Rock 'Bots

A A A Comments By Tony Ware Wednesday, Nov 18 2009

Some bands kick up so much racket, you feel like your hair is being whipped by a gale-force wind. Vancouver's Japandroids, a guitar-drums duo going strong after a couple of tentative EP releases, manages that sensation both figuratively and literally. Guitarist Brian King, who splits his signal between two amps to get a low-octave-drenched torrent of tone, plays every show with a fan turned on him so he doesn't overheat as he churns out buffeting, fuzz-saturated chords. It makes for a great visual, but doesn't detract from the contributions of David Prowse, whose tumbling drums are equally visceral. The final frequency is the duo's earnest yelps, which coalesce with the rest into woozy, bruising, and blissfully infatuated pop nuggets. Japandroids is touring on the band's proper full-length debut, Post-Nothing (Polyvinyl), which has been compared by critics (including this one) to the rush of Siamese Dream–era Smashing Pumpkins, the melodic yearning of late-'90s emo-punk touchstones Promise Ring, and the pummeling riffs of fellow Canadians DFA1979. There’s a time for musing over cerebral, conceptual compositions; listening to a Japandroids song is not that time.

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