Budda Heads (also known as The Buddaheads, Buddaheads, B.B. & The Screaming Buddah Heads and BB Chung King & The Buddaheads). BAND MEMBERS: Alan Mirikitani, guitar and lead vocals, Boyd Lefan, bass,Joe "The Bricklayer" Pafumi, drums.
Guitarist/Singer Alan Mirikitani realized that he wanted to pursue a career in music after playing an eighth-grade dance with his first band while in junior high school in his hometown of Downey.
"After we got done, some girls came and sat in our laps," he said. "I thought, wow, this is really cool. I like this."
He's been playing ever since. The Burbank resident, who goes by the nickname "B.B. Chung King" when he fronts his band, the Buddaheads, longtime favorites on the local music scene, gravitated toward the blues at 4.
After a few releases for a Japanese label, Mirikitani and his group, which includes bassist Boyd Lefan and drummer Joe "The Bricklayer" Pafumi, released a compilation of those Japan-only recordings titled "In the Mirror" in 1998, and last year came out with a collection of new songs, "Go for Broke."
Supporting the album through numerous club and festival dates, the Buddaheads have built a fanatically loyal and large following. And, by recording it in his own studio (The Dawghouse, Burbank CA) and releasing it on his own, Mirikitani discovered another benefit of being independent.
"Actually, we're making more money on the Internet through mail-order sales than we ever did at RCA," he said. "And besides, we have control over everything this way."
Mirikitani took a year and a half off to build his state-of-the-art 24-track studio, which is busy with all sorts of outside projects.
"The Dawghouse has ProTools and everything else you might need," he said. "It's amazing what they can allow you to do, but ultimately they're just tools. We still like the magic of playing live."
Even though B.B. Chung King is Chinese and not Japanese, the name hung on Mirikitani by a friend, in reference to his hero, B.B. King, has stuck throughout the years, and he's comfortable with it. As for the band name, there is a legacy behind it.
"Buddah Head was always a derogatory term for Asians," the guitarist said, "but it was also the highest-decorated infantry unit in World War II composed of Japanese Americans who wanted to prove their loyalty to their country. We've taken it on as sort of a personal underdog theme and today we're trying to break down the term, and break down walls."
"After all," he said with a laugh, "the guys in the band are white, but as far as I'm concerned, we're all Buddaheads."
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