Just one short year ago, who would have predicted that listening to Guitar Wolf could be so...well, poignant? The racket created by Seiji, Billy and Toru has always been more of a fist-pumping punk 'n' roll endurance test than anything else: just how many feedback squeals, hideously overdriven two-note solos and drunken guitar fumbles can a human being take? Well, over ten years after Guitar Wolf's debut album on Goner - and nearly twice that time since the band formed - the answer is clearly more than you'd expect. And with the tragic passing of Billy (a.k.a. Bass Wolf) this spring, these two new retrospective releases could not be more vital. It's high time we remembered the importance of Guitar Wolf, not as some Orientalist self-parodic "lock 'n' loll" act, but as the most brutal, primitive, awe-inspiringly raw force in music today...maybe even ever.
This year Seiji and Toru recruited a new bass player: a 19-year-old thug from Shimane named UG who's never played an instrument in his life but was hired solely on basis of "coolness." It's clear that this marks the beginning of a new era for the band, one in which Billy's absence will be missed as deeply as the other Wolves' perseverence is appreciated. And in that light, "hits" collection Golden Black and V.A. tribute album I Love Guitar Wolf...Very Much are the perfect ways to commemorate the Guitar Wolf of the past, while looking forward to an undoubtedly bright (and guaranteed hard-rocking) future. So go ahead. Put on "I Love You, OK" and see if it doesn't bring tears to your eyes...I fucking dare you.
Golden Black
(Narnack)
Talk about icons: Golden Black opens with the sound of a speeding motorcycle engine and a strangled shout of "1, 2, 3, 4!" And it's just too damn perfect. Next to the Ramones, there isn't a band on this planet the profundity of whose existence can be encapsulated with just those four Arabic numerals... except Guitar Wolf. In fact, no less than 11 of this generous sampler's 26 songs open with Seiji's impassioned count-ins; the rest just explode full-pelt into blood-red existence, as if we're listening to field recordings of the Big Bang and not just some cult garage act from Japan. But then, if Golden Black reminds us of anything, it's that, sonically, Guitar Wolf have always had more in common with seismic eruptions and heavy artillery than anything like conventional "music."
Article comments