Japan’s “Biggest” Band

While the rest of the world is desperately trying to lose weight, the new Japanese band Dev Parade (pronounced “Debu Parade”) are proud to be fat. Their name literally means “Fat Parade” and their promotional material proudly proclaims that the collective weight of the five members is 550 Kilograms (1200 lbs). Debu Parade call themselves a Yokozuna-class band, referring to the top sumo rank.
They met on the internet after guitarist Ugazin advertised for musicians who weighed 100 Kgs or more. (The bassist, Taka, originally weighed only 95 kilos and had to put on another five kilos before he was accepted as an official member.)

These guys have a real appetite for life. The diary on their official website describes, in loving detail, the excessive eating and drinking that goes on at their regular meetings (which they call “MEATINGS” due to the huge amount of meat consumed.) Typical entries say “we tried to enter a noodle shop but we couldn’t all fit in,” “we couldn’t all ride the elevator in the studio today,” and “TAH (the huge drummer) stole a bun from the audience and ate it on stage.”

The singer, Hanji, is also a member of the excellently-named “Smiles Davis” and sounds not dissimilar to D Boon from the Minutemen, as you can hear in a previous solo outing here.
Dev Parade will play live this Sunday in Akihabara’s Club Goodman (no connection to portly actor John Goodman who, himself, wouldn’t look out of place in the band.) There is even a special “Debu Discount” – you can get money off if you’re overweight.

You can hear their funky new single “Check My Body” here: Check My Body
Or look at the official page here: Dev Parade Site