Japandroids are drinking to life

Three years ago, after years of struggling, Brian King and David Prowse, alias Japandroids, released the nihilistic album Post-Nothing, their debut that was presented as a swan song. To their great astonishment, the record was picked up by bloggers and critics, and they decided to keep going after all. And fortunately so, because their new album Celebration Rock has been nominated for the Polaris Music Prize, the Canadian equivalent to the British Mercury Prize. On Celebration Rock, they have allied their bone-dry garage punk to immense stadium-scale melodies, but also maintained their Spartan approach: with only a handful of power chords and thumping drum beats, the guitarist and drummer manage to create overwhelming anthems. Imagine the raw, energetic drive of The Gaslight Anthem and The Hold Steady played with the punk spirit of The Replacements.

The opening lines of “The Nights of Wine and Roses” proclaim “Long lit up tonight and still drinking / Don’t we have anything to live for? / Well of course we do / But till they come true / We’re drinking”: while on their debut they sounded burdened down with feelings of disappointment and hopelessness, Celebration Rock is a celebration of life.

Japandroids 14/9, 19.30, €12/15, La Chocolaterie, rue Van Malderstraat 27, Molenbeek, 02-414.29.07, www.vkconcerts.be