Dir en grey a Hit in the USA
From Wired via BoingBoing:
2,200 goths showed up for a show by the Japanese cosplayer band Dir en grey in LA, despite the fact that the band has never released a CD in the US, sings in Japanese, and has no US airplay. The fans organized elaborate, synchronized stunts via LiveJournal, and sang along phonetically with the words. “Half the songs, I don’t know what I’m saying,” admits Joy, one of the diehards.
Haha, ain’t that the truth. I often just mouth along phonetically with the Japanese music I have. To be honest, I’m not much of a fan of Dir en grey, being too heavy for my tastes. But I do like their Visual Kei dress sense. There’s a lot of kids in Harajuku that cosplay their favourite Visual Kei bands - here’s a wallpaper of two of them that Yves published a while ago.
There’s quite a lot of Japanese bands releasing albums in the States now. No love for Australia! This article was slightly incorrect as Dir en grey (yes, the lower case letters are deliberate) released their first U.S. album in May, about 3 months before the tour.
I’ll have to do an in-depth write-up about Visual Kei and bands like Dir en grey soon!
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August 17th, 2006 at 3:49 pm
Yeah, that article was also incorrect when it said “no previous airplay.” A music video of theirs played often on a music channel called “Fuse” here in the states, in about April or May.
September 22nd, 2006 at 4:11 pm
Yeah - we saw it too on Fuse - Japanese fans really know how to goth it.
http://www.wtnrradio.com
WeTakeNoRequests
Goth Monday nights
October 28th, 2006 at 1:04 am
Back in December of ‘05 I emailed Cindy Levitt asking her if Hot Topic would sell Jrock along side their already popular anime merch. To my suprise, she responded very curious and I sent her the wiki link for Diru… Since that time I’ve been trying to get more fans to tell her how much they want Jrock to be in Hot Topic. If you want more Diru stuff in Hot Topic, please send your mails to Cindy.
cindy.levitt@verizon.net
http://pics.livejournal.com/blazefox/pic/0001perx
July 26th, 2007 at 2:56 am
Dir en Grey is my favorite band by far, and i live in Canada. They really have amazing music, and i really adore them. I’m so happy they’ve started playing here every so often, im hoping to see them this year. I just wish their cd’s were released here as well.
September 15th, 2007 at 11:58 pm
They are an amazing band. Vulgar is one of the best jrock albums prodouced, or one of the best Cds I have ever listened to. What makes the band, the awesome guitar playing, amazing drum playing by Shinya, and the freakin amazing vocals of Kyo.