Don’t expect regular updates until I’m back in Japan this weekend…but before savoring the last few days of vacation, I did want to post the new Sakanaction song “Eureka.” Watch the video above. The Kohaku TV show (a yearly program where some of the most popular singers from Japan perform on New Year’s Eve) and,…
I’d like to think this a case where a music scene’s very existence proves itself to be vital, to be responsible for fostering a young artist and helping them improve over time. Gloomy popped up on our radar late last year, when they (I believe they are a duo) appeared on the bill for one…
Old Lacy Bed – Coastlands from Old Lacy Bed on Vimeo. “Coastlands” has been out in the wild in a different form for about a year now, but Old Lacy Bed recently posted a new video for featuring a fresh take on the darty song. You can watch the indie-pop-lifestyle clip above. Weirdly enough, “Coastlands”…
The opening minute of producer Ujaku’s “Tonakai” sounds like a lost snippet of some Studio Ghibli film soundtrack. It’s nothing but some plaintive piano strokes with a few additional affects added in. It’s the emotional core of the song, which bursts open into a rollicking dance number soon after the minute mark, Ujaku dropping in…
Editor’s Note: A lot of great music came out over the weekend so we will probably be playing catch up for a bit around here. This EP’s opening track seems like it is going to be Picnic Women business as usual – the juke producer grabs Adina Howard’s 1988 song “T-Shirt & Panties” and footworks…
Timothy Work covers a lot of ground in just four songs on their self-titled debut EP that dropped back in the summer. Which actually makes it surprisingly easy to overlook – 2012 saw all sorts of acts treating genre cornerstones as something meant to be thrown around, acts like Moscow Club touching on fragile indie-pop…
Bedroom-whizz Shugo Tokumaru has released his first glimpse of the follow-up to 2010’s Port Entropy in the form of new single “Decorate.” For those expecting his whimsical, toy-instrument heavy music to morph into something new by now, prepare to be let down because “Decorate” is another solid example of his playroom pop. Tokumaru’s usual assortment of bells, woodwinds and acoustic guitar dominates this song, and at one point he even works in the sound of an alarm clock ringing off. Also intact – the same sense of wonder the majority of Tokumaru’s tracks possess. Listen above. You can buy the single in stores now, and if you do, you also will get the chance to hear Tokumaru’s take on The Buggles’ MTV-launching “Video Killed The Radio Star.” I don’t know what the single version sounds like, but watch Shugo deliver a cutesy live cover below.
Sit back, and let me tell you a tale of the year…2007. For a brief window of time, 70’s rock band Kansas’ song “Carry On My Wayward Sun” became the ironic/possibly-not-iornic-but-just-self-conscious song of choice for oh so many people going to my college. Thanks to the country-fried prog rockers appearance in the video game Guitar…
40. The Telephones “Kiss Me, Love Me, Kiss Me” The video tries to trick you into thinking The Telephones remain the same attention-rattled guys as before, the type of band who would make finger puppets the big draw of their clip. “Kiss Me, Love Me, Kiss Me” the song, though, finds the group getting a…
Sakanaction are in promotion mode, and off the heels of the video for “Years,” they’ve gone and released another video off their forthcoming B-sides and remixes collection. It’s for “Slow Motion,” which was a b-side for the (still transcendent, still tear-evoking) “Rookie.” The video is the real gem — throwback TV show motifs, full of…
NITES seems to be hitting his stride. His last new song, “Carcass Of The Sun,” marked a huge turning point for the bedroom recorder – a bright-light sheen replacing his once lonely recordings, the song eventually erupting into something that sounded like NITES trying to blow up the Earth. New track “It Is An Excuse…
Uffun Magic Works finds Tamao Ninomiya teaming up with NNMIE for a new project of wonky bedroom pop. So far, they’ve released a solid albeit wobbly cover of Stereolab’s “Ping Pong,” and a lovely bit of seasick pop in the form of “Walking With Corpse.” At its core, there is a catchy little song sung…
Sometimes you see a theme jump out of your SoundCloud likes, and you run with it. Always nice when the music matches in quality. The latest from “urban electro pop” outfit Frasco is “Imitation Crab,” a burbly and slow-moving number with a melancholy streak running through it. And there is a downtempo rap near the…