Japandroids Launching Vinyl Singles Club

Posted on Feb 24th 2010 2:00PM by Mike Ayers

Japandroids are currently on tour in Europe and have lined up a slew of US dates for the rest of 2010. That busy schedule hasn't stopped the Vancouver art-punkers from thinking about how to get some new material into the hands of their fans. After all, their 2009 breakout debut, 'Post-Nothing,' only had eight tracks in total, and while some were on the longer side, it's not like they were drifting into the 10-minute range. So, to satiate those who not only like Japandroids but vinyl too, over the next several months the duo will release new material via limited edition 7-inch records in a simple format: Side A will contain an original and Side B will contain a cover song.

"The success of 'Post-Nothing' has made us be able to tour longer than what we thought was possible," guitarist Brian King tells Spinner. "We get asked about the last record and it became apparent that we weren't going to stop touring until September or October, so we were just thinking about how to put something out that was actually doable for us."

King says the material will basically stem from 'Post-Nothing' outtakes -- the band has a handful of songs that were either written and never recorded, or they were recorded and just didn't make it to the record. They plan to hit the studio in short spurts in between tours.

"We thought they were good," he says of the tunes. "They're still Japandroids songs, but that way there's still some stuff trickling out over the year." Details are still being ironed out, but King says that a package deal is being worked out with Polyvinyl, where you can just get each one shipped to you as they're done. "In a way, we're kind of making it up as we go along."

Expect the first 7-inch to feature a song called 'Art Czars,' which they've been playing live for awhile, with Big Black's 'Racer X' on the B-Side. They hope to have the second one recorded by SXSW and work those two new songs into the set as well. In the meantime, go-getters can preorder the first 7" at Polyvinyl's website for a measly $5.