Japanroids
Post-Nothing
Unfamiliar Records
By Mike Randall
In my current hometown of Chapel Hill, N.C., Superchunk is an institution. They symbolize a time when the local scene was expected by many to become the next Seattle, and they’re largely responsible for why that never happened, much to the delight of its protective community. They shunned that kind of attention, opting for a D.I.Y. mentality that always put creativity over sales, freedom ahead of recognition. The real reason Superchunk is such a source of pride here, however, is because of the way they made us all feel. The music had a punk/alternative dimension, sure, but it was also fun as all hell. Listening to No Pocky For Kitty is still the equivalent of dancing in the rain after kissing your new girlfriend for the first time or feeling the breeze off the Carolina coast as you sit on the sand and drink beer with your best buds.
Until now, no band has epitomized that combination of anthemic edge and teenage romanticism as well as Superchunk. While certainly in need of proving themselves over time, Vancouver duo Japandroids is off to a good start in being right up there along side the Chapel Hill natives. Like Superchunk, Japandroids unleash turbo-charged, ear splitting fuzzy guitars while delivering euphoric, melodious vocals in a helium-nasal scream. Yes, they have a similar sound to the Merge founders (as do many a lo-fi bands at the moment), but what really puts them in the same league is the liberation their songs communicate. Despite being in their mid-twenties, these slack motherfuckers are trying to hang on to their youth as long as possible, and the optimism is contagious. They expect tomorrow to be just as good as yesterday, and the result is a collection of magnetic songs with subject matter that’s as unpretentious as you’ll ever hear.
On the album opening, “The Boys Are Leaving Town,” the duo, who share singing duties, are hitting the road and not knowing if they’ll find their way back. Guitarist Brian King strums anthemic, distorted waves of shoegaze, while David Prowse pounds his cymbals as if they’re talking back. The poppy “Young Hearts Spark Fire” might be the most endearing track here, as it’s about wanting to stay up all night getting drunk with your girl, fighting away the next day in hopes tonight lasts forever. That intention isn’t said with any kind of sentimentality, it truly sounds like they believe they have the power. “Wet Hair,” a tune about bikini-clad girls and wanting to “get to France so we can French-kiss some French girls” presents another instance of irrepressible young hope that we all wish we still had. Then there’s the slugged out shoegaze of “I Quit Girls,” which as the song title suggests, is the obligatory dealing with the aftermath of when one of those encounters with a young lassie goes south. Ah, the perils of being young at heart.
While the themes running through Post-Nothing have a bubble-gum feel, the music is anything but. The duo fills every inch of space with furious strumming, urgent riffs and boisterous fills, sounding more like a five-piece, which is most evident by the garage-swing of “Crazy/Forever.” With simple chords and mammoth riffs, it’s self-indulgent and completely priceless. After all, what hormonal male doesn’t want to stand on the front of a stage slaying an audience with his guitar? The back-alley groove of “Heart Sweats” sounds like a street-fighting anthem loaded with hooks, buzzing guitars and raging adrenaline, while the intro to “Rockers East Vancouver” is perfect for getting fists pumping, which is every bit as essential to growing up as smoking cigarettes and chasing girls.
With their teenage years in the rearview mirror, Japandroids are living the dream most of us hold nostalgia for. As jobs and mortgages and the harsh realities settle in, Japandroids remind us that anything is still possible. We could skip town tomorrow; we could get obliterated tonight. And even if you don’t, you’ll remember a time when you did do all those things, or at least had the freedom to think about them. A soundtrack to life, Post-Nothing is the kind of record that stays with you as long as your memories of what you were doing at time you listened to it. And there’s nothing slack about that.
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