And So It Begins.

I imagine that this is just another one of those "phases". It's like when I said I was going to learn how to sew (well) or play the guitar (well). Like when I promised myself I was going to stay fit, even after mandatory phys ed. classes or when I said that by the end of this summer, I'll have written the first few chapters of a novel. Lies! Lies! All of them! Thanks to my month-long attention span, blogging will likely soon join the list.

Lemme lay down some details about what you're about to experience by reading my future posts made at awkwardly proportioned intervals. Firstly, my mind works in a strange way. I do not say this in a proud manner. Secondly, you should be prepared to endure my obsessions with relatively obscure bands as I fail at attempting to make Impressionable Youth a third rate music blog. Lastly, I use writing as a way to vent. With that out of the way, let's get started with my first "post". Bear with me. All of this typing-what-I-think business is quite foreign to me.

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Lately, I've had a lot of free time, seeing as to how my education is on hiatus until early September, so I've devoted a good chunk of it to surfing the Hype Machine. Very few things get me more giddy than discovering a tune decent enough by my standards to slap into repeat for the next week. I guess it's a trait that I've inherited from my makeshift hippie of a sister. She was the one that lead me down the road to become a music junkie anyway.

It all began a few years ago. I don't know how many to be exact. Every time I walked into her room, the same little ditty would be playing and after a week, the song in its entirety had embedded itself into my brain. I'd amble along with a soothingly familiar stranger's voice in my head, singing along to something about parties and family affairs. After another week passed, I finally got over my laziness and picked up the CD case laying on top of my sister's stereo.

Mystery and Crime - Joel Plaskett Emergency. (MP3)

Now armed with the name of the artist and the song, I proceeded to listen to the rest of the album, entitled Truthfully Truthfully. In a metaphorical sense, Truthfully Truthfully was my first cigarette. The catchy melodies were very addictive. Throw in a butt-load of Canadian references, sparkly guitar sounds and offbeat, but humble lyrics and I was hooked. How can anyone not be charmed by the words "Dans la French class je suis terrible / Apres l'ecole I'll be coming out to meet ya" from Come on Teacher? After thoroughly wearing down my sister's CD, I did some research over the World Wide Web, perhaps to an internet stalker's sort of extent. Not literally of course, but this has been my process with musical discoveries ever since. In short, Mystery and Crime was the song that started my addiction. Nowadays I get really moody when I don't get my fix of new, decent music. It's quite tragic, really.

In case you're wondering, yeah, I'm still a loyal fan of the Joel Plaskett Emergency. Rewind back to May of this year when my beloved sister and I saw one of their awesome shows. Maybe it was just because it was my first "real" concert, but I think they put on a -insert profanity here-good show! It was complete with audience sing alongs, dance moves that might be traced back to Fred Flintstone's twinkle toe bowling shuffle, and two encores. During the first, we managed to elbow our way to the front row so I could toss paper roses on stage. It was totally worth almost being tackled by security. One of the crudely made flowers was placed behind the delicate ear of Mr. Plaskett himself. It fell out two lines in to the song though. Aw.

Rewind another month back before that, back to when I dragged one of my friends down to their video shoot for "Fashionable People". It was a tough job getting her to come. My fellow fans that were friends and sister had various excuses like work, laziness and parental supervision. Psh. Fortunately for me, one friend agreed to accompany me in exchanged for dinner and ice cream. During the two hour public transit ride, I decided to tell her a thing or two about the band.
Me: It's the Joel Plaskett Emergency.
Her: Joel Plastic Emergency?
Me: No, the Joel Plaskett Emergency.
Her: Oh. Who's Joel?
Me: The lead singer.
Her: Oh. Who's Plaskett?
Me: The lead singer's last name.
Upon arrival at the shooting grounds, we waited another three hours for anything to actually happen. They filmed for a bit but all save the edge of my shoulder was cut out from the final product. You can see my shoulder threatening the quality of the shot at 3:08 in the following video on the very right side of the screen. It's the little black thing all the way to the right side of the shot.



(You can't see it when I embed the video here. The HTML conveniently cuts off the right side of the video. Hm. But you'll have to take my word for it, or go watch it here:

linky!

I expect you take the first option but I suggest you take the second to see my totally almighty right shoulder.)

HA! Take that editor of the video! (I didn't mean it. I totally apologize for standing in too close and hope it didn't completely ruin the shot when you decided to cut out the line of twenty or so people standing behind me that also waited a good number of hours to participate in the shoot. =D ) But in compensation of that, we got free vinyls of Ashtray Rock, my friend gained respect for a band called "the Joel Plaskett Emergency Room" whilst staring at the vinyl that had the correct name of the band labelled on it AND I got a Men's Washroom sign autographed by Joel and now have it hanging on my wall. True story. Here's my proof.




How awesome is that, huh?