Month: July 2022

Your Homicidols Weekender #297

/ DAEMON / 1 Comment

I’ve really enjoyed the week. With GARUDA and 2& spending last weekend in the UK, NECRONOMIDOL running all over Europe and ATARASHII GAKKO! touring California, my twitter feed has been full of my Western friends attending idol lives in their home countries and showing off their cheki. Sure, I’ve been plenty jealous, but it’s also been great to see and almost felt like old times. Besides, I’ll get my chance in a little over a month when MELON BATAKE A GO GO arrive in my home state for Saboten Con.  I hope to see you there! Until then, I’ll just live vicariously through my Twitter feed and curate items for the Weekender, like:

ASP found a sparkly way to burst back onto our radar.

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Let’s Discover Some Vietnamese Idols

/ DAEMON

The influence of Japanese-style alternative idol has, undeniably, been spreading further and further across the globe. Over the past couple of yeas, Homicidols has covered overseas idol units from Italy, South Korea, Thailand, Australia and, most recently, the Philippines, all of whom directly channel the style and spirit  (and, sometimes, language) of our favorite underground and indie idols in Japan.  This activity has become so widespread that Team Homicidols has encountered trouble covering it all.  It is why we recently brought FarFromSleep on board specifically to focus on activity in South Korea. It is also why, when Halien reached out to us and offered to put together an overview of the idol scene in Vietnam, our response was an enthusiastic, “Yes, please!”

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Your Homicidols Weekender #296

/ DAEMON

I am totally jealous of those of you in Europe at the moment. NECRONOMIDOL is working their way across The Continent while being joined by 2& and GARUDA in London for HYPER JAPAN.

https://twitter.com/DOUBLE_AND/status/1550616721945419777?s=20&t=6okTkyfex01v9fKSWbAuEg

Over here on this side of the pond,  things are much more dull unless you happen to be at San Diego Comic Con. Continue reading →

Let’s Beat The Heat At The Isiliel Beach

/ Kerrie

As certain parts of the world is preparing for a heatwave this coming week, let the refreshing sight of Tsukishiro Himari having fun(?) in the ocean cool you down.

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Your Homicidols Weekender #295

/ DAEMON / 2 Comments

To balance out the bad news down in Oshiloss Corner, I had written a whole intro blurb about the awesome news that the Tokyo Idol Festival 2022 lineup had been announced and how epic it was all going to be. Then I discovered that, for some reason, TIF has region-blocked livestream ticket sales on their website this year. We will keep looking into the matter, but it currently looks like overseas otaku might not have to opportunity to participate in this year’s TIF. 

Basically, my good news turned into crap and now I’m just kinda cranky and don’t feel like writing a new intro blurb, so let’s listen to the new one by situasion which may now be my front runner for Song of the Year.

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We Review Things: KOSAME’s Debut EP, “THE 8th FAREWELL”

/ DAEMON

Indie and underground idol has gone through quite an evolution from the early days when the scene was predominated by screaming metal and loud, raucous punk. The genre has expanded to include just about every conceivable alt-rock and alt-pop sub genre including shoegaze, rockabilly, trap, house, grunge, dreampop and many, many more. The depth and breadth of the genre has become immense and we can now even track musical sub-influences as they wash through the scene, like a couple of years ago when a retro city pop vibe was flavoring everything, or the current trend of electro swing popping up all over the place.

Against this backdrop, it was refreshing to spin up THE 8th FAREWELL,  KOSAME’s first EP, and get a stunning reminder of what drew many of us to the genre in the first place: idols being straight-up, brutally hardcore.

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We Interview Idols: LuciDreaM

/ farfromsleep

While last time we covered a veteran group of the Korean live idol scene, this time around I wanted to showcase a newer addition with a charm all their own. And though they may have formed only recently, this is a group with some serious past experience and a very interesting pedigree. So why not read on and allow Homicidols to introduce you to LuciDreaM, an idol duo formed by a pair of seasoned rock vocalists.

LuciDreaM’s Ria (left) and PPOYO

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Neoteric and New To Us #05: More Idol Units Worth Knowing

/ DAEMON

Welcome to our latest collection of notable idol units that have recently sprung into  existence or otherwise just entered our consciousness. The number of new groups being launched in 2022 continues to be pretty nuts. I have a feeling that the New Unit category of our Best of the Year awards will be a blood bath, but in a good way (not that there is any way for a blood bath to be good, but it’s a hot Sunday afternoon as I write this and I’m feeling too lazy to pick a new metaphor).

As I was wrapping this piece up I realized that almost all of the units we’ve included this round hail from Kansai. This was completely inadvertent, but serves as an auspicious reminder that, while Tokyo is the capital of the idol world, it isn’t the only source of exemplary alternative idol.  Kansai, the home of PassCode, DADAIDAI, Especia, WAGAMAMA RAKIA and countless others, continues to inspire some of the best in the genre, such as:

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Your Homicidols Weekender #294

/ DAEMON

We are one week deep into the new idol fiscal year and, compared to last week, things were pretty sedate. After surviving the near-simultaneous break-ups of Yanakoto Sotto Mute, LiLii Kaona and SAKA-SAMA, we could use the rest. Other than the website blowing up on Tuesday morning, it was a pretty laid back week. This gave us plenty of time to appreciate and enjoy the great new stuff that did drop.

Let’s start overseas with a reminder from AKIRA-KURØ that Thai idols rock hard as well.

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Help Bring IDOL NEVER DiES to a Theater Near You!

/ DAEMON

IDOL NEVER DiES, the crowdfunded indie film about chika idols battling zombies and rival idol units at the end of the world, premiered earlier this spring and has been playing in select theaters around Japan. We’ve been covering the project since it’s inception since the cast is a veritable who’s who of Homicidols including Brazil and Rere (MIGMA SHELTER), Rutakame Run (MELON BATAKE A GOGO), Hachigatsu-chan (ex. Oyasumi Hologram), Younapi  (ex. You’ll Melt More), Kaho Hiniata (HUMAN SPIRAL) and many many more.

The project has now launched a phase two of crowdfunding with the new goal of adding English subtitles to the picture so it can be screened in overseas film festivals.

https://twitter.com/gyuzo_rock/status/1543808805913276417?s=20&t=T97RaICgiCzMc3ZVCCFhtA

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