KERO KERO BONITO

Just started listening to their album a couple weeks ago. Very fun.
On tour in the US soon (now?) too.

i liked the first album a lot
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZDf4vJm5HQ

love this shit.

googling the lyrics tells me i misheard this lyric (from picture this) but i love my misheard version (i don't have data on my phone so a lot of the time during an idle moment i'll look through the pictures i took on my phone during the last few days/weeks/months and smile, like a mini dose of nostalgia)

when you open wide, you'll find
all the shots you've got
bring back the time it's easy to believe
yesterday was so sweet

also the contradiction of "i wait till no one else is around/and i take a picture of myself" and "don't forget to show everybody you've ever known" ... contradictory yet otm

New KKB has guitars and drums and stuff, and not sure how I feel about that. Then it gets really fucking weird towards the end, I've never seen a group sabotage their own song like this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sepcj45774I

Not sure how I feel about it really. Their cover version of Rock 'N' Roll Star from last year is still brilliant, if anyone hasn't heard that yet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDEy-p9isqM

wow i like the guitars! it's charly bliss crunchy and sweet; imo they were prob due for a switchup. also that ending is cool!

BRILLIANT

Spotify has both this version and a "radio edit" with the weirder aspects smoothed out lol

great song

Well, it still has the Xiu Xiu-style freakout in the middle lol

this group came off as way too cutesy/pc music-ish last time i remember them but wow this is amazing

The glitch near the end kind of reminds me of the switch-up in Boredoms' Super Going, but this is a lot stranger

this is pretty cool and surprising

Bonito Generation was ok but most of the songs felt like they only had one idea per song. i think they're at their best when they're a little more maximalist like on the Oasis cover

I didn’t like how “cute” the song was but that end was very unexpected and had me listening to it a few more times now I think it’s brilliant.

Yeah not sure how much I like the idea of a pop-punk band fronted by a Hannah Diamond type, but there's something pretty good about this and their Oasis cover is catchy.

really digging these 2

Can't remember what the original links were but this is one of my favourite tracks of the last decade, it's just pin-sharp. Clip is fairly twee but w/e.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aQBkCrpWOg

I love this new song. I'd listen to a Kero Kero Bonito noise rock record.

This new song possibly marks their transition from 'irritant' to 'ok I'm on board'

Cosign on Lipslap as a favorite song of the decade (would add Bonito Generation as a favorite album)

Don't love the entry of big rock guitars, intrigued by the noise but will need to listen more

I have come around to Only Acting this week, just love how the noise cuts right into the hook, and fairly sure they aren't going to turn into another alt indie rock act.

If anyone was wondering how they were going to do this live - then apparently like this (filmed late last year so audience seem quite surprised)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5ZEJtWtaLQ

Also don't know if people are aware of Gus from KKB also being PC Music artist Kane West. He's not really a typical PC Music act as he has his own thing going, which is sounding like an audiovisual demo from a PC magazine coverdisk from the early 90s, really can't think of anyone else with the same sound. His boiler room set is not perfect but certainly something different, wish he would keep the KKB stuff out of it as it doesn't really fit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbN94jic4Mk

(a warning that the first 2 minutes or so of this are not really listenable) (also I enjoy watching the people trying to dance to this stuff, a good effort but it doesn't really work)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQWIsAGQAnU

i'm quite fond of this

I love Kane West! Possibly as much as much as Kero. Shit bangs and is hilarious. Power Of Social media is on it...

Album here

https://soundcloud.com/pcmus/western-beats

sounding like an audiovisual demo from a PC magazine coverdisk from the early 90s, really can't think of anyone else with the same sound

check out the label pc music lol

Yeah but the rest of PC music doesn't sound like that at all

That live clip of "Only Acting" upthread is really great

Yeah but the rest of PC music doesn't sound like that at all

i don't hear the big difference

Seriously? Have you listened to the soundcloud up there? Maybe allied ideas, but completely different production methods and sound pallette involved.

So what do you guys think about the new KKB EP?

We released an EP today, TOTEP
4 new songshttps://t.co/wezCwPG8Gi pic.twitter.com/50wFahm49S

— Kero Kero Bonito (@KeroKeroBonito) February 20, 2018

:O

wow

this is pretty great, a little disappointed there isn't a full album of this

yeh great stuff, that last track is a delicate lil gem

it's definitely my favourite thing they've done. sarah's extremely twee vocals work a lot better in the context of this lo-fi rock, they were often a bit much before

yeah they feel like they've arrived

very excited to see which kinds of ilm posters think this is a step back

It's not a step back only because it works.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WqcPYOr--g

new album Time 'n' Place coming soon

no guitars on this one but it's keeping the warm lo-fi vibes from TOTEP, i like it

when you open wide, you'll find
all the shots you've got
bring back the time it's easy to believe
yesterday was so sweet

These lyrics are wrong. It’s “when you ORGANIZE, you’ll find...” (the photos on yr phone).

WORLD TOUR 2018

The Time ‘n’ Place tour is our first using a 5-piece live band. Playing selections from across our discography arranged for guitar, bass, drums, keyboards and vocals, it will be our most raucous yet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuG-B35IOvA&t=0s

tickets: kerokerobonito.com/tour
North America Tour tickets on sale Friday 20/07 at 10am ET

11/09 - Village Underground, London, UK
02/10 - Patterns, Brighton, UK
03/10 - Rough Trade, Bristol, UK
04/10 - YES, Manchester, UK
05/10 - Broadcast, Glasgow, UK
06/10 - Whelans, Dublin, IE
10/16 - Brighton Music Hall, Boston, MA, US +
10/17 - Elsewhere, Brooklyn, NY, US +
10/18 - PhilaMOCA, Philadelphia, PA, US
10/20 - MilkBoy ArtHouse, College Park, MD, US +
10/23 - 529, Atlanta, GA, US +
10/24 - Hi Ho Lounge, New Orleans, LA, US +
10/25 - Satellite Bar, Houston, TX, US +
10/26 - Barracuda, Austin, TX, US +
10/27 - Paper Tiger, San Antonio, TX, US +
10/28 - Deep Ellum Art Company, Dallas, TX, US +
10/30 - The Opolis, Norman, OK, US +
11/01 - 191 Toole, Tucson, AZ, US +
11/02 - Regent Theater, Los Angeles, CA, US ∞
11/05 - Fillmore, San Francisco, CA, US ∞
11/08 - Wonder Ballroom, Portland, OR, US ∞
11/09 - Biltmore Cabaret, Vancouver, BC, CA ∞
11/10 - Neptune Theatre, Seattle, WA, US ∞
11/14 - Thalia Hall, Chicago, IL, US
11/15 - Deluxx Fluxx, Detroit, MI, US +
11/16 - The Garrison, Toronto, ON, CA +
22/11 - L'Olympic Café, Paris, FR
23/11 - Beursschouwburg, Brussels, BE
24/11 - Sugarfactory, Amsterdam, NL
26/11 - Uebel & Gefährlich, Hamburg, DE
27/11 - Ideal Bar, Copenhagen, DK
28/11 - The Monarch, Berlin, DE
29/11 - Smolna, Warsaw, PL

∞ co-headline with Frankie Cosmos
+ with Tanukichan

Wish they'd stop in Minneapolis! Will try to make the Chicago show.

New single out today. "Make Believe" (c/w "World Tour 2018" on Spotify)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQsI_HEcrbI

"kkb + james hankins

from the album Time 'n' Place coming v soon

extra vocals by z (crying)"

"Make Believe" is fantastic

I'm annoyed that their show here sold out in seemingly hours - and then sold out just as quickly again when they got a venue upgrade

make believe is really lovely and elaiza from crying appearing on it is such a perfect fit

realising that what time today evokes for me is this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XruY72JamWc

Yeah their Atlanta show is in a tiny venue and sold out immediately, and I don't even think there are ridiculously overpriced secondhand or whatever tickets available.

Great new song!

hey this new song rules

so Time 'n' Place got a surprise release today and i really love it

https://i.imgur.com/l7gM6h4.jpg
Outside
Time Today
Only Acting
Flyway
Dump
Make Believe
Dear Future Self
Visiting Hours
If I'd Known
Sometimes
Swimming
Rest Stop

Only on Spotify UK? Can't see it in the US.

it should be out in the US at midnight

it's basically a full length TOTEP in sound which is exactly what i wanted

We released a new song today, "The Open Road". Taken from the upcoming Swimming/The Open Road 7" single.https://t.co/t8lXSlRbvf pic.twitter.com/Tnrsz5EQ2p

— Kero Kero Bonito (@KeroKeroBonito) February 25, 2019

is good

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQDcNRqjQZo

i like the new EP well enough

Ooh didn’t know they had something new

Pleased that they seem to have got the RAAAWWK out of their system. The EP still has the odd noisy moment, but it's all synth-led. It's a bit prog in places actually! I particularly like "Battle Lines".

I didn't know what the hell they were going to do next.... this whole EP is very fun... in a new way

Loving "The River"!

Is raaawwk still more or less what they're doing as a touring act? I was thinking of seeing them when they come through Minneapolis.

It’s Bugsnax!

https://blog.playstation.com/2020/06/26/anatomy-of-an-earworm-inside-kero-kero-bonitos-toe-tapping-bugsnax-theme/

damn was hoping they would have put a proper version of it up :(

Now they do!

We released the full-length version of our song for Bugsnax: https://t.co/VNBBGTyrw3 pic.twitter.com/9ljWEXkfj4

— Kero Kero Bonito (@KeroKeroBonito) July 20, 2020

hell yeah

Summer jam

I'm way too addicted to this damn song.

🎵 kind of bug and kind of snack 🎶

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0Aa9F0h0VM

civilisation ii ep out in april. this single is fine but not really on the level of their 2018 material which is how i feel about the first civilisation ep these days

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9__MSNKRTtY

also found they were regularly covering u2's "vertigo" on their last tour lol. about as deliberately an uncool song as possible which i guess was the point

Welcome to Tim's Twitter Listening Party for our 2018 album Time 'n' Place. #timstwitterlisteningparty pic.twitter.com/ESXxHW31DX

— Kero Kero Bonito (@KeroKeroBonito) February 19, 2021

this is a good read about the making of time 'n' place

xp nice, finally! I can't say I'm any less psyched for Civ II than I was a couple years ago. As much as I'd love them to keep exploring the introspective sugary noise-pop of Time 'n' Place (probably my favorite album of the past five years, period), I think this electronic post-apocalyptic world-building thing they're doing now is a brilliant way for them to evolve. I love that they're an "eras" band that completely switches things up sonically and conceptually from album cycle to ablum cycle, which is something I associate more with art-pop "auteurs" like Björk and PJ Harvey than bands like KKB

they say in that twitter thread that the concept behind the civ eps is keeping things entirely hardware-based which is a continuation of what they did on time 'n' place, except that they're not working in the band format they did there. the results so far have been decently interesting, probably their most overtly video game soundtrack-esque music, but i don't love it as much as time 'n' place and totep.

i guess i like the sound of the civ stuff but the songwriting hasn't grabbed me anywhere near as much as what they were doing in 2018

Yeah musically the Civ stuff didn't appeal to me as immediately as the Time 'n' Place era stuff, but it's grown on me hard. The production is more sophisticated and darker than anything else they've done (though the video game music timbres help maintain a whimsical aura), and the way the lyrical focus has shifted from the personal to sci-fi/fantasy storytelling is really cool.

Man I love the new song already. Freestyle-ish beat, lush melancholy synths, wispy chopped-up vocals: yes, please

AND WE WILL BE. WELL. RESTED.
WHEN THE ASCENSION COMES

My 13-year-old son's favorite band, he plays them in the car all the time. I enjoy it.

A young man of taste he is. Civilisation II EP is out today, absolutely slays as expected. "Well Rested" is a legit 7-minute deep house odyssey

A young man walking the one true path.

Yeah this new one's great

This does sound like video game music, in a way I can't appreciate or enjoy. And why are their tunes so aimless now, when they used to be all about catchy melodies (to the point that they had a song about how great they are)?

This band is clearly going places artistically, but they left me behind a while back. Oh well

yeah "well rested" rules

"well rested" is massive!

This might be my favorite thing from them. 21/04/20 is also great and it’s coincidentally the same birthday as my significant other.

Well Rested is the best PSB song since Love Is A Bourgeois Construct

What does PSB stand for?

think of London's previous, um, house band, WHOSE MANTLE IS BEING PASSED

thinking of sarah's deadpan vocal style being in the same lineage as psb makes me appreciate it a lot more overall

Kero Kero Bonimperial phase

Oooh Pet Shop Boys... yeah I kinda hear the comparison

Especially the vocal style and the fact it's called 'Well Rested'! But KKB's laid-back pop/house investigations have always had a certain PSB-y feel to them imo, albeit a few hairs more indie

yeah i definitely hear that

i'm really excited to hear where they go next bc it kinda feels like they're just getting started really

also what the hell "flamingo" has 76 million youtube views when did that happen

Re: the tradition of deadpan British vocals, Sarah constantly reminds me of Trish Keenan

I love everything about this band. Their recent carefully constructed "mythical" vibe reminds me of the KLF in the best possible way.

I’ve decided this is the best song of the year 2021.

I just watched this recent “live” show of theirs, and discovered they did a great KKB-do-2-step remix of Metronomy last year. Unfortunately it’s not another 7 minute journey clocking in at 3 mins only.

show:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGGPMTvfYb4

remix:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMPqYibrhes

Civilisation vinyl (both EPs on one mini LP) finally landed, so getting fully immersed in these songs now. Bits of the record remind me a bit of Going For The One or Tormato-era Yes, there’s that same density of sound and willingness to embrace the cosmic. The rate KKB are evolving and improving is quite startling.

The sleeve art is something else too. Black symbols on a white background with text in a strange font that vaguely resembles hieroglyphics - which carries across to the lyrics on the inner sleeve too (thus rendering them largely incomprehensible even after you’ve worked out which letter of the alphabet each symbol stands for).

Not sure what the competition is, but "21/04/20" has to be the greatest song written about COVID quarantine

I'm surprised and relieved they aren't more common. Though I enjoyed "The Virus Diaries" i heard about on the Orbital thread here.

otm though. Hands up if you're also "ok you know the usual kinda weird"!

Yup. "Last night's pasta in a tub, out the fridge for lunch and breakfast" too

This, I like! (guess it's for an ad campaign?)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bp9octRklXM

Kind of lame, IMO, cannot escape the fact that I'm listening to an advertisement for shoes. But what the fuck do I know, I loved the Bugsnax song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nN_d1fkkSr0

aaaa better late than never
Sarah's EP as "Cryalot" is great, and not a big departure for KKB fans