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You know those rare occasions when two favourite things dovetail together and combine their awesomeness into something greater than the sum of their parts? Well this video is one of those times.

If you are a fan of the television show "How I Met Your Mother" or you've seen "Forgetting Sarah Marshall", then you know that Jason Segel is a man of many musical talents. Here he showcases not only his musical talent as he joins Swell Season (see the Sept. 15/09 post on them) on stage as he tries to charm the ladies.

Flotilla

Montreal's Flotilla sounds rich. Not rich in a mo-money-mo-problems way. But rich in the way people speak about Belgium Chocolates or leather armchairs or engineered hardwood flooring. This is a whole new level of sophistication. Wine-swirling, candle-lighting, cheese-eating sophistication. You might as well invite some architects, archeologists, artists, writers and Frasier Crane over for a soiree and use this as your playlist.

I'm not saying that it's music for snobs. Far from it. It's definitely polished. It's also got distinctively pretty sound with elements of jazz, cabaret, folk, electronica and rock, held together with classical compositions and enheightened with Veronica Charnley's ethereal voice. It has an air of art school quirkiness to it, cultured but different.

It's an interesting mix and not something you come across everyday. It's also no wonder "Flotilla's One Hundred Words For Water stands out as one of the most original and engaging albums released by a new Canadian group recently" by Exclaim! magazine.

Flotilla - A Thousand Jacobs (mp3) (buy)

Flotilla - Clouds (mp3) (buy)

BRMC Live

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. Playing live. Is so good that you:

1. You drag your as-yet-non-converted-rock friends to see this as their first rock show.
2. Get so swept up in the music you forget what the band looks like the next day.
3. Wish they would end it just a tiny bit earlier so that you can make the encore and not miss the last subway home.
4. Miss the subway home anyways cause it's just too good.

Their live CD and DVD, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club Live is out now and a fifth studio release will be out in the spring.

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Spread Your Love (live) (mp3) (buy)

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Whatever Happened to My Rock and Roll (Punk Song) (live) (mp3) (buy)

Tardy Series - Little Big Adventure

This is the second official installment of the Impressionable Youth Tardy Series. Sometimes (a lot of the times) great music ends up getting lost in our inbox. If we eventually find it and like it, you'll see it here. It's old news, but it's good news. Sorry we were tardy!



The Band: Little Big Adventure

The Album: The Hateful Eye EP

Date Received: April 28, 2009

Why You Should Give It A Listen If You Haven't Already:

1. One man band Magnus Sätterström is from Sweden, which has an extremely high good music/population ratio.
2. Signed by Labrador.
3. The band is named after a 1994 PC game.
4. The songs are about apparently about anger, but I don't know if I believe that when there are xylophones, piano plinks and pop-synthesizers involved.

Little Big Adventure - Happiest Times (mp3) (buy)

They Shoot Music, Don't They?

I'm loving street music blogs. It's always nice to hear a nice ditty when you walk by on your way to work or the subway or whatever and it would be a real treat to see some of your favourite artists play in this manner. There are lots of local indie street level video blogs popping up all over the world, set in strange locations other than studios. There's Black Cab Sessions based in Britian, Blogotheque in France, Amsterdam Acoustics in the Netherlands and many others.

One of my newer discoveries is: They Shoot Music, Don't They. This "a Viennese video/geoblog featuring artists that can be vaguely described by the blurred out term indie." They're an English-speaking blog based in Vienna, Austria and currently "shooting" sessions in Berlin, Germany as well. You can go here on their website to see a map of all the locations that they've filmed at, as well as some information on the surrounding scenery. They also note the geographic location and historical landmarks where each session takes place. So you can get a little educational tour of the Vienna and Berlin as well as finding out about new music. It's like two for the price of one!

Check out some of their Berlin Sessions below:

The Rifles in front of Flughafen Tempelhof, Berlin, Germany.

The Rifles - Fall to Sorrow (mp3) (buy)

Noah and the Whale in front of Postbahnhof, Berlin, Germany.

Noah and the Whale - Blue Skies (mp3) (buy)

The Dodos at the Greifswalder Straße, Berlin, Germany.

The Dodos - Strum (mp3) (buy)


By the way, does anybody know if we have anything similar to this in Toronto?

Hey Jude...

Found this on the net. It's ALMOST accurate, functional and too useful not to share! I just love the graphic design aspect of it.

Beatles - Hey Jude (mp3) (buy)

The Idyllists put a lot of love into this album.

Whoa there... What have we here?

• 7 dapper young men (6 parts American, 1 part British)
• 6 nice jackets
  
• 5 pairs of Chuck Taylors
• 4 pairs of Jarvis Cocker glasses
• 1 swanky hat
  

Dammit, I'm already sold but you just keep selling! I've latched onto The Idyllists as one of my favourites for 2009, and I swear it's not just for aesthetic reasons. It's for their wonderfully ear-pleasing blend of new and old-timey britpop, even though they're based in LA.

The Idyllists released their debut The Long Hours Between Sunset & Morning earlier this year and it's eleven tracks about love. No kidding, I think they use "love", "loving", "lover" or another variation of the word at least once in every track. Even so, I wouldn't have it any other way. It's really all those details in youthful love sickness and longing that make this album as good as it is.

On their press release, they're described as the sound of Morrissey having a drink with Elvis and Johnny Cash at a Buddy Holly show. But all name dropping aside, the Idyllists are instantly charming and smile-inducing, even if they do tend to remind you of the one that got away. You're Gonna Break My Heart Someday opens the album, and is really a perfect introductory song to the band and what they're all about. They're the the culmination of bright acoustic guitars, jaunty keyboards and pianos and group harmonies. They're infectious hand-clapping and catchy pop choruses topped with puppy-dog-eyed vocals. The bittersweet track I Think It's Going To Rain solidifies my belief that a lot of the best songs in the world are about rain and tracks like The Long Way make me actually miss the feeling of being lovesick. Yes again, this is an album of love songs. So it's something incredibly hard-hitting when the final track on the album, A Different Affair, keeps insisting that there's nothing in a love song that I could say or do. The power of persuasion never worked on you.

The Idyllists - You're Gonna Break My Heart Someday (mp3) (amazon) (iTunes)

The Idyllists - I Think It's Going To Rain (mp3) (amazon) (iTunes)

The Long Hours Between Sunset & Morning is a short and sweet album. It totals to just about forty minutes, and most tracks are under three minutes long which leaves us wanting more. Luckily, the boys waste no time because according to their facebook page, they're finishing up the sophomore album already. Fantastic! I can hardly contain myself. I hope I'm correct to assume that Sweet Loretta will be on that track list.



Happy days lie ahead, readers.

Oh, and for anyone that might be interested, I've done a proper tally now. Ten out of the eleven tracks on the The Long Hours Between Sunset & Morning use "love" or another variation of the word in the lyrics. But don't go thinking that the one outlier song isn't about love. Because it totally is.

Tardy Series 1 - the Junction

This is the first official installment of the Impressionable Youth Tardy Series. Sometimes (a lot of the times) great music ends up getting lost in our inbox. If we eventually find it and like it, you'll see it here. It's old news, but it's good news. Sorry we were tardy!

A friend of mine's first reaction to seeing Brent Jackson (center) was "Omigod, Jesus!"

The Band: The Junction

The Album: Another Link in the Chain

Date Received: July 16th, 2009

Why You Should Give It A Listen If You Haven't Already:

Since the release of their debut self-titled, The Junction has become a pretty prominent staple of the Canadian music scene. In fact, they're one of the first names I think of at the mention of Canadian indie. They've dropped their major label and started their own prior to their summer 2009 release of Another Link In the Chain. They've really hit their stride with this sophomore, as it's got a much more cohesive, definitive and larger sound. Despite the ever-present but subtle hint of darker undertones, it has some incredibly infectious guitars and vocals. There's even some room on there for hand-claps, jazzy pianos and horns, and sing-along ba-ba-ba-da-das.

The Junction - My Love Was There (mp3) (amazon) (iTunes)

Although Another Link in the Chain was released earlier this year, The Junction is having their vinyl release party this Friday (November 13th) at the Horseshoe Tavern with Young Galaxy and the Paper Lions. Tickets are $10 in advance and $12 at the door. Sweet deal indeed!

Life Takes a Strange Turn

Sometimes life takes a strange turn.

One minute you're designing swimtrunks for your girlfriend's swimwear business.
And then next you're in a movie with Norah Jones (Wah Do Dem) and getting major label attention with a blend of reggae, britpop and ska.
WTF?

Well, that's what happened to Sean Bones. According to Bones, his debut solo record is "music that might cause people to scratch their heads a bit, only to realize that scratching their heads would make a good dance move." True, it could be the next big dance move.

Sean Bones - Turn Them (mp3) (buy)

Sean Bones - Dancehall (mp3) (buy)

Free Arms Forest

From now until the end of November, the Hard Lessons are giving away their new album, Arms Forest for free on their official site in exchange for signing up on their mailing list!

"I just like the metaphor of an Arms Forest," explains Augie Visocchi of the band. "The forest in literature is the forbidden place. Its dark and evil, but there is also freedom there. An ability to do whatever you want. That is the freedom we seek in our band."

You can clearly heard that freedom in the songs. Like we've stated before, this is a band that has multiple personalities. Once track could be country-tinged pop and the next could be a straight out kick-you-in-the-groin rock track before leading into sing-a-long power pop tunes or vaudevillian piano on the next.

Enjoy a tiny sampling below and head over to the official site to hear the full range!

Hard Lessons - Arms Forest (mp3) (buy) (free album download from official site)

Hard Lessons - Manoogian Zoo (mp3) (buy) (free album download from official site)