You’re one of the most legendary idol performers to grace the stage and everything is going perfectly and then your group disbands. So next, you’re one of the most legendary idol performers to grace the stage and everything is going perfectly and then your band disbands. So after that, you’re one of the most legendary idol performers to grace the stage and everything is going perfectly then you lose a diet challenge and leave your group. AND THEN you’re one of the most legendary idol performers to grace the stage and everything is going perfectly but then your group disbands. So finally, you say fuck it and decided to make your own damn group.
Everyone say “HALLO PIGGS”!
If you haven’t been keeping up with things, Mother Superior Pour Lui founded her own company with a generous investment from dear friend Junnosuke Watanabe and under it, decided to form a new group with the overall goal of promoting overseas. The name is even short for “Produce Idol Go to world Is Good Society”!
Specifically, Lui mentioned in an interview they want to expand to China. A lot of Chinese idols have the “seemingly perfect” kpop vibe but with more focus on ballad style songs, so maybe the kinda rough around the edges rock idols you can watch grow to be more polished will be refreshing there? Only time will tell.
But of course, we live in the nightmarish age of Corona so nothing goes as expected. Debut music video filming had to be postponed and whatever plans they had were obviously thrown out but, of course, no successful businesswoman is without a Plan B.
In lieu of actual release events and traditional promo; Pour Lui, Shellme, Ban-ban, Chiyo-P and Umi would all be living together in Pour Lui’s house with her dog. Think of it as a quasi daily reality show but on YouTube. It’s PIGG Brother!
There were daily challenges set for the girls and if they managed to complete them while earning enough points, the album would be released early. Things from solving a 300 piece puzzle together, singing and even stuff in their daily life like eating (sometimes off of Shellme’s face). So good news – they all racked up enough points and PIGGS’ debut album “HALLO PIGGS” is on YouTube in it’s entirety ahead of the planned July 1st release!
All songs are produced by the mysterious “Ryan B”. But who is Ryan B? Well he B producing their songs but he also has a solo career under the name “Brian Shinsekai“. His solo works involve a lot of references to 80’s/90’s jpop which is a far cry from PIGGS’ glittery hair metal, but if you like Future Funk or actual music from that era, he is absolutely the artist for you. The retro influences from other spheres of music shine through in his work with PIGGS too – one of their songs is outright called “LoveCats” after the song by The Cure and “Moonage Driver” is a reference to David Bowie’s “Moonage Daydream”. Mister Shinsekai has an earnest love for all things retro, which shines through in his glossy takes on some beloved genres.
The icing on the cake for the early release is also a debut music video for “PIGGS – Mona Lisa-“, where the PIGGlets arise from their coffins filled with some of their favourite objects. Those include English language textbooks so best behavior, all of you. The small stage theatre is immediately met with the girls belting out “Mona Lisa, where did her smile go?” and the line immediately after contains a not-so-subtle nod to several WACK songs. The “ikanakucha” (like “we gotta go” or “I have to go”) uttered is the same phrase that first appeared in BiS’ eponymous song from their first album and cropped up again in several of their songs like BiSBiS, WHOLE LOTTA LOVE and BiS3 to name a few. You can take Pour Lui out of WACK but you begrudgingly can’t take WACK out of Pour Lui.
You can watch the video to PIGGS -Mona Lisa- below and if you feel like streaming the album ahead of the July 1st release date, everything is in this handy playlist here.
PIGGS’ journey has definitely been a strange one, but we live in strange times so maybe the girls from the quasi-reality show with their sights set on world domination are oink-xactly what we need.
No? Didn’t like that one? Just go stream the songs okay.
