Urusei Yatsura – Plastic Ashtray
Any band that’s named after a Japanese Manga series about an alien race who arrive on Earth to invade the planet have got to be worth listening to. Right? Especially if the band is Scottish, and play lo-fi indie rock.
In 1995, the wonderfully named Urusei Yatsura released a neon pink seven inch single of their track ‘Plastic Ashtray’ on Che Recordings, It’s thrashy indie brilliance from start to finish. The single was taken from arguably the band’s best album, ‘We Are Urusei Yatsura’ (released on Che in 1996) – which also featured cute and kitsch songs like ‘Kewpies Like Watermelon’ and ‘Hello Tiger’. Though the band released another album after that called ‘Everybody Loves Urusei Yatsura’, in fact, the reverse was true. The album received mixed reviews, and the band disappeared quietly, without trace, leaving a legacy of fantastic 7″ plastic in the record collections of Britpop nerds across the UK.
Forget that its 16 years later – watch the video below and relive the glory of the mid 90s!
Words: Helia Phoenix
