This came out in 2003 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
New Zealand is the new Sweden.
A while back I introduced you to the hard-driving riff-rawkers in Cambridge’s The Datsuns. Now meet their ruder, cruder, punkier Auckland cousins The D4. Fronted by a mutton-chopped singer with the unlikely handle of Jimmy Christmas and a lead guitarist who looks like Jerry Seinfeld after a spell in juvie, The D4 spend 40 minutes kicking ass and taking names on their explosive garage-rawk debut album 6Twenty. The thundering soul-rock pounding, chunky power-chord riffage, neck-sliding leads and “Come on!” invocations of fist-pumping party-anthem originals like Get Loose, Running On Empty and RnR MF — yes, it stands for what you think — will remind the cool kids of The Hives and The Mooney Suzuki, and cooler parents of Johnny Thunders, Radio Birdman, The Stooges and The MC5. And covers of Guitar Wolf’s Invader Ace and Thunders’ Pirate Love will convince both sides they’re right on — though not as right on as The D4. A1.
