Dir en grey are getting ready to start an American tour to promote their forthcoming album, [UROBOROS].

The punch line is, they don’t have an American record label backing that tour.

As of this writing (August 22, 2008), their official MySpace lists them as being “unsigned” in North America, while still having a deal with Freewill in their native Japan. This ominous sign presents a major problem with the group’s original intended plan to have [UROBOROS] be the group’s first release to see simultaneous worldwide release. Their official English-language MySpace pages gives links to order the Japanese import editions of [UROBOROS] and its advance single, “Glass Skin”, through Amazon.com, although at prices ridiculously inflated to most pockets compared to CDJapan and YesAsia.

Dir en grey’s last two studio albums, Withering To Death and The Marrow Of A Bone were issued in the United States, but at times long after the albums were available as imports. Withering To Death’s US issue came fourteen months after its Japanese release in March of 2005; a mere thirteen days separated the Japanese and American editions of The Marrow Of A Bone.

Now, however, there has been a split between the band and their former American label home, Warcon. Rumors are rampant that business differences between Warcon and Dir en grey’s manager, Dynamite Tommy, are to blame for the split, in spite of Warcon’s sincere determination to market the group as career artists.

Although Warcon had substantial distribution to American record outlets through Universal Music’s independent distribution arm, Fontana, that same distribution leaned towards spotty in some places. While Withering To Death was available in every record store I looked in at the time it was a new American release, The Marrow Of A Bone was curiously not to be found in my otherwise reliable independent record store, only at FYE. Make of that what you will.

So why would Dir en grey, the biggest J-Rock act on the planet, tour North America without having an American record deal? Sure, they have the fan base, and pre-orders for tickets are said to be quite promising.

Is it possible that Dir en grey are using this tour to attract a new American record deal? Odds of this being the main reason for the tour starting in North America are even – word is that the North American tour plans for the group were pushed forward primarily to attract a new label; had their Warcon deal still existed, their North American touring wouldn’t be happening until early 2009.

More importantly, what American record label would be the best fit for Dir en grey? And, keeping those aforementioned rampant rumors in mind, would those potential labels be willing to deal with Dynamite Tommy?

Some new scuttlebutt has also come to light of late that Freewill America may have been cut out of the picture entirely as far as managing Dir en grey’s non-Japanese business is concerned (although current merchandise deals may remain in place for contractual reasons), replaced with a yet-to-be-named American manager.

No answers or public clues are available as yet, but with the American tour and the forthcoming release of “Glass Skin” and [UROBOROS] in sight, most, if not all, will surely be revealed.

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 23rd, 2008 at 3:42 am and is filed under Dir en grey, J-Pop In America. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.