MUNCHKINS IN THE CAN came to be in the summer of '95 after CHORDIALLY YOURS was officially kicked to the curb. It'd been almost a year since Okinawan boys Louie and Weldon moved to Minneapolis, yet this supposed band that they moved there for was still inactive. Things weren't looking too bright for the future of CHORDIALLY YOURS so Louie started making solo recordings in his bedroom as SCENT OF THE SUN (the name used for a pre AILING DEER lineup) meanwhile Weldon got drunk and started writing songs. After Louie heard some of those songs he started adding guitar and by the end of the year St. Paul chinchin man Andy Favilla took up the drums. Through Andy's connections, Ibaraki wild man Takashi Obu joined the band in the Spring of '96 and that launched the MUNCHKINS' Twin Guitar Assault. The rest of the year and most of '97 was spent working on songs and having quite a few drinks but the band did play several house parties. The original lineup recorded four songs at St. Paul's Kooler Sound Studios in March 1997, one being "Season Premiere" which appeared on the Kanojo Wa Omoshirokunai Dakedo Kanojo Wa Totemo Takai compilation.
1998 was shit! The band was being tagged with taking their admiration for THE DAMNED and THE REPLACEMENTS a bit too far. However it was nice to see MUNCHKINS IN THE CAN playing shows with BAGGER 97 (members were old friends from Okinawa), for a while there it seemed the spirit of Champs Bar (Okinawa City) was floating around the Red Sea. The MUNCHKINS did get their shit together later on that year when Ryo Suguro joined but unfortunately Takashi had left the band (he'll go on to THE FUCK YEAHS and SWEET JAP ). Now 1999 was a good year! The band played a New Years party in Mound, MN. with their friends GRICKLE-GRASS and CHOPLOGIC , then a couple days later they recorded "Pepper, Milky, & Chimi" with Mike Wisti at Albatross Studios. From 1999 to 2000 is when the band really got creative and a lot of songs came to be during that period. When people commented on MUNCHKINS IN THE CAN, a lot of different band names would pop up such as: TREEPEOPLE , COWPERS , JAWBOX , FUGAZI , and WIRE . A couple more recording sessions were held at Albatross and one of those included the unfinished CHORDIALLY YOURS song "Checkerboard" that was released on the World Famous Kintama Boxers compilation. The year 2001 saw the band coming in strong with Shawn Davis from GRICKLE-GRASS taking over the drums (he'll later join the RANK STRANGERS ). This lineup played quite a few shows with their drinking buddies GUITARZAN VS BAZZILLA and SODA POP JERK , which were always good times. 2002 was pretty much destined to be the end but with Eric Butler (ex LANDSPEEDER ) holding it together on drums the band kept a float for a little while but by summer the band was no more.
Louie went full time with his hip-hop project KIEN (this will transform into ONE HUNDRED BLUE) while Weldon and Eric formed SASPIRILLA with Joe Guitarzan.
The SASPIRILLA years were quite complicated hence no MySpace Page, all the reviews and comments were MUNCHKINS IN THE CAN along with whomever from whatever band was playing guitar at the time.
So the MUNCHKINS live on: Shinobu joined in 2005 and Louie has dropped in and out... As for the guitarists that we've been honored to play with: Joseph Hastings AKA Mr. Guitarzan (currently playing in the FUCK KNIGHTS), Yutaka Motomura (currently head of the Egoists Group also he's the guy who wrote that song "Change With Time"), Kazuro Kinjo (yes, the frontman from WATER COLOR or SGT STOOPID or THE DYNAMITES or the guitarist for STOOPIDLY YOURS), Kokusho Hanashiro (SPILITUS), and the always lovely Sa-chan (ex SELFISH GENE).
