Melon Bataka a go go

This Is the Best Song Melon Batake a go go Ever Released

/ Homicidol Maniac / 1 Comment

I can’t stop listening to it!

So Melon Bat has a new single out at the end of the month. I saw this news and immediately felt very whelmed by it. We here at this website were early adopters of both Melon and Soze’s solo work (thanks, Brian!), and so championed the project’s growth through its first few releases. What a concept, and what a sound! If you’re intro Boomer retro stuff and the unique aesthetic of monster and/or alien movies and the rockabilly sounds that were popular a couple of generations ago, Melon really is for you. And since we do like those things, it was an easy match!

Ultimately, though, despite getting major distribution and momentarily seeming on the brink of rising beyond mere chika stages, Melon hit a rough patch and seemed to be left treading water between too-similar releases and a concept that felt like it had run its course. And a bit of a reboot! Even their stalwart gaijin wota fans seemed to be moving on. I personally saw glimmers of light in their last record, so maybe the skepticism wasn’t warranted, but here, seriously, check it: Continue reading →

New Move from Melon Batake a go go: YMMV

/ Homicidol Maniac

This post was supposed to happen on Saturday but Maniac forgot to finish the intro and then suddenly it was Wednesday!

I like that there’s just plain a lot more idol content in the past few weeks than there had been since, lort, February? Highs and lows here and there aside, idol’s mostly been on a slow burn since COVID and all of that. Or, for idol that is; other industries are like, oh you guys just kind of adjusted and moved on? But yes, more new stuff, and including new new stuff from old friends that first excites and then contents. Ah, you say, that hit the spot.

And so it was when one of Western fandom’s ubiquitous favorites, Melon Batake a go go, dropped a neat new number with a new MV (edit: the other day). It was good just to know that it existed, you know? And as I let it play, I had a few different thoughts — It’s been a long time! I don’t recognize like half of these members! — and I realized that for as much as I wanted to have something cogent and/or decent to write about the piece, I just couldn’t put my finger on it.

I gave it some replays, typed out various responses, and then thought: A-ha! Let’s get extra input from Team! And that was helpful. Continue reading →

IDOL is STILL ALIVE: Gyuno Fes is Live-Streaming Your Favorites on Nico Nico

/ DAEMON

Once upon a time, the plan was for this to be a bucket-list-level weekend. I was supposed to wake up in Tokyo this morning and hit Cinema and Boy CQ’s second anniversary live in Shimokitazawa before heading off to Hanako-San’s Death Day celebration and album release event. After a good night’s sleep, I was going to spend Sunday at day two of the Gyuu Agricultural Festival, aka Gyuno Fes (chika idol’s answer to Coachella) which was celebrating it’s fifth anniversary with an epic line-up of 50+ units that read like a Who’s Who of Homicidols. 

That was before the international travel warnings were issued, concerts were cancelled and new terms were added to our vocabulary like “social distancing” and “PPE”.

The only upside to all of this pandemic brouhaha is the dramatic increase in the number of chika idol live streams. So, even though I didn’t get to fly to Japan and attend Yanakoto Sotto Mute’s major label debut concert in person, I did get to watch it live from my living room.

And now we can all experience Gyuno Fes the same way!! Although the two-day festival has been postponed indefinitely, the organizers will be broadcasting a defiant “IDOL is STILL ALIVE” version of the event live on Nico Nico several hours from now. Continue reading →

The Grateful a MogAAAz Bring a Wide-Screen Masterpiece…

/ supremenothing

Yeah, I know we haven’t really dedicated as much ink to The Grateful a MogAAAz on this blog as they deserve. It’s not that we have any bias against them, we like them actually, but for me at least, they’ve never quite broken the intangible barrier that would truly win me over. I can’t even give you a good reason why except maybe to say that Melon Batake a go go’s shadow loom over them a bit too much. But I think the real truth is that it’s really my fault for not giving them enough attention and I simply need to do better.

https://twitter.com/mogaaaz/status/1239401155613974528?s=20

But there might be a change in the wind’s direction with this new tune from Melonbat’s sister group. They dropped a new MV and I casually decided to give it a click, thinking that I’d probably suggest it for the Weekender later on. And then I watched this video, and then I watched three more times…

Continue reading →

Melon, Who Gonna Melon, Does Melon: New Single

/ Homicidol Maniac

I’d been very curious about what Melon Batake a go go were going to do with their next (major) release. At first, those thoughts centered around the whole business of their recent international work — what’s well and truly next at that point? Where do you take things? Where do you aim? Within the concept, what’s possible?

Well, the new single is out in June, and the MV is here, and now we know:

Continue reading →

Here’s All the Jazz with Monster of Dolls

/ Homicidol Maniac

Folks, a new idol event has sprouted from the fertile soil of Western music fandoms, and the time has arrived for all details to be known and tickets to be available.

Monster of Dolls, a one-day event (May 11) in Bologna, Italy, is bringing as fine an assortment of idols and personalities as you can shake a stick at:

You can actually skip the Facebook thing if you don’t like being part of a massive data-mining scheme and just click here for tickets. Continue reading →