The world has a gradually increasing amount of fuzzy, distorted lo-fi rock. With bands like the Raveonettes and Jay Reatard, fuzz is coming back. But there are some flaws with modern lo-fi...the first of which is that it's hardly ever listenable. There may be some nice melodies hidden behind the distortion, but it's never really comfortable and easy to just sit back and listen to. Secondly, it doesn't really change. Throughout an entire heavy lo-fi rock album, there's usually one theme that is masked by fuzz and played over and over ten or eleven times. Japandroids, a rock duo from Vancouver, BC, has managed to evade both of these curses with their debut LP, "Post-Nothing".
As I previously said, Japandroids is a duo. Brian King and David Prowse play guitar and drums. They both sing, because when they formed Japandroids in high school, they wanted to "avoid the trouble of having a lead singer", according to a short description of the band on Polyvinyl Recording Co.'s website. The band lives up to their subgenre, the music is fuzzy, but there's also a playfulness and a sense of direction. So many bands like them take themselves completely seriously, but it is made obvious that Japandroids are having fun with their shredding guitars and disjointedly crashing drums. Their music is more relatable, and more listenable, because you can tell they aren't just shredding in a dark room somewhere, fresh from sitting in some corner and crying or something. Japandroids make music that is fun but also stylistically pleasing. This is an extremely promising debut record, and I'd love to see where they go from here.
Key Tracks: "Young Hearts Spark Fire", "Wet Hair", "The Boys Are Leaving Town", "I Quit Girls"
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