Much of
Igaguri Chiba’s music career has been while in
Sendai Kamotsu, the alter-ego band to
NIGHTMARE, as the vocalist. However, his solo career sprang into full speed soon after
Sendai Kamotsu announced its “bankruptcy” (hiatus) at a final live at Nippon Budokan, on November 11, 2009.
The following year,
Chiba released his first single,
Gira Gira Bo～ys, in two versions. The concept of the single had some queer undertones. In this release,
Chiba also makes a reference to
Nirvana’s very successful 1992 album,
Nevermind, by posing almost the same way on the cover art for the release as the baby reaches for a dollar bill underwater. The only difference is some slight censorship over his private area.
It wasn’t until a year and half later that he finally followed up with his first full-length album,
Chiba no Ana. The highlight of 2012 was
Chiba’s first ever overseas performance where he was a guest at
Fanime 2012, held in San Jose. The performance was well received and attracted a large amount of
Sendai Kamotsu and even
NIGHTMARE fans—likely because he also cosplayed as a rather lewd version of Pikachu.
Another year passed with few new releases. At some point,
Chiba became a radio personality. He hosts an ongoing weekly radio show,
Chiba-san to Isshou, on NACK5 79.5FM every Tuesday at 11pm to midnight. He invites listeners to send in “lewd” stories to share on air to match an erotic theme for his show.
In late 2013, however, when
Sendai Kamotsu announced a revival and a nationwide tour,
Chiba sprang back into action, in terms of his solo activities.
Starting in May 2013,
Igaguri Chiba went on a short tour, called
Over the “H”, with much emphasis placed on the ‘h’, as in “hentai”. Though there were only five dates total, the sold out tour stretched until June with a tour final at CLUB CITTA’ on June 14, 2013. While performing,
Chiba had back-up with support members:
Reo (ex-
Lc5),
Yuusei (
THE KIDDIE) both on guitar, bassist
Ryou (ex.
SKULL),
Desuwo (
FEAR FROM THE HATE) on drums, and
DJ YAMA (
THE KIDDIE CREW) as a dancer. Across the five performances,
Chiba was joined with additional bands such as
ensoku,
Hana Shounen Baddies,
Souiumono,
Jin-Machine and
Uchuusentai NOIZ.
Later that year in October,
Chiba loosely collaborated with air-band
Golden Bomber and released a single
Yaritakute, a parody of
Golden Bomber’s timeless hit,
Memeshikute. While in
Chiba’s cover, he changes the lyrics of the original track but keeps the melody. He also adopts a similar look of the four
Golden Bomber members, wearing a Gachapin outfit or
Darvish Kenji’s recognizable
shironuri makeup. He was sure to add in his own recognizable style of makeup.
Igaguri Chiba’s solo career is definitely the cherry on top to
Sendai Kamotsu’s work but nothing more. Over the years,
Chiba’s releases have been far and few and his work can be viewed from a performance/comedian standpoint, but his outlandish, hilarious visual image and makeup are what carries his success as a solo artist.
