? & The Mysterians, The Seeds, Count Five, Humane Society, Barry & The Remains… none of ’em may’ve made a huge dent in popular culture outside of their respective nowheres in their mid-60’s heydey(s), but come the early 80’s that would change.

Unfortunately, the garage revival that ensued was completely ignorant (with a few exceptions, notably The Cramps, DMZ/Lyres, Billy Childish’s 500 different bands)of what made the primitive stylings of the original 60’s pre-punkers so endearing: innocence. Instead, they got puddin’ bowl haircuts, bought vintage Vox gear and wore paisley shirts and Beatle boots. Hello! Wrong decade, posers!

By the 90’s, the Japanese had gotten their eager paws all over the deconstruction of the Stones’ “Exile On Main Street” as spewed by Pussy Galore. PG, as pretentious and precious as they often were, were also astute enough to chop down any hint of subtlety found in garage rock, and with their barely-rudimentary “musicianship” conjured up a primal ooze of barely-tuned, wastoid two-note riffs and even a ragged approximation of musique concrete via Bob Bert’s clanging of various metal objects as percussion. The Japanese regurgitation via PG is merely a theory; after all, this is a country where Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Music was once played in airports, and is home to some of the most extreme noise terrorists ever recorded such as Masonna,Gerogerigegege, Merzbow, KK Null/Zeni Geva and Hanatarash (all of whom I’ll waste mindless drool on at some point in the future). Hmmm… ‘drool’ is an interesting word– if you stare at it for five or ten minutes. 

I write this shit to attempt to comprehend it; I’m forced to think really hard about alla this noise pollution when I sit down to write about it. Not being a scholar of Japanese culture, I have no idea why musicians there feel the need to create uber-noisy caricatures of American punk rock (if you do, feel free to enlighten me), but since they do, I’ll allow myself to be hopelessly entranced by it. Sure I could evolve endless ideas on par with the priggish tripe written by Greil Marcus and his twattish disciples about a Jungian Japa-collective unconscious bent on seeking revenge on the Yanks for Hiroshima by selling their culture back to them in mutant form– speaking of which, I loathe anime.

Anyfuckingway, before I tangent myself into a coma, let’s get to the platter du jour, shall we?

Lemme re-re-re-reference a coupla paragraphs ago, where I was yammering about Pussy Galore as reinterpreted by the Japanese in the 90’s– let’s say for example ya dig alla those bands that dress up like Yakuza and/or Rockabilly white trash, and clang out Link Wray riffs with cheap fuzz pedals– yunno, like Guitar Wolf, Thee Michelle Gun Elephant, Mad 3 etc., ad nauseum. If ya can handle the idea of some Zep and Blue Cheer stirred into that already volatile mix, chances are you’ll find a shitload to love about the Dynamite Masters Blues Quartet, aka DMBQ, and their latest sluice of product, “Essential Sounds From The Far East”.

The vocals remind me of Brian Connolly’s “ALLLLRIIIGHT FELLAAAAS, LET’S GOOOOOOO!!!” wail that kickstarts Sweet’s “Ballroom Blitz”– ceptin’ they never leave that gear. Ever. The duelling, interweaving geetars are set on stun permanently as well, hammering out licks that both Jimmy Page and Sonny Sharrock would be proud of. Shit, “Mirror Baby” could pass for a revved-up version of KISS’s “Strutter” without the rock god trappings… catchy as a hell despite its frenetic nature, in other words. “Dm” is the real stunner tho– blissed-out, semi-psych swirl that’d fit just fine on one of Acid Mothers’ Temple’s 889 albums. Bowing to the hipster god these folks do not: I’m positive I detected a hint of Vanilla Fudge’s version of “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” somewhere in there– granted, my ears AND frontal lobes have seen better days.

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