Who is Golden Bomber?

Golden Bomber(ゴールデンボンバー) is made up of four members.

Members:
(Left to right: Utahiroba Jun, Kiryuuin Shou, Darvish Kenji, Kyan Yutaka)



Vocal - Kiryuuin Shou (鬼龍院　翔)
Guitar - Kyan Yutaka (喜矢武　豊)
Bass - Utahiroba Jun (歌広場　淳)
Drums - Darvish Kenji (樽美酒　研二)

Ex Drums - Tenkuujou Dankichi (天空城　団吉)

They are an 'air band'. The members admit they can not play instruments that well, and they hate practice, but they put all their energy into performing during lives and making everyone laugh hard. While only Kiryuuin sings live, the other members will jump around, dance, perform stunts such as super-headbanging and super-fast-watermelon-eating.

Brief History:

Kiryuuin, Kyan and Tenkuujou formed Golden Bomber in 2004, Utahiroba joining the band after their second live gig, and debuted with their first live in 2005. They are signed to Euclid Agency (Zany Zap).

In 2009, Tenkuujou decided to leave the band, thus being replaced by Darvish Kenji.

Air band....? So does that mean its not really them playing their instruments or...?

From what I can gather is that Kiryuuin writes everything and comes up with the songs while the rest act the part out live. I've seen so many different variations though. Some say they do record in the studio and some say that it's just Kiryuuin. I'm not totally sure but this is just what I know so far. >.<

I also heard that Yutaka plays the guitar on occasion. I'm not entirely sure either what's the deal in the recording studio cause on their cd's there are support musicians listed but on the other hand there are more groups that have support musicians listed in their credits. I'm actually quite curious about it all to. The members said they aren't that good in playing instruments but that could also mean more than 1 thing cause what do they define as 'not that good'.

I know Jun and Yutaka have been in session bands with Leda, and a few other musicians, and a few friends of mine had the pleasure of seeing them live. They said they did play live, and they were really good, so now I'm really curious too. Saying they're 'not that good' can always mean they aren't confident in their skills regardless of how good they actually are, and aren't giving themselves enough credit XD

it's hard to figure out when they are serious anyway (laughs) Oh really? I knew they had done some things with Leda (wow that sounds wrong but you know what I mean) but I hadn't figured out what yet. You hear a lot of things about them in general anyway. Now I'm really curious though as they said Yutaka was on a high school band level XD They sure know how to confuse everyone. Maybe they want to fool people or, like you've said, they don't give themselves enough credit.

Yeah I've heard of the Leda stuff (which just further adds to the confusion), then recently Jun performed with the band Sixh. at their fashion show/concert. So that confused me a tad because there were other musicians there too. Why would they have Jun perform with them if he didn't know how to play a bit? O.o
Emmy your friends are so lucky. XP haha
I think maybe they know how to play a bit but aren't at the same level as most other bands. So their confidence is low maybe.
/shrug.

Yeah, I've been wondering about the Sixh. thing, too. When I asked Ibi and Mint about their musical activities at ACen, they seemed really serious about the band, and were hoping to bring Sixh. as a band, not a brand, over to the US in the following year. So having Jun play with them if he didn't have any skill would seem silly, wouldn't it? Ughhh, Golden Bomber, y u so ridiculous? XD

And yes, my friends are abnormally lucky >/ They're seeing all the bands I've ever wanted to see live, I'm so jealous XD

Also I've heard that Jun was actually 'training', so to say, with Reita for a short period of time. I heard that several times, but I'm not sure what to make of it.

O_O you met IBI and MINT. /forever jealous. Besides Golden Bomber they own my world. Their band and the brand. I run a blog dedicated to S-inc too. (I run too many, I know haha)
Yeah if he didn't have some skills it would have been silly to have him there. True, MINT was on bass so they would easily just not plug Jun in but that wouldn't make sense. The only other idea I can come up with is just that since he is such and avid fan of the brand MINT NEKO that they wanted him to perform too even if he didn't really play the bass?
Ugh, you're right. Why are they so ridiculous and confusing?

Yes, I did >3< They're amazing, and IBI is a huuuuge inspiration. I had no idea you ran the S-inc one too! I love it XD

I know the Golden Bomber collaboration is a huge success, more so than any of the other MINT NEKO collabs they've done. Jun really has a lot of hands on work with the designs, so I understand him being at the show and modeling the pieces, but playing.. I don't know. It would just be really odd if he was on stage, not plugged in XD

*O* I'm glad you enjoy it. I found out about the brand because of Jun. I kept seeing him wear those shirts and went on a huge search to find out what brand it was. Now I'm hooked haha.
Yeah, he does so much work with them. Then he seems to be a walking billboard for the brand so that draws in fangirls by the hundreds probably. /guilty myself.
Maybe he's just really shy about playing or something. I know I can be about things people think I am good at, but then in my eyes I am a disaster.

As far as we know, only Kiryuuin composes all the songs and sings live. I think Yutaka does play guitar, though I'm not very sure about Jun and Kenji xD;

Being an 'air band', that does mean they don't play instruments during lives, only Kiryuuin singing and the rest jumping around and interacting. They also make small skits to go along with the concert. It's pretty fun xD

Yeah the skits are famous XD You can't not know about the way the fill in lives when you get to know about Golden Bomber. I can't stop watching my dvd's or those little live videos on youtube. They are highly entertaining.
Yeah SIXH. is amazing. I myself am more of a Mint collection fan though (laughs) They are like the type of clothes I wear anyway just a lot more pricey but awsome. I love how GB is succesful in callaborating with brands. Kyan and Sex Pot Revenge and Jun with SIXH. They should really keep it up.
I can't believe that SIXH. placed Jun on stage without actually playing but maybe he had a smaller part? Does anyone know something about Kenji though? He seems to have the rhytm right but it's hard to hear if he plays the right thing with those ... things he uses as sticks.

Do any of you know where to buy the DVDs? Every place I look is sold out or rather high priced. >.< I would like to own some but I keep spending my money on other things.... Like MINT NEKO stuff. T-T someone sent me a Japanese buying service site and I think that was the worst thing to show me haha. Gives me too much freedom with purchasing.
So Jun ended up not playing? At least we know now.
I'm not sure about Kenji though. I try to watch him a lot during lives but it's hard to tell. Since I do not know how to play drums either that probably doesn't help much either haha.

I bought one of my dvd's at cooljapanstore but out of my experience with cjs don't really recommend it D: The shipping costs are insane. You might end up paying more shipping than you pay for the dvd itself and it took quite a while for me to recieve it (they now also say it may take up to 2 weeks till it's finnaly shipped but they didn't say so before). Pantsu and Zenryoku were given to me by my friend who went to Japan so I can't help you further on that. The best way is using shopping service and buy at silkroadstore I guess but I've never tried this so I can't comment on that. I just wish silkroad would ship overseas cause the stuff they sell make my hands itch and my wallet cry. It's just that I don't know any good shopping services that don't ask way too much for their service else I would've tried to use it for silkroad and comment on it if it's a good way to get their stuff or not lol.

My drumming skills aren't that kick-ass eiter lol, but for what I know it's still hard to figure out if he's just lucky while pretending to play in the right rhytm or that he really knows how to play but decides not to around 85% of the show. I just wondered cause there aren't many stories about his drumming abilities. It's always about his need for only wearing undies or his facepaint. So yeah, I got curious 8D

I have a lot of the DVDs, but I'm lucky enough to get them sent to me by friends. Buying them online, especially now, is ridiculous. The best way would be through a shopping service, but the fees can be insane depending on which one you use. I've heard really good things about CDJapan's new shopping service, I guess the fees aren't terrible compared to other places.

I definitely DO NOT recommend cooljapanstore. More online shops are carrying Golden Bomber merch now, so use cooljapanstore as a last resort. They had terrible customer service, and basically told me I was out of luck if I didn't get my package 'soon' [soon being withint 8 weeks, apparently], I'd have to wait another 12 weeks for them to get the original shipment returned to them. THEN they would send out another package to me. 20 weeks for a calendar and a few clear files? Uhh, forget that. Not to mention they told me my items would be shipped upon payment confirmation [which was immediate, by the way], they waited two weeks before telling me one of the clear files was sold out [never said that it was online, still doesn't] and offered me the other one. They said they'd ship it out immediately. I waited two weeks before I got an email saying it was finally shipped out, and I could expect it anywhere from 3-6 weeks from the way it was shipped. WTF.

What's the deal with some of their DVDs going for over $200 on eBay and AmazonJP? o__o; If I wasn't so attached to them, I'd consider selling mine. I have a few of the ones that are supposedly rare now, but I don't see how single DVDs could go for that much...

As far Sixh./MINTネコ, I love both. -huggles MINTネコ merch- I talked about the collab with MINT for a while, and he said he was really sorry they couldn't bring the collection with them to the booth. He said the full line should be hitting the S-inc. web store relatively soon, so we need to keep an eye out~ IBI was amazing, by the way. Did you guys know he didn't go to fashion school at all? MINT and h.NAOTO did, but IBI just worked at one of the stores and modeled occasionally, until he was picked up for his graphic design skills. I find that amazing, seeing as I'm a graphic designer XD /end random tangent.

I love that Jun works with MINT. I want the entire collection, so bad. SO BAD. Their designs are perfect, and their personalities mix so well. They're uber cute when they're working together XD I also love SPR, so I'm really looking forward to getting my hands on some of Yutaka's stuff once I have a job again. I never would have pegged Yutaka for a SPR kind of guy, so the entire collab is really interesting to me~

Ah so I'm not the only one with bad comments on cooljapanstore. It was quite some time back that I've used it so I thought they may have improved their service but I guess not, after reading your comment on them.
I wouldn't sell my stuff either but yeah it's insane how high some of the bids are. Makes me wonder a bit though. Why bid that much even when they are so called rare. I love GB to bits but I wouldn't pay around $200 for a single or a dvd or whatever. I'd rather save that up for a plane ticket and see them live in person (laughs) Differences in priority I guess as most of them already live in Japan. Hardcore fans I guess? XD
That is pretty cool. Shows some real talent and hard work (even if he was 'just picked' at the store)
Somehow I wasn't surprised with the callob with SPR for Yutaka. I love the designs though and I hope that I have enough money soon to get my hands on at least one design 8D

Yeah, I know a lot of people that have had bad experiences with CJS. Their customer service just blows XD

I really love the designs for the SPR collaboration, so I'm hoping I can buy some stuff soon! I haven't bought anything from them in a while, all my money has been going to MINT and Sixh., haha.

haha I'm not surprised. Once you buy something from SIXH. and (for me especially) Mint you get hooked and want to buy more and more. My wallet cried so I have it locked away in my dresser with metal chains and locks in case I get tempted (laughs) I really love the shirt designs tho so I'll have to be nice to it for the time being.

It's too bad that their service blows (and that the shit is kinda expensive as well) cause they do have a lot to offer. They also had shirts but they sold out before you could press the buy now button XD Which is a good thing cause the shipping costs and/or time is way too much. I buy singles and cd's now at online shops I've used many times before and magazines they are featured in at a different store that only sells magazines. My friends are going to Japan soon so I'll beg them to keep an eye out for me during their stay XD

I know >< My wallet hates me, so much.

It really is sad, they do have a great selection of merch ): But that's okay. I have a lot of friends in Japan that send me random things from Golden Bomber, so I'm okay XD A few of my friends are flying out to see DELUHI's last live, and they promised to bring me back a LOT of Golden Bomber merch, along with tour goods. I'm uber happy, and I love them <3 Haha

that's awsome! Most of my friends are as broke as I am thanks to universities and appartments having to be paid. My friends in Japan, well, I've asked for so much already that I don't want to keep asking them for stuff XD Especially now that their stuff is a bit easier to get XD They send me things with xmas and my birthday and such and I'm happy for that. I'd feel bad if I asked for more right now lol. Wow that's awsome. Must be an amazing but emotional liveshow. Sweet friends you have ^^

Guuuuys, this convo is getting a bit off topic. Could you perhaps move it to the general chat forum? Thank you.