Monkey Majik - History - Debut - TIRED, SPADE, and eastview (2002 - 2005)

2005)

With a line-up consisting of Urushikaka, Kuypers, and the Plant brothers, MONKEY MAJIK released 1000 copies of their first EP, ‘’TIRED’’, through Tower Records in Sendai in a personally-financed venture. TIRED became the best-selling release at Tower Records for six consecutive weeks, cuing Monkey Majik to record their first full-length album.

The result of their work on a full-length debut album was SPADE, formally released through Tower Records in 2004. After impressive sales numbers, staying at the number 1 position on Tower’s sales charts for 13 weeks straight, the album was released nation-wide in 2004. Shortly thereafter, Kuyper and Urushikaka both left the group, and were replaced by current band members, ex-dental technician and salaryman, drummer tax (Takuya Kikuchi) and rising Sendai bassist, DICK (Hideki Mori), of Soul Addiction'-based local fame.

In 2005, their second full-length studio album, Eastview (typeset as eastview), depicting a life in Japan from a westerner’s view, was released. Eastview bowed out of its initial sales run with an impressive 14,000 units sold for an independent record—more than double the amount of SPADE. The group was then picked up by avex in the latter half of that same year, propped up for a mainstream debut.