David Monks, Graham Wright, Josh Hook, and Greg Alsop 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; Monks and Alsop dropped out of college to become professional musicians. The band released its debut EP, A Lesson in Crime, in 2006 on Paper Bag Records. 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 Smith EP was released in 2007. During a July show in Omaha, Nebraska, the band signed a deal with Saddle Creek Records which would release their debut LP. The single "Your English Is Good" was released in July and later included on their album Elephant Shell. That year the band performed at Coachella, Lollapalooza, Bumbershoot, the Glastonbury Festival, and the Reading and Leeds Festival.
Debut record and successful follow-up
In 2008, Tokyo Police Club released their first album, Elephant Shell, 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 Rock am Ring-Festival, and Street Scene. In the fall, they played on the last six weeks of Weezer's Troublemaker Tour along with Angels and Airwaves. In 2010, the band played the Bonnaroo Music Festival. 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 " was nominated as best indie video of the year by MuchMusic. 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 on the North American portion of their Torches tour along with Kimbra. While continuing to work with the band, Wright also hosts programming on CBC Radio 3.
New music
In December, 2013, the band debuted a nine-minute lyric video for "Argentina " 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. 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.
Television
On April 19, 2007, Tokyo Police Club made their first US TV performance on the Late Show with David Letterman. 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 with David Letterman, performing the lead single "Tessellate" off their debut LP Elephant Shell. On November 16, 2008 they appeared on the television show "Desperate Housewives" 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 on CBS. On June 28, 2010 they appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman, performing the single "Wait Up " off of their second album, "Champ".
Discography
Studio albums
Cover albums
Ten Songs, Ten Years, Ten Days
EPs
A Lesson in Crime
Smith EP
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Singles
Solo projects
In November 2008, Tokyo Police Club keyboardist Graham Wright released a solo EP called The Lakes of Alberta online only, available as a free download. He has also participated in a project called "Novels" with musicians Luke Lalonde, Will Currie, Dean Marino, and Jay Sadlowski in which these musicians wrote and recorded an entire EP in 24 hours. The CDs were not released in stores, nor on the internet, but were given out to random people or placed in random places. His debut solo album, Shirts vs Skins, was released on June 27, 2010. Greg Alsop has posted comedy sketch videos online, Drumsters and Novelty T-Shirt College as well as a song titled ' Losing Our Heads' in 2013 for the Versus ValerieSeason One soundtrack. In June 2015, lead singer Dave Monks released his first solo EP on iTunes, Spotify and Google Play called "All Signs Point to Yes", with two singles having been released prior to the release of the album. The album "On a Wave" followed in 2019.. As of 2018 Dave Monks is also a member of the Canadian Supergroup Anyway Gang, releasing its self titled album in November 2019.
