![\"M-34-tokyo-Police-club\"](\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/M-34-tokyo-Police-club.jpg\")
<\/h1>\n<\/h1>\nYou can tell a lot about an\u00a0indie rock band by how they spend the Monday following South by Southwest (SXSW). The young and crazy ones nurse hangovers and search \u201cremoving burrito stains\u201d on Google. The annual Austin festival is about excess\u2014lots of showcases fueled by lots of beer and Mexican food\u2014and it\u2019s easy for \u201cbuzz groups\u201d to get burned out.<\/p>\n
Fortunately, Tokyo Police Club are no longer hungry hype magnets, and after SXSW, keyboardist Graham Wright doesn\u2019t sound any the worse for wear. In fact, he describes their Texas outing as \u201cthe world\u2019s most luxuriously short SXSW trip,\u201d he says. \u201cWe were busy, but we were strategically busy, whereas in the past we said yes to everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Formed in Ontario, Canada, in 2005, Tokyo Police Club was one of many indie bands that surfaced in the wake of the Strokes, and between 2008 and 2011, they released three albums, toured with Weezer and Foster the People, and played all the major festivals.<\/p>\n
Going into their latest album, Forcefield<\/i>, the foursome \u201cwanted to improve everything in a big way,\u201d says Wright. Putting business concerns aside and focusing on creativity, the Club spent some three years crafting the record. Produced by singer and bassist David Monks along with Doug Boehm (Girls, Dr. Dog), it\u2019s nine songs of punchy optimism\u2014a reminder of what happens when guys with guitars bash out three-minute tunes loaded with hooks. It\u2019s a classic back-to-basics record, but as Wright says, it didn\u2019t start out that way. Initially, there was talk of hiring a DJ or hip-hop producer to give the band an electronic edge.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of bands went that way in the past couple of years, and I don\u2019t know if we were reacting to them, or if all of us were reacting to the same other inspirations,\u201d Wright says. \u201cBut had we done that, the hypothetical result is something that\u2019s a lot more in line with what\u2019s trendy right now. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s a very good look. I don\u2019t think that fits Tokyo Police Club that well.\u201d<\/p>\n
The turning point came when they cut \u201cArgentina,\u201d the three-part album opener whose nearly nine-minute running length is deceptive. It\u2019s straight-up rock, \u201ca whole lot of pop music in one place,\u201d as Wright says, and it paved the way for similarly hooky standouts \u201cHot Tonight\u201d and \u201cMiserable.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe whole process of making this record was like being dragged from one excitement to the next,\u201d Wright says. \u201cThe new excitement would supersede the old excitement, and we had to keep working to catch that excitement.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014Kenneth Partridge<\/p>\n