[10] The band's third studio album, Near to the Wild Heart of Life (2017), featured a more polished aesthetic and was released to more extensive touring.
Over the next two years, they would perform regularly in Vancouver, but managed only short, sporadic tours due to conflicts with King's geology studies.
However, by the fall of 2008, King and Prowse had become convinced that the band was going nowhere, and mutually decided to call it quits at the end of the year.
[3] In January 2009, Japandroids signed to independent Canadian label Unfamiliar Records, who were eager to release the album, despite the band's reservations about continuing.
[3] Frustrated by label interest only after they had decided to break-up, King and Prowse reluctantly agreed to continue Japandroids temporarily, and began performing live again.
[3] In March 2009, taste-making website Pitchfork awarded the song "Young Hearts Spark Fire" a 'Best New Track' designation, instantly exposing the band to a large audience outside of Canada.
[10] While primarily headlining their own shows, Japandroids also toured supporting acts such as A Place To Bury Strangers and Health in Europe, and The Walkmen in North America.
After performing one show, Japandroids were forced to postpone and reschedule the remainder of their first full-scale North American tour due to a health emergency.
On the morning of April 24, 2009, King was checked into Calgary's Foothills Medical Center to undergo emergency surgery for a life-threatening perforated ulcer.
[17] Touring resumed June 13, 2009 after King's recovery with a performance at Vancouver's Music Waste festival, and continued uninterrupted through to the final show October 27, 2010 at Maxwell's in Hoboken, New Jersey.
[37] The duo cited disillusion with Vancouver, as well as the difficulty of returning to a sedentary lifestyle following two years of continuous touring, as the primary motivations for the move.
[40] The black-and-white video, directed by Jim Larson and produced by Pitchfork.tv, documented one week in the life of Japandroids on tour using footage from the east coast portion of their spring 2012 US tour, including live footage from shows in Toronto, Montreal, Boston, New York City, Brooklyn, and Washington, D.C.[41] Celebration Rock garnered widespread acclaim from critics,[4] who praised the album's blending of classic rock and punk rock influences,[12] as well as King's newfound lyrical ambition.
As Ian Cohen of Pitchfork noted, "Japandroids have gone from having almost none at all [lyrics] to packing their songs with an astonishing command of legend and literalism that all but dares you to feel something.
[48][49] Japandroids toured heavily in support of Celebration Rock, performing over 200 shows in more than 40 countries between March 2012 and November 2013.
[51] ///// SLEEP ///// FOREVER ///// hey gang // brian here // after 200-and-something shows in 40-something countries, the Celebration Rock Tour is officially over!
// thanks to everyone who came out to the shows and drank, smoked, sweat, bled, puked, fucked, fought, danced, dove, yelled, screamed, sang, and most importantly rocked with us these last two years // we will forever be in all of your debt for allowing us to do what we do // time for us to disappear into the ether for a while…y’all stay crazy/forever // x [52]Following the end of the Celebration Rock Tour, the duo decided to take an extended break from the band.
In an interview with The Independent, King cited exhaustion as the primary motivation: “When we got home, we were just totally destroyed, really burnt out both physically and mentally; at that point, we hadn't taken a serious break from the band in five years.
[53] In late 2014, the band reconvened in New Orleans to begin writing new material: "We rented a house and spent about five weeks there, with all the gear in the living room, just playing every day.
On October 31, 2016, Japandroids announced their third album Near to the Wild Heart of Life via a teaser video featuring live footage from their comeback shows in Vancouver.
[68][69][70] The final date of the Near to the Wild Heart of Life Tour took place on October 17, 2018, at the Phoenix Concert Theatre in Toronto.
A celebration of Legalization Day in Canada, Japandroids' set included five new songs, written on the setlist as “International”, “D+T”, “Baby’s”, “Infinity”, and “Alice”.
Obviously I didn’t know it would be our final show ever, but the fact that we finished the tour on a high note definitely made it easier to walk away.
[75] The announcement came during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when virtually all live concerts and music festivals across North America were either canceled or postponed.
They can hear the crowd and listen to us having the time of our lives at a historic venue and maybe that makes life a little easier for a minute, and reminds them that those moments will happen again down the road.
'"[73] On July 17, 2024, Japandroids announced their fourth and final record, Fate & Alcohol, which was released on Oct 18, 2024 on Anti-,[79] with King opting to end the band to focus on his sobriety and family life.
"[80] Regarding the band's dissolution and decision not to tour behind the album, King noted that the split was amicable: "It’s not like we got into a huge fight, screamed ‘fuck you’ at one another, stormed off, and now we’re broken up."