Rock critic darlings Japandroids bring their first album in five years, “Near to the Wild Heart of Life,” to the legendary 9:30 Club on Feb. 27 and 28.
Singer/guitarist Brian King and drummer David Prowse brought a raw, emotional style to their first two albums. The music featured stripped back instrumentals that created songs that were as stylistically evocative of early punk bands as they were the Foo Fighters.
The band’s massive hit single “The Song that Heaven Built,” propelled them into the mainstream, garnering acclaim from MTV and Rolling Stone magazine, leading to extensive touring, and ultimately, a hiatus.
In August of 2016 the band announced a return to touring and later, an album. “Near to the Wild Heart of Life,”came out in January and featured a new label, Anti Records, and a new sound.
Japandroids’ 2017 effort boasted a cleaner, glitzier sound that channels the band’s arena-rock influences more than previous albums. The lyrics and melodies are as catchy as ever, but the group sands down the rough edges that made its first two albums raw, energetic DIY successes.
Songs like "North East South West" and "True Love and a Free Life of Free Will" touch on familiar topics for the band such as love, home and touring but are given new perspective through the band’s disjointed writing process. King and Prowse lived in new cities during their time off from extensive touring. These geographic changes that allowed them to revamp their production methods and play to new levels of accessibility and sonic layering for their latest project.
While the band’s sound may have changed, the chemistry of the duo, their musical ferocity and their undeniable charisma remain in their live performances. Anthemic choruses, noisy guitar tones and ringing blast beats are available to soak in at the 9:30 Club later this month.
Japandroids will take the stage at the 9:30 Club at 7:00 p.m. on Feb. 28th. Tickets are still available here http://bit.ly/Japandroids930AUE
