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Thee Michelle Gun Elephant (also known as TMGE) was a Japanese punk band of notable popularity in its country of origin. Its music is known for the loud guitars of Abe Futoshi and lead singer Chiba Yusuke's loud, gravelly yet melodious vocals. Other members of the band include Kuhara Kazuyuki (drums) and Koji Ueo (bass). The band was formed while the band members were students at Tokyo's Meiji Gakuen University, and their name comes from a combination of the name of Billy Childish's offbeat band Thee Headcoats and a former bassist's mispronunciation of the name of The Damned's album, Machine Gun Etiquette.
Their first album, Wonder Style, was released in 1995, and produced in London, United Kingdom, by Chris Brown, who previously engineered albums and tracks for Radiohead and Pink Floyd. Their breakthrough album, however, was 1998's Gear Blues which sold more than 500,000 copies, a huge number in the Japanese recording industry. Gear Blues was released in the United States in 2000, but the band's success in that country never reached the level that they had in Japan, although they had moderate success in Europe.
Thee Michelle Gun Elephant described their music as "Japanese Monster R&B" and used a lot of semi-English phrases in their lyrics, which sometimes make the songs difficult to understand to both English and Japanese speakers. They often wore suits on stage, similar to many British punk and blues bands that influenced their music.
The band announced that they would break up on October 10, 2003, after their Last Heaven tour of Japan. During their last concert, Abe's guitar string snapped, but he didn't change it to the new one; he kept playing and covered up the parts he couldn't play without it. Many thought that he didn't want to stop playing at all since it was his last day playing together as a band.
Discography
- Wonder Style (1995)
- Sekaino-Owari (1996) Debut single
- Cult Grass Stars (1996) Debut album
- CANDY HOUSE (1996)
- Lily (1996)
- High Time (1996) 2nd album
- culture (1997)
- Wonder Style (1997)
- Get Up Lucy (1997)
- THE BIRDMAN (1997)
- Chicken Zombies (1997) 3rd album
- VIBE ON!/Antano-doreino-mamade-ii (1998)
- G.W.D (1998)
- OUT BLUEZ (1998)
- SMOKIN' BILLY (1998)
- Gear Blues (1998) 4th album
- RUMBLE (1999)
- GT400 (1999)
- Casanova Snake (2000) 5th album
- Baby Star Dust (2000)
- TMGE106 (2000) Best album
- CASANOVA SAID "LIVE OR DIE" (2000) Live album
- KWACKER (2001)
- Abakarega-Sekai (2001)
- Rodeo Tandem Beat Specter (2001) 6th album
- Taiyou-wo-Tsukande-Shimatta (2002)
- Greatest Hits Collection (2002)
- SABRINA HEAVEN (2003) 7th album
- SABRINA NO HEAVEN (2003) 8th album
- GIRL FRIEND (2003)
- electric circus (2003)
External links
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