Member’s Only Jacket Required: Dorian’s “Morning Calling”

One glance at the t-shirt racks of a Hot Topic or the recent film work of Michael Bay should convince you…if you didn’t already notice…that the 80s remain uber hip. Plenty of other junior pop-culture writers have already pointed out how a lot of people babbling about the Reagan years didn’t actually exist during them,…

SMAP And Perfume Joined Forces Monday Night, Watch The Video

[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLEMcgCMrZA”] Perfume appeared on (one of) Japanese-pop legends SMAP’s TV show Monday night, something the Internet tells me has actually happened before. Go figure. Anyway, the two groups engaged in a little small talk, surely promoting the various projects both outfits have coming out on the horizon before teaming up to perform a couple of…

Nuxx Working On New Songs: “Ring Of Pop” And “Sweet Dreams”

Electro-trio Nuxx, a few months fresh from releasing their debut full-length Sound Ache, have two new snippets up on their MySpace. Both songs find the band playing to their strengths, making floor-filling dance complete with absolutely behemoth choruses. “Ring Of Pop” hints at slightly rougher places, but the sample of “Sweet Dreams” is the real…

New Bump Of Chicken: “Motor Cycle”

[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRSNKvc9NpY”] The cheapest shot I could take at Bump Of Chicken and their last few singles would be saying how they all sorta sound exactly the same. They’ve been doing this thing where they shoot for wide-eyed wonder that, coupled with accompanying videos, seems to scream “childhood nostalgia.” Though mostly solid songs…certainly not bad…the succession…

Brilliant Irony Or Brilliant Idiocy?: Vanilla Beans “100mankai no SMK”

Ask any foreigner in Japan who operates a blog where he/she pretends to be a junior Japan sociologist (I do this!) about humor in Japan. I’m willing to wager a large chunk of them will note how slapstick and situational comedy in this country is opposed to the place they hail from where, for the…