Georges Bataille’s Birthday Celebration 2025

Okay, folks, we got an event featuring SINO RE-BUILD PROJECTS on September 13, 2025.

SINO does a righteous dark mix of sounds, so definitely worth a look.

Other criteria are picked from the flyer are:
Sinister green-eyed cat – check.

A bowl featuring plucked eyeballs – check.

Yep, it passes for me.

Event: Georges Bataille’s Birthday Celebration 2025

Date & Time: Sat., September 13th 2025 @ 18:00 open/ 18:30 start.

Tickets: Advance – 2,000 yen – At door: 2,300 (both require +2 drinks).

Venue: Yoyogi Artica Seven

Live acts:
Ami-Bique
P.R.D.
Cheers
SINO RE-BUILD PROJECTS
VJ:
ASTERIX!

Darkside Rockers – Aug. 2025

Whew, finally found an event that might be of fancy for those in Tokyo seeking a bit of dark indie music. Darkside Rockers launches quite an interesting mix of bands. Hey, I don’t know much about the bands, but one did play at a Tokyo Dark Castle event, Club Chop is a good place to catch some gritty performances… and I ain’t seein’ sh*t for events I used to know for August. So, here’s a start. Worth a look if you have got some time so Darkside Rockers it is.

Critical Details:

Event: [DARKSIDE ROCKERS-summer nightmare-]

When: Saturday, August 16, 2025. Open: 16:30/Start 17:00 – Wonderful time to start.

Price: Advance or At Door – Door 3,000 yen (+1 drink) – good you can book, but no penalties for just turning up on the day. I do not know what the drinks cost now, but it used to be 500-700 yen when I was in active service.

Venue: Ikebukuro Chop (〒171-0014 Tokyo, Toshima City, Ikebukuro, 2 Chome−46−3 シーマ100 B1). I forget the details, but maybe from Ikebukuro go out the North or Northeast Exit – hey get Google Maps to guide you, after all Google owns you.

Bands: CAVALERIE CRUXX, CODED, NφISE KILLER, POISON D’HERMÈS, ラパンナジー ル (LAPIN AGILE), 96†. Yep, that sounds pretty dark – I think it’ll work.

Notes: That all sounds pretty good for a night out. Interesting-sounding bands, reasonable entry fee, and a decent place (not big, not squishy small, and just… well nice). CAVALERIE CRUXX has played at Tokyo Dark Castle, and ラパンナジー ル (LAPIN AGILE) is listed as Gothic/Industrial on a site.

I would have dug more into the bands, but I am busy doing things on the backend, so this will do for now. I did not access Chop’s website as it is not SSL (https://…), but the details above should get you there.

And remember folks, if this turns out to be not your cup of tea you should enjoy the adventure!

Igor V. Goth Circa 2015

Yeah, you read the headline. Like a big-ass trade deal to keep the peace, this comes with many caveats, unclear details and could all fall apart and/or have you thinking “Really, I agreed to that? I thought that…” But we are not here to insert politics, right? This was, and may be re-become, a site diving into Japan’s indie/underground/goth scenes.

So, what is the deal here?

Thank you for asking. Igor’s daytime activities (i.e. those that fund Igor’s slab-lab) have taken his time away from web slaving since around 2010 or so (wow! 15 years). But, since Igor’s daytime activities are linked, in part, to the wonderful world of web site building. As Igor has not been doing the site for quite a few years, Igor has fallen behind on the webby stuff knowledge, which has had an increasingly profound effect on the day-walker pursuits.

End result: Igor has lost his dark edge in both worlds. So, it is now time to get into the wonderous land of webbing, and a range of tech goodies to get up to speed on both sides.

Rough timeline for re-animating the monster.

Well, I guess I am admitting by posting here that it is an active project, but it will be a slow rebuild as I re-learn, un-learn and just plain Google this stuff, to get the site up to speed.

I will be working on the backend as a start to make sure everything is satisfactorily operating for the mid-2020′s and occasionally posting updates as the muse takes… just to keep the site clicking along.

Depending on how crazy the day-walker stuff gets, I would envision a full-blown relaunch from October to January. Why such an airy-fairy estimate? Because I do not know what tomorrow may bring – so real estimates and timelines are off the table.

Updates will be posted as I go.

Yep, I will post here with updates and see if I can’t find some new events to get mindlessly excited about. So much has changed since the glory days of the 2000′s, but I am sure there are still those who celebrate the jewels in the darkness, even if they have traded the crypts for condos. Check in occasionally if you would like, Goth isn’t dead, just getting re-stitched and ready for the thunderstorm to arrive.

Destruct System in Dark Side Rockers :: August 18 (Sun) :: Ikebukuro Chop

Hard-rocking industrial unit Destruct System will be infiltrating Ikebukuro Chop on July 18 (2013 guys), in Dark Side Rockers event.

If you like your BAAL (check out a full set live in LA), Despair (or let’s say… NIN for those who don’t follow Japanese underground music), then you will absolutely love these guys. Destruct System have played at the apex of the Japanese Gothic scene including many appearances at Tokyo Dark Castle.

Igor plans to do some screaming at this event… Let me know if you are going!

Dark Side Rockers with Destruct System

Where: Ikebukuro Chop :: Map
When: Sunday, August 28, 2013
Who: Destruct System, THETHEKURO, Magier Sexalice, Error:666, 餓鬼道
Open: 18:00 :: Start: 18:00
Price: pre-book 2,000 yen (+1 drink) :: @Door 2,500 yen (+1 drink)

An hour of glorious Japanese underground music recorded in high-quality video. Watch and SCREAM boys and girls!

Flyer for Tokyo Dark Castle’s last 2012 event (JGoth added question in red)

This blog entry is an update on the lack of overnight events this year in Tokyo’s dark scene.

In case you have not already noticed, iconic events such as Tokyo Dark Castle and Midnight Mess have gone strangely quiet in recent months. There could be a few reasons for this, but it seems one big issue is the re-enforcement of some old laws.

Tokyo has began re-enforcing a 60-year old law that makes late night dance activities illegal. There could also be some other re-animated regulations too, but that makes it hard to have the overnight events – especially lively events such as TDC.

Essentially, if an organizer wants to have late-night dancing, they need to have certification from a recognized dancing association to avoid the risk of them and their patrons being arrested. While it is possible to get certification for many standard dance styles, I do not think that there are any “disco” “mosho” dance associations out there, so it looks like the best of Tokyo’s Gothic night events have closed shop for a while.

Why was dancing without a license made illegal?

Well, it seems that it was somehow connected with prostitution when it was originally installed – perhaps offering a venue for solicitation. However, nowadays in Tokyo, walking down any of the night district streets will get you more solicitations than you can point a stick at.

So the question becomes… Why?

There was a case where one guy was beaten to death at a club last year, but that was more a case of gang members coming in with metal pipes and baseball bats, than being danced to death.

The end result is that overnight events are out for the time being. The early evening events appear to continue without problems, so if you are considering Gothing in Tokyo, an evening event may be the type of event to pursue…

Igor’s first Psydoll CD – I Psydoll from 2004.

After a few months buried under work Igor has finally got around to writing an update. Today, I’m just want to show off my Psydoll CD, which I picked up at the Artism Market in April when I got a chance for a chat with Nekoi Psydoll and the gang.

Psydoll are a concept band whose sounds are built around the idea of escaped rogue robots from a slightly darkened near-future Japan:

Japanese companies (including S#NY, Mit#ubishi, Hit#chi, S#nyo and P#nasonic) usually use the word “DOLL” to name their production robots for military, business and home use. However, PSYDOLL (Psycho-Doll) are illegal robots manufactured and remodeled without proper licenses and with enhanced abilities unlike other “DOLLs”.

DOLL products have become quite common in everyday life. However, since DOLL products can endanger humans, high security standards have been established among leading nations. On the other hand, the efficacy of PSYDOLL is questionable due to its illegal nature, which may result in serious accidents. In fact, 30% of recent fatalities in Japan were reportedly caused by PSYDOLL. Therefore the Japanese government prohibits illicit manufacturing and remodeling of PSYDOLL by severe penalties.

Always an enjoyable band to drink to at a gig in Tokyo, or at the events they play during their many overseas tours.

They have released a number of CDs over the years, but I really like the 2004 I Psydoll release as it is the first full CD and represents the bands original concept.

If you are interested in finding more about these stalwarts on Japan’s electronic vanguard you can check out Psydoll’s homepage.

To people mailing in stuff – thanks! I really like what you sent so will look into it more deeply when I get the chance.

Rock on!

Featured bands include Psydoll, Vanished Empire (DJ Chihiro and 2Bullet’s Dee Lee), Suicide Squad, Dark Insanity, Zodiaque, Hernia_44, PeaceToPieces and Gothic Logic! There will also be DJs Chihiro, Wakana and tAk, along with exhibition space, fang makers, dancers and more! THIS IS NOT AN EVENT TO MISS!

Where: LIVE IN ROSA :: Map
When: Sunday MARCH 10
Start: 15:30
Price: Book/w flyer 3,000 yen (+1 drink) :: @Door 3,500 yen (+1 drink)
* If you want to book just do a quick search of the band and send them a mail – Psydoll or Vanished Empire (via 2Bullet’s Dee Lee) should be cool. Any problems? Buzz me and I’ll see what I can do!

You will need to be on your PC or iPad to listen, but that is no hassle right. Okay, just go to:
http://itunes.com/davidbowie

And once your iTunes opens up to the DB page you will see an option to stream the album. This is a limited time thing so GO NOW young alt person!