expect delay
Amidst the flurry of band dissolution announcements last week, I was alarmed to see this Twitter thread from Tokyo shoegazers COLLAPSE (not to be confused with Tokyo Shoegazer, although singer Shoko Inoue was once part of Tokyo Shoegazer, as you know), announcing: “As of April 2026, Gt.YU will be leaving the band, and going forward, […]
I was a teenager in the ’90s, fully immersed in the Alternative Nation explosion at the time, reading every music magazine I could get my hands on and exploring the wild, weird corners of the internet of the time for new sounds, and to my recollection I had never heard of Swallow. If I squint, […]
I’m going take a break with the band obits for a bit in favour of some good news – specifically the official announcement of this year’s Next Music From Tokyo lineup, aka the best live music weekend of the year. While there had been some discussion last year of TWO separate showcases this year, reality […]
And the hits just keep coming, but not the good kind of hits – more the body blow sort. Proving that shoegazers disbanding isn’t a phenomenon restricted to Japan, one of the bright new lights of the shoegaze scene – London’s Whitelands – abruptly announced their dissolution yesterday, effective immediately. Beyond the band’s statement, there’s […]
A couple weeks ago while bemoaning the hiatus-ing/disbanding of Shirotsume after a final gig in July, I mentioned a second body blow for fans of the poppier end of J-gaze and that’s because on that same day, AprilBlue announced they too would be splitting up following a final show in August. AprilBlue, of course, was […]
I don’t use Spotify or TikTok but apparently Cocteau Twins’ song “Cico Buff” is now the most popular song in their catalog on the former thanks to the latter. In investigating this little bit of trivia, I learned a few other things about the song. One, it was never released as an official single from […]
Cat-loving J-gaze godheads Tokyo Shoegazer have just released their fourth album Remains, and obviously believing that their name tells you everything you need to know, did not release a single video or preview of any kind. And since the whole thing is out now, you can just go and listen on the platform of your […]
Venetian shoegazers Glazyhaze have returned with their first new song of the year, described as “a rock song with a pop heart, suspended between the warmth of the night and the quiet intimacy of early morning light”. The song arrived last week mostly without comment, so it’s not clear if it’s a one-off or the […]
This is another post that I had sort of queued up for while I was on vacation, but it was in a far less complete state than the last one, and only tangentially met the brief. しろつめ備忘録 – which translates to “Shirotsume Bibōroku” or “Shirtosume’s Boboroku” but are just generally called Shirtosume hail from Tokyo […]
So both Joy Division and New Order were just inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame, and the big question around that is if the members of those bands will attend, and if so, how will they interact? Given the public bad blood between Peter Hook and Bernard Sumner over the last two […]
