‘Art Czars’
Japandroids
Polyvinyl Records

The guitar-and-drums simplicity of the Japandroids’ new “Art Czars” harkens back to high school, when we’d pay $2 to see a friend of a friend’s shitty band play in the garage. Only here, that band’s suddenly kind of good. Unlike the hometown mediocrities littering MySpace, Japandroids’ Post-Nothing — a noise-rock riposte to the flood of electronic indie-rock — is one of the most acclaimed albums of 2009. The raucous, snarky track has the band repeatedly chanting lines like, “Here’s your money back/ Here’s your punk rock back.” It’s almost embarrassingly angst-ridden, but Japandroids make it so catchy it’s sort of forgivable. Plus, they’re coming to the House of Blues on April 1.

— Arielle Sallai

Staff Writer

‘I Just Love You More’
Kate Nash
Fiction Records

In her latest single, Kate Nash puts a psychedelic twist on her Joan Jett ’tude, layering enough power and effects to crack our skulls open. A complete 180 from her folksy debut, the track’s watery bass slithers behind Nash’s hazy and echoed voice as the guitars scrape out a riff trippy enough to give David Gilmour flashbacks. She launches the choruses into freak-out territory with wordless, glass-shattering shrieks, keeping the broken-brain train rolling from verse to verse.

Even though Nash’s psychedelic grit stings, if the alternative is one of a thousand sweet, synthetic divas — hell, I’ll admit it: I prefer it rough and ragged.

— Bryan Kim
Staff  Writer