The Datsuns

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Image courtesy of Razzmatazz

Although six months earlier people were telling New Zealand's Datsuns to give up, the London music press was hailing them as "geniuses" by mid-2002. By then, the group had already been playing their style of garage rock for six years, ever since they met at school in Cambridge, New Zealand, and formed a band called Trinket. In 1997, as Trinket, they won the local radio station's Battle of the Bands. The following year, now called Datsuns, they won again. In the following years, they released only a handful of singles, all on vinyl and all on their own record label, Hellsquad Records. Although they were popular on student radio and known for their Who-esque live performances, they were a relatively unknown band even at home. Things started to improve in March 2001, when a tour of Australia caused quite a stir, particularly in Melbourne. Encouraged, Datsuns made plans to conquer London.

First, it was the fickle London music press that flocked to the band's gigs, jostling each other to hail the Datsuns as the best thing they'd ever seen. Record companies followed suit, waving checkbooks in their faces. An executive from a major label flew in from New York to see what was going on. Their London tour had begun with the band sleeping on other people's couches; before long, at least one hopeful record company was footing the hotel bills. In July 2002, the group signed with V2 Records. The band members then geared up for the national release of their self-titled album, which came out later that year. The Datsuns topped the charts in New Zealand and had their best UK chart performance, reaching number 17. Two years later, the Datsuns returned with Outta Sight / Outta Mind. Smoke & Mirrors followed in 2006. The group released their fourth studio album, Headstunts, on Cooking Vinyl in 2008, with a planned US release in 2009. In 2012, the Datsuns unveiled the bombastic, hard rock and psych-rock-tinged Death Rattle Boogie. Two years later, they continued in the same vein with Deep Sleep. It would be another seven years before the band released their seventh album, Eye to Eye in 2021, but stylistically they remained virtually unchanged, delivering another dose of psychedelic crunch channeling the greats of classic rock.

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