BiSH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
On April Fools BiSH announce a soon to drop EP STiCKS, and another, CARROTS, next month, ultimately resulting in their 5th album CARROTS AND STiCKS on July 3rd. All new songs! None of last years singles! So two 4 song EP's and then a combined album with 6 new songs. Wow.
There is a new music video "STiCKS" which is the edgiest thing BiSH have ever done. Even more so than "DEADMAN". This video is...amazing. Oh my God what's going on, why do they look so good in those military outfits. Atsuko is full Top Gun in the flash back sequence. Momoko missed a recent BiSH concert and now there's a video in which we have a VHS sequence of every member killing her and she gets chaingun revenge in the end? There was also the WACK audition, which is always crazy, where BiS disbanded (again) after releasing that crazy video for "Are You Ready?", but BiSH came ripping out with this. and they have new edgy pantyhose face pictures on Twitter and...they're finally doing something crazy again. I love BiSH.
I mean to be fair this really isn't a good song, but it kind of is? It's so different from everything BiSH have done, but it still holds that spirit. I think they finally decided to be "Alternative" again. I am anticipating the upcoming album! I hope for more of this stuff and less typical stuff like last year.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWngRZIfOzE&feature=youtu.be
Carly Rae's new album, Dedicated, is out May 17th. I will admit, I'm a bit of a hipster. Since I was onboard Emotion from day 1, before that, day 1 for Run Away With Me, I feel like wow about time people caught on. Only took a year or more before people realized. But as long as people find her music and love it then it's fine. It's oddly nice to have that very small album that you love so much, like top 10 love, and only few others know and love it. But no need to be a dick, it's good people are realizing she is more than one song, she found an audience, and we'll see how the next album goes!
PASSCODE,
CLARITY The latest from the genre fusing Alt Idols. Clarity delivers the classic and very distinctive PASSCODE sound with a lot of great songs and a bit of variety. They smashed 2018 with the insane single "Taking You Out/Tonight" which where two awesome songs that really shine on here. Besides that there are some good "softer" songs that still have a bit of the screaming but more tactically. I liked "THE DAY WITH NOTHING" the most, it was my favorite along with "Ray", "TRICKSTER" and "WILL". This is a cool album with a lot of songs worth going back to listen to.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bI0_Hx__dFU BAND-MAIKO Last year BAND-MAID's April Fools was "secret MAIKO lips" where they redid one of there many many masterworks "Secret My Lips" with traditional Japanese additions and a cool music video. This year they took it further with a 7 song mini album! It opens with last year's track, which is great, and goes into a totally revised version of "One And Only" now "TORA and TORA". It's like the Wagakki Band BUT with a kind of bad mix. The traditional instruments clash big time with the band and it ends up sounding like two songs playing at the same time, sometimes not quite in sync with each other. Same with "YOLOSIOSU" where the instruments don't allow the song to breath like before. "ansan" is a bit of an awkward version of "anemone". "Akasimahen" is actually good, it changes up "Awkward" quite a bit and is a total new recording instead of adding on top the original. "Screaming" is also good on here. "Gion Cho" is a new song, and it's pretty good also. As has been a recent trend in BAND-MAID's music Akane and Misa have been doing the heavy lifting, there is less cool guitar stuff going on. It's a neat track. This EP is novel and the song selection is good, but the arrangements at times just don't work. Still a fun endeavor.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umSt7oMUMcs A couple weeks till Haru to Shura goes on record...but only 500 copies. Stupid. I hope I can get a copy, I'm willing to pay a bit for that certainly. As long as it's not stupid like $100+ shipped than I'll get it if I can. I love the album the more I hear it. It's a Western press though from some random, French?, Indie label so I'm unsure how the quality will be. I expect cheap but you never know, sometimes Indie labels care.