Japandroids will be the first to tell you it’s been a tough, up-hill battle gaining national exposure from a smaller, under-reperesented market such as Vancouver, BC. Things are stacked against you! Vancouver’s geographic isolation makes touring difficult. It’s a twelve hour road trip over the mountains to Calgary, and under-represented means not enough boots on the ground in your own town for local media to truly cover all the interesting music that even a smaller city has to offer when you dig beneath the surface. So after several years of hard work, and the sacrifice of time and passion that it takes to make good music and run the business of being a band, Japandroids found themselves frustrated to have played a ton of shows, and to have released several EPs with little to no recognition from the Vancouver press for their efforts.CONTINUE READING
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VIDEO: Japandroids @ The Chop Suey in Seattle,WA on LIVE EYE TV
VIDEO: Japandroids @ The Chop Suey in Seattle,WA on LIVE EYE TV
Having met through a mutual friend at the University of Victoria in 2000, guitarist Brian King and drummer David Prowse decided to form Japandroids after a post-college, summer road trip to the Coachella Fest in 2005. When a half-hearted search for a female singer to round out a Yeah Yeah Yeah’s inspired trio yielded nothing, Brian and David decided to jump in head first and get it done as a duo. Neither member wanted to shoulder the burden of full time singer, so they decided to pool their talents, trading and sharing vocal duties. Using the raw, over-driven sound of Northwest garage gods, The Sonics, and the riff heavy, low end aggression of Scotland’s, McLusky, as aural guideposts, the duo ripped out two full force and self-released EPs, 2007’s All Lies and 2008’s Lullaby Death Jams. Both albums had the sonic ferocity of their hero’s work, but this time played by a highly exuberant and loud-as-fuck duo, hellbent on rockin’ the best basement party ever. Well, who could blame the boys for trying!
With their rigorous five day a week practice schedule tightening the band into a road ready beast, and several years of stuffing mailers to send to college radio stations paying some dividends, 2008 looked like a promising year. The band had recorded their first full-length, Post-Nothing, prepared to again self-release it, and they had the Pop Montreal and the CMJ festival in NY to look forward to. However, the prevailing feeling for King and Prowse was that the band would give it this last shot, and if no label interest materialized, call it quits. Fortunately, while playing the Pop Montreal Fest, Unfamiliar Records founder Greg Ipp caught the bands set and was blown away, agreeing to a vinyl only (with digital download) release for the band’s first full length. With positive reviews and buzz also coming from Pitckfork, as well as gaining a slot on their important summer festival in Chicago, the young band had finally garnered the the kind of success they had worked so hard to gain back home in Vancouver.
Japandroids signed with Polyvinyl Records in June 2009, and has toured extensively since. Live Eye Tv caught up recently with the band in Seattle on the final night of their long North American tour and recorded an amazing set of fuzzed-out, basement anthems that included, “Heart Sweats”/ “Darkness on the Edge of Gastown” , as well as the always crowd pleasing “Young Hearts Spark Fire”. The band has returned home to record for a future EP, and then is off for an extended tour of Europe starting this January. Should make french kissing those french girls just a little easier!
