PEI's Two Hours Traffic shows you the many ways to display your hands when you don't know where to put them.
You could cross your arms in front of your chest defensively.
You could casually put them in your pockets.
You could shrug your shoulders and hold up your palms in disbelief.
You could show off some nice assets.
Their new album, Territory, is out September and I've got high hopes for this one! Their albums always get consistently better! I don't know if that's even possible, considering how good their last one was. But hey, I said that last time about their previous record, and I was blown away. Two Hours Traffic - Territory (mp3) (not yet for sale)
On Saturday, we went to Lee's Palace to see Two Hours Traffic and while people have recommended the two openers, Mardeen and We Are the Take, we were still late. A friend forgot her ID at home.
Anyways, we missed Mardeen but we managed to see We are the Take. It was a pretty good set and while I thought that the basswork and vocals had qualities reminiscent of say, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (well, some would say that everything's BRMC to me), now listening to their songs again, I would say that I was totally out of it that night. It's SO different than BRMC.
Two Hours Traffic's set was awesome of course. They played a tight set consisting of some new songs and old favourites. Which is to say favourites, since these songs couldn't possibly be older than 5 or 6 years old. We all had a head-bobbingly good time, leading to a guy in the audience shouting out random stuff leading to a crowd chant of "one more song!".
The band asked Mardeen and We are the Take to come out and perform Mardeen's "Telephone" and I wished I had made it to the show earlier. That one hook laden song was so much fun! But it also turns out that a couple of guys who were standing around the mechandise table earlier when we were buying stuff from the bands we saw earlier were actually in Mardeen! Oops. Awkward! But in my defence, I didn't know they were in Mardeen or the fact that there songs were so great before since I wasn't there! I'll have to check them out when they're playing again next time, that one song promises so much awesomeness. Note to self: next time, ask people behind merchandise table more questions!
As I began to write this post, Edie plugged in the family's old hair dryer. It must have been with us for at least a decade and probably consumes a lot more energy than it should. At least, that's what I assume because the light in my room flickered as soon as I heard the dryer's fan running from behind the adjacent wall.
We watched a movie called Paris, Je t'Aime over the weekend, something I've been meaning to do for about half a year. It's a compilation of 18 short stories from different directors, set in 18 different arrondissements in Paris. The hook they used for North American posters when they screened the film was "stories of love from the city of love". It was certainly something worth seeing, even if to only compare the obviously contrasts in story-telling techniques that the directors used. Of the 18 scenes, the one I found most powerful was set in Faubourg Saint-Denis and directed by Tom Tyker. It was about a blind man reflecting his relationship with an actress, played by Natalie Portman, after receiving a cliche but tragic break up call. The way that it was narrated and filmed was just so incredibly powerful. Of course, this was only about seven minutes of the entire film. There was a great narrative about a woman in a red trench coat, an unlucky tourist in the metro and a W-T-F vampire moment with Elijah Wood strewn before and after that scene for good measure. Also, a good Feist song to wrap things all up.
In other news, Impressionable Youth Blog Favourite Two Hours Traffic have a new video for Nighthawks. Personally, I'm a little tired of this song because I listened to the intro so many times during the period that I was trying to win their contest for an iPod touch.
Also, I'd like to add a tiny blog milestone to our agenda. Impressionable Youth is now officially listed in the Elbo.ws Music Blog Aggregator. Yay! I feel like I've made a tiny step up in the world.
And with that out of the way, in the words of the blind man living in reality and in fiction somewhere in Paris, "je revisais mes examens, mes examens, mes examens..."
A couple of days ago, Impressionable Youth and I got free passes to see a screening of the movie "Juno" at the Cumberland theatre. It was a cute movie, with the same kind of quirky awkwardness as the Royal Tenenbaums etc. It was about a sixteen year old girl played by Ellen Page who gets pregant and decides to give the baby up for adoption to a yuppie couple played by Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman, who plays Michael in "Arrested Development." We got t-shirts at the end of the film of a comic book in the movie staring Yuki, the Japanese pregnant manga superhero. Its one of those images that provokes a raised eyebrow expression and the uttering of "wtf?"
And the part in the film where they played Sonic Youth's cover of the Carpenter's "Superstar" brought back memories from when I was about 14 and I first saw the music video where Kim Gordon played the drums wearing a red dress. I thought it was the coolest thing ever that a girl was playing the drums.
And thanks to all who helped ImpressionableYouth click on the Two Hours Traffic Banner. We got second place. Yay! So as a token of our gratitude, here are two previously unreleased live tracks that came with the winnings:
Two Hours Traffic. This should be familiar to you. Perhaps you remember the phrase from the prologue to Romeo and Juliet, or perhaps you've heard of the band being mentioned twice on this blog already, despite Impressionable Youth only being a few posts old. Well, I mention them again this time because they're offering one lucky person an iPod Touch. Le Gasp! You have to understand that I've never actually owned any form of iPod. It's kinda sad... I have to borrow my dad's... And I can't put it on shuffle or else I'll end up listening to a bunch of Chinese songs. I wanna know what it feels like to have one of my very own! All I need you to do, is click here:
Isn't that a beauty? The more clicks I get, the better my chances are of winning. Simple, free and it spares only a second more of your time.
There are two reasons that I am posting onwards. My sister, Edie, has become very excited with this whole "blogging" business. I think even more excited than I. I can't let her become more dominant than myself by possessing so many more posts than me. Secondly, since it seems that I am constantly talking about the same bands, I figured I should introduce a new one to the stage.
Five Blank Pages. They are a group of four people, Noyan Hilmi, his sister Chelen Hilmi, and his girlfriend Pinar Ozyetis. Rajiv Thavanathan joined later on. I have no idea how to correctly pronounce any of their names, if that's what you were about to ask. They're an Ontario based band that travels the province playing various shows. Let's see; multi-culturally diverse band, Canadian, more than decent music. Looks like we're on to something? It would be nice to go see their upcoming October 19th show at the Horseshoe Tavern, but alas, I'm not of age for the show. I should have known. Anywho, the title of this post is a rather memorable lyric from the first song below. Enjoy!
Ooh, I almost forgot to mention this. Impressionable Youth has its first official reader/supporter! Yay! Go visit her at Nanette's Dog Blog or learn of, read about and buy some delicious, nutritious treats for your beloved canine at Temple Treats.
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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