I remember the day when heavy metal idols went to London and played a venue that most English bands only dream of making it to. DaeMetal’s report was a great view from the fan’s side, and now here’s a chance to see the show for yourself.
Babymetal. Wembley Arena. Pro-shot broadcast on Japanese TV. Enjoy.
There’s been some comments discussion lately about origins, about how and why idols of a more alternative or aggressive bent are comfortably being mainstreamed and taking up a big chunk of the schedule at events like TIF, to say nothing of crossing over to rock festivals and the like.
That’s all well and good, but the chatter got me thinking about that moment in time when a hundred light bulbs went off and just so many of the groups currently forming the backbone of the broader scene were either born, re-branded or being conceived. Yes, good children, 2012 was a hell of a time to be alive.
I offer you here a time capsule, if you will, as if you had a chance to travel back in time to see the very birth of the galaxy itself. Here is the not-quite-original-but-may-as-well-be iteration of Bellring Girls Heart just a month into the group’s existence.
No antics, no props, no feathers or wings. Just idols not atypically costumed doing very atypical music and employing some atypical dance. Pretty cool.
As fans of Lyric Holic will, I thought I’d check in on them yesterday after realizing that I see them advertising live shows all the time (and others advertising live shows with them), but nary a peep of video since the “Alice” MV and Mizuki Rin’s graduation (and transformation into Psycho Predator).
The result? No big deal. Just the first several of 100 very short videos to prep us all for their second one-man, which my two-second mental math says is happening on or right before Halloween. Appropriate! Continue reading
Given what we got earlier from PiGU, something to keep the mood high on a midsummer Friday was in order, and Candy GO!GO! definitely delivered with “ワンチャン☆サマー” (help) and “endroll” (available to purchase Aug. 17!):
Pop & roll with Candy GO!GO! What a motto.
Click here if you’re in the United States
For reasons the go against any and all good sense, Candy GO!GO! is geo-blocked on YouTube, so thanks to @the59thsecond for providing an embed for “endroll” on Pakistan’s own video platform! Should a non-proxy source for “ワンチャン☆サマー” be available, I’ll update.
But anyway, fun! Let’s go the beach and have a good ol’ fashioned party filled with a tense rivalry between preps and greasers that can only be resolved in a spontaneously choreographed dance competition!
You don’t need to spend too much time around Japanese music to hear this song. And hear it. And hear it. “Senbonzakura” (“Thousands of Cherry Trees”) is a modern classic that sounds a lot older than it is*, a contemporary twist on neo-traditional sounds to create something beautiful. Wagakki Band’s version, for instance, is particularly cool.
In this case, 969’s band (aptly named the 969 Band) and idol member Hinata Haruka teamed up — with Haruka on recorder — to create this nicely punked-up version of the song:
Never forget: 969 is cool as hell.
*I didn’t even realize it was a contemporary piece until trying to track down its origin while writing this and found that it’s from an anime; this blog post has a lot of details on its romantic nationalist lyrics, which suddenly puts the song into a much bigger context than “oh neat it sounds like Japan.”
It’s been brought up before (including in that whole why-does-this-website-exist thing), but it bears repeating that idol isn’t even remotely the same anymore. What was once the domain of the cute, the safe and the wholesome has been thoroughly infested by loud music, body-disregarding performances and gimmicks running from the dark to the profane.
In other words, the kind of idols that we like are here to stay, and the establishment has adjusted to that reality. Thanks, Establishment!
The lineup for this year’s Tokyo Idol Festival (Aug. 5-7) has been set, and our kinds of idols are well-represented throughout the schedule. Check the TIF website for more specific details, but also consider this a little shorthand guide for planning either your own personal trip or your off-hours YouTube sessions: Continue reading
We’ve heard the song before, but I’ve been eagerly waiting for the video for their new single, “Boku Tabetamo Kimi no Subete wo” (“My Gifted Feast is Your Entirety”), since they first started to share that they were filming. Kiminosei’s MVs are … they go for the throat.
That’s not so much the case here, is it? Unless I’m missing something, this is really more of a staged day-in-the-life kind of piece. I’m somewhat surprised to see them outside during daylight hours, as I always figured that sunlight would melt them. I guess they’re human after all! Continue reading
There’s a milestone of sorts coming up for Homicidols.com in a few weeks, and with that, gods be good, will come a development that I hope at least some of you will want to take part in. More on that when the time comes.
To prepare for that, I’d like to learn a little bit more about us as a community of people with a unique common interest. And to make that work, please see … Continue reading
We finally have a date for the upcoming first actual by-the-gods single from Yukueshirezutsurezure, as was mentioned back in this interview.
[解禁]
8/24（水）ゆくえしれずつれづれ1stシングル「六落叫 / ニーチェとの戯曲」JKT表1解禁です！同時に店舗別の購入者特典も公開致します！https://t.co/tWQwB6yvn0 #ゆくえしれずつれづれ pic.twitter.com/Lejcru4Mc1— ゆくえしれずつれづれ (@yukuetsurezure) July 27, 2016
That is not, however, the point of this post. No, we have some very interesting ideas pertaining to that cover art floating around. It is also apparently Conspiracy Week here on Homicidols.com.
Our pal @ramenshuriken has an interesting notion: Continue reading
