Better Done Than Better Said - Issue 1

Another awesome zine from 2003. Some awesome photos from all sorts of bands and interviews with some great bands. Pics from Boiler Frog, Cuthbarts, The Sun, Tiala, I Eat Me, Dip Leg, Yarmulke, Nitro Mega Prayer, Five Kinds Square, The Black Line Fever, 3cm Tour, Sora, Womb, After Forever. So, pretty much everybody from that era. Check it out!

Better Done Than Better Said - Issue 1

[WeAre]Off! - Final Issue

[WeAre]Off! was an Osaka based zine active in the early 2000's. I only have one issue, but this one is jam packed with some of my favorite bands. Local Kansai acts like I Eat Me, S41, and R3-N7 join Tokyo acts Gauge Means Nothing, After Forever and Neoteny. Pretty great. I'm not able to translate anything into English, but this is still a pretty cool snapshot of the Japanese underground scene circa 2002. Enjoy!

[WeAre]Off! - Final Issue

After Forever / 3cm Tour split [2004]

After the 3cm Tour show I attended in 2003, I was headed back to Bomber's apartment (drummer from Gauge Means Nothing who I was staying with). I was chatting with 3cm Tour as we walked to the train station. One of their friends was from the band Anthropic Disease, and passed me one of their CDs. It was super late and my destination was on the other side of Tokyo, so Hirotatsu invited me to hang out at his apartment until the trains started running. We hung out, listened to records, talked about various things. He mentioned that they would be releasing a split CD with After Forever some time the following year. I was super into both bands, so I asked if I could release it in America and he agreed.

Months later, I'm back in the States, back in college, and I have no money. I'm trying to put out the Dip Leg CD, and end up have to put it all on a credit card. Discussions around the release of this CD in America break down and eventually the project is cancelled. Ah... I still regret it now.

These are two bands at their prime, two of the best Japanese bands there ever were. After Forever keeps doing their vicious, metallic screamo thing, and 3cm tour keeps doing their pensive, screamy emo thing. You've probably already heard these tracks, or at least heard the bands, so you'll know what to expect.

Also, Ryuzaki-san (from Bright and Dark Side) did the art for this, and it is so amazingly good. This might have been one of the last things he designed, but if it isn't, it's the latest that I own. So, so good.

After Forever / 3cm Tour split

1. After Forever - A Scar Motivated

2. After Forever - Depressed Days

3. 3cm Tour - 桜散る

4. 3cm Tour - どかない女

After Forever - Demo [2002]

I had a dream the first night I slept in Japan. I went to sleep listening to "All the footprints..." and in the dream, Envy came to Nashville and played at Indienet, a local place for shows. Somehow I was there, and it was incredibly intimate. You could say that this was some sort of premonition, because a week later I got off an overnight bus in Tokyo, ready to see Envy play that night. I had been in contact with some bands before leaving for Tokyo, and I met Yuki from After Forever in the entrance of Shinuku Anti-Knock. We traded some words. My Japanese was really poor, so it was difficult to communicate on a deep level, but he was nice enough to give me a copy of his band's demo. That was the end of our contact that night, but I listened to this demo so much afterwards.

In some ways, it's hard to describe After Forever. I don't really think they sound like any other band out there. Each band member has their individual style, combining to create something unique. The drummer plays some sort of pop-punk or new-school hardcore type drums. The guitars play metal riffs with screamo melodies. The bass is like this constant moving, deep rumble, like in some of those newer death metal bands. And then there's the high-pitched screaming. It makes this desolate and melancholy sound that is just amazing.

They've sort of broken up... maybe. I honestly don't know, since they supposedly had an EP come out a few years back. It's sad that a band so amazing and unique ended up having the same name as a crappy goth band that got popular. It kind of drives the lesser known band into obscurity.

I got to see After Forever on multiple occasions, and their shows were always pitch perfect. Here's one from 2003:

After Forever - Demo 2002

1. End to Go

2. Depressed Days

3. Three Caskets

Atlas the Alone Live [2007]

Atlas the Alone was a band the played one of the most amazing shows I saw while I was studying in Japan. It happened at this weird practice studio in Osaka. The above little ticket thing is what I got at the door. I only knew After Forever and R3-N7 coming into the show, but got many surprises. I think I have Atlas the Alone footage somewhere, but I'm not really setup to rip video right now (hopefully soon!). Instead, when I was trying to find more info about the band, I found that someone posted 5 songs on youtube years ago. The audio is pulled from a live show, but isn't the worst thing ever. I've heard worse demos. They play a sort of hybrid between Japanese new school hardcore and envy-style screamo. I thought it was pretty interesting when I saw them, and these songs reaffirmed that decision. Check it out!

VA - My Notebook is Full of Scribbles Compilation [2002]

In my memory, which is admittedly shaky these days, this was the first item in my distro. When I found my first sampler CD, I realized it was actually the second. Irregardless, it's always been one of my favorites. I have love, deep in my heart, for good compilations. There are so many bad ones, that good ones stand out like diamonds in a pile of crap. When a compilation is more like a mixtape, then you're in business. While this one (I'm not going to bother typing the full name out, it would end up being about as long as this parenthesis) isn't without its faults, it's really the first appearances from several bands (GMN, After Forever, Enforce, Womb) and seemed to signal a new movement in the Japanese underground that lasted for several years. 

Take Gauge Means Nothing, for instance. There were a few demos before this compilation, and they'd formed in 1997, but this was the beginning of their most prolific line-up (on a side note, any recording before this compilation is gone-gone. Maybe Yuichi has them somewhere and wants to share?). After Forever and Enforce showed their first recordings on this compilation as well. 

The spiritual followup to this compilation was Satire Records "Light Your Way" compilation, named after the zine that Satire Records edited. It featured some of the same bands (After Forever and Enforce) but expanded the selection to include Nitro Mega Prayer, Dip Leg, End All, Five Kinds Square, 1000travels of Jawaharlal and other notable bands from the scene. That compilation feature bands from all over Japan, whereas this one was only Tokyo bands.

Here's a video of Womb from 2003:

VA - My Notebook is Full of Scribbles compilation

1. Womb - Empty Pancake

2. Overgreed - Class Pieces

3. After Forever - The Scale of Sin and Desire

4. Senna - 3 plus 3.

5. Evil Eye Empire - Each Situation Grownd

6. Enforce - 鎖と火炎瓶

7. Gauge Means Nothing - My Glass Reflect Untrue View on My Eyes

8. Senna - I Stam