This Vivid Chicken MV Really Takes Me Back

/ Homicidol Maniac

I’m going to go ahead and say that one of my favorite newer idol projects is definitely Vivid Chicken, in case you couldn’t tell. And, friends, I’m going to go ahead and also say that my mind was far from idol yesterday until auhby (bless you) tweeted to make sure that I’d seen this one:

It ain’t new, but it’s new to me, and thank heavens for it.

Not everybody has their favorite big-time idol, but I think that just about everybody can agree that the idol underground is replete with little pleasures. Some of us like the underground as a repository of the genuinely unique and weird; some of us like it for how earnest it can be. Maybe your tastes are more in the direction of that that’s-the-point-of-idol thing, seeing young people grow as performers as a group finds its legs.

I’m not using the names Guso Drop and NECRONOMIDOL lightly here when I say that I get a very similar vibe to this first MV from Vivid Chicken. Style? Absolutely not. Image? Nope. But attitude? There’s a lot of that there. The feeling of maybe wanting some slicker production to go with an okay song? Definitely.

I wonder sometimes (like on days like yesterday!) where and what this whole Homicidols.com thing is ultimately going to be, where it’ll go. There’s a Catch-22 when it comes to idols: regardless of whether you get into a unit from the jump or at a later point in its growth, you nonetheless hope out loud for its success, even if just for the sake of the members; after a while, though, if they get too big, you run the risk of losing what made them most interesting in the first place. It kind of runs you out of energy, seeing something that you supported succeed, but maybe at the expense of your enjoyment.

But then these little moments, they make it worthwhile. And I wonder if, if this thing’s still kicking in three or four years, where projects like Vivid Chicken and some of the other newbies might wind up landing, and what the fan-value of these made-on-a-shoestring MVs will be.

Here’s some live:

One thought on “This Vivid Chicken MV Really Takes Me Back”

  1. I’m glad to see you’re also appreciating them high. Sometimes some groups just click a bit sharper, right?

    To me there’s something very charming in that candid rock style and relatively simple instrumental arrangement of the songs. Takes one back in the context of not only idol but, I think, more generally Japanese rock music, as well. More particularly, I get a strong 90’s visual kei feeling in their expression. The fact that there’s not much more to the song than a catchy riff and a good melody, makes it appear so rough and bare. Where are the heavy digital programming, synth walls, abrupt genre-adventures, and the industrial standard sound of 2010’s?! The song sounds (and the video looks) like it was made by some teenagers in a garage. Do they shine technically? No. But damn if they’re not serious and gonna storm you!

    Generally preferring the odd and the experimental in idol, I’m actually quite perplexed finding myself cheering this hard for Vivichiki. I’m really interested in seeing what kind of directions they’re going to take with their music and how far they’ll be able to get with that. Currently I wouldn’t make too much predictions of it.

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