Miyavi's Mahem on Halloween Night

If there's one artist everyone should see in the flesh, it's Miyavi.  He's truly a one-man-show (well, him and Bobbo, his drummer and partner in crime!) and to see him and his mastery of the guitar is awe inspiring to say the least.  Before last year's tour (his first in the US) I could say I was a casual listener and liked his music at best.  After seeing him live, I was a bonna fide, #1 fan.  "What's My Name?" is such a strong release that new listeners can easily get hooked on his powerful guitar work.  Just remember, in most cases, what you're hearing is the work of 2 people at most.  Enough said.

So upon his return on Halloween Night, how could I resist such a show?  Miyavi doesn't just play guitar, he controls it and plays behind his back, on the ground, and all around, as if it's more an appendage than an instrument.  He played a fantastic show with a lot of old hits, some new ones, and finished it all off with Futuristic Love, promoting love and peace all around the world.

And since it was Halloween, Miyavi and his crew hit up a Ricky's and got all decked out (as a proper Spanish vampire) for his performance of Senor, Senora, Senorita during the encore!  A perfect end to a perfect show.

 Curious about Miyavi?  Check him out on iTunes!  I recommend "What's My Name?", "Miyavi-Miyavizm-Shugi", and the "Survive" music video.

A Toxic Circus

Above- Images from Toxic special art book, and the Suicide Circus PV.

There are a lot of things I love about the GazettE. The range in their musical style plus their dynamite fashion sense drew me to them like a moth to the flame. There is hardly a song or look that disappoints, IMO, and they are constatnly evolving. Hardly have to say then that when TOXIC arrived in the mail I was thoroughly overjoyed!!! I listened to it for pretty much a month solid, and can say I love every single song on this album.

Since DIM, which was pretty metal and ballad heavy, we've seen a lot of variety in GazettE's singles, and even a major anime theme song! (SHIVER, as the opening for Kuroshitsuji II.) All the B sides have been to-die-for (I think my favorites were Vermin and THE TRUE MURDEROUS INTENT) and TOXIC continued in that general direction with some tried-and-true rock hard anthems, beautiful ballads, and some complex guitar work that is a central formula to the GazettE's signature sound. The Intro and Outro tracks set the mood with cool electronics mixed with some guitar and bizarre reverberating vocals, keeping things fresh and modern. (Not unlike the mood setters in Disorder and Stacked Rubbish.)

As for the main body of their work, I can usually divide most of their songs loosly into 3 catagories: rock-hard and metal anthems, beautiful and sometimes chilling ballads, and dance-happy tracks that just make you want to jump around. TOXIC has a little bit of each, and sometimes 2 of each catagory in one song. Their most head-bangable songs here seem to be PSYCHOPATH and RUTHLESS DEED, which follow the footsteps of CIRCLE OF SWINDLER, MOB 136 BARS, OGRE, and DISCHARGE, to name a few. Their livelier, but still complex and loud tracks include VENOMOUS SPIDER'S WEB, SLUDGY CULT, VORTEX, and TOMORROW NEVER DIES. MY DEVIL ON THE BED reminds me of a new version of HEADACHE MAN, and is just as addictive. My new favorite GazettE ballad is without a doubt UNTITLED, which although it starts off slow, Ruki's voice in enchanting and ties back to PLEDGE quite nicely.

And now, to the fashions!!! The GazettE has been practically living in black for their recent career, and this is no different for their new PV track the Suicide Circus. It's a mix of all we love from the GazettE and what's new, and is definitely one of my new favorite songs. Their more polished looks of late speak to the fact that they've risen from their days of visual kei hopefuls to heavy hitters in the genre, influence spanning the world over. Let's take a look at what everyone's wearing :)

Ruki, obsessed with sparkles much? This is the 3rd PV post-DIM era that he's been sporting some sort of allover bling, though this is a little more spaced out than RED or BEFORE I DECAY. I almost feel like I'm looking up at the night sky when I'm watchin him in this PV as he dances through a bunch of slightly creepy circus performers. And I quite like it. Who doesn't want a shimmering suit in their closet? Classic with a twist.

Oh Uruha, how is it that I want EVERY ONE of your outfits? This PVC/leather look takes the whole suit jacket look and accentuates it with extra large lapels and doubles them on top of one another. And also, he cut and died his hair! It's definitely a new look that I think works pretty well.

Aoi's look (though hard to see here) is a take on the suit look as well, though with layered tees and always cool jewelry! He too had a hair makeover (the red was cool in VORTEX, but when it looked pink it just reminded me of Hide) and works, borrowing Reita's fauxhawk for this PV.

Reita, always with a cool, toile-like noseband, has been looking very classic here too in black and white, messing up his hair a bit in this PV. Hard to see the details here, but I'm sure there's more going on that meets the eye. (The whole PV is pretty dark, literally and figuratively.)

And then we get to Kai, the head of the band with the cutest smile ever :) There's a nice bit of surface detail working on his look that I can see, I just wish I could see more! His hair definitely has that classic VK feel and he keeps it classy the whole way.

If you don't want to pay insane shipping, you can get all of TOXIC from US Itunes! Just don't get it confused with this one: