UNDER CODE 2011 Year in Review
UNDER CODE entered 2011 in a bit of a transitory state. Megaromania was only half active, NEGA was on hiatus, E'm ~grief~ had just disbanded, Arc and Synside were set to disband, and HEISEI ISHIN vocalist Taku had just died. After having, in my opinion, its worst year in 2010, UNDER CODE started 2011 in a low spot.
If you'd like, I thought we could take a look back at 2011, to remember that bumpy beginning, but also to see how the label moved past it.
So here we are at the beginning of 2012. The label has its new Big Three, and every one of its smaller bands are genuinely great. Furthermore, and shockingly, this is the first time in recent years that the label entered the new year without mass disbandments.
There's no telling what the future holds, but this is the brightest New Year that UNDER CODE has had in a long time. I don't want to jinx it, but I'm hopeful, I'm really hopeful, for the label's future.
And I'm also hopeful for our future. In this past year I really felt the community aspect of WE LOVE UNDER CODE grow (and I hope that you did too!). In 2012, I hope to see it grow even more. I hope to see this community grow in numbers, I hope to see it grow in reach, and I hope to see it grow in purpose.
The future may be uncertain, but I'm excited to face it with my little Chikasen family. WE LOVE UNDER CODE!
- John
If you'd like, I thought we could take a look back at 2011, to remember that bumpy beginning, but also to see how the label moved past it.
| January 1st | Megaromania announces its complete revival with a new member, a new logo, a new single, and their biggest live ever—a oneman at Shibuya O-WEST. |
| January 4th | LIN announces a new single, Silent to my Pain. The single is announced as part of a consecutive release campaign—in the end, the campaign is only two releases long, but we'll always wonder if more releases were planned... |
| January 5th | WE LOVE UNDER CODE community event! I gave a free custom WE LOVE UNDER CODE t-shirt to the person who could come up with an omnibus tracklist that best represented UNDER CODE. The winning tracklist, as decided by community vote, was by  hush_narumi and can be listened to here. |
| January 22nd | KISAKI entered the 21st century and released an iPhone app! |
| January 22nd | An update at E'm ~grief~'s blog made us confident that the band would be reviving sometime in the new future. A year after their last live, and several other vague blog posts later, it's looking very unlikely that E'm will ever revive. |
| January 30th | KISAKI hints that three new bands will join UNDER CODE in the near future. He posts this picture of costume designs for two of the bands. In the end, neither of those costume designs were used. |
| February 1st | A flower ceremony for Taku is held. HEISEI ISHIN performs at the request of Taku's parents—leader Yoshi says it's the bands official disbandment performance. |
| March 1st | SUZAKU is revealed. At the time, many think the band is ex-Synside, but that is not the case. At any rate, everyone is impressed by their look and music sample at the OHP. |
| March 2nd | Synside releases its last maxi-single. |
| March 4th | ViSULOG and UNDER CODE announce a special project for the label's 8th anniversary. The project includes a special blog with backstage reports from the 8th anniversary celebration live DYNAMITE EXPLOSION, as well as a KISAKI quiz. |
| March 6th | UNDER CODE celebrates its 8th anniversary with a three day event, DYNAMITE EXPLOSION. A [really well-done] live DVD of the event is later released. |
| March 11th | Japan has an earthquake disaster. The earthquake affects aspects of UNDER CODE for months and months—live events from every band had to be cancelled or pushed back. |
| March 15th | UNDER CODE announces that, from March 15th until April 30th, they'll donate proceeds from their official web shop to earthquake relief charity. |
| March 20th | UNDER CODE announces an earthquake relief charity event, UNITED LINK for JAPAN. |
| March 27th | WE LOVE UNDER CODE community event! rave_andou and I offer up rare items in a community raffle to help the community buy a paid account. Participation is great, but PayPal shuts us down. The kind members of the community offer donations instead, but PayPal shuts us down once again. So lesson learned |D |
| March 31st | UNDER CODE announces an earthquake relief charity omnibus, also called UNITED LINK for JAPAN. It contains a new song by LIN called Feeling Universe. In hindsight, it seems possible that Feeling Universe and Ambient Cosmo might have been planned as a single to be released during LIN's consecutive single campaign. |
| March 31st | Synside disbands. |
| April 4th | LIN announces details of their 1st anniversary memorial festival, an epidemic of “OVERTURE”. The festival is to feature a long set from LIN, KISAKI's virtual band MK5, Zaidan Houjin Kurojuuji 2010, IDOL, and a one-day revival of Pashya. |
| April 5th | KISAKI joins twitter. |
| April 17th | CindyKate announces a free oneman tour and a new single, with the intent of reaching the oricon indies chart. They don't reach their goal. |
| April 22nd | Only a short time after forming, SUZAKU loses its drummer for no apparent reason. |
| April 30th | We discover the second new UNDER CODE band, Vior gloire, via a picture secretly uploaded at UNDER CODE's website. Curiously, no announcement about the band is made by the label... |
| April 30th | REALies, the second new UNDER CODE band (although originally planned to be the third), is announced. They turn out to be ex-Synside and ex-Ridiot. |
| April 30th | Arc disbands. |
| May 1st | UNDER CODE announces a second volume of its earthquake relief charity event, UNITED LINK for JAPAN. |
| May 6th | Long-running Arc session band Mizufuusen holds its last live. (The disbandment was decided in 2010 at a Mizufuusen versus NEP event, the loser of which would have to disband.) |
| May 7th | VIDOLL (not an UNDER CODE band at this time) holds its last live. The live is streamed online for free. Unfortunately, technical difficulties prevent the band from playing a full encore set. |
| May 11th | WE LOVE UNDER CODE community event! gyakutai and I announce the “KING of UNDER CODE TRIVIA” contest. It runs for 30 volumes over almost two months. The winner, based on number of points (questions answered correctly + bonus opportunity participation), is necrae_x, who receives stickers and a free WE LOVE UNDER CODE t-shirt. Bow to the KING! |
| May 20th | NEGA announces their full revival! A new name, a new look, a 6th anniversary oneman, and a new maxi-single with old song re-recordings are also announced. |
| May 20th | Vior gloire is finally officially announced (almost two months after we found out about them by poking around UNDER CODE's website). Interestingly, they have a completely new set of costumes than the ones we saw in that secret photo;mdash;we still have no idea why they abandoned their original ones. Anyway, their debut is accompanied by the announcement of two sponsored events and a maxi-single. |
| May 21st | PERESTROIKA disbands. |
| May 25th | UNDER CODE announces that it donated about $7,500 USD to earthquake relief charities, thanks to its web shop drive, its charity omnibus, and its charity live events. |
| June 5th | SUZAKU's bassist is hospitalized for an unnamed illness. We don't know it at the time, but he'll never be mentioned again—presumably he used this as an opportunity to leave the band. |
| June 8th | ex-Synside guitarist Lin announces his solo project (not affiliated with UNDER CODE), Affective Synergy. He's since moved back to China and doesn't expect to resume musical activities any time soon. |
| June 9th | NEGA announces a Europe tour. |
| June 18th | LIN's anniversary festival, an epidemic of “OVERTURE”, is held ...for five minutes. During the first song, a smoke machine malfunctions, filling the venue with poisonous fumes. The live is cancelled. |
| June 18th | LIN's first full album is announced. |
| June 19th | Pashya holds a one day revival. |
| June 20th | LIN announces that their cancelled anniversary festival will be pushed back to August and turned into a oneman. A live DVD of this oneman is announced to be released in September—unbeknownst to us, the DVD won't actually be released until December. |
| June 20th | KISAKI PROJECT announces their comeback. |
| June 24th | KISAKI casually reveals that LIN will pause activities in October. The reason for their activity pause is that the band isn't as popular as the members feel it should be; they're pausing to reevaluate their future plans. |
| June 30th | KISAKI announces that if he reaches 5,000 twitter followers by August 1st, he'll organize a free LIN oneman. In the end, he fails and has to push the deadline back to September 1st. |
| July 3rd | WE LOVE UNDER CODE community event! New custom t-shirts are released! |
| July 26th | NEGA revives. |
| August 1st | FUTURISM・BOYZ is revealed! The band is all ex-Arc. The band announces two short sponsored event tours and their first mini-album. |
| August 1st | KISAKI PROJECT's second incarnation is revealed: KISAKI PROJECT feat. SATSUKI. Their first single is announced, as is their sponsored event live, Rin・ne・ten・sei ~A RETURN of “VISUAL MONSTER”~. |
| August 2nd | ex-VIDOLL leader RAME announces that he has created a new band. At the time, some of us speculate it will be an UNDER CODE band—we're wrong, of course. His new band ends up being Black Gene For the Next Scene. |
| August 22nd | WE LOVE UNDER CODE poster is released! |
| August 24th | WE LOVE UNDER CODE community event! I announce a contest to help KISAKI reach his goal of 5,000 twitter followers. A sticker is given to anyone who follows KISAKI, and a WE LOVE UNDER CODE poster is given to one person who gets 5 other people to follow KISAKI. In the end, only two people get more than 5 followers for KISAKI, so I give posters to them both. |
| August 31st | The 5th annual Phantasmagoria tribute night live event is held. This year's edition is co-sponsored by VISUNAVI. |
| August 31st | LIN releases its first full album. |
| September 1st | Kansai Seiatsu 2011~2012 is tentatively announced. |
| September 2nd | DAS:VASSER (ex-Matina) announces a revival live. |
| September 14th | CDJapan and UNDER CODE announce a partnership. Official web shop limited goods which were previously unavailable to overseas customers are now offered at CDJapan. |
| September 14th | An official web shop limited Phantasmagoria collection album is announced. |
| September 20th | Dali reveals a new look and announces new sponsored events and oneman lives. Their page at the OHP reveals two new web shop limited CDs—one in November and one in January—and KISAKI mentions a regular release in December. November passes with no limited CD, and December passes without a regular release. |
| September 20th | chariots announces its final tour, after which it will finally disband. |
| September 20th | UNDER CODE announces its annual Christmas session night and reveals full details of its Kansai Seiatsu 2011~2012 New Year event. The only band missing from the roster is LIN... but they later announce that they will perform :D |
| September 22nd | Livqueur Records band hannah (ex-KALEN and ex-Phantasmagoria) announces a new album. |
| October 1st | HEISEI ISHIN members YUKKIE and RAI announce their new band (not with UNDER CODE), N@H. They reveal that HEISEI ISHIN had planned to revive after its disbandment, making Taku's suicide even more tragic. |
| October 1st | WE LOVE UNDER CODE community event! Secret Santa second season is announced. Participation is better than last year, but we're not any better at getting our gifts out on time, hahaha! |
| October 8th | LIN's last oneman of 2011 is streamed online by EnTicket!! They're very accepting of overseas customers, and those of us who are able to get tickets in time enjoy the show together. |
| October 9th | LIN's first oneman live DVD is... re-announced with a new release date of December 25th. |
| October 12th | Legendary ∀NTI FEMINISM × QP CRAZY galactic eco-terrorist session band Kaiki!! Doubutsu AGITATOR announces it will release a revival single through UNDER CODE. |
| October 18th | REALies announces a five city tour for 2012, as well as a tour final at which they'll make an important announcement. |
| October 28th | WE LOVE UNDER CODE community event! I tentatively announce a “virtual live”... |
| November 4th | LIN announces that they will perform as the countdown guest at Kansai Seiatsu 2011~2012! They also mention that they'll make an important announcement there. |
| November 18th | Event organizers announce that LIN will hold a European tour in 2012. |
| November 19th | WE LOVE UNDER CODE community event! As overseas fans we don't get to see concerts, so I hold a “virtual live” at USTREAM to make up for that fact. The event is called VIRTUAL SUPPRESSION and during it I stream a two hour setlist of rare live footage of UNDER CODE bands, during which community members can chat with each other. It's surprisingly successful! |
| November 20th | I decide to piss into the wind and contact UNDER CODE about streaming the Kansai Seiatsu 2011~2012 event online... |
| November 22nd | Event organizes announce that LIN has backed out of the European tour and will be replaced by Megaromania. |
| November 27th | 90s visual kei revival mega event Rin・ne・ten・sei ~A RETURN of “VISUAL MONSTER”~ is held. The event is so successful that two more (bigger!) volumes are announced for 2012. |
| November 27th | KISAKI PROJECT feat. SATSUKI sells an exclusive demo single. |
| November 27th | DAS:VASSER announces that they'll hold a limited revival during 2012. |
| November 28th | WE LOVE UNDER CODE's standalone website, weloveucp.com, is revealed. It's still very much in a β stage. |
| December 1st | SUZAKU announces its complete revival. The band has new members and a new look, and announce a revival oneman and sponsored event. |
| December 12th | EnTicket announces that they're collaborating with UNDER CODE to stream Kansai Seiatsu 2011~2012! The decision is due exclusively to us fans |
| December 15th | WE LOVE UNDER CODE community event! To increase Kansai Seiatsu 2011~2012 stream ticket sales, I announce a double contest. First, one person will win a free ticket, paid for by myself. Second, anyone who purchases a ticket and provides me with proof will be entered in a contest to win a free UNDER CODE or WE LOVE UNDER CODE poster. |
| December 16th | ex-Syndrome vocalist Tatsuya announces his new visual kei band zechs (non-UCP). |
| December 20th | Megaromania holds their commemorative oneman, at which they make an important announcement. They announced a Europe tour, a free oneman, a regular oneman, a oneman tour, a Valentine's Day single, and their second full album!! |
| December 22nd | During its “last event before disbanding,” chariots tentatively announces a full revival for 2012. |
| December 24th | Only an hour before the deadline, the last remaining Kansai Seiatsu 2011~2012 online stream ticket is sold, which means the stream will go forward as planned! We did it!! |
| December 31st | Kansai Seiatsu 2011~2012 is held, we get to watch it, and it's fucking awesome! WE LOVE UNDER CODE members and fans of UNDER CODE all around the world watch the stream and chat via twitter for over 10 hours straight. It's beautiful! |
| December 31st | LIN announces that they will revive in 2012 with a new song + b-side collection album and a live DVD. The future looks bright! |
So here we are at the beginning of 2012. The label has its new Big Three, and every one of its smaller bands are genuinely great. Furthermore, and shockingly, this is the first time in recent years that the label entered the new year without mass disbandments.
There's no telling what the future holds, but this is the brightest New Year that UNDER CODE has had in a long time. I don't want to jinx it, but I'm hopeful, I'm really hopeful, for the label's future.
And I'm also hopeful for our future. In this past year I really felt the community aspect of WE LOVE UNDER CODE grow (and I hope that you did too!). In 2012, I hope to see it grow even more. I hope to see this community grow in numbers, I hope to see it grow in reach, and I hope to see it grow in purpose.
The future may be uncertain, but I'm excited to face it with my little Chikasen family. WE LOVE UNDER CODE!
- John