REVIEW: Yellow Machine Gun, Spot Remover (Howling Bull)
- Andrew Duncan
With monumental women rockers like Babes In Toyland's Kat Bjelland and Bikini Kill's Kathleen Hanna now taking on the world with a quiet angst, it's time to look east for the thunder.
Yellow Machine Gun may look like just another Shonen Knife with a pretty face, but looks can be deceiving and these girls will rip your throat out. You might even go so far as to say that these girls rock with a vengeance.
With the opener "Again," the power that guitarist Kyoko Moriya, bass and vocalist Kaori Okumura and drummer Tamami Ohkado generate is as much a shock as when Michael J. Fox hit that guitar chord in the movie Back to the Future.
They have had plenty of time to develop there skills. As a band, these ladies have been regulars in Osaka, Japan since 1993. Their fan base grew rapidly throughout the years having such credentials as giving Limp Bizkit a run for their money and performing in front of 30,000 people at Japan's Air Jam. Thanks to Howling Bull's newly domestication in California to bring Yellow Machine Gun to the states.
And rare is it to have a band create such a full-and-rich sound, generating a fury that is fast and precise. "Something Enormous" and "Hip Tail" has impressive syncopation that takes Helmet to court, while "In A Box" challenges any Slayer song.
The finale, "Eat Hat Fat" slows down as Okumura takes a moment to sing instead of growl with tremendous proportion. Sounds mellow but take Black Sabbath and have Grace Slick sing with a broken English accent, a shocking but wonderful result.
