soundcloud

The LunaBell Lives!

/ Homicidol Maniac / Leave a comment

Oh man! You newbies might not be as … warmed? warmed by this one as much as folks who’ve been around for a few years, but: Suzu Hinata, ex of petit pas! and eventual winder-upper as solo idol on the same label as some other cult favorites, is in fact still alive and in fact still idoling and in fact kind of building on this whole The LunaBell thing. It’s only been (/checks watch) like almost a year since last we heard from her, but now we hear from her again!

In this case, it’s a couple of demo tracks on Soundcloud: Continue reading →

Your Homicidols Weekender #91

/ Homicidol Maniac / 1 Comment

Good morning! This week’s Weekender is coming to you late and kind of short because that’s what air travel allows sometimes, amigos. On the bright side, this incredibly long — and meaningful, and impactful, and educational, and emotionally investing — trip is finally wrapping up. In a few hours’ time, I get to get back to something approaching normalcy. Woof.

So let’s all have ourselves a nice idolly time. Play the Fun, join me in roundly applauding the great help that Team Homicidols provided in holding things down over the past week and change, and look ahead to what I hope is a really well and truly great week ahead.

Oh Yeah, That Is Short

DAIDAIDAI on the cover!

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Your Homicidols Weekender #90

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Good morning friends! TIF is finally upon us, like this incredible crown jewel of the idol festival season (which in fact runs for most of the year anyway, so). I love seeing everybody’s commentary from the different venues and performances — if you’re looking for something new, maybe give this thing a try. Good times.

I am working this weekend, which is to say more accurately that I’m on a long-ass trip for work and will be picking and choosing spots for the week. That’s sad! And it’s doubly sad because I traveled to one of my favorite places on the planet for this, and I’m not going to get to enjoy it. Boo. Hiss. But it is at times like these when idols become a welcome distraction, insofar as I can afford to be distracted. It’s all fun and games, after all, at least what we get to see of it.

Anyway, play the Fun, enjoy the Weekender, and then don’t get mad at me if momentous things go un-shitposted about because the people who pay me want me to do other things.

What Kinds of Other Things

Imagine living in a place where the DOTS work their magic:

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The HAMIDASYSTEM Epic’s Fourth Installment Is Glory

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Monday is bad. Monday is especially bad when you really want to keep sleeping until Tuesday. Alas, we must all of us rise and get down to business. The very least the universe could do is help out a little bit with something pure and magical and good, you know?

What do you mean, HAMIDASYSTEM released the final leg of their multimedia art project? Blessed be!

Download it here; while waiting for OTOTOY to prepare the file for you, you can go read the accompanying story part. Continue reading →

Your Homicidols Weekender #89

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Welcome back to Saturday! Did you all have a good week? Mine was breathtakingly busy, and it’s technically still not done because being on the new side for a fancy-pants job like I do at Day Job can frequently mean being a responsible adult even when the work week is supposed to be over. How rude! However, I can’t keep Maniac Mansion festooned with the fancy trappings and filled with honorees if I quit now — and that’s to say nothing of the jamon iberico that I insist upon eating at every meal!

I jest, of course. If I were to keep Maniac Mansion filled with anything, it would be idols mid-U.S. tour who need a regional base of operations. Of course I’d have to move out or sleep in the basement or something, but: Worth it. Just imagine having Ricky Wilson complain that you’re all out of clean towels! A dream.

Anyway, I hope you guys have been paying attention, because while yours truly could barely keep his head above water, idol cranked up the pre-TIF intensity. Yes, things came out this week. Yes, there’s a new TIF guide. Also Papermaiden’s acquisition of the English rights to The Idol Suicides, which I cannot more recommend that you read (final installment runs today!). And, of course, the Fun; even if you don’t want to play, send Kerrie a nice message for her birthday.

It finally stopped raining around here, so other than some light housekeeping, I leave you goofballs to it. Stay out of trouble!

What Are You Implying?

It looks like our old pal Ten Tenko is gonna be an international star, insofar as anybody who burns CDs of traffic noises, voice modulators and oscilloscope beers can:

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These Are New PIIIIIIIN Songs

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Forgive the lackluster tone in the title, gang; it seems that ol’ Maniac let himself get hornswoggled. Not for the first time, either! Idols will do that to you. At any rate, I was super enthusiastic about sharing just PIIIIIIIN’s song of the summer, only for them to turn around and do this to me instead:

Hey, okay, that’s a good one! It is implicit that there is more. Is there more? Continue reading →

Your Homicidols Weekender #88

/ Homicidol Maniac

Christ. I’m sorry, that was a hell of a ride over the week, and I’m all tired out. Have you ever done the plate-spinning thing and been surprisingly okay at it despite having never done it before, only to realize that you think you’re doing well with it because you don’t have a frame of reference, and in reality you’re barely keeping it together, and then things start to go south and SMASH? That’s what this week felt like. And I’m not even getting to Queen of the Scene (thanks for playing!); I’m just talking about Day Job and stuff. Let this be a lesson to everybody: Never try to better yourself.

And with that out of the way, let’s get into the idol stuff! Go Go Going Now! hit me up about an item a few days ago, which got me thinking about just how close to TIF we are, and how this nice kick-start in new idol stuff over the past couple of weeks is intensifying, and how maybe we need to consider TIF the rough equivalent of Labor Day, like the unofficial end of summer or something. All I know is that I’m not blowing through my notifications like I was a month ago, and I’m eagerly looking at every new thing’s merits that I might overindulge like a proper professional.

It is still summertime, though, so focus your energy on doing cool things with cool people; if idol you must, handy-dandy items like yon Weekender can distill it down into something digestible for your jet ski adventures. Of course, though, play the Fun, and stay tuned for some great stuff later this morning.

You Never Said Who Won the Thing!

Yamaguchi Kassei Gakuen looking amazing:

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Good Golly, GARUDA

/ Homicidol Maniac

Soundcloud apparently heard me giving it crap, or telling people about a bunch of the idols using it won me sympathy or something, because the dang app started to work again yesterday. Picked up a nice piece for the Weekender right away, and then Yuffie treated us to the latest stage in her ongoing development from Idol Who Kind of Does Industrial to The Idol Who Does Industrial Full Stop. Listen to this thing:

I’m loving the space that idol keeps finding to expand anymore, and I love how solo practitioners are finding opportunities to experiment and pursue passion projects within that space. Everything Melon-related is cool, but I daresay that Yuffie backhandedly emerges as the coolest thing in there, overall. It almost makes me glad that Re:Alice didn’t pan out; I want her spending all of her time on Melon and GARUDA and being part of my fantasy-booked tour of squats and speakeasys in the Mid-Atlantic.

By the way, did you know that Yuffie’s a contestant in Queen of the Scene, which kicks off in not even two hours (or has already if you’re late to this party)? Is she worthy? HAS SHE EARNED IT YET? We’ll see!

Well, It Looks Like I Have a New Favorite NEO JAPONISM Song

/ Homicidol Maniac

Soundcloud is a pretty great tool for sharing music. I’ve been using it in various capacities for years, going way back to before needing it as a tool for finding Japanese stuff, even. But do you know what Soundcloud sucks at? Sending mobile notifications. So it becomes one of the few things in the game that require active, deliberate monitoring, and you’re SOL if whoever you happen to be following uploads material way ahead of the actual release date, such that the new thing never even appears in your feed (pre-major new BiS, I’m looking in your direction).

At other times, things pop up in your feed and you get a fun little charge. How exciting! I hope it’s good! It’s sometimes a letdown, sure, but also sometimes a thrill … like when one of your favorite emerging units dispenses with the pleasantries and decides that their newest track should be a nasty one:

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Your Homicidols Weekender #87

/ Homicidol Maniac

Hello friends! Who’s all at Hyper Japan this weekend? Kerrie’s there, with a press pass — somehow, our application that said “to interview DEADLIFT LOLITA” was confusing to the organizers, so a press pass was granted only after all of DLL’s interview slots were taken, and we didn’t have a backup plan (though I think Kerrie may, she’s clever). If you happen to see the Weeaboo Witch herself, see if you can con her into being her official photographer or something. Press access is press access!

For the vast majority of us not at Hyper, did you all have a good week? I … did? The last several weeks, and indeed it seems like most of the year, have been busy-ass times for ol’ Maniac, times full of changes and new challenges, and the trip that I was on (first time in that area in a decade!) over the course of the week really drove that home. I’m tired! It’s fortunately a pretty nice weekend now that I’m back home, so I hope to make the most of it.

Idol had a solid week, though, huh? There were some missing pieces for me (I was waiting for another Tsurezure song!), but good tunes abounded. TIF is still a few weeks away, too, so there’s bound to be some good stuff right on the horizon. And, for what it’s worth, maybe the best thing of all from the week hasn’t had its published moment yet, so stick around for a little while before heading out for fun summertime adventures. And, of course, play the Fun, which should definitely get your brain gears turning.

Are You Ever Going to Stop These Things?

Well, here’s part of the MIGMA SHELTER solution:

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