Switch Trout

It’s not often, apart from the dearly missed Teengenerate, that you hear the word great to describe a Japanese rock band. Well, with the Switch Trout, the list gets a little longer. Carrying on the Ramones’ tradition of blurring the lines between band, family and gang, the boys, Naohito (guitar), Shinici (bass), and the alternating drummers Shuhei and Nobu have all taken the piscine surname Trout. They hail from Yukkaichi, a city known primarily for its industrial pollution. That may help to explain the Detroit / Cleveland / Birmingham snot-nosed who-gives-a-shit edge the tunes have. They’re all instrumental, but there’s little surf influence to be found. Instead, it’s primarily loud scuzzy guitars, a suitably mutable rhythm section, needles firmly in the red, and a balls-out energy and nasty in-yer-face attitude straight out of a punky garage. I think it’s safe to say that they own a few records by the Yardbirds, Dick Dale, Link Wray, Ramones, Clash, Who, Sex Pistols, a shitload of Nuggets bands, and even Deep Purple. Psycho Action! collects ten previously seven-inch only tracks and adds another five that were only available in Japan.