Under Beasty

Rock Your Socks off with Under Beasty

/ Homicidol Maniac

Wednesdays sucks and existence is pain. Ergo, you should take my word for it that the arrival of the MV for Under Beasty’s new (and first major) single is what you need to emerge from a funk borne of seasonal blahs and bad news. It’s like an injection of better:

There are times when I’m in a mood for true idorock, friends, and this is one of those times. It’s true, as the sages say, that every idorock song emanates from the One True Idorock (origin uncertain, possibly recorded by Kamen Rider Girls at the beginning of Idol Time) and, in the space between realms that transcends time, converges again with every other idorock song to create the One True Idorock. That familiarity, that safety, that goofy feeling of elaborately costumed young women song-and-dancing through a sonic blitz and making it sound pretty … love.

Let’s Catch up with a Whole Bunch of UNDER BEASTY

/ Homicidol Maniac

Please allow me to apologize to one of my low-key favorite things in idol, going all the way back to when random YouTube dives were all you really had to compare to the handful of English-language resources for chika idol: UNDER BEASTY, I done you wrong, and I’m here today to make it right. We need to catch up!

Gah, where to begin. Well, probably with the fact that they’re about to release their … fifth? Fifth single:

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Under Beasty Made It to Their Fourth Anniversary

/ Homicidol Maniac / 3 Comments

This started off as a Weekender joint, but I had one of those moments where you realize that you’ve been forgetting about idols that you really like simply because there’s too much dang idol and other stuff, and they’ve been a little off to the side of the radar, and whose fault is that but your own? Exactly.

Under Beasty, The Super-Indie Idols Who Could, one of those groups that I’ve pretty much always and pretty much always will champion if for no greater reason than their ability to prove that even the totally self-produced can make this wild game work, have had a pretty good ride of things over the years. They’re not even super-indie anymore, having hooked up with actual management along the way and gotten a strong enough budget to release stuff like this and put on decently sized one-mans.

So consider this a celebration of them, in a way, because this right here is what I wanted to Weekender:

But there’s more going on, and they deserve a fuller post. Continue reading →

‘love pain’ Is Under Beasty’s New Level

/ Homicidol Maniac

The fine post-indie rock idols in Under Beasty did us all a solid with the teaser for their umpteenth single, “love pain,” and I’ll admit — because they sounded like their third or fourth shift in sound over the last couple of years, I was extremely apprehensive about the result. Like, would it even be good? It’s too easy to either hit a sweet spot as a unit or fall back on lazy tropes to get a release out the door, you know?

I should have just trusted in Yua.

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It’s Our First Somewhat Detailed Look at Under Beasty’s New Single

/ Homicidol Maniac

Ah, Under Beasty, as good and pure and true as any rock idol act in the game, all bootstraps and try-hard until they got picked up by a real-deal agency, and … well, I guess things are roughly the same still, except now their outfits are a little sharper.

Anyway! They had teased their upcoming single a little while back, with the live debut and everything, but now there’s a teaser version of the MV to sink your teeth into:

… and it’s apparently swinging as all hell! Continue reading →

This Is an Under Beasty Update

/ Homicidol Maniac

Who doesn’t like Under Beasty? Well, among those of you who know who they are, at least. Everybody likes UB! What’s not to like about a literally self-made unit that got picked up by a mid-major agency and just keeps on plugging away, and tends to have some pretty nice music to boot?

That’s what I thought.

So! They very conveniently shared a chunk of their live yesterday via Periscope right around the time that I went sniffing after them because, hey, it’s been a minute since the last Under Beasty post.

periscope live!

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Under Beasty Debuted a New Song and Haven’t You Missed Them?

/ Homicidol Maniac

Good morning! When was the last time that we got to visit with Under Beasty? Technically April! That’s kind of wild; for a while last year, I was happily sharing new stuff and updates from them at what felt like a month basis. Then they went and joined up with Candy GO!GO!’s agency and started to change up their sound and they weren’t quite the same Under Beasty anymore, and literally when you consider the membership thing, but that’s neither here nor there.

What is here or there is this new song that they rolled out yesterday:

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Under Beasty Gives a Great Example of How to Show off New Members

/ Homicidol Maniac

When Pure Idol Heart mentioned yesterday that the much-beloved-of-indie-fans Under Beasty was “reborn” (on the perfect weekend for it, natch), a whole mess of thoughts entered my head:

  • New concept?
  • New look?
  • Yua was going to step up to a full-sized fedora?

None of the above! Instead, what we got was something that I’m currently manipulating in order to get you to click the Read More! Continue reading →

Monday Match Game: Bootstrap Idols

/ Homicidol Maniac / 3 Comments

Friends, we have a lot of fun with the Monday Match Game. Sometimes it’s punny, sometimes it’s funny, but it’s always, always … sunny? I ran out of rhymes.

Anyway! Last week, yami-kawaii obliterated yume-kawaii despite Tiffany’s protestations that they’re basically the same thing, thereby confirming that we’d rather contemplate mortality than have a heaven filled with fallen angels. Good times!

This week, the Match Game takes on a decidedly germane flavor. We’ve been talking a lot about indie idols, the kind that do it all themselves and make their own success on their own merits. There’s not a silver spoon or institutional advantage (well, probably some kawaii) in sight when these self-driven performers step into the limelight.

In this corner, throwback heavy metal and rock ‘n’ roll idols whose success is so palpable that they even drag their own ex-members back into the fold; in the other corner, goofball stage antics and a musical smorgasbord from idols who actually fired their manager to take over their own affairs themselves.

Two darlings of the underground enter, but only one … well.* Continue reading →

Under Beasty Just Did Something That I’ve Never Seen Before

/ Homicidol Maniac / 6 Comments

They un-graduated a member:

Nobody suspected a thing:

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