Music Highlights 12.21.20
No weekly highlights post next week, it’s the end of the year and warrants a special music post about my favorites of the year.
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Music Highlights 12.14.20
+ News
Fukase from Sekai no Owari will make his acting debut in the film, Character.
I don’t follow the Visual kei band D=OUT, but I thought this was fun.
Not surprisingly, a lot of concerts are being canceled because of the new waves of COVID. I just don’t understand why these companies had even tried to put them on? Especially when they were going to be normal concerts. I just don’t understand the risk of money vs the reward. You would already be operating at less of an attendance even if they were open (because of distancing guidelines, and less people likely to risk). I get being hopeful - I am too that I’ll be able to work in my field again - but it just seemed irresponsible to even try for this year.
For Utada Hikaru’s 22nd anniversary she curated playlists that can be found here. She also has a single in the newest Evangelion film, EVANGELION:3.0 +1.0 Thrice Upon A Time.
Hiroki Moriuchi (MY FIRST STORY) will release his debut solo album on January 20h.
I am biased, but the Time’s Songs and Albums That Defined K-Pop's Monumental Year in 2020 is finally a year-end kpop list I can get behind.
GQ Korea named Young K lyricist of the year.
+ Releases and Finds
I don’t keep up with Eve as much as probably should, but I guess it’s nice when I randomly find new music is out.
It is no surprise to anyone that a major reason for my love of Dreamcatcher is their rock infusion however, that doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate them and their talent when they branch out during their specials covers. This Seventeen cover focuses on what DC does best, they really have a knack for making their covers fit them and their voices, and they are a talented group.
Since every posts needs one, here’s my DAY6 mention of the week (at this point I need to make it it’s own spot - wait till 2PM comes back and you all are doomed): Young K and Eldon did a collab on Keshi’s song ‘2 Soon’.
Ratrium started out as an a capella cover duo, Groovy Groove, and they recently came out with a King Gnu cover. If you’ve never listened to either their original music or covers, I really suggest you give them a try.
What I need for my idol bands is to skew more rock. Shout out to ONEWE for hearing the call. While I’d like it not always to be ballad, I’ll take it with open arms. I really like the entire singles album.
We Are the Night released a new single, ‘Full Moon’. Their songs always put me in a nice peaceful mood.
I am really liking the Uncanny Counter soundtrack, specifically Isaac Hong’s ‘Close Your Eyes’.
I’m not really in the Christmas mood, but I’m in the winter mood and the songs ‘하루를 맡겨줘’ by Chocolate Note and ‘The Universe’ by e_so are ones that have come out recently that I’ve been into.
I don’t need to tell you that I love everything about Jun. K’s newest EP 20 Minutes, but I will be personally offended if you haven’t listened to it and watched the music video for ‘30 Minutes Might Be Too Long’ multiple times.
+ Upcoming
Lee Hi (featuring CRUSH) holiday single, ‘For You’ (16)
Polkadot Stingray 3rd album, Nanimono (16)
Seori single, ‘Trigger’ (16)
DPR IAN (featuring DPR LIVE and CL) single, ‘No Blueberries’ (18)
+ Album Spotlight
This week I’m spotlighting one of my favorite artists finds of this year, VINCIT. I fell in love with their single, ‘I Don’t Wanna Die’, instantly and have since consumed all content I possibly can from them. They recently came out with an EP, Let Me Introduce, so let me introduce this Korean rock band to you.
+++
First Impressions: Detention
I thought since I haven’t seen a lot of people talking about this drama on the timeline that it would be good to do a quick and small first impressions post. The drama itself is relatively short, so I don’t want to go into too much detail like my other first impression posts, but do want to highlight it. I’ll try to keep this fairly spoiler-free - or at least larger spoiler-free. As of writing this, only two episodes are out, and that’s all the content I know.
Read MoreMusic Highlights 12.07.20
This week was a little slower, or I wasn’t paying attention as much. It happens.
Read MoreNovember Dramas
I can’t believe it’s already December. There are a lot of dramas that have just started, and more that will happen this month. I think my watching list is about to get a bit crazy.
Read MoreMusic Highlights 11.30.20
This week had a lot of releases, and a lot of Japanese groups announced dates for their next album. It was a good music week.
Read MoreMusic Highlights 11.23.20
I realized that a once monthly music highlights post wasn’t going to cut it and wanted to also share some news, so let’s dive deeper into the music that’s come out in the past week.
Read MoreMusic Highlights + November Releases
I figured just like my monthly drama posts where I talk about what I watched and what I am looking forward to, I would do a separate one for music. I have several places where I talk about some of the music that I’m into at the moment, but a dedicated post seems fitting.
Read MoreFortnight Frights Wrap Up
I’m finally wrapping up the Fortnight Frights readathon put on by the lovely Artisan Geek I participated in the last two weeks of October. It didn’t go as well as hoped, but I did get to a good amount of books, and I’m not going to stress over things I didn’t get to and plans changing. The election being now wasn’t a good mental health addition, and I'm trying to be gentle with myself.
Read MoreEnd of the Year Challenge
Two years ago I did a drama challenge because I was close to hitting 100 dramas before the end of the year. It was a fun challenge, that for the most part was pretty easy to meet. I watched some things I never would have, and I was able to focus on a goal. Since we are officially at two months before the end of the year, I decided that another challenge was in order.
Read MoreOctober Dramas
As expected I didn’t get too much drama watching this month, so this wrap up will be a little movie heavy. There isn’t a lot happening next month so I think this is the time that I need to focus on getting things completed and off of my watch list before the year end. I’ll also have a separate post dedicated to the readathon I’ve been a part of for the past few weeks later this week, so if you’re curious what I read for that, check back in a couple of days.
Read More7 Under 7: Spooky Asian Dramas
I don’t know how, but Halloween is less than a week away. If you’ve randomly lost time and had some unexpected things pull you away from watching fun stuff like me, fear not. There is still hope to get some spooky drama watching in, even if you don’t have much time to binge before the 31st. Here’s a list of seven dramas under seven episodes.
Read MoreZombieeeees
Today’s post is dedicated to the brain eaters. Think of this as your unofficial guide to some of the Asian zombie entertainment. I kept the list to anything that is currently accessible on the major platforms (in the US).
Read MoreFriday Night Movie Pairing: Ringu/The Ring
For today’s movie review I wanted to switch things up by focusing on a movie that was originally released in Japan and had a remake in the US. Whenever I look at reviews for Asian horror movies, this movie tends to be one of the standouts in how many people prefer the remake over the original, and I hadn’t watched both in years so I wanted to compare the two now with the focus on how they independently were, what did or didn’t work, and which one I think is better.
Read MoreTen Spooky KDramas on Viki/Kocowa
Last week I posted a video suggesting Ten Spooky Asian Dramas on Netflix/Amazon. This week we’ll be going over ten spookier kdramas currently on Viki or Kocowa. I kept it to Korean dramas just cause it was easier (and there just wasn’t enough options for any others that I wanted to include), and just like last time this isn’t a list of my top dramas, it’s just a list of some dramas to check out. This list is also still focused on longer series.
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