5 for 20: Japandroids

When you’re an influential musician, people tend to ask you what you’ve been listening to lately. Here at 5 for 20, we’re just as keen to find out what records loom large in our favourite artists’ memory banks. So, we’re asking folks for their top five records of the last 20 years.

Vancouver’s Japandroids are Polaris Music Prize nominees this year for their latest album, Celebration Rock. We called upon the duo to pick their top five albums of the last 20 years, and guitarist Brian King and drummer David Prowse sent back the following list.

1. The Stooges

Fun House (1970)
Raw Power (1973)
Kill City (1977)

"Ian Svenonius once described the Beatles as the alpha group. If you are unfamiliar with his argument, you should look it up. It is, if nothing else, entertaining. Using his same reasoning, one could make the argument that the Stooges are the beta group. Their power remains unmatched, and their influence is simply immeasurable. Truly a band's band. By absorbing and distilling the best of everything that came before them – Howlin' Wolf, Bo Diddley, Elvis Presley, the Sonics, MC5, the Doors, the Rolling Stones, etc. – the Stooges pushed rock 'n' roll music into uncharted territory, directly or indirectly influencing nearly every great guitar band to come after them. Forty years later, their records remain a benchmark, if not the benchmark. I mean, what could I possibly say about Fun House that hasn't already been said by someone smarter and more knowledgeable than me? Arguably, the single greatest rock 'n' roll album ever recorded.

"Henry Rollins, in a piece he contributed to LA Weekly, once surmised that if Iggy and Co. had combined their albums Raw Power and Kill City into one 'double-album,' that said album could be considered America's answer to the Rolling Stones' Exile On Main Street. Of course, this was 2011, and what Henry could never have anticipated was that by 2012, the musical landscape would have changed so drastically as to make this combination actually possible by the simple renaming of one's music in iTunes. By selecting both Raw Power and Kill City simultaneously, and then right clicking, one actually has the ability to unite the albums under a single name, thereby allowing for a single, uninterrupted listening experience. But what to call it? Raw City? Kill Power? Neither of these seem to do the album justice. How about simply The Second Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Album Ever Recorded.

"In sum: the holy trinity. Or unholy trinity. Certainly one of the two."

2. The Rolling Stones

Beggars Banquet (1968)
Let It Bleed (1969)
Sticky Fingers (1971)
Exile On Main Street (1972)

"Like the Stooges, the Stones are a seminal rock 'n' roll band. Chances are you are familiar with them. Many of their hit singles are so synonymous with popular music, that you'd have a hell of a time trying to find someone you know who couldn't hum you a tune. Even the kids, to whom the Stones couldn't possibly be any less fashionable or cool, know the riff from 'Satisfaction.' Ah, the good ol' days: white English boys influenced by the music of black American men. Sure as hell beats white English boys influenced by NME.

"These particular records are timeless wonders; the kind of records you never 'grow out of' or 'get bored of.' Simply unf--kwithable. It is a shame that the stigma associated with the Stones (stemming mostly from their sizable popularity) has kept so many people from actually digging any deeper than their singles. I am often dumbfounded by the fact that despite the Stones' notoriety, most people can't name a single song off of Exile On Main Street, arguably their greatest and most influential album. Sigh."

3. The Velvet Underground

The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967)
White Light/White Heat (1968)
The Velvet Underground (1969)
Loaded (1970)

"'The first Velvet Underground album only sold 10,000 copies, but everyone who bought it formed a band.' This quote, often attributed to Brian Eno, more or less sums up the Velvet Underground, and their place in the rock canon. I can't think of anyone I know who plays in [a] band that doesn't like (or love) (or worship) these records. The classic rock radio station here in Vancouver plays the Beatles, Bob Dylan, David Bowie, the Doors, etc. all day long, but they don't play the Velvet Underground. Ever. It is classic, and it is rock, is it not?

"In the fall of 2011, Dave and I were living in Nashville, Tenn., working on songs for our second album, Celebration Rock. After a hard day's work, we often liked to venture into town, to any one of a number of haunts, for drinks and misadventure. This, in and of itself, is not of particular interest. What is, debatably, is that wherever we went, we insisted on controlling the jukebox. To facilitate our needs and desires with respect to this matter, we would often employ one of several scams to ensure our jukebox dominance.

"One of our favourites was this: whenever selecting multiple songs for a flat fee (for example, 10 songs for $5), always (always) select 'Sister Ray' as the final song. Despite the fact that 'Sister Ray' is 17-plus minutes of glory, it nevertheless counts as a single selection, no different than, say, 'White Light/White Heat,' which is less than three minutes in length. Not only does this give you more bang for you buck, it is a foolproof method of superficially evaluating your fellow patrons. By the halfway mark, those still air-guitaring at the bar are deemed 'chill bros' and are no doubt worthy of conversation, while those cringing in disgust or bewilderment while commenting to their friends that the 'jukebox must be broken' are deemed 'not chill bros,' and unworthy of conversation. I know, I know. But like my friend Jim says, 'I don't need no rainy day – all I really need is Sister Ray.'"

4. The Sonics

Here Are the Sonics (1965)
Sonic Boom (1966)

"To quote James Murphy, 'the Sonics, the Sonics, the Sonics, the Sonics.'"

5. The Replacements

Let It Be (1984)
Tim (1985)

"To be clear, I like all of the Replacements' records. Having said that, these two are unquestionably my favourite and an obvious influence on Japandroids. I like the Replacements so much, I even tried to get Paul Westerberg to produce Celebration Rock. I had Polyvinyl send him our first record, and the response from his manager was 'He didn't hate it.' I laughed out loud when I read that – how could you not? He wanted to hear demos of the new songs before he was prepared to make a decision, and that is where things sort of fell apart, as not only did we not have any demos, we didn't have any new songs. By the time we did, we had already guilted Jesse Gander into doing it, and the rest is history. No regrets, though it sure would have been cool to shoot the shit with Paul Westerberg."