The Good Ship Rediscovery: The Datsuns - The Datsuns

We all forget about the older stuff from time to time, in our quest to stay up to speed with the latest and greatest. But one should always respect their elders. So don’t forget about them, y’hear?

I have really fond memories of the year 2003, when New Zealand retro rock worshippers The Datsuns released their self-titled LP, some of which include that very same band. The funny thing about The Datsuns, friends, is that their brand of over the top, adrenalized stadiumesque rock precluded that of bands like The Darkness (by a few months I believe) and Wolfmother (by a few years), though they never quite seemed to get the same amount of attention as those fellows (perhaps, like The Darkness, they should have tried wearing spandex jumpsuits and other such shenanigans). Which is rather a shame, I think, because listening to The Datsuns, this record was and still is really fucking good.

Now, as you might imagine, this is not a record that's at all concerned with the art of making music. Instead, this is a record that is about pretty much nothing but sex and drugs and rock'n'roll. Which, I suppose, is all well and good. Leave the thinking man's music to Radiohead. And the feeling man's music to, say Bon Iver. But when it comes to being the second coming of bands like AC/DC and Thin Lizzy, well, The Datsuns had it covered with this LP. The songs are catchy, they are huge, and they are loud. When it comes to a rock record, what the heck else could you possibly need? The band also reeled in the back vocal talents of the ladies of The Von Bondies, at that time themselves a trendy little rock band out of the Motor City.

"MF From Hell" will always be a favorite, such a fearsome little lighter flame of a song, all about how some woman done someone wrong, making him feel "like a motherfucker from hell." And I'm not gonna lie, I do love a song with excessive use of an expletive. Not to mention those ridiculously riffing guitars. "Harmonic Generator" is another of my favorites, featuring the metallic drollness of those Von Bondies ladies and a fine little vocal performance by lead Datsun swaggerer Dolf (from zero to hystrionics in two seconds).

The Datsuns howled with a cocky, cock-rock attitude the likes of which you just don't hear much these days. They brought some serious noise to my world, without coming across as camp or silly. They walked the walk, friends, that's for damn sure. Word on the street is they're working on new material, so raise your glass to that and while we're all waiting to hear that, go ahead and throw this on the old stereo.

m4a: Harmonic Generator (The Datsuns from The Datsuns)


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