New band "DRUGS" has formed

Is there an interview of that chat about yoshiatsu learning drums

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Fairly good but not great imo but definitely original. I do like the DEG vibes and the scene has been lacking in DEG influences recently so I’m really hyped for the album

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I mean tzk formed mejibray as a solo project in 2010 before it became a formal band in 2011. This might explain the solo photo he’s referring to whenever he decided to post it? Or the intention might have been for something else who knows

Altho its interesting that he would re-use that same photo for the tzk project? Never knew that O-o

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It was slightly mentioned here and I can’t help but theorise whether tzk getting banned by the yakuza from getting involved with the vk scene was really true.

So he spent almost a decade waiting and experimenting with different shit until he could jump back into the scene, link up with folks he had in his contact book to try and make the vision of what he actually wanted to make come true.

Perhaps these are just DRUGS fuelled thoughts.

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Def could have been another random rumor but yea you do have a point.

Interesting, not bad, but I’ll have to hear some more to judge. Though I’m just glad to hear something with tzk that’s actually mixed to be listenable.

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I had thought I understood that after Mejibray ended he wasn’t able to perform anything VK or even VK-ish due to contractual reasons with his former management company. Some sort of clause in the contract that they decided to enforce after they parted ways. Same thing with Koichi. Seems like that must have been a 10-year period thing because here he is, 10 years later busting out of the gate as a full-on carbon-copy version of his old Mejibray 2015 era self (and maybe even with his same old wardrobe items from the looks of it). Although, I could be wrong about the timeline, didn’t the management co split happen in 2015?

I don’t have any inside info btw, this is just what I’ve gleaned on internet gossip chat groups over the years and my speculation based on that, so who knows. I’m sure people that know more than I do will start chiming in.

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But is that really something you can legally include into a contract? I can hardly imagine a japanese court would agree that a clause “not allowed to perform in the same genre” is legal. I don’t even think a court would agree on a definition on what visual kei exactly is and what he could or could not do. :sweat_smile:
Honestly the yakuza version seems more likely than that.

If someone wrote that into my contract I would start a glam rock band and tell my ex-management to find a judge, who legally defines the difference… good luck

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Im thinking of that too! And Mejibray started colorful x dark metal bands -trend in visual kei scene, that become more popular after Mejibray. I remember in early 2010s i was trying to look for bands with that kind of aestetic (because i like dark x colorful), but bands where always dark or colorful, but never both at the same time. Thats why I was so happy when Mejibray debuted and it become instantly my favorite band :sparkling_heart: Thats why I think is funny that people compare DRUGS to bands with dark x colorful aestetic that came after Mejibray and are copying Mejibray with that aestetic :sweat_smile: Like Tsuzuku shouldn’t make a band with style he started.

And also Tsuzuku started trend of band men being more muscular and having sixpack. Before Tsuzuku only Miyavi was muscular, but it was very rare and 99% of band men where just skinny. Thats another thing that made Tsuzuku and Mejibray special to me :two_hearts: But now many band men seem to have sixpack, and i mean it looks good, but they are copying Tsuzuku.

And i think New order song does have some Dir en Grey influence and begginning melody reminds me of Liphlich. But other than that it just reminds me of Mejibray.

Dude, Tsusuki was as thin as possible, had zero fat (which he himself admitted on Twitter when comparing photos from Mejibray and from early 2020) — of course he has a six pack. He definitely had zero muscles.

So if there was a clear trend initiator that became popular — it’s Hiro from NB. And he was muscular and six packed from the very beginning, because he is a gym bro.

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If anything, I remember guys from Royz in 2010 and 2011 (yep, I was subscribed to their Ameblo, so I know what I am talking about — I saw plenty of shirtless pics there) who were very similar to what you describe as Six Pack and muscular. There’s also Ice who was far more jacked even in Xodiack in 2008 (which can be seen in their PVs) than Tsuzuku ever was. And don’t get me started on his period in Black Gene, which also started before Mejibray :slight_smile:

So Tsuzuku was never a trend setter at any point in time at the very least muscle- and six-pack wise, and he was simply skinny and underweight, which makes six pack and muscle remains simply more visible with a little bit of work.

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I was into those bands, except royz was never my thing. But somehow i ignored their sixpacks :thinking: Idk maybe it was that Mejibray was my favorite so i had bias or something. I just remember being very impressed by tsuzukus sixpack and even showing Sabato music video to my friend and her being impressed too like “woah visual kei dude with sixpack! So rare!”

But maybe it wasnt so black and white that one person started that trend, but multiple artist made sixpack popular on visual kei scene (including Tsuzuku). But Tsuzuku must have also had some muscle, not every single skinny person has a sixpack. To have sixpack you need right ratio of muscle and low body fat. Ofc healthier way to have sixpack is to have more muscle, so bodyfat doesnt need to be so low.

What a nice surprise! Finally, Tsuzuku with decent sounding production. I’m also somewhat impressed by how much this ‘sounds like him’ and almost a revival of the good ol’ wacky, trashy and dark MEJIBRAY style.

For now I’m just more excited about him being back in a proper band with such interesting lineup and what kind of stuff they’ll cook up, rather than being excited about the song itself (which is fine/not bad).

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Suddenly everyone’s back riding on shit they made with tzk, hmmmm

Not that i’m not happy to see anyone making more music, and this was definitely the best release of 8psb, but interesting isn’t it?

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the date is also close to DRUGS oneman gig :thinking:

I finally took some time to listen to this.

I don’t know how I feel about it.

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yeah I don’t know what to tell you. It was a big topic of discussion here a few years ago. Apparently Koichi was taken to court over his looking too VK and lost and had to pull a lot of his music videos off youtube etc. This is all just based on what I read here, but the people posting were posting links to his social media posts where he was crying about it. So it seemed like there was some truth to it. Hopefully someone with more solid info will chime in

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I think I hate this, but it’s cool to see Tsuzuku back and Yoshiatsu on drums.

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I like this whole thing on paper but I just can’t for the life of me remember what the song actually sounds like…

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There’s a somewhat similar case going on with a kpop group right now, and it made me think that maybe the situation here wasn’t a ruling against simply “performing vk” - as that is pretty hard to define, so it’d make more sense if their label had rights over the look and sound of mejibray and anything close to it would be challenged until their contract expired.

Considering how their last live as mejibray went, with koichi flipping off management and their black make up as a sign of rebellion, it’s easy to spin up a story that the execs wanted to make things as hard as possible for these two after they left. Perhaps a mix of lawful and unlawful practices. “Perform at that vk venue and we’ll break your kneecaps” kinda thing lol

I’ll stop here or I might as well start writing a long form fanfic piece.

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