“Oh gee look at all of these draft posts to try to address this morning” I said to myself as I flipped over to Twitter about 15 seconds after this hit the top of the timeline:
Plans? Canceled. Other than a very quick crash course from Kerrie and Cal, I’d managed to avoid just about everything WACK in the past few weeks — by choice, mind you — but this aesthetic, coming from EMPiRE, clearly an MV, subtler reasons galore, you follow me yes of course I shunted my other plans aside and gleefully steepled my fingers in anticipation.
This is from EMPiRE’s upcoming new EP SUPER COOL EP (bless them), and it might not be my favorite song or video by any means, but I’ll be damned if it doesn’t hit in exactly the right spot at the right time: Continue reading →
Good morning! I hope you’re all doing well, feeling healthy, staying safe. And, of course, keeping up with idol. I forgot how tough it can be! Like, even when there’s not as much as usual going on, there’s still a lot going on, even just on the musical side — you folks who live and breath actual idol culture, honestly, how to you not get completely exhausted trying to keep up? And then the discourse, woof. But anyway! Yeah dang man it’s a lot. You’ll note, for instance, that this here Weekender has like three things in it that aren’t videos? Why? Because who has time to crawl through Twitter all that much anymore?
Which, being said, I really wish I had time to crawl through Twitter anymore! What a fun and easy way to pass the time. But no, this is the time of year when Day Job (which can be rigorous and onerous at all moments anyway) goes DEFCON 18 and I sometimes forget to eat. Stress piles up, I don’t sleep, anxiety happens, all that jazz. It’s actually what caused Hiatus 1 last year, just trying to do too much and suddenly having a mental block. I learned to manage that better over the course of the year (Hiatus 2 helped!), so now I just look down the barrel of a preposterous workload and think about the things I’d rather be doing and why I like them — like, they’re pleasurable, not obligations — and it’s much better. A relief.
It’s good to be back, yeah. I’ll never again manage that wild workload I somehow carried for like three years, but frankly that’s good. If you aren’t enjoying the thing you enjoy, are you really even enjoying it? Idol’s supposed to make you happy! And on that note, here’s a whole-ass haul of it.
That Doesn’t Sound Good Actually
I’d embed the Soundcloud player for this OWARANAIDE, YORU song but it’s just a clip, so take the lyrics instead:
Good lord, never take a break from a hobby that involves constant evolution of the subject. I just learned — by accident* that WORL’S END is actually reboot/branded Marionet, which upon that revelation makes all the sense in the world and I’m simultaneously laughing and looking for a bucket of paint to drown myself in out of humiliation.
It was a pretty hot post, though, you guys. I won’t share all of its remnants because I’m not a masochist, but it involved repeated declarations of having no prior knowledge of this idol thing that had been around for a couple of years, and outright disbelief at that fact because “I like to think that I had almost all idols of note doing the Fat Wreck Chords thing prior to mid-2019 at least referenced in some memory hole somewhere” which, wew. Yeah. And it was all celebratory about this tweet that I will reference here with no other commentary but may as well at least acknowledge so that you can see the source of my (today’s) idiocy.
The real tragedy here is that I don’t get to use this sentence:
if you ever wanted that guitar tone played like the soundtrack to the kewlest caffeine-free pool party of the summer between your sophomore and junior years of high school, and then added only the shiniest, happiest vocals possible on top of it, friend, you got yourself a stew going right here
In reference to the actual thing that spawned me writing this in the first place:
Although, hey, it looks like I did get to write it, and with context! Holla!
I am an embarrassment to this profession. Cancel Homicidols. Feh.
It’s Day 47 of the 50 YMM! MV marathon, and today we’re watching the MV for “Gachigaki”, in which the girls trade-in their Patty Hearst-esque revolution chic outfits and now dress like street hooligans as they deal with the seedy side of late-night urban Japan…
Man, maybe it’s me, but this is kind of like the bleakest YMM! video in their whole catalog, although it does have it’s moments of light. The members of the group are getting by with life in the cynical and cold mean city. It seems Ano is especially struggling, with only her friends and her guitar keeping her head up. Kechon is her especially supportive friend who’ll get a thank you mention on Ano’s eventual singer-songwriter solo album. The girls all have each other but there’s already a dark undercurrent flowing in here…
Anyway Chiffon is hanging out with some dudes who she seems to think are pretty cool guys. (C’mon Chiffon, seriously? One of em’s wearing a Slipknot t-shirt for crying’ out loud.) She invites Younapi out to escape a boring evening at home, and soon the whole gang is meeting up with the two bros in an underpass and wouldn’t you know, it turns out these dudes are actually wretched jerks who taunt the girls and steal Ano’s guitar! What a couple of jackasses!!
There’s a moment of despair as the girls wander the city, disillusioned and hurt that they’ve been bamboozled by a couple of corner-store delinquent wannabes, but ultimately the girls rally together to take back Ano’s guitar. In shock of realizing that they might actually be on the defensive, the hoodlums let their guard down and Ano’s prized possession is recovered! Next thing you know the sun’s come up and maybe life in the city isn’t quite so crummy and ugly as we thought. It’s a story of boredom, loss, finding one’s inner strength and friendship. And fade out!
But aside from guitar theft, the other major crime here is Ano’s Zubaz pants. They were pretty awful the first time they came around, and I’m not sure if wearing them in ironic hipster style is the key to their making a comeback. Good grief, I hope not anyway. Okay, fine, Ano, who know who can pull off these nightmares of casual fashion? You, Only You.
Get Ano’s Look.
Anyway, I got so caught up in the storyline and the questionable fashion choices that I nearly forgot to say that this song is really terrific. Super catchy chorus and a slicker-than-usual pop vibe than YMM! usually brings, but it demonstrates that they could’ve pulled off being a more-standard idol group quite well if they had chosen that path. Well done!
So to recap:
The city can be cold mean place without your friends.
If you need to steal a stolen guitar back, then a distraction-fakeout is the best play.
Zubaz pants are still hideous.
Stay far away from skeevy bros in Slipknot shirts.
The sun will come out tomorrow, bet your bottom dollar.
This is a fantastic song with great production values.
My head still hurts from the pattern on those Zubaz pants.
Hey Rudies, etcetera! Today You’ll Melt More! embark on an ambitious campaign of nothing less than global insurrection, aiming to bring down the world’s governments and replace them with, er, ska I guess? It’s the MV for WOW WOW WAR ~Ska-Champon Sing-Along Front~.
YOU’LL MELT MORE!, in their continuing efforts to be among the most prolific MV artists in the idol scene, were on a hot streak at this point. Not satisfied with creating video content for every song on every single, they also shot MVs featuring remixes too!
Up today is a video for “Never Give Up Suiken (Yoe Yoe Remix)”, a new version of their terrific Kung-Fu film-inspired single from only a couple of months before. Made largely to promote their tour at the time, the girls took matters to the streets…
Christmas 2018, and what did You’ll Melt More! gift to us? Another MV of course – this one for Inochi Atte no Monoda ne (While There’s Life, There’s Hope), another track from the NEVER GIVE UP DRUNK MONKEYS EP.
A charming cello-drenched slice of loveliness that has inspired our ladies to put stickers all over their faces late one afternoon and head out to a hillside to cavort about and get as much footage as they can before the sun goes down – and the sinking sun really lights these scenes beautifully. Simple, yet delightful, like all the best Christmas gifts.
Going anywhere nice for your holidays this year? Probably not unless there’s a scientific breakthrough announced tomorrow and it turns out that jelly baby sandwiches and Spice Girls songs are the cure for coronavirus. Why not do what You’ll Melt More! did in the video for Natsu on Blue and visit a virtual reality resort?
DAEMON here. Maniac asked if I could wrap up the preamble on this, the July 4th edition of the Weekender, since he is literally out hiking in the Shenandoah’s this weekend. I’m sure even you non-Americans have heard of the Shenandoah River as referenced in our national anthem, “Country Roads”, written by the brave Captain John Denver as he holed up in the Alamo with George Jefferson during the War of 1812. So, Happy (U.S.) Independence Day. There may be fireworks later, weather permitting. In the meantime, let’s give our attention to some things that have been happening in Japan:
