King Brothers - The King Brothers

by Cara Ross

published: 17 / 12 / 2001

Label: In the Red Records
Format: CD

More stellar garage punk from our friends out East, this time a trio hailing from Osaka, Japan, which consists of Keizo Matsuo on vocals and guitar, Masafumi “Marya” Koyama on guitar and "scream" and

Review

More stellar garage punk from our friends out East, this time a trio hailing from Osaka, Japan, which consists of Keizo Matsuo on vocals and guitar, Masafumi “Marya” Koyama on guitar and "scream" and Jun “Hair Star” Fujimoto on drums (“hair star” presumably due to his on again-off-again Afro). They are the King Brothers, but don’t let their size fool you. These boys pack a major punch, with a huge sound. This album is the King Brothers’ debut on In the Red recordings…the little label that is home to a newly important array of music including the Now Time Delegation (one of my top picks for the year), the Knoxville Girls, The Deadly Snakes, the Demolition Doll Rods,and Panther Burns, and on and on. The great thing about In the Red is their fairly eclectic array of musical styles...from country all the way to this! You could randomly pick almost any band off this label with your eyes closed and still come out a winner, and the King Brothers are no exception. Not for the faint of heart, however. The King Brothers manage to destroy every thing in sight, including themselves during a live performance, and they were easily one of the favourite acts at this year’s Las Vegas Shakedown. Watching them live is like seeing a tornado play guitar. It’s just that truly manic live performance during the band’s relentless touring of their first couple albums on Bulb records, and EMI Toshiba, that garnered them some truly coveted opening act spots for bands like the Jon Spenser Blues Explosion, and Boss Hog. I question whether you’d be able to understand what they were screaming about even if it was in English, but would it even matter? The surprise amidst all this screaming is that things still somehow manage to be “melodic”. And with song titles like “Oh Shit!”, you know that this is gonna be just plain-out, crazy-assed rock and roll.