You Should Be Listening To: Kinoko Teikoku

Who?

Kinoko Teikoku is an indie rock band who have been around for a decent number of years now. Spending their early days as a shoegaze group, they quickly started to evolve into the indie rock powerhouse they are today. Kinoko Teikoku consistently releases some of the most emotional, melancholic, and beautiful music in the genre. The band has released one album a year since 2013, with last year's "Neko to Allergy" being among my favorites of 2015, so let's hope they keep up that trend! While 2013's "eureka" was Kinoko Teikoku's debut full-length, they've been operating as a band together since 2007.

What?

Early in their career, Kinoko Teikoku won people over with their heartbreakingly gorgeous shoegaze and dream pop music. Songs like "WHIRLPOOL" and "FLOWER GIRL" are looked at as masterpieces by many of the band's fans, myself included. Essential listening from this period would include the EP "Long Goodbye", the mini-album "Uzu ni Naru", and the full-length album "eureka". Even then, Kinoko Teikoku was putting some incredibly catchy songs together, like "Girl Meets NUMBER GIRL" and "Spring and Shura". Everything they released was powerful and sweet in the best of ways.

More recently, Kinoko Teikoku's style has started to shift a little more towards catchier indie rock and cleaner production. Their music is still dreamy, but maybe lost a bit of that sense of pure euphoria from their previous work. With singles like "Tokyo", they showed their ability to make cleaner and punchier rock music while keeping the nostalgic haze hovering overhead. "Telepathy/Overdrive", the closer to the band's second album "Fake World Wonderland", is one of the hardest rocking songs they've ever put together. The album also marked the release of "Chonostasis", a massive international hit for the group. They've gone on making some of the most standout indie rock in the world even after losing the shoegaze edge they once had, and I believe they have a lot of potential to make it outside of Japan. That's where you (yes you, the reader) come in. Listen to Kinoko Teikoku. Share their music with your friends. Love them as much as I do, and maybe they'll see the fanbase growing around the world every day. Maybe they'll visit a town near you (or me!)


-Justin

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For Fans Of...

That's a tough one, they don't really sound like anybody. If you're into Plastic Tree, The Pillows, or Number Girl, they might be up your alley.

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Kinoko Teikoku is...

Chiaki Sato (vocals, guitar)
A-chan (guitar)
Shigeaki Taniguchi (bass)
Kon Nishimura (drums)

WEBSITE
TWITTER

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