Feb 24, 2014
The Raydios - No Expectations
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from Malaysia
seen from United States
seen from Malaysia
seen from Malaysia
seen from Netherlands
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Spain
seen from China
seen from Brazil
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
The Raydios - No Expectations
The Raydios - "Don't Mind"
If one didn't know better, they'd assume The Raydios were a first-wave punk band. Fair enough. Original Demo Recordings is incredibly hooky power pop-tinged punk & roll, and it's lo-fi enough (but not painfully so) to make you think it's from '77.
The Raydios are actually Fifi, Fink, and Sammy post-Teengenerate. Teengenerate were a wild, loud Japanese rock & roll/garage punk band in the mid-90s who mostly played songs at breakneck speed. If you've ever seen Guitar Wolf's comedy/B-horror film Wild Zero, you've heard them playing "My GTO". (And for the love of maniacal rock & roll, just check out Teengenerate's Get Action! and their Savage!!! EP if you haven't already.) The Raydios were a more toned-down affair, but as mentioned before, created a few catchy tunes (collected on 1999's Original Demo Recordings) before Fifi, Fink, and Sammy went on to form Firestarter. Included on that record is a cover of the Rubber City Rebels' "Kidnapped".
Incidentally, they've got so many projects that I don't know which one is getting most of their attention these days. Teengenerate reformed a few years ago to play some shows. The Raydios have performed as recent as February of 2012 according to this. It's safe to say the guys are around in some form as fun, energetically noisy representatives of Japan's respectable rock & roll scene.
-k.
The RAYDIOS - Are You Ready?
