Thursday, March 12, 2009

ONE OK ROCK

I have this in my draft since January 2009. =P

* * *

One of the Japanese bands that I'm listening a lot to lately to a point that I almost stop listening to Orange Range called themselves One O' Clock.

Seriously.

Only that they cleverly spelled it as ONE OK ROCK, so that people who reads the name for the first time would go,"One OK Rock (wan okay rock)? What kind of a name is that?!"

And I was one of those who had the same reaction, until one day my sister told me,

You know how to pronounce the band's name? Not wan okay rock y'know..
Then what is it?
One O'Crock.
Whaaatttt?? wan o'crock as in one o' clock??
Yes. One O'Crock.
Wtf.

Well that's not how the conversation went but you get the drift.

Now, the band is made up of youngsters younger than me (wtf younger than me somemore so talented) and they play emo-ish kind of rock songs (I suck big time at description i know it myself dumdumdum). They're not as famous as my lovely oranges since I think they're not commerciallised yet.

creds to Vox

Anyhoos, I was introduced to this band by my sister, who sent me a Youtube link of this live performance of them.



This song is called 皆無 (pronounced as kaimu), which Yng Jiun translated as "nothing" or "zero" as how Google translated for me.

I was impressed by the performance, and amazed with the powerful angry vocals of the lead singer. But somehow his expressions scared me away, and I left ONE OK ROCK alone.

Until one day, I got bored of studying/assignments during the 5th semester of my studies, and started searching for them in YouTube. A title of a video called Et Cetera (エトセトラ) caught my eye, and watched it I did.



A weird video isn't it? At first I thought it was an emo-ish, personal reflecting song, until one day I found the English translation, and it's actually a breakup song!

Shall search for it again and put it up for you guys and gals who are interested.

Though I found the video a bit off, I ended up liking the song and it's one of my favourites now. I listen to it when I am emo-ing, and also when I'm happy.

This is how I started becoming interested with the band and started to search for their songs. I have no idea why I am unable to access their official website: some forbidden shit or what the hell.

Anyhows, I managed to pull out some facts on these kids:

1. The lead singer, TAKA, was a former member of a Japanese boyband called NEWS. Yes, THAT group. You can find videos of him dancing somewhere in YouTube. Heehee. He stopped to pursue his studies.

2. They named themselves One O'Crock because they used to rehearse at 1am, since they were all busy with school.

3. Not only TAKA, other two members of the band were also involved in boybands when they were young.

4. The band was formed in 2005 and its drummer joined the band in 2008, after playing for them for numerous shows.

5. To date, they have released 3 studio albums: 感情エフェクト Kanjou Effect(Feelings/Emotions Effect), BEAM OF LIGHT and ゼイタクビョウ Zeitakubyou; 2 mini albums: Keep It Real and ONE OK ROCK; and a live DVD titled 世の中シュレッダー Yokonaka (World?) Shredder. (
JaME WORLD, 2008)

I currently have Zeitakubyou and Kanjou Effect, and I prefer the latter. Zeitakubyou has some good tracks but I can listen to almost the whole of Kanjou Effect and not skip any tracks. Sometimes.

Tracks from Kanjou Effect (my favourites are marked *):

Track 1 - *恋ノアイボウ心ノクピド Koi no Aibou Kokoro no Cupido [rock habis!]
Track 2 - *どっぺるゲンガー Doppelganger
Track 3 - *皆無 Kaimu
Track 4 - *20 years old
Track 5 - *Living Dolls
Track 6 - *Break My Strings
Track 7 - *存在証明 Sonzai Shoumei
Track 8 - *CONVINCING [one of my absolute favs]
Track 9 - *My Sweet Baby [This one is so sweetttttt~ Rocking love song!]
Track 10 - Reflection
Track 11 - Viva Violent Fellow~美しきモッシュピット~ Viva Violent Fellow~Utsukushiki Mosh Pit~
Track 12 - JUST


This album has a lot of English than any other albums from other Japanese bands that I had listened to. And to top it up, the English is quiet good, unlike the other bands' Engrish. =P There's a hidden track after JUST, quite a funny song. Can't remember what's the title.

Tracks from Zeitakubyou (my favourites are marked *):

Track 1 - *内秘心書 Naihi Shinsho [ thumbs up!]
Track 2 - Borderline
Track 3 - *(You Can Do) Everything
Track 4 - *夜にしか咲かない満月 Yoru ni Shika Sakanai Mangetsu
Track 5 - *努努-ゆめゆめ- Yume Yume [like this, but not so likey the rap parts]
Track 6 - *カゲロウ Kagerou [makes me go lalalala~]
Track 7 - Lujo
Track 8 - ケムリ Kemuri
Track 9 - *欲望に満ちた青年団 Yokubou ni Michi ta Seinendan
Track 10 - *エトセトラ Et cetera
Track 11 - A New One for All, All for the New One


I noticed I've never written properly for Orange Range. So berat sebelah. Damn. Oh well, maybe next timela when I'm as free as this.

Hope you enjoyed this 'band review'! =) my first attempt mah~

1 comment:

  1. ohhh~
    i finally found someone who knew and liked OOR!!!!!

    hey there~

    OOR memang syiok~

    i have all their songs and pvs.

    =)

    ReplyDelete

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