The Datsuns

New Zealand hard rock outfit the Datsuns emerged in the early 2000s with a stripped-down approach to sleazy garage rock that aligned them with peers such as the White Stripes, Jet, and Wolfmother. Their self-titled debut album from 2002 marked their commercial breakthrough and greatest mainstream success, propelled by the singles “MF from Hell” and “Lady.” Later releases generated limited attention abroad, yet the group maintained a consistent Top 20 standing in their homeland with the 2004 album Outta Sight/Outta Mind and the 2006 album Smoke & Mirrors. They reentered the charts in 2014 via their sixth LP, Deep Sleep, and issued their seventh album, Eye to Eye, in 2021.

Just six months before London’s music press began calling them “genius” in mid-2002, the Datsuns had been urged by others to quit. By then the musicians had already spent six years performing their style of garage rock, having first connected at school in Cambridge where they initially formed the band Trinket. Performing as Trinket, they captured the local radio station’s Battle of the Bands competition in 1997; the following year, now operating as the Datsuns, they repeated the victory. In the ensuing period they issued only a few singles, pressed on vinyl through their own imprint, Hellsquad Records. Although student radio embraced them and their concerts earned comparisons to the Who’s live energy, they stayed largely unnoticed even within New Zealand. Momentum shifted in March 2001 when an Australian tour sparked notable interest, particularly in Melbourne, prompting the band to target London next.

The city’s music press quickly converged on their shows and competed to label the Datsuns the most exciting act they had witnessed. Record labels soon followed, offering contracts. One executive from a major label traveled from New York to observe them in person. The visit began with the group staying on friends’ couches; shortly afterward at least one label covered hotel expenses. In July 2002 they signed to the V2 label and prepared the domestic release of their self-titled album, which arrived that year. The record reached number one in New Zealand and achieved the band’s strongest U.K. placement at number 17. Outta Sight/Outta Mind appeared two years afterward, followed by Smoke & Mirrors in 2006. Their fourth studio album, Head Stunts, came out on Cooking Vinyl in 2008 and was scheduled for a U.S. release in 2009.

The Datsuns returned in 2012 with the explosive Death Rattle Boogie, which blended hard-rock and psych-rock elements. Two years later they continued along a similarly distorted trajectory with Deep Sleep. Seven additional years passed before the release of their seventh album, 2021’s Eye to Eye, which maintained their established sound of psychedelic crunch rooted in classic-rock influences.