Panic Channel (written パニックちゃんねる or PANIC☆ch, both pronounced the same way) is an independent Japanese Visual kei band signed to the label Mission Music Factory. They perform under two personas: パニックちゃんねる is their gothy, Visual Kei side, and PANIC☆ch is a light visual boy band side. Some fans consider PANIC☆ch to be Oshare Kei, however, the band itself claims not to be.

Panic Channel (known in Japanese as panikku channeru) was founded by Meguru (ex- GARASU), Kana, and Tara in November 2002. In January 2003, the line-up of the band consisted of Meguru (Vo), Kana (G), Tsubasa (G), Tara (Ba), and Yuusuke (Dr). After two months, in March 2003 the band decided to show their “second face.” The alterego Panic*CH was born.

Panic Channel gave their debut in May of that year at the Osaka club Vijon where they sold their first video tape Panic Channel Kyouzai Video. After that event, the band started advance; they had one gig after another, always switching between the two egos during the long line of events.

The band had its first oneman at the Urawa Narciss on 21 September, 2003. It was completely sold out. One day later, they sold their first single Debutsen ~minna no chikai hen~ in a limited edition of 2000 copies. The CD was sold out on the same day and it was not printed again. Panic Channel kept on performing, most of the time at the Meguro Rock May Kan. Towards the end of the year, they released their first mini-album Shinjisen ~Yume ni mukatte hen~.

In the beginning of 2004, the Shinjisen ~Yume ni mukatte hen~ tour was listed on Panic Channel’s schedule. It ended on St. Valentine’s Day, 14 February, in the Meguro Rock May Kan.

On March 18, there was another oneman in the same concert hall where both personalities of the band performed. After that concert, the drummer Yuusuke left the band. Takumi (ex- Aile) substituted him at first only as a support member, which changed when he became the official drummer of Panic Channel on April 3.

A lot more concerts and performances followed, and on 29 July, their next maxi-single Iyagasare was released in a limited edition of 3000 copies. One month later on August 29, the boys released their 5th single with the name Freestyle.

In September, Panic Channel’s label Mission Music Factory arranged together with Undercode Productions (Kisaki) a two-man concert with Panic Channel and Undercode-band’s Karen. On September 23 and 26, the bands stood on stage together. The next release followed shortly after that event on September 29: the single Kesshousen.

In the beginning of October, the band took part in the Mad Tea Party Vol. 4 which was sponsored by the band D. Afterwards, Panic Channel had a couple of performances again. From the 13th and 17th of December, 2004, performances at the Meguro Rock May Kan took place, arranged by Panic Channel. On those five days, Panic Channel played together with Iroha, Gift, HenzeL, and Luvie. The event ended with a “panikku channeru” vs. “Panic*Ch” oneman. After those concerts, Tara was brought to the hospital because of ear problems. Panic Channel continued performing and got Saburo of Gift as bassist, However, the recording of their new album was rescheduled.

After more performances in 2005, Tara’s recovery was announced in February. His first performance after a long time took place in Nagoya’s Shinsakae MUJIKA on 10 March. Panic Channel recorded their new album TRICK, which was released 26 March.

But the peace did not last for long. After the UnderCode 3 Day event final on 22 March, 2005, in Osaka, Meguru announced that Tara had to go to the hospital again because of new ear problems. During the time in hospital, Tara announced that he would leave the band because of his ear, just as the fans suspected. The true reason is apparently that Tara already did not see himself as member of the band anymore because in the end of 2005 he started the new band project Betty with Yuu (ex-Never Crazy).

After Tara’s departure, Panic Channel had a couple more concerts. On 28 August, the band announced after a concert that Tsubasa and Takumi were going to leave the band. Their farewell concert was on 30 October. Meguru and Kana remained.

In the beginning of January 2006, Meguru announced that positions in the band would be replaced by MAYO (G), kiri (Ba), and KYO～YA (Dr). In February and March, the band had a nation-wide tour, seven secret concerts included, where they switched constantly between their alter-egos. In April 2006 and released two new singles, Plow~forward movement~ and Ishin.

If you like visual kei music, check them out:

Song: Pink Cherry PV

Song: Clear

Song:パニックちゃんねる VS PANIC☆ch～孤独妄想 + メイキング映像

Λucifer (sometimes spelled Aucifer, pronounced Lucifer because of the greek letter “L” lambda “Λ”) is a Japanese rock group, best known for contributing several of their songs to the popular anime, Kaikan Phrase. The band was formed in 1999, and disbanded in early 2003. They officially debuted on 15 September 1999 with their big hit single Datenshi BLUE, and became increasingly popular thereafter.

Λucifer was put together for the Kaikan Phrase anime to promote it. The anime was based on the popular shoujo manga by Mayu Shinjo. The band members of real life Λucifer changed their names to match with their anime/manga counterparts, except for the vocalist, who kept his name instead of changing it to Sakuya (the main character’s name). Several of Λucifer’s songs were used in the anime, along with songs of other j-rock bands like GLAY, Feel and e.MU. However, the band decided to go on even after the anime had ended, and continued to release more music afterwards.

Then finally on 25 October 2002, over two and a half years after the anime had ended, they announced that they were breaking up. Following the announcement, they did their last tour entitled “Λucifer Last Live 2002-2003 Energy” from 16 December 2002 to 10 January 2003, which included 9 shows. After that, they appeared for the last time in a TV music show, PopJam, on 11 January and then did their very last show (which was also their first show done abroad) at the Impact Arena in Bangkok, Thailand on 19 January.

At first, on the first album, the music was written by Takuya Asanuma (JUDY AND MARY), Chisato (Penicillin) and IPPEI & TAIZO (FEEL) but after that, the members of the band started writing more. BEATRIP featured one song from Atsuro and one from Santa, and the rest were by Takuya and Chisato, but by the third album, nearly all the music had been done by members of the band, save for one song by Takuya, and two of the songs Makoto did that were done as a collaboration with Masaki. The lyrics on the first two albums were all done by Mori Yukinojo (except for one song on BEATRIP, when Makoto did them). On the third album, only the lyrics to the song by Takuya were made by Mori and the rest were done by the band members.

After the break-up of the band;

* Makoto has gone on a solo career (going by the name Makoto). Towa and Santa also played on his first mini-album “VIBRATION”.
* Towa is in two bands called OLIVE SUNDAY and Birth of Life and has done some solo work as well.
* Santa is with Towa in OLIVE SUNDAY, and played on a few Angelique soundtracks and also on Anna Tsuchiya’s first mini-album “Taste My Beat”.
* Yuki is in a band called DUSTAR-3.
* Atsuro has been playing guitar for j-pop artists like meg rock, Marika and Chieko Kawabe.

Λucifer also made music videos for every single they released.

Her real name is Miwa Satō (佐藤美和). Miwa Satō was born and grew up in Kawaguchi, Saitama during the 1980s where the metal factories and industrial artists would provide a creative backdrop through her career. Her pseudonym Chara came from a quirky nickname from her elementary school teacher (’chara chara,’ meaning scatter-brained in Japanese).

Her appreciation for music came from fighting through piano lessons, which were forced on her from an early age by her mother. However, before long, Chara would be writing her own songs of longing for love and the good life while studying foreign funk musicians such as Prince and movie stars like Brigitte Bardot.

Chara continued with music sessions with friends like Yusuke Asada (who eventually went on to work with Crystal Kay and others) and working part time jobs in Tokyo until 1990 when she finally broke into the music industry.

One of the things that defines Chara’s music is her singing voice. It is often described as sweet and whispering like a child’s, yet forceful and sincere. Despite her very distinctive singing voice, Chara considers herself a musician first and foremost; proficient with instruments such as the piano, drums, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, synthesizer and tambourine. There are common themes to a lot of her music, including motherhood, innocence, love, beauty, melancholy,and cheerfulness.

It is hard to define Chara’s music as any one genre; Chara often incorporates a number of different styles into her music, resulting in music that ranges from light pop numbers to more dark and stirring pieces. In her early career the African-American funk element was quite apparent, but after the birth of her children, her life and music took a new focus, allowing her to write what is considered some of her best music in the years to come.

Check out some of her videos:

Song: Crazy for you

Song: Tiny Tiny Tiny

Source: wikipedia

A mix parentage of Japanese and Italian, Angela is an internationally acclaimed indie artist. Known for her indie album, These Words, in 2002. Angela Aki (アンジェラ・アキ Anjera Aki), born on 15 September 1977 in Itano, Tokushima Prefecture, Shikoku, Japan, to a Japanese father and an Italian-American mother, is a Japanese singer-songwriter. Her former Japanese real name is 安芸 聖世美 (Aki Kiyomi)

Angela Aki is completely bilingual in English and Japanese as she was raised in Japan, but moved to Hawaii at the age of fifteen where she graduated from Iolani School. From there she moved on to George Washington University where she graduated with majors in politics and music.

On March 9, 2007, she revealed in her official blog that she is married to a music director who has been supporting her before her debut. She also revealed that while she was in Washington D.C., she had married once before but the marriage ended in a divorce.

She is good friends with JPOP star Yuna Ito. Both singers attended the same Japanese language school.

Angela Aki is the daughter of Kiyoshi Aki, the owner/co-founder of AEON Institute of Language Education. This is one of the “Big Four” Eikaiwa (English conversation) schools in Japan.

In May 2006, Angela signed with Tofu Records in order to release English singles and albums. Her first release with Tofu was releasing “Kiss Me Good-Bye” as a digital single in the USA, with a slightly altered track list. Later that month she performed the Final Fantasy XII theme song, “Kiss Me Good-Bye” at the premiere PLAY! A Video Game Symphony concert in Chicago on May 27, 2006. With orchestral backup, she played piano and sang the English lyrics, which she had written herself. She also performed her own version of “Eyes On Me”, the theme song of Final Fantasy VIII with only the piano and her voice.

Song: Home

Song: Rain

Song: Kiss Me Goodbye

Not exactly the conventional beauty we’re used to but she is definitely very talented.

Visit her homepage.

Olivia Lufkin, often known simply as OLIVIA, born December 9, 1979, in Okinawa, a bilingual Japanese singer (her first language is English). The daughter of an American father and a Japanese mother, she sometimes writes about being mixed-race in songs such as “solarhalfbreed.” Her sister Caroline Lufkin is also a singer (under the name Caroline).

Olivia attended the Okinawa Actors’ School and was there discovered by the director of “Rising Productions” (Vision Factory) and signed to Avex Trax as part of the Japanese idol group D&D. Then, the famous producer Tetsuya Komuro heard of Olivia one day and decided that she would be perfect for a project in which he was planning along with Jean Michel Jarre. The project was to make the theme song for the France 1998 FIFA World Cup entitled Together Now. The single was released a month after D&D’s 1st and one album. After it was decided that D&D would disband and separated into two different groups; ‘OLIVIA’ as Olivia’s solo-project and Aya & Chika as Aya & Chika from D&D.

In 2004 she released her second album The Lost Lolli. The primarily featured the best material from her four mini-albums except for two new tracks “Alone in Our Castle” and “Fake Flowers” (as well as two re-arrangements). This album was released nation-wide (though with a limited first press version available at Tower Records Japan), this album used “SpidERSpins (Lost Lolli Mix)” as a radio single for the release. The song also had a music video to go along with it. This album peaked at #111 on the Oricon. However, Avex Trax released an overseas version of this album, reflecting Olivia’s increasing success outside of Japan; typically, only chart-topping artists release overseas versions of their albums.

After releasing The Lost Lolli, Olivia went on an unofficial and long hiatus (except for a performance at the “Halloween of the Living Dead” hosted by Hyde on October 30, 2005) and worked as a model on fashion magazines. In March 2006, it was announced Olivia would once again be releasing music in the Japanese music industry. She would play the role of the rival band Trapnest’s lead vocalist Reira Serizawa, for the anime adaptation of Nana as her first release for this role, Olivia sings the first ending theme song entitled a little pain. This was alongside fellow avex artist Anna Tsuchiya, who plays the role of Nana Osaki, the vocalist for Trapnest’s rival band Black Stones. Similarly, Tsuchiya sung the opening theme song. The manga’s author, Ai Yazawa, asked Olivia to sing for the anime when a staff member at avex gave her a copy of Olivia’s Sea me and Into The Stars singles. It is reported that she exclaimed, “It can only be her!” when she first heard the music. For a little pain, Olivia first made the general theme to the lyrics, then wrote the song in English. Later on she would change the lyrics into Japanese. The single is about “Reira’s loneliness, pain and strength,” as Olivia found that she could relate well to the character.

Olivia has said that her musical expression has now changed, that the hiatus was because at the time of The Lost Lolli’s release, she was “feeling pretty depressed”, and “started to notice and realize a lot of her faults”and her style “has gotten a lot more detailed”, it’s “pleasing to the ear” and “a lot cooler”. She had to do a lot of research into Reira’s character, as she “never really read manga”. She specifically wrote the song tailored to the point of view of Reira. She states, “It was fun to sing as another person. Like an actress”. She said that she “wrote many different songs”, but they sounded too “western and dark”, whereas a little pain had more of a feeling of a top Japanese band”.[1].

When a little pain first was released, it reached a position of #8 (her first top 10 position), and two positions below Anna’s single (the opening theme song), which had been released on the same day. After the second week, this single had outsold the total sales for her debut single, I.L.Y.~Yokubou~ (which was her highest selling single to date at the time).

Olivia would continue to release Nana-related music. The next opening and ending theme songs used after Tsuchiya Anna’s rose and Olivia’s a little pain were both Olivia songs. The single Wish / Starless Night, was released in October and peaked #7.

Then, OLIVIA’s first US appearance was at the animation convention Pacific Media Expo held in Los Angeles, California in October 2006.

In early 2007, Olivia released The Cloudy Dreamer in January 17, 2007. The album debuted at #15 on the Oricon Weekly Charts; her highest ranking album to date. In addition to the several songs she recorded for the Nana anime, the mini-album also featured a new song called “Dream Catcher”, which was used as the ending theme for the live action television drama series of Jigoku Shōjo.

In February 2007, OLIVIA released an album called OLIVIA inspi’ REIRA (TRAPNEST) which contains singles from the show and some new songs; then was released an album called NANA BEST includes popular and some unreleased songs by both Olivia and Anna Tsuchiya from the Nana TV series. Both Olivia’s and Anna Tsuchiya’s songs from these albums were played in the Shibuya, Tokyo pedestrian area in March 2007.

Taken from Wikipedia

Song:SpiderSpins

Song:Dress Me Up

Song:A Little Pain

Ami Suzuki (鈴木 亜美 Suzuki Ami, born February 9, 1982) is a female singer and songwriter from Zama, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan.

Suzuki was one of the most popular female singers between 1998 and 2000 and the known rival of Ayumi Hamasaki, but in 2000 after legal problems with her management company, she was dropped from her label and fell from popularity, becoming widely unnoticed in the Japanese entertainment business for several years.

With the help of Max Matsuura, Suzuki finally returned to the music scene under the Avex Trax label in 2005 with her comeback single, Delightful, a dance song that reached No. 3 on the Japanese Oricon charts and became one of 2005 summer’s hits. In October 2005 the singer released her first studio album on Avex entitled AROUND THE WORLD, which has sold over 62,000 copies. Her second studio album, titled “CONNETTA”, was released on March 21, 2007.

While she was attending the high school Ami auditioned for the Japanese talent show Asayan, which was looking for young girls who could sing. The grand prize winner would be rewarded with a contract with Sony Music Entertainment Japan and a high-profile music career.

The TV show became very popular and the number of viewers watching it grew and grew as the series progressed; its popularity was such that soon it was aired in other Asian countries. From 13,500 contestants, only five girls were chosen to be in the final round, and Ami won the competition supported by 802,157 phone calls from the audience. She was only 15 years old.

Song: Thank you for everyone for everyday

Song: Nothing without you

Song: Be Together

12012 (イチニーゼロイチニ, ichi nī zero ichi ni) is a Japanese rock band. Formed in 2003 in Osaka Prefecture, the group centers its work around the concept of “madness inside a human” (人間の内面における狂気 ningen no naimen ni okeru kyōki). 12012 is also the penal code for the possession of a dangerous weapon in California. The group sometimes performs as “kyōki shoji” (凶器所持), which is a translation of that offense. Originally part of the visual kei movement, the band has recently been opting for less flamboyant attire. In 2007, the band performed the ending theme, Cyclone, to the Gonzo anime TV series, Romeo x Juliet, its single being released by Universal Music Japan on June 13, 2007. The group has also performed to several live concerts across Japan as well as numerous international locations.

Check out some of their videos:

song title: over

song title: cyclone

song title: burn

This is another Utada Hikaru video. I just love this song, Flavor of Life. She is indeed a great singer :)
You know there are so many wannabes out there who wants to sing like her on Youtube. Some of them are pretty okay some of them just makes me cringe…holy cow. I just wanted to stab my ear drums with a pencil when I hear them.

I am all for freedom of expression but…you know…sometimes it’s just so bad, you feel bad for them LOL. And what’s worse when you want to hurt yourself just to stop the pain….

Anyway, this version of Flavor of Life is the ballad version. I just love the whole orchestra and song thing going here. I hope you enjoy it :)

Coco d’Or is a jazz band, with Hiroko Shimabukuro as a singer. Hiroko Shimabukuro, also known as hiro, is a former member of a Japanese girl band, SPEED.

Their first release is a self-titled album “Coco d’Or”, which has been released in 2004. Their latest release is “Coco d’Or Parfait”, which contained same songs from the first album and extra three new songs. There is also a DVD of the promotional videos and making-of shoots included. Their new album will be released on July 26, 2006. The title is “Coco d’Or 2″. There will be a CD+DVD version too like before.

Coco d’Or songs are modern-remake version of popular classic jazz songs, such as “Misty” by Ella Fitzgerald and “Fly Me to The Moon” by Frank Sinatra.

I am a big Utada Hikaru fan and all her songs, I love. And thanks to Alan Petroline for pointing it out, Sakura Drops (one of her latest songs) have been out a while now and I am sharing it with you guys here! :)

Yes, YouTube rocks.

And a live version of Sakura Drop from her tour in late 2006 :)