Re Band-Maid and Gacharic Spin. B-M's new management agency Maidit has actually existed as a company for several years, with three name and address changes (including the most recent), although what exactly they did is unclear. At one time they were located in an office building that Platinum Passport, B-M's old agency, and Platinum Production, the parent company, occupied. Probably initially set up by then-current or former PP people. GS did their first live show 8 October 2009, and they'll return to the same building (though not the same club, but a bigger capacity venue) in a few days to do their 15th anniversary show. I'll be there. The album is released the next day. Over the years B-M and GS have played hundreds of shows on the club circuit and in bigger venues, sometimes crossing paths in their earlier years. They both have that great stage presence that comes with accomplishing so many live performances. Two truly great bands. PS: I hope Nemophila have the same longevity.
I think this had been planned for years now and people were building this up in the background to have a smooth transition. As I know quite a few people who worked with them also left, so I wonder if a decision was made years ago that once a contract expires, they will have their own business in partnership with some of the management they trust and have a good relationship with. I don't know what was the initial contract about, but given how they just left after releasing the album I would not be surprised if it was signed for a certain number of albums. Now they delivered it, they are free.
@@rkk578 Any business with regard to the number or timing of albums would be transacted with the record label Pony Canyon and not with the (former) management agency Platinum Passport. In Japan the major management agencies that handle the big pop acts, enka singers, film and t v stars, popular comedians, et al. are almighty, but when it comes to bands in the harder genres of music the record label often holds sway even in day-to-day management. For the band Lovebites’ recent tours of Europe and the US it was a record label rep who did all the managing. Of course for the US tours B-M relied on LA-based United Talent Agency with whom they have a contractual relationship, but in Japan I think PC has done as much “managing” as PP did. PP simply petered out, losing their (fairly few) artists one after another. It was probably a sense of loyalty that prevented B-M from leaving PP sooner. Although Miku is usually given full credit (at least among the English-speaking fanbase) for putting B-M together back in 2013, PP did much of the work to put the band together and get it on its feet, and maybe B-M were returning the favor by staying with PP as long as they did. B-M’s new agency-“Maidit” in its most recent iteration-has former PP personnel, who bailed out of PP as did all the artists.
@@rkk578 I think matters concerning the number and timing of albums would have been transacted with the record label Pony Canyon rather than with the (former) management agency Platinum Passport. Although in the Japanese entertainment industry management agencies are almighty re the big J-Pop acts, film and tv stars, comedians et al., for bands in the harder genres of music sometimes the record label will function as a de facto management agency. An example is the band Lovebites, whose day-to-day affairs are run by a JVC record label rep. With regard to B-M, they need both, but clearly they were getting diminishing returns from PP, which simply petered out as their relatively small stable of artists left one after the other. Maidit is partly staffed by former PP personnel, and they moved their office from Shibuya Ward out to a suburban ward where one of the former PP people has his own office. B-M stayed with PP as long as they did probably out of a sense of loyalty. Although Miku is sometimes solely credited-certainly among the English-speaking fanbase-for putting B-M together back in 2013, actually PP played an important part in assembling the band and getting it on its feet, and maybe Miku was returning the favor by keeping PP nominally relevant the past few years, though I think she, the other band members, and PC, not PP, were charting the band’s course. I distinctly recall Miku saying at B-M’s 5th anniversary show at Club Eggman in 2018 that B-M would stay together for at least another 15 years ago. Plenty more to come . . .
@@rkk578 y t wiped a couple of my replies. Can’t figure them out. Anyhow, I think matters concerning the number and timing of albums would have been transacted with the record label rather than with the management agency. Although in Japan management agencies are almighty re the big J-Pop acts, film and tv stars, comedians, et al., for bands in the harder genres sometimes the record label will function as a de facto management agency. An example is Lovebites, whose day-to-day affairs are handled by the label. B-M need both, but clearly they were getting diminishing returns from PP, which simply petered out as their relatively small stable of artists departed one after the other. The new agency is staffed by former PP personnel, and they moved their office from Shibuya Ward out to a suburban ward where one of the former PP people had an office. B-M probably stayed with PP as long as they did out of a sense of loyalty. Although Miku is often solely credited-certainly among the English-speaking fanbase-for forming the band back in 2013, actually PP played a big part in putting B-M together and getting it on its feet. Maybe Miku was returning the favor by keeping PP nominally relevant, even as she, the other band members, and the label, not PP, were charting the band’s course. I distinctly remember Miku saying at B-M’s 5th anniversary show in 2018 that B-M would stay together for at least another 15 years. There’s much more to come . . .
Altibajos ocurren en las mejores familias! Nemophila pasa por una transición musical y nada más! Pronto se ubicará y estará en carrera para convertirse en la mejor banda internacional de Japón! Mejor cantante metal tienen! Ahí la diferencia!
Aldious is currently preparing a 1-shot 2-bands reunion gig along with Cyntia. Aldious line-up for that night will feature Re:No and their very first drummer Aruto. No other official news from the band as far as I know, but that one is big enough for now... :)
It's been a long time VG. I hope you might consider a comparison between the new BM instrumental, Get to the Top with Don't Be Long... The song from the Different single. It was written for Miku to accustom her to playing on Different. The two songs together make an amazing instrumental !
Nemophila finally seem to leave the 90's nostalgia train, which I think it will be a good step forward (hopefully we don't get those Disney rock songs either as they ditched the external songwriters). Regarding Band Maid, I am not sure if they will be totally independent per se, as they took many of their background people with them. That said they will have a bigger piece of the pie for sure and probably more say in the direction with being partners, rather than a product. They have been going into that direction for years now and I wonder if their initial contract which was probably signed for X album is now finished and they decided to not renew it. Also, Nagisa would really need a more serious band than Trident and her other project.
One only can hope that BandMaid recovers from the huge MISTAKE of collaborating with other bands ! What caused this? Big business corruption? Financial politics? Some Woke attack ? -------Please, BandMaid---go back to being who you are !! Why have you allowed yourselves to be polluted by others ??????????????????????
Absolutely love Restaurant F. Which is Gacharic Spin not only doing what they do best, which is getting their groove on, but also taking us Gacha fans along for the ride. The release date for Feast (Oct 9th) can't come soon enough. I've still yet to hear not only Epic Narratives in full but view the accompanying live Blu-Ray. As for Nemophila's first 2 releases as a quartet post Saki, I much prefer G.O.D. over Progress. I take no pleasure in having to say this, and I don't mean to come off all negative in the case of Nemophila, who I absolutely adore, but I found Progress to be mildly disappointing/mid. Which is a first for me when it comes to Nemophila, who, up until this point, have graced the eyes and ears of many, myself included, with a truckload of nothing but first rate bangers. Generally, I'm not that picky about the recorded efforts of most of my favourite bands/artists as I run the risk of starting to sound too much like Alan from Dicodec/Gaijin Guys, which is the last thing I want to do, but Progress just left me wanting so much more out of the song. Musicianship, as always, is killer. Production is incredibly solid. But the song itself is far too short. Mayu's vocals during what I imagine amounts to a chorus is bathed in effects. Hazuki's solo is far too brief, barely audible, obscured by the WOH OH OH'S in the background during that portion of the track, and literally over with in seconds, amounting to a song that clocks in at an underwhelming 2:54. Not even exceeding 3, much less, 4 minutes, which is a joke. This recent habit/ obsession with certain artists and their songs clocking in well under 3 minutes, has got to stop. What is this? The 50's or early 60s?, which to me smacks of anything but PROGRESS. No pun intended. For my money, Koiai's Come See Me far exceeds Progress in terms of quality. As for the news of Band-Maid going independent, I couldn't be happier for them. One of the benefits of that decision is the increased visibility of the band across social media, which I felt was being slightly inhibited/stifled by Platinum Passport/former management, so it's a real treat for us fans to see the band take control of their destiny. Keep up the great work, Venus Gaijin. Cheers from the great land of Oz🥂🇦🇺
@venusgaijin Unfortunately, it sounds like 3 separate songs fused together that didn't quite gel/congeal into feeling like one song. Not a total dud, but also not a win-win. It may very well end up working in a live setting, but as far as the studio version of the track is concerned, I can't see myself returning to the song for repeat listens, though I'm cautiously optimistic that the next single will be a great improvement over the disappointment that is Progress.✌️❤️🤘🇦🇺
There are some bad things that happened in Stmlt so let's wait and see what the next step or decision of their agency/management is, right now the group is on hiatus in music activities but we can still see them in livestreams and also in videos they release on the Stmlt channel. I just want to share that I've been a fan of theirs since the very beginning so I'll be one of the sad ones if they break up, all we can do is wait 😊
Pray🙏to God that Nemophila's next single is a vast improvement over the underwhelming Progress. Saba Sister and Brandy Senki have both been doing incredibly well of late, gaining not only more attention with each successive release but glowing responses at live performances and across social media. Trident has been on a roll lately, not only with the release of the 3 editions of Spice-X and Cry Out from their Dream Up Tour at Zepp Shinjuku Blu-Ray, which having since received from the lovely folks at Cdjapan, I look forward to viewing in full. As for STMLT, it is a little distressing not knowing the full reason regarding the recent absence of Yukippe, Kirara, and Akira from the band's UA-cam videos, but I sincerely hope this doesn't result in a few more departures from the band, as they've already lost 3 former members (Gomi chan, Ayanon, Mion), so I'd hate to see anybody else leave, as the fun antics on the band's aforementioned UA-cam channel would suffer greatly without the presence of Yukippe, Kirara and Akira, with all due respect to the new recruits (Sakitee, Kanachi, Hanon). Truth be told, I kind of miss not only Mion's presence but her sax🎷work, which added a certain amount of flair and sass to the band's sound. Keep up the great work on behalf of all followers o the channel ✌️❤️🤘🇦🇺🌏
Why? If anything they have started to become more of a band with an actual sound, rather than trying to bank on the nostalgia of Gen X and Early Millennials.
I think some are interpreting MAIDIT as Band-Maid breaking free from music industry control, but in truth they did that a long time ago. It seems more just a natural consequence of the fact that they were the only major artists with their management company. (Epic Narratives is great by the way.) On Gacharic Spin, W was my favourite album of 2023, and I might like the Ace EP from earlier this year even more. Both had a lot of heartfelt and experimental/proggy songs. The early signs are that the Feast album will lean a bit more into their idol-adjacent side, which was what initially almost stopped me getting into them. Not complaining though. Even if I weren't to like a single song on the album (which I already know won't happen - Speed Game is great), they would still have had an absolutely incredible couple of years.
Ranshin Glow is also on there and fairly proggy, plus Parallel Loop of course - though overall I agree it does sound like it's going to be somewhat more of a mix. And who knows what Curry Ice cream will sound like?!? 😋😋😂😂
I'm glad that there are also stemi fans here 😊 I just wanted to add that yukippe is currently recovering from her surgery and other news about what's going on in the group can be found on the X acc of Kirara, yukippe and Stmlt. My comment doesn't come in when I use my own language because it suddenly disappears, I don't know why? so I was forced to comment in English hahaha
Re Band-Maid and Gacharic Spin.
B-M's new management agency Maidit has actually existed as a company for several years, with three name and address changes (including the most recent), although what exactly they did is unclear. At one time they were located in an office building that Platinum Passport, B-M's old agency, and Platinum Production, the parent company, occupied. Probably initially set up by then-current or former PP people.
GS did their first live show 8 October 2009, and they'll return to the same building (though not the same club, but a bigger capacity venue) in a few days to do their 15th anniversary show. I'll be there. The album is released the next day.
Over the years B-M and GS have played hundreds of shows on the club circuit and in bigger venues, sometimes crossing paths in their earlier years. They both have that great stage presence that comes with accomplishing so many live performances. Two truly great bands.
PS: I hope Nemophila have the same longevity.
Thanks again for the information🫡😁👊
I think this had been planned for years now and people were building this up in the background to have a smooth transition. As I know quite a few people who worked with them also left, so I wonder if a decision was made years ago that once a contract expires, they will have their own business in partnership with some of the management they trust and have a good relationship with. I don't know what was the initial contract about, but given how they just left after releasing the album I would not be surprised if it was signed for a certain number of albums. Now they delivered it, they are free.
@@rkk578 Any business with regard to the number or timing of albums would be transacted with the record label Pony Canyon and not with the (former) management agency Platinum Passport. In Japan the major management agencies that handle the big pop acts, enka singers, film and t v stars, popular comedians, et al. are almighty, but when it comes to bands in the harder genres of music the record label often holds sway even in day-to-day management. For the band Lovebites’ recent tours of Europe and the US it was a record label rep who did all the managing. Of course for the US tours B-M relied on LA-based United Talent Agency with whom they have a contractual relationship, but in Japan I think PC has done as much “managing” as PP did. PP simply petered out, losing their (fairly few) artists one after another. It was probably a sense of loyalty that prevented B-M from leaving PP sooner. Although Miku is usually given full credit (at least among the English-speaking fanbase) for putting B-M together back in 2013, PP did much of the work to put the band together and get it on its feet, and maybe B-M were returning the favor by staying with PP as long as they did. B-M’s new agency-“Maidit” in its most recent iteration-has former PP personnel, who bailed out of PP as did all the artists.
@@rkk578 I think matters concerning the number and timing of albums would have been transacted with the record label Pony Canyon rather than with the (former) management agency Platinum Passport. Although in the Japanese entertainment industry management agencies are almighty re the big J-Pop acts, film and tv stars, comedians et al., for bands in the harder genres of music sometimes the record label will function as a de facto management agency. An example is the band Lovebites, whose day-to-day affairs are run by a JVC record label rep. With regard to B-M, they need both, but clearly they were getting diminishing returns from PP, which simply petered out as their relatively small stable of artists left one after the other.
Maidit is partly staffed by former PP personnel, and they moved their office from Shibuya Ward out to a suburban ward where one of the former PP people has his own office. B-M stayed with PP as long as they did probably out of a sense of loyalty. Although Miku is sometimes solely credited-certainly among the English-speaking fanbase-for putting B-M together back in 2013, actually PP played an important part in assembling the band and getting it on its feet, and maybe Miku was returning the favor by keeping PP nominally relevant the past few years, though I think she, the other band members, and PC, not PP, were charting the band’s course.
I distinctly recall Miku saying at B-M’s 5th anniversary show at Club Eggman in 2018 that B-M would stay together for at least another 15 years ago. Plenty more to come . . .
@@rkk578 y t wiped a couple of my replies. Can’t figure them out.
Anyhow, I think matters concerning the number and timing of albums would have been transacted with the record label rather than with the management agency. Although in Japan management agencies are almighty re the big J-Pop acts, film and tv stars, comedians, et al., for bands in the harder genres sometimes the record label will function as a de facto management agency. An example is Lovebites, whose day-to-day affairs are handled by the label.
B-M need both, but clearly they were getting diminishing returns from PP, which simply petered out as their relatively small stable of artists departed one after the other. The new agency is staffed by former PP personnel, and they moved their office from Shibuya Ward out to a suburban ward where one of the former PP people had an office. B-M probably stayed with PP as long as they did out of a sense of loyalty. Although Miku is often solely credited-certainly among the English-speaking fanbase-for forming the band back in 2013, actually PP played a big part in putting B-M together and getting it on its feet. Maybe Miku was returning the favor by keeping PP nominally relevant, even as she, the other band members, and the label, not PP, were charting the band’s course.
I distinctly remember Miku saying at B-M’s 5th anniversary show in 2018 that B-M would stay together for at least another 15 years. There’s much more to come . . .
Altibajos ocurren en las mejores familias! Nemophila pasa por una transición musical y nada más! Pronto se ubicará y estará en carrera para convertirse en la mejor banda internacional de Japón! Mejor cantante metal tienen! Ahí la diferencia!
My dream tour would be The Warning, Band Maid & Nemophila! LFG!🤟🏼🍺❤️🙏🏼💪🏼
Can you please find out what is happening with Aldious.
Have they broken up or are looking for new members
Aldious is currently preparing a 1-shot 2-bands reunion gig along with Cyntia. Aldious line-up for that night will feature Re:No and their very first drummer Aruto. No other official news from the band as far as I know, but that one is big enough for now... :)
@@mysticaloha thank you 🙏🏼
@@nomad5510 The concert is to be held on November 29th in Kanagawa.
It's been a long time VG. I hope you might consider a comparison between the new BM instrumental, Get to the Top with Don't Be Long... The song from the Different single. It was written for Miku to accustom her to playing on Different. The two songs together make an amazing instrumental !
Hey Frank, You showed up to say exactly what I was thinking, Don't Be Long and Get to the Top are very similar!😁👊 glad to see you here
@@venusgaijin Someone should be the first to point out the pleasant and awesome coincidence.
Wishing Band-Maid much success with their new venture.
Good luck amazing Band Maid!
I them absolutely make it .they deserve so much more they the greatest bands I've seen on UA-cam can't wait for their concert ❤🎉🎉❤❤
No matter how many times I read the lyrics to Black hole I still can't tell what Saiki is saying before Black hole.
It's a mystery that I will never solve😂
If Band maid wants world domination, they need to start coming to Europe and the UK
Nemophila finally seem to leave the 90's nostalgia train, which I think it will be a good step forward (hopefully we don't get those Disney rock songs either as they ditched the external songwriters). Regarding Band Maid, I am not sure if they will be totally independent per se, as they took many of their background people with them. That said they will have a bigger piece of the pie for sure and probably more say in the direction with being partners, rather than a product. They have been going into that direction for years now and I wonder if their initial contract which was probably signed for X album is now finished and they decided to not renew it.
Also, Nagisa would really need a more serious band than Trident and her other project.
You know what they say about opinions.
@@quasiscorner2589 Stop being offended just because someone doesn't mindlessly worship bands. Present an argument instead.
@@rkk578 loser
Been a Spin fan for awhile, fun group to watch.
One only can hope that BandMaid recovers from the huge MISTAKE of collaborating with other bands ! What caused this?
Big business corruption? Financial politics? Some Woke attack ?
-------Please, BandMaid---go back to being who you are !!
Why have you allowed yourselves to be polluted by others ??????????????????????
Absolutely love Restaurant F. Which is Gacharic Spin not only doing what they do best, which is getting their groove on, but also taking us Gacha fans along for the ride. The release date for Feast (Oct 9th) can't come soon enough. I've still yet to hear not only Epic Narratives in full but view the accompanying live Blu-Ray. As for Nemophila's first 2 releases as a quartet post Saki, I much prefer G.O.D. over Progress. I take no pleasure in having to say this, and I don't mean to come off all negative in the case of Nemophila, who I absolutely adore, but I found Progress to be mildly disappointing/mid. Which is a first for me when it comes to Nemophila, who, up until this point, have graced the eyes and ears of many, myself included, with a truckload of nothing but first rate bangers. Generally, I'm not that picky about the recorded efforts of most of my favourite bands/artists as I run the risk of starting to sound too much like Alan from Dicodec/Gaijin Guys, which is the last thing I want to do, but Progress just left me wanting so much more out of the song. Musicianship, as always, is killer. Production is incredibly solid. But the song itself is far too short. Mayu's vocals during what I imagine amounts to a chorus is bathed in effects. Hazuki's solo is far too brief, barely audible, obscured by the WOH OH OH'S in the background during that portion of the track, and literally over with in seconds, amounting to a song that clocks in at an underwhelming 2:54. Not even exceeding 3, much less, 4 minutes, which is a joke. This recent habit/ obsession with certain artists and their songs clocking in well under 3 minutes, has got to stop. What is this? The 50's or early 60s?, which to me smacks of anything but PROGRESS. No pun intended. For my money, Koiai's Come See Me far exceeds Progress in terms of quality. As for the news of Band-Maid going independent, I couldn't be happier for them. One of the benefits of that decision is the increased visibility of the band across social media, which I felt was being slightly inhibited/stifled by Platinum Passport/former management, so it's a real treat for us fans to see the band take control of their destiny. Keep up the great work, Venus Gaijin. Cheers from the great land of Oz🥂🇦🇺
Someone said that Progress is at least 3 different songs. I haven't listened to the song more than 2 times, I don't know...😅
@venusgaijin Unfortunately, it sounds like 3 separate songs fused together that didn't quite gel/congeal into feeling like one song. Not a total dud, but also not a win-win. It may very well end up working in a live setting, but as far as the studio version of the track is concerned, I can't see myself returning to the song for repeat listens, though I'm cautiously optimistic that the next single will be a great improvement over the disappointment that is Progress.✌️❤️🤘🇦🇺
Thanks!
🫡🫡
hope STMLT will continue. Their music is fantastic!
There are some bad things that happened in Stmlt so let's wait and see what the next step or decision of their agency/management is, right now the group is on hiatus in music activities but we can still see them in livestreams and also in videos they release on the Stmlt channel. I just want to share that I've been a fan of theirs since the very beginning so I'll be one of the sad ones if they break up, all we can do is wait 😊
you are right they are really impressive especially with the addition of new members ❣️
Pray🙏to God that Nemophila's next single is a vast improvement over the underwhelming Progress. Saba Sister and Brandy Senki have both been doing incredibly well of late, gaining not only more attention with each successive release but glowing responses at live performances and across social media. Trident has been on a roll lately, not only with the release of the 3 editions of Spice-X and Cry Out from their Dream Up Tour at Zepp Shinjuku Blu-Ray, which having since received from the lovely folks at Cdjapan, I look forward to viewing in full. As for STMLT, it is a little distressing not knowing the full reason regarding the recent absence of Yukippe, Kirara, and Akira from the band's UA-cam videos, but I sincerely hope this doesn't result in a few more departures from the band, as they've already lost 3 former members (Gomi chan, Ayanon, Mion), so I'd hate to see anybody else leave, as the fun antics on the band's aforementioned UA-cam channel would suffer greatly without the presence of Yukippe, Kirara and Akira, with all due respect to the new recruits (Sakitee, Kanachi, Hanon). Truth be told, I kind of miss not only Mion's presence but her sax🎷work, which added a certain amount of flair and sass to the band's sound. Keep up the great work on behalf of all followers o the channel ✌️❤️🤘🇦🇺🌏
I honestly think Nemophila is done
Why? If anything they have started to become more of a band with an actual sound, rather than trying to bank on the nostalgia of Gen X and Early Millennials.
I think some are interpreting MAIDIT as Band-Maid breaking free from music industry control, but in truth they did that a long time ago. It seems more just a natural consequence of the fact that they were the only major artists with their management company. (Epic Narratives is great by the way.)
On Gacharic Spin, W was my favourite album of 2023, and I might like the Ace EP from earlier this year even more. Both had a lot of heartfelt and experimental/proggy songs. The early signs are that the Feast album will lean a bit more into their idol-adjacent side, which was what initially almost stopped me getting into them. Not complaining though. Even if I weren't to like a single song on the album (which I already know won't happen - Speed Game is great), they would still have had an absolutely incredible couple of years.
Ranshin Glow is also on there and fairly proggy, plus Parallel Loop of course - though overall I agree it does sound like it's going to be somewhat more of a mix. And who knows what Curry Ice cream will sound like?!? 😋😋😂😂
Kirara's explanation for her - hopefully temporary - hiatus from STMLT: ua-cam.com/video/UFrJbUkJ2ig/v-deo.html
I'm glad that there are also stemi fans here 😊 I just wanted to add that yukippe is currently recovering from her surgery and other news about what's going on in the group can be found on the X acc of Kirara, yukippe and Stmlt. My comment doesn't come in when I use my own language because it suddenly disappears, I don't know why? so I was forced to comment in English hahaha