Gasoline

Scrappy garage from three crazy Japanese cats — hmmm. Are we talking about the King Brothers? Naw. Maybe Guitar Wolf? Nope, it’s Estrus Records’ own fuzzed-out sake-bombers Gasoline. This album starts off with a nice broken blues harmonica intro that segues into an insanely jagged punk shocker, the Stooge-y "Merry Go Round." The mood shifts from paint-peeling freak-outs to R&B rave-ups with "Big Boy Small Face" and "Here… Right Now I Believe," providing variety within the chaos. Take it to the People is actually only eight songs long, but an older EP is included as a bonus on the CD, and those songs actually push the distorted treble meter up few more notches. The four bonus songs are a little different, more in the Guitar Wolf/Oblivians style and are basically just energetic little explosions. An extra selling point is that singer Gan avoids the overly shrill Japanese punk vocal style that often mars other band’s releases.