Urusei Yatsura

The Scottish lo-fi pop outfit Urusei Yatsura—credited simply as Yatsura in both Japan and the United States after legal disputes with the matching Japanese manga and anime property—centered on vocalists and guitarists Fergus Lawrie and Graham Kemp, bassist Elaine Graham, and her brother Ian on drums. Emerging from Glasgow in the first half of the 1990s, the quartet issued its inaugural recording, the 12-inch “All Hail Yatsura,” through the Hipster label. A run of high-volume shows and a memorable John Peel session soon attracted Ché Records, which put out the single “Siamese” in the opening months of 1996. Two EPs, Plastic Ashtray and Stunray EP, preceded the full-length We Are Yatsura, an album that topped the U.K. indie chart. The Strategic Hamlets EP appeared early in 1997, followed by Pulpo!, a collection that gathered stray singles and B-sides. “Fake Fur” and “Hello Tiger” served as lead tracks for the 1998 album Slain by Yatsura. Everybody Loves Urusei Yatsura surfaced in 2000 on the band’s own Oni imprint, yet the group disbanded the next year. Kemp launched a solo career while Lawrie and the Grahams formed Projekt A-Ko, whose album Yoyodyne arrived in 2009. Lawrie also started the drone project Angel of Everyone Murder in 2011 and released three albums of extended improvisations across 2011 and 2012. The 2016 Rocket Girl set You Are My Urusei Yatsura gathered BBC radio sessions recorded throughout the band’s existence.