Happy Holidays!

Regardless of which holiday you celebrate, everyone likes a present right? Happy Holidays!

Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips shares his Twelve Reasons why Christmas Matters. It's pretty sappy, you've been warned.

Yeah Yeah Yeah - All I Want for Christmas (mp3)
Death Cab For Cutie - Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) (mp3)

Aimee Mann's A Christmas Carol (featuring Michael Penn, John Krasinski, Michael Cera, John C. Reilly, Grant Lee Phillips, and Paul F. Tompkins)

They're the Cat's Meow!

The Bad Eliots

New Yorkers, the Bad Eliots bring some subway cheer.



Their song "Cat's Meow" was featured in a Snapple commercial a while back. You know, the one with the bubble wrap world? Well anywho, it's a very catchy, very feel-good song, and I quite like it.

The lead vocalist, James Rotondi (or... Roto...)'s voice has actually appeared a a slew of other commercials including Quaker Oats, Olympus and Spaghetti-O's. Yes. Spaghetti-O's.

Hopefully we'll be seeing a lot more from the Bad Eliots in the near future, and next time they won't only be known through association with a beverage. They sound talented enough to accomplish that, don't they? I think so.

The Bad Eliots - Cat's Meow (mp3) (buy)
The Bad Eliots - Cat's Meow(acoustic/video version) (mp3) (I like this one!)

And if you've got the time, visit their official site they've got another version of their video where you can click on the different people in the shot that are holding cameras, and see the performance from their angle. Neat!

Christmas '08

I know, I know. Impressionable Youth has seen a bit of a hiatus. Before I start getting things up to speed though, here's some good Christmas cheer.

The Kinks - Father Christmas (mp3)

The Hives and Cyndi Lauper - A Christmas Duel (mp3)

Fountains of Wayne - I Want an Alien for Christmas (mp3)

Andrew Dost - Yeah, I Know, It's Christmastime (mp3)

Jimmy Eat World - Last Christmas (mp3)

Mariah Carey - All I Want For Christmas Is You (mp3)

The Ramones - Merry Christmas (I Don't Want to Fight Tonight) (mp3)

The Raveonettes - Christmas Song (mp3)


- Love, Impressionable Youth and the Impressionable Team.

Investment Opportunity

Wanna be jump into the stock market game? Wanna be part of the music business? Wanna help Patrick Wolf make his next album? Wanna do all three at the same time? Well now you can.

The Guardian UK and NME report that by signing up with Bandstocks and paying a £10 fee, you can become a stakeholder in Mr. Wolf's sucess by covering the cost of recording.

"Basically, you can invest in the finishing of the album and the production, and you get a share in the album," Wolf explained to NME. "So you almost become part of the record company, like a co-owner." He states that investors will get special editions first copies of the album as well as exclusive tracks. Together with the backers, Wolf will "get to conquer the world together and show that independence and self-sufficiency are the two ways forward and out of the mess the industry is in". Hey, if it already comes with the upcoming double disc, it's well worth the £10 or $25 Canadian conversion.

The album will be titled Battle, and will have one disc of "pure nihilistic battle" sad songs and the other one will about the happier "battles of love". It will be out on Wolf's own independent Bloody Chamber Music.

Patrick Wolf - The Magic Position (mp3) (buy)

Patrick Wolf - Stars (mp3) (buy)

Old Soul

Someone once told me that I will never be able to appreciate music made by people who are younger than I am. People have always assumed that I have an older sibling because I loved the Smashing Pumpkins and Blur and Pavement and the defining bands of era even though that was before my time. It's not that I don't like younger musicians, but I like music with a little more substance. But there are young musicians who don't sound like whiny brats. Take for example, the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club or Paolo Nutini or Michael Buble, who are young guys but convey wisdom too.

Enter Morgan Enos, a young guy with a lo-fi sound who clearly has older influences too. He plays all the instruments and you can hear the Bright Eyes and Bob Dylan references. It's got a classic old school lounge-in-the-afternoon-with-large-headphones feel to the sound and you can download the album here.

Morgan Enos - In Which St. Wolfgang Meets The Devil (mp3) (download)


The Raveonettes' Sune Rose Wagner is someone else who clearly adores musicians from back in the day. He has just released a self-titled solo album. It's vintage-y sounding pop rock, still within the realm of sound that the Raveonettes are known for, but the single off the album is peppier than anything from the group offerings. The first track "Beruset of Forhadt" seems less about lust, love and sex, than about striaght forward rock, but who am I to say? I have no idea what the lyrics are about, it's in Danish!

Sune Rose Wagner - Beruset of Forhadt(mp3) (buy)


Next up is Exile Parade from Warrington, Northwest UK, whose influences are probably not that much older, but for a band who has a "unsigned" label on their myspace, they sound pretty professionally produced. They have a new song out called "heart into suicide". It's not getting an official release until February or March of next year when the full album album is released and while their myspace states that they are unsigned, but the production quality of this song is excellent. I can already imagine it on mainstream radio (102.1 the Edge in Toronto, perhaps?). Somebody tell these guys to send their demos to a Canadian record company.

Exile Parade - Heart into Suicide (mp3) (buy)

Have Yourself a Very RaveChristmas

The final installment of the Raveonettes' internet only EPs is a Christmas album, entitled Wishing You a Rave Christmas. Bandmates Sharin and Sune Rose sure know how write a good Christmas song. These songs ring with the sentimental nostalgia of the season, a retro touch and a wash of reverb. Very cool. Those who purchase the EP from Amazon.com will also receive the exclusive Lust Lust Lust B-side "Forever in Your Arms".

The first track on the LP is a take on the traditional song and the rest are brand new.

Here's my favourite off of the album:

Raveonettes - Come on Santa (mp3) (buy)