Merry Christmas! Or if you’re of the Jewish persuasion, Happy Hanukkah! There’s a host of other faiths I can also wish a Happy ____ to, so if you’re feeling bad for not being included in those holiday greetings, please fill in whatever you celebrate in the blank space here: Happy _____! I totally mean that, too. Pick Your Poison is in weekly mode for this week and next, to accomodate for everyone taking time off to spend with family and friends. Naturally I’ll also be doing the same. I hope you get all the gifts on your list this year. So for the last Pick Your Poison before Christmas, here’s a giant giveaway of holiday and non-holiday related mp3s and streaming songs. May it make the days ahead that much brighter and more delightful. Just so you know, due to the extensive number of songs in the Soundcloud section today, I’ve put those after the jump to help reduce the site loading time. Tracks I’ll recommend in this set come from Acid House Kings, ANR (covering Kelis), Candy Claws, Chicago’s own Dozens, Kathryn Calder, Pretty Good Dance Moves, D Lissvik’s remix of ceo, and Teen Daze’s remix of Young Liars. Paul McCartney and his good friend Eric Clapton take on the old standard “My Valentine” in the Soundcloud section, and songs from Folks and Kites are worth streaming too. Enjoy your holiday, and we’ll catch up one last time before the end of 2011!
In case you haven’t heard, last week Wilco ended their fall/winter U.S. tour in support of their new album “The Whole Love” by performing 5 shows in their hometown of Chicago. Dubbed “The Incredible Shrinking Tour”, each night built upon the one before it as the band started at the 3,500 capacity Civic Opera House and ended a few days later at the 500 capacity Lincoln Hall. Along the way, there would also be stops at The Riviera (2,300), The Vic (1,400) and Metro (1,150). While I would have loved to have attended all 5 shows, time, money and ticket availability reduced me down to only 3 of the 5 nights. Still, 3 Wilco shows are better than 2 or 1 or none, and I also happened to be in attendance at the last two nights in which the band played their smallest shows in years, probably over a decade. Each show I attended also had its own distinct vibe and set list, so I thought I’d take a few minutes to recap and review each one. Let’s go in order.
Well, we’ve made it! At long last, I’m extremely proud to present to you my Top 10 Albums of 2011. It’s been a long and arduous road to get to this point, and if you’ve stuck with me through it all, let me just say how much I appreciate it. What you’ll find in the Top 10 below are the records I feel represent this past year in music the best. They went above and beyond the rest of the records I heard to hold a special place in my heart. One that I’ll probably forget about by the time this thing rolls around again next year. But for now, I hope you’ll enjoy this and maybe even discover something new from it as well. It’s been a pretty fun ride as far as music has gone this year, and it makes me wonder what 2012 will bring. I may have a post on that before the end of the year. We’ll see. As of this posting, I’m also set to take a small year-ending 2 week vacation, as I could use a little time away from updating this site every day. I hope your holidays are fantastic, and we’ll officially catch up in January. Should you be so inclined however, I may post a couple of pieces for you to glance at during said vacation. Keep an eye out. Alright, so without further ado, please enjoy this final piece of Listmas, my Top 10 Albums of 2011. Oh, but first, do yourself a favor and catch up with the rest of the list:
Just a friendly reminder to all of you regular enjoyers/downloaders of Pick Your Poison every day – the segment is going on vacation for a couple weeks. Well, only kind of. I still plan on unleashing a weekly (instead of daily) edition of Pick Your Poison through the end of 2011. Look for those on Fridays. In other words, the next Pick Your Poison segment you’ll see will show up on this site one week from today. It will probably be a little larger than normal, given the volume of music that gets sent to me on a daily basis. Speaking of which, today’s edition is a little larger too, just an extra little treat for your holiday season. Tracks I’ll recommend today come from Atmosphere, Neighborhood Children, Paper Diamond, Umpire and Yukon Blonde. In the Soundcloud section, be sure to have a listen to songs from The Submarines and Young Empires. Have a great week, we’ll catch up next Friday!
We are oh so close to the end of this countdown, you can almost taste it. Today’s dishing out of my Top 50 Albums #20-11 makes for a rather enticing bunch. There’s a great variety of styles among this group, including and not limited to punk rock, soft rock, indie pop, psychedelia, electronica, 90s revival, and folk. I love this kind of diversity. You’ll see when we get there, the Top 10 are just as diverse. For now, please enjoy this particular segment of the countdown, and familiarize yourself with the rest of the family by following the links below:
Have you been following along with Listmas this year? Last week we did my Top 50 Songs of 2011, and this week is all about the Top 50 Albums. You can read all the Listmas posts by clicking here. If you’d just like to read posts on my Top 50 Songs of the Year, click up this link. And of course the Top 50 Albums list can be found right here. Check them out, become familiar with them, know them and love them, hopefully as much as I do. Alright, let’s get to your Thursday edition of Pick Your Poison. I can give a hearty positive reaction to tracks from Bears, Capitol 6, Nneka and Run Dan Run. Andrew Weatherall’s remix of Cut Copy’s lengthy “Sun God” is quite exquisite as well. And hey, there’s a new song from Tennis available for streaming in the Soundcloud section.
Part of me wishes I had more time to write intros to these individual blocks of 10 albums. Ultimately, it’s the least important element of these countdowns, because the albums with numbers next to them are the real point. So I’m just going to leave this one short and sweet. Today we reach the halfway point in our countdown, then promptly move past it. With each passing day and number, my love for these records grows stronger. Writing about them again in little pieces for this bit of Listmas is a nice refreshing of perspectives I took any number of months ago. I hope you’re enjoying this so far. We’ve only got a couple days left. If you’d like to do some catching up, here’s a couple links to show you what you’ve missed.
Happy Hump Day to you and yours. Hope you’re already preparing for the weekend. It’s been raining all day in Chicago, which when you think about it is a great thing. According to a rain/snow scale, were it cold enough to be snowing and not raining, there would have been close to a foot of snow on the ground by now. Instead, we get a mild rain. In fact, there’s been only a few tenths of an inch of snow that has fallen in and around the city over the last few weeks. The longer we can do without significant snowfall, the better, I say. Farmer’s Almanac predicted one of the snowiest winters in history. I pray they’re wrong, otherwise January and February are going to be meteorological massacres. Let’s get to today’s edition of Pick Your Poison then. I’ll recommend tracks from Blonds, Jerry Leger, Leonard Friend, The Lower 48 and Roomdance.
For those that don’t know, Wilco is in the midst of a 5 night residency in their home city of Chicago at the moment. They performed on Monday night at the Civic Opera House for Night 1. I was unable to get tickets to that show (or I should say, rejected the option of buying very, very bad seats), but was able to make it out for Night 2 at the Riviera Theatre. This isn’t a show review, and I’m not going to write one right now for a couple reasons. The first being we’re in the middle of Listmas here and I’m buried in things I have to write. The second is that there are still 3 more Wilco shows to go before the week ends. I will be attending two of those three. Next week, once all the Wilco shows in Chicago have wrapped up, I’ll throw something together that essentially recaps all of them. For now, I wanted those looking for it to have the set list for the Riviera show. Naturally, the new album “The Whole Love” was (and will remain) the focus for the time being, however what I find most interesting are the choices made outside of the new material. Will the band try and attempt vastly different set lists each of their 5 nights in Chicago? The Riviera show featured plenty of changes from the Civic Opera House one, so we shall see. I must say that I LOVE how much attention “A Ghost is Born” got, and whipping out little-heard songs like “I Must Be High” and “Just A Kid” (from the freaking Spongebob movie soundtrack) was truly inspired. Overall a spectacular night, to the point where they even made the typically horrid sound system of The Riv work some magic. Must’ve been because I was standing next to the soundboard. Anyways, I’ll have more info and some additional set lists from the Wilco shows on Friday and Sunday nights as well, not to mention a full writeup/recap coming early next week. Until then, here’s the set list from The Riv show.
Less Than You Think
Art of Almost
I Might
Black Moon
Bull Black Nova
Side with the Seeds
I Got You (At the End of the Century)
Born Alone
You Are My Face
Open Mind
Kamera
I Must Be High
I’m Always in Love
Capitol City
Handshake Drugs
Can’t Stand It
Dawned on Me
Hummingbird \**ENCORE 1**/
Via Chicago
Whole Love
The Late Greats
Walken
Just A Kid
Monday
Outtasite (Outta Mind) \**ENCORE 2**/
Reservations
Spiders (Kidsmoke)
I’m A Wheel
Have you been checking out Listmas over this last week and a half? Last week we covered my Top 50 Songs of the Year. It was magical. All this week, we’re counting down my Top 50 Albums of the Year. It’s been fun so far, and if you’re not keeping an eye on it, I think you’re missing out. Otherwise, here’s your Tuesday edition of Pick Your Poison. I will recommend tracks from Beni, Dressy Bessy, Goodman Brown, Imbogodom, St. Even and Walter Rose (with Lucinda Williams). In the Soundcloud section, enjoy some audio streams from The Asteroids Galaxy Tour, Mouse on Mars and Weekend.
Yesterday was a whole lot of fun, crossing off the bottom 10 albums on my Top 50 Albums of 2011 list. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed putting it together. Today we hit Part II, in which #40-31 will spike your blood sugar. If you’re reading this, I’ll now drop a “hint” for you as to what the #1 album might be, just to satisfy your curiosity. I’ve yet to find a publication, in print or online, that has agreed with my choice for Album of the Year. That doesn’t so much tell you what it is, but more like what it isn’t. There should be a good 5-6 records at least you can cross off as candidates for that top slot. Just another couple days and you’ll know the full story. Until then, please check out yesterday’s 10 albums if you have yet to do so. Here’s the link to that.
Welcome my friends, to the second week of Listmas, and the first installment of my Top 50 Albums of the Year. To put it in the simplest terms possible, I love this list. I love everything on it and everything about it. In my opinion, it’s the finest list I’ve ever put together, the most balanced and well-ordered. I feel it truly encompasses the best of the best from 2011, and honestly I couldn’t always say that in previous years. I’ve always doubted myself in one aspect or another. To answer your next question, yes, I’m upset that there were a few albums that couldn’t quite make the cut. I set the limit at 50, because it seems to be the fairest and most encompassing number to use. Coming up with 50 wasn’t so much a problem, but 55 or 60 might have been. At the end of all this, I may include a couple of honorable mentions, but primarily what you’re seeing here is what you get, and I’ve only made one small adjustment from my initial first draft. So we’ll be going through the Top 50 Albums all this week, 10 each day, until we hit number one. I hope it makes for some excitement and a great read on your part, and I also hope you discover something new as well, even if the most voracious of music lovers might recognize every single one of these. And so we begin with #50-41 today. Click past the jump to read onward!
Hello, and welcome to Faronheit! I hope you enjoy your stay. Before you read onwards, let me quickly explain a couple things.
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