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:

A Picture's Worth A Thousand Songs

Sometimes there's nothing better than an artful photoshoot which takes clothes from the realms of necessities to art. Even better are collaborations between musicians and fashion houses, a trend as old as the artforms themselves. I haven't posted on high fashion in awhile, and I was so excited to find this issue of WWD Japan I had to share!

Ayumi Hamasaki in Viktor and Rolf

Tokio Hotel in Yohji Yamamoto

Maki Nomiya in Louis Vuitton

(Her lashes, I'm obsessed!)

Miyavi in Thom Browne

Definitely captured Miyavi's spirit in this shoot!

Pink Lady in Gucci

Kara in Prada and Tiffany

Juno in Adidas Originals by Jeremy Scott

This has to be one of my favorite looks- love the boldness, details, and colors of Jeremy Scott.

Alisa Mizuki in Alexander Wang

Choshinsei in Dsquared

All images scanned from WWD Japan, Fall 2011

Mad Man

Below- One of Takeru's outfits from mad$hip PV. Really tempted to replicate this! Finding this outfit is what inspired this post. The video is awesome too.
One band's style that I love, and would feel comfortable wearing on a daily basis, is SuG's. In the early days they pulled off a very striking Visual kei look, but the band quickly developed their own unique, colorful, casual identity with just the right amount of style and grit.

In both music and fashion they are diverse, fitting into the ideas of oshare kei but keeping the right amount of tough spirit to keep them rocking on.

Above, other outfits worn by the whole band in mad$ship PV.

All Images found on Google Image Search.

Eye Spy

Let's face it, Visual Kei is an eyeful! In a typical ensemble there are so many elements it's often hard to take notice of them all. Cosplayers, you know what this feels like!

But one thing I always think is a cool touch in Visual Kei (and seasonal runways, for that matter) is eye makeup. There's an infinite number of examples out there, but I pulled together just a small grouping of styles and effects seen throughout the genre:


If you want to replicate these looks, Sephora and Ricky's are probably your best sources in the US.

Who doesn't want a giant black rose on their eye? I quite like the bottom two myself.

The fact that I was planning to do this post collided with a perfectly timed tweet from Sephora, announcing the arrival of Paperself lashes to their stores and online. I had heard about these some time ago, and am thoroughly excited to pick up a pair! False lashes are fun once you get the hang of applying them...

Images from the Paperself Web Site.

It's a London based company that focuses on paper-based design. How cool are these! Very, very visual, but can be elegant and fun on any occasion.

Paperself Web Site: http://www.paperself.com/ps%20%20all.html

Sephora Youtube Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tz_RMhVqZo

Wrapped Up

Scanned from Cure- April 2006

Remember when hair wraps were the thing? I just found this style from 176BIZ (Tara, Bass), back in 2006. A gift from a friend, I was happy to look at some of my old favorites and see some classic VK looks from years ago, and wanted to share. Really want to make some clip-on hair pieces now to emulate this.

Fall Fantasy- GLB #41

There's lots of things I like about fall, and like a lot of fashion followers, it's all about the changing fashion. My favorite part- boots and layers! Gothic and Lolita fashion is no exception, and is probably best suit for this transitional season. Gothic and Lolita Bible is one of the staples of the Japanese fashion scene, and along with Kera, publishes the best new clothes among street brands that have become famous wold over. This fall's issue has a lot of what's best in GL, cute jackets, new prints on classic silhouettes, boots, bags, and even some Halloween inspiration!

Click on the pictures for better quality!

Examples of illustrations in this issue.

Another thing I love about GLB- patterns! Each issue comes with a decent amount of simple projects you can make at home. Frequent buyers of the mook will probably have a surplus of bow, skirt, and mini hat patterns, but each issue brings a unique twist to various Lolita wardrobe staples. See the below projects I completed from this issue!

Also, I love their street snaps! The ones below are from an event in Germany, so cool! And the steampunk below is just a perfect representation of the fashion.

Hakuei on the back cover modeling for Black Peace Now.

And Mana. Always Mana.