THE 50 KAITENZ – S/T LP

If you think carefully about why Turbonegro, Guitar Wolf, The Dirtbombs, or even the entire Crypt Band catalog are of such authoritative relevance, it can all be traced back to two simple facts. Fact one. They understood their style of playing rock’n’roll. This realization sounds succinct at first, after all, any band would claim this. Only in reality most of them fail miserably. First copying others and then copying themselves is no innovation and just adds another copy to the meter records, no “most authentic” or original equipment helps, because it fails because of the songs. Fact two, and maybe this is the most underestimated factor, is the lack of humor. Without humor, you can’t play good rock’n’roll. Why am I writing this? I have seen the light, THE 50 KAITENZ from Osaka play 60s Punk as I wish it and that in a perfection that makes me dizzy. Alone the transitions from the chorus to the verse are so cleverly placed that you slap your thighs with joy, without being able to speak a single word of Japanese, you catch yourself intoning the songs loudly at an inappropriate room volume and even start to play the obligatory air guitar with pleasure. THE 50 KAITENZ, of course, don’t play pure 60s punk. Similar to Turbonegro, they have devoured 70 years of rock’n’roll history and, not to use the more appropriate word, use it shamelessly for their purposes. Punk, country, garage or beat – everything is scrutinized, distilled, stirred, shaken and stirred again to be unleashed on your auditory canals in irreverent perfection. I’m thrilled by all the tongue-in-cheek quotes, because what comes out of it is probably the most independent thing I’ve heard in the last few years in this hard-working field.