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Tokyo Police Club

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This article is about the rock band. For the police agency, see Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department.
Tokyo Police Club

Tokyo Police Club is a Canadian indie rock band from Newmarket, Ontario, consisting of singer and bassist Dave Monks, guitarist Josh Hook, keyboardist Graham Wright, and drummer Greg Alsop.

History

Tokyo Police Club formed in 2005 while playing for fun in a basement after the four had disbanded from a previous group. The band started to gain attention and played some small shows throughout the Toronto area. With a buzz forming in Montreal, Tokyo Police Club was asked to play in the city's Pop Montreal festival, and soon after they signed with Toronto label Paper Bag Records.

Since their formation the band has appeared in numerous festivals. Notably, in 2006 they appeared at Edgefest and the inaugural Osheaga Festival. In 2007, they performed at the Coachella music festival in Indio, California, at Lollapalooza in Chicago, at Bumbershoot in Seattle, at Glastonbury Festival and Reading Festival in England, in 2008 at Roskilde Festival in Denmark and at Rock am Ring-Festival in Germany, and Street Scene in San Diego.

In the fall of 2008, the band played on the last 6 weeks of Weezer's Troublemaker Tour along with Angels and Airwaves.

Appearances

During a March 24 gig at Nashville's Mercy Lounge, the band's drummer fell ill, forcing the band to play an acoustic set until all eight members of touring mates Delta Spirit and Cold War Kids took the stage with them for a never-before-seen eleven-member Tokyo Police Club percussive improv show.

David Monks and Greg Alsop appeared on Much on Demand, April 4, 2007.

On April 19, 2007, Tokyo Police Club made their first US TV performance on Late Night with David Letterman. They played their single "Nature of the Experiment", along with a tambourine accompaniment by the CBS Orchestra.

On November 17, 2007, they appeared at the mtvU Woodie Awards, where they were nominated for best breaking artist. They performed two songs, "Cheer It On" and "Nature of the Experiment."

On January 26,2008, they played at Winter City festival, from Nathan Phillips Square in Toronto.

On May 3,2008, they played an in-store performance at record store Criminal Records in Toronto.

On November 16, 2008 they will appear on the television show "Desperate Housewives" in Episode 5.08 as themselves in a battle-of-the-bands contest.

In Fall 2008, "Balloon Shop", a young film-making group, won a contest to make Tokyo Police Club's video for the single "In a Cave"

Discography

Tokyo Police Club at the Tiger Bar in Toronto, 2007

The band released its debut EP, A Lesson in Crime, in 2006 on Paper Bag Records, with Smith EP arriving the following year. During a July 20, 2007 show in Omaha, Nebraska the band announced it had signed a deal earlier in the day for Saddle Creek Records to release their debut LP.[1] The band have also recorded two previously unheard songs for the Daytrotter Sessions, which are available online.[2] A single, now on their album Elephant Shell, entitled "Your English Is Good" was released on July 9 2007.[3]

Responding to criticisms that their debut EP A Lesson in Crime is too short (16:22), Graham Wright had this to say in an interview with Ukula:

"It's very quick, quick, quick, one, two, three. Some of the songs don't have a lot of space in them and the album doesn't have a whole lot of room to breathe, but I think in the case of an EP this is a really good thing."[4]

The band released their first LP, entitled Elephant Shell, and released the album, via their new label Saddle Creek, on April 22, 2008 in North America and May 5, 2008 in the U.K. and Continental Europe.[5] It was leaked to the Internet on March 7, 2008 [6] and was pre-released via the US iTunes Music Store on March 25, 2008 [7].

LPs

EPs

Singles

Year Single Album
2006 "Nature of the Experiment" A Lesson in Crime
2007 "Cheer It On" A Lesson in Crime
2007 "Citizens of Tomorrow" A Lesson in Crime
2007 "Your English Is Good" Your English Is Good (this single was released before Elephant Shell (the song is also on the album))
2008 "Tessellate" Elephant Shell
2008 "In A Cave" Elephant Shell
2008 "Graves" Elephant Shell

B-sides

Tokyo Police Club have released three singles, all three of which have B-sides that are not on A Lesson In Crime.

  • "Cheer It On"
    Side A: "Cheer It On" − 1:59
    Side B: "Citizens of Tomorrow" (Space Ballad) − 2:55
  • "Nature of the Experiment"
    Side A: "Nature of the Experiment" − 2:01
    Side B: "Box" − 2:31
  • "Your English Is Good"
    Side A: "Your English Is Good" − 3:08
    Side B: "Swedes In Stockholm" − 1:47

Solo projects

In November 2008, Tokyo Police Club keyboardist Graham Wright released a solo EP online only, available as a free download at 128kb/s or for $5 at higher bitrates.

See also

Also "Nature of The Experiment" is featured on the sports game Rugby 08

"In A Cave" was featured on Episode 21 of Greek (TV Series) on ABC Family

Lauren Conrad "LC" mentions going to see the band in episode 14 of season 4 of The Hills

References

  1. ^ "Pitchfork Article".
  2. ^ "Daytrotter Sessions".
  3. ^ "Pitchfork Article".
  4. ^ "Article at UKULA".
  5. ^ "Article at Pitchfork".
  6. ^ "Article at Pop Apocolypse".
  7. ^ The Album on iTunes
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