The Severed Cortex

Link: http://japandroids.com/

The music industry machine is great at generating hype. One person in an influential position likes a band and suddenly the buzz spreads like wildfire.  More often than not the buzz is for naught.  Japandroids kind of falls into the naught category.  It used to be, in order to form a band, it required at least four people. You could get away with three if one of them was pretty adept at singing while playing.  More often you had to have a fifth member in order to cover up some of the other bands shortcomings.  Don't believe me?  Ask yourself this.  Is Lynyrd Skynyrd defined by Allan Collins and Gary Rossington's dual guitar interplay, or do you automatically think of Larry Junstrom on bass.  Japandroids, on the other hand, forgoes all that extra band member crap and just goes about it being a two piece.  Guitar and drums.

So maybe the hype is all due to the nature of the band being a two piece?   Perhaps that is part of it.  It's certainly a rarity to see.  I only know two off the top of my head.   Jazz guitar whiz Charlie Hunter & percussionist Leon Parker are one.   Loud as hell rock and rollers Local H are the other.   Which category does Japandroids fall into?  Let's just say they do not play jazz.  Instead, they create a wall of loud sound by distinctive, solid drumming and guitar chords tuned in drop D.  With the amps turned up to 11 of course.  Let's face it.  Kurt Cobain did that same guitar thing years ago, and now we all know Dave Grohl on drums was really the brains of the band.  But rather than Dave Grohl leading around a sloppy, heroin induced guitar player, Japandroids members play together with extreme tightness.  The wall of sound they create is at one time distinctive, yet at the same time not overly original.

The distinctive sound and the fact they are a two piece is probably most of the hype machine.  Although I haven't seen them personally, I'm guessing the last bit of it can be attributed to the live show.  A lot of times high energy bands like Japandroids don't translate well to the tactile medium of a CD.  I guess these days that also means the non tactile world of digital media.  All I know is that whatever the medium, that lost translation is the case here with Post-Nothing.  Yes a couple songs like Young Heart Sparks Fire and Heart Sweats translate extremely well.  The rest of the release inundates you with that wall of sound and doesn't let up throughout the eight songs and 35 minutes.  There are moments when you wish it would release you.  If you dig the sound, then buy the album.  If you don't dig the sound catch them live at the Billikin Club in St. Louis on November 20th and see if it changes your mind.

Until then, here's a KEXP in studio where the band absolutely blisters the Steve Albini led Big Black cover Racer X along with their own song Young Heart Sparks Fire.