The great thing about a band making a splash on the scene…even one as unforgiving as the land of indie-music blogs…is they often help to get other bands from their area a little attention as well. Ice Cream Shout’s recent brush with web-fame hopefully means we might see a few other groups out of “Kansai, Japan…” that’s where ICS list themselves from, and most blogs writing about them seem to treat “Kansai” as a city which, well…get a little love. I’ll try to start things off with a group ICS recently played a gig with in Osaka, Twinkle Twinkles. They could easily and accurately be called the Puffyshoes of Japan’s second biggest city – like that Tokyo duo, Twinkle Twinkles play cheap-sounding garage rock undercut by sweet melodies and vocals. Yet whereas Puffyshoes sorta embrace both those elements to the extreme, Twinkle Twinkles streamlines them (shitty indie analogy time – Puffyshoes would be a band out of The Smell while Twinkle Twinkles would be signed to Slumberland if both groups somehow existed in America). Check “His Presents Were A Ton Of Doughnuts” to get an idea what I mean – though the track boasts very sharp edges, the very heart of it is very lovely indie-pop song that would be great for a stroll on a sunny day…or for moshing in a dark club. Listen to that track and two other winners here.