Music Corner - featuring ムック (MUCC)

I know that this blog is already a mix of a little bit of everything (I'm too ADD to blog about one thing all the time, I guess, XD), so I've decided to keep going along with that. At least once a month (most likely twice), I'll post a blog titled "Music Corner" in which I showcase music by some of my favorite bands. I've debated doing this for a while, and finally figured, "Why the hell not?" Since most of the music I listen to is less than mainstream (here in America, at least), I thought it would be interesting to open everyone's eyes to music they may not listen to otherwise.

Today's band is my favorite of all time, ムック or MUCC (pronounced as "mook-koo"). They are one of the most intense bands I have ever heard, and I will always be indebted to my best friend for introducing me to them back in 2007. While I'm less than pleased with the direction their music has taken as of late, I know that I will forever be in awe of their early music (and will patiently wait for them to come to their senses and start making their dark, cynical music again, lol).

MUCC was formed in 1997 and is comprised for four very talented men. Tatsurou is the lead singer (his voice makes me melt), Miya is on the guitar, Yuuke is on bass, and Satochi is on drums. To date they have released well over 300 songs -- 10 albums, 24 singles, 4 demos, and have been featured on many compilation albums. They've toured all across Japan and Europe, and traveled with the Taste of Chaos tour across American in 2008, along with The Underneath and D'espairsRay (another popular JRock band). Sadly, I didn't know about them touring with the Taste of Chaos until a few days after they performed in Dayton, Ohio, the closest they came to this area. I could have cried. :(

Now, onto the music! The song titles are listed first, followed by the month and year they were released, which is followed by a couple translated lines of the song. I haven't featured ALL of their singles, because...well...this blog would be even longer than I already know it'll be. Heheh.  And I love all of their music, but my absolute favorites have asterisks (*) before and after their titles.  At the very end are a few of my favorite live performances from them. : )

Unfortunately, Universal Japan has it set up so their videos can't be embedded (BOO!!!), so any singles that were released by MUCC under them are from DailyMotion instead of youtube.

Happy listening!!!

ONE OK ROCK - "Answer is Near"

ONE OK ROCK - Answer is Near

1. Answer is Near

2. Silent World

3. Answer is Clear

4. To Feel the Fire

Overall score: 10/10

I am a huge fan of OOR and have been waiting for this single to come out for months. The night I first heard them and proceeded to download their entire discography was one of the greatest nights ever. Their last album (Niche Syndrome) is just about amazing, and I find myself going to their discography on my iPod for a listen more often than not.

Mei -sketch-

I've been working on this for quite a while. I'm still not completely happy with it, but (and I can't believe I'm saying this) it's not horrible. Feels good to actually somewhat like something I've done, lol. Let's just hope it's still that way when I'm done lining and CGing.

I'm excited to get to work on the completing the image, mostly because it's going to be a challenge. I've never had such a monochromatic character before (everything except her eyes is a shade of green), nor have I had a character that has a sort of glow to them. I'm also strangely excited to work on her tears. It's going to be interesting, if nothing else. Heheh.

First Week and a Half of WoW

Yes, WoW as in World of Warcraft. Heheh. I've never considered myself to be a "gamer," mostly because I usually just stick to Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts (I'm a Squenix whore), but I really enjoy playing video games. When I get into a game with a good story, I'm instantly hooked. Back in 2006, I beat Kingdom Hearts II in four days because I just couldn't stop playing. It took me quite a bit longer to beat Okami last year, but that was mostly because my disc went out when I was almost through and I had to wait to get another one. And then, of course, I had to get all 99 stray beads and that was a challenge all in itself. Lol. My favorite game of all time, though, has to be Final Fantasy XII. Not only is the art freaking gorgeous, but the story is very intricate (minus Vaan, the extremely flat "main" character of the game). I have yet to beat the game completely, but to this day I have logged over 130 hours in one game. I went through the tedious process of chaining and gathering all the items needed to make a Tournesol, got all the Espers, completed all but one of the hunts (in the process of snagging Yiazmat now), got as many achievement badges as I could, etc... I didn't get the Zodiac Spear because I opened one of the stupid damn chests (*grumbles*), but the game didn't lose any value for me because of it.

girugämesh - "Destiny"

"Destiny" isn't brand new, as it came out at the beginning of January, but it is the newest of giru's latest singles. I was a little hesitant when I first added the single into iTunes and started the title track up. Electronic elements aren't new to the band's style of music (the easiest band to compare some of their songs to would be Linkin Park), but the beginning of "Destiny" was almost just a little too poppy. Thankfully, the guitars kicked in and Satoshi started singing before I could twitch too hard and make myself skip to another song.

This definitely isn't their best song (nothing, after all, can compare with "Kowareteyuku Sekai" or "ISHTAR"), but it isn't their worst either. However, I am a bit disappointed in the more "pop" direction they've been taking recently, since they started off as such a wonderful, dark metal band. Seriously... The emotion in "Kowareteyuku Sekai" alone can bring me to my knees. Thankfully, though, I'm the sort of person who is open to music of all varieties, with (surprisingly) hard rock and pop being my favorites. The two elements were mixed nicely in "Destiny," even though it's still just a bit too pop when compared to what I would have liked to see from giru for this single.

Fin: FMA Brotherhood

Series: Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood
# of episodes: 64
Final Rating: 15/10

Official US Website
Anime News Network Info
Hulu

Okay...before I say anything remotely coherent in this review, I have to do this.... OMG!!!! *squees* *cough* Sorry, but it had to come out. Heheh.  Just so you know, I'm not going to go into detail about the beginning of the series in this review, but if you're interested in hearing my opinion, check out my Halfway Point review.  Because I left off at episode 38, I'll pick up at 39 here...