ZOC! So as part of the make-idol-more-manageable-for-Maniac process, I don’t have an eagle-eyed notification system from Twitter anymore, choosing instead to rely on deliberate searching and whatever YouTube deigns to tell me about. This is funny because, right after I’d officially scheduled everything on Saturday, I was heading out the door with a good feeling about having covered just about all that there was to cover, and boom, YouTube note about ZOC!

They have a single out on Oct. 9, and the title track is offered up for our viewing and listening pleasure:

Gotta work in those Namahamu to Yakiudon gang signs

This thing has Oomori Seiko’s hands all over it (she did write it, after all), and of course it’s what’s the kids would call “an absolute bop.” That hook should be forced to register as a deadly weapon. I do wish that it, you know, rocked a little bit, but I’ve never been too good to share a good power pop number, and certainly not when it’s from anything related to Seiko.

I do, however, feel horribly divorced from ZOC as they zero in on their anniversary. That’ll happen. But I need details: What is Seiko’s real-deal relationship to the group now? Are there other, bigger moves afoot? What’s it like to still be technically indie but, you know, being on a semi-major label and bolstered by the legions of fans of one of your country’s great musical treasures?