Seagull Screaming Kiss Her Kiss Her was formed in 1992 by vocalist and leader Aiha Higurashi, and named after the band had already played several small gigs. The name, lifted from a track by the same name on British new wave pioneer XTC's
The Big Express, was supposedly chosen with the hope it would have the effect of making the group pretty much unforgettable. Seagull Screaming Kiss Her Kiss Her is often lazily categorized in the west with the Shibuya-kei style of music, but they take more cues from Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Pavement, and Sonic Youth than they do from Serge Gainesbourg and Twiggy. Shortly after forming the band, Higurashi took off for New York and London before moving back to Tokyo to commit herself the the band full-time. After recruiting Nao Koyama on bass and Karashima Takaharu on drums, the band got picked up by Trattoria, the label du jour in Japan in the early and mid nineties, and released a string of scuzzy guitar driven albums, starting with their 1997 debut
It's Brand New, that made them a hit at home in Japan and in the overseas indie world. Takaharu left the band in 1999, and Seagull continued as a duo, getting help on drums from a variety of players. Writing exclusively in English, Higurashi and the band have been able to leverage intelligent lyrics on top of their hooky punk sound to carve out a strong fan base in the United States and capture the attention of major indie artists like Mogwai, Yo La Tengo, and Modest Mouse...
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Seagull Screaming Kiss Her Kiss Her was formed in 1992 by vocalist and leader Aiha Higurashi, and named after the band had already played several small gigs. The name, lifted from a track by the same name on British new wave pioneer XTC's
The Big Express, was supposedly chosen with the hope it would have the effect of making the group pretty much unforgettable. Seagull Screaming Kiss Her Kiss Her is often lazily categorized in the west with the Shibuya-kei style of music, but they take more cues from Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Pavement, and Sonic Youth than they do from Serge Gainesbourg and Twiggy. Shortly after forming the band, Higurashi took off for New York and London before moving back to Tokyo to commit herself the the band full-time. After recruiting Nao Koyama on bass and Karashima Takaharu on drums, the band got picked up by Trattoria, the label du jour in Japan in the early and mid nineties, and released a string of scuzzy guitar driven albums, starting with their 1997 debut
It's Brand New, that made them a hit at home in Japan and in the overseas indie world. Takaharu left the band in 1999, and Seagull continued as a duo, getting help on drums from a variety of players. Writing exclusively in English, Higurashi and the band have been able to leverage intelligent lyrics on top of their hooky punk sound to carve out a strong fan base in the United States and capture the attention of major indie artists like Mogwai, Yo La Tengo, and Modest Mouse, with whom they have toured. In 2002, the band released a compilation CD in the UK entitled
Red Talk, but by this time the band was all but finished, breaking up shortly thereafter. Since then Aiha Higurashi has gone on to a solo career with Sony label Ki/oon. While several Japanese artists in similar veins,
Cibo Matto to name the obvious one, have achieved greater commercial success overseas, Seagull Screaming Kiss Her Kiss Her were pioneers, and their fan base continues to grow despite the fact they are no longer active.
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