Featured Image: ENVY PARANOID.
It was a relatively quiet week for the bigger names in alternative idol, which, as it turns out, is excellent news for everyone else. With the exception of PIGMONZ, most of the heavy hitters took a bit of a breather, giving a real opportunity for the underdogs to get some room in the spotlight, and everyone featured below made very good use of it.
Featured Image: RAY.
It was a brutal week, having to return to the realities of work after spending last weekend in a reality distortion bubble crafted by JIEMEI, THEΔRAREz, and a small horde of kaigai idols in LA. I pushed through, and we’re back at the weekend again where I can now relax and plot my next escape to the Idol World where all of the meetings are off-kais and the only deadlines are for VIP line-ups. Here’s a few upcoming options:
Featured Image: SoboRESONICA.
This edition of The Weekender is brought to you from Los Angeles where we are on location for the US debut of JIEMEI. They kicked off their US tour last night with a mini live at Asayoru Maid Cafe. The venue serves as a cornerstone of the local idol scene and has become a stop for many units passing through town. JIEMEI performed a handful of songs in maid uniforms before switching into yukata for a powerful acoustic set. I am now convinced that the acoustic version of “Autophilia” should be the default arrangement moving forward. In fact, I would endorse the production of an entire acoustic JIEMEI album. Stripping down the instrumentals really highlighted the members resonant vocals and revealed some hidden emotional depths to these songs.
Featured Image: LOST IN LOVE.
The annual Tokyo Idol Festival is happening right now and, for the first time in four years, we have not dubbed it FXXK TIF Weekend. The reason behind the softening of the Homicidols heart is that the event organizers finally, explicitly, opened up ticket sales to overseas fans. I still haven’t come around completely and put “Attending TIF” back on my bucket list for two main reasons:
Featured image: NARUKAMI.
It’s hot and humid, so I’m going to keep the preamble short and find some AC. The Oshiloss Corner is back but still in abbreviated form, which is good news for us. It must be too hot for Manager-san to fire all but the worst offenders.
Featured image: yubiningyou.
Idol summer rolls on and we have a dearth of summer MVs to share this week. Since our focus here is on the alternative side of idol, there’s not a swimsuit to be found among them, but a couple feature visits to the beach.
Also, for what I believe is the first time in 504 Weekenders, we have no Oshiloss to report. If I had an unpaid intern, I would have them go through the last 503 editions to double check but, if I recall correctly, we almost had an oshiloss-free week one other time and it was spoiled by word of a last minute graduation. In other news, we are currently recruiting for an unpaid intern. Please apply by DMing me over on the Homicidols Discord server.
Featured image: PassCode.
It was a fantastic week for loud idol. One of our most legendary units was given a moment in the mainstream spotlight, some furious new releases from perennial favorites dropped, and we got a blast of heartsick nostalgia as some old live clips of one this site’s most beloved former units surfaced out of nowhere. But first:
Featured image: Mazari.
It has been a turbulent week, especially for those of us in Los Angeles for what was supposed to be the US debut of You’ll Melt More! later today at Anime Expo. As you may have heard, the foundational chika idol unit ran into some issues at US customs, and had to immediately head back to Japan and cancel all scheduled appearances.
Featured image: Antithese.
This week we are coming to you from Los Angeles where we will be spending some time with YURAPICO and catching next weekend’s US debut of You’ll Melt More! My first order of business in LA was delivering a shipment of t-shirts and other goods to YURAPICO as Homicidols has, once again, teamed up to design her US tour merch. This time it is an original design from Kerriepico.
Featured Image: REIRIE.
500 Weekenders published over the course of 500 consecutive weeks. If you do the math, it works out to just over nine-and-a-half years. That is nearly a decade of spending Friday nights digging through the dark, chaotic, endlessly weird and wonderful corners of the alternative, indie, and underground idol scene to deliver this synopsis each Saturday morning.
When The Weekender first started, groups were disbanding and re-emerging in new formations and under new names faster than we could keep track of, and most of the MVs were live performance clips and badly lit dance videos that looked and sounded like they were shot on a toaster.
Nothing has changed.
