Station To Station: GIMMICK Music Station For April 1st Featuring Arashi, Puffy And AKB48

This has nothing to do with Billy Joel, sorry. Another week of “special Music Station,” this time featuring a collection of J-Pop heavyweights. Like the past two episodes, these groups don’t necessarily have any new singles to promote so instead of go back a few months to a number we’ve already blathered about we will…

Come For The New Track, Stay For The Pepper: Kaela Kimura’s “Deep Beep”

First things first – Kaela Kimura’s had an absolutely bananas 2010. She rang in the year by releasing a best-of album stacked with excellent J-Pop. That retrospective also featured a new song, “You Bet!!,” that subtly tweaked her rock-side into a more aggressive but still entirely catchy beast that remains one of the year’s best…

Oldie Goodie: Miniskirt

We try to stay current here on Make Believe Melodies, but I’m willing to buck the rules I barely enforce on myself in special situations. “Special situations” here really meaning “finding some bomb-ass twee music that could have been posted last month or five years ago.” Tokyo outfit (cue laughtrack) Miniskirt make pure, wimpy indie-pop…