銀杏BOYZ

Japanese punk band. Frontman 峯田和伸 (Mineta Kazunobu) initially assumed the moniker 銀杏BOYZ for a solo recording he contributed to the 2003 Elephant Kashimashi tribute album 『花男』. When his band Going Steady broke up in 2003, Mineta formed a new band under the name 銀杏BOYZ almost immediately afterward, recruiting Going Steady members 安孫子真哉 (Abiko Shinya) and 村井守 (Murai Mamoru), as well as guitarist チン中村 (Chin Nakamura). 銀杏BOYZ spent the next two years touring and recording, building up a strong following that allowed their debut albums 『君と僕の第三次世界大戦的恋愛革命』 and 『DOOR』 (released simultaneously on 15 January 2005) to reach number 6 and 7 (respectively) in the Oricon charts (with both albums remaining in the charts for 19 weeks). 銀杏BOYZ remained popular in the following years, but their output of releases slowed as their live appearances became rarer. The band released five singles and contributed to various miscellaneous projects between 2007 and 2010, and finally allowed fans a glimpse of their new, electronic/noise-oriented direction when they debuted songs from their upcoming sophomore albums on the four-date 「スメルズ・ライク・ア・ヴァージン・ツアー」 ("Smells Like a Virgin Tour") across June and July of 2011. Afterward, 銀杏BOYZ fell into a period of complete silence while finishing their long-awaited follow-up albums, releasing no new material and making no public appearances as a band. Suddenly, on 15 November 2013, 銀杏BOYZ announced that both Nakamura and Abiko had left the band (Nakamura having departed in the spring of 2012, while Abiko quit in the summer of 2013). Five days later, the band revealed their next two albums, both set for release on 15 January 2014 (the ninth anniversary of their first two albums): the studio album 『光のなかに立っていてね』 and the live-remix album 『BEACH』. Just before their release, on 22 December 2013, Murai announced via a live stream on Ustream that he had also quit 銀杏BOYZ. With the release of 『光のなかに立っていてね』and 『BEACH』(which reached number 2 and 4 in the Oricon charts, and remained in the charts for 8 and 6 weeks, respectively), Mineta proceeded to play solo acoustic shows under the name 銀杏BOYZ as the sole member of the band. On 30 August 2015, Mineta recruited bassist 藤原寛 (Fujiwara Hiroshi) and drummer 後藤大樹 (Goto Hiroki) (both of the bands andymori and AL (72)) as well as guitarist 菊地椋介 (Kikuchi Ryosuke) for 銀杏BOYZ's set at RUSH BALL 2015, the band's first performance with a full lineup since 2011. On 13 April 2016, 銀杏BOYZ released the single 「生きたい」, which featured Fujiwara, Goto, and The Cigavettes guitarist 山本幹宗 (Yamamoto Kanji) (replacing Kikuchi) as unofficial "support members"; thus, Mineta remains the only official member of 銀杏BOYZ. In 2017, 銀杏BOYZ performed to a sold-out crowd at the historic Nippon Budokan arena on October 13 for their live event 「日本の銀杏好きの集まり」. In the lead-up to the event, they released three new singles over three consecutive months. The band also debuted two new support members at a live show on 28 May 2017: guitarist 加藤綾太 (Katou Ryouta) and drummer 岡山健二 (Okayama Kenji) (replacing Goto). In 2019, the band performed another headlining show at Nippon Budokan entitled 「世界がひとつになりませんように」, and recorded the song 「いちごの唄」 for the film of the same name, which was based on a novel inspired by 銀杏BOYZ's lyrics. On 21 October 2020, 銀杏BOYZ released the studio album 『ねえみんな大好きだよ』, and in 2021, their song 「少年少女」 was used as the theme song in the anime series 『Sonny Boy』.