This pattern has repeated itself again and again over the years, with various levels of self-consciousness and cross-pollination, from the Stooges to Run-D.M.C. to the riot grrrl movement and beyond, always managing to put a fresh thousand volts or so through rock 'n' roll's ragged but wrong spirit just when the miserable old dinosaur should've been gasping its last. Nowhere is this electricity more evident today than in the rebellious young punk- and garage-inspired bands that began emerging from Japan in the early '80s. Groups like the Plastics, Shonen Knife, Boredoms and Teengenerate have displayed all the unvarnished enthusiasm and none of the cultural background required to play this music "authentically," and the result has been a virulent, goofy new strain of the stuff.
One of the most joyful and spastic CDs in recent memory is Now Is the Time! by Polysics, a unisex, Devo-obsessed quartet from Tokyo with an energy level so off-the-charts you can practically hear them bouncing off the walls on the studio versions of such Bloken Engrish CrassicsTM as "Mr. Psycho Psycho" and "Coelakanth Is Android." It's anyone's guess how crazy things'll get when they play these same songs live, but let's just hope that the good folks at Super Happy Fun Land are paid up on their insurance. Hai! Hai! Rock 'n' roll!