Parlour Steps are a self-described electro-pop/motown band hailing from Vancouver. The group’s engaging sound would fit nicely between The Decemberists and The New Pornographers in your record collection.
In 2009, Parlour Steps released a catchy gem of an album, The Hidden Names!, and have been touring in support of it ever since. In a rare offstage moment, front man Caleb Stull recently compiled a list of his favorite music-related movies for us. His Poetic Memory is below. Continue reading…
It’s hard not to love The Swell Season. Since winning the hearts of audiences — and an Oscar — with the 2006 film Once, Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova have maintained that adoration through rigorous touring, refreshing humility, and the recent release of their second album, Strict Joy.
Before The Swell Season took the stage at House of Blues on Tuesday, singer/guitarist Ryan Bingham opened up with some astonishingly derivative blues and folk. His raspy voice dripped with affectation as he rambled on about times changing and winds blowing like some copy of a copy of a copy of Bob Dylan. Continue reading…
In an unexpected crossover, Jason Segel, the charming star of Forgetting Sarah Marshall, I Love You, Man, and TV’s sorely missed Freaks and Geeks, joined The Swell Season on stage in Los Angeles last night to tickle the ivories and some funny bones. Performing a song expressly designed to make Swell Season groupies have sex with him, Segel took Marketa Irglova’s advice and included as much personal information in the song as possible. Segel’s Hail Mary pass included, among other things, giving out his home phone number to the crowd, bragging about his celebrity status, and insisting that no special effects were used in his full-frontal scene from Sarah Marshall. Check out the hilarious clip above.
Who doesn’t love The Swell Season? Ever since charming moviegoers with the romantic sleeper hit Once, Irish/Czech odd couple Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova have been trotting around the globe, bringing their heart-wrenching ballads to sold-out, adoring crowds. Their live performances have become renowned not just for the terrific music, but for Hansard’s endlessly engaging stream of anecdotes. And who could forget their much-deserved Oscar win for Best Original Song, which dutifully trampled the three obnoxious nominees from Disney’s Enchanted, and introduced the world to Hansard’s aw-shucks modesty and Irglova’s soft-spoken adorability?
Those who have played out their copies of the Once soundtrack now have cause to rejoice. The Swell Season—led by Hansard and Irglova and featuring members of Hansard’s other band The Frames—will be releasing Strict Joy on ANTI- Records on September 29th. Borrowing its name from a poem by James Stephens, the album features twelve new songs influenced by the band’s sudden and tumultuous success, as well as the birth and death of Hansard and Irglova’s offscreen romance.
The Swell Season will be touring in support of the new album, the dates for which will be announced soon. Also coming soon is a documentary that captures the band’s whirlwind post-Once tour, and which, if we’re lucky, will contain a performance of the hilarious children’s song “Banana Manâ€. We’ve got the track list for Strict Joy after the jump, as well as a video of Hansard and Irglova performing the inexorably awesome “Falling Slowlyâ€. Continue reading