I was watching the first season of the American show Flaked on Netflix a few days ago. Starring Will Arnett, it takes place in Venice and is shot on location. It's a pretty good show actually; a second season will premiere in 2017. (my favorite character is 'Cooler' played by George Basil who manages to give his character just the perfect amount of Southern California "dudeness".)
But what really got my attention was the music: wonderful little snippets provide the show with that unique laid back, sunny, Southern California vibe. The excellent soundtrack is a mix of known and lesser known artists/bands (search for it on YouTube where several users have uploaded the songs that are featured on the soundtrack). One track in the first episode was quite different than the rest, and my curiosity about the song set me on an obsessive Google search.
What is already well-known: for a couple of years, Brittany Tolman did keys/backing vocals for Imagine Dragons, co-founded by her drummer husband Andrew Tolman. They both left ID in 2011; by all accounts, it was an amicable split. Andrew joined The Moth & The Flame that same year.
What is not common knowledge: Brittany co-founded L.A. based quartet Mount Saint in 2013 with brothers Clint Holgate and Calvin Riley Holgate plus Drew Beck.; Andrew Tolman played drums in the studio.
The band released their four-track self-titled debut EP in January 2015, they played shows, they gave a few interviews, they made announcements on social media. And then POOF! Mount Saint seemingly disappeared into thin air.
The members themselves are alive and well - Brittany apparently lives in Portland, Oregon as we speak - but the Twitter/Facebook Mount Saint accounts went dormant last year, and no news from 2016 are to be found on the web. Fortunately, this year, someone had the brilliant idea to place their song "Excuses" in Flaked. Whether the placement will generate a renewed interest in Mount Saint remains to be seen; it greatly depends on the success of the show's first season (eight episodes.)
With this blog entry I hope to help spread the word on the band-that-came-and-went. The entire EP is superb, but "Excuses" is the track that continues to give me chills, and is the kind of song that should have been a monster hit last year. Perhaps it's not too late?
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/mount-saint-ep/id957456569
https://soundcloud.com/mount-saint (make sure to listen to all four EP tracks)
http://www.tunefind.com/show/flaked/season-1/30109#songs
