I’ve been keeping up with the 2008 activities of the Japanese bassist Ju-ken (just finished touring with VAMPS and occasionally playing with Anna Tsuchiya, will be in Gackt’s upcoming tour, has toured with Tomoyasu Hotei for the last few years, and occasionally performs with a variety of other artists); that post is getting large, so I’m giving the upcoming information (mid-November onwards) its own post, but anything in here will also be there. There’s some information about the bands he’s actually a member of (Hellmetz, Quintillion Quiz) and some other general information in that post as well. There’s not a lot of upcoming events beyond Gackt’s tour.

Releases:

• as a member:
• Quintillion Quiz: their second single was sold at their August 12 show and is being sold via mail order; the disc itself has a picture from Ju-ken’s birthday, but no song titles have been mentioned.
• as support:
• probably on some part of Anna Tsuchiya’s album Nudy Show (CD and CD+DVD), released 2008.10.29; few songs had performance credits. The band composed and arranged and were credited with performing “Blood on Blood”, though. The DVD had PVs and some backstage clips; he was in some of those.
• in part of Gackt’s 「nine＊nine」 set (2008.10.29, live CDs from all concerts + an extra DVD + mini tour pamphlets)
• in the PV for Gackt’s “Jesus”, but didn’t record on the single (CD+DVD is Dears-only; regular version available 2008.12.03)
• in the VAMPS live DVD to be released in February

TV:

• Nov 1, CDTV with Masaharu Fukuyama
• Nov 14, Music Station with Anna Tsuchiya (also with Jun-ji on drums; Muta had a conflict)
• Nov 21, Music Station with Gackt
• Nov 29, Music Fair with Gackt
• Dec 4, Music Japan with Gackt
• Dec 19, Music Fighter with Gackt

Live:

• Gackt, December – April 2009, “Requiem et Reminiscence II ～再生と邂逅～” (dates and information)
• Anna Tsuchiya, Dec 31 at Shibuya DUO Music Exchange
• Several dates with Quintillion Quiz in January and February (details; generally they update the original post instead of making new ones): January 7 at Omotesando FAB: 【TRANSMISSION ‘09】 QUINTILLION QUIZ/Obiwans/JOVO; January 14 at Meguro Live Station with 遠藤一馬 (Kazuma Endo) and KING; Jan 20 at Takadanobaba Club Phase: マンスリー企画 BULL ZEICHEN 88 Presents [BULL ZEICHEN QQ] (sold out!) ; Jan 28 at Nagoya ell.SIZE: QUINTILLION QUIZ/INSIDE TOWN MONKEYS/The stAnd/他; Feb 8 in Osaka: 霊-kotodama- 4manLIVE!! w：LUTE・LOSTONE・nex-tage; Feb 11 in Tokyo (tba); and Feb 21 “主催イベント！Welcome to the FUCKIN’QUIZ　VOL.６!!!QQ１周年PARTY！!” (one-year anniversary party)

Other:

• new goods: a new T-shirt (commemorating Gackt’s tour) and a new set (“あなたの日常のお側セット” — hand towels, coaster, mousepad, pen, pencil) (the set is sold out); selling via mailorder and on Gackt’s tour; information and pictures are on the main page of his site
• jewelry with CRAFT: a ring (“friend of the eternity”), a pendant (“guardian of the eternity”), and a chain (“bond of the eternity”); the pendant and chain are both listed under necklaces (site is flash, so no direct links). These are the items he was referring to in an earlier blog entry
• was in the October 2008 issue of Bass Magazine (on sale Sept 19); the article is about the relationship between singers and their bassists, and includes five bassists, two with singers (including Ju-ken and Anna Tsuchiya). The cover itself is Robert Trujillo of Metallica, but there is a small picture on the cover for this article of Ju-ken x Anna.
• was interviewed in Monthly VAMPS #3; will probably be in any recording/live/backstage reports in future volumes (was definitely in #2, #3, #4, #5)