Starting today, we are starting a new monthly feature, where we highlight some of the music that somehow didn’t get attention during the prior month. A lot catches our attention, but for various reasons (mainly, me being sleepy) doesn’t get the attention it deserves. This new feature will hopefully at least put a tiny light…
The career arc of Shiina Ringo isn’t like your typical artist’s. Ringo started her career as a solo musician, crafting some of the early 2000’s most forward thinking and best albums (of anywhere in the world). Yet she then decided she wanted to be part of a band and formed Tokyo Jihen who, despite having…
30. Michiyo Honda “Paradise Lost” J-Pop remains an easy punching bag in 2011 because most of the criticism lobbed at Japanese mainstream music ring true. A large chunk of acts crowding the upper reaches of the Oricon chart are 90’s holdovers with appropriately bland tunes. Labels seem to be in an arms race to see…
Dorian Studio Vacation The Patrick-Nagel-referencing artwork above should clue you in – Dorian LOVES the 80s. But not in a Michael Ian Black sort of way, where jokes about Alf stretch into the three-minute range. Dorian is neither combing the depths of that neon-splashed era for ironic yucks…though he has a sense of humor about…
[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7rMg-Xp60s”] Towa Tei keeps things pretttttty simple here.