hide

hide hide, the legendary X-Japan guitarist and later solo artist that everybody knows and loves. hide came to fame in X-Japan, where he got the nickname of 'pink spider' due to his hair. In the early 90's, hide began to release solo work seperate from X-Japan, and it sounded, well, significantly different. While X-Japan was a serious rock band in the 80's American hair band tradition, hide's solo work has a more punk and glam flair to it. Personally, even though I am not too fond of X-Japan, I definitely like hide. His later work included releases with his band 'Spread Beaver', and at the time of his death in 1998, he was working with several American and British musicians in a band called Zilch that was based out of LA. Their first album features hide vocals, and they had planned to attempt gaining fame in the States, but hide's apparent suicide kinda put a damper on that. In any case, over 6 years later, hide's popularity hasn't diminished at all - there was a tribute album released called 'hide SPIRITS', where several well known artists (GLAY, Buck-Tick, Oblivion Dust, amongst others) recorded versions of his songs. Video concerts of hide performances are still given (and are still selling out!) throughout Japan, even today. Even cooler, there's now a hide museum and scads of merchandise, including hide plushies. Recommendations Well, just about anything. The Ja,Zoo and Psyence albums are especially good. Links hide city - An official hide site for the fanclub. It is, of course, in Japanese, but there's a free content section that contains a whole lot of stuff, including links to website relating to the hide museum. Pink Spider - A fansite in English with romaji lyrics, pictures, and access to mp3s.

hide, the legendary X-Japan guitarist and later solo artist that everybody knows and loves. hide came to fame in X-Japan, where he got the nickname of 'pink spider' due to his hair. In the early 90's, hide began to release solo work seperate from X-Japan, and it sounded, well, significantly different. While X-Japan was a serious rock band in the 80's American hair band tradition, hide's solo work has a more punk and glam flair to it. Personally, even though I am not too fond of X-Japan, I definitely like hide. His later work included releases with his band 'Spread Beaver', and at the time of his death in 1998, he was working with several American and British musicians in a band called Zilch that was based out of LA. Their first album features hide vocals, and they had planned to attempt gaining fame in the States, but hide's apparent suicide kinda put a damper on that. In any case, over 6 years later, hide's popularity hasn't diminished at all - there was a tribute album released called 'hide SPIRITS', where several well known artists (GLAY, Buck-Tick, Oblivion Dust, amongst others) recorded versions of his songs. Video concerts of hide performances are still given (and are still selling out!) throughout Japan, even today. Even cooler, there's now a hide museum and scads of merchandise, including hide plushies.

Recommendations

Well, just about anything. The Ja,Zoo and Psyence albums are especially good.

Links

hide city - An official hide site for the fanclub. It is, of course, in Japanese, but there's a free content section that contains a whole lot of stuff, including links to website relating to the hide museum. Pink Spider - A fansite in English with romaji lyrics, pictures, and access to mp3s.