Month: November 2020

The Energy in NELN’s Latest Is Exactly What We Need

/ Homicidol Maniac

I learned an important thing about NELN this morning: The reason they’ve been so prolific since their debut back in the spring has been because they debuted with the intention of releasing a new MV every month for their first 12 months of existence. That really puts it all in context! And explains that here we are, on the final day of November, and yet another NELN MV has arrived. It may not be the rip-roaringest thing they’ve ever done, but it is a lovely little bit of idorock with a clever MV and you know what? You should just be doing this yourself:

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We Want Your Best Of 2020 Nominations!

/ Kerrie

Oh thank goodness, the ongoing agony that has been 2020 is almost over. Just over a month to go now, I can almost feel the collective weight that has been this hell year being lifted from my shoulders as 2021, free from possibly the worst and most confusing year most of us have had to face in our lifetimes; at least, until three days into 2021 when we’ll probably all get drafted into a war against a vengeful alien species from another planet at the same time another much-loved Homicidols figure announces her retirement. 

With it being late November, this is the time when we begin to wrap up proceedings for our annual Homicidols best-of rundown. I know 2020 has mostly been a crapshoot in all regards, but hey, it’s not been all bad; O’CHAWANZ released two entire albums!

As with previous years, team Homicidols have been collectively listing notable idol events and releases of the year into a handy list of reminders to say “Hey! Remember that single that came out really early that year?” which we then whittle down into a shortlist of our team picks.

Now, this is where you come in! Now that the team picks are ready to go, we’d like to hear from you! For the next week, we’d like you to submit your personal nominations for each category. At the end of the week, using a special, private system I’ll be weighing the team nominations with the community nominations to create a hopefully balanced and interesting shortlist. Continue reading →

As One Codomomental Legend Passes, a New Light Shines

/ Homicidol Maniac

After yesterday’s impossibly bad terrible awful soul-eating news, one could be forgiven for wanting to not get too close to Team Codomomental for a little while. So of course it stands to reason almost perfectly that they’d come to us with:

  • A new unit
  • That is loud
  • That has a first song to share
  • That features Yamakomaro

This is of course officially available only for the next little while, but you know how we roll around here. Check the source and then click through.

More fun after the jump. Continue reading →

Let’s Discover Some Idols: MIC RAW RUGA(laboratory)

/ DAEMON

In my duties maintaining The Calendar, I stumbled across an upcoming livestream with a guest performance by one of my current trad-ol favorites, caeca.  The  headliner and presenter for the show is a unit named MIC RAW RUGA(laboratory) who have apparently been hosting a regular series of lives featuring site regulars such as  Gu-Gu LULU, Los an Jewels and NELN. I was intrigued that a unit with such impeccable associations could fly under the Homicidols radar for so long, and decided to see what they were all about.

That choice made my life better:

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Yukueshirezutsurezure to Disband on January 2, 2021

/ DAEMON / 1 Comment

We ain’t got no words for this right now.

Your Homicidols Weekender #210

/ Homicidol Maniac

Good morning! I almost forgot it was Saturday — the Thanksgiving holiday in the USA was this past Thursday, but I’ve been off work since Wednesday and very deliberately avoiding things that required me to think or do too much. Rhythm’s off, sleeping in … oh hey, suddenly it’s the weekend! Fortunately, this is a busy time in idol in general, so I have lots of things for you to peruse when there’s little else very interesting to do.

One thing to do is going to be the Best Of voting, which I can tell you is imminent because part of why this Weekender is a few minutes late is that Team is finalizing the Team picks that we use to filter the noise from the community nominations (and also do ourselves completely independently for the staff and personal picks). The only thing I think I can guarantee for you is that we’re going to see a doubled-down diversity in winners like we finally achieved last year. It bodes well for this thing we all like!

Anyway, get to it. It was kind of hastily put together, but it’s still a lot of good stuff!

Worst Weekender Ever

Prepare yourself for Yanakoto Sotto Mute’s first major full-length:

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Weekend Livestream Spotlight: BiS, NECRONOMIDOL, Satanic Punish and LiLii Kaona

/ DAEMON

Since even a socially distanced American Thanksgiving without family still involves stuffing oneself with turkey and pie, I’m putting this post together as I fight off a turkey coma. And even though Japan doesn’t do Thanksgiving, they seem to be treating this like a long  holiday weekend with about 20 different livestreams to choose from. Visit The Calendar for the whole roster, but here’s a few that come highly recommend:

Check out the elegantly choreographed dreampop duo, LiLii Kaona, as they hold their COVID-delayed oneman live commemorating the release of EP-of-the-year contender, KIYOKU.  

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BiS Hits All the Familiar Notes and That’s Grand

/ Homicidol Maniac

So yesterday, to coincide with the release of their Propaganda to PROPAGANDA fan-voted best-of album, BiS dropped a new MV (for the lone original cut on the record, IIRC). How exciting! Given the track record of the group since being re-rebooted sans any formal relationship to its past save for name, logo and producer, it deservedly warranted some real buzz and a lot of eager clicks. Maybe we didn’t quite get what we expected, and I’ll come right out and say that I didn’t even understand (at first) what I did get, but it’s very nice and you should spend some time with it if you haven’t already, including a repeat view or two if you know what’s good for you:

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Atarashii Gakkou no Leaders are Taking On the World

/ DAEMON / 1 Comment

Atarashii Gakkou no Leaders have dropped the news that they will be kicking off 2021 with an international debut courtesy of a newly inked agreement with the US-based 88rising. Our favorite four-member piano funk meets post-punk and acid jazz unit will be be taking on the world under the name, ATARASHII GAKKO!   

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Your Homicidols Weekender #209

/ Homicidol Maniac

Good morning! Welcome to Weekender Year 5! I promise to keep up the same degree of randomness and complete disrespect for the subject that you’ve all grown to love.

So how have you all been lately? Well enough, I hope, understanding that there’s still a lot going wrong in general out there for everybody. But I’ll tell you, a few months back I was in a really difficult place with the state of things, and it was manifesting in weird ways in just about every facet of life. So I started to keep a journal where I’d put down the things, every morning, that I was grateful for. It wasn’t like, and yet again today I’m grateful for my car’s good fuel economy, it was always something that I’d have to search for, at least somewhat unique. And it taught me to appreciate things that I’d been taking for granted, which really did help to take the sting away. Earlier this week, I crossed the last big obstacle off of my Day Job queue for the calendar year and accomplished an entirely new degree of success in my work … and it felt so damn good. I even told the boss, I’ve done this before but not anywhere near this degree of sophistication and intricacy, and the results are already rolling in. Hot damn.

The point is, I hope you can do that for yourself, or something else that makes you feel good about you and what you’re doing. If that’s crawling through the Weekender, great; if it’s spending your entire day moving several tons of mulch around the yard and building new rock borders for the garden, that’s great too! But whatever it is that you do, find that good angle on it and enjoy. You deserve it.

You Aren’t My Therapist!

I’ve been declaring the sentience of Himari’s hair for years, and now I have proof!

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