In the high school hierarchy of underground rock, Japanese bands are the special-ed kids. From autistic oddballs (Merzbow) to ADHD nut-jobs (Afrirampo) to schizoid space-cases (Boredoms), we Westerners find them thoroughly entertaining but scarcely take them seriously. Unless a band flies their freak flag mighty high, they'll fail to earn any attention outside the Orient. So when four kids from Fukuoka without cult mystique or outlandish costumery embarked on their single U.S. tour six years ago, we failed to take notice.
Which is our loss. Number Girl packed more raw power than a prison yard knife fight. Like the best guitar-driven bands of the '90s, they straddled contradictions most modern bands can't begin to bridge. Clever song craft was their music's keystone, yet they never kicked their addiction to volume; they wailed and flailed without melodrama; and most importantly, they managed to make the guitar sound exciting again.
Their major-label debut, School Girl Distortional Addict, remains their defining work. Though the band betrays its influences via the title "Pixie Du" and Mukai Shutoku's helium-spiked screaming, Number Girl play with a feral dexterity that launches them past noisy college rock into an At The Drive-In—class frenzy. Hisako Tabuchi and Shutoku's guitars lash and claw at each other while Ahito Inazawa's machinegun drumming propels the songs like a Spitfire. From the epic opener "Touch" until the punishing stomp of "Eight Beater," School Girl… is a relentless slab of rock, the way we imagine Dinosaur Jr. or Jawbox in our fever dreams. Getting beaten senseless was never so tuneful, nor felt so good.
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2. Pixiedu
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4. Young Girl Seventeen Sexually Knowing
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10. Eight Beater