The Datsuns make their debut appearance at Ozzfest Saturday in Tinley Park, Illinois. The New Zealand rockers have been making headway in the U.S. behind their self-titled spring release -- this will be their seventh stateside tour -- but that doesn't mean they expect every audience to love them.

"We are the most faggy band at Ozzfest," says frontman Dolf Datsun. "Us Nancy-boys got asked to do it. We've had some really interesting suggestions for T-shirts to sell at Ozzfest -- 'The Most Hated Band at Ozzfest,' and on the back, 'The Datsuns.'"

The Datsuns hail from pastoral Cambridge, New Zealand, but England was the first country to go nuts over the four-piece, beginning last summer. The band's live veracity -- in an MC5-meets-ACDC-in-tight-white-jeans vein -- has helped it build a strong following. "After we toured America with the Mooney Suzuki and the White Stripes, we got to England and things kind of took off," says guitarist Christian Datsun. "We'd only done three 45s on our own label, Hellsquad, and we'd just sell them ourselves at shows."

The U.K. buzz led to a label bidding war. Richard Branson's V2 imprint eventually inked the combo for a licensing deal, but first the band of twenty-somethings had fun with their suitors. "We were at this one restaurant," remembers bassist Phil Datsun, "and there was this forty-dollar shot of scotch. So we went to whoever the [A&R man] was and said, 'Can I have that?' and he was like, 'Yeah sure. Want another one?'"

"We went through a few expense accounts," adds Christian.

The Datsuns recorded their self-titled debut in London over ten days last fall, and they're already scouting locations to record the follow-up, which they hope to start in September. "There's a bunch of residential studios outside London where you can live and hang out and just make records and not worry about what's going on," Dolf says. "We're [also] thinking about going to Stockholm. I think that sounds fantastic. It's a beautiful city, but it has distractions."

The Datsuns have about a dozen songs written for the album, including "Cherry Lane," "Messin' Around" and "Girl's Best Friend," which they've been including in their live set. Dolf says they are also playing around with their sound this time: "We know we have an audience now -- we can be slightly more self-indulgent, and do things that maybe will work better on record than live . . . like slow songs."

JOLIE LASH
(July 17, 2003)