The 50 Greatest Alternative Idol Albums of the Last Decade: #31 – 40

Welcome to week two of our latest project where we blatantly rip off Rolling Stone’s Greatest of All Time lists.  These imperfect and perpetually recurring features from the Gray Lady of rock journalism have a special place in my heart. As a young teen who only knew David Bowie from “Let’s Dance” and Labyrinth, my first browse through Rolling Stone’s inaugural best rock album list introduced me to The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.  The encounter was genuinely life changing.

Hopefully, through this exercise of recognizing some of the most influential underground, indie and alternative idol albums of the last decade, you will not only encounter many of your personal favorites, but make some new discoveries as well.

Continue reading

Screaming 60s Take a Breath

Five years and 1,293 shows later, Screaming 60s capped what has been perhaps the most relentless and legendary run in chika idol history with am exuberantly emotional live at Zepp Nagoya on September 2nd.

As the group enters a period of indefinite (and perhaps permanent) hiatus, the entire chronology of the Screaming 60s saga has been painstakingly documented in a commemorative booklet available for download.

All parties involved have been cagey, carefully avoiding saying that Screaming 60s are finished and only reminding us that nobody knows the future. We do, however, know that Montero’s immediate future largely involves motherhood. Kai, for her part, didn’t even take a day off before announcing her new role as vocalist for a just-launched band, Tentai 3349. Continue reading

Get Your Zekkyou Fix While You Can, For the End Is Nigh

And thus we add another project’s corpse to the pile created by this brutal year.

You probably saw the recent hubbub around Montero, the half of Screaming Sixties who did not get to perform in the UK last year (though we did chat with Kai), who announced that she was pregnant. While this was remarkable in itself — not because an idol clearly had a sex life, but because it was received mostly positively by fans of all stripes — and I was halfway to writing up a thing in relation to that, yesterday brought forth what’s probably the logical conclusion to the whole affair; Zekkyou’s putting an end to things after a one-man at the beginning of September:

Here’s Kai’s reaction: Continue reading

We Review Things: Screaming Sixties | “Zetsu”

Zetsu is an 18-track epic from two of the greatest warriors in chika idol.  Since forming in 2014, Montero and Kai of Zekkyosuru 60 Do, aka Screaming Sixties, have driven enough miles to circumnavigate the globe twice while performing approximately 300 gigs a year. And that isn’t hyperbole.

The next time you find yourself in Japan you can be certain that, somewhere, Screaming Sixties are performing a show and you need to get to whatever city they’re playing in because that’s why they made Shinkansen.

Before I get into the review itself, I want to make sure I don’t bury the lede: This is an essential album that you need to purchase immediately!

If you have any thoughts of picking up Zetsu (and you should), you need to open the website of your Japanese music retailer of choice and order it today. Most sites are starting to flag this CD as back-ordered and, if history repeats itself, once the first pressing of this CD is sold old, the only place you will be able to find it is at a Zekkyo60 live.  Also note: most retail sites won’t recognize “Screaming Sixties” as the group name so you will need to search on Zekkyosuru 60 Do or 絶叫する60度 . Continue reading

Go Buy Zekkyou’s Album, Geez

Hey you guys! The first real-deal Screaming Sixties album is out today, and you were probably already planning on buying it if you were aware of that fact; if you are just learning that fact, there’s a good chance that you now want to buy that album. Good thinking! And if you are the kind of dunderhead who needs more encouragement despite previously existing awareness of Zekkyou, why, perhaps this very full album trailer will inspire you to make better life decisions!

Very nice to include those clips of Maina from the MV!

Continue reading

At Long Last, a Full-length Zekkyou Album

And it’s a long one!

Yesterday, Screaming Sixties, half still thriving in the afterglow of having visited the UK as part of the glorious round of international idol work in 2018 (and meeting Kerrie!), made it official: There’s a full album on the way, there will be 18 songs on it, and it’s coming in March:

Okay, so there’s a lot there that we’ve heard before. This is Zekkyou that we’re talking about, though — the Hardest Working Idols in Showbusiness, Queens of Collaboration, winners of musical reality shows. Just the fact that they’re finally putting out a full-length that’s all theirs, that is sans collaborations, feels like a triumph.

And we only need to wait two more months!

Kerrie Interviews Idols: Kai (Screaming Sixties)

What a wild ride. I only just recovered from Maison Book Girl last month, and now I’m back from hanging out with three other idol acts with barely any time to relax in between each one. I feel like I’ve ascended to a new plane of existence. A huge thank you to everybody who made this happen, from the Orion and show staff to Maniac and you guys, the readers (a couple of whom I even met on Monday! Sorry if I seemed awkward!) you’re the best.

Before Maniac changed plans to honor the new Oshi, this interview with Screaming Sixties’s very own Kai was the first of the week. Sadly, her partner in crime, Montero, couldn’t make it to the UK due to some last-minute visa issues, so Kai came completely alone this time around. But at the show, she promised to come back and bring Montero with her! Be warned, England.

Despite being nervous at going it alone, nobody would have been able to tell from Kai’s dominant energy and confidence once she was on stage. It was as if Montero was still performing for us, we just couldn’t see her. Like her spirit had possessed Kai to create one super-powerful being to make up for her absence. What I’m trying to say, is that Kai rocked it, and did an amazing job despite the unexpected setbacks.

Continue reading

It’s Been a Long Wait, but It’s Worth It for Zekkyou

Gah, I have been waiting >forever for this, and it’s my own fault; I’ve had placeholders about item #2 in this post just sitting in the queue for … well, a while. Nonetheless! It’s time for some motherhubbard Zekkyou rocking your dang face off:


Urge to two-step rising …

Welcome back to the world of staged, pro-shot MVs, Zekkyou, and prepare for the warm embrace that this is going to bring you even before you set foot in the UK. Continue reading

I Interview Idol (Managers): Daichi

I alluded to this one yesterday, team, and I’m still buzzing a little bit from getting a chance to have a real-deal conversation with the man behind Guso Drop, 2&, Hoshina Fumimi, Himegoto Zettaichi, ancillarily Screaming Sixties, formerly Poroporo Baroque, and so on. Folks have been dying to know the score ever since it was announced a few weeks ago that Guso Drop was going to disband, and, while Daichi has been pouring his heart out on Twitter, there have been oh so many questions.

Krv is the real hero here — because he’s friends with Daichi in addition to being a fan, he offered to hook up an interview, and then provided real-time translation over LINE, and at an ungodly hour for his timezone to boot. I have the patrons to thank, too, for providing a really good starting place in terms of questions and topics. I ultimately cut this about in half by combining thoughts and letting Daichi do some of the driving, but I hope that we were able to get to the gist of what you were curious about.

I was just hoping that I wasn’t going to offend anybody.

So! Have you ever wanted to get into the head of an idol manager? What about an idol manager who’s in the midst of ending his flagship project? Or an idol manager who’s always looked at himself as a musician first? Or even just a guy who’d say:

If he throws a dinner party with human flesh on the menu, I’d probably go along!

Read the whole thing! Continue reading

We Never See Enough of Zekkyou Live

I really, truly, genuinely always regret that I’m never able to do enough for Screaming Sixties ’round these parts. They work so hard and so much, like literally professionally idoling (or maybe they have weird day jobs, I don’t know), and they have a great thing going for them, but they release so little and almost never put out more than tiny little snips of video.

Here’s a nice big chunk from their show with I love you Orchestra the other day!

Continue reading