Consumer Guide Album

Kaito U.K.: Band Red [SpinArt, 2003]
So I searched the review database of this gender-balanced quartet, a more orderly thing than any of their songs, and found only one Liliput citation--by Jessica Winter in this newspaper. Much commoner were references to ye olde Sonic Youth, whom they resemble somewhat less than they do the Go-Go's. Guess indie rock is wasted on the young, because Liliput is the analogy even if Nikki Colk has never heard of them either. Kaito are noisier, faster, girlier; Colk mispronounces her English not as a Marlene Marder homage but so people will think she's from Sweden. But the two share a rare, rambunctious sense that noise is fun and life is livable, a tremendous relief in a time when so many new guitar bands never hint at their reason for existing. Eventually Kaito might get full of themselves like Bis. Or they might cover "Ain't You." Not both. A-