CD of The Week

Celebration Rock. Japandroids make no excuses. That is exactly what they wanted this record to be, and that's exactly what it is: 35 minutes of celebration. 35 minutes of unapologetic, fast fuzzed-out garage rock, heavily influenced by the heroes (and anti-heroes) of underground music. It literally begins and ends with the sound of fireworks. Guitarist and generally-lead-vocalist Brian King, ha said, "Celebration Rock - a title in and of itself so controversial that at first utterance, it was so feared and hated that [our label] Polyvinyl felt compelled to plead for an alternative. But the band would not yield."

Due to heavy touring and perhaps King's career in geology, Japandroids are releasing their second album three years after their intial rock explosion, Post-Nothing. The first single "The House That Heaven Built" is a song so passionate, so solid, that it stands alone, even when surrounded by the rest of the album. Literally anthem after anthem, this record barely slows down. The closest Celebration Rock comes to taking any sort of breather is the final track, "Continuous Thunder." You can feel the credits roll and the night wind down through those 4 minutes and 59 seconds, the album's longest track.

Few bands can carry this kind of energy. Fugazi had it. Ted Leo is compromised solely of it. Though those two and Japandroids have many influences in common, they don't lie in the sound itself, but rather within the energy and the heart you can hear in each song. Every summer needs a record like this. Good thing we didn't have to wait around for ours.

This is huge rock on a small stage scale. Live, they demand as much from you as you demand from them. Oh look, they are playing at Johnny Brenda'son June 29th. How convenient.