Ellegarden are Takeshi Hosomi on vocals and guitar, Shinichi Ubutaka on guitar, Yuichi Takada on bass, and Hirotaka Takahashi on drums. Hosomi writes most of their songs, primarily in English, and sings them quite passable English as well. There are various theories about why Hosomi speaks English well, including his having played in a cover band that played English songs for six years, having a foreign roommate, having an Israeli girlfriend, and having visited overseas often on business at a previous job. All or none of these might be true. When it comes to choosing a language for his songs, Hosomi says that he decides based on the melody. Ubutaka also contributes songs. The band have a somewhat West Coast sort of "melocore" punk style with a bit of emo angst; not overly poppy but not falling down sloppy either. They would likely hold their own fine on the Warp Tour. Hosomi is a huge fan of Weezer, and Ubutaka of Jimmy Eats World, two of their more obvious influences. They are also close with many other Japanese bands, and Hosomi and Horie of the band Straightener are known to be best friends. Ellegarden was formed in Chiba in December, 1998. Ubutaka and Takada had previously been in a group together, and eventually the other members drifted in from other local bands. Ubutaka is the youngest member of the band but generally considered the leader. They released their self-titled first album in May 2001 on the indie Dynamord, to modest acclaim. Their next release
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Ellegarden are Takeshi Hosomi on vocals and guitar, Shinichi Ubutaka on guitar, Yuichi Takada on bass, and Hirotaka Takahashi on drums. Hosomi writes most of their songs, primarily in English, and sings them quite passable English as well. There are various theories about why Hosomi speaks English well, including his having played in a cover band that played English songs for six years, having a foreign roommate, having an Israeli girlfriend, and having visited overseas often on business at a previous job. All or none of these might be true. When it comes to choosing a language for his songs, Hosomi says that he decides based on the melody. Ubutaka also contributes songs. The band have a somewhat West Coast sort of "melocore" punk style with a bit of emo angst; not overly poppy but not falling down sloppy either. They would likely hold their own fine on the Warp Tour. Hosomi is a huge fan of Weezer, and Ubutaka of Jimmy Eats World, two of their more obvious influences. They are also close with many other Japanese bands, and Hosomi and Horie of the band Straightener are known to be best friends. Ellegarden was formed in Chiba in December, 1998. Ubutaka and Takada had previously been in a group together, and eventually the other members drifted in from other local bands. Ubutaka is the youngest member of the band but generally considered the leader. They released their self-titled first album in May 2001 on the indie Dynamord, to modest acclaim. Their next release
Don’t Trust Anyone But Us, did a bit better, with the band doing their first major tour in support of the record, including a stop at the Rising Sun Festival in Hokkaido.
My Own Destruction, released in October, 2002, was their breakout album, and the band followed it with a 30 date sold out tour. In July 2003 they released
Bring Your Board, which also did well. The album jacket features a tiki character on the cover, perhaps a nod to Chiba, which has a number of popular surfing beaches. The band however spent most of their summer touring instead of surfing. In May 2004 they were back again with a new album,
Pepperoni Quattro, and their first DVD followed closely on its heels. The band also took time to contribute a track to a Pillows tribute album. In Feb, 2005 they played their biggest show to date, opening for Sum 41 at Saitama’s Super Arena. In April, 2005 Ellegarden hit with the strongest album of their career,
Riot On The Grill. Featuring a picture of somebody inhaling a large mouthful of spaghetti on the cover, teh album entered the Oricon charts at #3, and sold hundreds of thousands. The album has sold steadily for an unusually long time, powered partly by two rocking but comic videos. Ellegarden have been announced as one for the Japanese bands which will play at SXSW in Austin, Texas in March. Fans of fun, high spirited punk should definitely check them out.
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