through the looking glass

(C) MAVERICK

ムック will be releasing their 8th full length album, 球体 (‘kyuutai’ but listed as Sphere on their English site), this March in Japan. 球体 will come in three flavors, vanilla, and two limited versions coupling with a DVD of a documentary or live footage of the Irving Plaza, New York live on Dec 7th 2008. No word yet on international versions at this time.

Track list:

1. 球体
2. 咆哮
3. アゲハ
4. ハイドアンドシーク
5. 陽炎
6. レミング
7. オズ
8. 浮游
9. 讃美歌
10. 空と糸
11. ｈａｎａｂｉ

Upcoming lives:

Nippon Budokan (Japan) on March 15th

Metaltown (Sweden) (with ギルガメッシュ) on June 27th @ the Tent Stage

Tuska Open Air Metal Festival 2009 (Finland) (with ギルガメッシュ) on June 28th

BENTEN announced the return of Japan Nite Tour, featuring artist from Japan. Check out the tour when they drop near your town.

Japan Nite Tour 2009:

3/22 sun  NY    @  Bowery ballroom
with:  detroit7/SA/SPARTA LOCALS/FLiP/Omodaka/
+GRAPEVINE  and  ASAKUSA JINTA

3/23 mon  Cambridge /MA  @ T.T. The Bears
with:  detroit7/SA/SPARTA LOCALS/FLiP/Omodaka +THE EMERALDS

3/24 tue  Chicago   @ Empty Bottle
with:  detroit7/SA/SPARTA LOCALS/FLiP/Omodaka/

3/26 thu      Denver   @TBA
with:  detroit7/SA/SPARTA LOCALS/FLiP/Omodaka/

3/27  fri  Seattle  @ High Dive -
with:  detroit7/SA/SPARTA LOCALS/FLiP/Omodaka/
Opening band:  The Slants

3/28  sat  SF  @ Independent
with:  detroit7/SA/SPARTA LOCALS/FLiP/Omodaka/

3/29  sun  LA @ Knitting Factory
with:  detroit7/SA/SPARTA LOCALS/FLiP/Omodaka/

SXSW info:

*3/20  Fri Japan Nite 1  @ SXSW Austin TX
with: FLiP/ Dirty Old Men /HONEY SAC/ SPARTA LOCALS/GRAPEVIE/detroit7
*3/21 Sat. Japan Nite 2  @ SXSW Austin TX
with: Stereopony/SpethialThanks/The Emeralds/SA/Asakusa Jinta /quaff

Artist Info from the PR:

*detroit7: Edgy hard rockin’ trio led by bare footed left hand female guitar.

*SA:   The King of Japanese punk.

*SPARTA LOCALS: Post-punk and new wave influenced indie rock band.

*FLiP:  All girl band from Okinawa

*Omodaka:  a seamless mixture of Japanese traditional-flavored folk song
and Electronic music.

Announced this morning, Anime Expo 2009 has stated that their first guest of honor for this years gathering of otaku tribes will be none other than the all-girl singing sensation Morning Musume. These love machines recently accepted two new members from China into their once soley Japanese ranks, tackling the great wall of China with their youth enhanced song and dance numbers. Morning Musume will be saying ‘Hello!’ to stoke your moe flame this July 2nd through Jul 5th at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

Photo by: Cicel C ZETIMA

Valve has announced DLC for the good time that is Left 4 Dead. Included in the package will be the inclusion of the two remaining campaigns for Versus mode as well as new mode dubbed ‘Survival’. Also rumored to be added is an achievement called ‘Outbreak’, which requires players to catch an infection and spread it to another player. Details about availability for Xbox360 and PC to come, though slated for Spring 2009.

Source: Left 4 Dead Mods