kiiiiiii (a digression)

Forgive the digression for a second or two but I haven't been this excited about music since I was 16, writing a fanzine, listening to bis and generally living through a period where it seemed like I was having my head blown off by some new thrilling band every week. Basically, here's the deal- if you're reading this blog then i'm guessing that we've got enough in common that you're going to flip for these guys. Here's the first one.

1. kiiiiiii
Endearing, frantic 2-piece sparkling girl combo from Tokyo. 2 piece means just drums and vocals, and you can imagine the wild clattering awesome sounds they create. The songs evoke the wild, wide eyed pop scene of late-90's UK (which spawned bis, urusei yatsura, the delgados and my old fanzine amongst other things) while, thank God, bringing actual performance back to rock and roll, something crucial that's forgotten with frustrating frequency on the drudgery of the indie circuit. I was raised on a diet of US indie, which is fine I guess, except I had to struggle with years of watching Stephen Malkmus and his ilk blithely mumble about for 2 hours doing nothing in particular. Here is the leaping kicking screaming cartwheeling real alternative- 2 Japanese girls reenacting the endless enthusiasm of 2 American early teen pop kids- littering the stage with glittery broken toys, tinsel and a packed in, too-cute retro kitsch. Arguably, its live where you've got to listen to kiiiiiii (7 'i's, so i'm told), only experiencing them through record seems to limit their potency. Still though, you'll have a job getting The World According to Carp and Sheep out of your head, regardless of where, or how you listen to it. So keep on dancing, and clap your ha-ha-ha-ha-hands!

Listen to them at this page on their main site. Also be sure to look at this article over at Cha Cha Charming, written by Marxy of Neomarxisme where you can also see some tasty live clips.

OK, enough of that for the minute. Back to Halcali.