Goodbye BiSH: A Retrospective

BiSH officially disbands today, June 29th, following their last live at the Tokyo Dome. Like the members in their final official portrait (see the banner image above), the most commercially successful unit in the history of WACK ends their existence virtually unrecognizable (other than Atsuko’s glasses) from the fierce punks with all the naïve promise in the world who were booted from the 2015 Tokyo Idol Festival. While our attention on BiSH has waned over recent years as their music leaned more and more mainstream, our affection for the group and it’s multi-talented members has never wavered. Unfortunately, neither has our disappointment that BiSH, in their eight years of existence, never performed an overseas live.

It is hard to not to fantasize about what could-have-been with a BiSH that didn’t sign to AVEX and subsequently focus the entirety of their attention on expanding their appeal at home at the expense of international ambitions. But then again, a BiSH that didn’t sign to a major domestic label could not have evolved into the significant force in J-Pop music, fashion, and culture that they ultimately became. As Cal reminds me: 

“BiSH ARE one of the most popular groups in Japan with a diverse range of punk and pop rock songs who changed the world for the better.”

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A Little Peep From BiSH With Pyo!

This new song is pyotty good!

No? Not even a giggle? Alright then just stream the damn song.

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KASHiWACK Cataclysm

If you haven’t been keeping up with the news lately, this might come as a major shock: AKB48’s Kashiwagi Yuki (also known as Yukirin) joined every single WACK group at once! How do some people find the time, honestly.

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BiSH Announce Disbandment Plans for the Year After Next

At an emergency livestream called for the morning of Christmas Eve (Japan time) BiSH announced that they will disband at some point in 2023.

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Ayuni D, We Hardly Knew Ye

Victoria has nothing on this secret! Despite being in one of the nation’s most popular groups, Ayuni D has been keeping secret a little project for a while now. To the surprise of everyone, except the few BiSH fans who found out right away because of how distinctive her voice is, we’ve been thrust into the world of Aomushi (青虫).

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BiSH Runs a Race. Beats COVID

It was a big Tuesday for BiSH. First they dropped an  MV for “CAN WE STiLL BE??”, the opening track off their recent album, GOiNG TO DESTRUCTiON

They followed this announcement with the welcome news that Aina the End, Cent Chihiro Chittiii and Hashiyasume Atsuko had completed their quarantine periods following their recent COVID diagnoses and would all be resuming activities again .  

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I Enjoy This Particular BiSH Song Template

So as I was saying before, I had pretty high hopes for this BiSH album (out now!), and they graced us this morning with another MV from it, which:

I am supposed to be working right now, so this is also very short, so let’s suffice it to say that while the opening worried me that we had another “Orchestra” clone, “BE READY” here is more reminiscent of stuff from the FAKE METAL JACKET era, which for my money was actually the superior point in BiSH anthems, though now it’s both grown up and does include some tropes familiar to anybody who likes WACK artists or even just SCRAMBLES products.

I get to listen to the album today and remain pretty stoked about it.

I’ve Now Seen Enough to Know That I’m Looking Forward to the New BiSH Album

I think I figured out a pattern when it comes to BiSH in their “officially a big deal” era — the more seriously a release is treated by the group, the higher the likelihood that it might actually be kind of butt. Take for example Letters from last year. Yes, it did very literally top the charts; on the other hand, the only sentiment I got from fans in this particular circle was that the record was a disappointment. A win for WACK and Avex for sure, maybe less so for us. But when the announcement about GOiNG TO DESTRUCTiON landed a few weeks ago, I got a truly giddy feeling: Here was the BiSH that I love most, on the one hand playing into their old chaos merchants persona while also taking the same to a ridiculous level as a send-up of the self-serious approaches they’ve more recently taken to some of their bigger releases:

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Team Homicidols Reacts … to the New BiSH Song!

The damn thing’s already been viewed more times than most idol groups can hope for their entire lifetimes’ video corpus, so I doubt that you aren’t aware of the new digital single from BiSH. Theme song? You betcha! Starring Atsuko? As it should! Kenta? Is there any other way?

Rather than do the usual thing, I thought I’d plagiarize the results of the Team Chat from yesterday and give you: Team Homicidols Reacts! Continue reading

Please No End to Aina the End

Cal’s favorite singer, Aina the End of BiSH fame, has always had at least a few toes in other musical waters. Her early solo work, which I do encourage you to check out, shows a young woman who can do just about anything she’d want to. Her more recent material, which I kind of regret only half-mentioning in passing in the Weekender a little while ago (but here you go), is great at showing off her chops; her first full studio album, THE END, is out in February, but she released the first single from it yesterday. Friends, we must do everything we can to protect this gift to humanity.

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