band

YOU’LL ROCK MORE! with YOU’LL MELT MORE!

/ supremenothing

Our fully comprehensive but not-too-throughly-serious retrospective of the first 50 (52 actually) MV’s by the always daring and darling YOU’LL MELT MORE! may have been wrapped up, but this blog has no plans to stop covering one of our personal favorite groups! Yea, verily, let it be known that as long as YMM! has the power to melt our hearts, we’re on board with them til’ the end!

Having gotten my opening declaration out of the way, let’s talk about what item has us here today: A terrific live performance of the bravest and most experimental idol unit returning to a band configuration that includes new members Nerun and Nani! This is also notable because Kechon gets to play an actual full drum kit while Younapi has cast aside her usual keytar for a nice n’ noisy guitar…

First off, I’m always very happy to see these ladies do their “band thing” and I’d be more than pleased if they did it more frequently. Are they the most polished and slick band around? Heaven’s no and thank goodness for that! There’s already a a few hundred too-slick, booooooring, over-produced bands on the planet, and who really needs another one on that forgettable heap? Personally, I’m from the Shaggs School of Primitive Rock and this scratches that itch wonderfully.

You can sense the slightly tense concentration here as the group does something they don’t do that often, but that tension is tempered with a shot of joy and fun that keeps this from feeling awkward and forced like a music school recital. You can get a feeling of quiet satisfaction in Kechon as she keeps up the time on the drums, like a personal battle is being won, while Younapi becomes giddy as she shifts from playing simple chords to let loose on a chaotic Jojo Hiroshige-esque guitar solo. I also love the way Chiffon not-quite-so-discreetly sneaks across the stage to get her own little shot at making some guitar noise too…

https://twitter.com/ylmlm_staff/status/1296764919925202953

And then there’s our two new members, “Song of the Summer 2020” nominees Nerun and Nani… Being so relatively green, they perhaps haven’t gotten a crack at an instrument yet, but they do a great job of offering vocals and even a little of back-up percussion including yes, a glorious cowbell!  And then Nerun pulls out a recorder (most infamous instrument in the world) and manages to play it in a non-irritating fashion, which is certainly no small feat!

It’s a short, breezy video that goes by fast, but I think it’s most certainly brought us a few minutes of positive cheer. Hopefully we’ll get a another reward like this soon, and goodness knows I hope we can get more ep/MV/singles from YOU’ll MELT MORE! before the year is over. We need all the good vibes we can get!

With this spirit in mind, and a realization that summer is rapidly coming to a close (and heading into an uncertain Fall) here’s one more live blast of Yurumerumo! to take us out…

 

This Is Your Timely Reminder That BOSS Is Boss

/ Homicidol Maniac / 1 Comment

You may have seen, friends, that longstanding idol of terror Rei, aka BOSS, formerly of Guso Drop and now running BURST GIRL through her iron will, has a new project of the likes that really only she would have. I thought, this is a Weekender item and didn’t want to take it too seriously, but then I remembered how I’d have felt about this a couple of years ago and realized that, heck, this is the kind of thing that I’d have had kittens over not all that long ago, so let’s make a big-ass deal out of it!

Knuckle Chihuahua! Or “Chiwawa” as they apparently would like for it to be spelled.* I don’t know what that is. Like, a fighting tiny nigh-hairless dog that fits in a purse? Sounds about right. And of Boss will be providing vocals as only a person who sounds like a chain-smoking trucker but hasn’t ever actually been a chain-smoking trucker can do. Rei is literally the best. I hope they start off doing more-or-less accessible punk songs and then devolve into some spectacular grind thing. Continue reading →

Here’s Minna no Kodomo-chan: The Band in Action, Officially

/ Homicidol Maniac

This started off as a Weekender thing until I had that sudden sinking feeling that I hadn’t brought up 2018 Corenament champion and all-around great pair of people Minna no Kodomo-chan, and even then it was just going to be a throwaway post until — gasp! — I went back to read up on what the real hook should be and remembered that not only had Everybody’s Children promised to go full-idols-plus-band-entity, but that this might be the first time that was put to video, like, officially.

In overall context, that’s a big deal! I certainly thought so, a take apparently so hot that it’s still burning its way toward the earth’s molten core (where it belongs). Which is profoundly stupid, because a) everybody likes when idols play with bands and b) there’s nothing about the permanent inclusion of live musicians on a stage or in the studio that in any way obscures the experience of idols doing idol things, and certainly not so for the audience, and c) if you’re ostensibly a music fan, having more music in a performance is probably a good thing.

Anyway, seeing as how I come down very hard on the side of Minna No Kodomo-chan As A Band Is Going To Be A Good Thing, and also because I am a very rambunctious supporter of one of the low-key best acts in chika idol, here’s that good thing in action: Continue reading →

Minna no Kodomo-chan: The Band Experience Is Pretty Great

/ Homicidol Maniac

“Man, slow idol morning,” he said to himself while doop-dee-dooping his way through Twitter. “Hellow, what’s this?”

Live clips, you say! I’ve been hoping to get a gander at how 2018 breakout candidates, Corenament winners Minna no Kodomo-chan were shaping up now that they’re a full-time band+idols performance unit. How–

Oh my! Continue reading →

Minna no Kodomo-chan Is Doing the Band Thing Forever OMG

/ Homicidol Maniac / 1 Comment

Things to never, ever tweet at me:

Like, this is important, you guys. You ask for takes, you get takes, and you know that my takes are never short takes and often are in fact quite long takes that the more cynical among us could construe as attempts to pad out the post length and insert extra keywords and stuff. HOW DARE YOU.

But the point is, as the title suggests, that Corenament winners and all-around solid kids doing dangerous music Minna no Kodomo-chan are no longer simply going to be an idol duo, but an idol duo fronting a band:

Continue reading →

Yuzuki’s Band Turn Continues to Be Very Loud

/ Homicidol Maniac

In the ongoing saga of Q’ulle’s Yuzuki having probably the most impressive overall up-stepping solo project in contemporary idol (YUZUKINGDOM!), the erstwhile dancer-turned-singer-turned-this continues her BLOOD STAIN CHILD collaboration with a new single that isn’t quite as throat-rippingly nasty as the first track, but isn’t exactly letting you off easy, either:


Somebody explain what “Roskill Lavender” means, please

I like Good Yuzuki vs. Evil Yuzuki, myself. Continue reading →

The Band Form of REGiNA KiSS Is Working Out

/ Homicidol Maniac

Ah, REGiNA KiSS, the idols that I can never get anybody to pay attention to half as much as they deserve to be paid attention to. I don’t get it! Of those who have looked, the reviews are almost always positive. “Yes, Maniac, you are right, they are good” is the stock reply, in fact. Granted, I hear that all the time because my taste is impeccable, but let’s not digress!

REGiNA KiSS, originally a more full-on, explicitly idol project, made the move a little while back to be one of those idol+band hybrids. That could have gone any of a number of ways, honestly; it’s like how throwing a pass in football has three potential outcomes, and only one of them is good. I think it’s safe to say that it worked out in this case:

Continue reading →

And Thus Ends DISDOL

/ Homicidol Maniac / 3 Comments

It happened so quietly that it wasn’t until Idolatry hit me up the other night that I had any idea that things were amiss:

Yup. DISDOL called it a wrap. Or, more specifically, called it an end to idol and the full transmogrification into bandhood. Continue reading →

Oh, REGiNA KiSS Is a Band Now?

/ Homicidol Maniac

I’ll just go ahead and admit that I didn’t see this one coming:

Huh. Well, okay, super-underappreciated former-idol-trio-turned-duo REGiNA KiSS, whose inability to garner even very many page views briefly made them my favorite idol thing to write about, are … well, they’re a band! Like, not Idols in Front of a Band, but, hell, are they even really idols anymore? Between the gravure and stuff, one might think so, but there are few guarantees in the underground anymore. They sometimes appear as the whole unit thing, or sometimes isn’t just the idols, but. Continue reading →

Younapi Puts the Y in YMQ…

/ supremenothing / 1 Comment

Our dearest Younapi of YOU’LL MELT MORE! is just a whirling dervish of activity! Aside from being a member of one of the most prolific oddball idol groups around, she’s consistently making the rounds as a soloist, DJ, artist, clothing designer, and now, because that just wasn’t enough to hold her attention, she’s got herself a new band project!

Continue reading →