Music

Controlled Karaoke: Japanese Duo Do Best Simon & Garfunkel Impression

ByPatrick St. Michel October 1, 2009

They also try out some tunes by The Stylistics and The Gypsy Kings. Dudes got the Garfunkel hair down, though.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGNPPU2DVr8&hl=en&fs=1&]

Music

A New Normal?: Kubotakai’s 305
ByPatrick St. Michel April 2, 2019

It’s going to be a month straight of simultaneous looking back and gazing forward now that we have an era name in hand. Eventually it will feel exhausting the way all discourse gets in the internet age, but there is something charming right now about it, being in this weird lame-duck time where time just…

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Music

The Blonde Plastic Wagon/ Bugy Craxone: “Touch & Go!!”/”Perfect”
ByPatrick St. Michel April 7, 2010

Despite the title, The Blonde Plastic Wagon’s “Touch & Go!!” sounds like no band to ever grace the Touch & Go label. Well, maybe a little bit like Ted Leo, but that’s it. “Touch & Go!!” has more in common with modern-day indie-guitar groups like Los Campesinos!, as lead singer Nobuo Sinohara boasts a higher-pitched…

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Music

Digi Twee: The Someday’s “Remember Me”
ByPatrick St. Michel September 28, 2014

It’s a simple addition, but one that makes “Remember Me” far more, uhhh, memorable than a lot of other indie-pop-leaning numbers coming out of Japan over the last few years. Osaka’s The Somedays give the song all the hallmarks of a typically twee number – a slouching rhythm designed for melancholy walks near bodies of…

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Music

New Maison Book Girl: “Narrow Story”
ByPatrick St. Michel November 20, 2018

Change doesn’t have to be drastic to be effective. Maison Book Girl’s “Narrow Story” changes the junior-high-band-room sound up ever so slightly, but manages enough to feel like a total pivot into a new direction. But it really isn’t — Maison Book Girl lean in on a mix of xylophone notes, tag-team vocals and all-together-now…

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Music

New Metome: Shibboleth
ByPatrick St. Michel March 23, 2018

Metome has been consistently active over the last few years, and now some of the more left-field highlights of recent times have been gathered together on new set Shibboleth. This comes from a period where Metome was interested in texture, and how different sounds could sound as they weave in and out of one another….

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Music

New Tricot: “Potage”
ByPatrick St. Michel May 23, 2018

Tricot’s twisting and turning approach to rock tends to grab the most attention, but it’s the emotional fierceness lurking underneath all those tempo changes that really punches. If the music itself can sometimes feel a little too plotted out, it’s balanced out by Ikumi Nakajima’s singing, which allows for more roughness around the edges that…

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