One of my favorite albums of 2009 so far is “Post-Nothing” by the Vancouver, B.C. punk/garage/noise duo Japandroids. It’s a heaving slab of rock ‘n’ roll, heavy with insistent, crashing drums, jet-engine guitar riffs, wonderfully simple vocals and lyrics about girls. It sounds like Superchunk meets Sonic Youth, and it is awesome.
Only one problem: It’s really, really hard to find a physical copy of “Post-Nothing” for purchase. The album was released digitally and on vinyl — not on CD — in Canada in April. Then Pitchfork wrote a glowing review, and it became very difficult to find the vinyl version.
Lucky for all of us, the good people at Polyvinyl Records are going to swoop in and make it all better. The Champaign, Ill.-based label has signed Japandroids and will release “Post-Nothing” worldwide on both CD and vinyl on Aug. 4. You can pre-order it here and get MP3s as soon as you complete your order. You should totally do that.
If you need any more convincing, here’s a download of “Young Hearts Spark Fire” from the album. You may need to right-click and choose “Save As”:
Japandroids, “Young Hearts Spark Fire”
Tune in Friday, when I’ll have a post here on the blog about my favorite albums of the first half of the year, plus a column in GO! Magazine recapping what a great year 2009 has been so far for local music.
Tags: Japandroids
I’ve been meaning to download it. I’ll let you know. In the meantime, it’ll be hard to beat Animal Collective, Bat For Lashes, Camera Obscura, Decemberists and Dirty Projecters. And that’s just for starters.
I’m with you on Animal Collective. Not so much on Dirty Projectors.
The Decemberists, I fear, will spend the rest of their time together trying to live up to the brilliance of “The Crane Wife.”
Wilco (the album) is the best album of the year but I don’t spend my day listening to music — just my nights.
Great posting. I can’t wait to check them out. I’m not too partial to Pitchfork considering they hate just about everything but I’m going to have get this Japandroids album.
I, too, look forward to your Wilco review. I felt sorta “meh” about the album. But I admit that I’m one of the seemingly few people without the “Wilco-Fan gene.”
I’m Just Not That Into Them.
Hooray for Japandroids. I think they should win album title of the year. Post-Nothing. Love it.
I have to say that this album is completely overshadowed by so much this year… It’s a good album… doesn’t necessarily break free from itself. It’s virtually one song. Not much traffic for it on i-tunes either. A couple really rank reviews on emusic as well. At least Popvinyl Record Co. has ‘Of Montreal’ signed…
Metric, Animal Collective (previously mentioned), Beirut, Passion Pit, Fun., Harlem Shakes, Telekinesis, Phoenix, Fanfarlo, White Rabbits, Sin Fang Bous, Eels, Discovery, Bon Iver (EP), Andrew Bird, Slaid Cleaves, Miike Snow, M. Ward, The Decemberists, and many more… I might even put The Donnas and Great Lake Swimmers ahead of it. I’d say so far it’s looking to finish towards the bottom of the top 100 of 2009. Still a long way to go and probably gonna be some great fall music released. Looking for some Guster if we’re lucky!