The 5678s – Teenage Mojo Workout (Sweet Nothing)

As the Japanese girl garage band featured in Kill Bill, the western emergence of this group’s records is sadly timed to see them catching the tail-end of a few passing trends and disappearing quietly into the realm of dusty pop cultural detritus. Which is a shame, cos whichever way you cut the cake after giving this outing a spin, the 5678s fucking rock big-time!

Above and beyond the basic idea of cute Japanese ladies playing retro-styled r’n’b / punk n’roll – which I gather is still considered something of a novelty in more moronic circles despite the vast wealth of female-led Japanese rock music on offer to the discerning listener – this is hands down one of the finest non-Billy Childish affiliated platters of joyful, ragged-ass garage gear that’s hit my ears in recent memory. I can assure all readers fearing that this might be some kind patronising “ah, how cute, listen to these little foreign chicks trying to play rock n roll” culture clash garbage that that is totally, utterly not the case here – these ladies know their shit and swing out like demons. Sure, it’s a bit chaotic in places, but that’s the raw, over-energised ‘first take/best take’ kinda chaos you’re hearing, not incompetence. The drummer is shit hot, the bass is foot-stomping good and they’ve got absolutely the BEST ‘60s-style fuzz-tone / reverb guitar sound heard anywhere since, well, the ‘60s. Topped off with some totally nifty rock n roll piano / organ moves and plenty of knee-quivering yelling and lovely vocal harmonies on the slower numbers, and… shit, this is heaven!!

In particular, their take on ‘Green Onions’ is gonna be blasting out of the Stereo Sanctity Soundsystem every time I get drunk and wanna jump up and down from now until eternity. As Jimmy Masuko says in his delightfully translated sleeve-notes; “No wonder countless youngsters excitedly dance with this just like the Pogo dance or Moshing. The 5678’s version is also such a hard dance number that I put down my pen and was dancing with it.” Amen, brother!