Goodbye BiSH: A Retrospective

BiSH officially disbands today, June 29th, following their last live at the Tokyo Dome. Like the members in their final official portrait (see the banner image above), the most commercially successful unit in the history of WACK ends their existence virtually unrecognizable (other than Atsuko’s glasses) from the fierce punks with all the naïve promise in the world who were booted from the 2015 Tokyo Idol Festival. While our attention on BiSH has waned over recent years as their music leaned more and more mainstream, our affection for the group and it’s multi-talented members has never wavered. Unfortunately, neither has our disappointment that BiSH, in their eight years of existence, never performed an overseas live.

It is hard to not to fantasize about what could-have-been with a BiSH that didn’t sign to AVEX and subsequently focus the entirety of their attention on expanding their appeal at home at the expense of international ambitions. But then again, a BiSH that didn’t sign to a major domestic label could not have evolved into the significant force in J-Pop music, fashion, and culture that they ultimately became. As Cal reminds me: 

“BiSH ARE one of the most popular groups in Japan with a diverse range of punk and pop rock songs who changed the world for the better.”

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GANG PARADE Broke Up, But GTTB Are OK

Well now. After a year of delays it finally happened and GANG PARADE are finally just another memory for all of us. But just because it’s a memory doesn’t mean it’s gone – the new GO TO THE BEDS song from their upcoming EP BLOOD COMPACT has a melody that you might have heard LAST time…

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PIGGS’s First Single Is Really Driving Something Home for Me

Yeah, first, I know. But it’s true! PIGGS has only released excellent longer-play material so far; “T.A.K.O.” drops a week from today as the official first single of Pour Lui’s emeritus project.

I’ll tell you: I had no idea what to say about it! You can only complete so many permutations of “it good” before you run out of ways to put some kind of spin on a piece, and “it good” is just padding in a very similar way to how I’m padding out this sentence to increase the post length and give you all some extra bang for your buck. So let’s get it out of the way and talk about something that did strike me, maybe meaningfully, while watching this sucker.

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This Is (This) WILL-O”s Last MV

Other than I think one remaining closed fan event, the current system of WILL-O’ is done. No more releases (we already took care of that anyway), nada. I don’t know why I was surprised that they announced one final MV, these things being fairly standard, but I can proudly say that I knew exactly what it would be like when I saw the announcement!

The puzzle’s a really nice touch though

What’s next? Presumably a new regime at some future point, doubtlessly following in the same musical tradition. In the meantime, you may want to get caught up on your WILL-O’ video action, as they’re apparently deleting a ton of stuff off of the YouTube channel at the end of the month.

INforMEL and the Best for Last

This new MV from INforMEL was slated for the Weekender until I actually took a minute to watch it just now. I’ve had my head down a lot lately, with a lot of Day Job plus a training boot camp for another potential change in field PLUS a new course that I’m taking to do the job I already have somewhat better, oh and the pandemic rages on despite everybody in this country doing their level best to pretend that isn’t the case* and likely to start dying by the truckload in the next few weeks so it’s somehow now even more dangerous to go outside to, like, run or hike or something. That’s all been on my mind, and I’m tired in the first place, and I just kind of needed something to hit right, put a positive spin on things, provide a bit of uplift.

So INforMEL provided:

Now I’m feeling pretty good and kind of just want the post to end. Nothing else to say, right? It is what it is, let it stand on its own, maybe make a fart joke on the way out.

Oh but right, INforMEL graduated everybody and this was their swan song:

WHY IS THE VENUE CALLED THAT

Well that’s not a good mood-maker at all! Crud. I guess now we wait to see if/what/when happens next with INforMEL.

*Never forget that all politicians are sociopaths and human life has no meaning to them

Yukueshirezutsurezure to Disband on January 2, 2021

We ain’t got no words for this right now.

CARRY LOOSE, Carried Off

We’re Crying Loudly over here because those indie emo kids from WACK have finally fulfilled their promise to disband on Halloween, but not before leaving us with a final single and music video. Let’s color ourselves with COLORS.

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Making Sense of More Change in Zenbu Kimi no Sei Da

In part ignore the title on this one because I’m not actually trying to make any sense of this news for you; this is my way of working through an unhappy thing in my head and subjecting you to the process via blog post. You’re welcome.

So a couple of days ago, you likely saw the announcement from Zenkimi that, to add insult to injury following their hiatus-and-also-two-members-are-leaving announcement from, what, a month? two months go, dropped the biggest bombshell to date:

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Lots of Change Is Afoot for the Various Up Up Girls

I take no credit for this — Kerrie brought it up in chat and I just stuck it into the queue so as to have pieces in one place, to which Kerrie responded “OH GREAT YOU DO IT” and thus does one the least well-versed-when-it-comes-Up-Up-Girls-at-least people is the bearer of what is almost assuredly some degree of bad news, but these things do always depend on perspective.

So! Yesterday, Up Up Girls announced that, following a big-ass outdoor live on the 26th, the old regime will be no more and a new regime will rise.

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Arrow Heart Is Still Alive and You Need to Appreciate That

Who among you who regularly read ol’ Homicidols Dot Com in the early days, when I posted any and everything and marveled at the very ability of idols to exist on this mortal plane, are still around to reminisce with me? Ah, the glory days, when Alice Project fanboys sock-puppeted their way to … something, and we did stupid things purely for the sake of trying something new. And, pertinently, they were the days when I was blown away in so many ways by the persistent presence of a little idol project called Arrow Heart.

Listen to this! I’d do anything for a clean recording to really appreciate it — as Phillter (remember Phillter?!) once put it, they’re basically FRUITPOCHETTE sans some polish. And the neat thing about idols, you don’t need them to rock the hell out to appreciate them, as demonstrated: Continue reading