BrightestYoungThings: Tokyo Police Club: Blind Hearing Test

We did this pretty cool feature back in 2007. The idea was to do this a lot but so many people turned us down I kinda forgot to ask anymore. Anyway, Tokyo Police Club are playing Black Cat tomorrow (2/26/08) so we felt it was appropriate to run it again. -cale

So, I have a new feature concept: get a band to listen to a handful of songs, but don't tell them who the artist or group is. They have to give their review, see if they can guess who it is, tell us why they hate it, tell us how important this song was to the development of their career, whatever. We've actually had a number of bands, I won't name names, who have been TOO SCARED TO TRY THIS. But not Canada's latest indie rock superstars Tokyo Police Club. They were all about it. Just... like a month after we sent it to them. But hey, better late than never. So without further adieu, here is the exact playlist we sent them, except, you know, without all the info:

And now drummer Greg Alsop's thoughts:

Sugar On My Tongue - Talking Heads
Just from the voice, I'm guessing this is the Talking Heads... I'm not an expert in their repertoire though, most of the stuff I've heard is a little more funky than this but I guess they could've been into exploring different genres and drawing some new influences when this was made. Am I right?

Pretty close, this was a demo before they recorded their first album in 1977. They definitely got funkier.

Pure Magic - Girl Talk
I think I heard samples from a Kanye West song and whoever did "I've Got the Power" at the beginning of this. Is it maybe Girl Talk? I don't really know anyone else who does mashups that combine anything close to the number of samples he takes.

We Throw Parties, You Throw Knives - Los Campesinos!
This could be Architecture in Helsinki... but I'm terrible with placing accents, so it might also be Los Campesinos. The glockenspiel keeps me guessing too.

What I've Done - Linkin Park
The whole time I listened to this track I kept on wishing it was Linkin Park... but Chester 's voice never showed up. I guess there's enough angst in the world for two of them though...

I have no idea what you're talking about

Place Position - Fugazi
This sounds a bit like a mix between the Manic Street Preachers and the Pixies... in some language I either don't know or just can't understand when sung.

Like Mr. T says, know your roots son!

Music & Lights - Imagination
This is the catchiest song you've sent. The rest of the band has been getting annoyed because it's become my late night driving tune... but I only have those 30 seconds of it so I just have to keep it on repeat. Maybe you could send the full thing along ASAP so I can finally move on? I'm sure we'd all appreciate it.

Apparently you were having some technical difficulties getting the full song to play, sending over the mp3 now.

Ok, so that was a pretty damn fine effort. We also sent some interview questions along:

Brightest Young Things: It seems like you guys are eternally the band "with potential" are you feeling any pressure with the upcoming full length?

Greg Alsop: No, we've got the best song-writing teams coming up with a slew of great new tracks.

BYT: How does it/will it compare to the EP's and singles?

GA: So far it sounds amazing. This album's going to be a lot more personal and I think the new songs show a lot of growth and maturity from our last release. The working title is "Potentially Armed and Dangerous" but that could change depending on what our publicists think.

BYT: Which band member is most responsible for unpleasant tour bus odor?

GA: None of us are individually that smelly, but each of our particular musks, when combined and baked in a hot stuffy van for a few weeks seems to release scent that contains a natural pheromone that's perfect for flies to mate in. We're bottling it as a cologne/fertilizer spray to be released this fall.

BYT: On a scale of 1-10 how hard are you going to rock the Rock and Roll Hotel on Tues night (be honest)?

GA: Honestly, I'm really great procrastinator so I'm doing this interview after the fact. I don't like to dwell on the past though and nit-pick through each of our performances so I'll just say that it was hopefully fine.

BYT: I just got back from vacationing in Tokyo for 2 weeks, people are growing tired of my stories, but I can meet you guys backstage and tell you all about it if you want. I'll bring photos too.

GA: I'm so sorry we missed the opportunity to do this. Why don't you start a blog about it or a Flickr account and send us the link? Do you have Facebook?

BYT: Done. Are your mother's proud of you?

GA: As of last night, yes.

BYT: Do you guys have any backstage pre-show rituals to get everyone psyched? If not, make one up.

GA: We each call our mother and ask them if they're still proud of us. That seems to get us through the night.

BYT: If some miserable old rocker came out of the woodwork and sued you guys cause he had a band called Tokyo Police Club in the 70's and so you decided just to change your name instead of fighting it, what would you become?

GA: Tokyo Police Club X or TPC (short for THE PARTY CLIQUE)

BYT: Anything else you'd like to shamelessly self promote?

GA: Hey Ladies...