Indie

You Should Get RAY On Your Radar Right Now…

/ supremenothing

I’ve been kind of tingling with giddy anticipation all day today since this bit of news broke via a retweet from the Dots staff twitter. As you may know, the mysterious mind behind Dots has been quietly planning a successor to the seminal experimental and constantly evolving shoegaze idol project, and at last, it appears that the time is nigh for the next event to break out and dare I suggest, likely shatter expectations with an exciting new unit…

It’s RAY, and their plan as stated, is to bring about “Omnidirectional music development and performance”. The group is determined to achieve a fusion of idol with different fields of interest in ways that have never been done before. They’ve also stated that they fully intend to reach out and collaborate with creators on a global level, and they’ve already made good on that promise: Their first international connection will come in the form of music provided by the amazing Austin, Texas shoegaze band Ringo Deathstarr. (This is the part where I went from excited to really really excited.)

It turns out that Ringo Deathstarr toured Japan earlier this year and crossed paths with Dots while making the highly active shoegaze scene there, and well, good things came of it. This is a pretty high-profile beginning that could potentially introduce RAY with a pretty new audience, with a nice bit of indie-cred attached to it!

So who are these RAY girls? A couple of things: This group will be significantly different  because the members will not be anonyomous entities. And not only will they have names attached to their faces, but each girl will also pursue solo work, and work on individual projects using crowdfunding to help pursue their goals. It’s a very unique and yet still groundbreaking arrangement that’ll be interesting to see unfold. Here they are…

(I’m not sure if anyone looks familiar to you or not, but I’ll offer you this much… One of these girls is somebody whose eyes you’ve never seen before…)

RAY will be making their live debut on May 1st, and it’s a safe bet that they’ll be highly talked about shortly after. You can follow the group’s twitter account here, their official website here, and also click on the members above to follow them too!

Very cool and very wonderful things are unfolding here, and this is your opportunity to not miss the boat.  RAY is gonna show us the way!

 

Tickets Are Now on Sale for the Most Indie, Idol and Infamous Tour in the UK

/ Homicidol Maniac

How conveniently named then!

Yes friends, the thing that you should be incredibly hype for if you’re able to go, and at least somewhat hype for just because it exists, is now something that you can officially purchase a ticket for, which you should undoubtedly do, and soon:

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Now That’s What I Call Indie: Ichiho Goes Executive

/ Kerrie

I won’t lie, when I first saw an announcement post followed by news tweets of Ichiho’s face, I panicked a little. Thankfully, it’s nothing to do with my horrible luck when it comes to picking oshis this time around.

At first, I was going to try and weasel out of this, “oh, I don’t know enough about this for a full article, maybe I’ll leave it for Weekender fuel” but then I remembered that I just published an article about a group who have released almost nothing at all, and I realised I had no excuse. Continue reading →

Wyenra Is Like Some Kind of New Stage for Indie Idols

/ Homicidol Maniac / 4 Comments

So. It’s Sunday. There are no hard-and-fast rules around what does and does not constitute “easy” when it comes to Sundays, though that designation has in the past extended to such things as HAMIDASYSTEM and random H!P things and I think AH* that one time. The point is, I usually like to use Sunday as a time to celebrate cool, interesting, homi-ish idol things that maybe don’t have the pedal all the way down to the metal.

Today, arguably my new favorite thing this week, wyenra:

News of this unit’s creation and inauguration has been randomly, one might even say ordained-ly, been kicking around Twitter and my dang inbox for a couple of weeks, but here they are, for real, in the digital flesh. Completely self-produced, self-managed, etc. They’re still putting together their first lives, but they’re also putting together really nice music with a really well-done MV. Also, two of the members are sisters, I think. Continue reading →

Indie Idol Wednesday Is an Ass-kicking

/ Homicidol Maniac / 2 Comments

Happy Indie Idol Wednesday! In today’s look into the indie side of (the hard side of) idol, I give you vampire girl Hoshina Fumimi:


Thanks as always, Viz Major!

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You Don’t Even Need Japanese to Understand This Idol Documentary That’s All in Japanese

/ Homicidol Maniac / 1 Comment

This is pretty cool; if you have a little while today or tomorrow or over the weekend or at some point before the heat death of the universe, give this documentary on the idol underground, the people performing and the people who love them a watch:

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An Inside Look at Becoming an Indie Idol

/ Homicidol Maniac

I found this article while cruising through Reddit. It’s several months old, but the information is probably still really valuable.

Not all of the idols featured on this site are indie, and the indie scene is so big and diverse that it would be nuts to even try to encompass everything (even the forthcoming companion site won’t try that), but we do have a soft spot for those self-managed, in-it-for-the-love-of-performance idols who “tour” Tokyo or Osaka and have a handful of devoted wotas and otherwise sweet, delicious anonymity outside of the clubs.

This is also a good opportunity to link again to good friend Pure Idol Heart (site / Facebook), who seriously follows the indies and smaller agency talents. There’s another real insider look to the process of becoming and being an idol that you should look into.