One way to look at the Boredoms is as the Andy Kaufman of rock. Through meticulous study, they have completely mastered the architecture of the transcendent rock jam. But instead of celebrating their achievements, they choose to undercut their monuments to riffology in service of the first commandment of Dadaism: Thou Shalt Fuck With People's Heads.

Just as Kaufman's killer Elvis impression turned his hapless, unfunny "foreign man" character into a surreal comic enterprise, so does the Boredoms' overreaching rock power achieve extra poignancy through their unwillingness to leave well enough alone. The classic Boredoms song inches us ever closer to the brink of orgiastic musical communion, until Yamatsuka Eye and Co. derail the groove train at the last minute, sending us spinning off into a ditch in a messy tangle of open reel tape. We are frustrated, but as Frank Sinatra once said, "That's life."

The best example of this sort of monkeywrenching on Vision Creation Newsun (the follow-up to 1998's Super Are, which is currently only available as a pricy Japanese import) comes with the second track. The song (there are no titles here, only unpronounceable symbols) begins in a swell of chiming guitars and shimmering percussion, opening slowly like a lotus flower, and eventually takes root as a driving, circular psychedelic guitar workout reminiscent of Spacemen 3's "Suicide."

As the band moves through variation after variation on the simple theme and the track gains in volume and power, Eye suddenly seizes the tape machine and begins cutting the song to ribbons, splicing in air raid sirens, EQing, and phasing like a tone-deaf janitor trapped in the Radio One control booth. In this instant, Eye makes an unholy pile of shit from a perfect specimen of guitar rock ecstasy. How could he do such a thing when we were feeling so good? But then, just as we're about to hit the Stop button in disgust, he gets the song back on the rails and shoves it forward with even more thrust. And as we appreciate the authority of the song that much more, we thank him for the moment of discord.

No music writer can resist the occasional "x meets y" sort of comparison, and the one that describes latter-day Boredoms is too unusual to pass up: The Ramones meets the Grateful Dead. Strange as it may sound, it could be the only way to describe a band that once cut a 34-minute cover of a single Mekons riff-- it appeared on Super Roots 7, a tremendous achievement that remains the band's trance rock pinnacle. But if anything, this odd amalgamation only points out what's so great about Japan: musicians there don't waste time trying to figure out why the Sex Pistols are cooler than King Crimson, they merely combine the best elements of both.

Vision Creation Newsun takes the Boredoms even further into neo-hippie psychedelic territory, though a few songs (like the aforementioned Track Two) rock more thoroughly and convincingly than any pre-punk band apart from the Stooges. Though there are a handful of lengthy, evolving crunchers, the majority of the album consists of exercises in atmosphere. This largely instrumental LP leans mostly on plucked guitars, gurgling synths, and tribal drumming, sometimes reminiscent of folky psyche travelers Ghost. It's a beautiful sound-- one that gains in complexity with repeated listens-- but it never quite reaches the heights of Super Are. I guess you have to take what you can get with the Boredoms.

-Mark Richard-San