You can now read my review of this album on Netlabelism.

I feel as if every time I come back on here, it's some sort of apology for not ever signing on here and posting anymore. So here is another apology! I wanted to shamelessly self-promote a little something here. I'm going to be having a small radio show broadcast online from my campus, so if any of you want to tune in, that would be great. I'll be playing, of course, lots of Japanese music, as well as whatever else I'm feeling at the moment. Could be a little more mainstream, a little obscure, it'll be whatever really. I may play some more "normal" stuff just to ease in the show at first though. Either way, I hope you get SOMETHING out of it and maybe hear something new. Here are the details:

Titan Internet Radio at 5:30-6:00 PM PST every Tuesday.

There will be a webcam set-up so you can all jerk off to my face as well.

Thanks ya'll
-Garrett

I usually don't do this sort of thing, but my good friend Houston recently wrote about Nemu Yumemi, a fairly new idol within the Akiba scene who is tearing things up! He described her pretty well, so I'll spare you my boring description!

"Nemu Yumemi is a "budding idol" from the Akihabara district in Tokyo. Akihabara, famously, is the neighborhood in Tokyo that is most densely populated by stores bearing items that are essential to the "otaku" lifestyle. Whether it be anime paraphernalia and action figures (which I guess could be anime paraphernalia as well) or video games and a great set of headphones (for the audiophile in you) Akihabara is filled with toys for the obsessive. In turn the music that comes out of a place like this is often goofy, obsessive in it's lyrical themes, and based around anime or anime-esque gimmicks. Nemu is one fifth of the larger idol group でんぱ組.inc (Denpa Gumi, Inc.) but--for me--the real prize is her solo work. The group had it's [I believe] second single come out on the sixth (at least the second with all of it's members, allegedly there is one from 2008 with only the two founding members--neither of these members is Nemu) and Nemu only has one single out as well, but I for one believe that this is the start of something beautiful. Nemu is my contemporary Yukiko."

To describe Nemu, I would call her "punk moe." Her lives definitely have an unmatched amount of energy and interaction that most artists like her fail to display. Along with being a denpa artist, she is also a DJ and model. Akiba-worthy indeed. Download her first single, 魔法少女☆未満.

Official Site/Tumblr: http://nemu.dearstage.com/
SoundCloud: http://soundcloud.com/nemuq/

IZ BEEN A LONG TIME SINCE I RAWK N ROLLED. I've been picking up a lot of random Alchemy releases lately, so I'll be posting here a bit again. These days I'm usually just on Tumblr, where sometimes I'll post stuff like this. This one is the first CD single ever put out by Alchemy by a playful punk outfit named Sekiri. They mostly sing about food and sex. What every girl likes. It's your standard Japanese girl punker stuff, not too out there, but quite enjoyable and fun to hear. Enjoy!

Shinsei Kamattechan may very well be the biggest thing in alternative rock in Japan since Number Girl. In December they released this album (Tsumanne) along with a major label album entitled Minna Shi Ne and are currently in the process of starring in a film directed by Yu Irie. Their chaotic live shows have gained them quite an amount of notoriety and it's safe to say that their albums very much capture that intensity. Tsumanne is an epic apocalyptic ambient-pop trip filled with anthemic noise-rock, chilling processed vocals, incomprehensible melodies layered over and over each other and gltiched out drums, at times the music reminds one of the obscure avant-pop of Yapoos mixed with the short stories of Kafka processed through headphones. Endearingly strange, Shinsei Kamattechan have very much pushed the boundaries of music with this album and have may already launched themselves among the ranks of legends in Japan. This is one album that all Japanese music fans must here.



*Note, the last two PVs were recorded roughly 1 or 2 years ago and were re-recorded on this album*

-Garrett

A million apologies. I can't believe how long I lagged on this one, but here it is. I uploaded it as one straight .avi file to insure that there wasn't any corruption in trying to put the files together. I hope that's okay with everyone here. Here's my original short write-up about it, nothing much, but in case you haven't heard much info on it. Enjoy!

New Pants are a band from Beijing turning out jams ranging from anything to spaced-out synthy indie rock, to Ramones injected disco numbers. At times they remind me a lot of other contemporary Asian bands like the pillows, My Little Airport, and (although it makes me cringe a little to say this) Polysics. A sense of playfulness and happy melodies contrasted with sometimes more serious takes on their sound, the band is fairly self-aware and seems to poke fun at themselves often or the genres of music they take on. Surprisingly enough, this band is to appear at this year's Coachella, I wonder what the crowds reaction will be? Personally, tracks like "Being Together" stand out much more to me than their poor Engrish dance numbers, but I believe the band is varied enough that there at least a few songs that everyone can enjoy.