Faronheit

Nobody is denying that Kanye West is controversial. The guy steals headlines for doing shit like calling George W. Bush out, claiming he “doesn’t care about black people”. He throws temper tantrums at awards shows when he doesn’t win things he was nominated for, and on occasion when other people don’t win things he felt they should have. It was after that whole Taylor Swift incident and the subsequent backlash that West really began to realize the world doesn’t bend to his every whim and desire. Well, he probably knew that before, but refused to give the thought much creedence. He wrote missives on his website about it, essentially apologizing and confessing that he needs to take a hard look at himself and work on both controlling his anger and thinking before speaking. It was the start of a self-imposed hiatus of sorts, where he disappeared from the media, from having an online presence, from showing up at friends’ shows to make surprise cameos. He went to Hawaii, one of the most beautiful and relaxed places on Earth, and found some mental health. Playing out like your traditional movie plotline, Kanye reached the low point where all hope may have seemed lost. His storied quest to become the greatest artist that ever lived hit its biggest speedbump as suddenly he had turned from hero to villain. Given the outspoken and completely honest manner in which he’s conducted himself since the very beginning of his rise to fame though, West has probably been playing the villain for some people longer than others.

Everyone loves a tale of redemption though, and after a few months of down time and personal reflection, Kanye West began working on a proper follow-up to his last record, 2008′s “808s and Heartbreak”. There were rumblings of a record reportedly titled “Good Ass Job” that was tentatively scheduled for release in mid-2010, but that failed to happen. Instead, West officially re-emerged from exile by showing up at Facebook and Twitter headquarters to do some impromptu a capella performances of some new material. Videos began to pop up online, and that sparked some interest. Soon after began the G.O.O.D. Fridays, in which West would give away free mp3s of new music once a week, thereby earning him loads of good will and renewed respect. It would have been largely for naught had the tracks he was handing out sucked, but as Kanye himself would probably tell you, “sucking” isn’t really in his vocabulary. The big comeback tour also included a stop by the MTV Video Music Awards, where just a year earlier his on-stage interruption was what sparked his fall from grace. Performing new track “Runaway” completely solo, West spouted off lines like “Let’s have a toast for the douchebags/Let’s have a toast for the assholes/Let’s have a toast for the scumbags”. It was pretty self-deprecating with just a hint of remorse for being one of those douchebag asshole scumbag jerkoffs. And so, Kanye West is officially back, the spotlight firmly on him once again with the much-delayed but finally released fifth album “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” officially landing last week. It’s almost as if he wanted to make sure it was out just in time for all those year-end “Best of” lists.

If there’s one thing we’ve learned about Kanye West over his last few years and albums, it’s that he doesn’t do small. Case in point, the music video for his 9-minute opus “Runaway” officially runs 35 minutes and features such spectacles as fireworks and a parade. “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” runs in a similar fashion, taking a mere 13 tracks and extending out to a grand 70 minutes. Eight of the songs extend beyond the five minute mark, and a couple of the shorter ones are merely interludes attached to bigger main tracks. Take the track “All the Lights” as one of the sharpest examples of excess, with over 42 people getting credit as having contributed something to the final product. There’s a whole brass section, strings, some woodwinds and about a dozen guest vocalists, most of which are impossible to pick out individually. The track itself is deceptively simple on the surface, but a close and studied listen reveals layers that go far beyond what any reasonable person might expect. So it goes for much of the record, jumping through a multitude of stylistic hoops with a who’s-who of guests that include everyone from Jay-Z to Nicki Minaj to Rick Ross and the WTF-ness of Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon. Thankfully most of the Auto-Tune madness that completely covered “808s and Heartbreak” has vanished, though in its place are plenty of other vocal manipulations. “Gorgeous” has West sounding like he’s gone all flat with his vocals hit with a pretty strong mono filter that makes you wonder what hip hop would have sounded like were there recordings of it in the 50s and 60s. There’s also the robotic vocal breakdown near the end of “Runaway” and just a slice of Auto-Tune on “Lost in the World” thanks more to the sampling of Bon Iver’s “Woods” than anything else. But “Blame Game” features the greatest vocal acrobatics, as West’s voice goes from slow to fast to just plain weird speeds all over an Aphex Twin piano sample. It’s also one of his bleakest tracks to date, taking the album’s title and rendering it completely true from a lyrical perspective.

Kanye West spends much of “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” talking about some heavy-handed topics. While getting into superhero lore on “POWER”, West also gets into a commentary about his increased loss of innocence and childlike wonder. There was a certain playfulness that took over on his first couple records, but it’s not like thoroughly depressing (but confrontational and real) topics are new ground for him. Hell, “808s and Heartbreak” was a record born out of a tragic breakup and his mother’s death. It was not a fun experience in the least. The fun on this new record really comes in the form of pure indulgence. Whether that means drinking and partying as much as you want or sleeping with a LOT of women, these are topics motivated purely by the pleasure centers of our brain. They’re also the part of the same section that houses the angry and violent urges as well, which is why on “Blame Game” he tells a girl he misses both fucking her and choking her. One assumes the choking bit is a sexual thing, but he says it with such malicious intent that it’s difficult to know where to draw the line. Similarly, “All the Lights” comes across as a celebration of fame but also deals with the perils and pitfalls that go along with it. It’s less “I’m so famous, I’ve had to stop trying to grocery shop” and more “Restraining order/Can’t see my daughter”. This highlights the dichotomy that weighs on this record from start to finish. For every light there is a dark. For every good there is a bad. For every hero there is a villain. For every beautiful fantasy there is a dark and twisted reality. Kanye West is and is about all of these things, and the public perception of him is just as divided. We can see ourselves in it too, which is what makes West such a powerful force in music today. There’s always the intensely relatable moments, like somebody’s reading straight out of our diaries, but thanks to his unfiltered perspective, sometimes West also goes on about the things we WISH we could do or say but wouldn’t dare on account of social convention or what effect it’d have on the way others see us. West gets away with it because he’s one of the few people that simply doesn’t care…or at least not as much as we do.

For inquiring ears that simply have to know, “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” is a hip hop achievement of the highest order. Hell, it’s a musical achievement of the highest order. Kanye West once again proves he’s one of, if not the best and most talented artists in music today no matter if he’s got love from the general public or not. The whole Taylor Swift thing? You might as well wipe that from your memory because not only are both artists involved sick and tired of talking about it, but they both have extremely well-received new records that deserve your undivided attention. The one thing you can never accuse Kanye West of being is unambitious, and this new album weighs in as a highlight reel of great moments from his past, taking place in the present, with a sharp outlook towards the future. Of course where he’ll go next is anybody’s guess, but at the moment he’s taking a page straight out of his song “Stronger”. With his personal and professional life in complete shambles, West took a step back, assessed the situation, and has risen from the ashes better than ever before. Haters be damned, Kanye West is here to stay. Now if only somebody could get him to shut up about it.

Buy “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” from Amazon
Buy it from Amazon MP3 for just $5 for a limited time

Last day of November, and it only figures that snow is on the way. Yes, the Chicago forecast has flurries set for the overnight and daytime hours tomorrow, though there won’t really be any measurable accumulation. I like the occasional snowfall, provided the roads don’t get too slippery or messy. Okay, so today’s Pick Your Poison highlights include remixes of songs by Crystal Castles (ft. Robert Smith) and Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. There’s also a brand new one from Dan Bejar’s solo moniker Destroyer, and a fellow Merge Records labelmate East River Pipe. For those in a holiday mood, check out the song from Ox as well.

Crystal Castles ft. Robert Smith – Not In Love (Glass Gifts Remix)

Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. – Vocal Chords (Diego and the Dissidents Remix)

Deacon the Villain & Sheisty Khrist – Ascension

Destroyer – Chinatown

Dominique Young Unique – Blaster (Robot Koch Remix)

East River Pipe – Cold Ground

Fuji Kureta – Hommage

Johnny Polygon ft. Kid Cudi – Riot Song (The Soundmen Remix)

Keeno – Hurt

Les Jupes – Myth #3 (The Mountain)

Night Riders – One Day At A Time (Remix ft. Grey Granite)

Ox – Xmas in the Jailhouse

Sleeping in the Aviary – You Don’t Have to Drive

Tristen – Baby Drugs
Tristen – Eager for Your Love

Daft Punk haven’t released a new album of original material since 2005′s “Human After All”. That’s not to say they haven’t been busy though. They’ve continued to perform mindblowing live shows on occasion and even released a live album in 2007. Oh, and we can’t forget the movie they made, “Electroma”, which they wrote and appeared in but did not create the soundtrack. The film wasn’t the first they’d made, and it probably won’t be the last. One of the themes that Daft Punk seem to be exploring in their various projects are the close relationships between the visual and auditory. It’s a big part of what makes their live shows so kinetic and engaging. That’s why it makes perfect sense that the duo would actually craft a movie soundtrack someday. It was just a matter of finding the right film to work on. The ideal situation finally presented itself a couple years back as Disney was preparing to make a sequel to the 1982 cult classic “Tron”. With the technology available today, recreating the futuristic video game world for “Tron: Legacy” seems like an inspired idea. Apparently Daft Punk’s Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo is a huge fan of the original film as well, so the duo cut a deal with Disney to provide a full album’s worth of new music that would serve as the official soundtrack.

Had the makers of “Tron: Legacy” chosen to use old Daft Punk music to soundtrack the film, it’d probably turn out just fine. Daft Punk is one of the best electronica groups in music today, and songs like “Around the World” and “Harder, Faster, Better, Stronger” sound very futuristic in and of themselves. Still, the prospect of entirely new Daft Punk is too good to pass up, particularly with the attention it’d bring, so it made the anticipation for the film itself that much higher. Fans of the duo have been clamoring for any material they can find from the soundtrack, and bits of excitement came in the form of the movie’s trailer, which features the song “Derezzed”. Amazon has since begun to offer 30 second preview snippets of the album, and NPR just put up a lengthy interview with the film’s music supervisor that has a few songs from the soundtrack available for streaming as well. These little bits and pieces are certainly getting more attention than, say, Hans Zimmer’s “Inception” soundtrack or Clint Mansell’s “Black Swan” soundtrack, both of which are hotly tipped for Oscar nominations. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross did attract attention for their soundtrack work on “The Social Network” this year, and that was largely because of how different it sounded compared to your average Nine Inch Nails song. But assuming you’ve paid enough attention to catch at least a small clip of the “Tron: Legacy” soundtrack, you’ll easily recognize that while it may be Daft Punk behind the music, there’s a whole big 85-piece orchestra backing them up. Two synthesizers and a drum machine just isn’t going to cut it anymore, as interesting as that might have been. So with all those extra moving pieces as part of every song, any hope that this might be a fun and danceable soundtrack like their normal albums gets thrown out pretty quickly.

Opening with “Overture”, the orchestra swells and there’s this whole grand, triumphant moment that comes across like the excitement that all the “Tron” nerds will be experiencing once that movie title is revealed on the screen. Things get decidedly more electronic after that, with Jeff Bridges doing a spoken word thing as he describes “The Grid”. The beat is downtempo, but synths come in with a little symphonic assist and the 90 second track gets a sharp Daft Punk stamp on it. The same can be said for “The Son of Flynn”, which has plenty of skittering electro-parts while a horn section quietly rises in the background. That’s sort of the way things go for the entire record; often the orchestra holds down and dominates a track with plenty of cellos and violins that race along like a light cycle on the track. Synths and other electronica elements play a significant role in most tracks too, tending to lend the entire soundtrack a very dark, epic and futuristic vibe. A dance record this is not (“Derezzed” being about the only exception), but it’s not a typical soundtrack either. Daft Punk make sure their presence is known, even if it involves a squelch here or a drum machine there. To put it another way, if you subtract the duo from every track, you end up with an extremely normal and somewhat boring collection of instrumentals that still work. As it stands though, the Daft Punk bits added will serve to compliment the film perfectly and turn this from a merely good soundtrack to an extremely good if not great one.

Where the “Tron: Legacy” soundtrack will work best is obviously within the context of the film. Given that it’s not in theatres yet, though the soundtrack isn’t out until next week anyways, just listening to it completely separated from the visual elements is really fascinating. To be able to pin certain tracks to certain scenes will only increase each track’s value as time goes by. And based on some of the track names, you can guess bits of plot information or what scene it belongs in. Will “Disc Wars” be playing when some characters throw those light-up frisbees at one another? You can probably put money on it. Whether or not you choose to put money on the “Tron: Legacy” soundtrack can be a challenging decision to make. As great as Daft Punk can be, and they prove it again here, this isn’t the sort of record you’re going to want to throw on for casual listening or at a party. A better thought would be to make a call on picking this up based on your past instrumental soundtrack experience. Does something like John Williams’ “Star Wars” soundtrack get your blood moving in the right sort of way? Perhaps you prefer a more traditional pop song, something with words and actual singing. Or maybe Daft Punk’s dance-filled records like “Homework” and “Human After All” are more your style. This album has a high possibility of disappointing you if you’re on board solely because you’ve loved everything the French duo has done in the past. It’s been 5 years since the last record and some of us are starving to hear something, anything, new from Daft Punk, but this isn’t quite what was expected. The ray of hope is that considering the complicated and epic nature of these tracks, you’ll probably never see the majority of them performed live. This soundtrack then functions as more of a one-off, and maybe a more traditional dance-filled electronica Daft Punk album isn’t too far down the line. It’s nice to know that these guys can make a pretty killer soundtrack, but perhaps next time the orchestra and enslavement to a storyline can take a break for something truly worthy of the legacy that this duo has had going for them the last decade.

Stream 21 minutes of the soundtrack at Myspace

Preorder the “Tron: Legacy” soundtrack from Amazon

Hope you had a delightful holiday weekend. If you’re not American, I hope you had a great “just normal” weekend. Too much turkey and pumpkin pie for me, but that happens every year. The good news is that after a couple days’ break, we’re back and so is Pick Your Poison. Plenty more great mp3s to help satisfy your hunger for new music. Things you’ll want to pay close attention to today include tracks from Englishman, Hot Sugar, Off!, The Twilight Singers, and Win Win featuring Lizzi Bougatsos of Gang Gang Dance. There’s a Tahiti 80 remix as well, a song from Big Search, which is a new project from Matt Popieluch from Foreign Born. And hey, a special holiday track from Best Coast and Wavves rounds this set out nicely. Download away, and enjoy.

Anika – Yang Yang (Yoko Ono cover)

Best Coast and Wavves – Got Something for You  (ZIP)

Big Search (Matt Popieluch from Foreign Born) – That’s All (Lights On)

Diego and the Dissidents – Nerve Storm

Englishman – Boy T-Rex

Hot Sugar – Fuckable

La Femme – Sur La Planche

Moviegoers – Avalanche

Off! – I Don’t Belong

Tahiti 80 – Darlin’ (John Talabot’s ObscuroBaile Remix)

The Twilight Singers – Blackbird and the Fox

We Were the States – Gold

Win Win – Releaserpm (ft. Lizzi Bougatsos of Gang Gang Dance)

“Are you with us, or against us tonight?”

That sentence makes up the chorus of the new Smashing Pumpkins song “The Fellowship”, which leads off the second of eleven 4-song EPs underneath the “Teargarden By Kaleidyscope” series. Billy Corgan and his band of faceless strangers officially started the whole 44-song project this past May, when they unleashed the first volume subtitled “Songs For A Sailor”. To be perfectly clear though, the band has been steadily releasing songs, one at a time, in the months preceeding each EP, but it’s only when a four song cycle is completed that everything gets packaged together and sold in a limited edition set with all sorts of little trinkets and goodies. Really that’s stuff for the hardcore fans, and those of us simply wanting to hear and/or own the music can go digital and download the songs for free via the band’s website. In other words, at absolutely no cost to you, turning down new music from The Smashing Pumpkins could be considered foolish, unless of course you really hate the band. Lord knows they’ve done plenty to attract the wrong kind of attention these last few years since Corgan recruited a bunch of randoms to replace the great musicians that helped create classic records like “Gish” and “Siamese Dream”. The official “return” of the band came in the form of the record “Zeitgeist”, which was something of a left turn into a more prog-rock territory with long form compositions rather than easy-on-the-ears singles. Corgan claimed he could write those in his sleep and was consciously choosing not to. Then came the angry rants at live shows after fans would get angry over the lack of old material being played. Controversy follows The Smashing Pumpkins around like a lost puppy. But to say the least, this “Teargarden By Kaleidyscope” project has been interesting thus far, and the first batch of songs wasn’t half bad, even if they could often feel scattershot or random in their placement together. The new volume is subtitled “The Solstice Bare”, and it physically went on sale earlier this week in very limited quantities.

At nearly 4 minutes long, “The Fellowship” follows a pretty standard verse-chorus-verse structure. Synths and keyboards take an early lead on the track, but electric guitars swoop in and take over the mic soon enough to surge ahead and bring the track the anthemic quality it needs to succeed. This is the sort of song the band can get away with playing to start their shows – one that’s catchy single-bait and with enough energy to get fists pumping and crowds “on their side”. It’s a surprisingly decent song from the band, that is, in comparison to the rest of the “new school” Smashing Pumpkins and not the “classic” one. The official first single and one that’s actually earned the band radio airplay recently is “Freak”, a crunchy, fuzz-riddled guitar song in desperate need of a James Iha solo. Despite this, it’s another surprisingly good track that works on multiple levels while simultaneously making a strong case for why the very young drummer Mike Byrne could just be a suitable replacement for Jimmy Chamberlain. Acoustic guitars, drum machines and synths start “Tom Tom”, but are quickly tossed aside for live drum work and electric guitars. Mid-way through the song though, there’s a small gap of silence before the whole process starts over again. Once again you get what amounts to a pretty normal-sounding Pumpkins song, but in this case not a whole lot happens in general. Once you get the build up to the first chorus, only the bridge veers off course and even then not very much. No guitar solos, nothing really noteworthy about the song at all, which ultimately makes it a bit bland. Bland doesn’t necessarily equal weak though, inoffensive and standard are two similar words to use that make about the same amount of sense. If “Tom Tom” were playing in the car or in another situation where I’d have the option of turning it off, 9 times out of 10 it’d stay on with little complaint. The keyboard gets set to “harpsichord” at the start of closing track “Spangled”, but once the electric guitars come in the setting changes to “organ”. There’s something that resembles a string section in the background during portions of the song too, there’s just so much else going on higher in the mix that it’s tough to tell. In the case of this 2.5 minute song, it remans instrumentally interesting from start to finish, but lacks the easier catchiness of the other songs. That “problem” become easier to accept given how brief the track is, and that it closes out the EP. There are very few artists that save their best for last.

As this “Teargarden By Kaleidyscope” series progresses, it appears more and more like Billy Corgan is learning a whole lot from past mistakes. When he “reunited” the Pumpkins a few years ago, Corgan very much retained his dictator-type personality that drove his bandmates off in the first place. Jimmy Chamberlain, perhaps his greatest and best friend, stood by him through it all. At some point after the touring cycle for “Zeitgeist” though, he finally had enough and abandoned ship. Not saying there was a straw that broke the camel’s back, but after remaining so defiant and in defense of every piece of music he’s ever released, Corgan now seems to be okay with looking backwards to a time when the masses loved him despite his perceived faults. It was a generation of kids that grew up listening to the band and fully identifying with the sheer angst and outright honesty that Corgan was throwing in their direction. Those fans have grown up now, yet Corgan seemed to be steadfast in his finger pointing and generalized anger. Starting with the first entry in this 44-song project, “Songs For A Sailor” was a small shift in direction for the Pumpkins, retaining just a little bit of that prog-rock from the maligned “Zeitgeist” while showing faint hints of a classic-but-new progression towards a normal rock song. Anger is much less on the menu these days, and in its place are songs about having an imaginary son and Corgan’s own take on spirituality. There’s also hooks, which had been taking a back seat for awhile in an effort to do something different. The Billy Corgan we hear on “The Solstice Bare” is a more adult, mature and aware Billy Corgan than we’ve heard in a long time. He’s starting to come around and is meeting fans old and new somewhere in the middle. It’s the smart move to make, and one can hope it may eventually result in a true rebirth of The Smashing Pumpkins that may someday rival the classic stuff. Both the last EP and this new one are beginning to carve out a new legacy, slowly but surely. We’ve got 9 EPs and a few years left in this “Teargarden By Kaleidyscope” project, but if each successive set of 4 songs continues to improve on the one before it, this could be a real great and meaningful thing once it’s finally wrapped up.

The Smashing Pumpkins – Freak
The Smashing Pumpkins – Tom Tom
The Smashing Pumpkins – Spangled

Buy a physical copy of “The Solstice Bare” EP from Amazon for a limited time only!

Though he doesn’t know how to use a computer, I’d like to take this moment just to wish my grandfather a Happy 70th Birthday. I can only hope, with my “live fast, die young, leave a beautiful corpse” lifestyle that one day I’ll be celebrating that birthday. But hey, this pre-Thanksgiving edition of Pick Your Poison is not only extended (for her pleasure), but also features quite a great number of notable notables. First up, let me offer you a full mixtape from the band Depressed Buttons, which is a new electro group that features a few members of The Faint. They’ve put together a collection of “influences” that range from Gonzales to Bob Dylan to ZZT to Underworld. The link below is to a direct download, and it comes with a full track listing. You’ll also want to keep an ear out for songs from Daniel Martin Moore, Giant Sand, Paul Simon (yes, THAT Paul Simon), Retribution Gospel Choir, and Treasure MammaL. Have a GREAT Thanksgiving my fellow Americans, and normal posting will resume…probably Friday, but maybe Monday, depending on how much I eat.

Cajun Gems – Hat Trick (ZIP) 

Cours Lapin – Cache Cache
Cours Lapin – Un Deux Trois

Daniel Martin Moore – Dark Road

Depressed Buttons – Mixmeat Mixtape (ft. Gonzales, Bob Dylan, Underworld and more!)

Giant Sand – Ride the Rail

Hallelujah the Hills – Nightingale Lightning (Live)

Mr. Little Jeans – Rescue Song (RAC Remix)

Paul Simon – Getting Ready for Christmas

Peder – Daylight
Peder – Reverse Your Diamonds

Retribution Gospel Choir – Workin’ Hard

The Spyro – Nippon Sling

Tommy Santee Klaws – Light On

Treasure MammaL – Kokopelli

Yuzima – Science Project

Zac Crouse – Waiting on the Wind

Pete Yorn has been particularly productive the last couple years, and there’s a couple reasons why that might be the case. Is he in desperate need of money? Well, with album sales being what they are these days, most artists don’t make much if any money from them. Touring is by far the more lucrative method of getting some quick cash, though hypothetically Yorn could do a few years worth of it and maintain strong ticket sales even without some new music to back it up. Yet Yorn is now releasing his fifth album, a mere year after his last one “Back & Fourth”. Previously he’s gone at least 2 years between records. Maybe he’s just feeling exceptionally productive these days. He’s also got a brand new record label after signing to Vagrant, certainly a step down from the massive Columbia but perhaps he likes it that way. He also worked with a new producer this time around in the form of Mr. Frank Black, a name you might recognize in association with the Pixies or Black Francis or any number of other musical projects he’s associated with. It’s most likely that combination of elements, getting a fresh label with a fresh producer that pushed Yorn to make his fifth record self-titled. Given his hit-or-miss history over the past 10 years, on the surface this new one appears to have a lot going for it, the question is whether or not that’s enough.

“Precious Stone” opens the album, and as Pete Yorn tends to write love songs pretty well, this one fares as one of his best to date. Of course comparing a woman to a precious stone isn’t exactly a new concept, but cliched situation or not, Yorn’s smart writing helps greatly. Where it doesn’t aid him is on the song “Rock Crowd”, where the cheese factor is so high that it has become a new anthem for mice. The idea behind the song is this: poor Pete Yorn always feels tired and depressed and down, but then he steps on stage to adoring fans and it’s like a warm embrace that makes him feel all better. Will Yorn play it at virtually every single show from now until eternity? You can probably bet on it, and I’ve not heard a more pandering song in the last several years. “Cutesy” is another way to describe it, along with the song that directly follows “Rock Crowd”, which is “Velcro Shoes”. Surely you’ve heard the Paolo Nutini hit “New Shoes” about how he puts his “new shoes on and suddenly everything is right”. With “Velcro Shoes” he tells the story of buying the shoes, going home and taking a bath with his imaginary friend Billy, then having imaginary adventures with Billy. Let’s hope the song was written from the perspective of a little boy, or Yorn might have some unchecked mental issues. What’s most interesting about that track though is how much it sounds exactly like something that Frank Black would do either solo or with his band the Catholics. A lot of the album actually carries that Frank Black touch, and that largely comes through in the heavy electric guitar work and some of Yorn’s vocals which sometimes get to the point where it sounds like somebody else is singing. One listen to “Badman” and you’ll be left wondering what new artist you’ve just stumbled upon. The words are 100% Pete Yorn though, and there’s no doubt about that, which is good for the wordplay but just a little bland when it comes to concepts and storylines.

Speaking of concepts and storylines, this self-titled record finds Yorn trying to manage the challenges of being bipolar. What’s that, you say? Pete Yorn isn’t bipolar? Perhaps a psychologist can give this record a listen and craft a diagnosis based around that. Hell, the song “Rock Crowd”, as I’ve already attested, features both his light and dark side. But much of the album comes from a very raw and intense emotional place. He appears to be pretty down on himself in general, such as on “The Chase” where he’s pretty much an asshole to this woman he loves, and then basically admits to being a horrible person while trying to convince her to come back to him. For an opposing viewpoint, the song “Always” spends a fair amount of time talking about the challenges that come with falling in love, but maintains all the struggles are worth it in the end just to have that deep connection with another person. “Stronger Than” gets all high and mighty by proclaiming that “love is stronger than fear”, yet Yorn is extremely hesitant to even consider falling in love because “I gotta know myself before I know someone else”. Then “Future Life” takes the high road in the perspective that we’re constantly wanting more out of our lives and because that makes us miserable, we should focus on all the great things we have right this minute. It’s optimism, but the subtext is telling you to give up on your dreams. At least for this song, Yorn ascribes to the mentality of “today is a gift, that’s why they call it the present”. The album closes with a pretty straightforward folk cover of the Flying Burrito Brothers song “Wheels”, and there are two reasons why that’s amusing. First, Yorn has a song called “Burrito”, and though that and “Wheels” are completely unrelated, how weird is it that the guy has two burrito-related songs to his name? Secondly, you’ll never guess who covered that same Flying Burrito Brothers song on his last album. If you said Frank Black, you’d be right.

What “Pete Yorn” the album puts on display, if anything, is that Yorn is a rather shapeless, faceless singer-songwriter that has gotten by on his sheer ability to write a pretty damn dynamic and catchy hook. His first four records were all about that, and both brought him pain and good fortune. The best fortune he could have gotten was in the form of “musicforthemorningafter”, his debut album, which was amazing in how it took all his best hooks and lyrics, leaving everything else in the dust as he scrambled to put together two more albums as part of a proposed “trilogy”. “Back and Fourth” was a recovery of sorts, no longer constrained by the conceptual nature of his prior three records, and allowing his band to do their fair share of heavy lifting on the instrumental side. Yet if the stories are indeed true, the main reason why Pete Yorn has been so “productive” these last couple years isn’t so much because he’s writing at a speedy pace but instead because so much of his material gets shelved. The second album Yorn released last year was “The Break Up”, a duets record with Scarlett Johansson. That had been gathering dust for a number of years before it was finally put out. Similarly, word on the street is that this new album was actually recorded with Frank Black prior to “Back and Fourth”, but the songs were held back, presumably because Columbia didn’t want to release them. Vagrant put them out, and the full painting finally comes into view, but like a Monet it’s just a bit blurry. Black largely succeeds in his mission to strip Yorn down to his most basic core, the problem is what we find upon going there. It’s a man in an identity crisis, unsure about life and love while allowing himself to be easily influenced by others (such as Frank Black). What suffers most because of this are the hooks, because even though a handful of choruses may surge and swell, not much of it remains memorable. Despite this, nothing sounds outright bad either. The good news is we get to explore this different side of Pete Yorn, and it’s one of the most interesting things he’s done in awhile. The bad news is interest gets lost with relative quickness and never picks back up. Best of luck to you Pete Yorn, hopefully you truly “get to know yourself” better before setting foot into a studio to record your next album.

Pete Yorn – Velcro Shoes

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Can you taste the impending turkey? If only we could celebrate Thanksgiving every day. Of course then we’d all be about 100 lbs heavier than we are now. As we continue to ramp up this holday week, another good set of tunes in Pick Your Poison. Personal choices today include songs from Aidan Knight, Black Whales, Eux Autres, and Oreo Jones + Jookabox. You’ll also definitely want to download the track from Sonny and the Sandwitches, which is a combination of the Sandwitches and Sonny of Sonny and the Sunsets.

Aidan Knight – Friendly Fires

Amanda Jo Williams – Late Bloomer

Black Whales – Rattle Your Bones

Bob Mandelbaum – Greene
Bob Mandelbaum – It’s Easy (It’s So Easy)

Bomarr – Exchanges Among Systems

Brass Bed – How to Live In A Bad Dream

Emily Reo – I’ll Never Live By the Coast

Eux Autres – Queen Turner

Jim Sullivan – Highways

The Knocks – Dancing With the DJ (Monsieur Adi Remix)

The Olympics Symphonium – Settle Down

Oreo Jones + Jookabox – Guiding Light

Sonny and the Sandwitches – Throw My Ashes From This Pier When I Die

Talk – Holy Mountain

Let’s break down the basics before we begin. There was Sleater-Kinney, a three-piece punk rock girl group made up of Carrie Brownstein, Corin Tucker and Janet Weiss. They released a bunch of great albums, fiery and brash each one, but chose to take an “indefinite hiatus” in 2006. Going their separate ways, drummer Janet Weiss kept working hard, making albums with Quasi and Stephen Malkmus (with The Jicks). Guitarist and sometimes singer Carrie Brownstein expanded into other artful projects, blogging for NPR and doing a bit of acting work both as one half of the comedy duo ThunderAnt (with SNL’s Fred Armisen) and even starring in an upcoming indie film with The Shins’ James Mercer. All of this happened before we’d heard a word from Tucker, who had practically dropped off the face of the Earth. No worries though, she’s been working hard at that thing many of us have known as family. She’s got a couple kids and a husband and sometimes you just need to take a step back from the fame to spend time with those most important to you. The good news for fans of Corin Tucker is that she’s been working on some songs during her free time and was able to eventually piece together a small band to help her play them for a record titled “1,000 Years”. And just to keep everything completely up to date, Weiss and Brownstein have just recently announced they’ll be in a new band with Mary Timony that’s being called Wild Flag. Expect material and touring from them in 2011.

There’s this wail that Corin Tucker did on every Sleater-Kinney album that was often so intense you could stop the rest of the music and your attention would still be completely drawn to it. That’s one of the main things that set Sleater-Kinney apart from so many other punk bands as well as other girl bands. Combine that with some seriously hardcore guitar work by Carrie Brownstein and it’s little wonder why that band reached indie stardom. For those of you (like me) that have missed Tucker’s classic yell, there’s bad news afoot on “1,000 Years”. It’s a relatively quiet, introspective singer-songwriter sort of record. So much of it keeps a cool head about it that tends to bring to mind someone like Neko Case or PJ Harvey. Of course Neko Case and PJ Harvey have written some incredible solo albums, and they’re proof positive that just because your voice can reach the rafters doesn’t mean it needs to be used that way every time. Tucker’s relative calm through much of the album means there’s more time to focus on atmosphere and lyrical content, and there’s plenty of both to go around.

The first two tracks on “1,000 Years” understandably feel front-loaded to ease you into the record without taking many chances. It’s still a long way from the heavier punk that Sleater-Kinney so easily released into the world, but there’s some electric guitar that’s not half bad in these mid-tempo melodies. The song “Half A World Away” is about missing somebody you love, and Tucker’s vocals sound like she’s genuinely upset in a surprisingly emotional moment. A small bit of experimentation emerges on “Handed Love”, which starts out as a really sparse, bland and ineffective ballad with little to nothing going for it. There’s no easy verse-chorus-verse to guide you around, and just as it becomes a chore to sit through, it bursts open at the seams into a cathartic release that somehow feels worth it. The spitfire side of Tucker really starts to emerge on “Doubt”, and there are slices of her tour-de-force yelp, but the mediocre electric guitar work holds the song back from being something exceptional. Meanwhile the balladry of “Dragon” just does most everything wrong, thanks in large part to a string section that is probably one of the most ineffective and pathetic string sections you’ll ever hear. The song stands out as exceptionally poor as it’s sandwiched beween two harder rock numbers that do so much more with so much less. Near the end of the album, a couple of the songs almost start to blend into one another. “Thrift Store Coats” has some nice piano at the beginning, but the electric guitars eventually take over and ruin the mood. Thankfully that piano is given its full due on the closing track “Miles Away”, and it works quite well to become one of the album’s biggest highlights.

When she’s not driving forwards at full volume, Corin Tucker proves she’s still a very capable and strong vocalist. The passion she injects into her singing stands largely apart from everything else that’s going on throughout “1,000 Years”. There’s a number of pretty good songs on the record, but nothing quite so gripping that it’s essential listening. Arguably, the greatest problems here result from the “Band” part of The Corin Tucker Band. Whoever these people are playing on this album with her, they’re talented enough to play in a band, just a pretty crappy one that doesn’t make waves beyond a local music scene. They should be called a backing bland rather than a backing band. Perhaps, one might argue, they’re just following orders and are ensuring to give Tucker the spotlight she so richly deserves. Whatever the reasons might be, a few of the songs on “1,000 Years” had the potential to be mindblowing but just never made it that far. Or perhaps the issue isn’t so much who’s there as it is who’s not. With Carrie Brownstein digging in deep on her guitar and Janet Weiss slamming the drums like there’s no tomorrow, combined with Tucker’s vocals, Sleater-Kinney was a trinity of amazing musicians. We can’t even judge how Brownstein would do solo because she has yet to release any post-S-K music (at the moment). Weiss’s utility player role will serve her well in any band she joins, as we’ve already seen. The Wild Flag album’s going to be a small test, but that in itself is a supergroup so great things are expected from them anyways. Corin Tucker is effectively going it alone with some faceless musicians helping her out. Expectations were high anyways, and so “1,000 Years” feels like a mild disappointment. Nobody’s going to fault her for trying though, and if she keeps making music under the Corin Tucker Band name it could very well get a whole lot better. Time will tell. In the meantime, let’s keep our fingers crossed for that Sleater-Kinney reunion.

The Corin Tucker Band – Doubt

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Welcome to Thanksgiving Week, where much like all the food that will wind up on your table (and in your stomach), Pick Your Poison is overindulging with mp3s. Feel free to gorge yourself on songs from the “30 Rock” soundtrack, Acrylics, Ethan Gold, Lyrics Born, Tyvek and Wow & Flutter. There’s also a pretty cool remix of a Phenomenal Handclap Band song by Fujiya and Miyagi.

30 Rock – Werewolf Bar Mitzvah (RAC Remix)

Acrylics – Nightwatch

Bleeding Heart Narrative – Perun  (ZIP)

Burt Rocket – Santa’s Hot Rod

Ethan Gold – Come On Beat It Down

Hard Nips – Release It

Holcombe Waller – Risk of Change

I Only Date Models – This Ends Tomorrow…

Kermit Ruffins – Hey Look Me Over

Lyrics Born – Lies x 3 (Amp Live Remix)

The Phenomenal Handclap Band – The Journey to Serra Da Estrella (Fujiya & Miyagi Remix)

The Puppini Sisters – Last Christmas

Shunda K – Dancing

Tyvek – Underwater To

The Winebirds – The Solution

Wow & Flutter – The Puget Sound

In a Live Friday that’s sure to get all kinds of people all kinds of excited, today’s session is with Mumford and Sons. The band has gotten HUGE in the last 6 months or so, while at the same time surviving what some might regard as a critical snubbing. Okay, so they’re not the most brilliant band in the world, but they can write a catchy song and that’s half the battle right there. Digging back deep into the archives for this one, as I do try and keep the sessions featured on here pretty current, this set comes from that crazy time known as 2009. Back then, Mumford and Sons were just some young group of guys from overseas preparing for their first album to be released in America, where nobody had heard of them yet. Perhaps due to censorship issues, they avoid doing the hit single “Little Lion Man”, but happily throw four other songs our way. In the interview, which you can stream via the link below, they talk about how the band started, what their sonic influences are, and why Mumford is the “band dad” and the other guys are only “sons”. It’s kinda fun. So are the songs.

Mumford and Sons, Live on WXPN in 2009:
Mumford and Sons – White Blank Page (Live on WXPN)
Mumford and Sons – Timshel (Live on WXPN)
Mumford and Sons – Winter Winds (Live on WXPN)
Mumford and Sons – Sister (Live on WXPN)

Stream the entire interview/session

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Thanksgiving is next week, if you’re American that is. There’ll be a couple days without a post next week in observance of that. Basically my body will be too stuffed with turkey and other foods to actually get up off the couch and type something up. Those are the moments to cherish. No, I’ll probably spend that time preparing for year-end listmaking and such. But to wrap up this week, we’re in fine shape with another extended Pick Your Poison, and on a Friday no less. Top picks today include songs from Bardo Pond, Glass Ghost (doing a Bear in Heaven cover), Elk, Suns, and MEN (which features members of Le Tigre). Everything’s enjoyable on some level, so be sure to check all this great stuff out.

Bardo Pond – Don’t Know About You

Birds of Avalon – Invasion

Brass Bed – God Saves the Thieves

Dead Horse – Interstellar Remedies

Debra Dolce – Goodies (Dirty Disco Youth Remix)

Elk – Volleyball

Glass Ghost – Fake Out (Bear In Heaven cover)

Hundreds – Solace (Single Edit)

Joshua English – Nickel In

MEN – Off Our Backs (Lemonade Remix)

Nice Purse – Heart Medley

PO PO – Let’s Get Away

Scott Miller – Joyful Joyful

Suns – Everything Changes

Wires Under Tension – Mnemonics in Motion