Thee Michelle Gun Elephant (often abbreviated to TMGE) was a Japanese garage rock band formed in 1991.
[1] The band was formed in 1991,[2] while Chiba, Ueno, and Kuhara were students at Tokyo's Meiji Gakuin University.
Their unusual name originated when a friend mispronounced the title of an early jam session recording; featuring cover songs of Thee Headcoats (one of the band's main influences) and from The Damned's album Machine Gun Etiquette.
After an independently released EP in 1995, they signed to Nippon Columbia's Triad label, releasing the album Cult Grass Stars in 1996, followed later that year by High Time, the band enjoying chart success in their home country.
Some of these are as follows: Yusuke Chiba (1968–2023) Kazuyuki Kuhara (1969– ) Koji Ueno (1968– ) Futoshi Abe (1966–2009) TMGE have released a number of live and PV DVDs.