Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on February 2013
With a name like Japandroids, it must only have been a matter of time for the up-and-coming indie rockers to gravitate towards these shores. After a fleeting appearance at last year’s Fuji Rock, they are back with a date at Shibuya WWW. 2012 was a very successful year for the Canadian duo. Their sophomore album Celebration Rock landed them on a lot of year-end best-of lists, including those of Rolling Stone and Pitchfork. The term “indie rock” may evoke the image of someone gazing morosely at a shoe—and the band’s name has a hint of the reclusive otaku about it—but live on stage Brian King (guitar, vocals) and David Prowse (drums, vocals) cook up a punkish-garagey-hipster maelstrom of guitar-shredding, drum-clattering insanity that sounds like a much bigger army. Small, powerful, and economical: Now wherever did they get an idea like that from?
