It's not that no one knows anything about Lareine. It's that their biggest fans don't tend to hang around general visual kei/jrock discussion sites or sites for other bands. This is not a Lareine forum so it's only natural that people don't talk about them in depth here.
Super-quick history:
1994: the band was formed by Kamijo and Mayu. There were a few lineup changes in the first couple of years, but it finally settled down to being Kamijo (vocal), Mayu (guitar), Emiru (bass), and Machi (drums).
1999: they made their major debut
2000: Mayu, Emiru, and Machi left the band in August. Kamijo continued working under the band name "Lareine" by himself for the rest of the year with a different style.
2001: Kamijo and Mayu joined the indies band New Sodmy. However, Kamijo never formally disbanded Lareine.
2002: Mayu left New Sodmy, then the band (formally) disbanded in August. Meanwhile Emiru began work with his new band Ribbon. Kamijo began to prepare for Lareine for formally resume activities on his own indies label Applause Records, releasing a single and mini album with the help of former bandmates from both Lareine and New Sodmy.
2003: Ribbon disbanded in February, then Lareine marked the official return to activity with a concert on March 26th. Emiru and Ribbon's drummer Kazumi were official members at this point. In May, Mayu rejoined Lareine as well. They've been working consistently with this lineup ever since.
It seems like a lot of fans don't understand how things really are with Lareine. Just because Lareine was once a major label band, there's an impression of them as still having that level of fan support with financial backing magically appearing. It's not like that at all. They're an indies band, and not one on one of the big well-connected labels like PS Company, it's their OWN label. They are *really* independent. And they do not have a big company providing the financial backing that would allow them to spend several months doing nothing but working on a full album of entirely new material. I don't just mean taking time off from performing, I mean time off from the day jobs they probably have. Well, I don't know for sure that they have day jobs... But from everything I've seen from concert and instore attendance, it sure looks like the band makes enough to cover band expenses but doesn't have enough left over for living.
Maybe if some of the fans who've been downloading songs bought this CD which has material they've already heard and liked, the band would be able to spend more time working on new material. I'm sorry if I seem snippy, but I would really like to start seeing a less-exhausted band that would be able to focus more on musical activity.
*wants it*
