Founded in 2006, the band self-released a pair of five-track EPs, All Lies (2007) and Lullaby Death Jams (2008), before making its full-length album debut with Post-Nothing (2009) on the Canadian label Unfamiliar Records. Though Japandroids were more or less unknown at the time of their album debut, Post-Nothing got a big boost from the taste-making website Pitchfork, which championed the album as one of its "Best New Music" selections. In 2010, Polyvinyl released a compilation that lumped together All Lies and Lullaby Death Jams, titled No Singles. This singles-mindedness continued in 2011 as the band released a series of 7"s in five installments. They also debuted new material during a late summer tour, and upon returning to the studio, aimed for songs that stadium crowds would feel. The results, aptly titled Celebration Rock, followed in June 2012.

Celebration Rock turned into Japandroids' breakthrough album, popping up in the Top 10 of many 2012 year-end lists. The group supported the record with an extensive tour that wrapped up in early 2013, after which the pair entered a three-year hibernation. Late in the summer of 2016, the duo divulged plans that they'd be playing live dates at the end of the year and in October, they announced the January 2017 release of their third album, Near to the Wild Heart of Life. ~ Jason Birchmeier