Just in...Tokyo Police Club: Champ

    Here is the day you've been waiting for! Well, maybe just the day I've been waiting for, the arrival of Tokyo Police Club's sophomore release, Champ. Tokyo Police Club is a group I ran into somehow because of Vampire Weekend, maybe surfing wikipedia. I sometimes like to discover new groups by seeing what a band's "associated acts" are on wikipedia, to see who they tour with or what other groups members are in. Going back, I see that Vampire Weekend's "associate acts" are Discovery (who I already had heard of through WBER 90.5 "The only station that matters") and Ra Ra Riot (who I'd also heard of through Vampire Weekend and is actually a Syracuse band). Then, checking Ra Ra Riot's page, you can see not too far down that they supported Tokyo Police Club's North America tour, so that's how I stumbled on the goodness that is Tokyo Police Club. Sorry if that was a long winded, extraneous explaination!

    Before Champ, Tokyo Police Club put out two small EPs, A Lesson in Crime (2006) and Smith (2007), prior to their first full album, Elephant Shell in 2008. Their EPs are definitely more garage rock and punky with the heavier bass sound and I honestly haven't listened to them extensively like I have Elephant Shell, which has some pretty good stuff, short but memorable. I realized one day that I liked the Tokyo Police Club because I kept humming this riff in my head one day at work or something and went home on a mission to find out what song was driving me nuts! In short order I found it to be "Tessellate" which has a killer cool arpeggiated guitar riff start to the song. So my fondness for Tokyo Police Club grew out of that experience.
    Tokyo Police Club is an Ontario band, out of Newmarket, Canada. There's some good stuff coming out of Canada these days it seems...though I couldn't give you prime examples if you asked--it just seems like the music scene these days is more alive in originality in other countries than in the states. Ok, like Bend Sinister from Vancouver, who played for the Olympics, they're a rockin' band imo. Or, the fact that most of my posts so far have been about foreign bands or at least foreigners that now live in the U.S. Prove me wrong! That's a rant for you... Back to the topic at hand, Tokyo Police Club is of course tied to Graham Wright's album posted below and Champ is on the Mom + Pop record label, which I think is a cool name (like Frenchkiss Records who has the Freelance Whales).

Tracklist:
1) Favorite Food
-the opening uses some pretty cool dual speaker stereo effects (remember that thing you call a stereo is not because it plays music, it's because it doesn't have a mono speaker setup). Starts slow and amps the tempo suddenly and appropriately for the rest of the album.
2) Favorite Color
-the first five chords come straight out at you and are head bangin' awesome, this is a great song and those chords have already gotten stuck in my head. Tokyo Police Club has a thing for cool beginnings to songs and this is no exception.
3) Breakneck Speed
-The steady ostinato guitar sounds kinda like Pinback in this one. This was a single and is their longest (unmixed) song to date coming in at 3:44!
4) Wait Up (Boots of Danger)
-Upbeat with a fun get as close to the mic when recording for the falsetto chorus section. This was their other single.
5) Bambi
-I like the unique sound effect they got out of the...guitar...or synth, not quite sure.
6) End of a Spark
-This kind of takes the twangy guitar sound of perhaps a steel folk guitar and converts it to their indie style. There's a lot of different guitar sounds in this album actually, keeps it interesting.
7) Hands Reversed
-Honestly, not my favorite song of theirs, it's kind of dopey with its mellow "hands reversed" chorus.
8) Gone
-Almost a slow ska rhythm (just imagine a trumpet or trombone added) or reggae feel to this with some electronic sounds and harpsichord baroque pop sound-a-like too, pretty cool mix.
9) Big Difference
-Another cool guitar solo, not super technical but fills the gaps between most of these voice heavy--but not too much just enough to hear the lyrics clearly--verse or chorus dominated songs. I actually like that aspect of their song writing.
10) Not Stick
-This has like a syncopated synth pop sound with some lyric content unsuitable for all ears (if I'm even discerning what they say correctly).
11) Frankenstein
-Interesting harmonic line progression going on at the start with the distorted effect switching to clearer background guitar and then more muffled electronic muffled block chords.

    After writing up all this, I find the creative use of guitar or synth sounds and effects is really what makes this album enjoyable, fresh each time listening and keeps me coming back; they are definitely not like Pinback, for example, which only uses one guitar sound and the same singing voice in all their songs. Tokyo Police Club is a worthy bearer of the torch of post-punk revival. Enjoy the track "Favorite Color" I added to the MixPod.