Wagakki Band - Japanese Folk Rock

in hive-193816 •  5 years ago 

If you like folk rock in the vein of Flogging Molly, you might want to check out Wagakki Band. They're a Japanese group that uses traditional folk instruments alongside modern instruments. It's really interesting to see the juxtaposition of the shamisen and koto alongside electric guitar and modern drums.

From a quick look at the Wikipedia entry on the band, they started back in 2013, with a small fraction of the group. It wasn't until a chance encounter after a show in Shibuya that they picked up a shamisen player, who was the final addition to Wagakki Band. They started out doing covers of Vocaloid music, with their first music video being a cover of "Six Trillion Years and One Night" by Miku Hatsune:

I think the most fascinating thing about the band is the pedigree of the artists that are behind the band. The bassist is none other than Asa, a popular Vocaloid producer and the creator of "Yoshiwara Lament". And the Drummer cut his chops on the video sharing site Nico Nico Douga, earning him a following online before the band even started. Suzuhana Yuko, the singer, was named Miss Nico Nama in 2011, which is apparently an award voted on by members of Nico Nico Douga.

They have a couple other popular songs, Tengaku:

and Sebonzakura:

Figured I'd share something awesome with you guys, some good music, and maybe spark some inspiration. I'm putting this in the Music Community, you should come join in and share your favorite band! これを読んでくれてありがとうございます!

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Hell yeah! Thank you for the upvotes! I'm glad you guys like this. It was fun to research the band while writing the post, as I admittedly didn't know too much about them at the time.

Aaaaahhh so goood! I love em so much! Thanks for sharing!

Thank you! I stumbled upon this band a while ago and fell in love with them right out the gate.

Great one - good use of a cool community. Just tried to "pin" that post! Thanks mate @ddrfr33k

Hey, are you able to view the beta site? I can't view it anymore. It prompts for a username and password, but does not take my posting key.

Tried yesterday - off to bed but will look first thing in the morning

No problem! Figured it'd be a good starting point, maybe encourage others to share similar bands and interests.

Posted using Partiko Android

there are a lot of Japanese bands out there that I dig. A lot of them (most) don't use English lyrics most of the time and even when they do, i'd kinda prefer they didn't as it loses a lot of the authenticity.

It seems to be quite popular for pretty and melodic singers to team up with groups of talented musicians. My favorite is BabyMetal but they are pretty hardcore.

I'm with you. Orange Range, Akeboshi, Younha, Asian Kung-Fu Generation, Maximum the Hormone, Gackt, Ayumi Hamasaki, Mana, TM Revolution, The Yellow Monkey, there's tons of great bands out there that I really should cover...

Wow! That is... different. As so many things in Japan. :)

I don't see it as really that much different from Flogging Molly. It's traditional fused with modern. It's not a "normal" sound compared to the majority of western music, but it's not entirely out of the ordinary.