J-Rock Fridays Vol. 28

When there’s trouble you call DW. Any- “Yasashii Hito” Any has a thing for treadmills.  Gotta stay fit! sloppy joe- “Portrait” Smooth indie jam with a trombone thrown in.  Love it. Ogre You Asshole- “Balance” Buried in...

Base Ball Bear- Juujika You and I PV

Base Ball Bear throw me a curve ball with their single “Juujika You and I.” I’m expecting a fast pitch and instead I get the funk. Really…

Base Ball Bear- Juujika You and I PV

Base Ball Bear throw me a curve ball with their single “Juujika You and I.” I’m expecting a fast pitch and instead I get the funk. Really…

The Suzan on Virgin Mobile Live

The Suzan stopped by Virgin Mobile Live the other day for an acoustic set.  The sunshiny results are below.  The Suzan will be playing a free show on Labor Day for the NYC folks.  Pick up Golden Week for The Poco Poco Beat October...

Marble Sheep “The Sun Of Alaska”

In one of those cruel-not-really-cruel moments a music fan faces more than they’d like, I discovered LSD March were playing in Osaka last night only, oh, four hours before the show. Though I flirted with the idea of throwing all …

Stuff To Look Forward To, September 2010

Let’s get dangerous. world’s end girlfriend- Seven Idiots What’s more exciting than a new world’s end girlfriend album?  A new post-rock label founded by none other than WEG himself!  But a new WEG album is awesome as well. ...

Hitsuji Tsuki -コーダ PV

Rocking out in the dark must be a new trend. At least, Hitsuji Tsuki are UV lighting themselves up and keeping warm with some hot and tasty…

WHITE ASH- Stranger PV

WHITE ASH keep things in the dark for most of the PV for their single “Stranger” but you might make out a few rocking shadowy figures.

The track…

Cats Off To Ya: CustomMummy

Look, I’ll be honest with you…CustomMummy caught my attention because the duo seem to perform live while wearing some incredibly creepy cat masks. Just browse the duo’s MySpace and look at the various pictures showing them hunched...

Where We’re Going We Don’t Need Clear Vocals: She

Another day, another lo-fi artist (read: dude who can’t afford studio time) making fuzzy rock songs that are way better than they have any right to be. She, hailing from Gifu prefecture, makes static-ey songs where the vocals get...

Sandy Beach Surf Coaster’s “Private Beach”

Indie kids take note…THIS is how you do 90′s punk-pop. Though I could live without Sand Beach Surf Coaster’s Rocket Power-ish imagery – aren’t there enough songs about the beach already?…everything else drips with California...

Lemon’s Chair

myspace band of the week “What’s up ladies?  Would you like some lemon in your tea?  No.  Okay.” Lemon’s Chair is a three-piece post-rock band that formed in 2002.  The band is fronted by Masashi Imanishi who occasionally...

New OGRE YOU ASSHOLE: “Balance”

Live, OGRE YOU ASSHOLE pummel audiences with volume, sometimes placing such a premium on loudness that their songs suffer as a result. It’s a strange sight, seeing as the foursome have been slowly becoming slightly softer…in a good...

We are the Beck

The first nugget of music from the live action Beck film has been released.  Snippets of “Evolution” can be heard in the original Beck movie trailers, but this is the first time we’ve heard Chiba’s vocals.  The video gives us...

Hey America!: Molice’s “Romancer”

Rarely do really good Japanese bands see albums released in the United States. So when one manages to get across the Pacific and sneak it’s way into select stores…get the new Shugo Tokumaru album in October people!…it really...

Posthumous Nujabes: Homeward Journey

The first of Nujabes’ unreleased work has hit the internet.  The appropriately titled “Homeward Journey” is a collaboration with fellow Hyde Out Productions artist Uyama Hiroto.  The song was released on a 12″ record with two...

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...

Tasty Twee: Sloppy Joe’s “Portrait”

Sloppy Joe’s “Portrait” doesn’t require much dissection. It’s pretty straightforward indie-pop with a bit of a Smith’s swagger to it courtesy of the guitars. Plus its loaded up with trumpet. Just because “Portrait”...

Review: Hotel Mexico’s His Jewelled Letter Box

Hotel Mexico’s being pushed hard as Japan’s first chillwave band. The Kyoto-based six piece has garnered attention from indie-leaning magazine Snoozer to national newspaper The Japan Times because they offer an easy gateway to the...