PiiiiiiiN

The Latest from PIIIIIIIN Is a Lot of Being PIIIIIIIN

/ Homicidol Maniac

Well, okay, maybe it’s not quite as over-the-top as all that, but I was brought into all of the update-y stuff for this post by a Soundcloud notification, and the first thing I saw from it was the song title and my mind did all of the requisite stuff from there, actual facts on the ground that were to be subsequently discovered be damned.

PIIIIIIIN, who technically can only exist when they have seven members, have yet another new regime of seven members, and to commemorate the latest changeover dropped this new number that, correct, did scare me on their behalf, but just turns out to be a nice homage rather than what the past 16 months in idol have us so conditioned for: Continue reading →

This New PIIIIIIIN Song Is a Very PIIIIIIIN Song

/ Homicidol Maniac

Ah, PIIIIIIIN … I can’t think of more than a small handful of groups within the broader universe of loudol that do their particular thing quite so well and — if you’ve followed them for a while, you know what I’m talking about — in such an identifiable style. This even after the reboot brought their irrepressibly upbeat rock sound back to our lives; there could have easily been an update to the sound, too, but why would you do that when core elements of the group’s brand are “happiness” and “sunshine” and “toe-tapping”? No, PIIIIIIIN wasn’t going to stray too far from that, and frankly may they continue down this bright path until the very heat death of the universe.

So yeah the point of this piece is to say, hey, PIIIIIIN is back to seven members again*/**, and along with that they revealed a new song — here’s the live clip!

Oh man, you can’t hear much! But what if we actually had the whole thing? Would you like that? Would it prove the point? Continue reading →

PIIIIIIIN Shows That Yes, High School Can Kick Ass

/ Homicidol Maniac

I feel like you need to be of a certain age, or at least a certain demographic profile within a potential intergenerational range of time, to appreciate a particular orientation toward high school. See, when I was in that phase of life, none of the old stereotypes taught to us by Saved by the Bell or John Hughes movies really held up — radically evolving metacultural forces and growing up in basically nowhere will do that, I guess — but that didn’t mean that people didn’t try to hew closer to certain notions, and especially those who had a foot on each side of the divide in eras. For instance, I had friends who definitely still looked at the world through a lens by which a “popular” person was, by definition, a rude snob with only a tiny handful of sycophantic bully friends; that this all flies in the face of any kind of logic was lost on them. These were the folks, though, for whom high school kicked the most ass, because they could place every instance or relationship into a predefined box and feel confident that the world had an explanation.

And what a world that lets you live in! A world where you and your friends could always start a band and go on to be at least Local Famous just by the power of hard work and spunkiness, where even the biggest jerk teachers secretly see the genius hidden inside you, where the late trend in lip sync videos was a regurgitation of a much cooler era when everybody wanted to be Ferris Bueller a full decade too late, or at least Parker Lewis. It’s a world of constant sunshine, pep rallies, falling in love with your first kiss and impromptu dance troupes with everybody being everybody else’s best friend.

What does that have to do with PIIIIIIIN? Everything, apparently! Continue reading →

The Renewed PIIIIIIIN Has a New Single Cooking

/ Homicidol Maniac

One of the nicest surprises that you can get when idol-diving is something that you didn’t notice at first but tripped over while looking for something else. Like, I completely missed that PIIIIIIIN had dropped a new track the other day until I happened over to Soundcloud to find another track, and there it was, like the very best kind of slap in the face.

“Jumping” comes to us from their new single, due in a month. If this is what we’re getting from the ostensible A-side, I can’t wait to see what they do with its partner!

Continue reading →

These Are New PIIIIIIIN Songs

/ Homicidol Maniac

Forgive the lackluster tone in the title, gang; it seems that ol’ Maniac let himself get hornswoggled. Not for the first time, either! Idols will do that to you. At any rate, I was super enthusiastic about sharing just PIIIIIIIN’s song of the summer, only for them to turn around and do this to me instead:

Hey, okay, that’s a good one! It is implicit that there is more. Is there more? Continue reading →

Welcome Back, PIIIIIIIN

/ Homicidol Maniac / 1 Comment

It’s bad and it sucks when idols graduate and, from that, groups disband. Yeah, sometimes it’s for a good reason; more often than not, though, it’s just a bummer for everybody involved. So it was a pretty substantial while back now when PIIIIIIIN declared that they’d be hanging ’em up — it was unexpected, nobody seemed terribly thrilled about the move but not so invested as to try to stop it, and a bright light flickered out. I even eulogized the PIIIIIIIN experience!

And then, because the entire world is upside-down right now, it was announced that a PIIIIIIIN was going to be making a comeback. Yesterday, that happened. This was the set list for the re-debut, and presumably also their musical content for the time being: Continue reading →

‘Tis Apparently the Season for Idol Resurrections

/ Homicidol Maniac

You guys, it’s Golden Week. I love Golden Week — so much happens! I also hate Golden Week for the same reason. Would you believe that I originally wanted to publish this almost a full week ago? Madness. And yet, here we are.

Idol projects, like superheroes, are never guaranteed to stay dead, no matter how gruesome their demise. I bet that if a snap of the fingers wiped half of all idol from existence, a good chunk of them would still find a way to return even without the intervention of some cosmic power; it’s just the way that idol works.

That being said, I currently know of at least three idol projects that are on their way back to life. Continue reading →

Let’s Remember Some Idols: PIIIIIIIN

/ Homicidol Maniac / 1 Comment

Hey, who else remembers PIIIIIIIN? I sure do. Of course, right about the time that I started to get more into them, their end was imminent. So goes idol!

The uninitiated may be asking, who is this group with all of the I’s in the world in its name, and why is it italicized, and why are we remembering them? In reverse order:

That’s why

I can’t speak for the italicization, but just like how jerk-ass gym teachers will always remind you that there is no “I” in “team,” but in reverse, PIIIIIIIN included an I for every member of the group. So there were seven of them, natch. Continue reading →

PIIIIIIIN’s Farewell Looks Like It Must Have Been Pretty Fun

/ Homicidol Maniac / 6 Comments

Ah, PIIIIIIIN, one of my favorite could-have-beens in idol. I had only just started to come around on them about a year ago, and thoroughly enjoyed their whole sound during my reluctant embrace of loud idols who weren’t necessarily heavy idols.

And then poof! Shortly after announcing that the fans would get to select the update to the membership, they announced instead that the group was disbanding.

I’m still hunting for video and will add if I find any, but at least here’s some awesome merch and photos and stuff. Continue reading →

This Thursday Hurts Day Goes out to the Ides of March

/ Homicidol Maniac

I missed Indie Idol Wednesday yesterday, shame on me, but Twitter & Friends provided even more bad news from the world of idol, and of course that happened on the day that Caesar was stabbed to death by a combination of trusted friends and bitter enemies. History!

And that’s what a pair of idol projects are now, unfortunately. No, I’m not referring to the soon-to-die Hauptharmonie (my soul will never recover), but to one group that I used to think had a real chance to do something, and another that seemed like they were right on the cusp and in fact had been active and stuff lately. They’re dead/dying.

First up, Koisuru Beat. I really only got to look at them once, and almost a year ago at that, but had recently learned that they’d had some management/membership issues of their own and were operating as a solo effort. Well, they won’t be operating as anything anymore:

And this literally three days after calling for auditions. Rough one, and it’s a shame how these things shake out, but getting any real longevity in idol is basically a miracle, anyway, so hopefully the past unpleasantness doesn’t leave the ex-members without positive experiences and a chance to keep idoling if they want to.

This next one, though, is a little bigger. Continue reading →