In Noah Baumbach’s 1995 directorial debut, Kicking and Screaming – a brilliant account of four friends unable to cope with the realities of post-college life – one of the characters, Max, makes a simple but somewhat profound statement about the sudden anxiety of moving on and letting go:

Max: I’m too nostalgic. I’ll admit it.
Skippy: We graduated four months ago. What can you possibly be nostalgic for?
Max: I’m nostalgic for conversations I had yesterday. I’ve begun reminiscing events before they even occur. I’m reminiscing this right now. I can’t go to the bar because I’ve already looked back on it in my memory … and I didn’t have a good time.

That dialogue amused me when I saw the movie – my favorite – the first few times. And then I graduated college, watched the film another 15 times and it wasn’t so funny anymore. Nostalgia can really fuck with you, and now all I can think of is Max when I listen to the new 7-inch single, Younger Us, by Vancouver garage-rock duo Japandroids.

Like they did on their full-length debut Post-Nothing (especially the song Young Hearts Spark Fire), Brian King and David Prowse truly capture the essence of fleeting youth, before said youth is even over. As Pitchfork smartly put it: “There’s a particular kind of nostalgia that hits you when you know you’re too young to feel nostalgic about anything.” And so King, in my brain, has become the musical equivalent of Max – letting the indiscretions of youth, even if they only recently happened, already become wistful memories: “Remember saying things like we’ll sleep when we’re dead / And thinking this feeling was never gonna end.”

• Japandroids | Younger Us

The Younger Us 7-inch is the second in a series that features unreleased material as the A-side and a cover for the B-side. This release, out July 20 on Polyvinyl, features Younger Us and a cover of X’s Sex And Dying In High Society. Art Czars was the first pieces in the series.

Meanwhile, a video clip of Japandroids playing at Rhythm Room in April finally surfaces. Here they are playing Heart Sweats.

RELATED:
Japandroids on KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic
Japandroids: Art Czars (new 7-inch)

On July 12, 2005, I started this blog, an event so historic that I can’t even go back and read that first post without cringing.

To celebrate the landmark occasion of this blog’s fifth birthday, I’m teaming up with Charlie at Stateside Presents in putting on the Radar Brothers show at Yucca Tap Room on July 7, which is fitting considering the Jim Putnam-led band has been one of my favorites over the years of maintaining this site. The show is a nice warmup for the band before it embarks on a brief stretch opening for Modest Mouse. What’s more, I’ve never had the opportunity to see the Radar Brothers, whose live lineup includes guitarist Dan Iead from The Broken West.

Also on board for the birthday show are Letdownright (featuring Jim Andreas and Chris Kennedy, formerly of the great Trunk Federation, and Kimber Lanning) and Soft Drink (featuring frequent blog contributor Jason Woodbury, who will also DJ the evening).

The best part – other than the awesome bands, of course – is the cost: FREE. As always, there is no cover at Yucca.

I’ll have all sorts of posts on the bands and some undoubtedly teary-eyed words about these five years as I send my little blog off to kindergarten. I’ll also likely have a CD giveaway for the Radar Brothers’ newest album, The Illustrated Garden. In the meantime, mark your calendars and come help celebrate.

And, whether you’re new to the site or have been around since its birth, thanks for reading.

• Radar Brothers | Horses Warriors

As I mentioned just recently, we’ve been waiting since October 2005 for The National to return to Arizona. But our long, agonizing wait is nearly over.

Almost exactly five years after the band played the humble Modified as a relative unknown, The National will play Marquee Theatre in Tempe on Oct. 14, riding the rush of popularity and press that has come with the new excellent album, High Violet, which opened at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 after selling 51,000 copies in its first week.

Tickets are $30, and Owen Pallett is opening. The tour also stops in Tucson at Rialto Theatre on Oct. 13. Tickets for the Tucson show go on sale this Friday (June 4), so I assume the same holds true for the Tempe concert.

Having seen The National three times in two cities – March ’06 in Los Angeles, July ’06 at Pitchfork Festival in Chicago and September ’07 in L.A. – I’m obviously thrilled that I can see my favorite band without crossing state lines. We’ve waited five years in Arizona … what’s another four months?

• The National | Bloodbuzz Ohio
• The National | Afraid of Everyone

RELATED:
The National: England (live at BAM)
The National: Bloodbuzz Ohio

I’ve been a fan of electronic/hip-hop duo Meanest Man Contest since our friend Hunter at Gold Robot Records introduced me to them way back when with the Throwing Away Broken Electronics 7-inch. You’ve probably come across a post or two on them at some point on this site.

Well, I’m adding one to the collection thanks to a new MMC song on this free Royal Rhino Flying compilation, The Queen’s Jew. I’ll fess up and admit I’ve not heard much by any of the other groups on the 23-track comp – though GOBBLE GOBBLE’s contribution recently got some love from Stereogum. But what better way to explore new music than with the cost of free?

On You Need to Grow Up, MMC’s Eriksolo trades verses with guest Mad Squirrel (best emcee name ever?) over a buttery piano loop about the joys of being a grown-ass man in the game: “They call me silver fox / I’m the rap George Clooney.” It’s a playful dis track that all those “whipper-snapper rappers” should pay heed to.

• Meanest Man Contest (feat. Mad Squirrel) | You Need to Grow Up