« Beach House | Main | The Mountain Goats »

Imperial Teen

It's been how many years since Imperial Teen's On? Five years? That live album at Maxwell's from 2005 doesn't really count. Oh, Imperial Teen, I'm so glad you're back. The band claims to be working on a follow up to On, slated for release this fall. At the very least, you appear to be back for SXSW, and you could probably kick the asses of half the burgeoning indie rock bands playing the festival. The world's missed your infectious brand of keyboard-injected pop with killer riffs and catchy hooks, boy-girl harmonies splattered all over the place, thrilling eroticness and all.

A seductive song like "Ivanka" is like a breath of fresh air in today's crowded ipod-o-sphere; it shines and shimmies down the runway, guitars dueling with the dancey momentum of drums, clashing with the repeated refrain of "you wanna, you wanna, you wanna" as the song builds to an intoxicating conclusion. It's no question that the band comes at listeners full-throttle; Imperial Teen works best when the songs come at you like a 1-2 punch, crammed with crunchy guitar, snaking keyboards, and plenty of sing-shouty whooping.

It's understated, fun pop brilliance: an amalgation of lighthearted bubblegum, energetic punk, sassy New Wave, and driving garage pop, with a heavy dose of originality. Even their throwaway "do do"s and hand-claps seem like a premonition of bands to come. And if you've only heard radio-hit "Yoo-Hoo," you're missing out on the best parts.

Imperial Teen - Ivanka
Imperial Teen - Yoo-Hoo

Visit Imperial Teen's official site, anemic as it is. Buy On from Amazon or iTunes.

Posted by Queen of the Front Row at 03.06.07 at 12:44 AM

Comments

I just love that song Ivanka (I think I've heard it before). Did you feature it here a year ago?

Just out of curiosity. The Ivanka song download is only a minute long and cuts off in the middle. Is there a complete version of the song?

Posted by: Robert Nagle at 03.06.07 at 10:07 PM

Sorry about that, it's fixed now!

Posted by: Queen of the Front Row at 03.07.07 at 3:55 PM

All right, I'll be listening to this (and hopefully the SXSW bit torrent while driving up to Austin!).

Posted by: Robert Nagle at 03.09.07 at 12:00 AM

Post a comment

Please note: songs are only kept online for a short period of time.

Some HTML is allowed. You may use these tags: a href, b, i, br /, p, strong, em, ul, ol, li, blockquote, pre.

Name:

Email Address:

URL:
Remember Me? YesNo

Comments: (you may use HTML tags for style)

Recent Comments

In Imperial Teen
Robert Nagle wrote: All right, I'll be listening to thi... »

In Imperial Teen
Queen of the Front Row wrote: Sorry about that, it's fixed now!... »

In Imperial Teen
Robert Nagle wrote: I just love that song Ivanka (I thi... »

What This Is
See You in the Pit is an MP3 blog exclusively featuring artists who will be playing the SXSW Music Festival, because the best way to learn about music is to hear it. This weblog will self destruct on March 22nd. You have been warned.

Queen of the Front Row is a twenty-something music fan in New York City who spends more time looking for new bands than she'd care to admit. She can usually be found watching live music in divey clubs on the Lower East Side. She loves that everybody she knows from NYC ends up in Austin for SXSW.

Little Miss Rock'n'Roll is very pissed off that the management of Emo's has repainted the ladies' loo red, masking that gloriously nasty pink paint and all that graffiti. It looks like a circle of hell now. Anyway, she'd like you to know that she's lived in Austin for nearly 12 years now and still knows all the secrets about you and that local musician you think you'd like to date.

Last Girl to the Party is always the last girl to the party...usually because she's fretting about what to wear. She has lived in Austin for 9 years, knows which bars maintain supplies of Campari and Pernod and which serve Stella Artois in those annoying goblets. She'd also like you to know that she has more shoes than Queen of the Front Row and Little Miss Rock'n'Roll combined.

Disclaimers
We are not affiliated with SXSW, any record label/bands/musicians, iTunes, Amazon, any secret government agencies, or your parents. Posts, comments, songs, and angry letters of indignation belong to those who wrote them in the first place.

MP3s for sampling purposes only and will be available only for a limited period of time. Please support the music makers; without them, SYitP does not exist. Information wants to be free, but musicians gotta eat.

This site powered by Movable Type, Squidfingers, and love.