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GUITAR WOLF! JAPAN'S GREATEST 'JET ROCK'N'ROLL' BAND, RETURN TO AOTEAROA.Tokyo masters of rock&roll mayhem. 30 years young & the foot ain’t ever come off that car crash accelerator pedal. Still swerving, dead man curving, burnin’ out & danger driftin’. Link Wray overdriven guitar rumble fuzz & feedback, Joan Jett warm leatherette aesthetic obsession, locomotive rockabilly rhythms & early Ramones punk chunk thump. Noise, hiss & drone co-opted from fellow Japanese sound assault merchants High Rise & Mainliner. It’s a sonic rendezvous designed to cave in heads & destroy frequencies, while yr dancing yr ass off on that road to oblivion.
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Guitar Wolf Live at Space Academy
Tuesday 11th March
Doors - 7:30
Show - 8:00
There are garage-rock bands, and then there’s Tokyo terrors Guitar Wolf... This band’s style of rock’n’roll demands more imposing prefixes, like “jet,” “hurricane,” and “Kawasaki ZII 750.” Much as 1960s British Invasion groups bastardized the blues and sold it back to American teens, Guitar Wolf have spent the past 30(+) years making once-rebellious Stateside sounds—surf, rockabilly, Nuggets, CBGB punk—seem dangerous again, forsaking retro purism for monomania. Your typical garage band might make your ears ring; this one kills zombies. - Pitchfork
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Since forming in 1987 and releasing their first album on Memphis's legendary Goner Records in 1993 (following their first appearance at Gonerfest), the group, which is fronted by the heroic Seiji and always clothed head to toe in black leather, have taken their wild and dangerous sound to the world, working with labels like Matador and Third Man in the process. They have released 12 albums and are signed to a major label at home in Japan. They first toured Australia in the late '90s, when Seiji rode on to the stage of a packed Tote on the back of a borrowed motorcycle.
Inspired by the ultra-violent records of '50s guitar wielding maniac Link Wray as well as motorcycles, the Ramones, Johnny Thunders, the Cramps and Joan Jett, Seiji has called their sound 'Jet Rock'n'Roll', but that has nothing to do with Joan. As Seiji explained in an interview in 2012, I love jet plane. I love noisy music, too. So...there were records...many records...every record have no big sounds. So...easy to listen. I hate that! So! I add jet sounds. Bwaaaahng! Explosion! (When asked by the same interviewer who came up with the term Jet Rock, Seiji replied, Me. Yeah, yeah. So we are #1 Japanese Jet Rock Band.)
Guitar Wolf have their own branded motorcycle jacket, the 613 GW, made by Schott NYC of New York, who make the iconic 613 Perfecto jacket as worn by the Ramones. It's a jacket that dates back to Marlon Brandon in The Wild One, and the birth of the leather jacket as an outlaw/rebel icon. Guitar Wolf are movie stars themselves too, having starred in the low budget sci-fi horror movie Wild Zero in 1999, a sequel to which they announced last year.
Despite a number of line-up changes - they are now onto their third bass player Gotz, having suffered the death of original bassplayer Billy (Bass Wolf) by heart-attack aged 38 in 2005, and drummer Takuro has only been with them since 2022 - Guitar Wolf are founded on a singular vision and continue to push forward just as they remain the same. Picture a lone rider pushing through an unending tide of fashion-conscious conformists - that's what Guitar Wolf are like.
As they state in their Official Bio on their website, Guitar Wolf single-mindedly pursu(e) an unchanging style and radiat(e) power that transcends time and space.
Set to appear at the 10th occurrence of Australia's premier celebration of garage rock and punk, Jerkfest in Geelong as well as the Meadow Music Festival in Bambra (in the Surf Coast Shire), Guitar Wolf are also playing in Melbourne, Frankston, Bendigo, Castlemaine, Brisbane, Sydney, Adelaide, Perth, Bunbury and Fremantle. Lucky Melbourne fans will also get a screening of Wild Zero at the Thornbury Picture House, with Seiji and his band mates in attendance.
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Space Academy, 371 St Asaph Street,Christchurch, New Zealand
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