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 has won out and it will again be just the one week of five shows of great Japanese indie bands across Canada though, for the trainspotters, none actually hail from Tokyo. But they’ll probably fly out of there so I guess it’s still valid.

This year’s lineup borrows headliners from last year’s lineup, namely breakout Osaka J-pop act ハク。 (Haku). Joining them are experimental pop outfit from Nagano SYAYOS, Fukuokan emo-math trio pudelhunds, and the act I’m most most MOST excited about, Okayama shoegazers 揺れるは幽霊, aka yureruwayurei, aka The Ghost Is Shaking, whose debut EP Mnemoid made my year-end list last year. Ticket links aren’t working just yet but sometime over the weekend, I would think. Don’t hesitate! The number of people I saw on Reddit and thereabouts hunting for tickets in the week leading up to last year’s show was non-zero. Don’t be one of them.

『ポイント・ネモ』is the closing song on the EP and translates to “Point Nemo”, which is the most remote place on earth. It keeps with the band’s thematic focus on isolation and nautical themes rendered with delicate atmosphere and ripping guitar tones. I seriously love this band and cannot wait to see them in person.

This is a live video of the song from a show in Shibuya last March, edited and analog-filtered by the band

And another live performance, this one from last December at 下北沢ERA in Setagaya City, recorded by scene documentarian Angel Dokidoki:

And while there’s no guitar cover videos I’ve found so far, someone took the trouble to tab out the song and put that online, so maybe someone can use that as a stepping stone to their own cover video! Maybe it could be you!