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Antic Cafe

Revision as of 02:06, 7 May 2009 by CrypticTokyo (talk | contribs) (forgot and added cosmos 2nd press)
An Cafe promoting AROMA (Left to right: Kanon, Miku, takuya, Yuuki, Teruki).

Antic Cafe or An Cafe (アンティック-珈琲店- (カフェ); Antikku -Koohiiten- (Café)) is a major Japanese oshare-kei pop rock band formed in May of 2003, and started activity with two demonstration lives the following month. Within the next year they signed to the independent label LOOP ASH RECORDS. In 2005, the band created their own label Red Cafe while staying with LOOP ASH management until 2007. After some line-up changes the band had a brief stay at Sony Music Entertainment for two releases, and in 2008 transitioned to SMA Entertainment (Sony Music Artists) under their label Red Cafe. Their music style tends to be up-beat and poppish with a mixture of pop, punk, and rock. While the lyrical content usually consists of topics pertaining to love.

Members

Former Members

  • Bou (坊): Guitar

Biography

An Cafe was formed when Miku, Bou, and Kanon (all of whom hail from the Kantou region of Japan) met one another on an unnamed internet website while searching for other individuals with interests similar to their own. Since Miku's previous band Reverie had been disbanded since April that year, Miku found Kanon and Bou through an advertisement on an Internet message board that was looking for a visual-kei guitar player. The three friends came together to form a band, managing to perform drummer-less alongside other vague independent bands at obscure events, and even gaining some amount of popularity amongst music fans in Japan. They also managed to release two demos Ope-ng and Uzumaki Senshokutai / Hatsukoi, both of which were limited and sold only at live events. Teruki (then known as "C.F.Randle") was not yet part of the An Cafe, and was playing for a band called feathers-blue. In August of 2003 he joined as the forth member of An Cafe, changed his name, and became their official drummer.

The rest of the year saw the touring while 2004 kick-started a serious musical career for them as they were signed to the LOOP ASH label LOOP ASH RECORDS (who hosted other artists such as MASK and SCISSOR). On March 24th the band released their first single Candy Holic, which managed to rank second on Oricon's Indies Singles chart: an amazing feat for a band's début. On May 29th that year An Cafe held their second one-man show "happy birthday Tsuyu" at Takadanobaba AREA where the single Hatsukoi was distributed for free.

An Cafe then busied themselves the next couple of months with touring and single releases as well as appearing on six different omnibus CDs accordingly. December of 2004 ended with a small one-man tour that ended at Takadanobaba AREA and Yokohama Akarenga.

An Cafe kicked off 2005 by releasing their first mini album Amedama Rock on February 23rd, which was compiled mainly of previously released singles. This was shortly followed by the release of their fourth single Karakuri Hitei on March 30th. In the summer of that year, over a three month period, An Cafe released a trilogy of one-track singles: Tekesuta Kousen (July 20th), Escapism (August 24th), and Merrymaking (September 21st). The release dates of these three singles received mixed feelings from the fans. Some wanted to listen to the songs, but didn't wish to, or were unable to buy the singles separately.

Luckily each of those songs were featured on Shikisai Moment, An Cafe's first full-length album released on November 9th. The album revealed a new side to An Cafe. While it still consisted of their typical style it seemed that they matured as a band, and had experimented with new attire and style of their respected parts.

As 2006 came and went, it saw the release of five new singles from An Cafe as well as a second full-length album Magnya Carta, that was released in November 29th. The popularity of the four Kantou natives continued to grow, even touching ears overseas in non-Japanese speaking countries.

In April of 2007, guitarist Bou made the decision to no longer continue with An Cafe as their guitarist. His last live was performed and filmed on April 30th at the one-man HIBIYA ON★ザ★御NEW世界 (the DVD was released on July 2nd the same year). Bou stated in a press release that the decision was not a pessimistic one but an optimistic one, and that he hopes he hasn't betrayed the band, their staff, or the Cafekkos (the fans).

After Bou's departure, the band recruited guitarist takuya, and keyboardist Yuuki.

Their next single, Kakusei Heroism~THE HERO WITHOUT A "NAME"~ is the new opening of the anime Darker than Black, replacing abingdon boys school's HOWLING.

Band Name

There is often confusion over how one should correctly display An Cafe's name. While アンティック-珈琲店- transliterates as Antikku Koohiiten and has appeared on releases and on their official site, their name has also been written as Antic Cafe (with アンティック-珈琲店- written under it). More recently though, the band itself has seemed to have taken to crediting themselves as An Cafe (with アンティック-珈琲店- still written under it) on releases/official website/etc.

Discography

Albums

Mini Albums

Singles

Demos

Distributed / Other Singles

VHS / DVDs

External Links

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