Shugo Tokumaru will be touring America the next two weeks, starting tonight in NYC. Tonight’s show will be supported by Mirah, OneOne (Satomi from Deerhoof and Saya from Tenniscoats) and Perrin Cloutier (Beirut). Tara Jane O’Neil will join Tokumaru on all dates for the west coast leg.
July 11 – New York, NY @ The Bowery Ballroom
July 12 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Echo
July 13 – San Francisco, CA @ Bottom of the Hill
July 15 – Portland, OR @ Doug Fir Lounge
July 16 – Seattle, WA @ The Sunset Tavern
We’re not done with the best videos of 2012, but we needed to take a break to highlight the new videos of 2013 so we don’t fall behind. Some sad news, it was just announced K from Pay money To my Pain passed away on December 30. You will be missed!
A whimsical advertisement from the clothing label FRAPBOIS. Normally they make music videos with real people wearing their designs, but for some reason they decided to go the animated route for their 2013 catalog. I can’t imagine this will lead to more sales, but Shugo Tokumaru just released a great new album everyone’s talking about so at least they got their name out there.
Keishi Tanaka has kept busy since his band Riddim Saunter broke up in 2011, releasing a solo EP and an album as part of the supergroup The Dekits last year. Now Tanaka is ready to release his debut solo album. “Wonderful Seasons” is a happy little song celebrating the little things in life.
Bongos and horns! Shintaro Sakamoto has woken up the walking dead with his funky new single. It seems they rather dance than cause a ruckus though.
Raining down a new bunch of J-Rock videos. Just FYI, this is the time of year my part-time job becomes a full-time crap fest so don’t be too worried if I disappear for a while!
Finally! P-Vine has been region blocking this video for months, but now we have a viewable upload thanks to Polyvinyl announcing they’ll be releasing Shugo Tokumaru’s new album In Focus? in the states in January. “Decorate” continues what Tokumaru does best, bedroom pop with a mix of childlike wonder.
If you’ve been missing mutyumu, hatis noit has a new project with Aureole frontman Daichi Mori. She drops the operatic voice for Magdala, substituting her universally beautiful voice. Sure I miss the random screaming in the background but this is pretty too.
It’s Christmas time, again, and LOST recorded a non screamy cover of Tatsuro Yamashita’s “Christmas Eve.” You can find it on Santa Causes: It’s A Pop Rock Christmas, which I can only hope is a continuation of this awesome CD, with a bunch of other mostly Japanese artists.
Polyvinyl has released a compilation entitled Japan 3.11.11 benefiting the ongoing relief efforts in Japan. The compilation includes b-sides and rarities from the label’s artists including Asobi Seksu and Deerhoof. It also includes Shugo Tokumaru’s cover of “Video Killed the Radio Star” and toe’s “Ordinary Days,” previously released on iTunes. The MP3 version of the compilation is available now while the 2LP will be released in September. All proceeds will be donated to the Red Cross. Order here.
Shugo Tokumaru is donating all proceeds of his new track “Open a Bottle” to the victims of the Tokoku earthquake. The track can be downloaded at bandcamp for a minimum donation of ¥100 ($1.27USD).
Gellers is best known for being the band Shugo Tokumaru is in, if they’re known at all. They’ve been on hiatus since 2008 when Shugo’s solo career went boom. Activities resumed at the Fuji Rock Festival in 2010. They have a new “big single” coming out April 15 called ガテマラ (Guatemala), their first release since their self-titled album in 2007. It includes three new songs and four live ones.
Shugo takes vocals on “Guatemala” and it’s as catchy as anything on Port Entropy. The PV is pleasantly bizarre with a strange scarecrow walking around in Guatemalan garb. I see they took Portlandia’s suggestion and put a bird on their microphones. Excellent.
I’ve been putting off posting these for a while. So I figured I should do a roundup now since more than one of them are shipping.
Caroline- Verdugo Hills
Caroline dropped her debut album Murmurs on Temporary Residence in 2006 and kind of disappeared. But she was slowly putting together her followup, as well as touring with Mice Parade, even lending vocals to their latest album. Verdugo Hills will be released January 25 in the US by Temporary Residence on CD and vinyl. &records released the album in Japan earlier this month.
Pre-order: Amazon.com, Temporary Residence
Japanese Release: CD Japan
Deerhoof- Deerhoof vs. Evil
Deerhoof switched to Polyvinyl for their tenth album release. The band decided to leak the album track by track on various music blogs worldwide. You can find a bunch of them on Polyvinyl’s SoundCloud. In addition to vinyl and CD, Polyvinyl will also release it on cassette. Yay for dead formats! It was released earlier this month in Japan from P-Vine.
Pre-order: Amazon.com, Polyvinyl
Asobi Seksu- Fluorescence
Asobi Seksu’s fourth proper album will arrive February 15 from Polyvinyl. Download “Trails” for free by giving them your email. EMI Music Japan will release the album in Japan on February 2. That would be a major label. Congrats!
Pre-order: Amazon.com, Polyvinyl
Japanese Release: CD Japan
Shugo Tokumaru- Port Entropy
Port Entropy made blogosphere headlines when it was released in Japan last year. Europe got it late 2010 and now Polyvinyl will release it in America the same day as Asobi Seksu. The CD will be limited to 2000 copies and 1000 copies for the green vinyl. Get it while you can!
Pre-order: Amazon.com, Polyvinyl
Japanese Release: CD Japan, Play-Asia
ironomi- sketch
Singapore-based Kitchen. Label released ironmomi’s latest batch of “delicate field recordings” at the tail end of 2010. They’ve now set up worldwide distribution at places you can find here, including America.
Order: Darla Records
Happy new year!
Let’s start the new year off right with Shugo’s new shadow-play video for “Linne.” It’s from his excellent 2010 album Port Entropy, which is *gasp* coming out in America next month!
Friday! Watch your J-Rock videos. Then go see Scott Pilgrim vs. The World!
Isobe Masafumi, formerly of Husking Bee and Mars Eurythmics, has decided to go solo and got Toru Hidaka of Beat Crusaders to tag along and produce his first single. It’s a fun pop song with plenty of screeching synths. The single release, which has a very Beat Crusaders-esque cover, also features peeps from Asian Kung-Fu Generation, Asparagus, and Cubismo Grafico Five.
It’s good to know halfway across the globe there are still bands that are willing to wear neon phallic objects on top of their heads.
Urichipangoon formed in 2003 in Osaka with just two members. Their first album was recorded at home and released on a small indie label. The following year, two more people joined, including the drummer from Boredoms. Their 2008 album Giant Club received high praise from Shugo Tokumaru and Ryuichi Sakamoto of all people. “I’ve never set ears on music by such gentle pervs,” so says UA. If Shugo Tokumaru says Urichipangoon is “one of the best pop groups around” I better listen.
The first four songs on their myspace come from Giant Club. “Paya Paya” sounds a bit like OOIOO in the beginning, but the violin jigs liven it up. “Zenon” is the best of the bunch even at eight minutes. I enjoyed the random folk instruments, jungle sounds, and banjo “FunaUta” and “TowaNoAi” come from their first album SEN. “FunaUta” has a minimalist, ambient vibe while “TowaNoAi” sounds more like their newer stuff, with the bird calls and vocals.
If you enjoy Boredoms or Shugo Tokumaru it’s safe to say you’ll like Urichipangoon. It’s nice to see folk pop make a comeback. You can also order both their albums and a t-shirt via PayPal on the band’s myspace.
J-Rock Explosion 