This is some very interesting art from Aya Kato. Click on the “Gallery” link at the top to check out 8 years of illustrations.

The mood ranges from dark and gothy to bright and elegant; always with very fine details and a distinct, personal style. Each of the images has a name and story associated with it as well. Many are drawn from mythology and legend and feel extremely well suited to Aya’s artistic methods.

[Link]

Inspired by the innovative work of La Blogotheque’s Take-Away Shows, “five persons somewhere in their mid twenties” decided to start their own impromptu indie-video venture in Vienna, Austria; and they’ve already got some big names.

I must say that I hope this format continues to spread. You often get to see a lot more of the band’s personality when they adventure out into unfamiliar and often surprising surroundings. These types of videos blend the intimacy of close contact with the quality of near-professional video and sound. How could you lose?

[Link]

Artist: Pochakaite Malko (?????? ???)
Song: Laya
From album: ?????? ??? (Pochakaite Malko)
[Buy CD][Website]

Here’s a band that I guess you would define as either progressive rock, avant garde, or Zeuhl depending on your level of music nerdiness.

I find them interesting and quite theatrical. This song, in the parts with vocals, reminds me a lot of the music of Cirque du Soleil; an outfit which pretty much embodies interesting theatricality. I’m sure you could listen to these songs dozens of times and still be peeling apart the layers.

Artist: Galneryus
Song: Beyond of the Ground
From album: The Flag Of Punishment
Genre: Flag Metal
[Buy CD][Website][Song Lyrics]

Any band whose first 3 album titles include the word “Flag” clearly mean business, and Galneryus is no exception. They embody the spirit of heavy metal hyperbole, both in blazing riff and glorious narrative lyric (often made more profoundly enjoyable by virtue of engrish grammar).

The opening melody of this song almost reminds me of a megaman game soundtrack. Flagman’s themesong maybe. And speaking of video game connections, the album art for this and two of their other albums was done by super talented illustrator Yoshitaka Amano, who is probably best known for his highly-recognizable Final Fantasy character designs.

In any case, I think this is a great band to listen to when one is feeling sluggish, or in danger of taking things too seriously.

Said the Gramophone has recently concluded their “Wonderful Video Contest In which people make films for their favourite songs”, and there are some great ones in there.

Yet another fine example of what creative people can do with a little encouragement, some basic equipment, and possibly an all-consuming lust for prizes.

[Link]

“Pika Pika” is a Japanese onomatopoeia with a meaning akin to that of our twinkle, sparkle, or glitter. It has come to be used as a term for a memetic movement of “light doodles” which are spreading around the internet. These are created by using a flashlight or led lightsource to draw images in the air, the trails of which become a single image in long-exposure photographs, and then turning a sequence of these images into an animation.

The Pikapika project started by Tochka, a Japanese creative group, has now collaborated with the Japanese internet company So-Net to create the light-doodle-animation extravaganza that is “PiKA PiKA the Movie”.

The project’s blog on So-Net has quite a few different pikapika videos, including some behind the scenes footage. It’s interesting to see how the seemingly random flashlight wavings of a bunch of people wandering around turns into complex and charming collaborative animations.

Artist: Grammatics
Song: Shadow Committee
From album: Shadow Committee 7″
Genre: Indie Dramapop
[Buy Mp3s][Myspace]

I heard about the band Grammatics from a music recommendation thread on some Japanese site; and this song sort of makes me wonder why I hadn’t heard of them elsewhere first, and how long they will remain unsigned.

This group from Leeds, UK make songs with music more like plot lines than tunes, and both of the specimens on this 2-song album have more than enough creativity and polish to stand out in a crowd.

Artist: Bacon
Song: Bye-Bye Little School Girl
From album: Bacon (Self-titled)
[Buy CD][Bacon’s Website]

Why not make a resolution to help expand the musical horizons of those around you this year? For those of us with friends who are drawn to some of the extremely successful pop punk of recent times, bands like Bacon may be the perfect foot in the door.

These guys in particular have a dynamic delivery and virtually every song bristles with synth-hoisted melodic hooks that will expertly harpoon the involuntary-humming-centers of your brain. This is my favorite song off of their self-titled album of several years ago. Their more recent album “Butterfly” has double its length and number of songs, and a lot more of the same catchy accessible sound and savory name that fans of the genre are almost guaranteed to find appetizing…