Glay is a Japanese rock band, formed in Hakodate in 1988. Glay primarily composes songs in the rock and pop genres, but they have also arranged songs using elements from a wide variety of genres, including punk, electronic, R&B, folk, reggae, gospel, and ska. Originally a visual kei band, the group slowly shifted to less dramatic attire through the years. As of 2008, Glay had sold an estimated 51 million records; 28 million singles and 23 million albums, making them one of the top ten best-selling artists of all time in Japan.
Glay formed in 1988 as a high school band when Takuro asked Teru, a schoolmate, to play the drums. They found a bassist but had difficulty finding a vocalist. When Teru made a tape of his singing and gave it to Takuro he was immediately recruited for the part, leaving the drums part to be filled by another person. On the search for a second guitarist, Hisashi was asked to join but declined the offer, as he was already part of a locally well-known heavy punk/rock band called Ari, which better suited his taste in music. Hisashi eventually accepted Takuro's offer and became Glay's lead guitarist after Ari disbanded.
Glay is the eleventh studio album by Japanese band Glay. The album was released on October 13, 2010. It reached #1 at Oricon charts and Billboard Japan Top Albums chart and sold a total of 125,081 as of January 3, 2011. It is the first album released under the band's own label "Loversoul Music & Associates". The limited edition came with a DVD featuring a live at Niigata Lots on July 30, 2010 and the anime movie Je t'aime, which was directed by Oshii Mamoru, produced by Production I.G and featured "Satellite of Love" as the theme song.
The album is certified Gold by the RIAJ for shipment of over 100,000 copies.
BLAST! is a feature-length documentary by Paul Devlin. The film follows a team of astrophysicists who launch a telescope, upon a high altitude balloon from northern Sweden and again from Antarctica. The film follows the crew of scientists as they travel on a search to answer humankind's most basic question, how did we get here? An approach rarely seen in science programming, BLAST! de-emphasizes talking-head interviews and dispenses with anonymous narration in favor of capturing the action as it happens. Through dynamic storytelling, BLAST! reveals the human side of scientific pursuit, the personal sacrifices of scientists and the philosophical perspectives of discovering the origins of the universe.
BLAST! premiered at Hot Docs on Tuesday, April 22, 2008. It is now playing at film festivals around the world. Festival screenings include:
Blast (stylized as Bl'ast!) is a band formed in 1983 in Santa Cruz, California.
Blast released their first album, The Power of Expression, in 1986. They recorded the album three times before releasing it. They first were signed by Green World Records.. Blast caught the attention of SST Records, who signed them or their next release, 1987's It's in My Blood. That same year, a 7-inch was released, including a cover of Alice Cooper's "School's Out". They also were releasing new music on Santa Cruz Skateboard videos. SST and Santa Cruz Skateboards began shared videos and merchandise bridged by Blast as Neider had worked for the skateboard company for many years. The band's third release for SST was Take the Manic Ride, released in 1989.
In the 90s Blast took a break. Neider and Torgerson began Blackout, releasing one 7-inch under that name, and then LAB, who put out a 7-inch EP and a four-song CD and continued into the late 1990s, playing many shows with Fu Manchu. Former Kyuss and Fu Manchu drummer Brant Bjork moved to Santa Cruz to briefly join LAB before joining up with Fu Manchu. In 2001, Blast reunited for shows on the West Coast of the United States.
Blast! is a Broadway production created by James Mason for Cook Group Incorporated, the director and organization formerly operating the Star of Indiana Drum and Bugle Corps. It was the 2001 Winner of the Tony Award for "Best Special Theatrical Event" and also won the 2001 Emmy Award for "Best Choreography".
Blast!'s instrumentation is exclusively brass and percussion, a nod to the show's roots in the drum and bugle corps activity. Blast!'s performers use trumpets, flugelhorns, mellophones, baritone horns, tubas, trombones (including one on a unicycle during "Gee, Officer Krupke!"), french horns, and a full complement of percussion instruments including snare drums, tenor drums, bass drums, xylophones. vibraphones and marimbas, timpani, and other standard percussion equipment. In addition, Blast! adds instruments not normally found in drum corps, such as French horns, concert euphoniums, trombones and bass trombones, didgeridoos and synthesizers. Accompanying the wind and percussion is the Visual Ensemble (or VE for short), a group of dancers who manipulate a variety of props, similar to a color guard.