From time-to-time I still have trouble convincing people that Japanese rock is the future of the music industry, so I get a big sigh of relief when I see that more and more American labels are signing these talented artists from the Land of the Rising Sun. This past Tuesday the folks over at Good Charamel Records (founded by by Robby Takac of The Goo Goo Dolls) released the I Love J-ROCK compilation album, featuring ten songs from five of Japan's top girl-fronted bands. Not all the songs on here are winners, though.

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First things first: I loved the first Mafia game. Second I have been waiting a long time for this sequel to come out (I believe I found out about it back in 2007, so I was wondering why it took so long to get to this point.) But it's finally here, yet it seemed that 2K Games wasn't giving people the chance to really play the game before its release date. When the King and I were at the PAX East we were lucky to play the game, but of course we got screwed because it was at the end of the day of the convention, so we got kicked out before we could finish the demo.

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The Bastards break the world record for "Most A.D.D. Moments In A Podcast Episode."

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This past Thursday King Baby Duck and Nenya sat down with Apocalyptica drummer Mikko Sirén before the band's performance at the Royale in Boston, MA.

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A question for Apocalyptica intended as a joke results in an answer that no one expected.

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King Baby Duck serves up another fresh music Podcast this week, with a little something extra added to the mix.

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Yesterday the world lost truly one of the greatest animation directors of all time. Satoshi Kon, whose work included Perfect Blue, Paprika and Paranoia Agent, passed away at the age of 46 after a short battle with pancreatic cancer.

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Oh, how the Itis fails to keep a Bastard from speaking one's mind.

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I'll admit that I've been quite skeptical of the anime world, no thanks in part to the amount of drivel that I had to watch last year. In the beginning of the year I was "tricked" into watching Ladies VS Butlers, a show with no plotline, useless fan-service and a vast amount of drivel that would even make a zombie blow its own head off. When I first got wind of Maid Sama! (or Kaichou wa Maid-Sama! as it's known in Japan) I didn't feel like being swindled yet again to watch a series that, on the surface, looked as if it'd be another lame-ass attempt at doing moé shenanigans with little-to-no texture to it. What a surprise: I turned out to really like this show.

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Don't worry: you're safe from any evil ex-boyfriends when the Bastards are around.

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