April 01, 2005

Guitar Wolf's Billy Wolf (neé Hideaki Sekiguchi) died today at age 38 of a heart attack. But instead of a simple mourning post, I'd like to take this opportunity to rock out, Jap-thrash style. I can't seem to find any mp3s of the following bands (though I own quite a few albums from them), so if any of you would like to help, you're more than welcome.

The Outs: More popish than Guitar Wolf, but still fun. The King Brothers are more raw, less polished, leather jacket rockers. Their mp3 at Bulb Records is currently down. Thee Michelle Gun Elephant: Saw these guys on a late-night Asian videos thing on cable access. They're the ones who do the song Smokin' Billy... Jail Guitar Goors, if you like a little Clash with your Japs. Don't hold their GeoCities site against 'em,Supersnazz are all that Shonen Knife should have been but weren't. Ok, who else rocks Japan? The Voodoo Boots? The Bunnies? The Havenots? Can anyone find mp3s, or am I going to have to go home and upload some?

posted by js 19 years ago
  • wow, he was just at SXSW. I'll see what I have to share when I get home.
  • Seeing Guitar Wolf play at the Purple Onion is one of the reasons I moved to San Francisco. I came here on vacation in 1994 chasing a girl, and fell in love with the City. On one of my first nights in town, I wandered down to North beach to visit the historical Purple Onion. Seeing Guitar Wolf take charge of the tiny, no-PA / no-stage club with such ferocity and pure rock-n-roll fun blew my mind. Guitar Wolf -- I hope you are forming a band in Heaven with Carl Perkins and Elvis as I type. Thank you for the fun. JS -- don't forget the 5,6,7,8's. Sorry, I can't help you with any mp3s. Everything I have by Guitar Wolf et al is on vinyl, and I don't yet have the ability to burn mp3s from record.
  • My buddy Matt has a nice remembrance up about gigging with the Wolfs. He just saw them in NO and they covered one of his songs. Bummer.
  • Wow -- I just found out about Guitar Wolf. My cable's on-demand channels offers Anime on-demand. For some reason, this channel also has Japanese music videos on it. Cool band, too bad they're gone.
  • Jet Generation by Guitar Wolf