TADZIO (JPN)

Japanese punk duo Tadzio’s sheer exuberance can make you feel like you are hearing rock music for the first time.

The duo’s story is as simple as their addicting tunes. Leader and Bucho, two girls from the city of Sendai, started playing Nirvana covers together with Leader on guitar and Bucho on drums. Leader went on vacation to New York City, and spent it watching hardcore shows at all-ages punk venue ABC No Rio. She returned home to write a song about it called “Nosebleed.” An album’s worth of convulsive hardcore punk quickly followed. Leader and Bucho agreed to share yelling duties, named their band in honor of the film version of Death in Venice, and started gigging in Tokyo.

And, yes, you really can just go to see a bunch of hardcore bands and then decide to start one yourself. That is actually the only way it has ever it worked. Furthermore,Tadzio’s crazy-fun self-titled debut, out now on Japanese indie label P-Vine, proves that system is still working. It consists of eleven tracks of totally unfiltered thrashing and serious garage rumble and growl. On songs like “Beast Master” the ladies show off a talent for anarchy that recalls Japanese noise-rock duo Afrirampo and the lovable hyperactivity of the US’s Mika Miko. The ladies wisely kept a few hints of Nirvana’s hooks around for songs like “Belgium” too. “Buzz” is another album highlight because it’s a tribute to Melvins guitarist Buzz Osborne.