Got hole?

March 31st, 2011 by The Editor

Regular readers (yup, all three of you!) may remember me tearing strips out of a couple of the early singles from terribly-monikered young grunge-reheaters Japanese Voyeurs. Well, there’s a new album in the pipeline – produced by none other than GGGarth, which is the clearest statement of nineties-retro authenticity you could ask for – plus tour dates and stuff, plus a new single, “Get Hole”, for which this is the video:

It’s far better than those earlier releases (good production has doubtless helped a great deal, as well as another year of personal growth all round), but I’m still decidedly “meh” about ‘em, really: a workmanlike Alice In Chains tribute band fronted by a Katie-Jane Garside impersonator.

I mean, I still like AiC now, and as for my Daisy Chainsaw fandom, well, I cried like a girl when I met Katie-Jane at a festival signing session (which would have been far less embarrassing had I not been 25 years old at the time); these are touchstones I am not just familiar with, but actively fond of. Maybe that’s the problem… but I’ve heard other bands reviving the sounds of my youth and really loved ‘em (Silversun Pickups, anyone?).

So, I dunno. Perhaps I’m just a grumpy old bastard. Perhaps Japanese Voyeurs just aren’t all that and a bag of chips. Make your own bloody mind up: they’re touring through April and May, so you can go see ‘em do their thing. If you need me, I’ll be sat at home, re-reading browned and brittle pages of Melody Maker back-issues from 1992 and trying to forget that even my damned facial hair has got grey bits in it nowadays.

April