Earlier this week we posted a short retrospective of THE SPUNKY, one of the sunniest gems in the history of underground punk idol. It was a nice reminder that alternative music doesn’t have to be all maudlin doom, shrieking angst or screaming against the inevitable darkness of the void, as much as we truly love that stuff too. Judging by this week’s releases, we weren’t the only ones who wanted to start the year off with an upbeat shot of positivity, comfort and confidence.
So let’s see how long this new season of cheerful optimism lasts! I give it until Tuesday. In the meantime:
You’ll Melt More! released a feel good MV for their surprisingly named single, “!!”.
Those blessed enough to be at Nagoya’s Club Saru on New Years eve were able witness a priceless event: the momentary resurrection of the most charmingly upbeat pop-punk idol unit ever assembled, THE SPUNKY.
THE SPUNKY 1日復活ライブありがとうございました😊 久しぶりに皆さんに会えて、楽しい時間が過ごせて、大好きな楽曲たちも歌えて幸せな時間でした！！ 大晦日の忙しい時に来てくださって本当にありがとうございます😭
The first week of 2022 was a bit quiet unless you are a fan of the newly resurrected GANG PARADE. Most everyone else seemed to be sleeping off their New Year’s hangovers or out playing in the Tokyo snow. But some people still had to show up for work this week, such as:
Nerun Poku Poku who, last year, taught us how to tell the difference between a katana, an office lady and a shelf. Now she’s back to teach us how to count in Japanese!
People will either be cheering or weeping when they say, “Twelve more months of this!!”
Planck Stars kicked off the new year with a new MV.
If that’s not enough chaos for you, there also dropped whole album of insanity.
Need to warm up after that? GRATIA-ALA dropped in with some sunny weather.
I don’t think we’ve ever featured LYSM on the site before, but they were recommended by Karli over on the Homicidols Discord Server. This is a very nice track.
If you missed Okinawa Electric Girl Saya’s new year’s livestream, here’s a small dose.
沖縄電子少女彩、2022年の幕開けは彩アレンジの沖縄民謡『耳切坊主』舞から歌へ。
Okinawa Electric Girl Saya, the beginning of 2022 is from the Okinawan folk song "Mimikiri Bozu" dance to song arranged by Saya. pic.twitter.com/CsNgXBtplD
— 彩Saya(沖縄電子少女彩)Okinawa Electric Girl Saya (@Tincy_saya) January 7, 2022
A lyric video is an odd thing to get from MIGMA SHELTER because it’s so hard to read while dancing.
I mean, it’s still live RAY with a band set, but the vocals are way too low in the mix, sound guy!!
And if you want even more RAY, how can you resist a 360 VR video of Kai Marino, Kotoyama Shizuku, and Tsukihi harvesting sweet potatoes? This is just the kind of idol content we need more of!
Another Discord Server recommendation, this time by Ziensa who always seems to find interesting stuff. Here’s some live PAPIPUPEPO wa Muzukashii.
By the way, Don Guri, the giraffe member, has some very devoted international fans.
There’s nothing better than You’ll Melt More singing one of their timeless classics.
Fingers Cross spin-off project SHIMMER SHRIMPMER have a new innovation… reacting to their own MV as they view it for the first time! It’s a little difficult to precisely follow it all if you don’t understand Thai, but their emotions and reactions still manage to come through. Also, their song “Drawing the Sky”(Which is amazing!) is available for streaming…
At the beginning of December 2021, I had the pleasure of attending the very first live of Buddha TOKYO. Here are my impressions about it!
We’ve talked before (briefly!) about Yumegiwa Last Girl and Yureru Landscape in our weekenders. These groups by Sainantan Tracks have impeccable music, even if we haven’t had time to properly cover them yet, and the company has outdone themselves again with their new group Buddha TOKYO.
While Yumegiwa Last Girl are “Strange pop” and Yureru Landscape were a chill hip-hop group, Buddha TOKYO are simultaneously Buddhist themed (hence the name) and doing neo-soul music/music from the UK in the early 2000s. This is expressed interestingly enough in their costumes, as they are sportswear inspired, with the classic striped look while having Buddhist elements such as the mala some members wear.
Happy New Year! It is officially 2022 in every time zone on the planet that uses the Gregorian calendar (to our Ethiopian friends, I hope you are having an enjoyable 2013). If you missed it, we posted the results of the Homicidols Best of 2021 yesterday. We also pretended that the Friday Fun was a defunct WACK unit and resurrected it without warning, so be sure to post your #2022IdolPredictions on Twitter. The prize for getting the most predictions correct is to be burned at the stake as a witch, so you may want to keep those prognostications a bit vague.
So, welcome 2022! Please be kind to us. We’re keeping our expectations low so you don’t need to try too hard. If nothing else, thank you for kicking off the year with the traditional day of idols in kimonos.
Hey, it’s the return of the Friday Fun, currently running a reduced service every 52 or 53 Fridays. Here we are at the end of 2021 and I think it’s safe to say that collective optimism for the forthcoming year is possibly lower than it was twelve months ago. But we’ll always have idols so let’s entertain ourselves today by forecasting their actions over the forthcoming centi-century.
First though, let’s see just how psychic we all were this time last year:
It’s here! The final moments of 2021 and time to unveil the results of the Homicidols community vote for best or, at least, most significant moments and releases of the year. I want to thank everyone for their participation in the voting. We had an awesome turnout which I credit to the incredible talent of the artists we cover and the superb work they turned out in the past year.
If your favorite idol, album or MV didn’t win in their category, just remember that geniuses are seldom recognized during their time (we stole this from SubenW in the Homicidols Discord Server as it was their reaction to the lack of any Best Of nominations for situasion; but we told them that we were going to steal it, so it’s okay).
Now, on to the winners! And on to 2022!! My fervent wish for the new year is for a world where international travel restrictions can be lifted. Let’s go!
If you haven’t been keeping up with the news lately, this might come as a major shock: AKB48’s Kashiwagi Yuki (also known as Yukirin) joined every single WACK group at once! How do some people find the time, honestly.
