neuro182
New member
Hi peepz,
Seen a thread on X-Japan, so I thought I start one for this JRock band as well.
Formation
In February of 1991, bassist Tetsuya Ogawa (tetsu), later band leader, recruited vocalist Hyde (his real name has never been disclosed officially, however, fans have rumoured it to be Hideto Takarai) along with guitarist Hiro and drummer Pero, and formed a band under the name of L'Arc~en~Ciel, inspired by a French movie of the same name. After a year of gaining notoriety in their hometown of Osaka, hiro left the band on June 12, 1992. Pero soon followed on December 30 of the same year, supposedly to join up with his friend Hiro again. To replace the two, Tetsu convinced his friend Ken Kitamura (ken) to quit his university studies in architectural design and join the band as the guitarist. Later, a new drummer, Yasunori Sakurazawa (sakura), was recruited after Tetsu saw him perform in a few shows.
Albums
On April 1, 1993, the band released their debut album Dune under the indie label Danger Crue. The album was met with plenty of success and rose to number one on the Oricon indies charts, catching the attention of some major labels. In 1994, L'Arc~en~Ciel signed on with Sony's Ki/oon division, releasing their second album, Tierra (Spanish for "Earth") that same year. heavenly followed in 1995, and True, their first platinum selling album, was released in 1996.
Solo projects
After "Spirit dreams inside", the band went on a hiatus as the members began working on various solo projects. hyde released two solo albums (Roentgen and 666 as HYDE) and starred in the movie Moon Child with popular J-Rock soloist, Gackt. hyde also played the part of Adam in the movie Kagen no Tsuki, based on the manga by the same title. Ken founded Sons of All Pussys with L'Arc~en~Ciel's former drummer Sakura. tetsu started TETSU69 and yukihiro sang with Acid Android. The popular compilation, Clicked Singles Best 13 was released in 2001, with twelve favorites chosen by fans online and an additional thirteenth song, "Heaven's Drive", the band's only new material during this span of years. The members' various solo projects fueled speculation that L'Arc~en~Ciel was going to disband.
Second comeback
In June 2003, L'Arc~en~Ciel surprised the world with a series of seven concerts in Tokyo called the "Shibuya Seven Days", during which they announced a new album for release the following year. The band came out with "READY STEADY GO" AKA "CAN'T HOLD ME BACK" In February 2004, its first single in more than three years. It topped Oricon charts and was used as an opening for popular anime series, Fullmetal Alchemist. The single was followed by another chart-topper, "瞳の住人" ("Hitomi no juunin"), in early March. Finally, the long-awaited new album, SMILE, was released on March 31.
Shortly afterwards, on June 2, 2004, the single 自由への招待 ("Jiyuu e no Shoutai") introduced "P'unk~en~Ciel", a partial change, for the first time on CD with "Milky Way". In the past, the band also played a P'unk version of "Round and Round" live.
AWAKE, 2005 release
In 2005, the band released various singles, including "Killing Me" , "New World", and "Jojoushi". These were later featured on their latest album, AWAKE, which was released on June 22 with twelve tracks, including "LOST HEAVEN", the closing theme for Fullmetal Alchemist movie. The band's latest single, "Link", released on July 20, 2005, was also featured in the movie as the opening theme, but has not appeared on an album yet.
In August of 2005, the band went on their AWAKE tour, which was limited to Japan. The tour featured displays of anti-war sentiment, reflecting similar lyrics of the songs of the album. A particularly memorable moment was the unfurling of a giant white flag during NEO UNIVERSE. The flag was decorated with the universal symbol for peace. Other memorable moments included a suspended woman and acrobatics during the performance of Ophelia
hyde's costuming for the concerts raised controversy among fans, and proved to be much removed from L'Arc~en~Ciel's earlier visual kei days. The neo-Nazi uniform and the papal robes during the performance of REVELATION were blatant social commentaries not seen before in the band's concerts. One theory is that the band was commenting on the election of German Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) to the head of the Roman Catholic church amid inquiries into his involvement with Nazi Germany and the Hitler Youth.
An opposing theory, supported by hyde's new solo album, FAITH, points to his increased interest in religion and states that his shredding and distribution of the peace flag in papal attire symbolizes the spreading of peace by Catholicism; however, the flag itself was black and proves a significant contrast to the white flag, later unfurled during NEO UNIVERSE. Thus, the true meaning behind the military uniform and even more perplexing papal robes remains a mystery, but it seems most likely that the new socially-aware face of Laruku is being spear-headed by hyde.
The Japanese AWAKE tour was followed by the "ASIA LIVE 2005" tour, with performances in Korea (Seoul) and China (Shanghai), closing with concerts in Japan. Japan's two concerts took place at the famed Tokyo Dome.
Late 2005 and 2006
Following the AWAKE and ASIALIVE tours, L'Arc~en~Ciel's members turned their attentions back to their solo projects. tetsu began recording with a new band Creature Creature. yukihiro rejoined acid android, which released their newest single "Let's Dance" on 2006/04/05. acid android joins MUCC, another Japanese rock band, to perform two concerts in China (Shanghai) in April of 2006.
HYDE composed the music for "Glamorous Sky", theme song to the much anticipated, manga-adapted film, NANA which stars Mika Nakashima, a j-pop singer (released 2005/08/31), a landmark step for the vocalist, being the first time that he has composed music for another artist. His most recent solo singles are "COUNTDOWN", the ending song for the Japanese release of American movie Stealth (released 2005/10/05), and "SEASON'S CALL", the opening song of new hit anime Blood+ (released 2006/02/22). Both singles topped at #1 on the Oricon chart. HYDE's next solo album "FAITH" was released in Japan 2006/04/26 accompanied by a five month tour throughout Japan between April and August, 2006. After signing on with Tofu Records, four small concerts were scheduled in San Francisco and Anaheim, California in the United States. HYDE will make his U.S. debut in July of 2006, the first of L'Arc~en~Ciel's solo projects to extend internationally.
Current Line-up
Hyde (vocals)
Tetsu (bass, backup vocals)
Ken (guitar)
Yukihiro (drums)
Seen a thread on X-Japan, so I thought I start one for this JRock band as well.
Formation
In February of 1991, bassist Tetsuya Ogawa (tetsu), later band leader, recruited vocalist Hyde (his real name has never been disclosed officially, however, fans have rumoured it to be Hideto Takarai) along with guitarist Hiro and drummer Pero, and formed a band under the name of L'Arc~en~Ciel, inspired by a French movie of the same name. After a year of gaining notoriety in their hometown of Osaka, hiro left the band on June 12, 1992. Pero soon followed on December 30 of the same year, supposedly to join up with his friend Hiro again. To replace the two, Tetsu convinced his friend Ken Kitamura (ken) to quit his university studies in architectural design and join the band as the guitarist. Later, a new drummer, Yasunori Sakurazawa (sakura), was recruited after Tetsu saw him perform in a few shows.
Albums
On April 1, 1993, the band released their debut album Dune under the indie label Danger Crue. The album was met with plenty of success and rose to number one on the Oricon indies charts, catching the attention of some major labels. In 1994, L'Arc~en~Ciel signed on with Sony's Ki/oon division, releasing their second album, Tierra (Spanish for "Earth") that same year. heavenly followed in 1995, and True, their first platinum selling album, was released in 1996.
Solo projects
After "Spirit dreams inside", the band went on a hiatus as the members began working on various solo projects. hyde released two solo albums (Roentgen and 666 as HYDE) and starred in the movie Moon Child with popular J-Rock soloist, Gackt. hyde also played the part of Adam in the movie Kagen no Tsuki, based on the manga by the same title. Ken founded Sons of All Pussys with L'Arc~en~Ciel's former drummer Sakura. tetsu started TETSU69 and yukihiro sang with Acid Android. The popular compilation, Clicked Singles Best 13 was released in 2001, with twelve favorites chosen by fans online and an additional thirteenth song, "Heaven's Drive", the band's only new material during this span of years. The members' various solo projects fueled speculation that L'Arc~en~Ciel was going to disband.
Second comeback
In June 2003, L'Arc~en~Ciel surprised the world with a series of seven concerts in Tokyo called the "Shibuya Seven Days", during which they announced a new album for release the following year. The band came out with "READY STEADY GO" AKA "CAN'T HOLD ME BACK" In February 2004, its first single in more than three years. It topped Oricon charts and was used as an opening for popular anime series, Fullmetal Alchemist. The single was followed by another chart-topper, "瞳の住人" ("Hitomi no juunin"), in early March. Finally, the long-awaited new album, SMILE, was released on March 31.
Shortly afterwards, on June 2, 2004, the single 自由への招待 ("Jiyuu e no Shoutai") introduced "P'unk~en~Ciel", a partial change, for the first time on CD with "Milky Way". In the past, the band also played a P'unk version of "Round and Round" live.
AWAKE, 2005 release
In 2005, the band released various singles, including "Killing Me" , "New World", and "Jojoushi". These were later featured on their latest album, AWAKE, which was released on June 22 with twelve tracks, including "LOST HEAVEN", the closing theme for Fullmetal Alchemist movie. The band's latest single, "Link", released on July 20, 2005, was also featured in the movie as the opening theme, but has not appeared on an album yet.
In August of 2005, the band went on their AWAKE tour, which was limited to Japan. The tour featured displays of anti-war sentiment, reflecting similar lyrics of the songs of the album. A particularly memorable moment was the unfurling of a giant white flag during NEO UNIVERSE. The flag was decorated with the universal symbol for peace. Other memorable moments included a suspended woman and acrobatics during the performance of Ophelia
hyde's costuming for the concerts raised controversy among fans, and proved to be much removed from L'Arc~en~Ciel's earlier visual kei days. The neo-Nazi uniform and the papal robes during the performance of REVELATION were blatant social commentaries not seen before in the band's concerts. One theory is that the band was commenting on the election of German Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) to the head of the Roman Catholic church amid inquiries into his involvement with Nazi Germany and the Hitler Youth.
An opposing theory, supported by hyde's new solo album, FAITH, points to his increased interest in religion and states that his shredding and distribution of the peace flag in papal attire symbolizes the spreading of peace by Catholicism; however, the flag itself was black and proves a significant contrast to the white flag, later unfurled during NEO UNIVERSE. Thus, the true meaning behind the military uniform and even more perplexing papal robes remains a mystery, but it seems most likely that the new socially-aware face of Laruku is being spear-headed by hyde.
The Japanese AWAKE tour was followed by the "ASIA LIVE 2005" tour, with performances in Korea (Seoul) and China (Shanghai), closing with concerts in Japan. Japan's two concerts took place at the famed Tokyo Dome.
Late 2005 and 2006
Following the AWAKE and ASIALIVE tours, L'Arc~en~Ciel's members turned their attentions back to their solo projects. tetsu began recording with a new band Creature Creature. yukihiro rejoined acid android, which released their newest single "Let's Dance" on 2006/04/05. acid android joins MUCC, another Japanese rock band, to perform two concerts in China (Shanghai) in April of 2006.
HYDE composed the music for "Glamorous Sky", theme song to the much anticipated, manga-adapted film, NANA which stars Mika Nakashima, a j-pop singer (released 2005/08/31), a landmark step for the vocalist, being the first time that he has composed music for another artist. His most recent solo singles are "COUNTDOWN", the ending song for the Japanese release of American movie Stealth (released 2005/10/05), and "SEASON'S CALL", the opening song of new hit anime Blood+ (released 2006/02/22). Both singles topped at #1 on the Oricon chart. HYDE's next solo album "FAITH" was released in Japan 2006/04/26 accompanied by a five month tour throughout Japan between April and August, 2006. After signing on with Tofu Records, four small concerts were scheduled in San Francisco and Anaheim, California in the United States. HYDE will make his U.S. debut in July of 2006, the first of L'Arc~en~Ciel's solo projects to extend internationally.
Current Line-up
Hyde (vocals)
Tetsu (bass, backup vocals)
Ken (guitar)
Yukihiro (drums)
