I discovered the Japanese cult band G-wolf when Tony and I went to see a wonderfully bizarre and incredbibly cool sci-fi horror zombie alien musical called Wild Zero at the Seattle International Film Festival a few years back.
Guitar Wolf (all 3 of them- Guitar Wolf the lead singer and guitarist, Bass wolf the Bassist, and Drum Wolf, the, you-guessed-it, drummer) are in the film and you can't help but fall in love with their cooler-than-cool personas and as I said, their far-past-the-normal-human-threshold wall of sound.
After being driven wild by Wild Zero, Tony and I were lucky enough to see Guitar Wolf perform live. I kid you not- you haven't lived til you've seen GW live. Their sound is a form of undiluted grindhouse pleasure- they pour their heart and soul into it. Its loud, its brash, its rock and roll at its most pure & molten brilliance. Its as close to a religious experience as I've ever had at a rock 'n roll show!
Backstage, they are polite and unassuming- even shy! But when they take the stage, they transform themselves into classic 1950s "greasers". Bass Wolf and Drum Wolf comb their hair with a flair the Fonze would envy. Guitar Wolf chugs a can of beer with panache. They tease the audience with this buildup and then suddenly launch into the kind of deafening roar that would send your mother running, screaming, from the room.
Guitar Wolf himself is insane. Each time Tony and I saw them perform, he would literally jump from the rafters onto the stage like a reckless stuntman. Then later in the show, he would vault onto the shoulders of the audience, guitar in hand, riffing like a mad man.
This clip is from the last live show we attended in Seattle. Tony and I are in the front somewhere but I don't think you can really pick us out of that crazed crowd.
http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=3970807
Read Tony's review of that show here:
http://popculturepetridish.blogspot.com/2005/03/live-rundown-duran-duran-and-guitar.html
If you were to ask me to describe Guitar Wolf's music I would call it raw, loud, and pure. A more merciless and wicked version of the Ramones- and unapologetically brutal in its assault on your ear drums. If you were to ask me to describe Guitar Wolf's persona, I would have to resort to cribbing lines from them- UFO Romantics, the Jet Generation... they project an incredible mixture of 1950s rock and roll and sci-fi. It sounds odd, but it definitely works.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9woPMP57X48
Sadly, in 2005 Guitar Wolf lost their bassist Billy (aka Bass Wolf) to a heart attack. Fans are still in mourning his loss. But now they have a new bassist, Ug (aka Bass Wolf the 2nd!) and are back in the recording studio and on stage, spreading their own special brand of deaf-inducing magic. If they ever come to a town near you, run (don't walk) to their show. You'll be glad you did.
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