Japandroids = Awesome

JPNDRDS: Post-Nothing. Buy it. Support awesome music.

I won’t be the first to fete Japandroids (or hopefully, the last), but they were the first thing I heard this year that really stopped me in my tracks. Pitchfork posted up one of their songs (“Young Hearts Spark Fire”), and it’s an insanely fun blast of rough, noisy, garage guitar rock. Then they put out an album (Post-Nothing), which is 8 songs worth of insanely fun rough, noisy, garage guitar rock.

I’ve listened to the record a lot (as evidenced by its spot at #1 on my list there on the right) and tried to pinpoint exactly what it is that makes it hit so hard for me – there’s definitely a bit of nostalgia there, but it’s more than that…  The songs are pretty simple, they use lots of repeating lyrics (there are several songs that probably don’t even have 25 words in them), but there’s a sincerity to the whole thing that makes it hard to resist. They sound like 20-something guys making music about girls because they’re 20-something guys making music about girls – there’s no artifice, no ironic detachment, no dense arrangements designed to detach the listener from the musician (I’m looking at you, Dirty Projectors), just really good songs played at full volume with as much emotion as they can muster.

Anyway, I think it’s the best thing I’ve heard probably since the first Arcade Fire record, and I think everyone should listen to it. EVERYONE! If you’re reading, you can start here:

JPNDRDS: “Sovereignty” (right-click to download)

(The best song ever about being in love and wanting to just leave everything to live in it. Which hopefully everyone has experienced at least once.)

JPNDRDS: “Wet Hair” (right-click to download)

(The best song ever to have the lyrics “we run the gauntlet, must get to france, so we can french kiss some french girls.”)