Author: DAEMON

Weekend Livestream Spotlight: RILISREVERSE, FRUITPOCHETTE, and Autumn’s Gyuno Festival

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Before diving into the normal business of highlighting gigs being broadcast from Japan, I wanted to note a series of shows being streamed from the opposite side of the Pacific. This weekend, independent music venues across the U.S. are hosting a three-day, Save Our Stages benefit to support American live houses that are struggling during the COVID crisis. As someone whose love for underground music was born in tiny rundown clubs and has grown over the years into a global pursuit of great live acts, I believe it is definitely a worthy cause. Plus it features some stellar domestic talent including Rise Against, Foo Fighters, Demi Lovato, The Roots, Reba McEntire and many others. Check it out and donate if you feel like it. 

Back to business: Debut-of-the-year contenders RILISREVERSE kick off the weekend with a free livstream on Nico Nico. 

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BABYMETAL Unveil BxMxC MV, Best-Of Album and Other Elaborate Plans for their 10th Birthday

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It all started simply enough. Around midnight Tokyo time, BABYMETAL dropped an MV for “BxMxC”, their nu-metal banger that was exclusively released as part of the domestic (Japan) version of METAL GALAXY almost one year ago today. While BABYMETAL have been feeding us performance videos on the regular, we have to go back almost two years to the release of “Starlight” for the group’s last true MV, and all the way back to 2016’s “KARATE” to see an MV featuring the members themselves. This made it a brutally refreshing departure to see SU-METAL literally spit fire in this Mortal Kombat meets 8 Mile mash-up. 

 “BxMxC” is now available digitally worldwide.

Shortly thereafter,  they also released a BxMxC special edition t-shirt which sold out in about three seconds so don’t even bother searching for the link. But if you still feel an itch to spend money on BABYMETAL, they got you covered. Just a few hours later, they dropped the motherload: Continue reading →

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Weekend Livestream Spotlight: RAY, ZOMBIE POWDER, Broken By the Scream and Codomomental School Festival

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So, last weekend was bit nuts, eh? Bouncing between livestreams of Tokyo Idol Festival and Hanako-san was enough to inflict a case of extreme emotional whiplash  along with the severe sleep deprivation. Still, it was all worth it.  And now that we’ve finally recovered, it’s time to do it all over again.

One week out from TIF, Codomomental has decided to throw their own damn festival featuring three of the best units in the game: KAQRIYOTERROR, seireki13ya and Yukueshirezutsurezure. 

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Your Non-TIF Weekend Livestream Spotlight: MANACLE, Sway Emotions Slightly and a Double-Dose of Hanako-San

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While a few hundred idol units are participating in this weekend’s Tokyo Idol Festival Online 2020, for some reason 14th Generation Toilet Hanako-San is, once again, not invited to perform.   I will never understand it.  It’s almost as if they don’t wish to see the Smile Garden drenched in blood.

Luckily for us though, Hanako-San and friends will be Twitcasting a pair of shows in support  of their upcoming angura-kei collaboration album, Shironuri Gekokujo ~ Shironuri Cover – Omnibus 2.  They were even kind enough to translate a flyer with show information into English for us.

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Your Homicidols Guide to Tokyo Idol Festival Online 2020

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Attending the Tokyo Idol Festival has always been on my bucket list. The primary barrier for me had been, having grown up in the Sonoran desert, a complete lack of tolerance for the humidity levels of Odaiba during Japan’s late summer. Hope was kindled in my desert rat heart when it was announced that TIF 2020 would be held in October when the heat and humidity is much less gruesome. This hope was, of course, dashed completely by the COVID crisis. TIF organizer’s decision to deliver the festival entirely online for 2020 has generated a new kind of hope. This livestream format gives many of us foreigners the opportunity to check “Attended Tokyo Idol Festival” off our bucket lists, even if the accomplishment will have a COVID-shaped asterisk next to it.

Whether you have already invested in tickets to Tokyo Idol Festival Online or are considering the reasonably hefty purchase, we have prepared the following resources for you.  Continue reading →

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Weekend Livestream Spotlight: SPARK SPEAKER, Yukueshirezutsurezure, MIGMA SHELTER and Kai’s Last Live

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In case you missed it, Watanabe stranded GO TO THE BEDS on a deserted island earlier this week. If you’re like me, you’ve had a browser window open on your desktop during working hours so you can keep up on the livestreamed hijinks. Time zones being what they are, my working hours largely coincide with Japan’s sleeping hours, so I have still managed to get quite a bit of work done this week (and keep The Calendar mostly up-to-date) despite the distraction.  So besides that, what’s there to watch on this final weekend before Tokyo Idol Festival?

SPARK SPEAKER doesn’t do too many livestreams, so start your weekend off by snagging this opportunity to see them perform at the Choco Festival being broadcast via Twitcasting.

https://twitter.com/SPARK_SPEAKER/status/1307259604879826944

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Weekend Livestream Spotlight: NaNoMoRaL, MANACLE, Canary, NECROMA, and HimeKyunFruitCan Turns 10

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This is a three-day, holiday weekend in Japan with the observation of Respect for the Aged Day on Monday. I can’t think of a better way to show our great esteem for the elderly among us than with some chika idol livestreams. There are lots of options on The Calendar, but here are our top recommendations:

Two of the best units going, NaNoMoRaL and Shihatsu-machi Underground, start off the weekend with the latest installment of the beyond excellent Tribu .pre live series over on Twitcasting.tv.

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Let’s Check in with 14th Generation Toilet Hanako-san!!

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Team Homicidols primarily lives on Twitter, so we have taken the latest banishment of 14th Generation Toilet Hanako-san from the platform pretty hard.  For her part, Hanako-san is still dead and communicating through the medium of Instagram where she is now somehow crazy about Kamen Rider.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CEtlrh7nukV/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

She also loves sea otters. Check it out!

It is rather odd to see her not wearing any red and not a strawberry in sight. But what else has our favorite 444-year old youkai been up to? Continue reading →

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Shackle up!! MANACLE Debuts, Drops Two Singles

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In perhaps the most anticipated debut of the year, MANACLE held their inaugural performance this weekend.  Their introductory set premiered two songs and employed the old punk practice of playing their best song twice. The best part, of course, was seeing Okaki, Ray and Hina performing on the same stage again. Newcomer Maon  also impressed.

https://twitter.com/ray_MANACLE/status/1305136834100359168

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Shihatsu-machi Underground Delights and Disturbs with “Hallelujah” MV

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Shihatsu-machi Underground have been a godsend during the last several months. Not only have their frequent, and stellar, livestream performances helped maintain a connection to the live music scene we’ve been isolated from, but they also committed back in July to releasing new music every month for four months. In July, we got the wistful “TAKE A TRIP”, while August gifted us with the punkabilly-influenced  “NO!NO!NO!”. September’s song, the acid-jazz fueled “Hallelujah”, has now arrived with an accompanying MV that’s equal parts Naked Lunch and Little Shop of Horrors.

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