The top of the J-Pop world remains cemented in place so far in 2012 – the best selling albums and singles have been from all the usual suspects of the Japanese music landscape. AKB48, Ikimono-gakari, EXILE, everything Johnny’s…with a few exceptions, the dominant music of 2012 has been pretty much the same as the last…
Big things happening around these parts in the near future, so this will be a relatively quick edition…with picture complete with Japanese buzzword! aiko “Kuchibiru” WATCH HERE, STARTING AT THE THREE MINUTE MARK Here’s an artist who exist in the unoffensive middle, someone who never releases anything terrible but also has failed to release anything…
Programming note! Next week marks my first week of temporary unemployment, and as a result I decided to go to this year’s South By Southwest music conference. Pretty excited, especially to pig out on tacos and see The-Dream in a church. Since I’ll be in Austin next week, though, expect only sporadic updates around here….
Another year draws to a close, but 2011 wasn’t just another run-of-the-mill desk calendar for Japanese songs. The past 365 days saw an abundance of great tunes from Japan-based artists, ranging from shadowy electronic movers from Tokyo to dreamy pop numbers born in Osaka to space-tripped clackers via Kyoto. Just as exciting, though, were how…
Let’s dive right in as I have a very busy day ahead of me. KAT-TUN “ULTIMATE WHEELS” [youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2_x8_kdaXE”] Talked about…and heaped praise on!…this one last week. Song remains the same, a surprisingly out-of-the-box Johnny’s single incorporating Russian-evoking strings to make one of the more interesting Johnny’s releases as of late. The track comes bundled with…