is a Japanese pop band formed in 1982. It is widely recognized as the only Japanese pop musical group which achieved commercial success by blending funk

Funk

Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...

, soul

Soul music

Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...

 and Latin musical styles. They also use the style of rakugo

Rakugo

is a Japanese verbal entertainment. The lone sits on the stage, called the . Using only a paper fan and a small cloth as props, and without standing up from the seiza sitting position, the rakugo artist depicts a long and complicated comical story...

.

1982–1997: Commercial success

The band was founded in 1982 by vocalist Tatsuya Ishii

Tatsuya Ishii

, also known as Tatuya Ishii is a Japanese singer, songwriter, artist, and industrial designer from Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan.- Biography :...

 and fellow members. They released their debut single and album in October 1985. In 1990, "Roman Hikō" became a hit song. In 1992, "Kimi ga Iru Dake de

Kimi ga Iru Dake de

Kimi ga Iru Dake de is a Japanese song by Kome Kome Club released on May 4, 1992. On the Japanese Oricon chart, it sold 924,780 copies in one week and debuted at the number-one position. It held the top rank in total of six weeks...

" topped the Oricon

Oricon

, established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan. It started as , which was founded by Sōkō Koike in November 1967 and became known for its music charts. Oricon Inc...

 chart, remaining in the charts for 33 weeks. It is the fifth best-selling song in Japan since Oricon's establishment, and the second best-selling J-Pop single, slightly behind Southern All Stars

Southern All Stars

, also known by the abbreviations or SAS, is a Japanese pop/rock band that formed in the mid 1970s.The band is composed of Keisuke Kuwata , Yuko Hara , Kazuyuki Sekiguchi , Hiroshi Matsuda and Hideyuki "Kegani" Nozawa...

' "TSUNAMI", (released in January 2000). "Kimi ga Iru Dake de" was written around the marriage of band members Minako (also Ishii's sister) and Kaneko, the saxophone/keyboardist.

However, drummer Ryo-J and guitarist Joplin Tokunoh parted ways with the band in 1995. Ishii tried to continue the band, but in the end he officially dissolved it in March 1997.

2006–present: Reunion

With the two members returning, the band reformed in the middle of 2006 for a series of concerts as well as a few new recordings, including "Well Come 2", which spurred a video where the band members were depicted as toys (complete with enlarged doll-like heads, UPC bar codes and one, "James" Onoda Yasuhide bursting out of his "box"). The video also gives a nod to all of its members by having a screen shot with their name and them playing in the scene, this includes members of Big Horns Bee and Sue Cream Sue. It is a part of Sony Music Japan. Sony has frequently had appearances of the "Well Come 2" video on various streaming websites pulled while leaving other videos from the same DVD online.

A combined CD/DVD release featured a parody of the "hentai" (aka "racy') videos where the two dancers (Minako and Mari, also known as "Sue Cream Sue") dance to songs of Kome Kome in various states of dress and undress (and strange costumes like animals). However, this being 20 years later, their costumes are not as skimpy as the ones in their famed "Costume Dance" videos during Kome Kome's heyday. They do poke a bit of fun with it and guitarist Be (a former cross-dresser during their early years), narrates over the slow-motion action of their backsides and when their skirts fly up a little.

Although there was a very long layoff, "Well Come 2" still became a Top 10 hit on the Oricon charts. On October 22, 2006, they announced that they completely revoked their breakup. In September 2007, their new studio album komedia.jp was released. On December 31, 2007, they took part in the 58th NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen

58th NHK Kohaku Uta Gassen

The , referred to from hereon as "Kōhaku," aired on December 31, 2007. on NHK Hall in Japan. Air time was from 19:20 to 23:45...

.

Members

Carl Smoky Ishii: Vocal

James Onoda: Vocal, Chorus

Bon: Bass

be: Guitar

Flash Kaneko: Saxophone, Keyboards, Flute

Toshi: Drums

RYO-J: Drums

Joplin Tokunoh: Guitar

Mataro: Pecussion, Chorus

Machiko: Chorus

Juliano Katsumata: Keyboards

Kohtaro: Chorus

Shinji: Chorus

SCS (Sue Cream Sue)

Minako: Vocal, Dance (younger sister of Ishii and wife of Kaneko)

Mari: Vocal, Dance, Percussion

B.H.B. (Big Horns Bee)

G.I. Gyo: Trumpet

Himarayan Shimogami: Trumpet

Kawai Wakaba: Trombone, Saxophone

Orita Nobotta: Saxophone, Flute

Fussy Kobayashi: Trumpet