The Gerogerigegege

Infobox musical artist
Name = The Gerogerigegege


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Origin = Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan
Genre = Experimental
Noise music
Punk
Musique concrète
Performance art
Noisegrind
Years_active = 1985–present
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Current_members = Juntaro Yamanouchi
Past_members = Tetsuya Endoh
Toshinori Fukuda
Hironao Komaki

The Gerogerigegege (nihongo2|ザ・ゲロゲリゲゲゲ) is a music project created in 1985 in Shinjuku, Tokyo by Juntaro Yamanouchi (nihongo2|山ノ内純太郎), who runs and maintains the Vis a Vis record label in Japan.

Biography

Though they are often categorized with Japanese harsh noise 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.

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 Japanese 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" ("Shōwae"), which bookended a recording of people having sex with "Kimi ga Yo", the Japanese national anthem, 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. 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.

Name

The name of the group combines the Japanese words for "vomit" (gero) and "diarrhea" (geri) with what is supposedly the sound of these actions occurring simultaneously (gegege). (It has also been transliterated to mean "barf, diarrhea, ha ha ha," although "ge" is also variously an onomatopoeic word of disgust or exasperation, making the name open to several differing interpretations.) Their name has been pronounced "gerro-gerry-gay-gay-gay" on record, though pronounced differently on radio programs and such. To describe the group, Yamanouchi has used the term "Japanese Ultra Shit Band".

Discography

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)

ingles 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 BACK" (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 Noise) (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)

References

External links

* [http://www.artnotart.com/gero/ Gerogerigegege: 56k Performance site]
* [http://www.discogs.com/artist/Gerogerigegege,+The The Gerogerigegege @ Discogs]
* [http://www.discogs.com/viewimages?what=A&obid=78487 Pictures of The Gerogerigegege at discogs.com]