Lucy  

Rockarollica III

(Victor Entertainment)

Know that jet-chords blitz, but they hardly travel skyways alone. Lulling mildness explores melodic muses. Chants unite. Dissonant eruptions startle. Involved passages parade past. Rockarollica III pogo-slammed into shop bins some 20 years in its predeccessor's wake. Lucy's initial discs are to be reissued this year, newly remastered and sporting fresh digipak graphics. Too, a tour has been bannered.

Recommended: "Punk the Lucy," "Lazy Crazy," "Hey! Lu," "Halo," "Kacchan Calling," "I So Heavy," "Ino to Cowboy," "Wall Futashikanakabe," "ROCK THE LUCY SHOW"

Videos: "Punk the Lucy"   "Halo"   "I So Heavy"   "Wall Futashikanakabe"   "ROCK THE LUCY SHOW"

Victor Entertainment

Lingua Sounds

playasia

Tower Records

Apple

Amazon

roku-sokuho

Spotify

Nil

Wildflower

(afro skull records)

Bashing hurtles at rates beyond the reckoning of mph calculators, and at volumes that leave eardrums violated and in shreds on tiles below. Cords leap out on necks, sweat is flung wildly, eyes bug, and blood vessels ripple across foreheads. Immaculate trauma.

Recommended: "Godspeed," "Tax Baby," "Perfect Piece," "Unhappy Number"

Videos: "Godspeed"   "Tax Baby"   "Unhappy Number"   

afro skull records

mora

Apple

Spotify

The Blue Hearts

Top-gear dynamics, singalong quality, admirable snarl -- factors millions found magnetic. Originally a 1987 single on Juggler, prior to Blue Hearts' major-label residency. 

Video: "Hito ni Yasashiku"

Facebook (fan group)

Biscats  

Black or Pink?

(Rock'a Beat Tokyo)

There are times for classic stylizations that tear the joint to splinters. This isn't for those moments. Instead, it's exquisitely apropos for moods seeking both Rockabilly ferality and the swish of Pop taffeta. 

(Note: Black or Pink? being fresh from manufacture, some vendors linked below have yet to post availability. Soon.)

Recommended: "Zakenna," "BAD CAT," "Hi-Hi," "Yasomihano," "Kyururn Summer," "Mou Ichido Aitakute," "Koiwotomenaide"

Video: "Zakenna"   "Yasomihano"   "Mou Ichido Aitakute"   "Koiwotomenaide"

Site

Biscats Shop

Facebook

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Indy CD and Vinyl

Record Store Day

Easy Street Records

Apple

Stompin' Riffraffs

Maybe it was a hush-hush Army atomic experiment that transmogrified Frankie, Annette, and other Go-Go beach teens into the Robot Monster, She-Creature, and miscellaneous misshapen products of drive-in screamers, now lurching in attempts to pull off dance sensations that are sweeping the nation. The world will never know.

Video: "Horror Show"

Facebook

Wild Records

Levi Dexter

And so it was that revered crooner Levi dropped down from the pantheon, assumed Gretsch Brothers array's fore position, and seared to wax irresistability that had he-and-she pairings doing the Solar Swivel up to the bright and twinklings. Per the man himself on Facebook: "You've Got What I Like" remains unreleased, save for a Japanese promo issuance.

Video: "You've Got What I Like"

Facebook (Levi)

Site (Gretsch Brothers)

Great Invaders

Why were wrecking devotees jammed shoulder-to-shoulder at 2025's Tokyo Big Rumble? Given featured agitators Great Invaders - a threesome that gleefully detonates at Link Wray sound levels - the superfluousness of that question spurts crimson.

Video: "I Love Psychobilly"

Instagram

Otoboke Beaver

These kittens have claws, and they don't hesitate using 'em to dispense what initially seems Punk shambolism. Upon additional scrutiny, though, one digs that while the Punk part is legit, clever construction is also afoot. 

Video: "I Don't Need to Be in Your Strike Zone"

Facebook

Damnably

Instagram

TikTok

X

Guitar Wolf

More Jet

(Guitar Wolf Records)

As your eyes sweep across these letters, Seiji and curled-lip collaborators Takura and Gotz are deluging New Zealand and Australia with mega-voltage thunderations of twisted Punk metal. Sparks are surely spattering that besieged landscape. Official alarms scream. Spotlights criss-cross ebony nights. Masses of tittilated adherants will be happily deaf for days.

Seven years have transpired since the leathery trio last detonated within studio confines. Those are as nothing. Personnel permutated, but one satisfiedly savors familiar blast/gash/smashes fired off with febrile relish. I have it on reliable imaginary authority that jagged-toothed Rock'n'Roll of incalculable velocity is the audio equivalent of Ponce de León's diving pool.

Recommended: "More Jet," "100m Girl," "Long Tall Sally," "Coelacanth Galaxy," "9AM Pornomag Planet," "Kung Fu Bikini," "Super Sonic ihatov"

Videos: promo :23 "Long Tall Sally"    live 10:21 (New Zealand, 2025)

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Strange World Records

Rocking Horse Records

Sorcerer Records

Apple

Biscats

Right Now   EP

(Rock'a Beat Tokyo)

Japan's Biscats boast the chops to back up sharp glad rags. Previous disc Message featured the formula of a Poppish pleasantry, a more characteristic rocker, and instrumental iterations of the same. Right Now's titular opening rush is awash in sunny airiness. But steeliness laces its path, assuring that substance endures even as style waves happy hands. Had I a stethoscope encircling my neck, I'd prescribe "gamba rockabilly" for ennui sufferers who crave to scuff inches from crepe. 

Recommended: "Right Now!!," "gamba rockabilly," voiceless versions

Videos: "Right Now!!"   "gamba rockabilly"

Facebook

X

Uta-Net

Amazon

Apple

iHeart

anghami

Soundcloud

Spotify

Back in the Day, 1978

Sham 69

Tell Us the Truth

(Polydor / Polydor Japan)

Easily as non-negotiating as anything wrought by 1970s English spike-topped fellows. Giving a sound booting to the tedious indulgences annoyingly produced by navel-gazing hippies would by itself have been sufficient for celebration. But Jimmy Pursey and his surly flick-knife mates larded anthemic projectiles with enough prideful working-class glare to incite teenage malcontents to stomp down the cobblestones.

Recommended, live side: "We Got a Fight," "Rip Off," "George Davis Is Innocent," "They Don't Understand," "Borstal Breakout"

Recommended, studio side: "Family Life," "Hey Little Rich Boy," "I'm a Man, I'm a Boy," "What About the Lonely?," "Tell Us the Truth," "It's Never Too Late"

Videos: "We Got a Fight"    "They Don't Understand"    "Borstal Breakout"  (live)   "Family Life"   "Hey, Little Rich Boy"   "Tell Us the Truth"

Detour Records

Discrepancy Records

Hepcat Store

Discogs

Amazon

Glitterfast

s/t   EP

(Slovenly Recordings)

Jubilant savagery racing zig-zags in ramshackle Far East garage. Four bellicose scrappers, desperately casting about for mechanisms through which pent-up pugnacity might be made ravagingly real, snatched up Rock'n'Roll instruments. Their jet barrages seize and thrill.

Available in black-vinyl (400 copies) and digital formats.

Recommended: "Glitterfast," "GOI," "Faster Louder," "Japanpunk"

Video: "Faster Louder" (live)   "Japanpunk"

Bandcamp

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Instagram

Slovenly 

HHV

Collectors Choice Music

Tower Records

Deep Discount

The Cherry Coke$

Love Thy Drunx

(Caffeine Bomb Records)

Only because these adventuresome souls are possessed of sprawling musical attentions and remarkable instrumental prowess are they able to traverse dissimilar idioms with fluency and ease. Punk projectiles hurtle and accordion-enriched old-world sea chanteys roll out as if buffered on placid waters. When one learns the Cherry Coke$ have put shoulders to these wheels for two-plus decades and that this disc is their tenth, the spring-heeled cohesiveness seems only logical.

This CD can be purchased separately or as part of a boxed set that also includes a Cherry Bear Doll, bottle opener, tumbler, post card, and logo sticker. That set has been limited to just 500 units. Glow-in-dark keychains are also available on a first-come/first-served basis.

Recommended: "Risky Dreams," "Peace Island," "Farewell Youthful Light (feat. The Morito)," "Nancy Whiskey," "Last Train," "Wayfaring Man," "Drunken Sailor," "Cheer Song," "Bring Me a Beer"

Videos: "Peace Island"   "Wayfaring Man"

Site

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Instagram

Caffeine Bomb

se.7digital.com

Amazon (Japan)

Spotify