Monster of Dolls

All Good Things Explode: BURST GIRL Announce Dissolution

/ DAEMON

In the latest episode of “COVID Ruins Everything”, BURST GIRL’s international debut has been postponed to never.  The strongest and most crazy punk idols have unexpectedly announced that they will be disbanding two weeks from now on the third of October. While three years and eight months is not a bad run for a fully self-produced, self-managed idol unit, for many of us (and the world at large), the end is coming far too soon.

Like many of you, we eagerly jumped on the BURST GIRL bandwagon from the moment of their creation having known Boss Rei, Miyako, Rinchama and Yurapico from the legendary indie-punk unit and Heaviest Idol in The World, Guso Drop.  When manager and producer Daichi-san announced Gudro’s disbandment because he couldn’t figure out how to make money with the group, the four idols must have decided they could do a better job than that, and took things into their own hands.  Continue reading →

Yukueshirezutsurezure Annouce 3rd Album and Oneman Tour

/ DAEMON

Just when you thought 2020 was going to be a total waste, Yukueshirezutsurezure have given us something to look forward to. Following their no-audience live Friday night, the unit-also-known-as Not Secured, Loose Ends announced the release of their third full album this coming August 26th.

In an inspired fit of uncharacteristic optimism, Tsurezure also announced an extensive oneman tour starting in late July and wrapping up the day before Halloween.

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The NECRONOMIDOL European Tour Experience: A Play in Three Acts

/ Homicidol Maniac

I’m deeply sorry, this thing wrote itself

What next twist for our heroes?!

Burst Girl’s Super Revolution

/ DAEMON

Change sometimes happens with glacial slowness. Sometimes, it comes in waves. Burst Girl apparently prefers change at the pace of a meteor strike. If a die-hard Burst Girl fan was hit by a bus and spent the week in a coma, they would be forgiven for waking up this morning, seeing the new MV and asking, “Who are these purple-clad punks and why does the center’s smile look so familiar?” 

Burst Girl’s revolutionary week started last Sunday when it was announced that they would be making their Western debut as part of Italian idol festival Monster of Dolls 2020 line-up.

Then Monday saw the graduation of Zero-chan. Though I’ve been overusing the phrase this year, this graduation is an end of an era. Rei-chan was an iconic presence in chika idol and it is hard to remember a time when she wasn’t the BOSS, first of Guso Drop and then of Burst Girl.  
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Monster of Dolls interviews, Part 1: Sari

/ chris

First, apologies that it’s a little short. Translation difficulties I alluded to elsewhere meant that the chat was not as free-flowing as I had hoped. But hey, isn’t this the first post-Necronomidol interview with Sari?I’m pretty sure it’s the first one in English, so let’s claim that.  Friends, Romans, countrymen: Homicidols.com presents…

THE FIRST POST-NECRONOMIDOL INTERVIEW WITH SARI (in English)!

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The Italian Job: One Englishman’s First Idol Concert

/ chris / 1 Comment

Our story starts on the morning of the concert.  I had been doing a spot of sightseeing in Bologna…

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LADYBABY Love You, but Have to Destroy You

/ DAEMON

I promise that I will never look away again.

On Team Homicidols, we’ve been distracted a lot lately by art house groups and hi-concept math-punk units or idols that make you stare at your shoes and weep.  But now that we gazed so hard at ・・・・・・・・・ that they vanished back into the ether from whence they came, it might be best to sink back into basics for a little while. Like a nice, simple “you got chocolate in my peanut butter” blend of J-pop and Metal.

I wonder what LADYBABY has been up to?

DAAAAaaaaaammnnn…

Screaming, growling, rapping, clean choruses and djenty guitars: that’s some back-to-fundamentals kawaii nu-metal right there, and a perfect illustration of how Team LADYBABY have stayed relevant though all of the unit’s formations and turmoil.  They get the basics right and they do it incredibly well.  There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, especially when the output is this ferocious and enjoyable.

I have a feeling that this MV will earn stock-image status for any future profiles of alternative idol.  It’s practically iconic.

This new release has especially got to excite everyone heading to Monster of Dolls next month in Italy as this track is going to be an absolute banger live.

Making an Idol Monster: We Talk to the Creative Team behind Monster of Dolls

/ DAEMON / 1 Comment

Just a few months ago, Homicidols published a profile of fans-turned-promoters bringing alternative idols to the Western World.  Looking back now, the article is a bit embarrassingly anglo-centric. Unbeknownst to us at the time, a group of Italian-speaking fans were putting the finishing touches on their own considerable efforts to launch an alt-idol festival in Italy. When the final lineup for the event was revealed in mid-February, it was clear that there was a new and significant player in the business of importing underground Japanese idol to the West.

https://twitter.com/monster_dolls/status/1096753534014578688

Seemingly overnight, the hardol diaspora had grown another tendril.

On May 11th in Bologna, Italy, Monster of Dolls will play host to alt-idol A-listers LADYBABY, the Western debut of JyuJyu, and an appearance by the legendary Sari of NECRONOMIDOL fame. The event’s biggest coup, however, is scoring the first ever overseas live for perhaps the hottest chika idol act in Tokyo: Melon Batake a go go.

The appearance of this top-tier alt-idol festival, seemingly out of nowhere, was the most pleasant of surprises. Our curiosity was piqued, not just about the cost of plane tickets to Italy, but also about the festival itself, the brains behind it, and about the Italian-speaking fandom whose presence we had been totally ignorant of until now. So we reached out to our new Italian allies in the quest to bring alt-idol to the West in the hopes that we could learn all we could.

We think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

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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 →