Looking for info on Dir en grey previous bands

Seelentau

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Hi everyone, thanks for having me. I was advised by a user of this forum to post my question here:

I'm looking for people who were active in the vkei-scene in the 90s. Although this is a Western forum, maybe someone here knows someone who knows someone? I'd like to speak to people who were actually there and might help me out on my mission to collect information from those bands.

I'm specifically looking for people that were fans of the bands CHARM, DIE:STERIA, Ruby, Siva, Jinkou Tenshi, Ka-za-ri, D+L, GOSICK, cruel, Puyopuyo, Gesshoku, Visnu (or Visun), Masquerade, Haijin Kurobarazoku and La:Sadie's. I'm looking for general info on the bands, live dates, setlists, magazine appearances, interviews, anything really.

I know it's a long shot but I just want to put myself out there. Sorry if this is not the correct forum for this.
 

flowersofnight

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I'd like to speak to people who were actually there
Why exactly does it need to be people who were there? I don't think we have anyone answering to that description.
And anyway, weren't half of those bands one-off session bands or something? Most of them probably never made it into magazines or released anything.

You might want to look for a copy of this mini-comi for Haijin blablabla:
https://item.mercari.com/jp/m33784965907
(and then scan me the C'est La Vie part ::cred::)

Some other magazine called "Villette" had CHARM and Ka-za-ri in one issue.

MISSIONxxxx volume 6 had profiles of the Dir en grey members where they posted a bunch of pictures from their old obscure bands.

And Puresound has pictures of a lot of the releases that do exist (enable "show items not in stock")
https://puresound.co.jp/user_data/sp_artist_index_ascii.php
 

Seelentau

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Why exactly does it need to be people who were there? I don't think we have anyone answering to that description.
And anyway, weren't half of those bands one-off session bands or something? Most of them probably never made it into magazines or released anything.

You might want to look for a copy of this mini-comi for Haijin blablabla:
https://item.mercari.com/jp/m33784965907
(and then scan me the C'est La Vie part ::cred::)

Some other magazine called "Villette" had CHARM and Ka-za-ri in one issue.

MISSIONxxxx volume 6 had profiles of the Dir en grey members where they posted a bunch of pictures from their old obscure bands.

And Puresound has pictures of a lot of the releases that do exist (enable "show items not in stock")
https://puresound.co.jp/user_data/sp_artist_index_ascii.php

It doesn't need to be people who were there, it's just that in the Western fandom, those bands are almost entirely unknown.

I actually have that Minikomi as well as MISSIONxxxx vol.6 and can make scans for you. Do you have the Villette magazine? Or how do you know of those interviews?
I know that one Villette issue had a Masquerade interview, but I've never seen the magazine for sale.

But yeah, that's what I'm looking for, in general. The music that's available on Puresound is already online, only the unavailable stuff isn't (Visnu's tape, for example).

If you (or anyone, really) can help me out, that would be much appreciated. As I said, since I own one or two mags myself, I could post scans in return. :)
 

flowersofnight

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Do you have the Villette magazine? Or how do you know of those interviews?
No, just saw it for sale once on an auction site and it listed the bands on the cover. I can't find a picture of it now though.

Anyway it sounds like you've already done your homework pretty thoroughly. I don't really have any recommendations beyond that, probably all you can do is keep an eye out for interesting magazines on the auctions.

Here, how about this picture from 1995:
kyo1.jpg

I got it with no identifying information but there you go XD

EDIT: also I changed the thread title to something that actually says what you're looking for.
 

Seelentau

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I mean, I'm still also looking for people from that era. :D There are some on Twitter, but from my experience, they like to stay with their fellow Japanese fans.

I did my homework, yup. I probably already know more than most Western fans, but who knows, I just thought maybe just one user here has some old magazine like Villette.

As for Villette, I already looked for it on aucfan, but nothing showed up there either. Do you recall which auction website it was? Because it's apparently a common French word, it's super hard to find anything ><

I'll see if I can get those scans you're looking for, the magazine is currently at my parents' place so I'll have to ask them.

Edit: btw, I assume prideofmind is your website? Nice to see the Rock Tengoku stuff there, rare stuff.
 
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flowersofnight

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As for Villette, I already looked for it on aucfan, but nothing showed up there either. Do you recall which auction website it was?
I think it was YJ, but a million years ago.
(EDIT: removed duplicate link XD)
 
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Seelentau

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As I said, I own that magazine, the exact one you linked. I was the one who bought it^^
I'll scan you the C'est La Vie stuff sometime later. :)
 

flowersofnight

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As I said, I own that magazine, the exact one you linked. I was the one who bought it^^
I'll scan you the C'est La Vie stuff sometime later. :)
LOL I accidentally put that same link in again ::teef:: I could've sworn there was something else floating around on Mercari but maybe not.
 

Seelentau

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LOL I accidentally put that same link in again ::teef:: I could've sworn there was something else floating around on Mercari but maybe not.

There's lots of stuff floating around. :) I don't wanna advertise, but maybe you want to check out vk.gy, you could probably help out over there as well, if you have time.

By the way, I assume there's nothing DEG-related in the magazines you own? I took a look at your website and saw that you have some old mags, but aside of the Apres Guerre, the covers didn't mention any DEG band...
 

flowersofnight

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By the way, I assume there's nothing DEG-related in the magazines you own?
I don't think so, at least nothing that hasn't already been mentioned. For the most part they don't seem to "cross over" much with any other bands of note, so unless you were going out specifically looking for this stuff (which I wasn't) it just wouldn't show up.
 

Seelentau

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I don't think so, at least nothing that hasn't already been mentioned. For the most part they don't seem to "cross over" much with any other bands of note, so unless you were going out specifically looking for this stuff (which I wasn't) it just wouldn't show up.

Oh well, if anything shows up, please let me know.
Do you maybe know anyone else I could ask about this? Or anywhere else?
 

flowersofnight

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Do you maybe know anyone else I could ask about this? Or anywhere else?
Not really, sorry.
Incidentally, as far as I'm aware, no English-speaking fans who were attending rat-basement indies lives in Japan in the mid-90s have ever shown up here. There might have been a couple (I vaguely recall some image of Mana in one of his early bands where some random gaijin was floating around in the audience) but it probably didn't spark a lifelong interest for them.
 

Seelentau

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Japanese-speaking would be fine as well.
In my head, there's this picture of some working salariman, who maybe has a wife and a kid, and who lives in a house with a basement where, in some random shoe box, a bunch of old tapes, magazines or so are stored, from the old days. :D
I know these people exist because they show up on Twitter every now and then, or sell their stuff (there was a CHARM flyer on mercari a while ago, for example), but contacting them is almost impossible.
 

ghostpepper

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A friend of mine who was in a vk band in the 90s toured with GOSICK, he now lives in Hakuba, Nagano. When I went to his house he showed me some photos from a disposable camera of Toshiya and the other members doing something that is very illegal in Japan haha. . .
 

Seelentau

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A friend of mine who was in a vk band in the 90s toured with GOSICK, he now lives in Hakuba, Nagano. When I went to his house he showed me some photos from a disposable camera of Toshiya and the other members doing something that is very illegal in Japan haha. . .

Do you think it would be possible for me to talk to your friend? Or for you to forward my request?
As I said in the OP, I'm mainly interested in the "band data", like live dates, setlists, song titles etc.
Not so much in chekis and stuff like those photos, so don't worry about the private stuff.
 
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flowersofnight

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ghostpepper

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Do you think it would be possible for me to talk to your friend? Or for you to forward my request?
As I said in the OP, I'm mainly interested in the "band data", like live dates, setlists, song titles etc.
Not so much in chekis and stuff like those photos, so don't worry about the private stuff.

He probably doesn't know any of those details + no english. I will check a bit with my japaneezer scrouge powers and get back to you.
Throwing out moerugomi in the moenaigomi bin ::cop::

Haha. Yes.
Straight outta compton.
 

Seelentau

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He probably doesn't know any of those details + no english. I will check a bit with my japaneezer scrouge powers and get back to you.


日本語はいいです。At least rudimentary. :)
Please do get back to me, it's super rare to find anyone connected to the old bands, would be cool if something came out of it.
 

ghostpepper

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日本語はいいです。At least rudimentary. :)
Please do get back to me, it's super rare to find anyone connected to the old bands, would be cool if something came out of it.

He does not remember anything regarding their song names and such sadly, kind of not surprised as it is so long ago and they were just a band they played with.
As far as Dir en grey's indie stuff as a whole this person I know has posted some rare magazine clippings etc. on twitter: https://twitter.com/shimatan_187
 

Seelentau

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He does not remember anything regarding their song names and such sadly, kind of not surprised as it is so long ago and they were just a band they played with.
As far as Dir en grey's indie stuff as a whole this person I know has posted some rare magazine clippings etc. on twitter: https://twitter.com/shimatan_187

Not even tour dates or so? Maybe some dates on the pictures, like the one flowers posted? It's there in the bottom right corner...

I know that user, I spoke to them in the past, briefly. But I dunno, I have the feeling that most of the Japanese fans on Twitter either want to stay with their own, or just can't be bothered to talk more.
Which is understandable, not everyone is such a fanatic as I am, and I probably bothered more than one person a little too much.

But yeah, as I said, it's really hard to get in touch with the right people ><
 
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