Tiny Tuesday!
So, when I first thought of signing up for a bandom_recs day, I decided that it was a necessity to post about these boys. But I was a little worried, because I had nothing to connect them to bandom. But then they made my life easy. They decided to go on FN'MTV. I'll give you three hints as to who they are:
1. They are not from the U.S.
2. They have the Japanese capital in their name.
3. They are a quartet.
Who did you think I was talking about?
l-r Josh Hook (guitar), David Monks (vocals, bass), Greg Alsop (drums) and Graham Wright (keyboards, backing vocals)
I have a question for you, amazingly fantastic b_r readers. Off the top of your head, can you think of a single song that you've listened to well over 400 times in two years? What are your current feelings towards that song? My song is Nature of the Experiment by Tokyo Police Club, and I'm not even close to being sick of it.
Where do I start? The music? The reviews? Their awesomeness? A mix of all of them above? I'll see what I can do.
The year is 2005. Four friends decide to form a band. They pick a line out of one of their songs as a name, believeing that nobody would ever hear of them anyways.
Tokyo Police Club only put on a few shows for friends and family, but quickly created a buzz in Toronto. Which spread to Montréal. Which led to a signing with Paperbag Records. Which led to them working day jobs and writing/recording at night. Which led to A Lesson In Crime.
Rolling Stone said “If only all young guitar bands were smart enough to rock out this fast". NME said "Tokyo Police Club are a bold, inventive, brilliant band, and that’s the absolute truth."
Did I mention that A Lesson In Crime is sixteen minutes long?
The album stayed on the Canadian college charts longer than any other CD released in 2007, and the single Cheer It On won an MMVA. Youtube. Watch this.
also, sample tracks.
2. Nature of the Experiment
3. Citizens of Tomorrow
7. La Ferrassie
Much touring was done between their first and second EP, named Smith EP which is only nine minutes long, and includs a remix of a song on A Lesson In Crime. Apparently, it also has three videos on, which I just found. Huh. Anyways, here's track 2, Cut Cut Paste.
More touring (mostly of festivals) followed, before their fist LP Elephant Shell was released April 22nd, 2008 on Saddle Creek records. There's a lot of songs about childhoods and kids on it, which I don't really have an explanation for.
They did some of their own touring before it was announced
that they would be opening for Angels and Airwaves on an upcoming fall tour. Oh, yeah, some weird pop band that Elisha Cuthbert used to front is playing too. Weeze or whatever.
Elephant Shell
1. Centennial
7. The Harrowing Adventures Of...
9. Your English is Good
Reviews largely focus on the sound of Tokyo Police Club, but in case you don't know me/haven't noticed, I'm really, really lyric-oriented. Tokyo Police Club are brilliant lyricists. If not a little creepy (case in point: Cut Cut Paste) And, they have a really nice blog on their website. It's not updated too often, but it's still great.
Do not be fooled by their American-written Myspace bio. TPC are from Newmarket, Ontario (about half an hour North of Toronto, I believe) and are still heavily involved with their Canadian fans (they posted a blog about Bill C-61 and play shows in cities that aren't Vancouver and Toronto).
So. I hope I have converted you all to Tokyo Police Club-ism. thesamefire pointed out that they played the MTVU Woodies in 2007, which Fall Out Boy attended, and they've done a few MOD interviews with Matte. However, they played FN'MTV (which I didn't get to see :[) so now we have definate Pete/TPC connections! So write me fic based on their songs! Go see them live! Buy their discs! Baskervilles in the awesomeness!
(first pic might be nsfw. nothing really, really extreme, but just a disclaimer)
(Also! be sure to check out all of xcarex 's awesome band recs, here. Holla east coast!)