A few weeks back, I caught Stephin Merritt and his merry quartet for a lovely acoustic show at GW’s Lisner Auditorium, and while that show was amazing, it was like the bazillionth time I’d seen Magnetic Fields in the last 15 years. It was, however, the first time I’d ever seen Shugo Tokumaru and he was quite an interesting and completely unexpected opener. Definitely worth checking out. He’s been called a japanese version of Of Montreal, but I think that might be pushing things quite a bit. More like The Shins meet a Japanese Sufjan or something like that. It’s twee, and japanese, and kinda fascinating. Here’s a good review from PopMatters. I can’t believe this guy’s been under the radar this long.