Growin' On Me

When there was nothing better to do (read: 80% of the time) at school, my friend Josh and I would turn the TV on to MTV U, MTV’s college-only station that (to its credit) plays music videos pretty much 24/7, in hopes of catching the new My Chemical Romance video or the acoustic version of Korn’s “Freak on a Leash” (featuring Amy Lee of Evanescence!).

More often than not, however, we would be greeted with either MTV News, or Tokyo Police Club’s “Nature of the Experiment” video. Now, I’ll admit that I had never heard of Tokyo Police Club before seeing them on MTV U so, first and foremost, fuck you, MTV, for ruining the Indie Cred which I had so meticulously accrued.

The first time we watched it, I remember both of us being really befuddled. The song clocks in at one second more than two minutes, making it an odd choice for a single. It was catchy, sure, but it seemed like more of the same lo-fi, garage-ish bands that have served as a peace offering from mainstream media to indie rock kids over the past few years (The Strokes, The White Stripes, etc.). On top of that, it barely had verses. Each was literally two lines, the first one consisting of “We’ve got our tracks covered / thanks to your older brother” before it kicked in to the bridge. This irked me.

The video itself didn’t help matters much. It was an acceptably quirky affair, with band members being wrapped in Saran Wrap by other band members and silly little shapes and colors floating around. But every once in a while, the video would do a close up on the lead singer’s face which, while not ugly, certainly contorted in to some unattractive expressions while he was singing.

So, I dismissed it at first as just another song: Not particularly bad, but not really worth a second listen.

But, due to the fact that MTV U has, apparently, only 12 videos in its rotation, I saw “Nature of the Experiment” about ten times in the last two months of the spring semester. Over that period, the song bounced around in my head long enough that I began to notice things that I really liked about it.

First of all, the xylophone* (which is automatically awesome) is allowed to echo dreamily through the song, adding a unique sound to what is otherwise straightforward indie pop.

There is also one synchronized yelp of “Go!” from the entire band at the beginning, which is rad. Tokyo Police Club seem to like doing this, because there is a lot of full-band yelling in their new (and superb) single, “Your English is Good.”

The closing riff of the song is also really good, and although the instrumentation doesn’t change all that much throughout the song, it’s short enough that this riff makes it sound pretty fresh the entire time.

Upon listening to several of their other songs, Tokyo Police Club no longer comes across as just another band doing the garage rock thing. They sound fresh and like they’re having a really good time and like they mean it. Here’s to their album (if it ever comes out) maintaining that feeling.

*Upon further investigation, the instrument turns out to be a glockenspiel. The difference? Xylophones have wooden bars, glockenspiels have metal bars. Thanks, Wikipedia! Swim Through Frequencies apologizes for the error.