Happy Friday! Remember when that Rebecca Black song was popular because of how excruciatingly bad it was? I despised those that took the song seriously and used it as their theme song for days like today. These days we’ve got a far better option to get us pumped for the weekend. It’s far better, and best appreciated in video form, though only listening to the audio provides some inspiration if only because you recall the images and dancing while doing so. But this trend too shall pass. I’m reveling in the moment though, and am starting to wonder if there is a quintessential song that we can call the all-time weekend-starter. Like, if you had to pick a single song to listen to on Friday afternoon for the rest of your life, what would that song be? I don’t know if I could make that sort of commitment, though if I did it’d probably have to be something classic I’ve loved for years and wouldn’t ever get tired of. It’s a tough choice. Chew on that while you’re relaxing in front of the TV or something this weekend. In the meantime, please enjoy these fresh from the harvest mp3s in today’s Pick Your Poison. Highlights include tracks from Autumn Owls, Crystal Castles, Cultfever, dEUS, Dracula Lewis, The Glitch Mob, Midnight Magic, Naytronix, and Parade of Lights. In the Soundcloud section please keep an eye on streams from The 1975, Dinosaur Jr, Milano Sun and PAWS. Have a great weekend!
I am what you would call a Beach Boys fan. The reason I word it that way is because I’m a bit selective in my fandom of the band. If you want to talk about Pet Sounds or Surfin’ USAr or even a greatest hits record, I’m on board. Most of the other stuff I could care less about, save for a handful of songs. I respect their legacy, but don’t really like some of the inter-band drama they’ve had over the years. To me, Brian Wilson’s return to the Beach Boys in the last couple years was a bit of a triumph, especially after his personal difficulties. For much of 2012, the band has been celebrating their 50th anniversary by reissuing some of their classic albums, recording a new one and touring around the world. I happened to see them when the tour came through Chicago last May, and it was a great time. They played all the hits, and to see all the remaining members together on stage was a genuine treat. Unfortunately all is not well with the Beach Boys. Mike Love, who owns the Beach Boys name, announced a couple days ago that following the band’s final UK tour dates coming up he was kicking Brian Wilson, Al Jardine and David Marks to the curb. Basically Love said he only got everyone back together to make a ton of money surrounding the 50th anniversary of the band, and now that they’re done with that he doesn’t want them around anymore. On the other end, Wilson said in an interview that he, Jardine and Marks had so much fun during this tour and can’t understand why Love wants them gone. Jardine has backed an online petition to try and keep the original Beach Boys intact. What’s ironic to me is that a guy with the last name Love could be so heartless. I’m just glad I got to see them together before this whole thing blew up. I wish them all the best and hope they can find a way to settle any differences there might be. Okay, let’s talk Pick Your Poison for today. Recommended tracks come from Cardio, Dazzletine, Immigrant Union, KOPPS, Night Moves, Paper Diamond and Undesirable People. In the Soundcloud section don’t miss streaming songs from Andrew Bird, The Weeknd and Woods.
I have a certain admiration for Prince, and it’s not just because of his basketball skills. I’d like to think that almost everyone in the world has at one point or another in their lives enjoyed a Prince song. Whether it’s the millennial staple “1999” or classics like “Let’s Go Crazy” and “Little Red Corvette,” the man has a catalogue most other artists would envy. More unfortunate is that the Purple One hasn’t had a legitimate hit in over a decade. People still love the guy, even if they don’t particularly care for what he’s been doing more recently. In that respect he’s more like a David Bowie, whose last few albums were mere footnotes. Prince has gotten a bit smarter these last couple years, and instead of going around trying to record and push new material, he’s simply touring because that’s one area of his life that’s still very lucrative. People still flock to see Prince in concert, and they’ll pay high prices for it too. Over the last few months he’s been playing around with touring structures too, holding down residencies in several U.S. cities. His biggest residency so far has been in Los Angeles, where he played 21 dates over the course of a month. Now he likes to claim that every show is unique, but I find it hard to believe that you’re not going to run into some similarities when you play 21 shows in the same place. Anyways, it got me really excited when at the start of this month, Prince announced a Chicago residency. No specifics were given, except that there was one show scheduled for September 24th at the United Center. Second and third shows would later be added as well, for the two days immediately after that. Now that they’re finally here, it seems like tonight will be Prince’s last show in Chicago for the foreseeable future. So L.A. gets 21 shows, and Chicago only gets 3? Unless he’s going to announce more Chicago shows, I’m upset. Here I avoided buying tickets to those shows, figuring that with at least 5-10 shows that still might be scheduled, it’d be easier to get tickets later on. Now on this last night, I’m kicking myself. Then again, reviews for the Prince shows in Chicago haven’t exactly been stellar, with most saying his band does most of the hard work, that he barely picks up a guitar, and when he does it’s only for a minute and doesn’t include an extended solo. Also, at the first show there was a debacle involving a second encore. Fans were left waiting for 30 minutes, then the house lights came up and most left. About 15 minutes after those house lights went up, Prince came back out and played a couple more songs. Almost everybody was gone by that point. Waiting 5 minutes for an encore is excruciating, so I can only imagine what 45 minutes feels like. I haven’t checked to see if he pulled the same stunt on Night 2. We’ll see about Night 3 later. Anyways, if Prince announces any more Chicago shows, I’ll be sure to let you know, as I’ll probably be getting tickets myself. So let’s tackle today’s Pick Your Poison. Recommended tracks come from Cold Showers, Communist Daughter, Departures, One Finger Riot, Sons of the West and Triad God. In the Soundcloud section, stream Passion Pit’s remix of Crystal Fighters, The Knocks remixing Two Door Cinema Club, and a brand new Tegan and Sara single.
Have you heard Efterklang’s 2004 debut album Tripper? If not, now’s as good of a time as any to look it up. Spotify can help you out on that one if needed. Anyways, back then the Danish band had about 10 members and created atmospheric post-rock soundscapes that effectively brought to mind Sigur Ros with a little more electronic undercurrent. Fast forward to the present, and Efterklang is now a three-piece band that more or less creates beautiful and heartfelt pop songs. The difference is pretty huge, though it helps that they retain small pieces of their earlier selves. You can’t quite blame the band for wanting to find true success, but the way they’ve gone about it sometimes feels like too huge of a sacrifice. A lot of the elements that made them distinctively great have been washed away to make melodies easier to digest and remember. That’s largely what sabotaged their last album, 2010’s Magic Chairs. In preparation for the release of their new album Piramida, the band released a trailer that shows some of the lengths they went to in generating audio samples for it. In short, they traveled to Spitsbergen, Russia, located on the edge of the North Pole and home to Pyramiden, a town that was abandoned in the ’90s and remains as a decaying ruin today. They climbed inside huge, hollow tanks and recorded vocals and noises with the impressive echoes. They ran down boardwalks and plinked glass bottles with the microphones capturing it all – over 1,000 samples used across the album. Such effort is more than admirable, as not many artists would go to such lengths to add such unique charms to their records.
If you give a really close listen to the entire record, the little effects become that much more apparent and make what you’re hearing immensely more impressive. The only percussion on “Dreams Today” is the sound of footsteps across wooden planks. “Told to Be Fine” has a large hollow metal object being struck by something that sounds like but probably isn’t a basketball, while “The Living Layer” makes use of the many ways glass transforms sound when tapped at different angles and levels. Charming and well placed as all these elements might be, if you didn’t know to listen for them you probably wouldn’t notice or care where they came from. Efterklang might well be amateur foley artists, adding sound effects to movies after the fact because camera microphones didn’t pick them up properly. The point being, almost all of it could have been recreated in the studio without the need to go to an abandoned ghost town near the North Pole. That shouldn’t lessen or cheapen the experience of listening to Piramida because clearly the band was inspired by their trip in the right ways, but you are left wondering if they could have done something more or different with what they collected during their journey. For example, to make an atmospheric, post rock record like their earlier work using these sounds would be inventive and set them apart from their peers. Sadly, they didn’t do that. What they did do was create a smart and beautiful pop record that will impress you the more time you spend with it. The intricacies of opening track “Hollow Mountain” begin to reveal themselves once you realize it stacks upon itself by starting with a slow music box-like churn and not even launching into the first verse until two minutes have passed. From there, strings and horns all show up and eventually vanish amid icy synths, martial percussion and Casper Clausen’s relaxed vocal. The song makes for a decent single, but “Apples” which follows it is probably just a touch catchier and more upbeat.
There’s nothing on Piramida that’s intensely happy or toe-tappingly fun, but no matter what mood or shape the songs seem to take, they’re almost all compelling in one aspect or another. “The Ghost” starts innocently enough, but builds with unique percussion and harmonized vocals before entering a hornet’s nest of brass that eerily and enviously recalls Radiohead’s classic “The National Anthem” at its most frenetic point. Ballads like “Sedna” and closer “Monument” stand as particularly strong examples of how measured and carefully plotted arrangements can exude passion and elegance with lyrics that just as equally inspire. If this album has one unabashed highlight though, it comes from the 6.5 minute “Black Summer,” which transforms itself over its run time via intense build ups and releases aided along the way by stark piano work, the South Denmark Girls Choir and a jazzy little saxophone solo at the end. It’s exactly the sort of song you wish was the blueprint for the entire record, best blending the band’s earlier work with their more recent stuff. Alas, they don’t all operate at such a high level even if they’re all successful in one aspect or another.
It’s both a help and a hindrance to Piramida that despite their common elements each track could stand up well on its own. On the one hand, you want each individual track to be as strong as possible so you can drop in anywhere on the album and enjoy it. On the other hand, you also want that sense of wholeness in a record, where the entire thing goes down effortlessly in one 45 minute chunk. Efterklang aren’t quite able to strike the right balance here, which ultimately weakens the album’s overall impact just a touch. A bigger issue is the band’s indecisive nature when it comes to their sound. The atmospherics they’re creating are undoubtedly gorgeous, but they often feel taken down a notch when paired with more standard choruses. If they just surrendered to the melody instead of shoehorning differing structures in, the album would lose a lot of commercial viability but gain a greater sense of exploration and originality. Sometimes it’s more about the risks you don’t take than the ones you do, which is absolutely the case here. Still, what we do get from this record is largely quality, and a marked improvement over their last couple efforts. Let’s hope it’ll only get better from here, and that they won’t have to go to the other side of the world to make that happen.
It’s Tuesday, which means it’s time for me to run down the list of artists releasing new material this week. Be on the look out for fresh music from Ben Sollee, Bettye LaVette, Chris Cohen, deadmau5, Dragonette, Dum Dum Girls, Efterklang, Green Day, Hauschka, Jason Collett, John Zorn, Joseph Arthur, The Killers, Lavender Diamond, Levek, The M’s, Machine Birds, Melody’s Echo Chamber, Mumford & Sons, Murder By Death, No Doubt, Patrick Wolf, Ringo Deathstarr, The Soft Pack, Talib Kweli, Unnatural Helpers, and Yoko Ono with Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore. There’s some interesting stuff in there, just as there’s some interesting stuff below in today’s edition of Pick Your Poison. Don’t miss tracks from Crime and the City Solution, Eight Belles, Cadence Weapon’s remix of Liars, Maybeshewill, Sea of Bees, Tweak Bird and Your Youth. In the Soundcloud section, stream some good stuff like Lissvik’s remix of a great new Chad Valley track (ft. Glasser), along with something from Clubfeet.
With mere days until the release of their new album Uno!, Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong entered rehab over the weekend to take care of his substance abuse problems. Did you know he had substance abuse problems? Apparently a lot of people weren’t aware until this past Friday, when the band played a show at the iHeartRadio Festival in Las Vegas and he freaked out on stage. As the story and video attest, Armstrong got extremely upset when festival organizers apparently told him the band had one minute to wrap up their set. This was after they started 30 minutes late because an artist or two before them played for too long. “You’re kidding me. I’m not fucking Justin Bieber, you motherfuckers,” he said. “Let me show you what one fucking minute means.” At that point, both he and bassist Mike Dirnt then smashed their guitars and walked off the stage. After the incident, the band released a statement saying they apologize if anyone was offended by what happened at the fest and that their set was not cut short. Anyways, that happened Friday and Armstrong entered rehab on Sunday. A number of their promotional appearances in support of the new album have been postponed for the time being while he gets the help he needs. Armstrong was also hospitalized earlier this month and the band had to cancel a show in Italy because he was reportedly suffering from “severe dehydration.” You’ve got to wonder whether or not that was true in light of what’s happened. As a Green Day fan since their early days, I’d like to wish Armstrong the best and a swift recovery. Hopefully the trio of records they’re putting out over the next few months turn out okay too, rather than sounding like some drug-addled mess. Okay, let’s get to this Monday edition of Pick Your Poison. Please enjoy downloads from AbdeCaf, Amen Dunes, Analog Players Society, The Asteroids Galaxy Tour, Mac DeMarco, One Finger Riot, A Shoreline Dream and Windsor Drive. Stars remixing Diamond Rings and vice versa are both pretty good as well. In the Soundcloud section, don’t miss streaming tracks from Bat for Lashes, Earlimart and The Sea and Cake.
Friday, September 21st was officially the last day of summer 2012. You wouldn’t know it had you gone outside in Chicago though, as temperatures were in the 50s for most of the day and the skies were gray and rainy. Sometimes you just want one more warm and sunny day though, before it’s too late. In spite of the weather, life goes on and good things continue to happen in other aspects of our lives. A show where the bill is Atlas Genius, School of Seven Bells and Silversun Pickups sounds pretty dynamite, right? Well, that tour made its way to Chicago on Friday night, stopping at the Aragon Ballroom for some end of summer fun. Here’s a quick look at how things went.
Have you heard of Atlas Genius yet? If not, now’s probably the time to start paying attention to them. Their debut EP Through the Glass has already yielded a budding hit with the song “Trojans,” and a debut album is in the works for early 2013. As a band on the rise, of course they have to pay their dues, though fortunately for them that means playing at the Aragon to a couple thousand people rather than at a small club with only a couple hundred. The peril of being on a big tour though is always that you go on first, and with this being an all ages show, that meant hitting the stage at about 7pm. The average start time for a concert in Chicago is probably about 9pm, and even then a venue typically isn’t full until an hour or two later. So the Aragon was close to half full when Atlas Genius started their set, which for all practical purposes was pretty decent. They started with “Back Seat” off their EP and powered through a few new songs before very naturally ending with “Trojans.” They were arguably the most energetic and entertaining band of the entire night, playing with the sort of carefree joy that young and hungry artists have if they’re doing it right. Sometimes you will show up early and encounter a band that’s not quite ready for primetime but still has a little spark that suggests great potential for the future. In the relatively short time they’ve been around, Atlas Genius have exceeded reasonable expectations. They worked the crowd at the Aragon with charm and enthusiasm, and they responded in kind. It’s just a shame there weren’t more people around to witness it.
One of the more fascinating dichotomies of this particular show was that while Atlas Genius has only one EP and a budding radio hit, School of Seven Bells have three full length albums and zero radio hits. In this increasingly digital and mp3 world, you’d think such stats wouldn’t mean much, but it turns out more young people are listening to terrestrial radio than you might think. There were large portions of the crowd that had at least heard of Atlas Genius but didn’t know School of Seven Bells. It created that much more of a challenge for SVIIB to win people over. The enthusiasm didn’t quite carry over into their set, and it didn’t help that they started a little shaky. “Windstorm” is actually a single of theirs and certainly isn’t one of their weaker tracks, but it trod a midtempo ground that left the audience at attention but not exactly inspired. That frontwoman Alejandra Deheza and guitarist Benjamin Curtis stayed pretty glued to one spot for the entire set certainly didn’t give you much to look at on stage either. I’ve seen SVIIB a couple times in the last few years, always at venues about a third the size of the Aragon, and those shows were far more visceral and inspired than what they were dishing out this particular Friday night. Perhaps it was the set list or the absence of Alejandra’s sister Claudia, or even the sheer size and poor sound of the venue that caused things to be off. Maybe they just needed some time to warm up, too. After the first few songs, things started to click in place by the time “Lafaye” hit. Their final few songs were more beat-heavy and pulsated with an intense energy that started to get a lot of heads bobbing in the crowd. They finished with the song “Half Asleep,” their only nod to their excellent debut album Alpinisms, and there was a certain irony to the title. After spending much of the set with a positively lethargic audience, they were finally able to bring many out of that comatose state and into semi-consciousness. So they had that going for them, which was nice.
When it comes to headliner status, the conditions are almost always just right. That is, the place is fully packed and there’s one act you know everybody is there to see. In this case it was Silversun Pickups, who like School of Seven Bells have three records to their name, but unlike School of Seven Bells have a handful of radio hits to back them up. If you haven’t heard songs like “Lazy Eye” or “Panic Switch” on your local radio station, then perhaps you heard them in a TV commercial or on a movie soundtrack, because they’ve kind of been everywhere. Back when they were first starting out, people compared them to the ’90s version of The Smashing Pumpkins, reasoning that if Billy Corgan hadn’t strayed from that path he was on to go more psychedelic it’s what the Pumpkins would sound like today. Considering how successful Silversun Pickups have been thus far, such a reference feels pretty apt. The size of the crowd on Friday night seemed to be a testament to that success too, because if the show wasn’t sold out it sure looked like a sell out. Frontman Brian Aubert marveled at how many people came out, particularly because the last time they played the Aragon it was only about 75% filled. That sort of humility and overall kindness towards the crowd actually went a long way as a counterbalance to the ferocity of their songs. With bassist Nikki Monninger sidelined for the moment while she’s pregnant with twins, Sarah Negahdari from The Happy Hollows filled in for what was her very first time in Chicago. That seemed strange to me because I thought The Happy Hollows have toured nationally at least a couple times in recent years, but whatever, she seemed genuinely excited to be there and the crowd made her feel more than welcome. After starting with the opening track “Skin Graph” off their new record Neck of the Woods, the band peppered much of their set with the hits people clearly wanted to hear. “The Royal We,” “Little Lover’s So Polite” and their latest single “Bloody Mary (Nerve Endings)” all showed up early on, quickly driving the crowd into a frenzy. Aubert moved around the stage with his guitar whenever he wasn’t locked behind a microphone, which also lent the show some extra energy that a rather pretty array of rainbow colored lighting couldn’t otherwise do. Overall it was about what you’d expect from a Silversun Pickups live show, and that’s not a bad thing. Better to meet expectations rather than fall short of them. The band has definitely improved with time, and Aubert has grown as a performer and ringleader too. Of course there’s always room for improvement, but for where they are in their careers right now they’re doing just fine on stage. Nobody walked out of the Aragon at the end of the night disappointed. Even the rain had the good sense to go away.
There are about 5,245 jokes that can be made from the fact that Fiona Apple was arrested earlier this week in Texas after a border patrol stop complete with drug sniffing dogs discovered 0.1 pound of hash and 0.1 pound of marijuana stowed in a backpack on her tour bus. Apple admitted that the drugs were hers, and she was taken to Hudspeth County jail where she was later released after posting $10,000 bond. If you’re going to crack a joke using any aspect of her song “Criminal,” this is your cue to do so. They’re easy jokes to make, really. What she really needs is a good defense (see what I mean?). Anyways, I want to take a moment to wish Fiona nothing but the best, which she clearly wasn’t getting if she resorted to smoking hash. I woke up yesterday morning (when the news of her arrest broke) with her song “Anything We Want” inexplicably in my head. Sadly, it seems she was not able to live out the lyrics of the song, because she wouldn’t have been arrested otherwise. If I were a member of that police force, I would have let her go. It’s also probably why I’m not a police officer. But that’s another story for another day. Let’s get to this weekend-starting edition of Pick Your Poison. Highlights today include tracks from Ball of Flame Shoot Fire, The Bloody Angle, Delay Trees, Lucius, Silent Rider, Stillwater Giants and Vices. In the Soundcloud section, stream good songs from Candy Claws and Josephine Foster. Have a great weekend!
After detailing a pair of good shows hitting Chicago this Friday night on yesterday’s edition of Pick Your Poison, I realized I forgot to tell you about one more show that’s happening in town on Saturday night. You may have heard of Marco Benevento through a number of channels, though perhaps his most famous work has been a part of the Benevento-Russo Duo. There was also the time he became part of Trey Anastasio’s backing band during the mid-00s when Phish had temporarily broken up. But his solo work has been as equally interesting as his collaborations, highlighting his main instrument the piano with a host of other bells and whistles to move in sonic directions you might not otherwise imagine. His songs have ranged from free-form jazz infusions to post-rock soundscapes and beyond. Underneath it all there’s an overwhelming pop sensibility too, which makes a new song like “Limbs of a Pine” (ft. Kalmia Traver of Rubblebucket) that much more engaging. Anyways, Benevento is touring in support of his brand new album Tigerface that came out last week. He’ll be at Martyr’s on Saturday night at 9:30pm for a 21+ show with the Mike Dillon Band. Tickets are $12 in advance and $15 at the door. You can buy them online here. If you’re free on Saturday, this isn’t to be missed. Among the mp3s below not to be missed as part of today’s Pick Your Poison, let me recommend tracks from Dialogue From A Silent Film, Jim James’ remix of Floating Action, Freeze-Tag, Holmes, Machine Birds, Ruarri Joseph, The Standstill and Vitalic. In the Soundcloud section, you’d best stream every song listed because they’re all good.
As with so many collaborations betweem famous musicians, having David Byrne and St. Vincent working together seems like a great idea on paper. In many ways, you can envision Byrne as a mentor to Annie Clark, a guiding spirit who’s been through the ringer a time or two with the Talking Heads and other projects, taking a talented young prodigy and trying to mold her on a path towards legendary success. Lord knows he doesn’t need the career boost and could probably get away with playing his classic songs for the rest of his life. Certainly Byrne’s work with Brian Eno has been the most highly regarded of his collaborations, with 1981’s My Life in the Bush of Ghosts being just the sort of strange, boundary-pushing effort to inspire a whole new generation of artists. He’s made plenty of great records since then, though arguably nothing will ever quite match his streak of greatness in the ’80s. As for clark, her ever-evolving sound has only become more potent with time, and the latest St. Vincent album Strange Mercy reaches a new peak of her songwriting and guitar skills. She doesn’t really need any favors either at this point, though the opportunity to work with Byrne is one that few smart artists would pass up.
But maybe it is that lack of necessity that makes their album together Love This Giant so comfortable and safe. Instead of taking the license of such a project and running wild with sonic experiments, what we get instead are concise pop songs punched up with a backing brass band. Such a lack of liberty would be more forgivable if the songs themselves were more compelling and memorable, but unfortunately that’s not the case either. The album’s opening song and first single “Who” is actually a very encouraging start, though it is less addictive and inspired than Byrne’s last big single with Brian Eno, 2008’s “Strange Overtones.” A less apparent highlight on the record is “Weekend in the Dust,” taking a canned beat and the funky horn section and turning them into a melody that feels rooted in ’80s or ’90s funk or R&B. It represents a markedly different approach for Clark, and even her halting Janet Jackson-esque lead vocals don’t sound like anything she’s done before. It’s the sort of boundary pushing this album could have used more of. Actually, it’s probably more of Clark’s take on some of Byrne’s known sounds, which then makes it a shame when he doesn’t really adopt much of her creative guitar work. In fact, her guitar is either absent or put behind brass for virtually the entire record, which is like having a million dollars stored in a safe at home but refusing to spend a dime of it even though you’re in debt. “The Forest Awakes” is about as guitar-heavy as this record gets, and even that provides meager offerings.
Yet it’s still Clark that comes off best on Love This Giant, and whether that has to do with songwriting, melody or general enthusiasm for the project is up for debate. Byrne mostly sounds bored, almost like he’s run out of things to say. Instead of using “I Should Watch TV” as a clever way to comment on today’s pop culture, he uses it to analyze exactly why he’s compelled to do as the song title suggests. You could say that it’s a noble search for deeper meaning, but the melody suggests a playfulness that’s simply not present otherwise. While the brass backing band is something of a bolder choice for both artists involved, one of the real tragedies is how whitewashed and bland they come off sounding. That’s especially true on tracks like “Dinner For Two” and “Lazarus,” both of which could use a little extra pep in their step and injections of instrumental creativity. Thanks to an additional assist from Antibalas and The Dap-Kings, “The One Who Broke Your Heart” is a surprising late album treat and probably the best use of brass on the entire record.
A large part of the disconnect on Love This Giant, instrumental and otherwise, probably stems from how it was pieced together. Recorded over three years in a variety of studios with files passed back and forth between Byrne and Clark, you can sort of tell that not everybody was in the same room or studio when this was created. Such are the potential perils of long distance collaboration. Inspired as this team up sounded initially, both Byrne and St. Vincent have done and will do bigger and better things down the line. Perhaps if they decide to do this again, as Byrne has done with Eno, things will turn out much differently and for the better.
Sometimes I like to feature an upcoming Chicago show or two on this site, both to keep local readers’ concert calendars updated and also to let everybody know about some great live acts in case the tour also passes through your town. Today I’m going to tell you about two shows happening in Chicago this Friday, one from some high profile artists you may have heard of and the other from a much lower profile but equally exciting act. Let’s start with the higher profile one.
The Aragon Ballroom isn’t my favorite place to see a show, nor should it be yours, but sometimes a lineup is just too good to avoid going there. Friday night’s show features Silversun Pickups, School of Seven Bells and Atlas Genius, and it’s the sort that qualifies as important and nearly essential. Silversun Pickups are touring in support of their latest album Neck of the Woods, which I liked quite a bit even if other publications felt differently. One thing a lot more people agreed on was that School of Seven Bells’ latest album Ghostory is very good and well constructed, even as they suffered the exit of Claudia Deheza, who made some incredible harmonies with her sister Alejandra. Having seen both of these bands perform live before, I can attest that they both put on great shows worth seeing. The wild card on this bill is Atlas Genius, who after releasing their debut EP Through the Glass earlier this summer have quicky become a buzzed about, hypeworthy band. Have you heard their song “Trojans” yet? It’s remarkably catchy, as are “Back Seat” and Symptoms“. You’re definitely going to want to arrive right when the show starts at 7 to see them perform. It’s an all ages show, tickets are $32 and available for purchase here, or possibly at the door.
For something completely different on Friday night, and hypothetically you could go to this once the Silversun Pickups show lets out, UK avant-electro composer Max Cooper will be headlining a show at Vision Lair. The guy is really talented, especially when you look at how he “Reconstructs” Michael Nyman’s “Secrets” or remixes Hot Chip’s “I Feel Better“. His current 10-date U.S. tour is in support of his forthcoming Conditions EP, which features a collaboration with the art rock band Braids. Needless to say, it’s fascinating stuff. I’m sure Cooper doesn’t put on a typical live show either, or at least not the sort of one you’d expect from today’s electronica artists. Given that it goes from 10pm-4am, this is a 21+ show. Tickets will be $15 at the door, which is relatively inexpensive when you look at a lot of other club shows in and around Chicago on weekends. If you’d like additional info, here’s a link where you can find out more.
Okay, now let’s tackle this Wednesday edition of Pick Your Poison. Recommended tracks today come from Black Forest Fire, Drug Cabin, Ending People, Heems, Midtown Dickens, Rosie Flores, The Soft Moon and Xiu Xiu. The Soundcloud section is thick with good songs available for streaming, including 2:54 covering Seal & Adamski, SURES, Teen Daze (ft. Frankie Rose), and Liars remixing The Twilight Sad.
As is tradition, I like to take Tuesdays to quickly list the artists releasing new material this week, in case you’re looking to buy and listen to some new music. This week is a good one and a nice start to the fall season. Be on the look out for fresh material from Aimee Mann, The Album Leaf, Ben Folds Five, Band of Horses, Brass Bed, Brother Ali, Catherine Irwin, Corin Tucker Band, Dinosaur Jr., Grizzly Bear, How to Dress Well, James Iha, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Josephine Foster, The Killers, Local H, Lymbyc Systym, Menomena, Mike Coykendoll, Natural Child, Nelly Furtado, Paul Simon, Rangda, Robert Pollard, Sic Alps, Sweet Lights, The Sea and Cake, The Whigs and Woods. Phew, that’s a lot of stuff. If something in there doesn’t appeal to you, perhaps a track or two in today’s Pick Your Poison will. Allow me to make some curation suggestions for you. Be sure to check out downloads from Agent Ribbons, Broke For Free, D A W N S, Fine Times, Firewater, Royal Canoe, Solos, Sombear, Tamarin and WRITER. In the Soundcloud section, tracks from Bassnectar (ft. Chino Moreno) and Benjamin Francis Leftwich’s cover of M83 are both good tracks to stream.
Hey, so as you may have guessed because I promised such things, I’m back from vacation. And yes, I want to make sure you know that I had only a moderately good time. I wasn’t really ever able to enjoy myself and “stop and smell the roses,” but I did do a lot of traveling through the Southern U.S. I also got to stop in one of my favorite cities in the entire world, Austin, TX, which is a good time no matter what. Anyways, I’m feeling a bit worn down and tired from all the running around I did, so I’m taking it easy today. Of course this edition of Pick Your Poison is a bit super-sized, mostly because I’m backed up on emails and have a whole lot more mp3s than usual sitting in my inbox. Normally I would have given you most of these last week. But here we are, and it’s this week. Please enjoy tracks from Barcode, Brooke Waggoner, Dance Movie, Hyper Heart, INK, Nervous Cloud, Santah, Star Slinger and Twin Cabins.
Here is a simple question: Did you fall madly in love with xx, the 2009 debut album from The xx? If your answer is somewhere in the range of, “Yes! OH GOD YES,” then clearly the prospect of a sequel to that album gets you salivating with anticipation. If you’re one of the arguable few that simply “didn’t get it” the first time around, but are hoping that maybe something new and different from them will push all the right buttons, let me break this down for you. The new xx record Coexist is for this band what Antics was for Interpol or Room on Fire was for The Strokes: an attempt to repeat success by not messing with what’s already been done perfectly the first time. This is minimalism taken to the extreme; a record that absolutely sounds like it was recorded by a couple people alone in a room. You get the lone guitar carefully plucked note by note, the casually light splashes of piano and occasionally skittering beats that seem like they don’t want to be there. Atop it all are the voices of Romy Madley Croft and Oliver Sims, always relaxed to the ultimate degree and providing the impression they’re speaking to one another in the quietest, most intimate moments life has to offer. That’s the way it was on xx, and that’s the way it is now. Is it just as affecting as it was before? Well, that one’s up for debate. The lack of innovation in their sound, amounting to what’s really more of a scaling back than moving forward, isn’t exactly a bad thing considering they were a very unique band from note one. “Reunion” certainly makes its own mark thanks to some carefully placed steel drum that would otherwise be unexpected. The pulsating and rather sly energy of “Swept Away” feels like a step in the right direction too, the gorgeous piano adding a little Balearic flavor to what will ultimately be the song that lends itself best to future remixes. Everything else is largely business as usual, which you can take as good or bad depending on your own expectations. The opening track and first single “Angels” pushes forth the impression that The xx could well be a slowcore version of Beach House, but that’s a little deceptive the more you listen to the other tracks. The intimacy of a record like this gets pushed to the extreme on “Tides,” a song that starts with Croft and Sims’ vocals entangled and absolutely nothing else. It’s impressive in just the right ways. The tragedy of this album is it doesn’t try to do more. It mostly finds its comfort zone and stays there, which eventually winds up being to its detriment. There’s nothing outright bad on Coexist, and it’s a rather easy record to listen to and get lost in, but it feels like they could have done something more or at least taken a risk or two. The lyrics don’t help at all either, closing off some of the more detailed confessions from the first album with greater mystery and generalizations. When they sing, “We used to get closer than this/ Is it something you miss?” on “Chained,” the answer is a resounding yes on the listener’s end, a response to their lack of open-hearted candor through most of the songs. If you’re not going to expand your sound, you’d do well to at least try and improve your songwriting. So while Coexist is largely a nice and enjoyable sophomore effort from The xx, it isn’t quite the landmark album their debut was. As their current sound begins to wear ever thinner, hopefully they find some new and interesting ways to keep fans invested for years to come.
Hey, while I’m still away for the week, please enjoy this Pick Your Poison post in my stead. Unless I find some wifi, and have some serious time to do some work, this will be the last post on the site this week. Regular posting will resume on Monday, Sept. 17th. With any luck though, I will find wifi and things will continue uninterrupted. For now, please enjoy these mp3s from BRAINSTORM, City Brat, KOPPS, Lyke Giants, Picture Book, Turtle Giant, Ungdumskulen and Warning Light. In the Soundcloud section stream new stuff from Band of Horses and Mist Glider.
