Darkness and Light

Last night, I went to the Earth Hour Festivities at Nathan Phillips Square and from my view, this is actually what it looked like. Since I'm only 5'-2", its hard to see live music at large festivals. I have to watch everything on the big screens, which I still couldn't see last night.

Earth Hour didn't seem so energy efficient to me probably because I was in the midst of a concert and shops were still open. Some people held candles, but maybe it made a bigger impact elsewhere. The biggest surprise of the night was that the Philosopher Kings are still together. I had thought that they broke up when Jarvis Church (aka Gerald Eaton) pursued a solo career. The Philosopher Kings are awesome. Rememeber that song "I am the man", where Jarvis Church wore a dress? Awesome. Anyways, the lineup from the time I got there consisted of Jarvis Church (solo), Fefe Dobson, Nelly Furtado and the Philosopher Kings.

Philosopher Kings - Cry (mp3)

Afterwards, we headed over to the Horseshoe Tavern to see Luke Doucet and the White Falcon. The Beauties and the Perpetrators opened and I'm not a big fan of Blue-grass-ish music but it was alot of fun. We were near the front and the people in front of us were about my height so we had a great view. The Perpetrators' singer had so much energy it was infectious, and the drummer (when he played guitar), must have lightning fast reflexes to play the guitar the way he did.

And then Luke Doucet and the White Falcon came out to play. The sound was clear, they band looked like they love their jobs, everyone was smiling and they played my favourites, including "Emily, Please". It was a fantastic show and highly recommended.

You'll also notice how the picture quality on this post gets progressively gets better through the night. I decided that I'm going to take a camera with me to shows from now on and it's a learning curve. At least a couple of photos turned out. The pictures from the Raveonettes show at the Opera House last week didn't turn out, and it's too bad cause the band is stunning in real life.

Perpetrators - Hollywood (mp3 clip)
Luke Doucet - Lovecats (Cure Cover) (mp3)

Earth Hour '08

Tomorrow is Earth Hour. For those that haven't heard, it's a global campaign to create support for action on climate change. On Saturday, March 29th at 8pm, the goal is to turn off all lights for one hour. The City of Toronto and many businesses have committed to powering down for one hour and Toronto Hydro will measure the energy difference.


You can take part in this worthy event too . Turn off all lights and non-essential electrical equipment for one hour at 8pm tomorrow. Additionally, in celebration of Earth Hour, Nelly Furtado will be holding a free unplugged concert at Nathan Phillips Square. Show starts at 7:30pm and every effort is being made to make the show as carbon-neutral as possible, as well as using a renewable energy source to power it.

Check out Earth Hour's website for more information and the WWF Presents: Ten Things to Do in the Dark list.

Nelly Furtado - Try (removed)
Nelly Furtado - Do it (removed)

V-Fest 2008 (Toronto)

Okay, so V-fest is back this year on Sept 6 and 7th at the Toronto Islands and the main performers have been announced.

The first day so far consists of the Foo Fighters, Bloc Party, Spiritualized, Wintersleep and the Constantines.

The second day will feature Oasis, Paul Weller (formerly of the Jam), Stereophonics, the Weakerthans and the Pigeon Detectives.

There are alot of decisively established British and Anglophilic bands and while I'm a huge fan of Britpop and British music, compared to last year's lineup of the Smashing Pumpkins, Interpol and the Killers etc., I'm not sure how I feel about this year's lineup. I like most of the bands playing this year, but it doesn't jump out at me just yet.

More performers will be added to the list, but if you've already made up your mind, tickets are going on sale this saturday at $159 for both days and $87 for just Saturday or Sunday.

Foo Fighters - Hey Johnny Park (mp3)
Bloc Party - Banquet (mp3)
Spiritualized - Stop Your Crying (mp3)
Wintersleep - Welcome to the Night Sky (mp3)
Constantines - Shine a light (mp3)

Oasis - Live Forever (mp3)
The Jam - That's Entertainment (mp3)
Stereophonics - Have a Nice Day (mp3)
Weakerthans - Civil Twilight (mp3)
Pigeon Detectives - I'm Not Sorry (mp3)

And this is too good to not post:
Stereophonics - Best of You (Foo Fighters Cover live at the BBC) (mp3)

I Spy With My Little Eye...

As far as I know, Impressionable Youth is the first blog on elbo.ws to speak of this group. It may not matter to you, but for me, it's a good accomplishment.

Welcome The I Spies.

Whoa! Check that arm span!

I've only caught notice of them recently by clicking on the musician friends' mySpace pages of bands that I like. Not that I have my own mySpace page. I find those to be condescending unless you're part of an artistic or musical group. But I've digressed.

These four gents, Johnny, James, Markus and Steve, started up their group in 2003. According to their website, they've been gaining an underground following via a project called "Toronto's Suck My Disc". I'll have to research that.

On the 11th of this month, they released their debut album "In the Night" nation-wide. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get my hands on it until this long weekend. All the HMV locations I visited didn't have it in stock, so I had Edie pick it up for me when she could conveniently drop by Soundscapes. Thank goodness for non-major record stores.

First impressions. As I haven't had enough time with the album to properly bond with it.

With cover art as adorable and as clever as their name, how could I not be smitten with them?

In the Night is something that comes to you as something sweet and youthful but leaves you with a sense of unsettling urgency, not to say that's a bad thing. It has some catchy melodies that are far more inviting than the lyrics that carry them. The vocals never seem to overpowering, although the guitar that drives it forward seem gives the music a harsher edge.

I suppose what I mean to say about this album is that it balances itself at a point between cute and menacing. Even their song titles suggest it.

The I Spies - In The Night (mp3)
The I Spies - Up All Night (mp3)

Both have three words. Both end with "night". Note the somewhat eerie and threatening tone of In The Night. Now listen to the naive blissfulness of Up All Night.

The I Spies - Stop Screaming (mp3)
The I Spies - Are You Talking to Yourself Again? (mp3)

Both titles address the reader/listener directly. Both address their manner of speech. Note the calm but demanding paranoia of Stop Screaming. Now note the quirky curiosity of Are You Talking to Yourself Again.

I think the band expressed themselves best when they said the theme portrays "urban claustrophobia and retro-futuristic disappointment".

Overall? Yeah. I like it. But do I love it?

It's a fine example of Toronto indie, but I'm not going to brag about it's groundbreaking sound or innovation. Nonetheless, it's definitely worth a listen. In the Night is up for streaming in it's entirety on the I Spies' official website. Have fun.

Mini Street Team

Have you ever noticed that at Impressionable Youth, we spend alot of time praising those whom we like alot? It's like Alexander Keith's Pale Ale, "those who like it, like it alot". Whenever I use the computer to do work, I keep another window open just to look up music, which can be tedious and time consuming and can yield no results all in the hopes that through the pile of crap, sometime out there shines like a light at the end of the mediocrity.

The big indie blogs are a constant source source of inspiration, updating us and yourselves on all the current news, but here, it's more like a little tiny internet street team. We love our music and we'll keep posting the internet version of paper flyers with little hearts and exclamation marks surrounding things we think are cool.

And recently I just found this little gem:

The Mary Onettes - Still (mp3)
I love this song. This track is taken from their debut album and it's got a romantic gloomy swirling darkness that you can hear in its sound. I simply adore this kind of new wave, neo-goth sound that became popular in the 80's with the Cure, OMD and Johnny Hates Jazz.

In other news:

Rilo Kiley will be playing at the Phoenix on Wednesday May 28. They've toured supporting their latest album "Under the Blackligth" here last fall, took a break to pursue solo projects and they will be back in the spring much to the excitement of one of my friends who emailed me with multiple exclamation marks announcing that she's dropping everything for that show!


Rilo Kiley - Dreamworld (mp3)

Rilo Kiley - Silver Lining (mp3)

Stephen Malkmus has a new album out called "Real Emotional Trash". On an interview with Pitchfork, he had this to say about the title:
"That's one of the songs on the album, and I'd never done that before, but the girls said that they liked it as an album title [laughs]. I had some other ones, but that was the one they liked the best. It's trashy, and it's real, but emotional it is and it isn't. That's about as significant as it is. A lot of letters, maybe too many, but you know, that's the problem for the guy that's laying out stuff on the cover. But at least it's not two words. Doesn't rhyme either." (Source)



Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks - Baltimore (mp3)

The Raveonettes will be playing a free instore show at Sonic Boom Friday March 21 at Sonic Boom Records at 6:30pm before their show at the Opera House.

The lazy blogger

I haven't been blogging for a while, and while I would rather have an cool excuse for my laziness, all I've been doing with my leisure time is watching TV. Especially, "Lost" on DVD. I know, it was cool three years ago, but how would I have known how awesome the first season was? I love that TV shows are released on DVD. I'm waiting for "How I Met Your Mother Season 3" to come out on DVD because I've missed every single episode this season and it's a typical sitcom, but it works so well. I heard that my new favourite show JPod is being cancelled for next season. I always feel rather bad for the main character. Everyone inadvertently screws up his life. Poor Ethan!

Anyways, to make up for my rather lax approach to updating this site, here's a part from my new car mixtape.

And you read that right. A MIXTAPE. I still have a cassette player in my car and I tape songs onto cassettes. It makes no sense in the modern world, but I just love mix tapes. I prefer them to mp3s, podcasts, CDs or radio in the car.

1. Hawksley Workman - Tonight Romanticize the Automobile
2. Hives - Tick Tick Boom
3. Immaculate Machine - Broken Ship
4. Duke Spirit - the Step and the Walk
5. Rakes - When Tom Cruise Cries
6. Modest Mouse - Dashboard
7. Stars - Take me to the riot
8. Patrick Wolf - Overture
9. Princeton - the Indifference Curve
10. Mika - Relax, Take it easy
11. Nelly Furtado - Maneater


The I-Spies have a new album out called the "In the Night" which I am very eager to get my hands on. It's a spastic post-punk kind of sound with a British influence, and but not unlike Canadian power pop bands such as the Carnations and the Flashing Lights. This is their debut album and I can't remember when I first heard their music, but I remembered liked it immediately. They're having a CD release party at Sneaky Dee's tonight but if you're not able to make it, they have a full stream of their album on their website at www.theispies.com


Ohmigod, by the way, have you seen the Madonna promo pictures? Eww.. Is she trying to be Britney Spears? See for yourself on www.pinkisthenewblog.com title page.