This song here is just some simple drums, guitars and voices and it's lovely. I do love the sound of Jay Malinowski's voice. It's got one of those soothing masculine rasps that I can't help but respond to with a girlish sigh. A stripped down acoustic album that focuses on this is going to be a very pleasant listen indeed. According to the official bio, it's the result of hardships and conflicts, band-related and otherwise.
"Being in a band through bad times is the worst marriage ever. You argue all the time, and it's sexless" he says with a laugh. "We started Bedouin Soundclash when we were really young and hadn't gone through many trials yet. You say you're not going to become the cliche, but if you spend enough time around cliches you become one. Basically that's what happened to us, and that's what happened to me."
He'll be touring Canada come March. You know, after he's done shooting a new video in Iceland and running the Olympic Torch in Vancouver. It's true!
Collectively, Bedouin Soundclash will be making an appearance during Canadian Music Week on March 12th at the Mod Club. They'll be launching Pirates Blend Records at the start of the new year, and plan to release another album in the late summer.
Some people go last minute Christmas shopping. I make last minute Christmas mixes. Here's a small handful that I rummaged up for today. Happy holidays, merry Christmas, and all that jazz everyone! I don't want to fight tonight.
Here in Toronto, local Edge 102.1 DJ Dave Bookman (Bookie) has a tradition of bringing great rock to the Legendary Horseshoe Tavern every Tuesday night. No cover. What a great guy! This particular Tuesday night was his second annual Holiday Bash with the Arkells, joined by Hollerado and The Order of Good Cheer. I'll be using the word "fun" many times in this post.
I hadn't heard of The Order of Good Cheer until the show. They're from Toronto, they're a little bit punk, a little bit country blues, and a little bit unexpected. Their frontman, Francesco Guidoccio came out all decked in white, pants, shirt and blazer. I thought he looked friendly but tired and disheveled in a very rock and roll kind of way.
Francesco Guidoccio displays good cheer.
They sang about taking it off, marijuana girlfriends and trannies. No, I'm serious. When I type it out it sounds immature and silly, but really they've got a wicked sense of humour in their songs and lyrics. I insist that you go out to their next show to witness them perform Lady Pizzle live. "Oh my god... it's bigger than mine". The few tracks and videos on their mySpace page don't do them justice in showing what a fun live act they are. Also, I'd like to give credit to their ukulele player. Never have I seen a person so enthusiastic about such a tiny instrument. He was really, really into it. That guy was shredding!
The second band of the night was Hollerado. Oh, Hollerado. I was just as excited to see these guys live as I was to see the Arkells, headlining later that night. They've been one of my new favourites since I found out about them last month and downloaded their record, Record In A Bag, for free on their official site. They sell their home-burned album at shows in Ziplocks, use doot-do-doos instead of la-la-las, send postcards to their fans, and exude an all-around aura of fun and good times. Last month they won $250,000 at a battle of the bands type gig hosted by Live 88.5, a radio station in Ottawa, and then immediately flew to China for a brief tour and about 24 hours after arriving back in Canada, they played this show.
In addition to spurring shout-along choruses with loud and boisterous crowd-winning tracks from Record in a Bag, they also conducted us through a drunken rendition of "Happy Birthday to... JESUS...", not because they're at all religious, but because Jesus has the best birthday parties. They tossed out paper cups with hand-drawn marker doodles on them, inviting whoever caught them to share a round of shots with them at the bar later. Even the people that weren't familiar with Hollerado's material were jumping and singing "whoa-oh-oh"s and pseduo-moshing. In fact, they were so won over that they continued singing the last song's whoa-oh-ohs even after the band left the stage!
You know how some people talk with their hands? One of my favourite things about seeing the Arkells live is that their lead vocalist, Max Kerman, sings with his hands. If the lyrics of a song tells you to reach out, he'll raise his palms to the sky. If the lyrics say that "there's no room for the sweaty", like in their hit single, Oh, the Boss is Coming!, he'll wipe his brow with a sleeve. It's the most charming thing. I think you should click here to vote for Max, or Arkells guitarist Mike DeAngelis, at Chart Attack's annual poll for sexiest Canadian man... Currently, Deryck Whibley is winning.
This was not your regular Arkells set. This was their Holiday Motown Dance Party. The entire tavern was singing along to Temptations, Smokey Robinson, Stevie Wonder and Four Tops covers, just to name a few. You could tell that the guys in the band were having a genuine good time playing an entire show of songs that they loved without having the obligation of playing songs that they wrote. It was a very fun-loving and care-free vibe that they spread through the crowd. It's kind of like there was an unspoken but mutual agreement between the band and the audience that they'd play whatever the hell they wanted, and make Beck references whenever they wanted, and invite their friends onstage whenever they wanted, and the audience only encouraged it further.
There were actually a lot of people that shared the stage with the Arkells that night, including Josh Tranger from the Sam Roberts Band, and this guy:
Figure 1: This is what awesome looks like.
"This guy" is actually a dude from local Toronto band, Dinosaur Bones. He got his very own rap interlude during the Arkell's rendition of Ms. Jackson (wooo!). Isn't he awesome with his facial hair and Casa Loma t-shirt? I've changed my mind; you should vote this guy for Chart Attack's sexiest Canadian man of 2009. He joined them onstage once again with Order of Good Cheer and a handful of guys I don't recognize for a massive rendition of Don't Let Me Down.
Some might call this a dance party. Some might call it a fine bromance. Some might call it a sausagefest. In any case, it was definitely one of the highlights of the set and it gave everyone at the Tavern a warm, fuzzy, feel-good sensation. What a great way to kick off the holidays.
The Futureless sounds like mix of trance, techno, ambience and indie. The 3 track Futura EP showcases drum machine and synthesizer samples, layered together with dance beats and bass lines that are at once cold and abrasive, but oddly compelling. Like it's leading up to something. It's like an abandoned warehouse that with the right amount of TLC will turn into a goldmine of a loft conversion. Their full length is expected to be released in the spring.
So maybe there's a future for the Futureless after all...
Their name makes me think of 80's jazzercise workout videos.
Their press shot looks like it was shot with the technology and clothing styles available in the 90's.
The sound is described as "grime, glam and regional mexican" on their myspace.
All this irony. That's so post-modern of you, Blane Fonda!
But their music is in no way related to jazzercise videos or regional mexican. There is a little bit of an atmospheric, heavily layered 90's influence from bands like the Smashing Pumpkins, perhaps owing to their hometown of Chicago. But overall, it's a post-modern sound, with 80's glam dance-rock elements, the kind that cleverly weaves lyrical stories with a sly eye towards the obvious and the ironic. Frontman Mark Wetzel's emotive voice makes these tracks stand out and the overall sense of urgency of the songs will make floppy haired, skinny jean wearing romantics sing along to these tracks over and over again.
Is there legitimate Chinese rock? I mean cool Chinese rock music. One with street credit. I thought it was a myth. All the Chinese music I've heard since 1995 has sucked. So I've been on a half-assed quest to find some. I think we're getting closer to some good Chinese (indie) music.
There are Chinese music blogs (they also write about English-speaking indie rock), like http://www.wooozy.cn popping up and some indie Chinese labels like Maybe Mars. Sonic Youth and Yeah Yeah Yeahs have played in Chinese music festivals so maybe there's finally market for this stuff.
Hollerado is from Manitock, Ontario and they're also opening the floodgates for indie rock from Canada to mingle with Chinese culture. They've just come back from touring in China and Hong Kong and they've even have a Chinese version of their website. While their songs are in English, they attempt Mandarin in "Dragon, Dragon, Tiger, Goat", which you can hear over at Exclaim! Magazine. In the meantime, you can hear one of their English tracks below:
Hey readers. We're busy doing our school exams. After that, we'll be back to update you properly about music, up-and-comers, year end lists and all of that other fun stuff. For now, we have to buckle down, sharpen our HB-2's and think about grown-up stuff, communications theory, stats and other not fun stuff. Vampire Weekend - The Kids Don't Stand a Chance (mp3) (amazon) (iTunes)
Sorry for the Christmas card tardiness this year. You may not get them in the mail before the 25th. At this point, maybe I should just write "Happy Easter!" on the cards instead?
Anyways, here's some tunes to kick start your holiday festivities!
Although the Impressionable Youth blog is based in Toronto, I'm very excited to announce that Vancouver's Busking For Change event is happening on Friday December 18th at Library Square. Busking For Change is an amazing event in which a handful of celebrated musicians take to the streets with their instruments to raise support for War Child Canada, an organization that aids children in war-torn areas of the world. It's also a rare chance for music fans to catch a couple of their favourite artists playing stripped down acoustic sets in support of a great cause.
Here's the Vancouver Busking For Change 2009 lineup:
In addition to making some great atmospheric rock, they've been busy calling in favours from their musical Vancouver buddies (see lineup above) in hopes of making this event a success. The guys are also asking you to show your support for War Child by signing a petition to increase the currently dismal amount that Canada's government puts toward overseas development assistance each year. In exchange for showing your support, the band will give you a free digital music bundle, which includes a couple of tracks and a video from their recent album, Lasting Distraction. Click here to sign the petition and to get some nice swag in the process! Elias - Thousand Pieces (mp3) (amazon) (iTunes)
If you're in the Vancouver area, mark down December 18th on your calendars, gather up all of your spare change, witness some great live music and mingle among some of your favourite Canadian artists at Library Square. And of course, great big kudos goes out to all of the musicians, coordinators and volunteers that are helping to make Busking For Change Vancouver a reality!
To learn more about War Child Canada, visit their website, here.
The first major snow fall of the year has taken Toronto. Yeah. Hey Winter, fuck you too! So the festive spirit hasn't descended upon me yet, but I'm sure this upcoming show will brighten up the winters of many of my fellow Toronto-nians.
You've probably already heard all about it even before you visited our humble blog. Audio Blood is a relatively new Toronto-based publicity/artist development company that's been helping to promote the local music scene, and they've been doing a pretty great job of it so far. They've even given us here at the Impressionable Youth blog quite a lot of the news and music that we've passed onto you too! Thanks, Audio Blood! Well, Audio Blood has teamed up with Third Estate (expect some really sweet swag and merch from these guys) to bring you "Jingle Bell Rock", happening at the Horseshoe Tavern this Saturday December 12th. It's going to feature four of Toronto's most engaging bands, The Balconies, Clothes Make the Man, Make Your Exit and Oh No Forest Fires! It's a guaranteed good time!
I apologize for the title of this post, it was late when I wrote this and I ran out of clever things to say.
I was watching an episode of One Tree Hill today and say what you will about that show, they do know good music. I was totally blown away by the performance of Wakey!Wakey! on Monday night's episode (Some Roads Lead to Nowhere). Mike Grubbs of Wakey!Wakey! is currently doing a guest star stint on One Tree Hill and the audience got to see his awesome piano performance of the song "Brooklyn". It was enthralling. Wakey!Wakey! is like a more classical and elegant Dashboard Confessional, which is a good thing.
If you would like to hear more from Wakey!Wakey! (full songs streamed and videos) or would like to purchase their music, that can be done here. I highly recommend it!
And for those readers who also enjoy the music of One Tree Hill, here is a great website offering a comprehensive guide to all the music ever played in the entire series.
I'd like to borrow two minutes of your time. Just two minutes. It started off being one but I couldn't find a shorter video.
After watching countless tv shows I enjoy cancelled due to poor ratings, I promised myself that I would try and get more people to watch these great shows and avoid the fates of such television shows like Arrested Development, Pushing Daisies, Firefly and Dollhouse.
Here is Better Off Ted. Season 2 starts tonight (Tuesdays, after Scrubs!) on ABC at 9:30pm. The promo below is pretty explanatory. The show is wonderfully neurotic and funny. In short, it's awesome! Check it out for yourselves!
I happen to be channel surfing last night during commercial breaks of Scrubs (New season! Different idea and cast, same good quality! Whew!) when I caught the Victoria Secret's Fashion Show. I won't say anything about the show itself, but they did have interesting song selections for the models to stomp down the runway.
One in particular caught my ear. A mashup of Police and Kings of Leon! It was one of those greater-than-the-sum-of-its-parts situations.
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
Peek-a-boo!
Francesco Guidoccio displays good cheer.
You know how some people talk with their hands? One of my favourite things about seeing the Arkells live is that their lead vocalist, Max Kerman, sings with his hands. If the lyrics of a song tells you to reach out, he'll raise his palms to the sky. If the lyrics say that "there's no room for the sweaty", like in their hit single, Oh, the Boss is Coming!, he'll wipe his brow with a sleeve. It's the most charming thing. I think you should click here to vote for Max, or Arkells guitarist Mike DeAngelis, at Chart Attack's annual poll for sexiest Canadian man... Currently, Deryck Whibley is winning.
Figure 1: This is what awesome looks like.
The future looks bright.
Blane Fonda sure loves irony.
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