January 27th is a big day for Japanese pop and rock, as well as for fans. The street date sees 11 different artists releasing new music onto the market. And that’s just the albums I know about, there could be more! Great veterans like L’Arc~en~Ciel and GLAY return with new singles. Meanwhile, upbeat rockers newcomers SuG, and abingdon boys school are just a few of the major players putting their albums out this Wednesday. Click “More” to see what other artist are part of this week’s J-Rock/J-Pop releases. More »

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Wait, wasn’t it just Sunday? Well, it’s Sunday once more so it’s time for another installment of The Weekly Bento. This past week saw the nearing conclusion of Rekuru’s Akira Kurosawa Tribute Month, so if you haven’t been checking out the plethora of posts on the famed director’s work, do so now. In addition, there were plenty of other posts this past week such as the next installment in Jacob’s popular Japanese travel guide series, news of a new Inuyasha compilation album soon to be released, two Playstation 2 game reviews in celebration of the PS2’s 10 year anniversary, and even an interesting look at the growing trend of people sleeping in the streets of Japan. All fascinating stuff, check it out. More »

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Greetings Rekuruers and welcome to another edition of The Weekly Bento. This week saw the continuation of Rekuru’s Akira Kurosawa Tribute Month as well as the finish of New Year’s Resolution Week. As always, below I’ve compiled a list of this past week’s happenings for your viewing pleasure. Your welcome. See you next week! More »

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I heard my first Japanese rock song about 10 years ago. Since then, I’ve had an “on-again, off-again” love affair with Asian music. The following is my list of resolutions for 2010 that involve listening to, purchasing from, and exploring the J-Rock and J-Pop worlds.

1. Learn more of the classics. I already listen to many of the originators, innovators, and pioneers like BUCK-TICK, Malice Mizer, X JAPAN, GLAY, and T.M.Revolution, but I really need to familiarize with more than “just what I like.” I need to branch out from the standards in my collection and really dig deep into the catalogs of bands like Shonen Knife, The Alfee, and BOOWY. More »

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If you thought swine flu was last year’s news, think again… More »

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Time for the Weekly Bento and with it, a week’s worth of articles for you to catch up on. This week was packed full of christmas cheer in celebration of everyone’s favorite gift-giving holiday. In addition to that, other articles such as anime youtube videos to check out, the adventures of Michael Moore in Japan, and even some cute Aardman Studios animations were there to round out the week. More »

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Love was in the air this past week here at Rekuru with the launch of CrazySingleLife. Whether it was j-pop love songs you have to hear, the top official anime couples, or even my modest attempt to play around with cupid’s arrows, this week was all about love. In addition, Link got his train conducting on with the release of The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks which you can read a review of below. More »

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Representing Japan in the popular girl with a guitar category, folk-rocker and bokukko Saori Atsumi penned my favorite J-Pop love song, Mou Sukoshi (”A Little More”). A delicate, sweet but strangely haunting melody, the lyrics tread that delicate balance between teenaged crush and deepening adult relationship. More »

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It will sometimes happen that I post about bands I don’t listen to myself, but there are so big I figure people should know about them. A drunken middle-aged man in a bar once told me that I would never understand Japan until I could list all the members of SMAP, and perhaps he was right (though I still can’t). One such group is the boy-band Arashi. More »

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Title: TIME MACHINE ni Onegai By: Sadistic Mika Band Covers: Browny Circus Length: 4:26 Available on: NARKISSOS (SMB), Kamikaze Girls OST (BC)

It seems to me that the J-Pop scene is often more about cults of personality than about the songs themselves; which is, no doubt, how some artists like it. But what are some of our favorite J-Pop/Rock tunes–that can even survive their creators to be given new life by another artist? One of my personal favorites is the mid-tempo rocker TIME MACHINE ni Onegai, originally penned by 70’s rock group Sadistic Mika Band. More »

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