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
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.
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.
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:
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.
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.
🙇♂️
再度のお願い恐縮ですが、お力添えのご検討どうぞ宜しくお願い申し上げます。
ギュウ農フェスx井口昇監督青春SF映画『IDOL NVER DiES』
映画海外出品・メイキング完璧版制作クラウドファンディング実施中7/31迄。#アイドルネバーダイ#ドルネバ#ギュウ農シネマ#CAMPFIREhttps://t.co/xMHP9AwiBN— ギュウゾウ／電撃ネットワーク／ギュウ農 (@gyuzo_rock) July 4, 2022
We have reached the height of summer, that magical season when school’s out, parties are at the pool, blankets are on the beach and indelible memories are being made, each one set to a signature soundtrack destined to trigger nostalgic memories well into our sunset years (unless you’re reading this in Australia right now in which case, at least the snakes are hibernating ?). This seemed like the perfect time to ask Team Homicidols to put down the margaritas and fireworks for a second and share those songs that they’ve got on repeat in their summertime playlists.
Here are the songs that will forever come to define the dog days of 2022:
I’m pretty sure that the Idol Fiscal Year starts on July 1st. Otherwise, it’s difficult to explain why every idol and their sister unit dropped a new release in the final days of June. I mean, new music is typically released on Tuesdays except for this week when on Wednesday and Thursday (June 29th and 30th) just about everybody rushed a new single or EP out the door. I can only assume that it must be for accounting purposes.
Whatever the reason, this Weekender is packed. Along with all the great new stuff, the transition from June to July has unfortunately brought us some pretty gut wrenching departures as well.
TRIGGER WARNING: this week’s Oshiloss Corner can fill a bathtub with wota tears.
It’s times like these that make me eternally grateful for Team and the crew over on the Homicidols Discord server. It takes a village to keep up with everything happening in idol.
For those out of the loop on the latest droppings from PIGGS, the unit has been drawn into a pitched battle between their indie producer, Ryan B, versus an anonymous major-label hack over the right to produce PIGGS major label debut single. The two sides in this contest have been separated into the Ryan B-led “TEAM Indie (Poo Poo Land Co., Ltd.)” and “TEAM Major (a certain major label)”. Each team has now produced a single and MV and PIGGS fans have been asked to vote for their favorite. In the interest of fairness, the teams have been anonymized as TEAM A and TEAM B.
Let’s take a look at the entries:
I rarely get personal here, primarily because I figure folks visit because they’re interested in idols and artistry and music and not the intimate travails of Daemon: idol blogger. And don’t worry, because I’m not going to get personal now except to say that, yesterday, I had a really bad day. I only bring it up because the things that most helped me get through it were: 1. Ditching work for the afternoon; 2. A chat/venting session with Papermaiden; and 3. This infectious new single by fishbowl.
Idol heals. Let’s begin the treatment:
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