Ego-Wrappin'

Biography

Ego-Wrappin' got their start in 1996, coming together in Osaka. At first, they stuck close to home in the Kansai region, playing live houses alongside groups like Mondo Grosso and Attica Blues. Their first release was a debut extended play, Calling Me, put out in 1996 on the independent Metro Crew Records label. Two years later, in 1998, the band landed a spot on the soundtrack for the drama Kirakira Hikaru, which starred Eri Fukatsu; they contributed a cover of The Beach Boys' "Disney Girls (1957)."

That same June, they dropped their first album, Blue Speaker, entirely in English, through RD Records, an Osaka-based offshoot of Hip Land Music Corp. The record did well on local independent charts in the Osaka area and earned praise from musician Seiichi Yamamoto. In 1999, the band put out two more extended plays: their first Japanese-language one, His Choice of Shoes Is Ill!, in February, followed by Swing for Joy in November. A track from that release, "A Love Song," featured the Osaka ska band Determinations and got heavy rotation on regional stations like FM Ishikawa and FM North Wave in Hokkaido.

Starting in 2000, Ego-Wrappin' began playing shows in Tokyo and other parts of Japan beyond Kansai. That same year, they broke through nationally with "Shikisai no Blues," a cabaret and kayōkyoku-style song modeled after 1960s jazz singer Mina Aoe. It first appeared on the extended play Shikisai no Blues, and when it came out again as a standalone single and extended play in 2001, it sold over 193,000 copies across Japan. In May 2001, the band set up their own sub-label under Toy's Factory, called Minor Swing, and released their third album, Michishio no Romance.

That album, along with Night Food (2002) and Merry Merry (2004), all achieved commercial success, each earning gold certification from the Recording Industry Association of Japan. Night Food included the song "Kuchibashi ni Cherry" (2002), which served as the theme for the Nippon TV drama Shiritsu Tantei Hama Mike. In 2006, Ego-Wrappin' put out their fifth album, On the Rocks!, and embarked on their first European tour, playing shows in Denmark and Sweden as part of the Tokyo Sound Revolution event. During that tour, they formed a support band called The Gossip of Jaxx, who joined them for the album's tour.