If you haven’t seen/heard this yet, I envy you because this is so urgent and exciting that the first time is the best time. (But don’t worry, it’ll still hold up the 323rd listen, trust me, I know.) Just be warned though that if you’re viewing this on your phone, the fire just might burn your hands, so be careful…
With that in mind, turn your volume up as loud as it can go and hit the play button on “GALS” by hip-hop supergroup Zoomgals, joined by special (awesome) guest Yayoi Daimon with an unlikely but welcome cameo of Japan’s esteemed academic sociologistShinji Miyadai!!!
In my duties maintaining The Calendar, I stumbled across an upcoming livestream with a guest performance by one of my current trad-ol favorites, caeca. The headliner and presenter for the show is a unit named MIC RAW RUGA(laboratory) who have apparently been hosting a regular series of lives featuring site regulars such as Gu-Gu LULU, Los an Jewels and NELN. I was intrigued that a unit with such impeccable associations could fly under the Homicidols radar for so long, and decided to see what they were all about.
Yeah well, hear me out here… while maybe not really an idol in the narrow sense, Akko Gorilla did perform on the “Smile Garden” stage at the Tokyo Idol Festival this year, plus she’s tight with lots of cool people we like on this blog, and most importantly, makes fantastic next-level music with a skies-the-limit crossover potential. It’s crossed my mind several times that I thought she deserved some “Friends of Homicidols” coverage, because what’s she’s doing is amazing and really deserves to be heard and appreciated. Earlier this month, Akko made her major-label album debut with “GRRRLISM”, which I’ve been listening to a lot over the last week and decided this is the window to finally induct her into this website. If you like nontraditional rappers like Charisma.com and KOM-I of Wednesday Campanella, then you should definitely dig into this. So c’mon ya’ll, let’s talk about Akko Gorilla…
The first time I heard Akko Gorilla was in 2016 when she released her debut, “Tokyo Banana”.(She had been building up a name for herself with MC battles at the same time.) Her first album’s got this lo-fi and organic vibe that is perfect for Akko’s hyper-speed flow of words: Lot’s of live drums and natural bass with a cool vibe that one doesn’t usually get from a lot of over-produced, glossy hip-hop. If you haven’t listened to Akko Gorilla, I might suggest you go ahead and start there so you can trace her growth over the last few years.
I’m officially confused! Koutei Camera Girl Zwei died. Koutei Camera Gal lives and is fun. Koutei Camera Girl Drei was supposedly happening … so then where does that put us with Koutei Camera Actress?
I’m not always going to highlight every hip-hop-related thing that happens in idol (that’s for the other site), but I know that a whole lot of you guys are into Koutei Camera Girl (RIP) and subsequently into their spin-off, Koutei Camera Gal, and Saturday’s kind of become the honorary Tapestok Records day, so why not?
Gal went and made use of a very busy week for idols on Soundcloud, and it’s just about exactly what you’d want from them:
Having now seen this shared in a great number of public fora ever since I caught it while walking into a restaurant for dinner on Tuesday, it’s probably not news to a lot of you, but still. Koutei Camera Girl Zwei may not have made the final cut in the Best/Worst of 2016 nominations, but they still deserve your love and respect in their fleeting remaining time together.
おはようございます。本日はコウテカ2の 3rd album "Night on Verse" リリース日です。MVアップしましたので是非ご覧下さい。 【MV】Lil Tomte / 校庭カメラガールツヴァイ https://t.co/stPVODOdze
Somebody give them lots of money, then book them with Oyasumi Hologram and the three-headed dragon named Bell Melt Mute that I sometimes like to pretend exists, and send them on a world tour of student unions and coffee shops
Hey, do you guys remember DEVIL NO ID? I had been curious if, after that initial promotional blitz, they’d get something else out the door before too long. Of course they delivered it on Halloween.
Stop your complaining! These days, if it isn’t BiS/H, it’s Babymetal, with sprinklings of other stuff. It’s not my fault that a whole bunch of the idol world is just doing a bunch of shows and festivals right now, or having heartbreaking last one-mans; if I want to keep things moving, and ON A SUNDAY, I gotta get creative.
This post was inspired by the following message from our good friend and fellow Know Your BiStory conspirator @weeaboowitch:
