Urusei Yatsura and Project a-Ko
2 Comments Published by magnusk on Wednesday, March 29, 2006 at 23:01.
I (Magnus), can readily admit to liking science fiction. I do like all of the Star Trek movies, and do enjoy the old tv shows with the vibrant colors, silly special effects and far-out plots. And I like raw and fast punkish rock. So my attention was immediately captured when once upon a time I was watching one of two decent shows on MTV, probably Alternative Nation, and there appeared this amazing band, all clad in Star Trek uniforms, rocking their brains out and singing about "Phasers on stun". The band was called Urusei Yatsura, after some japanese anime movies, and they kicked butt.
I never knew anything more about the band at the time, and their albums very likely failed ever to show up in record stores here. However I have now found out they hailed from Glasgow, and made a few, no doubt very cool, albums. At least they have cool titles such as "We are Urusei Yatsura", "Slain by Urusei Yatsura" and "Everybody loves Urusei Yatsura". I am now making it my mission to buy these albums despite my somewhat limited budget at the moment, and it would also be extremely nice to find that video again, preferably online. If anyone has it in digital format please email me.
They have now disbanded, but according to their official website one of them is working on solo material, and the others have formed a new band named Project a-Ko. Anyone with info about this solo project is welcome to contact me and I shall update this accordingly. In the meantime I'm offering two goodies to kindle deserved interest in the bands. Project a-Ko seems not so far removed from the Urusei Yatsura style, and have a kick-ass track online which I'm posting below, plus others on their site.
Urusei Yatsura - Phasers on stun
Project a-Ko - Ichiro on 3rd
Hello,,,
i'm from indonesia ,, and i'm very glad to know such a blog like this!!!!luv yer musics collectionz!:)
cheerz!!!!
Urusei Yatsura were, I believe, known simply as Yatsura in North America, because of copyright issues relating to their full name (borrowed from a manga comic, and translated loosely as 'those annoying female aliens'). I always thought they sounded like the poppier end of Sonic Youth; co-frontman Graham Kemp described their sound as 'fucked-up bubblegum'.
I was lucky enough to see them live in about 1998, in Camden, London. My favourite song of theirs is 'First Day On A New Planet', from the first album. 'Strategic Hamlets' is also damn catchy.
Glad to note they're still going, in different colours.