Kyary Pamyu Pamyu has a new single out in October, called “Fashion Monster,” but the full song and video came out late tonight (at a good time for Western audiences HMMMMMMMMM). The clip, above, merges The Adam’s Family with Visual Kei…and a bunch of other great imagery one expects from Kyary with each new video. As for the song…well, hopefully I can write more later, but first few plays through this sounds really nice. The 8-bit bloops Yasutaka Nakata works in are great. For now, enjoy a man dressed as a rabbit rocking out on a turntable-equipped keytar.
[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBLNNXFoem8″] The full version of Towa Tei’s robo-grope-tastic video for “The Burning Plain” can now be watched above. It’s a nifty little video, with a set that looks like it was made out of Lego bricks and other cool touches. Oh, and if you like watching women get cozy with big robots, boy you’ll love…
CNN recently interviewed Yasushi Akimoto, the guy who came up with the AKB48 concept and basically ruined everything. They just put up a transcript of the interview in English, which is worth reading. The biggest reveal of this chat is that Akimoto loves cliche comparisons – AKB48 is like “cheerleading or lacrosse” (huh?) unless it…
(First off, the “interactive” element of this video is hilarious, but also sort of genius, like Google releasing Google Glass a couple years back and now settling on some cardboard specs. Put your finger here, and you can pretend it squirts mustard! Also, a furry relationship sub-story.) Namie Amuro’s switch from Japanese to Japanese/English singing…
Gauging the political intentions of music in Japan can be tricky, especially when you rely on Google Translate and Firefox extensions to figure out what’s going on. Plenty of artists can be direct about their stances, and in the wake of this year’s nuclear situation a handful of anti-nuclear-power songs appeared albeit far from the…
[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20v19eA4bEM”] Break out the weed glasses for the new “2010” video by The Telephones. A lot of colors flash around and all sorts of animals pop up and then they dissolve into rainbow orbs (?) and it’s all pretty cool, way more so than my lame drug joke up there made it seem. The clip…
Photo by me at a Circle K. SMAP “We Are SMAP” Long-time-coming theme song “We Are SMAP” might mark a turning point in J-Pop history. Since the early 1990s, the Johnny’s-concocted boy band has dominated the Japanese pop scene, hitting Oricon gold with many singles and albums during that stretch. They’ve hosted multiple TV shows…including…