2/14/2006

When I first decided I was coming to Japan, I went out to buy myself a copy of the Lonely Planet. In the entertainment section was a funny suggestion: Go to gigs based on how silly the name of the band is. You’ll get some utterly crap music, but you may also get some corkers. I decided I would give it a go.

First strange band name that I came across, and possibly still the winner after 5 months in Japan, was BUMP OF CHICKEN. So, off to the gig I went. And it was rockin’. I’m a big fan of the Asian Kung-Fu Generation and the pillows, so since these guys have the same style (and in fact, BUMP OF CHICKEN did a cover of one of the pillows’ tracks for a tribute album) I had a brilliant time.

The story goes that the four members: Fujiwara Motoh (guitar, lead vocals), Masukawa Hiroaki (guitar), Naoi Yoshifumi (bass) and Masu Hideo (drums) all met in while in kindergarten but reunited properly in junior high school. It was then when Masu supposedly said to Fujiwara “Let’s form a band and change the history of rock”. Oooh.

They have been getting pretty decent coverage and popularity in Japan. Their shows sell out and they had even been chosen to feature in the fourth One Piece movie with their song “Sailing Day”. It seems kinda strange that they didn’t have more songs in anime, given that at least 2 of the members of the band consider themselves otaku.

I haven’t been able to find out why they called themselves BUMP OF CHICKEN though. They must know that their band name is silly, given that quite a few of their songs are purely English, or with parts of English. Oh well.

Somebody was cool enough to put up their videoclips at Google Video, so go check it out.

Links:
BUMP OF CHICKEN official website (mainly Japanese)
Wikipedia’s article on BUMP OF CHICKEN
Google videos