Kemuri, Japan's favorite Ska/Punk Kamikazes, are ready,
once again, to take on the United States with their unique
combination of musical genres and Positive Mental Attitude
(P.M.A.) philosophy. We could tell you about them, but they
do that better themselves...
"It was unusual summer, extremely humid when KEMURI
was born. FUMIO, lead singer of the band called up TSUDA
who was living little far away from Tokyo and asked him "Will
you join me? I'm going to the States in October. I want to
have a band, record the album, and challenge the U.S."
Quick response was made. "Yes. I will. Why don't we do
ska music with Punk taste?" TSUDA joined KEMURI in
summer, 1995.
These two guys, FUMIO whose favorite Ska/Reggae, and
TSUDA, punk/hardcore, started living together, writing
songs/lyrics, and sharing hard struggle in time left for them
before FUMIO's departure to the states. Having MASUO for
drummer (He was playing in "Back DropBomb"), T for
guitarist (long time friend of FUMIO, with brilliant guitar
technique), and YUJI for horn section as the supporting
member, KEMURI got together. That's about a beginning.
KEMURI found their rehearsal pretty easy and felt they could
make great record. The first recording ended up with a lot of
satisfaction. Just then, FUMIO got to leave Japan. He
hesitated in a moment to leave, "stay Japan?", but he kept
his own word "to march out to the States".
Making 200 copies of demo tape, FUMIO passed them to
many record companies. He showed up clubs every night,
handed copies to Ska/Punk fellows again and again. He
never gave up until having offer to play on compilation
albums by record companies. At the same time, FUMIO
built up a great connection with named artists like "Less
Than Jake", "The Hippos", "Mealticket", "G-Spot", "Mustard
Plug",and of course charismatic "Mike Park" (vocalist of
Bruce Lee Band). They are all very-close friends of KEMURI.
KEMURI completed their second recording (two tracks) in
January, 1996. They did several gigs sometime when FUMIO
was available. They got a word to fans "Mysterious
Ska/Punk band, who are on the tape, but never shown up.
Who the hell are they?" Why they didn't come up? Only
because they couldn't get together much often.
FUMIO left Japan again. Remaining members had been
doing individual work. In July, 1996, with new drummer
"Shouji", KEMURI did third recording (two tracks), jumped
into touring with hard core band: Aggressive Dogs, Envy,
Toast for Shikoku, Chugoku area of Japan. After that, they
released 10-inch split album "Aggressive Dogs & Kemuri
from Koga Record.
In September, KEMURI signed with Roadrunner Records.
Fumio made up his mind to move back to Japan for 1st
album opportunity.
The band just finished recording "Little Playmate" at San
Jose, California, in January, 1997. It is co-produced by
Progressive rock famous Robert Berry. Again charisma of
Ska/Punk, Mike "Bruce Lee" Park played a track as a guest
musician. After recording, KEMURI made California tour (9
stages, including "ROXY" in L.A.) also with popular
American act "Rocket From The Crypt" which was very well
done. "
Very well done, indeed! KEMURI's sophmore effort, 77
DAYS, is in limited release in the US presently, watch out
for a wider release in 1999.
