THEE MICHELLE GUN ELEPHANT (also known as TMGE or in Japanese: ミッシェル・ガン・エレフ… Read Full Bio ↴THEE MICHELLE GUN ELEPHANT (also known as TMGE or in Japanese: ミッシェル・ガン・エレファント) was a garage rock band formed in Tokyo, Japan. Its music is known for the loud guitars of Abe Futoshi and lead singer Chiba Yusuke's loud, gravelly yet melodious vocals. Other members of the band include Kuhara Kazuyuki (drums) and Ueno Koji (bass). The band was formed in 1991, while the band members were students at Tokyo's Meiji Gakuin University. Their name came from a combination of the name of Billy Childish's offbeat band Thee Headcoats and a former bassist's mispronunciation of the name of The Damned's album, Machine Gun Etiquette.

Their first major label release, wonder style, was released in 1995, and produced in London, United Kingdom, by Chris Brown, who previously engineered albums and tracks for Radiohead and Pink Floyd. Their breakthrough album, however, was 1998's Gear Blues which sold more than 500,000 copies, a huge number in the Japanese recording industry. Gear Blues was released in the United States in 2000 by Alive Records, but the band's success in that country never reached the level that they had in Japan, although they had moderate success in Europe. With the release of Gear Blues, the band stopped using lowercase letters in their name, and became known as THEE MICHELLE GUN ELEPHANT, with capitalized letters. The band announced that they would break up on October 11, 2003, after their Last Heaven tour of Japan.

After breaking up, the members have all continued activities in other bands. Chiba Yusuke recorded two albums and several smaller releases while in ROSSO, and has participated in projects of smaller scale, such as Midnight Bankrobbers, RAVEN and THE MIDWEST VIKINGS. In 2006, he and drummer Kuhara Kazuyuki got together again and formed The Birthday. As for the other TMGE members, bassist Ueno Koji was part of the three-piece rock band Radio Caroline for several years before suspending activities in 2009, and helped record the HIATUS' album Trash We'd Love. While not as active after the breakup as some of the other members, guitarist Abe Futoshi has among other things appeared in a band called KOOLOGI.

On July 22nd, 2009, it was announced on the band's official homepage that Abe Futoshi had passed away due to an acute epidural hematoma, a condition often caused by a blow to the side of the head. Abe was 43 years old.

Members:
Chiba Yusuke (チバユウスケ) – Vocal, guitar
Abe Futoshi (アベフトシ) – Guitar
Ueno Koji (ウエノコウジ) – Bass
Kuhara Kazuyuki (クハラカズユキ) – Drums

Official Webpages:
http://www.rockin-blues.com/
http://www.universal-music.co.jp/tmge/
http://columbia.jp/~michelle/

Smokin' Billy
Thee Michelle Gun Elephant Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

ヤニで固めてる
タンクちぎれて
あふれ出したんだ
"愛という憎悪"
Yeah！スモーキン・ビリー！
Yeah！スモーキン・ビリー!
目の裏側で
ミルクこぼれて

流れ出したんだ
"愛という憎悪"
Yeah！スモーキン・ビリー！
Yeah！スモーキン・ビリー！

ヤニ黒焦げた
夜の左手
描き出したんだ
"愛という憎悪"
Yeah！スモーキン・ビリー！
Yeah！スモーキン・ビリー！

ヤニでつぶれてる
喉の奥で
吐き出してたんだ
"愛という憎悪"
Yeah！スモーキン・ビリー！
Yeah！スモーキン・ビリー！

Yeah！スモーキン・ピリー！
Yeah！スモーキン・ビリー！

Overall Meaning

The song "Smokin' Billy" by Thee Michelle Gun Elephant has a repetitive and aggressive sound that complements the lyrics well. The lyrics seem to be describing the effects of smoking on the body, with mentions of overflowing tanks and blackened tobacco. However, the song's title suggests that there is more to it than just a cautionary tale about smoking. The repeated phrase "愛という憎悪" means "hate called love" or "love called hate." This phrase seems to be the central theme of the song, as it repeats after the description of each body part affected by smoking. The phrase implies a rollercoaster of emotions and intense passion that can be both destructive and addictive, much like smoking.

The song's energy seems to escalate throughout the song, with each repetition of the phrase "yeah! Smokin' Billy!" becoming more aggressive and fervent. The imagery of milk spilling and blackened tobacco suggests that the addiction and love/hate relationship that the song describes have physical consequences. The final repetition of the phrase changes slightly to "yeah! Smokin' Pirie!" which could suggest that the singer's addiction has taken on a new form or that there is a new object of their love/hate.

Overall, "Smokin' Billy" is a song that uses visceral images and aggressive repetition to describe the intense and often damaging nature of addiction and love/hate relationships.

Line by Line Meaning

ヤニで固めてる
Solidified with resin

タンクちぎれて
Torn apart the tank

あふれ出したんだ
Started overflowing

"愛という憎悪"
"Love called hatred"