, of which Sakurai has long admitted to being a fan. The band themselves dismissed this album as far from their best work - founding members Siouxsie Sioux and Steve Severin never stopped ragging on the guitar work of John Valentine Carruthers, who played guitar on this album - but for anyone who likes the sound of hollow, jangly chords and tight arpeggios, every minute is pure beauty. Echoes of this album can be heard all over Buck-Tick's work, not least of which in "Not Found" (check out the Banshees' "Cannons" to see what I mean!) so if you've never heard it before, I strongly urge you to give Tinderbox a listen. But that's beside the point. The point is, Mr. Sakurai has done it again: he's decided yet again to cover a song originally sung by a female vocalist...and what a female vocalist she is, too! Ladies and gentlemen, THIS is Siouxsie Sioux, also known as the Ice Queen (long before Elsa!) and the Godmother of Goth (forevermore!)
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She's androgynous...
She has great taste in hats and ties...
She gives exactly zero fucks about your fear of nipples...
She is sensual...
She could probably keep up with Mr. Sakurai in a drinking contest...
She's in ur country, appropriatin' ur culture...
She was probably the model for the model in the background visuals for "Yasou" on the Yumemiru Uchuu hall tour...(courtesy of the The Night Porter...)
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Plus, she is so fabulous, she has ALL the waffles.
Ladies and gentlemen, you cannot touch Siouxsie Sioux. You simply cannot touch her.
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And THIS is Cities in Dust. If you haven't seen it already, watch it. And if you've already seen it, watch it again. And if you've already watched it again, watch it again and and again and again.
And if you think Mr. Sakurai can seriously manage to pull of a sexier version of this song than the original, well then...you have a lot of faith in Mr. Sakurai. But I will stand by what I've said before: the two of them should really be doing it as a duet. If any lady vocalist can keep up with Mr. Sakurai, it's Siouxsie Sioux. Though in all likelihood, he would be on the floor at her feet, begging to be stepped on. . . . In conclusion: we called it...so what are you waiting for? Call us up for your next prediction! In fact, we called it so hard that we're now seriously regretting we didn't bother to predict that Sakurai would write another song with "Yume" in the title...after "Yumeji," "Yumemiru Uchuu," "Mugen" and "Muma," we ought to all be amazed that this is actually the first song he's ever written that's simply titled "Yume." So bravo, Mr. Sakurai. The great thing about dreams is, they're free, and they're different every night so you don't have to worry about self-plagiarism... ...or maybe not. Perhaps every single night, Mr. Sakurai dreams of Ms. Sioux stepping on him with her shiny bootheels. The other song is called "Pain Drop," after all. Even so, if so, we can't say we blame him. .
This is Cayce squeeing my friends.
Take a good long hard look right now because you'll probably never see it again...unless, that is, Siouxsie herself turns up as a guest on the tour. . .
. Oh yeah, and if you want to hear several seconds of random screechy incomprehensible noise that baby Siouxsie in the 70's would have been proud of, then watch the Spirit trailer, below.
One-of-a-kind rock band Buck-Tick got their start in the mid 1980's as an iconic product of Japan's "band boom." Maintaining the same lineup of members for the entirety of their 30-year career, Buck-Tick have had an enormous influence on the subsequent development of Japanese rock and rock-n-roll culture.
In 1989, the band scored their first chart-topping hit with their third album, Taboo. Just two years after their debut, they joined the ranks of Japan's top artists, playing to sold-out crowds at the Nippon Budoukan and the Tokyo Dome.
Never content to rest on their laurels, the band followed their initial success by deepening their pop sensibilities with a darker worldview, and expanding into more experimental territory, taking chances on radical new performance styles and technology in a process of continuing evolution.
In 2012, the band established their own new label, Lingua Sounda, in conjunction with their 25th anniversary. To celebrate the anniversary, the band held a festival on September 22nd and 23rd entitled "Buck-Tick Fest 2012 on Parade" in Chiba Port Park at an outdoor venue designed specially for the occasion. In addition to two hour-long headlining performances by Buck-Tick, the festival also featured a complete roster of artists who contributed tracks to Buck-Tick's second tribute cover album, Parade II -Respective Tracks of Buck-Tick.
In 2013, a double-feature documentary film about the 25th anniversary, The Buck-Tick Phenomenon, was released in cinemas throughout Japan to great acclaim.
In 2016, the band returned to their original label, Victor Entertainment, after 20 years of work with other labels. New World, the band's first single since rejoining Victor, was released on September 21st, followed by a new album, Atom Miraiha No. 9 on September 28th.
In 2017, Buck-Tick celebrated their 30th anniversary, and were awarded the Inspiration Award Japan, a special prize given to music artists who have had an outsize influence on the development of pop music in Japan. The band accepted their award on September 27th at MTV Japan's live music video awards show Video Music Awards Japan 2017 -The Live-,” where they also gave a special live performance.
On September 20th, the band released a 30th anniversary best album entitled Catalogue 1987-2016. Following this, on September 23rd and 24th, the band performed a pair of concerts, Buck-Tick 2017 The Parade -30th Anniversary, "Fly Side" and "High Side," at Tokyo's Odaiba Special Outdoor Event Area J, attracting a crowd of more than 20,000 people over two days. Then on November 15th, the band released its first 30th anniversary single, Babel.
Before releasing Babel, the band embarked on an 18-stop national tour, The Day in Question 2017, opening at Omiya Sonic City on October 21st and featuring a stadium performance at Takasaki Arena in their home prefecture of Gunma, before concluding with a pair of finale concerts at the Nippon Budoukan on December 28th and 29th.
In 2018, the band released another single, Moon Tell Me Goodbye, on February 21st, followed by a new album, No. 0, on March 14th. The band are currently in the middle of a new tour, Buck-Tick 2018 Tour No. 0, to promote the new album.
One-of-a-kind rock band Buck-Tick got their start in the mid 1980's as an iconic product of Japan's "band boom." All hailing from the small rural town of Fujioka, Gunma Prefecture, the five band members met while still in high school, bonding over a mutual love of records during informal gatherings at the home of band founder, lead guitarist and main songwriter, Hisashi Imai. Though the band's original lineup featured a different vocalist and Atsushi Sakurai on drums, after graduating high school and moving to Tokyo to pursue their dream of becoming professional musicians, the band soon switched Sakurai to vocals, and bassist Yutaka Higuchi recruited his older brother Toll Yagami to play drums instead. The band have maintained the same five members since that time.
After being signed to the indie label Taiyo Records, the band rocketed to stardom, making their major label debut on Victor Entertainment within a year, and taking the Japanese music scene by storm with their infectious punk melodies, spiky bleached hair, bold costumes, and theatrical stage shows. Within two years, they topped the charts with their third album, Taboo. Recorded in London, Taboo marked a turning point for the band, from a teenage pop sensation into something darker. Buck-Tick continued into darker territory with their next album, Aku no Hana (The Flowers of Evil), named for the poetry of Charles Baudelaire.
Never content to rest on their laurels, Buck-Tick followed their initial runaway success with a push into more experimental territory, spending many more hours in the studio to create ever deeper, more layered records. Koroshi no Shirabe -This is NOT Greatest Hits- (The Song of Murder), a self-cover album featuring heavily reworked versions of the band's earlier material, was followed by another album, Kurutta Taiyou (Crazy Sun), now regarded as a classic of Japanese rock and roll. From this album forward, vocalist Sakurai took a greater role in the band's creative output, penning darker, more introspective lyrics based on personal experience rather than the romantic fantasies of the band's previous works. While lead guitarist Imai remained the band's main composer and creative director, rhythm guitarist Hidehiko Hoshino also began to contribute more to the songwriting, cementing the band's mature sound.
Over the next two decades, Buck-Tick continued to evolve, exploring a diversity of genres ranging from new wave to industrial, shoegaze, punk, electronica, dreampop, surf rock, rap, Latin dance, goth, and symphonic metal. Drawing on both Western and Eastern influences, the band developed a unique style instantly recognizable despite their continuous genre-hopping. Layers of minimalist riffs, melodies, and electronic tracks synergize into an immersive, kaleidoscopic sonic experience far more than the sum of its parts. Tied together with the tight grooves of the Higuchi brothers' bass and drums and the bold simplicity of Hoshino's rhythm guitar, Buck-Tick's songs feature Imai's instantly memorable guitar licks like a second vocalist, even as Imai often adds eccentric backing vocals to Sakurai's rich baritone lead vocals. Cosmic themes of love and death abound in the piquant, poetic lyrics, which traverse as many genres as the music, overflowing with inspiration from art, literature, and philosophy.
The result is something utterly original, which continues to exert a tremendous influence on the progress of Japanese rock music to this day. Maintaining a large and wildly devoted cult following, the band continue to perform for sold-out crowds at Japan's most well-respected music venues, and are regularly cited as an influence by younger Japanese artists. A number of Buck-Tick's songs were also used as themes for popular anime series, expanding the band's fame internationally among fans of Japanese pop culture in dozens of countries around the world.
The band's recent achievements include establishment of their own new record label, Lingua Sounda, in 2012, and a 25th anniversary festival held in September 2012 at a special outdoor venue in Chiba Port Park, featuring an all-star roster of artists who contributed tracks to Buck-Tick's second tribute cover album, Parade II -Respective Tracks of Buck-Tick-. In 2013, a double-feature documentary film, The Buck-Tick Phenomenon, was released to great acclaim in theaters across Japan.
In 2016, Buck-Tick returned to their original label, Victor Entertainment, after 20 years of separation, releasing a single, New World, followed by Atom Miraiha No. 9, their first new studio album since 2014.
In September 2017, the band cemented their legacy as Japanese rock legends by celebrating their 30th anniversary with a two-day outdoor concert series, Buck-Tick 2017 The Parade -30th Anniversary, "Fly Side" and "High Side," held on Tokyo's Odaiba Island before a crowd of more than 20,000 people. The next week, the band took to the stage again at MTV Japan's Video Music Japan awards to accept the Inspiration Award Japan, a special prize given to music artists who have had an outsize influence on the development of pop music in Japan.
In October 2017, the band embarked on a national tour, The Day in Question 2017, performing a selection of hits from their back catalog to celebrate their anniversary, and featuring a stadium performance at Takasaki Arena, near the band's home town.
Entering their 31st year of major label activities, the band show no sign of slowing down. Two new singles, Babel and Moon Sayonara wo Oshiete (Moon Tell Me Goodbye), preceded the band's 21st studio album, No. 0, and the band are currently in the middle of a new tour, Buck-Tick 2018 Tour No. 0, to promote the new album.
