きのこ帝国 -「海と花束」(Kinoko Teikoku – “Umi to Hanataba”)

Besides the fact that they’re one of the more internationally beloved and missed Japanese indie rock bans of the last while, any discussion around Kinoko Teikoku inevitably centers around their shift from Japanese indie UK.Project/Daizawa to global major EMI with 2015’s 猫とアレルギー (Nekoto Allergie), and the inevitable softening/broadening of their sound from their original shoegazey […]

No Vacation – “Days”

I went to see San Francisco’s No Vacation on Monday night, and while there’s never a bad time to take your band on tour – though playing your first-ever Toronto show in early February might not be the most sensible thing – the timing of this cross-country outing is a little odd by conventional standards. […]

Della Zyr – “봄: 별은 노​래​한​다 (Constellation​’​s Song)”

There’s anti-marketing, and then there’s what Seoul’s Della Zyr is doing. If you were to stumble across her YouTube channel, you’d find a handful of videos of a young woman playing shoegaze cover songs in her bedroom; excellently done, certainly, but not unusual in 2024. Her Instagram offers somewhat more; it’s only four posts deep, […]

Swiimers – “Woodstock”

Here’s another entry from the promising Asian bands who may or may not still exist. Swiimers hail from Seoul, South Korea and released a handful of singles a few years ago that were compiled as a self-titled EP in 2016. Combining the delicacy of dreampop with some of the dynamism of post-rock and glitchy electronic […]