Thee Michelle Gun Elephant -Collection

Thee Michelle Gun Elephant were a garage punk band from Japan. On this appropriately titled collection they rip and roar through 17 tracks of their hits, recalling everything from the amped up energy of the Dead Kennedys and the Hot Snakes to the classic punk flavors of early Wire, Gang of Four, the Ramones and the New York Dolls. Their legacy lasted from 1994-2003 when they decided to call it quits. There is a new band that some of the members have started called The Birthday (not to be confused with the Birthday Party) which released their first record called "Rollers Romantics" just earlier this month. I wish I could tell you more about the release, but the whole site is in Japanese and needless to say my Japanese is rusty, actually, its not even rusty, its just ugly and consists of "hello" and "thank you"....but enough about my poor language skills...Thee Michelle Gun Elepant (whos bizarre 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") should be played loud, preferably while wearing sunglasses and your toughest looking black leather jacket. Their choppy guitar lines, propulsive rhythms and shouted Japanese/ Engrish lyrics are sure to keep you tapping your feet. Theres not a clunker in the whole collection.



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