The Gerogerigegege
Encyclopedia
The Gerogerigegege is a music project created in 1985 in Shinjuku
, Tokyo
by Juntaro Yamanouchi , who runs and maintains the Vis a Vis record label in Japan
.
acts such as Merzbow
and Masonna, The Gerogerigegege has also released albums of more straightforward rock
(Sexual Behaviour in the Human Male), noise
(45 RPM Performance), and ambient music
(None Friendly, Endless Humiliation), in addition to several seven inch records
mixing these styles with found recordings. The group is best known for their 1990 album Tokyo Anal Dynamite. This album consists of 75 songs, which serve as a fusion of the Ramones
' punk jams (replete with Juntaro yelling "1 2 3 4!!" over and over) and John Zorn
's frantic Naked City
project.
Stacie Donald is reportedly a fan.
Over the years, The Gerogerigegege has included many members, the most notable and consistent other than Yamanouchi being Gero 30 (also known as Gero 56, real name Tetsuya Endoh), an exhibitionist
known to masturbate
onstage during live performances. Masturbation is called "senzuri" (千擦り; lit. "a thousand rubs") in Japan and it has become the group's trademark. Yamanouchi met Gero 30 at an S&M club in 1986. Other members have included Toshinori "Dynamite Gero" Fukuda on drums, Hironao "Dee Dee Gero" Komaki on guitar, Junko "Gero Grace Seijoh" Katoh, their live manager, and Masatoshi "Gero Route 66" Katsuya, the band's driver. Yamanouchi is a homosexual and a crossdresser, which is unusual in the world of Japan
ese experimental music. His mother is a famous classical pianist.
The Gerogerigegege is known for their releasing extremely limited edition records such as 1989's 昭和 (Shōwa), which bookended a recording of people having sex with "Kimi ga Yo
", the Japanese national anthem (the sleeve was a picture of the Ramones
with nothing mentioning The Gerogerigegege at all), and the Night EP, which features what seems to be a recording of a man defecating
into a toilet after the usual "1 2 3 4!!" count. The album Recollections of Primary Masturbation contains 338 songs, including the entire Tokyo Anal Dynamite album as one track and ten minutes (spread over two tracks) containing 223 previously unreleased songs. There are also some non-musical conceptual releases, including This Is Shaking Box Music part 2, which is a destroyed cassette copy of the Mother Fellatio EP. Another, "Art is over" consists of a single octopus tentacle housed in a cassette box. These non-music releases were typically released in even smaller quantities than the actual music releases, in quantities of 50 or less.
Similar inane concepts are rampant throughout the band's catalogue, and often, the more ridiculous the theme or packaging of a release is, the more sought after it is by collectors. Copies of some Gerogerigegege records go for hundreds of dollars.
Gerogerigegege have been inactive since the unexplained disappearance of frontman Juntaro Yamanouchi. He is rumored to be dead, institutionalized or simply unwilling to acknowledge the project anymore. It is also said that his brother died in a car accident and got very depressed and eventually became mentally ill.
Shinjuku, Tokyo
is one of the 23 special wards of Tokyo, Japan. It is a major commercial and administrative center, housing the busiest train station in the world and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, the administration center for the government of Tokyo.As of 2008, the ward has an estimated population...
, Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
by Juntaro Yamanouchi , who runs and maintains the Vis a Vis record label in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
.
Biography
Though they are often categorized with Japanese harsh noiseJapanoise
is a portmanteau of the words "Japanese" and "noise": a term applied to the diverse, prolific, and influential noise music scene of Japan. Primarily popular and active in the 1980s and 1990s but still alive today, the Japanoise scene is defined by a remarkable sense of musical freedom...
acts such as Merzbow
Merzbow
is the main recording name of the Japanese noise musician , born in 1956. Since 1979 he has released in excess of 350 recordings.The name "Merzbow" comes from German artist Kurt Schwitters' artwork, "Merzbau”. This was chosen to reflect Akita's dada influence and junk art aesthetic...
and Masonna, The Gerogerigegege has also released albums of more straightforward rock
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
(Sexual Behaviour in the Human Male), noise
Noise
In common use, the word noise means any unwanted sound. In both analog and digital electronics, noise is random unwanted perturbation to a wanted signal; it is called noise as a generalisation of the acoustic noise heard when listening to a weak radio transmission with significant electrical noise...
(45 RPM Performance), and ambient music
Ambient music
Ambient music is a musical genre that focuses largely on the timbral characteristics of sounds, often organized or performed to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual" or "unobtrusive" quality.- History :...
(None Friendly, Endless Humiliation), in addition to several seven inch records
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
mixing these styles with found recordings. The group is best known for their 1990 album Tokyo Anal Dynamite. This album consists of 75 songs, which serve as a fusion of the Ramones
Ramones
The Ramones were an American rock band that formed in the New York City neighborhood of Forest Hills, Queens, in 1974. They are often cited as the first punk rock group...
' punk jams (replete with Juntaro yelling "1 2 3 4!!" over and over) and John Zorn
John Zorn
John Zorn is an American avant-garde composer, arranger, record producer, saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist. Zorn is a prolific artist: he has hundreds of album credits as performer, composer, or producer...
's frantic Naked City
Naked City (band)
Naked City was an avant-garde music group led by saxophonist and composer John Zorn. Active primarily in New York City from 1988 to 1993, Naked City was initiated by Zorn as a "composition workshop" to test the limits of composition in a traditional rock band lineup...
project.
Stacie Donald is reportedly a fan.
Over the years, The Gerogerigegege has included many members, the most notable and consistent other than Yamanouchi being Gero 30 (also known as Gero 56, real name Tetsuya Endoh), an exhibitionist
Exhibitionism
Exhibitionism refers to a desire or compulsion to expose parts of one's body – specifically the genitals or buttocks of a man or woman, or the breasts of a woman – in a public or semi-public circumstance, in crowds or groups of friends or acquaintances, or to strangers...
known to masturbate
Masturbation
Masturbation refers to sexual stimulation of a person's own genitals, usually to the point of orgasm. The stimulation can be performed manually, by use of objects or tools, or by some combination of these methods. Masturbation is a common form of autoeroticism...
onstage during live performances. Masturbation is called "senzuri" (千擦り; lit. "a thousand rubs") in Japan and it has become the group's trademark. Yamanouchi met Gero 30 at an S&M club in 1986. Other members have included Toshinori "Dynamite Gero" Fukuda on drums, Hironao "Dee Dee Gero" Komaki on guitar, Junko "Gero Grace Seijoh" Katoh, their live manager, and Masatoshi "Gero Route 66" Katsuya, the band's driver. Yamanouchi is a homosexual and a crossdresser, which is unusual in the world of Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese experimental music. His mother is a famous classical pianist.
The Gerogerigegege is known for their releasing extremely limited edition records such as 1989's 昭和 (Shōwa), which bookended a recording of people having sex with "Kimi ga Yo
Kimi ga Yo
is the national anthem of post-1868 Japan. It is also one of the world's shortest national anthems in current use, with a length of 11 measures and 32 characters. Its lyrics are based on a Waka poem written in the Heian period , sung to a melody written in the imperial period...
", the Japanese national anthem (the sleeve was a picture of the Ramones
Ramones
The Ramones were an American rock band that formed in the New York City neighborhood of Forest Hills, Queens, in 1974. They are often cited as the first punk rock group...
with nothing mentioning The Gerogerigegege at all), and the Night EP, which features what seems to be a recording of a man defecating
Defecation
Defecation is the final act of digestion by which organisms eliminate solid, semisolid or liquid waste material from the digestive tract via the anus. Waves of muscular contraction known as peristalsis in the walls of the colon move fecal matter through the digestive tract towards the rectum...
into a toilet after the usual "1 2 3 4!!" count. The album Recollections of Primary Masturbation contains 338 songs, including the entire Tokyo Anal Dynamite album as one track and ten minutes (spread over two tracks) containing 223 previously unreleased songs. There are also some non-musical conceptual releases, including This Is Shaking Box Music part 2, which is a destroyed cassette copy of the Mother Fellatio EP. Another, "Art is over" consists of a single octopus tentacle housed in a cassette box. These non-music releases were typically released in even smaller quantities than the actual music releases, in quantities of 50 or less.
Similar inane concepts are rampant throughout the band's catalogue, and often, the more ridiculous the theme or packaging of a release is, the more sought after it is by collectors. Copies of some Gerogerigegege records go for hundreds of dollars.
Gerogerigegege have been inactive since the unexplained disappearance of frontman Juntaro Yamanouchi. He is rumored to be dead, institutionalized or simply unwilling to acknowledge the project anymore. It is also said that his brother died in a car accident and got very depressed and eventually became mentally ill.
Albums
- THE GERO-P – Studio and Live (1985)
- Senzuri Champion (1987)
- 昭和 (Shōwa) (1988)
- Tokyo Anal Dynamite (1990)
- Live Greatest Hits (1991)
- Senzuri Power Up (1991)
- 45RPM Performance (1992)
- Hotel Ultra (1993)
- Nothing to Hear, Nothing to... 1985 (1993)
- Endless Humiliation (1994)
- Instruments Disorder (1994)
- SINGLES 1985-1993 (1994)
- Mort Douce Live (1996)
- Recollections of Primary Masturbation (1998)
- Hell Driver (1999)
- None Friendly (1999)
- RRRecycled Music (~1999)
- Saturday Night Big Cock Salaryman (2001)
Singles and EPs
- Sexual Behavior in the Human Male EP (1988)
- All My Best, with Love Juntaro (~1990)
- William Bennett Is My Dick (~1990)
- No Sound (~1990)
- More Shit E.P. (1992)
- SENZURI MONKEY METAL ACTION (1992)
- 北の丸百景 (Kitanomaru Hyakkei) (1993)
- Night (1993)
- Yellow Trash Bazooka EP (1993)
- Mother Fellatio EP (1993)
- Life Documents (1994)
- Senzuri Fight BackSenzuri Fight BackSenzuri Fight Back is a 1994 7" EP by The Gerogerigegege. The record was recorded in 1986, and certain songs are re-recorded version of old songs.-Track listing:-Credits:*Tohru Maruyama - Drums, Vocals*Juntaro "Asshole" Yamanouchi - Vocals, Bass...
(1994) - ALL YOU NEED IS AUDIO SHOCK (1995)
- Veel Plezier met de Gerogerigegege! (1995)
- WRECK OF ROCK'N'ROLL FORMER SELF (1995)
- Gay Sex Can Be Aids (split with Origami Erotika) (1996)
- Seven Inches of Meat (split with Origami Erotika) (1996)
- "Ramones" (split with Bastard NoiseBastard Noise-History:The Bastard Noise was founded in 1991 by Henry Barnes, W. T. Nelson and Eric Wood, initially as a side project of powerviolence band Man Is The Bastard.-Project personnel and past contributors:...
) (1996) - 靖國神社 (Yasukuni Jinja) (1996)
- ETERNAL ENERGY (split with Psyalpinx) (1997)
- HGI (~1998)
- Early Dream Exit (2000)
- Live in USA (split with Crowd Surfers Must Die) (2001)