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When I was 11 years old (7/87), my brother went to China
and Japan with the Young Astronauts
Program. "Wherever we went we usually had a
"friendship" time after the formalities...
Gift giving is a big thing, fit for any occasion... We had
long run out of things to give in return, but they kept on giving to us.
The [Kome Kome Club] tape came from a cute girl at one of these sessions
in Sapporo (Hokkaido) [Japan]...".
The tape he was given contained some of the albums SHARISHARISM and
E B I S as well as the single "SHAKE HIP!". I thought it was
interesting immediately. I only liked "I CAN BE" and "SPACE" at
first, but I've grown since then.
The research I've done on this band has been difficult.
Kome Kome Club has never been popular in the United States. Since I
don't speak or understand Japanese, and can barely read it, it has been
almost impossible. This is what I've found out from the few English
web sites I've found (and the Japanese sites I've labored through).
Kome Kome Club (aka K2C) was, for the most part, a
"Big Band" type group that played funk and pop.
It's kind of like a mix between Oingo Boingo and The Police. It has
always been odd and is definitely an acquired taste. Kome
means "rice" in Japanese.
A lot of their album
titles have rice puns in them, so it's meant to be funny (example: 5 1/2 in kanji is pronounced the same way as another word for rice).
Band Members:
As with all "Big Band" groups, Kome Kome Club
had a very large number of members. Including dancers, I've been
able to count up to 22 members.
Kome Kome
Club was formed by "Carl Smokey"
Ishii Tatuya (family name first,
though it seems to be popular now to switch it around),
"James" Onoda Yasuhide, and Bon (Okubo Kensaku). They met in college and
formed a movie club, and then ... a band.
The other "core" members are "Joplin" Tokunoh Ritsuro (Guitar) and
"Ryo-j" Sakaguchi Ryoji (drums) along with 3 to 5 members of Big
Horns Bee.
The group BIG HORNS BEE played with them at least
since 1984. They provided the brass for the group.
There were also two main females in the group. I don't know when
they joined or which joined first. They are Shii Minako
and Amagaya Mari.
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Amagaya Mari
"Funk Fujiyama" '89 |
Shii Minako
From her web
site, '03
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These are all Windows media player, for real audio and other album
information, use the link above. I hope they don't mind that I link
directly.
I don't like either of these songs, but they were very popular.
Audio:
浪漫飛行 (Roman Haiku),
君がいるだけで (Kimi ga iru dake de)
I like both of these. The live Shake Hip! is a little odd to me
though.
Video:
FUNK FUJIYAMA, Shake
Hip! (live)
Search for Ishii Tatuya "Έ䗳" Kome Kome
Club "ĕăNu" Where Are They Now?
Tatuya Ishii
石井竜也
(the "S" in "tsu"
has been removed) seems
to have been the main creative force behind Kome Kome Club, being
responsible for the majority of the bizarre and elaborate costumes, sets,
song writing, and lead vocals. He is a multi-medium artist. He paints, sculpts, and makes films. Two of his films are "Kappa" and "ACRI".
He has 6 solo albums so far: H on 3/21/1998,
DEEP on 1/21/1999,
GUY on 3/29/2000
(1 sound clip), 浪漫
on 3/27/2002 (12 clips),
THEATER on 9/19/2002
(2 clips, check out
コ・ウ・カ・イ), and nipops,
super
nipops（初回限定盤） on
4/23/03 and 5/21/03,
T.I GRAND PROJECT,
Tatuya
Ishii at Sony Music Japan.
BIG HORNS BEE (BRASS
MEN) members: "Flash" Kaneko
Takahiro 金子隆博 (Tenor Sax),
Wakaba Kawai (Trombone), Himarayan
Shimogami (Trumpet), Orita
Nobotta (Alto Sax), "Fussy"
Kobayashi Futoshi (Trumpet). I think Big Horns Bee are still together,
even though they work on projects separately sometimes. Fuzz Jazz
Quartet featuring BIG HORNS BEE came out with an album called "Dinner
Party 1999 Fuzz Jazz Style". I haven't heard any songs from
this album.
"James" Onoda Yasuhide
小野田安秀 seems to be in a band called Poisan
-ga- Manty as lead singer.
Bon 大久保謙作 plays bass and does
backing vocals for the group Tokyo
Mondays. They only had 1 album and that was in 1998.
"Joplin" Tokunoh Ritsuro 得能 (Guitar) and
"Ryo-j" Sakaguchi Ryoji 阪口良志 (drums) are now in the band JUNGAPOP.
I think the "Junga" comes from the German word for
"young". Big Horns Bee and James Onoda were guest
musicians on their self titled maxi-single (maxi-single means
~4 songs I
guess). They also have a maxi-singles called "Aria" and
"Land of the Rising
sun".
Shii Minako
石井 金子美奈子 was the main female vocal of Kome Kome Club.
Since I think female vocals ruined the possibility of tolerability for
several Kome Kome Club songs, I hate her. But you may not. She
has a solo career and seems to be very popular. One thing that
amuses me though: She has a song called Sakura (cherry tree right?),
and there is a remix of it called "NIGHT OF THE LIVING CHERRY
HEAD". Minako seems to be in leagues with
Takahiro Kaneko of
Big Horns Bee. He wrote and/or arranged
the music for some of her songs. Her group is known as Minako and
the Girls Brothers. She was also in Sue Cream Sue, whatever that is.
Amagaya Mari 天谷真利 : I don't have any
information.
Mataro (Drums I assume) joined (1995?), but here's his web
page. He is in Tokyo Mondays with Bon, but he plays guitar,
which confuses me.
These pics are great (especially "Studio"): Concert
and "Holiday", Posed
and Concert, Studio
while working on the album Octave.
Updated on 9/21/2003
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