Even with misleading name, TPC still rocks

Tokyo…Tokyo Police Club April 10 8 p.m. Mr. Small’s Funhouse ‘ Theatre 400 Lincoln Ave. 412-821-4447 $15 advance tickets/$18 at the door

In the wake of a national tour and the digital release of his band’s first album, Tokyo Police Club keyboardist Graham Wright shared the details of the new album and its show in Pittsburgh.

Elephant Shell is different than any project Tokyo Police Club has taken on thus far, but Wright is pleased with the record – he attributes Elephant Shell’s new sound to the luxury of time. He explained, “I think that definitely contributed to some of the arrangements being a little more intricate, hopefully a little more interesting, definitely some more density to the songs.”

Still, the keyboardist explained the extreme difficulty in evaluating the record as a whole, or even by each individual song after dissecting them so long in recording. “I listen to the parts,” Wright said. “I’ll listen to a song like ‘Juno’ and all that I’ll hear is the vibraphone, which maybe someone that picks up the record for the first time, they won’t even hear that instrument. It’s not even mixed that loudly. But because I just remember recording it, or I was happy how it turned out, that’s all I hear when I listen to that song.”

Wright hopes to listen to the record objectively some day, but for now, all he hears is that vibraphone. The band’s sound has changed slightly since its last EP, A Lesson in Crime, but it was not a conscious decision, Wright said. “Most of the time, the songs end up sounding like [the EP], just by the fact it’s the four of us writing them, but we have no qualms about doing something that’s different if that’s what we think works for the song.”

This take on song writing gives listeners just the right amount of change and familiarity, leaving Elephant Shell a blend of the dance-party songs of A Lesson in Crime with the calmer sound of songs like “The Harrowing Adventures Of