Thee Michelle Gun Elephant are one of my favourite bands from Japan and they’ve been on top of my last.fm overall top artist chart for some time now. The first time I heard Chiba Yusuke’s voice I was bowled over by the raw power. Not to mention the awesome trashy guitars and great bass lines.
From TMGE’s Wikipedia entry:
Thee Michelle Gun Elephant (often abbreviated to TMGE) was a Japanese garage rock band of notable popularity in its country of origin. Their music is known for the loud guitars of Abe Futoshi and lead singer Chiba Yusuke’s loud, gravelly yet melodious vocals. The other members of the band were drummer Kuhara Kazuyuki and bass player Ueno Koji. They have cited bands such as Johnny Thunders, The Stooges, Iggy Pop, The Damned, The Clash, The Adicts, The Who and Dr. Feelgood as their influences.
The band was formed in 1991, while the band members were students at Tokyo’s Meiji Gakuin University. Their unusual name originated from a combination of a former bassist’s mispronunciation of the The Damned’s album, Machine Gun Etiquette, and the name of Billy Childish’s offbeat band Thee Headcoats.
In 1998 they released their break-through album Gear Blues on Triad in Japan. The same album was their western debut in 2000 when it was released in the US, and it sold 4 million copies worldwide. They split up at the end of 2003 and Chiba Yusuke went on to form ROSSO together with Terui Toshiyuki (bass player of Blankey Jet City).
Here’s the Smokin’ Billy video off Gear Blues:
And as a bonus a fan-made video of the same song I stumbled across on YouTube. If you’re into Japanese horror then you’ll probably like it. I did 
Possibly related posts:
