No more Guitar Vader :(

[Frogacuda]

Guitar Vader, who did several songs on both Jet Grind Radio games, has been one of my favorite bands for a while now. They've put out a bunch of great music, but never really broken through to commercial success. After years of being unable to tour, working day jobs, getting screwed out of the rights to their music, and Ujuan (the male half of the duo) having a near fatal viral heart infection that left him hospitalized for months... it seems they're done.

They recorded a new album, which was originally supposed to be released last year, but Ujuan's health issues prevented him from finishing the mixing and post-production. Their live keyboardist Steve Laity says Miki and Ujuan are on the outs now and the new album will probably not be released.

It's a shame. They're one of the best bands in the world, and they never got to play in the US (Ujuan got sick right before their first US concert), they never even got to tour in Japan, their last album sold less than a thousand copies... I guess we couldn't have expected it to go on forever. I do hope they manage to get the last album out, at least.

[Raz]

Though I'm not as big of a fan of Guitar Vader (I've heard a number of their songs, but couldn't get into them), I nonetheless say it's a pity that it's so difficult to be both unique and successful. Some manage, but too many don't, and considering that album sales only need to be in the hundreds of thousands to keep a band afloat, you'd hope they could all find those people. Alas, such is not the way of the world, even in the age of the internet.

[Frogacuda]

Japan's music scene stinks, especially for bands like them that are borrowing from entirely western influences and not trying to be pop stars. Japan just manufactures bands and spits them out a week later.

When Naganuma decided to put them in Jet Grind Radio, they were selling mixtapes out of their local record store. They just never really did get a big break. That's the way it goes sometimes.

[Bruhaha69]

I really liked their Jet Grind Radio/Jet Se Radio Future songs. Pretty catchy stuff.

[shinjirod]

a sad day this is. :(

[DarthArcturus]

:( they def. had some of the best songs in the jet set radio catalog

[Frogacuda]

I'm just going to spam Guitar Vader videos now

Ironically the best music video they had was a fanmade one:
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Most of their videos make Beck's early videos look high budget and professional:
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[Wildcat]

This is very unfortunate. I really liked Guitar Vader. I thought they were doing a little better than what they were, though, but still...a sad day indeed.