Art-School

Art-School never quite captured the glossy sheen needed to climb high on the Oricon charts, yet the group’s U2-rooted approach—merging alt-rock grit with finely honed melody and texture—produced some of the strongest Japanese rock releases of the 2000s. Vocalist Riki Kinoshita launched the band in 2000 following a two-year solo stint that yielded the 1999 mini-album Teenage Last, tracked with support players Sakurai Yuichi on drums and Hidekazu Hinata on bass; both musicians joined the new lineup alongside guitarist Oyama Jun. Their opening outing was the 2000 Sonic Dead Kids EP on indie imprint 123 Records, after which came the mini-album Mean Streets and a 2002 split tape with Straightener that gained substantial underground traction.

The tape and the band’s Fuji Rock Festival appearance drew Toshiba EMI’s interest, leading to a contract and the 2002 debut full-length Requiem for Innocence. An extensive national tour followed, but the workload proved unsustainable; by 2003 bassist Hinata and guitarist Oyama had departed, the latter citing exhaustion and the former to join Straightener and Zazen Boys. Todaka Masafumi and Takeshi Uno stepped in on guitar and bass respectively, allowing the band to close out 2003 with the album Love/Hate. A live document, Boys Don't Cry, arrived the next year packaged with a DVD, and 2005 brought the studio effort Paradise Lost—their final release for Toshiba EMI. In 2006 Art-School moved to Pony Canyon/Rocker Room, issuing Missing that year and Flora in 2007.