Crystal Kay takes part in indie film ‘Seoul Searching’

Seoul Searching is an upcoming indie teen dramedy and coming of age film, based on a true story about a Korean summer camp in the 80s.

J-Pop’s very own Crystal Kay, born to an African American father and a Korean mother, plays Jamie, a “gyopo” (a Korean who was not born and/or raised in Korea) amongst an ensemble cast of fellow gyopo who return to Korea to learn about their ethnic origins.

the dresscodes release pv for “Ghost”

As previously reported, rock band the dresscodes is set to release their new EP, “Hippies E.P.” on September 24. This will be the band’s first release since leaving Nippon Columbia earlier this year to sign to King Records’ sublabel EVIL LINE RECORDS. The band has released the music video for one of the EP’s tracks, “Ghost.” The music video was shot during their concert “Godspeed Summer Hippies”, which was held this past August 17 at Tokyo’s Hibiya Open-Air Concert Hall. Check it out after the jump!

Yasuda Rei releases trailer for her debut album

As previously reported, Yasuda Rei is set to release her debut album “Will” on October 8. To give listeners a taste of what’s in store on the album, she has released a trailer for the album. In the video, you can see clips of the music videos for the album’s singles as well as hear clips of some of her new songs. Check it out after the jump!

SAWA releases PV for “RingaRinga”

Electro-pop singer/songwriter SAWA has released the full PV for the song “RingaRinga” in promotion of her upcoming new mini-album RingaRinga. The album, previously reported about here, will feature idol group Especia as guests on one track, and contain a cover of their song “Midnight Confusion” which was written by SAWA. Check out the PV below!

Digital Singles Charts for the week of 9/10 – 9/16

Recochoku:
1. Southern All Stars – Tokyo VICTORY
2. E-girls – Highschool love
3. JUJU – Last Scene
4. May J. – Hontou no Koi
5. Nishino Kana – Darling
6. Hata Motohiro – Himawari no Yakusoku
7. Yoshida Yamada – Hibi
8. SPICY CHOCOLATE – Shiawase feat. Ms.OOJA & SALU
9. ayaka – Nijiiro
10. Southern All Stars – Tengoku on the Beach

iTunes:
1. E-girls – Highschool love
2. SawanoHiroyuki[nZk]:mizuki – aLIEz
3. Nishino Kana – Darling
4. JUJU – Last Scene
5. Hata Motohiro – Himawari no Yakusoku
6. SawanoHiroyuki[nZk]:mizuki – A/Z
7. SPICY CHOCOLATE – Shiawase feat. Ms.OOJA & SALU
8. Ariana Grande – Problem feat. Iggy Azalea
9. May J. – Hontou no Koi
10. Ariana Grande – Break Free feat. Zedd

Mariya Takeuchi and Southern All Stars top the weekly Oricon charts! 9/8 – 9/14

On this week’s Oricon weekly singles and albums physical sales charts, Mariya Takeuchi lands the number one spot on the album chart with ‘TRAD‘ selling 118,697 records, while Southern All Stars blow away the competition with ‘Tokyo VICTORY‘ selling 92,645 copies of their single.

Check out to see how the rest of the charts fared below.

FEMM tease ‘Whiplash’, announce first album ‘Femm-Isation’

Unprecedented for FEMM, the mannequin duo have released a teaser for their new song ‘Whiplash‘. This song will mark the group’s 13th original release, and will seemingly fulfill all the slots on their website as previously theorized.

This will indeed be the group’s last song of this cycle, and as a result, they will release their first full album to be available October 1st: ‘Femm-Isation‘.

Video of Up Up Girls hiking and performing on Mount Fuji Summit

At a live at Tokyo Nakano Sun Plaza Hall this past June, ambitious Idol group Up Up Girls challenged themselves to climb to the top of Mount Fuji for a special performance. That’s 12,388 feet above sea level!

Last month we covered an event report after it happened, but now video footage of the trek has been released. With hiking sticks in hand, Up Up Girls headed towards Mt. Fuji to perform at its peak.