The Rakes have graced us with a new track. These guys are always able to charm me with their swaggering English drawl, catchy guitar riffs and most of all, their devilishly cheeky lyrics. Can't get much cheekier than this one:
I'm charmed, just buy looking at the name of that track. It's starts out like a modern day lullaby, just bass and vocals. It's cold during some obscure hour of the night. "The light from your Mac cuts through the gloom like moonlight" as Donohoe innocently suggests that you go off to bed. He tells you some anecdote about why you shouldn't ever leave London, New York or L.A. and you feel all safe and warm while he's telling you your bedtime stories.
And still,
I could crash on your sofa That's not what I am here for We could do spoons or more Just don't show me the fucking futon ... Yeah your brother be right Don't let me stay tonight I'm drunk and you are tired Don't let me stay tonight
How could you not be charmed by that?
Look out for their third album, KLANG, on the 23rd of March.
"You can listen to it quiet, but it sounds better loud. You can listen to during the daytime, but it sounds better at night time," quoth Alex Kapranos, Franz Ferdinand front man. But Bob the bassist would like to remind you that through the wonders of the interweb, you can buy it day or night, 24/7.
Yesterday, when Franz Ferdinand's new album dropped, I went specifically out of my way to get it, first thing in the morning. I waited three years for this album, and the wait was finally over.
I was simply giddy when I found it on the new releases shelf (but for some odd reason, all of the cases had minor cracks in the same spot on every case. I stood at that shelf picking up different cases of the same CD and inspecting them for damage for about five minutes. The people at the counter must have thought I was crazy). I got home, locked myself in my room and threw it on repeat for the rest of the day. Would've written this up yesterday, but I was still too giddy.
If you're still reading this, then I'm going to assume that you've already heard a little bit about this album. You know that it's much more of a dance oriented record, than a guitar-driven rock record like their last record, You Could Have It So Much Better. You know that it's an album to "fling yourself around your room to as you psyche yourself for a night of hedonism, for the dance-floor, flirtation, for your desolate heart-stop, for losing it and loving losing it, for the chemical surge in your bloodstream. Its for that lonely hour gently rocking yourself waiting for dawn and it all to be even again". Damn that swaggering singer, Kapranos, has a way with words!
And indeed, as soon as you push that little triangular play button, you're going to get pretty psyched. As I'm listening to it in my seat, typing this thing out, I'm psyched and doing a little swivel chair dance to the beat of one of my favourites from the album, Live Alone one of the more tragic tracks on this one. And yet it still manages to get away with a playful lyric about slipping in a casual "man", in a sentence so that a NYC taxi driver would think that "he's alright" and want to have a drink with him.
What She Came For has got the best shout-it-out chorus line, and I can't wait to see that one live. Lucid Dreams has undergone a major transformation since its release a few months ago. It's like a dance remix of the original track. I've yet to grow much attachment to the new version though. Dream Again would be the Tonight equivilent of YCHISMB's Fade Together, or their debut album's 40ft. You know, the quiet brooding track that now seems a necissity in every Franz record. No You Girls and Katherine Kiss Me are like a pair of doppelgangers. In restrospect, they really are the same song. The same song with the same story and interchangeable lyrics, but under very different circumstances. No You Girls is the rockin' life of the party. Katherine Kiss Me would be the spoft-spoken acoustic response to it. They're each good in their own right. I could go on about every other track that I haven't yet mentioned, but what I think says the most about the band and their new sound is the revamp of Can't Stop the Feeling. This song has been with the Franz for a while now. It was a demo that they released waaaay back in 2003. It was an indie keyboard-guitar collaboration that complimented their first album very well. Comparing that to the new dancey, sleekly produced version is a pretty good metaphor to describe the band's evolutionary process.
Franz Ferdinand - Can't Stop Feeling (2003 Demo) (mp3) Franz Ferdinand - Can't Stop Feeling (Tonight, album version) (mp3)(Amazon)(iTunes)
[EDIT: Mp3s taken down upon request]
It's also a pretty good metaphor about how I'm going to rate Tonight as a whole. I liked it a whole fuckin' lot. Really! It was a much needed breather from the frenzied YCHISMB sound. It definitely rates higher on my scales than their sophmore, but will it achieve the same affection I hold for their self-titled debut? I mean, that's some serious competition! For now, I'll probably have to say no. Franz Ferdinand's Franz Ferdinand was too much of a masterpiece, and I'm not sure if anything will knock that off my top spot at this point. But there's still time for many more listens.
Go buy the album and decide for yourself already. It's worth the price, and it was definitely worth the three years of waiting.
That's what I've had to say about Tonight. This is what the band had to say about it. Among other things. Good fun to watch if you have the time. Those boys are awful charming.
I was over at the Huffington Post website when I read this story. Which turned out to be real.
"People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has launched a marketing campaign to rebrand fish as "sea kittens," a name the organization hopes will increase awareness and make the vertebrates more endearing to those who would eat them."
What!? "Rebrand"?!? I didn't realize that fish needed new PR! Sea kittens?! What?! Seriously? Seriously?!?
The Black Lips. Their myspace lists them as a comedy act but I don't think they are. Actually they sound like they've got the energy of teenagers and the swagger of a garage band who are capable of making alot of noise. They are releasing a new LP 200 Million Thousand on February 24, 2009, a "snotty 14-track celebration of unadorned rock n roll and no-bullshit songwriting".
"Starting Over" is the first track from the new album, and there is a video contest for the video. They're hoping to have million thousand videos made for the song and hopefully, out of that, a good one! The maker of the winning video will have a feature on the homepage of Vimeo.com, and receive a special 7" of LP-standout "Short Fuse," and a signed copy of 200 Million Thousand.
As you may know, we here at Impressionable Youth are huge fans of Flight of the Conchords. Luckily we were good girls last year and our Christmas wishes were answered! The new (and likely last) season of Flight of the Conchords will air on HBO Canada starting January 18th! As an added bonus, Brett, Jemaine and HBO has kindly streamed the first episode of the season for FREE! If you're in America, you can go to Funny or Die to watch the episode. For us Canuncks, HBO Canada is our friend. If you heart them too, don't forget to buy the first season on DVD!
March is going to be a good month for album releases. Here are the two I'm looking forward to.
Joel Plaskett will be releasing a triple album in March. "Triple album"?! I've never even heard of that! It's gonna be three (wow, three!) discs! Mmmmmm.
"A new record for a new year. Well, three new records for one year to be exact. March, I’ve been told, so now I’ll tell you, 'March, my new triple record called 'Three'. See you in the spring. Until then: shoveling, shoveling, shoveling," quoth Joel Plaskett off his website.
Here's an unreleased one that he performed at See Vous Play way back in October of 2007. I do hope he includes it on one of those discs. Although I've been perusing YouTube, and there's not a single video for it! But here's to hoping anyway.
Thanks to I(heart)Music for posting it so many months ago!
Also, according to a CBC Radio 3 interview Joel did last month, he's been working with Two Hours Traffic again. Looks like he'll be producing their follow up to Little Jabs. Even though it's only in pre-production now, I'm very excited.
In other album news, the Rakes' third album will be called 'KLANG'. It's set for the 23rd of March. When I heard the album name, I immediately thought, "hey that's like the Kooks, with their album called 'Konk'!"
Few people know that the Terminator is an honorary member of the Rakes.
Klang Tracklist:
You’re In It That’s The Reason The Loneliness Of The Outdoor Smoker Bitchin’ in the Kitchin’ The Woes Of The Working Woman 1989 Shackelton The Light From Your Mac Muller’s Ratchet The Final Hill Never Get Married
The first single is '1989' and it'll be up for legal download a week before the album drops. Here's a video featuring an unofficial version of the track over the course of a Planet Roc studios tour in Berlin where they recorded.
the Rakes - 1989 (Unofficial)
And to tide you over until that release, here's an older track of theirs'.
Currently, I'm in Melbourne, Australia which means that my posts have been far inbetween. I'm super excited about tonight cause I'm going to see Franz Ferdinand at the Palace in Melbourne! Yay! I'm still a little bitter from not being able to get tickets to the intimate show at Lee's Palace in Toronto last month. I can't believe the Toronto show was sold out in less than two minutes. Oh well. It show should be awesome tonight. I'm going to dance like there's nobody watching. Which is accurate because no one from back home will be able to report on my horrible dancing. Unless it somehow shows up on Youtube.
And also coincidentally, my favourite discovery of 2008, Cut Copy hails from Melbourne as well. It's got all the right influences in all the right places. In Ghost Colours has been on constant repeat ever since I got the album. And they'll be playing a show at Circa in Toronto in March 20, 2009.
Angus and Julia Stone' The Beast EP was released just a few days ago, on the 30th of December to be exact. Or rather, it was re-released? I'm hazy on details, so please do correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe what's happening is they'll be doing a North American release for the EP, which was available in the UK beforehand. I think. If I'm correct, they'll also be releasing the corresponding full-length, A Book Like This, in early March. That's the one that was half produced by Fran Healy of Travis.
It's really a shame that music from Australia doesn't reach North America easily. I mean, when that album was released, it at #5 in its home country, but I've only just heard of it. This has happened with a few Australian acts I discovered this year. Guess I just gotta work a little harder at finding them earlier on.
Be sure to listen to more of their tracks over at mySpace.
The brother-sister duo come to us from Sydney. Prior to collaboration, the both of them started out as solo acts and performed during open mike nights. Angus' voice is very soothing I must say. He reminds of of someone though I can't quite say who. Julia, well her voice brings to mind... Amy Milan, if she started spending too much time with Paolo Nutini. I know, strange description, but maybe you'll understand once you hear it.
I used to think the boy-girl duo as a band thing was quite novel. And then I started seeing them everywhere, and I grew accustomed to the set up. But the thing is, it still works. In the end and honestly speaking, I probably will end up lumping Angus and Julia in with others of their genre. But they're in there with some great artists who form a great medley.
But who knows? Maybe once I get my hands on A Book Like This and listen to it in full, the siblings will prove to be an unexpected stand-out. So that being said, I look forward to seeing their album on my local North American record store.
The following are all-ages unless otherwise specified. This list is SUBJECT TO CHANGE. I'll try my best to keep this up-to-date but ALWAYS double check official sources before you go.
I hope that sharing a few of your songs is alright by you. If not, please let me know as I will immediately remove your material upon request. We're still good though, right?
Greetings few, but well-loved readers. Please enjoy your stay but remember, the mp3s are for sampling and will only be available for a short time. If you find something you like, support the artist. Buying the record and going to shows makes everyone happy.
Music submission? Important feedback? Questions or comments? Complaint? We're more than happy to hear it: impressionableyouth@gmail.com
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