Strider's Sci-Fi

DOLL＄BOXX is a five to seven woman rock band from Japan (some members seem to be there intermittently as other projects draw them away), formed when the band Gacharic Spin joined forces with Fuki, the lead singer from Lightbringer. Both bands continue to record and tour separately, and both are very good, but I really [...]

If this J-Rock band isn’t channeling the love child of the Beatles and Chuck Berry in this song, they are coming damn close. Ulfuls got their name because back in 1992 one of the band members misread the word Soulful on his favorite album and they went with it. I find this rather ironic, since [...]

It is the end of the school year and time for graduation in Japan, a theme reflected in the latest video from Kyary Pamyu Pamyu. The track is called Yume no Hajima Ring Ring, and is being released today; if her past releases are any indication, you should be able to pick it up on [...]

This girl sings in a hoodie… and never lets you see her face. The artist is Nano, the first album is West Ground, and the first track is Born To Be. The second track is Savior Of Song from her collection My First Story. I do like her voice and her style, and I appreciate [...]

This week, a few tracks from the band Handsome Ken’ya (Sugimoto Kousuke), a less than subtle Japanese group/person. The first piece is Inferiority Beat, the next I Sing In My Own Way, also called I Sing So Much. Then we get Decision Speed, and finally Full Moon Party rounds out the set, a very tasty [...]

The first video by Qooland is called Sea Lice And Bear, more or less. It was posted 3 weeks ago, and is from their upcoming 6-song EP being released on February 12th, called something like Tear Your Classroom To Pieces. Sea Lice is the 5th track on the new EP, while Bear is the 6th, [...]

Another great alt rock band out of Japan is Owarikara, their new single came out in October. I can’t tell you what the names of these tracks are, but I really like them a lot, especially the way they use rhythm and the instrumental melodies. The lead singer definitely adds an edge that wraps the [...]

I recently featured the band Tommy Heavenly6, the punk offering from Tomoko “Tommy” Kawase, this time I am doing Tommy February6, still very rocking but leaning towards trance/electronica. The woman doing the vocals is amazing in any language, and she jumps back and forth between Japanese and English quite a bit. The first track is [...]

I Hate Disco… if there was ever a song title made to catch my attention and agree with the band, this is it. The band name is The Telephones, and they have a lot more videos than this link makes you aware of.

Classic Rockabilly with a modern Japanese band, or maybe that is Punk, or perhaps Ska. Or something else; it gets hard to tell after a certain point, but they certainly play with enthusiasm. Myself, I suspect they might be channeling The Ramon’s and the Fine Young Cannibals by way of Chuck Berry and The Beatles. [...]