If you’re a J-rock and/or Visual Kei fan, you’re probably already heard the news – Jasmine You died.

I’m depressed. I’ve been depressed since I heard the news. I thought of making a tribute, whatever tribute I could make for Jasmine You. I wasn’t able to make one for hide and Kami when they died, but I thought I would make one this time.

On another news, there would be a Memorial and Virgil for Jasmine You in Los Angeles, USA. If you live in L.A., please find some time to go. There are a lot of fans who would want to go and give a peace of their love for Jasmine You one last time, so if you are able to go, please do.

Info below:

Memorial and Vigil for Jasmine You in Los Angeles

In memory of Jasmine You, we will be holding a special memorial vigil on August 22nd, 7-9pm, at the north east corner of Weller court (Los Angeles and 1st street).

We will be setting up a portrait of Jasmine You surrounded by roses and feathers, with candles to light in his memory.

If fans have any letters, notes, fan art and other gifts, either for the band in condolences, or things in memory of Jasmine, we will be collecting that to send to Japan. We will be collecting mementos to make a part of a banner which everyone will also be able to sign.

At this event we will be taking pictures and recording video to also send to Japan. We ask that you dress elegantly in a style that respects Jasmine You. And to please come up with words of encouragement to send to the band,  and to Jasmine’s family, so that we can collect video comments.

(source: Memorial and Vigil for Jasmine You in Los Angeles)

Drummer, pianist and X JAPAN band leader, Yoshiki, will undergo neck surgery on Monday, July 27, 2009 at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Beverly Hills, CA. Dr. Neel Anand, Director of the Cedars-Sinai Spine Center, will perform a cervical foraminotomy.

Due to his intense drumming style, Yoshiki developed a worsening of his neck pain and left hand numbness over the past month, affecting his music performance. His condition has been evaluated by doctors in the U.S. and Japan. Yoshiki underwent a spinal x-ray series, an MRI of the spine, and an EMG. After seeking second and third opinions on the diagnosis and treatment, he concluded that the foraminotomy was necessary for the cervical foraminal stenosis.

Yoshiki’s primary physician at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Dr. Tommy H. Tomizawa (UCLA Assistant Professor), states that he will need a few weeks to recover from the surgery and a month or more of rehabilitation. If his condition does not improve over the next several months, laminectomy, discectomy and spinal fusion would be considered. Artificial disc placement would be another treatment of choice.

(source:  X JAPAN　YOSHIKI、ＬＡにて頸椎椎間孔切除の手術)

For this update, I’ve added a new member and updated 2 members’ links.

Also, I’ve added a new affiliate – Journalism Rock! Please visit the site, also!

Miyavi fans, rejoice!

As of yesterday, June 1st, Miyavi’s official fans club, the 【C.W.I.F】 or in it’s long name, the Co-miyavi Worldwide International Family is finally up! There’s a web and a mobile version of the said web portal but unfortunately, it’s only in Japanese.

I hope that they would have an English version of it soon! *cross fingers*

Quoting Zero:

It’s confirmed!!

Sorry to have kept you all waiting!
Our European Tour has finally been confirmed!!
It has been a long while but we are looking forward to it a lot!!
Please come see us ok!
We will be waiting for you☆

ABAYO—!

ZERO

Source: D’espairsRay MySpace Blog

Yesh, I’m still alive. I just got so busy with work and stuffs so haven’t been updating. Anyway, I’ve updated about 4 member’s links and I shall add one member later tonight, when I get home.

Oh, and I’ve been noticing, there has been an increase of different J-rock blog crews these days. And they’re not even just J-rock related blog crews, they’re J-rock blog crews themselves – like this one. Honestly, I’m not a bit offended about it. I’m actually happy that people are starting to notice the J-rock scene more now than ever before. This is probably all thanks to huge artists like Yoshiki, Gackt, Miyavi, Sugizo, X Japan, Dir en Grey, Moi Dix Mois, the GazettE, D’espairsRay and many other bands. If you wanna join them, please feel free to! Let’s all support the J-rock scene will a heart full of love!

誕生日おめでとうございます！I hope you had and will have another great year!

After such a long time, I’ve finally updated something. It’s been a while, ne? This update, I’ve added 5 new members, deleted 2 dead sites and updated 2 member’s links. That’s quite a bit, since I haven’t updated for quite a while.

Also, I would like to apologize to Kabuki because I accidentally deleted her Aoi (the GazettE) icon when I last updated. And while at this topic, I would like to thank Sagami for noticing it.

And lastly, I would like to inform everyone that I’ve also fixed the proper typeset of some of bands names like the old “The Gazette” which was supposed to be typed as “the GazettE.” I just noticed this when I added hide’s icon, of which was taken by Hana this time. I was always very particular with the lowecase typeset of hide’s name since I am an X Japan fan first more than any band. This made me think and thought that I should always follow the proper typesetting of each bands name and thus, this change.

I think that’s about everything!

Stuffs

Last July, it was announced that Gackt’s going to release a Special DVD Box called nine*nine (which is read as “nine point nine”). The Box would include 14 disc of Gackt’s live from is first tour back in 2000 until his last one in 2005. The supposed release date of the said Box was recently moved to October 29, 2008. But this release is said to have included an unreleased song called “Justified.”

And also, reservation for Gackt’s 2009 Calendar has already begun! So if you’re going to have one reserved, do it now since they get sold Out pretty easily.

Oh, and Miyavi cut his hair. You can read all about it in his entry at his Myspace blog. He’s just so irresistibly cute~♥

Updates

And for the updates to this blog crew, I’ve added 2 new members, updated 2 new crew’s URL’s and rejected a member.

I would like to take this chance to tell everyone that I’ve been running this blog crew for more than 2 years now since I adopted it. And I am not running this blog crew out on a whim with not a bit of an idea of what a J-rock is and/or the bands themselves. Even if I do not know each and every single J-rock bands out there, I do have a bit of an idea and that I have my resources to find them. Yes, that would also mean that I would go so far as to listen to an artist’s songs just to know if they really do belong in the J-rock genre. Of course, with that, I would at least have an idea of who they are or at least have heard of their names. So take caution because I’m not someone who just approves and approves members to this blog crew without even checking them, you know.