The art of music advertising in Japan

One thing I cannot get over is that each time I take a trip to Japan I come back home with a plethora of interesting, eye-catching, and even beautiful free fliers handed out to me at concerts or picked up at record stores. Each time I hand pick a select few to plaster onto the walls of my room. But I mean...what if I actually lived in Japan? If taking a trip means bringing back a stack of these things then living in Japan for me would mean dedicated an entire room of a house to storing the hundreds of fliers in. Of course, I don't actually plan to do something like that in the near future...but it's just a thought.

Regular gig-goer Ken M of the well known Japan Live gig blog at one point showcased a bunch of cool fliers he had received at the concerts he usually goes to. It's a shame that he has not done so in awhile(well, last year he did a great entry on an interesting show he attended, and also added the interesting fliers that came with his attendance), but simply typing in "flier" into the search bar of the Japan Live blog will heed a bunch of the entries he has posted in the past, all of which showcase the great art of the band flier. (also Ken, please bring this one back to your blog!)

Seeing that as my inspiration has led me to do my own version before I post some of these cool pictures on my walls at home. I took the time to scan and touch up a few of these and I didn't realize the files were actually pretty large! Anyway I think it's great that way in case anyone wants to use these for wallpapers or something like that. Here goes then, Hideki's gig fliers part 1!

I saw plingmin live at Shibuya O-nest and here is the flier depicting the excellent album art of their latest release. It's simple, but looks so great : )

More for the fact that I love the band than the flier being interesting, I suppose. 

The front and back of a flier for a Hatsune Miku release. I really dug the art on this one and they even had some free Christmas post cards featuring the same character.

This flier was printed on some environmentally friendly-feeling paper(It felt recycled or something), and it's of the great lineup of bands form bijin records.

Cool colors and a gig I wish I could have attended!

A simple design...I hope that's a chocolate sundae up top! XD

Pretty simple but rather large flier of this band's first release in a very long time(I have fliers from my Japan trip in 2006 with this band in them and they haven't surfaced until now with another CD!)

Missed seeing Sonson bentou bako at Daisy Bar in Shimokitazawa, but here is their colorful original flier!

Never heard of any of these groups but this huge monster looking thing with his mouth agape(and club info on his arm) is probably a sign they might sound pretty good.

Pretty cool artwork depicting...well, I haven't figured that out exactly yet.

Flier in support of some overseas bands playing in Japan, by contrarede.

Wanted to go to this gig really bad : (

See a familiar name? It's an advertisement for a new online shop that sells band t-shirts.

Never heard of the band, again, but really great artwork!

Anime-esque flier

Probably my favorite, a combination of a three colorful hand-drawn looking fliers into one large sheet, advertising a bunch of underground shows.

Hope everyone enjoys these great fliers! I'll try to post more when I have time to get to a scanner :)

~hideki~