Wild Canadian Punk Band, Now With Literary Flair
Japandroids, the two-piece punk band from Vancouver, British Columbia, does not shy away from its reputation as a rock ’n’ roll throwback.
Since it s 2009 debut LP, “Post- Nothing,” each of the duo’s albums has followed the same blueprint: barely half an hour of music spread across eight songs — “the standard template for a great rock ’n’ roll album,” they note, citing “Raw Power ” by t he Stooges and “Born to Run” by Bruce Springsteen — and sequenced for vinyl, with a deliberate Side A and Side B. The plain black-andwhite covers always depict the band as they are: two goofy, scruffy, everyday dudes.
In a digital world, Japandroids is still best known for the sweat y, screa malong camaraderie of its live shows. There are no viral music videos, no corporate sponsors, no flashy, cross-genre collaborations. The guitarist and singer Brian King and the drummer David Prowse have almost no public profile as individuals.
“It’s a weird thing, looking around, there’s not a whole lot of bands making the same music as us that are as popular as us,” said Mr. Prowse, 34. “Most rock bands I can think of that are quite a bit bigger have just been around for a lot longer.”
Japandroids, whose breakthrough album was 2012’s “Celebration Rock,” is a guitar-led band that keeps enlarging its audience without making sacrifices. Having released just a small handful of songs every three to five years, the group has also upended the supposed model for modern musicians, forgoing demands for constant output and connectivity.
Japandroids refuses to sell its songs for use in ads or other media. Mr. King, also 34, said: “I think we’re the last generation that grew up at a time when selling out was the worst thing you could do. We’ve carried over into the new generation where it doesn’t matter.”
Mr. King, an unaba shed st udent (and fan) of rock music, compa red early Japandroids with bands like the Ramones or AC/DC, saying, “It’s kind of all the same thing, but they’re so good at it that it works.”
But, on its third album, “Near to the Wild Heart of Life,” which is now on sale, Japandroids pushes deeper and wider, especially lyrically. Mr. King’s recent i nspirations have been mostly literary. “Near to the Wild Heart” is named for the Brazilian writer Clarice Lispector’s 1943 debut novel.
But Japandroids songs remain recognizable in their earnestness, simplicity and pure adrenaline; career growth aside, the duo maintains a palpable humility that reads more as rock nerd than rock star. “It’s very natural for us to talk about how we’re pretty normal people who aren’t geniuses, who just love music and work hard at what we do,” Mr. Prowse said.
“Even if rock was the biggest genre in the world right now, we’d just be doing our thing,” Mr King said.