Urusei Yatsura

A manga (comic book), TV, and movie series. The title is a pun in Japanese: urusai means "obnoxious", annoying", or "noisy" and yatsu means "guy" or "fellow". ra is simply a somewhat informal plural. Urusei is a mispronounciation of urusai.

Also a Lo-Fi band from Glasgow, named after the manga. Known outside the UK simply as Yatsura, for legal reasons.

Their songs are typically lacking in emotion other than frustration and boredom, and deal with such down to earth subject matter as RPGs, action figures, manga, movies and imported Japanese culture obsession.

A traditional four piece ensemble, the band consists of:

• Fergus Lawrie: vocals/guitar
• Graham Kemp: vocals/guitar
• Elaine Graham: bass
• Ian Graham: drums

The band have now officially split, with Fergus pursuing some new (solo?) project, and the rest of the band staying together under a new name.

UY's three albums, released on Che records:

We Are Urusei Yatsura (1996)

Alternately shoe-gazing and grinning ear-to-ear with lo-fi sci-fi mischief, this album always gave me the impression that they were trying like crazy to avoid taking themselves too seriously.

1. Siamese
2. First Day on a New Planet
3. Pow R. Ball
4. Kewpies Like Watermelon
5. Phasers on Stun/Sola Kola
6. Black Hole Love
7. Velvy Bood
8. Plastic Ashtray
9. Death 2 Everyone
10. Pachinko
11. - (lo-fi segue)
12. Kernel
13. Road Song

Slain By Urusei Yatsura (1998)

Yet more of the same, including the almost-hit, and IMHO one of the all-time great song titles, "Slain By Elf":

1. Glo Starz
2. Hello Tiger
3. Strategic Hamlets
4. No. 1 Cheesecake
5. Superfi
6. No No Girl
7. Flaming Skull
8. Slain By Elf
9. King of Lazy
10. Exidor
11. Fake Fur
12. Skull in Action
13. Amber

Everybody Loves Urusei Yatsura (2000)

Yet more of the same, but with a darker edge. In retrospect, I should have seen the split coming...

1. Louche 33
2. Eastern Youth
3. Superdeformer
4. Silver Dragon
5. Uji Bomb
6. Our Shining Path
7. Kubrick in Town
8. Random Cruise
9. Faking It
10. Thank You
11. Sores
12. Osaka White

Screwball manga and anime series by Rumiko Takahashi. Story: teenage lecher Ataru Moroboshi is drafted to compete against Lum, an electrical blast-slinging alien princess, for the fate of the Earth. In the process he accidentally proposes marriage to her, whereupon she refuses to leave his side -- much to his consternation and the aggravation of his girlfriend Shinobu. A slew of other characters appear intending to either murder Ataru, marry Ataru, or steal Lum's affections. A lot of the jokes involve very obscure (to Westerners) Japanese cultural references.

In the word "Urusei" the final kanji written for "sei" means "star" but since it is pronounced sei, it gives the pronounced word a meaning of annoying, where if you read it it is something along the lines of annoying star, and yatsura means people... therefore it loosely means "annoying star people" or "annoying aliens". But yes, it is the title of a hilarious manga/anime.