Ticket/CD Giveaway & Review: Flotilla @ Tranzac, Thursday, 4 June.

Montreal band Flotilla’s second full-length album, One Hundred Words for Water, is full of musical surprises of the best kind. Flotilla is hard to pin down, genre wise. Some tracks are solidly indie art-rock, but there’s a jazzy flavour underlying the whole album. Add a bit of cabaret, folk-rock elements, a dash of electronica, nonstandard time signatures, and occasional mid-song mood changes, and you’ve got Flotilla. Veronica Charnley’s vocals are the standout element, but the inclusion of harp lines throughout—a classical harpist is one of the band’s four regular members—also differentiate this band from others. Sonic surprises abound, but the intention is not to startle; rather, it is to delight. This beautiful, impressive album should find a place in the hearts of lovers of good music with a variety of musical tastes. [Full disclosure: Veronica was my best friend in grade 4 :-).]

Toronto audiences can hear Flotilla first-hand next Thursday, 4 June, when they release their album at the Tranzac with John Tielli's Metal Kites and Culture Reject. A great bill, at the right venue. Courtesy of Flotilla, I've got a pair of tickets to the show plus a copy of the new disk to giveaway to one lucky blog reader! To enter, email me at historyjenATgmailDOTcom. Please include your full name in the message, and "Flotilla" in the subject line. Get your entry in to me by 11:59pm on Tuesday, 2 June. If you don't win, tickets are available at the door for $8.

For a sense of what you're in for, here's a couple tracks from the new album, a couple from Flotilla's debut full-length, and a bonus track from Culture Reject. Enjoy!

Download: Flotilla, “Charlie, I’m Through” (One Hundred Words for Water, 2009).
Download: Flotilla, “A Thousand Jacobs” (One Hundred Words for Water, 2009).
Download: Flotilla, "Beneath the Snow" (Disaster Poetry, 2006).
Download: Flotilla, "Secret Love" (Disaster Poetry, 2006).
Download: Culture Reject, "Inside the Cinema" (Culture Reject, 2008).

Flotilla will be touring the new release in central and eastern Canada in June and July. Check their MySpace for details.