facebook twitter

Noise-punk darlings release full-length debut

Posted on Aug 17, 2009 in Features

Share|

Duo Japandroids create musical gems with spacey out effects

It’s hard to tell whether Post-Nothing by Vancouver band Japandroids is an EP or an LP, as it consists of only eight tracks and clocks in at under forty minutes.

But nevertheless, it’s easy to tell that it’s foot-tapping, head-bobbing, air-drumming fun all the way through.

This is the kind of album that will have you strumming power chords on your invisible guitar at the five-minute stoplight while wondering exactly how two skinny plaid-shirted dudes can come up with such insanely awesome tunage.

Japandroids, a two-piece lo-fi punk band from the Great White North, consist of guitarist Brian King and drummer Dave Prowse, who formed the band in 2006 intending for it to be a trio.

The three-piece lineup wasn’t in the cards for them, so they stuck with the trusty guitar-and-drums-with-shared-vocals that has suited bands like the White Stripes, No Age and Japanther so well.

Just because they’re a two-piece doesn’t mean they have a sparse sound. Quite the opposite, actually. Post-Nothing is packed with so much raw energy that you would think you were listening to a band with five members.

Although Japandroids do like to space out their guitar riffs with 1990s-inspired fuzz effects, they are far from being shoegazers.

At live shows, Brian and Dave are prone to thrashing about on their respective guitars and drums, simultaneously wailing into their mics as they play.

Post-Nothing opens with “The Boys Are Leaving Town,” which is no doubt a parody of “The Boys Are Back In Town” – as far as the title, at least.

Only, in this case, the song leans more towards a catchy noise-punk gem than a hair metal classic. Actually, come to think of it, the entire album is an amalgamation of catchy noise-punk gems. All thirty-six minutes of it.

Other standout tracks include “Wet Hair,” which references riot-girl band Bikini Kill in the lyrics, and “Crazy Forever” which sounds like an instrumental jam until about the two-minute mark, where the refrain of “We’ll stick together forever / stay sick together / be crazy forever” repeats itself several times over.

And perhaps the album’s best track, “Sovereignty,” has an equally sing-along, yet far more explicit “It’s raining / ohhh, in Vancouver / but I don’t give a ****.”

That’s another great thing about Post-Nothing – the lyrics are hilarious.

Brian goes from belting about drunken parties in “Young Hearts Spark Fire,” to blabbing about French kissing French girls in “Wet Hair,” to wistfully crooning about one particular member of the female gender in the snarkily titled “I Quit Girls.”

Still another one of the great things about this record is that the songs aren’t tediously alike.

For example, “Rockers East Vancouver” sounds slightly surfy, “Crazy/Forever” verges on stoner rock with its downtempo drums and bass-laden guitar riffs, and “I Quit Girls” is played almost entirely on guitar.

It’s not necessarily “all over the map,” but there’s quite a bit going on.

If you haven’t gotten your hands on the album yet, don’t worry. You’re not too far out of the loop.

It was just released in America in hard-copy form two weeks ago via Polyvinyl on August 4, 2009. Now would be the time to invest in it.

If you like what you hear, be sure to catch them at 529 in Atlanta on October 17. They’ll most likely rock your socks off. Even if you’re not wearing them.

Email: kmdrake@uab.edu