Faronheit

It’s fascinating to me to think that in just a couple days, we’ll be in May. Time’s moving fast, and the weather’s definitely not cooperating. May is supposed to be the start of summer, but it feels like spring has barely begun. Get me to sunny and 70 degrees and we’ll be okay. And hey, it’s Friday, which is nice and relaxing and fun no matter what’s happening outside. Not only that, but I think the mp3s in today’s Pick Your Poison are the strongest of the entire week. I can definitely give a thumbs up to tracks from A Lull, Callers, Dark Mean, FM Belfast, Ganglians and Sharon Van Etten’s team-up with Glass Ghost. Speaking of team-ups, there’s a neat collaboration between Amanda Palmer (of The Dresden Dolls and Evelyn Evelyn and her own solo stuff), her husband author Neil Gaiman, Damian Kulash (singer of OK Go), and piano wizard Ben Folds. They got together for the challenge of writing and recording 8 songs in 8 hours in an effort to see if the album cycle can be reduced to a single day. It’s also a test to see if the current record label standards are still necessary in today’s digital environment. All proceeds from the sale of their collaboration will go to charity. Have a look/buy/stream the album via Bandcamp.

A Lull – Weapons for War

Amanda Palmer, Ben Folds, Damian Kulash and Neil Gaiman – One Tiny Thing

Beth Jeans Houghton – Dodecahedron

The Bynars – Asking Your Mom For Money

Callers – Ringer

The Correspondents – Rio De Hackney

Dark Mean – Happy Banjo

FM Belfast – New Year

Ganglians – Jungle

Nat Baldwin – Weights

Polls – Mouth of a Fox

Sharon Van Etten and Glass Ghost – Like A Diamond

Sweet Sweet Moon – Smoke Up

SOUNDCLOUD

Chad Valley – Fast Challenges

Johan Agebjörn – Watch The World Go By (Young Galaxy remix)

John Shannon & Wings of Sound – Hurricane

Tomorrow is the Royal Wedding, and excitement has reached a fever pitch. This is like the Super Bowl of weddings. It leaves me staggering back and wondering – has there ever been a more overpublicized wedding in the history of the world? Are people going to look back on a day like tomorrow and actively recall where they were when Will and Kate got married? Will the truckloads of memorabilia created for the royal couple actually serve a point beyond nostalgia for something nobody will genuinely care about by next week? But you know what, there are some good things that have come out of this situation. For one, it helps to make marriage a little more important than it has been recently, hopefully inspiring people to actually tie the knot rather than outright quit believing that a union between two people is unnecessary in this day and age. There’s also the fairy tale aspect of it, the great Prince Charming falling for what many might call an “average woman on the street”, thereby suggesting to many that they could be so lucky and some prince might one day fall in love with them. And thirdly, the wedding is a nice distraction from all the other problems happening in the world right now. Between Libya and Japan and record-setting tornadoes killing a bunch of people, this glitz and glamor and happy occasion is just nice to focus on for once instead of the bad stuff. So yes, while all the nonstop coverage essentially sucks, it’s also doing some good. Best of luck to those crazy kids and their place in the monarchy. Pick Your Poison highlights today include tracks from Carl Barât, Emilie Simon, Oneida and Scarlet Season. Pantha Du Prince remixing Miracle Fortress is pretty great too, as is the Sam Roberts Band track you can find in the Soundcloud section.

Agnes Obel – Riverside (Lulu Rouge Remix)

Amtrac – Rewind

Carl Barât – This Is the Song

Emilie Simon – Ballad of the Big Machine

Get Help – It’s Only In Your Head

Giant Sand – Romance of Falling
Giant Sand – Pathfinder

Kate Maki – Lose My Mind

LMFAO – Party Rock Anthem (COmpress & Stress Remix)

Miracle Fortress – Raw Spectacle (Pantha Du Prince Remix)

Natural Child – Yer Birthday

New Moods – Playtime

Oneida – Horizon (Edit)

Peter Hughes – Themselves (The Minutemen cover)

Scarlet Season – Horse Fury

Vato Gonzales ft. Foreign Beggars – Badman Riddim (Jump) (Tru Fix & Thunderskank Remix)

SOUNDCLOUD

RIVAL SCHOOLS – 69 Gunz (Ad-Rock Remix)

Sam Roberts Band – The Last Crusade

By all accounts, Cass McCombs is not a very happy person. If the music you make directly relates to your own mental state, then depression appears to be a prominent part of McCombs’s life. Not everybody is happy all the time, nor does it make logical sense for them to be, but some people find it tough to even force a smile even on the nicest of days. It’s probably a big reason why the use of anti-depression meds are sharply on the rise, particularly in recent years. Despite this, living in a state of consistent melancholy can prove to be beneficial for many creative types, spurning them to make emotionally significant pieces of art that strike a nerve with the masses. Elliott Smith is one of the most prominent purveyors of sad sack music, and his acoustic ballads continue to draw in new fans every year despite his unfortunate death in 2003. McCombs bears a lot of similarities to Smith from a thematic perspective, along with your Nick Drakes and your Leonard Cohens, exploring the darker recesses of the mind with melodies that are simple but lyrics that are not. He scored big with 2009′s “Catacombs”, a record that stripped away most of the arrangements of his past records in favor of a much more direct approach. At that time though, his lyrics suggested at least some modicum of happiness and romanticism. Songs like “Dreams Come True Girl” and the waltzy “You Saved My Life” were heartfelt and warm, finding a comfort zone for him after three decent but not overwhelmingly great records. Now he’s back with his fifth album “Wit’s End”, and while the instrumental template remains the same, emotionally it’s as the title itself describes.

The opening track and first single on “Wit’s End” is “County Line”, a song that essentially flips the love-stricken vibe of “Catacombs” on its head. Instead of being about falling in love or being in love, it’s about the frustration of loving someone and not receiving love in return. Another, more literal way of interpreting the lyrics is to say it’s a tragic song about a town that has succumbed to the wrong kind of element, be it drug addiction (as shown in the song’s video) or urbanization or crime in general. Whatever the intention, the song isn’t lighthearted or positive in any way, even if there’s just a touch of warmth that might as well be left over from the last album. It’s almost enough to say that “The Lonely Doll”‘s title speaks for itself, but what you can’t grasp is just how deceptively innocent the melody sounds. There’s a delicately struck xylophone that adds an almost child-like wonder to the song, almost as if to soundtrack a little girl playing in her sun-soaked room with her Barbie. Precious, yes, but there’s also sadness and tears among the lyrics about being alone and not having anyone in your life to genuinely count on. The pain of loneliness appears to be the overarching theme of the album itself, to the point where McCombs has openly stated as much in interviews. Though there is a prevailing darkness and depression across the record, one of the better and more fascinating things “Wit’s End” does is examine the concept rather than wallow in it. Doing so doesn’t exactly make this a cheerier affair, but it does separate it from the plethora of other, more similarly-minded releases.

One of the most engaging moments on the album comes courtesy of album centerpiece “Memory Stain”. Starting as a rather minimal piano ballad, as it plods with an almost classical flair over the course of 7+ minutes there’s a wealth of other instruments that slowly weave themselves into the song’s fabric. The clarinet is particularly effective, but a light dose of harpsichord and some castanets do a lot towards truly evoking the sadness of those memories you wish you could erase but like a bad clothing stain just can’t. The oddball percussion on “Hermit’s Cave”, with the snare drum striking loudly at unexpected times helps to keep the listener on their toes as it otherwise simply waltzes along with piano and acoustic guitar as professional dance partners. Album closer “A Knock Upon the Door” is similarly paced, like watching a white-sheeted ghost bob and weave across the moonlit dancefloor of an abandoned mansion. Across more than 9 minutes a litany of instruments come together like some sort of ramshackle symphony that includes a couple of woodwinds (a baroque recorder known as a chalumeau being one of them), an acoustic guitar and a banjo, along with some unconventional percussion in the form of metal lightly tapping upon metal. The eerie feeling it nails down is one that had only crept through the rest of the record until that point. After so many songs about loneliness, this haunting closer is the final push, appearing to imply that the hope of company or companionship may remain unfulfilled and the only things left willing to spend time with us are the spirits of those we have lost. It is the end of the classic film “Citizen Kane”, where the immensely wealthy Charles Foster Kane wanders through his empty mansion alone – a man with more money than he knew what to do with, but no friends or family left to share it with. What good is anything in life if you’re just going to keep it to yourself? In that regard, “Wit’s End” also teaches us a lesson about people, relationships and selfishness. But that meaning is only there if you want it to be, because in those moments of true desolation where you just wish there was somebody to talk to, this album can be your companion during your dark period. As with many things in life however, it’s no replacement for a real life human being.

Cass McCombs – The Lonely Doll

Cass McCombs – County Line

Buy “Wit’s End” from Amazon

Just want to give a quick shout out to Poly Styrene, the X-Ray Spex frontwoman and punk icon who died on Monday night. She was 53 years old and was taken by cancer. It’s always tragic when you lose an influential music figure, and Poly Styrene was one of them. May she rest in peace, and may her close friends and family remain strong in this time of grief. Pick Your Poison tries to be life-affirming as much as possible, and the songs today are pretty good for that purpose. Highlights include tracks from Bachelorette, Parts of Speech, Sebadoh and Small Sur. If you have watched the new show “The Voice” on NBC you’ve probably heard of Rebecca Loebe, and you can download one of her songs below. Also the new Neon Hitch track in the Soundcloud section is pretty solid too.

Bachelorette – Blanket

Big Pauper – Big Sick

Boarding Surface – You and Me

DATAROCK – California (Ralph Myerz Remix)

Fania – Mambo Mongo (Joaquin “Joe” Claussell Remix)

Glenn Jones – On the Massachusetts-Virginia Border

Jeff Beam – Venus Flying Trapeze

KAUF – When You’re Out

Mickey Newbury – An American Trilogy

Mothers of Gut – Wizard Tree

Parts of Speech – Tasted Comfort

Rebecca Loebe – Mystery Prize

Sebadoh – Rebound

Small Sur – The Woods

Snailhouse – Sentimental Gentleman

SOUNDCLOUD

Neon Hitch – Silly Girl

It’s a huge sports day for Chicago’s professional teams, as every one of them save for the Bears are playing. Bulls, Blackhawks, White Sox and Cubs – all in one night. For some, it’s the playoff game of a lifetime. For others, the season is just getting started. No matter how you look at it though, it’s pretty exciting. You may not care, nor may you be rooting for any Chicago teams, but I do wish them all the best of luck. Pick Your Poison is another solid edition today. Highlights include tracks from The Fiery Furnaces’ Eleanor Friedberger, The Glass Canoe, Jookabox, and White Fence.

Big Tree – This New Year

Delicate Cutters – Chisel and Pick

Dinosaur Bones – Birthright (CFCF Remix)

Eleanor Friedberger – My Mistakes

The Glass Canoe – What A Green Taste

I’m Not A Band – Black Horses

Ira Atari – Back to Zero (Fuzz Galaxy Buzz Remix)

Jookabox – Man-Tra

Mr. Valentine – Take It To The Bank

Point Juncture, WA – Violin Case

The Qualia – Guess I Lied

Smokey Robotic – SuperVicious

The Vessels – The Trap

White Fence – Get That Heart

SOUNDCLOUD

From – With You

Sun Glitters – Love Me (:papercutz Remix)

The Wave Pictures – Little Surprise

On a rainy April night, not unlike the few that preceeded it, thousands packed into the UIC Pavilion to witness the third and final show from two of indie rock’s most brilliant stalwarts, The Arcade Fire and The National. Both are out in support of their latest records, The National with their highly acclaimed fifth album “High Violet” and The Arcade Fire with their 2010 Grammy-winning/list-topping third record “The Suburbs”. They’re only playing a select few shows together, basically spanning a couple dates in Missouri, the three in Chicago and one in Indianapolis. It’s an incredibly tough bill to turn down if you love your music, even at the markedly imperfect large venue. Of course the band not only sold out one night in a room that size, but they did it three times in a row, so clearly the demand is there. And better the UIC Pavilion than the even clunkier Allstate Arena or United Center. The first show announced was the Monday night show, which after selling out in a relative heartbeat was then backed up by the Friday and Saturday leading into Easter. Monday never seems to be the “right” day for a show, what with the start of the work week and the general depression that sets in with that. All the rain wasn’t helping either, so there wasn’t quite the electricity in the air you might hope for. The thing about bands is that they don’t exactly have “weekends” or “Mondays”, and if a crowd is not giving them what they need, they’ll either force it out of them or turn in a performance that’s equal with what they’re getting in return. Thankfully both bands seem to do the former, resulting in one of the most exhilarating live shows you’ll find not just on a rainy Monday, but on any day of any week.

This may come as a surprise to nobody, but The National are not the most upbeat band in the world. Songs about failed relationships, political strife and general depression are the norm for them, but they do it with class and style and sharp pop sensibilities, all of which lessen the lyrical pain contained within. Starting their set on Monday night with “Anyone’s Ghost” was perhaps not the most inspired choice. The hook is solid, but it’s a slow burner much like a lot of the band’s material. The standard for many artists is to start strong and draw people in, with most choosing to go with the opening track on their most recent release as it tends to have that same effect. Given that the UIC Pavilion was only a little more than half filled when they started their set though, a fair number of people there were probably fans of The National already, showing up on time to see one of their favorites from the very beginning. You don’t need to sell those people on your band because they’re already sold. Whipping out the “Alligator” classic “Secret Meeting” next, things picked up courtesy of the surging chorus that had singer Matt Berninger screaming by the end – something that you don’t get on the recorded version. In fact, a lot of the songs during The National’s set were brimming with a newfound life and intensity that they haven’t shown often before, evidence of how they’ve grown as a live act in the last few years. Their “hit” “Bloodbuzz Ohio” scored big with the crowd, as did the scream-filled take on “Squalor Victoria”. Arcade Fire’s Richard Parry joined the band on guitar and some backing vocals for “Afraid of Everyone” and “Conversation 16″, which was exciting for some but left a couple brilliant people remarking, “So wait…that guy is in Arcade Fire?”. One of the more random moments in the set was when the band whipped out the “Alligator” b-side “Driver, Surprise Me”, which is not only a challenge to find on record but also to catch a live performance of. Out on a limb, I’d wager about 2-3 people in the entire building knew the song, and the deafening silence in the room was evidence enough of that. The National finished strong though, with a four hit combo that was big on energy and one unplanned moment. The extended outro tacked onto “Fake Empire” was an additional kick in the pants that was earned and exciting. The place was all filled up and naturally went into a frenzy when Win Butler of Arcade Fire came dashing out during “Start A War” to contribute some backing vocals and harmonies. Berninger cracked a smile as Butler exited the stage, commenting, “I thought we said no improvising,” appearing to acknowledge that the appearance wasn’t wholly expected. In the band’s pre-”High Violet” days, “Mr. November” was their standard closing song (in particular to celebrate Barack Obama’s election), bringing energy to spare along with all the screaming promises of “I won’t fuck us over”. This time it was just shy of last, the coveted spot being turned over to “High Violet” opening cut “Terrible Love”. It’s the song they should have started on, but finishing on it was nearly as good. One hour after they took the stage, The National exited triumphant, with the crowd eating out of the palms of their hands and rippling with palpable excitement for The Arcade Fire. It may have been rainy and it may have been a Monday, but the crowd had turned to Saturday and sunny.

The National – Bloodbuzz Ohio
The National – Afraid of Everyone

Buy The National’s “High Violet” from Amazon

One of the more fun things about The Arcade Fire’s current tour is their stage set-up, which features both a classic light-up drive-in movie marquee and a projection screen. Somebody next to me said they didn’t understand how a marquee sign was supposed to relate to the suburbs. Given all the light pollution and the need for an open field, drive-ins theatres were restricted to suburbs and farm towns only, so that’s how the concept makes sense. Prior to their entrance on stage, there were a couple quick “Coming Attractions” that were some old previews for movies where evil comes to the suburbs, otherwise known as bratty, drug-using youths. It was a fun and funny way to put everyone in the mindset for the band’s set, which again dumped the unspoken “start with the first track off your new album” rule but opted instead for the much more energized hit single “Ready to Start”. Not only does the song have a stellar pace, but the title and lyrics tell you plainly that you’d best be fired up and set to get things underway. Like a continued punch to the gut, “Keep the Car Running” hit next and the energy level stayed at a high. People were jumping and singing along at the top of their lungs, giving back to the band exactly what they were shoving out to the masses in the first place. “Haiti” may have been a little more relaxed in its pace, but its tropical vibe mixed with Regine Chassagne’s pixie-like dancing kept the party headed in the right direction. One of the weakest moments on the new record is “Rococo”, primarily for its spiteful lyrics and the sheer ad nauseum number of times the song title is repeated. The dancing stopped and the mood got heavy at the show all of a sudden when that arrived, and it was like the band had shifted into a different gear. What made the live version of “Rococo” essential though was the way that Win Butler sang the song. There was such a raw intensity and spitfire anger pumping out of the speakers that you’ve got to give the guy credit for selling his art. “This is our last night of three in Chicago,” Butler said. “We’re leaving it all on the floor tonight”. The darker side of “The Suburbs” became a theme from that jumping off point, the heart of which was “Suburban War” and “The Suburbs” back-to-back. “Month of May” didn’t lose any of the intensity but picked the energy in the room back up significantly as the band got more heavy metal than at any other time that night.

The third phase of the show seemed to be a return to the “Funeral” days, and a trip through the numbered neighborhoods. As they’ve always done, the band went percussion crazy on “Neighborhood #2 (Laika)”, with everybody that had a free hand banging on whatever they could find with a drumstick. I do kind of miss the days when Richard Parry would strap on a helmet and people would drum on his head, but if they kept doing it the novelty might wear off. The most spirited performances of the evening were naturally saved for last. Win Butler came dangerously close to jumping into the crowd for “We Used to Wait”, but he seemed hesitant to do so after it looked like a few people were trying to grab his microphone cord and wrestle it away from him. They probably wanted to sing, but then again so did everybody. The amount of unsolicited singing and shouting in the crowd was intense, but that’s kind of how you want it to be, a communal experience that bonds everyone, not just the performers. Without a doubt then, the two biggest moments came courtesy of the set-closing “Rebellion (Lies)” and the creme in the encore cookie sandwich known as “Wake Up”. The songs were born to be played in stadiums to masses of people, as evidenced not only in their use via sports advertising, but at the actual shows themselves. Fists in the air, people jumping and shouting in the triumph of the moment. But they weren’t the ones standing tall up on that stage having vanquished a foe. Instead it was the band, and only the band that emerged victorious when it all finished. Like living vicariously through our favorite sports teams though, we’re left with unabashed pride and optimism when it’s all finished, overjoyed that the band we were all rooting for delivered either at or above our expectations. Sprinkle a little “Sprawl II: Mountains Beyond Mountains” on top, and serve it up with colorful ribbons and streamers. If you don’t walk away feeling exhilarated after a set like that, you’ve got some serious emotional issues. Weather and moods be damned, The Arcade Fire are your refuge and rock, and you’d be foolish to miss seeing them any chance you get.

The Arcade Fire – Wake Up

Buy The Arcade Fire’s “The Suburbs” from Amazon

The National – Set List
Anyone’s Ghost
Secret Meeting
Bloodbuzz Ohio
Slow Show
Squalor Victoria
Afraid of Everyone
Conversation 16
Apartment Story
Driver, Surprise Me
Fake Empire
Start A War (w/ Win Butler)
Mr. November
Terrible Love

The Arcade Fire – Set List
Ready to Start
Keep the Car Running
Haiti
Rococo
Empty Room
Suburban War
The Suburbs
Month of May
Neighborhood #2 (Laika)
No Cars Go
Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)
We Used to Wait
Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)
Rebellion (Lies)
\\**ENCORE**//
Intervention
Wake Up
Sprawl II: Mountains Beyond Mountains

It’s that time of year again, when all the little girls and boys eagerly anticipate exactly what’s going to emerge from Lollapalooza’s secret headquarters in regards to a festival lineup. If you can’t tell from the logo above, Lollapalooza is celebrating its 20th Anniversary this year. Congratulations to Perry Farrell and the whole team behind the festival for making it happen every year in Chicago’s own Grant Park. It has helped craft Lollapalooza into one of the top-tier U.S. music festivals. Okay, so let’s get right to it. I’m not going to offer up any comments in regards to this year’s lineup, but if you’ve got something to say about it yourself, by all means let loose in the comments section. Without further ado, here’s the official lineup for Lollapalooza 2011!
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Explosions in the Sky have reached what some might call an impasse in their careers. After churning out 5 albums in 7 years, almost all of which featured their signature and exciting instrumental post-rock sound, they simply vanished for a period of time. 2007′s “All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone” may not have been their strongest effort, but it did do the best for them sales-wise, a likely response to their relentless cycle of recording and touring over the previous few years. Explosions in the Sky are, after all, a thrill to see live, often attacking their songs four electric guitars at a time and not being shy about meandering into extensive and thrashing solos. When you don’t have any singing or lyrics to back you up, that just puts more pressure to keep crowds engaged in what you’re doing, and these guys handle it better than most vocal-heavy bands. They’re also smart and creative enough to differentiate themselves from a number of their counterparts such as Mogwai and Godspeed You! Black Emperor via the way they approach each song, sticking to their guitars and meandering through soundscapes rather than establishing the long-running dynamic of the slow build to explosive noise. This is the style that has sustained the band for the entirety of their existence, which hasn’t really needed changing because of its originality but nevertheless might have been getting a little tiresome around 2007. So they vanished for just a little bit, hopefully to think about what they’ve done and where they’ve been and if they could creatively sustain themselves for presumably another few records. So unlike the amazing TV show “Friday Night Lights” which they soundtracked, which is ending this year after five seasons, Explosions in the Sky have chosen to return for their sixth record, “Take Care, Take Care, Take Care”.

If you’ve heard an Explosions in the Sky record before, you can take comfort (and care) that “Take Care, Take Care, Take Care” doesn’t do anything to change that dynamic. If anything, this new album is more like a reboot of the EITS sound, bringing things back to their most basic elemental core and doing away with any small indulgences that may have been made on the last couple records (see: piano). Once again the carefully crafted songs are distinctive only to this band, and they prove not only to themselves but everyone else that they know exactly what they’re doing. Many other, relatively similar bands have come and gone these last 10 years, but these guys remain because of their tenacity and smart compositions. The power as well, that invisible driving force behind the music, remains intact along with the ability for these songs to evoke strong emotions ranging from a dark sadness to trembling joy and everything in between. While the band does more often than not take the studious approach with 6+ minute passages, at times they’re able to collapse their ideas down to a normal song length, as “Trembling Hands” does with 3.5 minutes of pure energy, a deft pace established at the outset by some heavy percussion and later met with equal vigor by the guitars. The 8 minutes of “Human Qualities” is purely fascinating for the way it slowly spirals downward into near silence before naturally rebuilding to an even stronger place than where it began. The true highlights of the record though come with the final two tracks. After two sparsely plucked electric guitars spend the first three minutes of “Postcard From 1952″ meandering and weaving around one another, the drums begin to stir along with the harmonic mixture of the guitars. The notes themselves prove to be just as compelling as two human voices harmonizing on the high and low end of the same note. The heaviness builds to a tipping point, and as the chords begin to reach red levels, there’s a pull back where everything just calms down and peters out. It’s not about denying what might otherwise be viewed as a tension-relieving payout, but rather exercising restraint in the face of mounting pressure. Very few bands can pull that off in a compelling fashion, and Explosions in the Sky is one of them.

What the closing track “Let Me Back In” does is point squarely in the direction of a future for a band that until recently questioning whether it even had one in the first place. Beginning with a highly muffled tape of a woman speaking slowly twists and turns into a soundscape that is at war with itself. One minute it’s subdued and wandering in a daze while the next it’s charging forwards with the force of a thousand elephants complete with machine gun drumming and white noise guitars that consistently pile on top of one another. It is both a spectacular example of where they came from and their roots inspired by way of Mogwai but also marks progression. There are small pieces in the track’s 10 minute duration that mark new and unexplored territory for Explosions in the Sky. The progression of the song itself is more structured and strategic than before, with not only a clear beginning, middle and end, but also a full circle logic where the song ends exactly where it began – with 30 seconds of this muffled woman crying out into the darkness all alone as the world fades to black around her. Not the most pleasant thought, and it’s not the most pleasant song from the band, but not many people listen to this band to be put in a good mood. It’s the epic closer “Take Care, Take Care, Take Care” needs though. While the record itself doesn’t feature the band at the height of their 2003 “Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place” powers, it does serve as a strong reminder of exactly how this band has lasted so long, and why they’ll probably survive another 10 years if they really want to.

Buy “Take Care, Take Care, Take Care” from Amazon

If you were celebrating Easter this past weekend, I hope you had a wonderful time and got plenty of food/candy. I’ve got my annual shopping bag full of jelly beans and Peeps to deal with, which probably means I’ll be on a sugar high for the next month and a half. Back to the grind today though for most people, and Pick Your Poison is no different. Big deal tracks today come from Butcher the Bar, Chicago’s own Digits (download their EP for free via the link below too!), Jessica 6 (with a special guest appearance from Antony of Antony and the Johnsons), Sea of Bees and Warren Haynes.

account4941172 – The Fifth

Botanical Bullets – We Bleed Fluorescent

Butcher the Bar – Bobby

The Caribbean – Outskirts (Aquarelle Remix)
The Caribbean – Mr. Let’s Find Out (Richard Ingram Remix)

Digits – Pale Green Morning
Download Digits’ “Lost Dream” EP for free

Gross Relations – Blame the Records
Gross Relations – Don’t Beat on Me

Helvetia – On the Lam
Helvetia – Arise, Pt. 1

Jessica 6 – Prisoner of Love (ft. Antony Hegarty)

Just Another Snake Cult – Engaged Withdrawal

Kenton Dunson – Momentum

Sea of Bees – Wizbot

Strange Talk – Climbing Walls

Warren Haynes – Man In Motion

The Weeknd – The Morning (Giraffage Remix)

SOUNDCLOUD

Great Caesar – Sweet Banana

Now, Now – Jesus Camp (Remix)

Toro Y Moi – Still Sound (Voodoo Bear Remix)

Good Friday to you all, and I mean that in the most secular way possible for all you non-Christians out there. It should be a great Friday, but beggars can’t be choosers, and beside that Chicago’s getting pelted with rain and cold right now. Still, beats tornadoes (sorry St. Louis). I hope your upcoming Easter weekend is delightful and filled with jellybeans and marshmallow Peeps. If not, you’re not celebrating right. Here’s some sugary sweet mp3s to rot your eardrums for the weekend, courtesy of Pick Your Poison. I’ll point you in the direction of tracks by Alexander Ebert (of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes), Diskjokke, German Error Message, Kenna, Marianne Faithful and Seapony.

Alexander Ebert – Million Years

Baby Baby – Breakin

Broken Bells – Meyrin Fields (Sub Swara Remix)

Diskjokke – Panutup

German Error Message – Reaching Out

Glorie – Lazy Day

Kenna – Chains (ft. Shimmy Hoffa)

Little Bastard and Zubagroove – If It Ain’t Broke (Birdee Remix)

Marianne Faithful – Why Did We Have to Part

Pony Pony Run Run – Hey You (Star Slinger Remix)

The Real Nasty – Whiskey For Breakfast

Saturdays Kids – I Am A Runner

Seapony – Blue Star

Usurper of Modern Medicine – Grill Washington Christ

SOUNDCLOUD

Benji Boko – Where My Heart Is (Ft. Maxi Jazz)

Brasstronaut – Hearts Trompet

Pitch Twit & Bonn Lewis – Splinter Bomb

The last time we heard from Merrill Garbus, she was operating at such a DIY level that her music suffered because of it. To call her debut record BiRd-BrAiNs a gem buried underneath a pile of crap is probably pretty accurate. That’s not her fault, she was just using the tools available to her at the time. A computer, a microphone and a ukulele were pretty much all that she needed, and the results tended to sound worse than your average garage band’s demo. Still, there was something about that record that shone through in spite of its severe deficiencies. 4AD even liked it enough to release the record as-is, perhaps partly as a good faith in Garbus’ future, or with the sense that forward-thinking music fans would latch onto it no matter how clean or dirty the audio fidelity might be. Either way, it was a daring thing to record along with a daring thing to legitimately release in spite of all the clipped audio and other surface scratches. That gamble paid off, due less to the record itself and more to how its true nature rose to the surface when performed live. With a legitimate microphone and quality speakers to throw it out there, nothing stood in the way of the songs themselves anymore, and those that saw a tUnE-yArDs show ranted and raved not only about the songs but also about Garbus’ larger-than-life stage presence. Now that she has the backing and resources to assist her, the hope would be that a sophmore album might accurately reflect what everyone saw and heard when it wasn’t filtered through the shoddiest of DIY equipment. Guess what? The new record is titled “w h o k i l l”, and just like that everyone is handing their undivided attention over to Merrill Garbus.

Any legitimate attempts to describe the sound and texture of “w h o k i l l” is pretty much an exercise in futility. With so much more at her disposal, Garbus goes all out and packs the record with many things both expected and unexpected. She’s still a fan of the ukulele, but it’s not exactly her primary instrument anymore. More than anything else, her real instrument is that jaw-dropping voice of hers. You could absolutely tell there was a power behind it on BiRd-BrAiNs, but the full range and scope were trapped under a sea of poor fidelity. Hearing it in fully polished stereo on this new album is a revelation unto itself, the unique qualities oozing out on each track as Garbus almost seems to embody multiple characters depending on the song. The reason why are her low vs. high pitch dynamics, along with the scatological manner in which she rattles off lyrics. By all accounts, Garbus is a woman unhinged, unbeholden to any of your typical singing or songwriting tropes, and flippant to the point of flaunting it. In listening to her sing, you realize that everyone else is showing restraint by comparison. If she wants to growl and chirp, Merrill will growl and chirp. If, in the middle of singing a verse, she wants to go on a brief spoken word aside to get snarky about something, she’ll readily do so. Sure it can come across as crazy and certainly odd, but she does it with such reckless abandon and pure joy you can’t help but be charmed by it. Quirky is the best descriptor of it, and there’s very little being released under that category these days, let alone this loose and engaging.

Equally fun are the ways that Garbus blends widely varied styles and genres to her own benefit. The first, most notable instrument outside of the vocals is the percussion. There’s such a wide variety of beats on “w h o k i l l”, but the primary influence is definitely African in nature. As such, thoughts of a completely off-the-wall Paul Simon or even a strange otherworldly take on Vampire Weekend might pop up in your head. But that doesn’t even begin to take into account the flashes of R&B, reggae, jazz, soul, folk, hip hop, psych-pop, and just general world music that all show up at one point or another on the record. Those are what make this album so difficult to classify. With such a huge scope of sounds and instruments, it’s tempting to think that there’s no way any sort of consistency could develop. What this record maintains is an unerring sense of pop structures, hammering on phrases and choruses enough to stick in your head, even as the melodies that surround them can seem confounding. Additionally, what’s standard for this album is that there is no standard, the madness spread quite liberally and evenly. The unexpected thus becomes the expected, to the point where a normal-sounding song would feel out of place and almost a cop-out. The thrill is in the discovery, how you’re on this completely out of control ride with no idea where it will turn next. Mood-wise, “w h o k i l l” is a success because it never gets too dark or slow. There’s plenty of emotion, ranging everywhere from love and hate to happy and sad, but the upbeat stuff outweighs everything else, and the tempo never lets the depression take hold. The drum and bass arrangement of “Doorstep” is made more jovial with the light click-clack of some light wood on wood taps and overdubbed vocal harmonies that render the oft-repeated lyrics of “policeman shot my baby” ineffective in the outrage or horror we might otherwise feel. That’s the point though. Even the lone ballad on the record, the 6 minute “Woolywollygong”, has a bit of light amidst the generally dark lyrics and pace.

Speaking of lyrics, they’re another always key part of the tUnE-yArDs aesthetic. The highly explicit and blunt lyricisms that Garbus spits out are both impersonal yet immediately relatable. She sings in generalizations but with such specificity that it can sometimes feel like she’s putting your own thoughts out there. Most likely to have the hardest time with this are men, because whether you like it or not this is a feminist record through and through. So when there’s a song about body issues and self-mutilation, there’s not a whole lot of guys that have to deal with the psychological pressure of being a size 0. Underneath a very jazzy and funky melody on “Es-so”, you get self-hate moments like, “Sometimes I’ve got the jungle under my skin/drop at the rhythm, stick a fucking fork in/Bathe it all in a wave of disgust/(sarcastically Valley Girl) ‘I can’t believe I ate the whole thing’”. Charming, brilliant, and intensely dark all at the same time, while also remaining firmly grounded. In an equally fascinating methodology, “Powa” frankly champions sex and the pleasure that it brings. The intensely memorable chorus of “Your powa/inside/it rocks me like a lullaby” is wonderful unto itself, but where the song really gains meaning is the moment when it turns from being solely about sexual pleasure and again reaches into body image territory. “Mirror, mirror on the wall/can you see my face at all?/My man likes me from behind/Tell the truth, ah never mind/cause you bomb me with life’s humiliations every day” seems to be all self-hate, but in context the words are meant to convey that sex and intense love pull us out of those moments where we loathe our own bodies and instead embrace pure passion and pleasure. Sex is a refuge from not only the world, but from ourselves as well. “w h o k i l l” isn’t all about bodies and the perception of our bodies though. Opening track “My Country” weighs the positive and negatives of America. “Gangsta” deals with talking a tough game but not being able to back it up. And “Riotriot” finds Garbus infatuated with a police officer that shows up to arrest her brother. No matter the topic though, most every song and lyric on this album is thought-provoking and worthy of exploration, something worth doing when you have the time.

Some people are able to see the treasure sitting on the ocean floor while others just cruise on by it without a second thought because they don’t know it’s there. With a debut album like BiRd-BrAiNs, it was easy to move past tUnE-yArDs without a second thought, or even stopping to wonder what anyone could ever see in those abhorredly poor quality recordings. Turns out there was gold buried underneath, and the few keen ears that heard it the first time around can feel so much more justified with “w h o k i l l”. It is the record that will undoubtedly make Merrill Garbus a star. Every single word of praise you’ve heard about this record is justified, and even those that don’t understand it will likely find something nice to say. Innovative, sunny, funky and spine-tingling are all accurate descriptors for your listening experience, which is unlike any other you’ll have in 2011 almost guaranteed. Keep an eye out for a lot of imitators in the next year or two, though arguably none will fully succeed as well as Garbus herself will. The voice and the words are the two hugest sellers here, and both those things you can’t copy. Garbus is one-of-a-kind, and let’s hold out hope she stays that way for a long time to come.

tUnE-yArDs – Bizness

Buy “w h o k i l l” from Amazon

Easter weekend is right around the corner, and I hope you’re celebrating with family. If you’re not the type to partake in Easter celebrations, even with the most secular of Easter bunnies, I still wish you a great weekend. Of course we’re not officially there just yet. Tomorrow is Friday, and that’s reason enough to let your hair down just a little bit. Pick Your Poison is here to help with another classy edition of mp3s for your downloading pleasure. Top picks today include tracks from Ages and Ages, Javelin, Kathryn Calder, KIDCITY, Liturgy, Other Lives and Painted Palms.

Acid House Kings – Would You Say Stop? (Invisible Twin Remix)

Ages and Ages – So So Freely

Baron Bane – Echoes

Candidate – I’d Come Running

Company – Waiting For Saints to Arrive
Company – Heaven Is Gone

Elias Krantz – Tody Motmot
Elias Krantz – Tody Motmot (Pistol Disco Remix)

Javelin – Cowpoke

Kathryn Calder – If You Only Knew

KIDCITY – Bloody Face

Liturgy – Generation

Monarchs – Business Casual

Other Lives – For 12

Painted Palms – All of Us

Sam Bay – Leaning Pine

The Stairs – This Town Let Me Down

SOUNDCLOUD

Natalia Kills – Mirrors [Robotaki Remix]

Vex Ruffin – Losing Control