For the Record

Author: Jason Gutierrez

What a difference a year makes. I know a lot of people who were rather unimpressed with the musical output of 2008. Well, it's good to see that 2009 is starting off promisingly. I mean, Antony & the Johnsons, Animal Collective, Morrissey and The Pains of Being Pure at Heart have all tossed out excellent albums in the past month, but the best record I've heard thus far is by Vancouver-based band Japandroids, whose long-playing debut, "Post-Nothing," is set to be released April 28th via Unfamilliar Records. Under normal circumstances the amount of time between this writing and the album's official release would dissuade me from reviewing it, but it's available for free streaming online at Last.fm. Plus, it's flat-out too good to ignore.

It seems like the Pacific coast is raising fantastic rock duos like they're an industry unto themselves, and Japandroids join No Age at the top of this pseudo-minimalist rock music pile. They call their shouty, distortion soaked youth anthems garage rock. I call it rock for the recession. After all, Japandroids are two dudes, one guitar (with accompanying distortion peddle), and one drum set; no frills and no B.S. studio tomfoolery, just really solid songs and a sound that is fuller than you would expect from such a stripped down outfit.

"The Boys Are Leaving Town," the first song on "Post-Nothing," sets the tone of the rest of the album, as Brian King's guitar enters with distortion to spare. In fact, the sound is so similar to the beginning of a My Bloody Valentine song that you could be forgiven for thinking that Japandroids is really just a Kevin Shields side project. At least until David Prowse's drums kick in and its clear we aren't in shoe gaze territory. Prowse slams his drums like a champ, and he fills sound like an ex-hardcore drummer at work. The juxtaposition of Prowse's powerful drumming and King's dreamy guitar work make this album interesting, and their ability to make a two-piece band sound like a five-piece band is what makes it impressive.

The album's standout track, and assuredly its first single, is the joyous "Young Hearts Spark Fire." This track also highlights what separates Japandroids from fellow guitar/drum duo No Age. Where No Age chooses to emphasize their minimalism through experimental tracks, Japandroids casts it aside in favor of fuzzy noise that highlights the fact that, at their core, Japandroids songs are pop songs - pop songs about the conflicted emotions that come with growing up.

"We've finished our old lives/and I've finished off the wine," King sings as the song begins. He goes onto say, "You can keep tomorrow/after tonight we're not going to need it," before concluding with, "We used to dream/now we're worried about dying." Is it a little histrionic? Well, sure. But as someone who is staring unemployment, adulthood and the death of youth in the face, it's tough to hear King's lyrics and not feel that there is truth to what he says, despite the somewhat melodramatic tenor.

It would be easy to pigeonhole "Post-Nothing" as a minimalist noise-pop album or an all-too-frequently released pop-punk record about the pains of growing up, but to do so would be almost offensively reductive. "Post-Nothing" does contain all of those elements, but is so ingratiating with its hooks and interesting with its noise and distortion experiments that the album rises above any easy categorization. My advice is this: read to the end of this sentence, stop whatever it is that you are doing, go listen to the album on Last.fm, mark April 28th on your calendar and then, at the appropriate time, buy this album - because it's too good to not have your own copy.