Urusei Yatsura were a Glaswegian

Glasgow

Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...

 Alternative rock

Alternative rock

Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...

, Indie rock

Indie rock

Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, riot grrrl and emo, among others...

 rock

Rock music

Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...

 indie band

Musical ensemble

A musical ensemble is a group of people who perform instrumental or vocal music. In classical music, trios or quartets either blend the sounds of musical instrument families or group together instruments from the same instrument family, such as string ensembles or wind ensembles...

.

History

Founding members Fergus Lawrie and Graham Kemp met in the summer of 1993, whilst attending the University of Glasgow

University of Glasgow

The University of Glasgow is the fourth-oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of Scotland's four ancient universities. Located in Glasgow, the university was founded in 1451 and is presently one of seventeen British higher education institutions ranked amongst the top 100 of the...

. They recruited Elaine Graham as bassist

Bassist

A bass player, or bassist is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass, bass guitar, keyboard bass or a low brass instrument such as a tuba or sousaphone. Different musical genres tend to be associated with one or more of these instruments...

, and the line-up was completed with the subsequent addition of Elaine's brother

Sibling

Siblings are people who share at least one parent. A male sibling is called a brother; and a female sibling is called a sister. In most societies throughout the world, siblings usually grow up together and spend a good deal of their childhood socializing with one another...

, Ian Graham, on drum

Drum

The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments, which is technically classified as the membranophones. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player's hands, or with a...

s. They took their band name from the manga

Manga

Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...

 Urusei Yatsura

Urusei Yatsura

is a comedic manga series written and illustrated by Rumiko Takahashi that premiered in Weekly Shōnen Sunday in 1978 and ran until its conclusion in 1987. Its 374 individual chapters were collected and published in 34 tankōbon volumes. The series tells the story of Ataru Moroboshi, and the alien...

, written by Rumiko Takahashi

Rumiko Takahashi

is a Japanese manga artist.Takahashi is one of the wealthiest individuals, and the most affluent manga artists in Japan. The manga she creates are popular worldwide, where they have been translated into a variety of languages...

, and contributed their first recording

Sound recording and reproduction

Sound recording and reproduction is an electrical or mechanical inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording technology are analog recording and digital recording...

, Guitars Are Boring, to a compilation album

Compilation album

A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...

 released by the Kazoo Club. This was based in Glasgow, and run at one point by the future Franz Ferdinand

Franz Ferdinand (band)

Franz Ferdinand are a Scottish post-punk revival band formed in Glasgow in 2002. The band is composed of Alex Kapranos , Bob Hardy , Nick McCarthy , and Paul Thomson .The band first experienced chart success when their second single, "Take Me Out", reached #3 in...

 singer Alex Kapranos

Alex Kapranos

Alexander Paul Kapranos Huntley , commonly known as Alex Kapranos, is a United Kingdom-based musician who is the lead singer and the guitarist of the Glasgow band Franz Ferdinand.-Early life:...

. This record

Gramophone record

A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...

 in turn brought them to the attention of the BBC Radio

BBC Radio

BBC Radio is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927. For a history of BBC radio prior to 1927 see British Broadcasting Company...

 DJ

Disc jockey

A disc jockey, also known as DJ, is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, "disc" referred to phonograph records, not the later Compact Discs. Today, the term includes all forms of music playback, no matter the medium.There are several types of disc jockeys...

 John Peel

John Peel

John Robert Parker Ravenscroft, OBE , known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey, radio presenter, record producer and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly from 1967 until his death in 2004...

, who brought them in to do a session.

Over the years they released three album

Album

An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...

s: We Are Urusei Yatsura

We Are Urusei Yatsura

We Are Urusei Yatsura is an album by Glaswegian lo-fi rock indie band Urusei Yatsura, released in 1996. In the U.S.A. it is known as We Are Yatsura.-Track listing:# "Siamese" - 2.38# "First Day On A New Planet" - 3.33# "Pow R...

(1996), Slain By Urusei Yatsura

Slain By Urusei Yatsura

Slain By Urusei Yatsura is an album by Glaswegian lo-fi rock indie band.Urusei Yatsura, released in 1998.-Track listing:#Glo Starz - 3.32#Hello Tiger - 3.17#Strategic Hamlets - 2.38#No 1 Cheesecake - 2.44#Superfi - 3.44...

(1998) and Everybody Loves Urusei Yatsura

Everybody Loves Urusei Yatsura

Everybody Loves Urusei Yatsura is the last album by Glaswegian lo-fi rock indie band Urusei Yatsura, released in 2000.-Track listing:#Louche 33 - 3.20#Eastern Youth' ' -3.25#Superdeformer - 3.39#Silver Dragon - 3.32#Uji Bomb - 5.10...

(2000). Albums in America

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 and 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...

 were released under the name of Yatsura for legal reasons. The band had one Top 40 hit single

Hit single

A hit single is a recorded song or instrumental released as a single that has become very popular. Although it is sometimes used to describe any widely-played or big-selling song, the term "hit" is usually reserved for a single that has appeared in an official music chart through repeated radio...

, 1997's "Hello Tiger", which reached #40 in the UK Singles Chart

UK Singles Chart

The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...

. Other singles released by the band include "Strategic Hamlets" and "Slain By Elf".

Urusei Yatsura split in June 2001, leaving Kemp to work on solo

Solo (music)

In music, a solo is a piece or a section of a piece played or sung by a single performer...

 material and the other band members to form Projekt A-ko.

Albums

• We Are Urusei Yatsura
  We Are Urusei Yatsura
  We Are Urusei Yatsura is an album by Glaswegian lo-fi rock indie band Urusei Yatsura, released in 1996. In the U.S.A. it is known as We Are Yatsura.-Track listing:# "Siamese" - 2.38# "First Day On A New Planet" - 3.33# "Pow R...
  
  (1996)
• ¡Pulpo!
  ¡Pulpo!
  ¡Pulpo! is a collection of singles and B-sides by Glaswegian lo-fi rock indie band Urusei Yatsura, released in 1997.-Track listing:#"Strategic Hamlets" - 2:37#"Down Home Kitty" - 3:39#"Pampered Adolescent" - 5:54#"Kozee Heart" - 3:12#"Miramar" - 3:03...
  
  (1997)
• Slain By Urusei Yatsura
  Slain By Urusei Yatsura
  Slain By Urusei Yatsura is an album by Glaswegian lo-fi rock indie band.Urusei Yatsura, released in 1998.-Track listing:#Glo Starz - 3.32#Hello Tiger - 3.17#Strategic Hamlets - 2.38#No 1 Cheesecake - 2.44#Superfi - 3.44...
  
  (1998)
• Everybody Loves Urusei Yatsura
  Everybody Loves Urusei Yatsura
  Everybody Loves Urusei Yatsura is the last album by Glaswegian lo-fi rock indie band Urusei Yatsura, released in 2000.-Track listing:#Louche 33 - 3.20#Eastern Youth' ' -3.25#Superdeformer - 3.39#Silver Dragon - 3.32#Uji Bomb - 5.10...
  
  (2000)

Singles

• Siamese (1995 - Ché 38 - 7" - Siamese / Lo-Fi)
• Pampered Adolescent (1995 - M.I.R. 001 - 7" - Pampered Adolescent split single Blisters)
• Stolen Ecstasy 45 Chapter 3 (1995 - DAWN-03 - 7" - Silver Krest- split single Delgados)
• Kernel (1995 - PUBE08 - 7" - Kernel / Teen Dream)
• Plastic Ashtray (1995 - Ché 46 - CD / 7" - Plastic Ashtray / Got the Sun / Miramar (CD) / Yatsura Kill Taster (CD))
• Kewpies Like Watermelon (1996 - Ché 53 - CD / 7" - Kewpies Like Watermelon / Majesty / Sucker (CD) / Burriko Girl (demo) (CD))
• Tour EP (Ché 59 - 7" - Phasers on Stun (live)
• Phasers on Sun (1996 - Ché 62 - CD / double 7" - Phasers on Stun / The Power of Negative Thinking / The Love That Brings You Down / Sid & Nancy)
• Strategic Hamlets (1997 - Ché 67 - CD / 7" (x2) - Strategic Hamlets / Down Home Kitty / Kozee Heart / Revir)
• Fake Fur (1997 - Ché 70 - CD1/10"/7" - Fake Fur / Silver Krest / Nova Static (not 7") / Secret Crush (not 7"))
• Fake Fur (1997 - Ché 70 - CD2/10" Fake Fur / Pampered Adolescent / Bewitched / Saki & Cremola))
• Hello Tiger (1997 - Ché 75 - CD1/7" - Hello Tiger / Vanilla Starlet / Vent Axial (not 7"))
• Hello Tiger (1997 - Ché 75 - CD2 - Hello Tiger (Peel session version) / Dice, Nae Dice (Peel session version) / Everybody Hang Out)
• Slain By Elf (1998 - Ché 80 - CD1 Slain By Elf / Subatomic / Nu Style)
• Slain By Elf (1998 - Ché 80 - CD2 / 7" Slain By Elf / Hail To The New Poor / What's Wrong With Me?)
• Yon Kyoku Iri EP (1999 - CD / double 7" - Kaytronika / Still Exploding / Nobody Knows We're Stars / Mother of the MBK)|
• Louche 33 (2000 - ONIV71 - CD / 7" - Louche 33 / Planet Of The Skulls / I'm Vexed)
• Eastern Youth (2000 - ONIV73 - 7" - Eastern Youth / The Hearts You Break)

Compilation appearances

• Guitars Are Boring on Kazoo Collection 12"
• First Day on a New Planet on Camden Crawl II CD
• Kozee Hearts on Noises From the Sound Cupboard 12"
• Powerball (demo) and Black Hole Love (demo) on Does The Word 'Duh' Mean Anything To You? CD
• Exidor (live) on Abuse Your Friends CD
• Phasers on Stun on Japanese Magazine CD
• Skull in Action on NME C96
• Plastic Ashtray (live) on Phoenix: The Album
• Plastic Ashtray on Generation X - The Definitive Sound of 90s Indie
• Low Fi on 12 into 10 cassette