The day the Next Music From Toyko lineup is announced is kind of like Christmas for me… at least since I started attending last year. So yeah, not that long, but considering that the traveling mini-festival is the only way I’ll get to see any of Japan’s indie rock scene live short of flying over there myself (which, okay fine I’ll do it), there’s a good deal of anticipation about who I might get to see this year.

The official details for volume 17 went up late Friday night, and this year’s edition brings a typically diverse mix of acts – J-poppers Haku are de facto headliners, with their tongue-twisting Mono No Aware cover having gone viral, and they’re joined by Sapporo hardcore screamers Tattletale, punk noise merchants Banshimoku, and Carpenter’sBlue, whose spelling is deliberate and whose self-described “heartcore” will be waving the shoegaze/dreampop flag for 2025.

Despite feeling like I’m biw reasonably plugged into the J-gaze scene, I’d not heard of them before the announcement and most of what I know comes from their NMFT bio, so I’ll just send you over there or just say if you’re into dynamic, post-Kinoko Teikoku emo-gaze, you’ll be at home with them. Their full-length debut Garyontensei came out in 2023, and “Gianna” was one of the preview singles, coming out in 2022.

Next Music From Tokyo hits Toronto on September 19 and 20 with two nights at The Horseshoe, then moves to Montreal for the 22 and to Vancouver for September 24 and 25.