Tokyo Police Club was an

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand in the early to mid-1980s. Although the term was originally used to describe rock music released through independent reco ...

band from Newmarket,

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. Founded in 2005, it consisted of

vocalist Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define singi ...

and

bassist A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), keyboard bass (synth bass) or a low br ...

Dave Monks,

keyboardist A keyboardist or keyboard player is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid-1960s, a plethora of new musical instru ...

Graham Wright,

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

ist Josh Hook, and

drummer A drummer is a percussionist who creates music using drums. Most contemporary western music ensemble, bands that play Rock music, rock, Pop music, pop, jazz, or Contemporary R&B, R&B music include a drummer for purposes including timekeepi ...

Greg Alsop. The band found early success with their 2006 debut EP '' A Lesson in Crime,'' which they followed with several popular releases including the albums ''

Elephant Shell ''Elephant Shell'' is the debut studio album by Canadian indie rock band Tokyo Police Club. It was released in the United States, Canada and Australia on April 22, 2008, by Saddle Creek Records Saddle Creek Records is an American record lab ...

'' and '' Champ'' in 2008 and 2010, respectively. During the 2010s, they released three other studio albums. Among other nominations, the band had been twice nominated for the Juno Award for Alternative Album of the Year, in 2011 for ''Champ'' and in 2019 for '' TPC''. They disbanded at the end of November 2024 following a final tour.

History

2005–2007: Formation and early years

David Monks (born January 21, 1987), Graham Wright (born February 16, 1987), Josh Hook (born May 11, 1987), and Greg Alsop (born March 20, 1985) grew up and attended school together in Newmarket, Ontario. In high school, the four played in a band called ''Suburbia'' which eventually disbanded. In 2004, the group informally came together again to form Tokyo Police Club; the name of the band comes from a 2000s-era online Band Name Generator. Early on, the band played some small shows in the Toronto area. Tokyo Police Club were asked to play in the Pop Montreal festival, and soon after they signed with Toronto label

Paper Bag Records Paper Bag Records is a Canadian independent record label, artist management company, and music publishing company founded in 2002 and based in Toronto. History The label was created to focus on the Toronto-area indie rock music scene. Initial si ...

; Monks and Alsop dropped out of college to become professional musicians. The band released its debut EP, '' A Lesson in Crime'', in 2006 on

. The recording was less than seventeen minutes long, and some of the songs were quite short. That year they appeared at Edgefest and the inaugural

Osheaga Festival The Osheaga Music and Arts Festival () is a multi-day music festival in Montreal, Quebec, that is held every summer at Parc Jean-Drapeau on Île Sainte-Hélène. The festival takes place on six stages with various audience capacities. Translated ...

. The '' Smith EP'' was released in 2007. During a July show in

Omaha Omaha ( ) is the List of cities in Nebraska, most populous city in the U.S. state of Nebraska. It is located in the Midwestern United States along the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's List of United S ...

Nebraska Nebraska ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Ka ...

, the band signed a deal with

Saddle Creek Records Saddle Creek Records is an American record label based in Omaha, Nebraska. Started as a college class project on entrepreneurship, the label was founded by Mike Mogis and Justin Oberst in 1993 (as Lumberjack Records). Mogis soon turned over his ...

which would release their debut LP. The single "Your English Is Good" was released in July and later included on their album ''

''. That year the band performed at

Coachella Coachella (officially called the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and sometimes known as Coachella Festival) is an annual music festival, music and arts festival held at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, in the Coachella Valle ...

Lollapalooza Lollapalooza () is an annual American four-day music festival held in Grant Park (Chicago), Grant Park in Chicago. It originally started as a touring event in 1991, with Chicago becoming its permanent location beginning in 2005. Music genres i ...

Bumbershoot Bumbershoot is an annual international music and arts festival held in Seattle, Washington (state), Washington. One of North America's largest such festivals, it takes place every Labor Day (United States), Labor Day weekend (leading up to and ...

, the

Glastonbury Festival The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts (commonly referred to as simply Glastonbury Festival, known colloquially as Glasto) is a five-day festival of contemporary performing arts held near Pilton, Somerset, England, in most su ...

, and the Reading and Leeds Festival.

2008–2012: Debut record and successful follow-up

In 2008, Tokyo Police Club released their first album, ''

'', first via the US iTunes Store on March 25, 2008, and then on their new label Saddle Creek in April in North America, and in May in the U.K. and Continental Europe via Memphis Industries. In the same year, the band played the

Roskilde Festival The Roskilde Festival is a Danish music festival held annually south of Roskilde. It is one of the largest music festivals in Europe and the largest in the Nordic countries. It was created in 1971 by two high school students and a promoter. In 1 ...

, the

Rock am Ring The (German language, German for "Rock at the Ring") and ("Rock in the Park") festivals are two simultaneous rock music festivals held annually in Germany. While ''Rock am Ring'' takes place at the Nürburgring race track, ''Rock im Park'' tak ...

-Festival, and Street Scene. In the fall, they played on the last six weeks of

Weezer Weezer is an American rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1992. Since 2001, the band has consisted of Rivers Cuomo (lead vocals, guitar, keyboards), Patrick Wilson (drums, backing vocals), Brian Bell (guitar, keyboards, backing ...

's Troublemaker Tour along with Angels and Airwaves. In 2010, the band played the

Bonnaroo Music Festival Bonnaroo (or Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival) is an American annual four-day music festival developed and founded by Superfly Presents and AC Entertainment. Bonnaroo has taken place at what is now Great Stage Park, a 700-acre (280 ha) fa ...

. They also played at San Francisco's 2010 Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival. Their second full-length album, '' Champ'', was released in June; it was produced by Rob Schnapf. That fall the album appeared on the !Earshot National Top 50 Chart. On March 27, 2011, Tokyo Police Club performed their single "Bambi" at the 40th Juno Awards in Toronto. In June, the video for "Wait Up (Boots of Danger)" was nominated as best indie video of the year by

MuchMusic Much is a Canadian English language discretionary specialty channel owned by BCE Inc. through its Bell Media subsidiary that airs programming aimed at teenagers and young adults. It is headquartered at 299 Queen Street West in what was o ...

. The video was directed by Mike Juneau and Kyle McCreight, and produced by Jesse Ewles and Chris Cunningham. In 2011, the band also released '' 10 Days. 10 Covers. 10 Years.'', a project in which they recorded and released a new cover song from each of the previous 10 years, from 2001 to 2010. In December 2011, the band performed an unreleased song "Beaches" at a live show. In 2012, they joined

Foster the People Foster the People is an American indie pop band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 2009. Its members include founder and frontman Mark Foster (musician), Mark Foster and keyboardist Isom Innis. Foster founded the band in 2009 after spending ...

on the North American portion of their

Torches A torch is a stick with combustible material at one end which can be used as a light source or to set something on fire. Torches have been used throughout history and are still used in processions, symbolic and religious events, and in jugglin ...

tour along with

Kimbra Kimbra Lee Johnson (born 27 March 1990), known Mononymous person, mononymously as Kimbra, is a New Zealand singer and songwriter. Known for mixing pop with R&B, jazz and rock musical elements, her accolades include four ARIA Music Awards, two 2 ...

. While continuing to work with the band, Wright also hosted programming on

CBC Radio 3 CBC Radio 3 is a Canadian digital radio station operated by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, which plays a relatively freeform mix of indie rock, indie pop, alternative hip hop, folk, country and electronic music. The service, which la ...

2013–2018: ''Forcefield'' and ''TPC''

After a prolific period, the band was relatively quiet from late 2012 until December 2013, when the band debuted a nine-minute

lyric video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to promote the sale of m ...

for "Argentina (Pts. I, II, and III)" on YouTube. Both "Beaches" and "Argentina" are on their album '' Forcefield'' which was released March 24, 2014. In July the band performed at the 2014 Calgary Stampede in Calgary, Alberta. The band also recorded two songs for the ''Daytrotter Sessions'', which were released online. In 2016, the band released their ''Melon Collie and the Infinite Radness'' project, consisting of two companions EPs titled ''Part One'' and '' Part Two''. The two were later combined and formally released as a full length LP of the same name. The EPs celebrated a more spontaneous recording ethos, similar to their early albums. With this same celebratory nature, the band also released an expanded tenth anniversary edition of '' A Lesson in Crime'' that year. Tokyo Police Club continued to record in 2018 in preparation for a fourth album. They released '' TPC'' on October 5, 2018 and received a Juno nomination for Alternative Album of the Year. A companion EP titled ''TPC DLX'' was released in October 2020, made up of tracks from the ''TPC'' recording sessions and acoustic versions of songs.

2020–2024: Reissues and disbandment

In December 2020, the band announced that they would be releasing a special tenth anniversary edition of their album '' Champ'', slated for release in March 2021. With this announcement, the band released the single "Hundred Dollar Day." In March 2023, the band announced that they would be releasing a special fifteenth anniversary edition of their debut album ''Elephant Shell'', slated for release on 5 May 2023. On January 23, 2024, the band announced their disbandment. They performed their final four shows at

History History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

in Toronto in November 2024. Prior to their final performances, the band released their final single, "Just A Scratch" / "Catch Me If You Can", on March 12 that year.

Television

On April 19, 2007, Tokyo Police Club made their first US TV performance on the ''

Late Show with David Letterman ''Late Show with David Letterman'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by David Letterman on CBS, the first iteration of the ''Late Show'' franchise. The show debuted on August 30, 1993, and was produced by Letterman's production com ...

''. They played their single "Nature of the Experiment", along with a tambourine accompaniment by the CBS Orchestra. A year later the band made a second appearance on the '' Late Show,'' performing the lead single "Tessellate" off their debut LP ''Elephant Shell''. On November 16, 2008 they appeared on the television show "

Desperate Housewives ''Desperate Housewives'' is an American mystery comedy-drama television series created by Marc Cherry, and produced by ABC Studios and Cherry Productions. It aired for eight seasons on ABC from October 3, 2004, until May 13, 2012, for a tota ...

" in the episode " City on Fire" as "Cold Splash", a band competing in a battle-of-the-bands contest. They performed "In A Cave" from their album ''Elephant Shell''. A month later they played "Your English is Good" on

The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson ''The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by Scottish actor and comedian Craig Ferguson. This was the third iteration of the The Late Late Show (American talk show), ''Late Late Show'' franchise, airi ...

on CBS. On June 28, 2010, they made their third appearance on the ''

'', performing the single "Wait Up (Boots of Danger)" off of their second album, ''Champ''.

Members

Former members * Dave Monks – lead vocals, bass guitar, guitar * Graham Wright – keyboards, guitar, vocals * Josh Hook – guitar, vocals * Greg Alsop – drums, percussion

Discography

* '' A Lesson in Crime'' (2006) * '' Smith EP'' (2007) * ''

'' (2008) * '' Champ'' (2010) * '' Ten Songs, Ten Years, Ten Days'' (2011) * '' Forcefield'' (2014) * '' Melon Collie and the Infinite Radness: Parts One & Two'' (2016) * '' TPC'' (2018)

Accolades

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tokyo Police Club Canadian indie rock groups Saddle Creek Records artists Musical groups from Newmarket, Ontario Paper Bag Records artists Musical groups established in 2005 2005 establishments in Ontario Memphis Industries artists Dine Alone Records artists Mom + Pop Music artists Musical groups disestablished in 2024 2024 disestablishments in Ontario