Japandroids: Capitalizing on Pitchfork’s praise

West Coast garage-rock duo set to perform at 2010 Pop! Et Cetera festival

Japandroids play the Pyramid on Saturday, Oct. 2 as part of the 2010 Pop! Et Cetera festival. Courtesy BC Scene
Japandroids play the Pyramid on Saturday, Oct. 2 as part of the 2010 Pop! Et Cetera festival. Courtesy Polyvinyl Records

Dave Prowse, drummer and vocalist for Vancouver duo Japandroids, answers the phone from his tour van.

To a request to reschedule the interview he replies: “No problem. We were doing the same thing two hours ago and will be doing the same thing in three hours.”

This has been the life for Prowse and guitar-playing vocalist Brian King for the last 15 months, when their tour started in support of their Polyvinyl Records debut LP Post-Nothing.

Over 200 shows later, they’re doing the 10-hour slog from Boise, Idaho, to Bellingham, Washington, just south of their home base.

Their frantic garage/noise-splosion has taken them from Canada to all points of the globe.

The highlight was playing two dates in Russia. Our first night we just drank until dawn and then played at 4 a.m. the next day. It is just such a different place.

Dave Prowse, Japandroids

“The highlight was playing two dates in Russia,” Prowse said. “The gigs were set up by this college student who went with us from Moscow to St. Petersburg. Our first night we just drank until dawn and then played at 4 a.m. the next day. It is just such a different place.”

Though formed in 2006, this band really got their big break when music website Pitchfork gave them a stellar review back in April 2009.

“It all happened pretty quickly and has progressed ever since,” Prowse said. “They even doled out best-new-music honours at last year’s end. The local and national press like Exclaim gave us good reviews, but this was our big jump.”

Since April of this year, Japandroids have been releasing a series of five limited edition 7” singles, with covers of tracks from Big Black, X and PJ Harvey. The band has released three so far.

“We record these on our short breaks at home in Vancouver. We wanted to cover bands that are awesome that don’t get their exposure these days,” said Prowse. “We love these bands. But the next two are surprises.”

-See Japandroids perform at the Pyramid on Sunday, Oct. 3 as part of the 2010 Pop! Et Cetera festival
-PS I Love You will also perform
-Tickets are $13 in advance at Ticketmaster, Kustom Kulture and Into the Music

Visit www.japandroids.com

Published in Volume 65, Number 5 of The Uniter (September 30, 2010)

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