Month: March 2013

Sooo we’ve hit the week that many hardcore music fans know as SXSW Week. If you’re not a hardcore music fan, let me give you a very quick overview of what that’s all about. See, there’s this big conference happening in Austin, Texas. It’s called South By Southwest, and features a few different sectors, including Film and Interactive. But for music geeks, the Music portion is the one where all the focus is at. In addition to the many speaking panels with musician and music industry guests talking about various aspects of the industry, there’s also hundreds upon hundreds of showcases that occur all across the streets of downtown Austin. Empty warehouses, open fields, parking garages and everything in between suddenly become concert venues, and almost every conceivable band descends on the town to perform in the hopes of either getting discovered or praised for new music they’re playing. Bands like Green Day, Tegan & Sara, Best Coast and a whole lot more established names will pop up at a show or two, but mostly there’s a lot of small bands working hard, playing a half dozen or more shows over the course of 3-5 days, and wearing themselves out in the process. There’s rumors that Prince will play a secret show this year, and maybe even Daft Punk too. When I went for the first time last year, I had a blast and made memories that will last for a lifetime. The big names performing then were Jack White, who was just establishing himself as a solo artist, and Bruce Springsteen, who was the keynote speaker at the conference and later put on a 3+ hour show at a small venue that blew some minds. I was unable to get into either of those shows, but will never forget standing front and center for a big Sleigh Bells set or seeing Grimes perform 3 times in a couple days and watching as she progressively lost her voice. There was the time I saw Best Coast and Frankie Rose play on top of a parking garage where there were only a handful of people for some reason and all the free alcohol you could drink. How about when I saw Fiona Apple perform her first live show in a few years, during which she performed a couple new songs off her then-forthcoming album The Idler Wheel…? There were a bunch more great moments similar to those that I don’t want to get into right now, except to say that you can read through those many memories and all my SXSW coverage from 2012 right here. For 2013, I’m spending SXSW at home, unable to get to Texas this year. I miss it and want to go back. Perhaps in 2014? I think almost definitely. If you’re in Austin this week, I hope you have a blast. If not, I strongly advise you to make it out there if you have the financial means of doing so. Now then, let’s get to today’s Pick Your Poison. I’ll recommend tracks from 1939 Ensemble, All Tiny Creatures, Liam Singer, Radiation City and Suburban Living. In the Soundcloud section after the jump, stream songs from The Appleseed Cast, Austra, James Blake, Merchandise, and Ryan Hemsworth’s remix of Lana Del Rey’s “Summertime Sadness”.

1939 Ensemble – Sad French Song

All Tiny Creatures – Quickest Cut

Bears! Bears! Bears! – I Guess We’re Lonely

Blood Sister – Why Would You

Eksi Ekso – Gold Cures

Enerate – Unstoppable

Faustix & Imanos – Moonlight (ft. Noosa)

Frida Sundemo – Home

Ginger & The Ghost – One Type of Dark (Ta-ku Remix)

Liam Singer – Stranger I Know

My Gold Mask – Further It Gets (Shuteye Remix)

Radiation City – Fly Me to The Moon (Astrud Gilberto cover)

Stereoboy – Naked

Suburban Living – Always Eyes

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Hey, we’ve reached another weekend! Sometimes that feels like the greatest thing ever. I’d tell you all about my big plans, but they’re not really big and nothing is set in stone anyways. Also, nobody really wants to read about what I’m up to unless it’s something exciting like jumping out of a plane or having lunch with David Bowie. Sometimes it’s just nice to sit back, relax, and spend time with friends at a bar or something. But I hope you’ve got lots to do and that you enjoy it. Let’s get right to this Friday edition of Pick Your Poison, shall we? Keep your ears open for tracks from Joywave, K-The-I???, Kinski, Olof Arnalds, Porcupine, Ten Kens and United Ghosts. In the Soundcloud section after the jump, stream new songs from Eluvium, Fossil Collective and Wax Idols, among others. Have a great weekend!

Big Paraid – Walk in Place

Blank Realm – Go Easy

Fijuka – Running Up That Hill (Kate Bush cover)

Joywave – All I Want

K-The-I??? – Aching for Love Music

Kinski – Last Day on Earth

Lionlimb – Bound Widths

Ólöf Arnalds – Return Again

Porcupine – Witness to a Chase Scene

Skatalites – Desert Ska

Squalloscope – Zephyr

Ten Kens – When a Door Opens

Tumbleweed Wanderers – Worn Down Welcome

United Ghosts – Holes Into the Night

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For the introduction to today’s Pick Your Poison, I want to try something a little different. Instead of writing some expository paragraph about a music news or concert item, I think I’ll pass along a few key pieces of music-related entertainment that you might enjoy. Have a look at these links, and click on something if you think you might enjoy it. I mean, that’s the basic idea behind Pick Your Poison, but none of these things are mp3s. So here we go:

–Did Kohl’s rip off YACHT? You be the judge!

–Hear the new She & Him song “Never Wanted Your Love” via YouTube

–Watch Beach House’s new video for “Wishes,” directed by Tim Heidecker and starring Ray Wise

–Watch the video for Phoenix’s new single “Entertainment”

–Watch a short documentary about the band Iceage, filmed this past January

–Watch Dave Grohl, Josh Homme and Trent Reznor perform the song “Mantra” live in a studio off the Sound City documentary soundtrack

So that covers that. If you like how this little experiment came together, let me know in the comments or via one of the many social media and email outlets on the top right of the page. Now let’s deal with today’s Pick Your Poison. I’ll recommend you download tracks from Big Scary, Dirty Fences, Hey Champ, Meg Mac, They Might Be Giants and Twin Tigers. In the Soundcloud section after the jump, I’ll advocate that you stream 100% of the tracks in there, including ones from Baths, Eleanor Friedberger, Julian Lynch, Smith Westerns, Sonny & The Sunsets and The xx covering Kings of Tomorrow.

Big Scary – Phil Collins

The Cannanes – Crawler

Crywolf & Aylen – Silence Pt. II

Dirty Fences – Heaven Is Tonight

DUST – Your Only Friend (Phuture cover)

Greg Boring – Huh

Hey Champ – Comet (ft. BeuKes)

Hollis Brown – Walk On Water

Meg Mac – Known Better

Papertwin – Diving

Ruby Ridge – No Shade

Stubborn Heart – To Catch A Spark

They Might Be Giants – You’re On Fire

Twin Tigers – Racecar

Weird Mob – Wired in Parallel

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Okay, I haven’t done a preview for a Chicago show in awhile, so let’s bring that back today with 2 different (but equally great) concerts happening in the city on the same day. That day is Monday, March 10th. Sure, you may still be a bit groggy from losing an hour of sleep on Sunday thanks to Daylight Savings Time, but trust me when I say there are some good bands coming through town. First up is Panoramic & True. You can download a new song from them called “Haunted” off their Wonderlust record below as part of today’s Pick Your Poison. They’re a local Chicago band with a lot of catchy orchestral pop songs you just want to fall in love with. Anyways, they’ll be playing a 21+ show at Beat Kitchen on Monday night (8:30 p.m. start time). Also on that bill are Sea Lanes, Rare Animals and America Hearts. Tickets are only $8 and can be purchased in advance here.

Another band with local ties is The Pear Traps, and they’ll be headlining a show at the Empty Bottle on Monday night with two New York bands coming through town on their way to SXSW, Ski Lodge and Conveyor. The Pear Traps make music best describes as jangly garage pop, and they put out an EP late last year that’s pretty great. The Elsewhere EP is available to stream and as a name your own price download at Bandcamp. But the other two bands on the bill are excellent as well. Ski Lodge just released a new single, which you can stream in the Soundcloud section of today’s Pick Your Poison. That’s a lot of fun and it reminds me of The Smiths in a positive way. Perhaps most interesting, to me at least, is Conveyor, a band that combines folk, electronica and a host of other styles and elements to create an experimental pop sound that’s positively addictive. It’s like if Animal Collective, Fleet Foxes and Yeasayer had a musical baby together. I’ve featured the tracks “Mukraker,” “Marie” and “Woolgatherer” on my site before, and I invite you to download them all if you haven’t yet done so. The show is at the Empty Bottle on Monday starting at 7, and tickets are only $3. Yep, you read that right, $3. A buck a band. You can’t do much better than that, and especially with talent like this. Here is the link to buy tickets.

Okay, on to today’s Pick Your Poison, which is a delight. Pay particular attention to tracks from Dandan, Ghostkeeper, James Ferraro, Peals, Shannon & The Clams, Will Courtney and Delorean’s remix of Young Dreams. Oh, and Chris Bear’s remix of Grizzly Bear’s “Plans” is excellent as well. In the Soundcloud section (after the jump), stream tracks from Big Deal, Goldroom, Iggy and the Stooges and Laura Stevenson, among others.

Dandan – Swimmers

Ghostkeeper – Luella

Glass Candy – The Possessed (Extended Runway Edit)

Grizzly Bear – Plans (C Bear Chopped Up Not Slopped Up Remix)

James Ferraro – Blood Flow

Opaque Stutters – Benefit of the Doubt

Panoramic & True – Haunted

Peals – Blue Elvis

Shannon & The Clams – Rip Van Winkle

Streak and the Raven – Speed of Light

Sweatson Klank – Waiting (ft. Vikter Duplaix)

WhoaBear – Long Time

Will Courtney – There’s No Answer

Young Dreams – First Days of Something (Delorean Remix)

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Ah, it’s Tuesday! What’s on the new music calendar for this week? I’m glad you asked, self. This week the following artists are putting out new records, so if you want to buy any of them, this is your reminder: The ACBs, Autechre, Blanche Blanche Blanche, Bloody Amateur, Caitlin Rose, Cave Singers, Chelsea Light Moving, Cloud Cult, Doldrums, Helado Negro, Hey Marseilles, Hollis Brown, How to destroy angels_, Javelin, Judy Kang, Kate Nash, The Kingsbury Manx, Madeline Peyroux, Rhye, Son Volt, Superhuman Happiness, Suuns, The Men, They Might Be Giants, Waxahatchee, Young Dreams and Youth Lagoon. I haven’t heard all those records so I’m not one to judge, but I know there’s at least 3 gems in that stack and I wish you the best of luck in discovering them. Meanwhile, Pick Your Poison goes onwards and upwards, as I’ll give a gold star to tracks from 3421, Big Black Delta, Camera2, Jason Blum, Kait Lawson, Psychic Friend and Whitehorse. In the Soundcloud section, there’s quite a few great things up for streaming, including tracks from Generationals, High Highs, Milk Music and Parquet Courts.

3421 – Sparks

Big Black Delta – Side of the Road

Blondfire – Walking With Giants (Shreddie Mercury Remix)

Camera2 – Just About Made It

The Disraeli Gears – Back of My Eyes (Live)

Kash – Play the Fool

Doe Paoro – Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen cover)

Jason Blum – Josephine

Kait Lawson – Memphis

Mudhoney – I Like It Small

Odonis Odonis – Better

Psychic Friend – We Do Not Belong

Solomon – Vanilla

Sondra Sun-Odeon – Hair

Whitehorse – Devil’s Got A Gun

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If you’re like me, you can’t wait for warmer weather to arrive. Spring and summer seem just around the corner, even if Chicago is supposed to be getting 9 inches of snow in the next couple days. For me, the highlight of every summer is music festival season. I’m a music festival obsessive, and have been for almost a decade now. Of course that doesn’t mean I go to a ton of music fests, more that I pick and choose carefully which ones I want to focus on. The hope is to get the most and best music for your hard-earned money. It makes a festival like Lollapalooza an easy choice for me every year, as they cram 140 bands into 3 days, and I’ve almost never found a time slot each year where I didn’t want to see a single act. The other music festival I genuinely love, and arguably more than any other in Chicago or elsewhere, is the Pitchfork Music Festival. It’s a boutique festival, meaning it’s small (only 3 stages), and doesn’t necessarily have big and popular names outside of the headliners. But its overall size and scope are perfect for what it specializes in, which is introducing the world to the next great band, and celebrating the ones that are already there. You’ll hear the band that’s just starting out but has been building significant buzz, and you’ll hear from the well-established band that broke up several years ago but has now returned to try and reclaim their former glory. The stories are endless, and the quality is exceptionally high. The lineup every year provides music lovers with perfect opportunities to celebrate and discover some great music. Anyways, I don’t mean to prime the pump too much on the Pitchfork Music Festival, but I do want to make sure you’re aware of what acts have been announced for the 2013 edition so far. This year, it seems Pitchfork have outdone themselves, booking headliners Bjork, Belle & Sebastian and R. Kelly. I’m not going to get into the WTF-ness of R. Kelly right now, and plenty of others have already done that for me. Suffice it to say, I think he was on his way out, having passed his R&B prime a few years ago, when someone tossed the idea of Trapped in the Closet at him. He’s been more of an overblown comedian than a legitimate music star ever since then, in my opinion. Still, I’m interested to hear what he’ll do for his headlining set this summer, and whether or not I’ll be able to appreciate it ironically. But a bunch more acts were just announced for this year’s lineup, so let me run those down for you quickly: Joanna Newsom, Trash Talk, Angel Olsen, The Breeders (playing Last Splash), Rustie, Swans, …And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead, Mac DeMarco, Chairlift, TNGHT, Sky Ferreira, Killer Mike, El-P, Foxygen and Tree. All that, and it’s not even half of the total lineup. I’m already thrilled and excited to go this summer based on those artists alone. You can get your ticket by going here. It’s $50 for a one-day pass and $120 for a 3-day pass, which is cheap when you look at fests like Coachella and Bonnarroo (and Lollapalooza too, I guess). Once more artists on the lineup are announced, I’ll make sure to update you on that as well. In the meantime, let’s make the most out of today’s Pick Your Poison. I’ll recommend tracks from Babe the Blue Ox, Chalk and Numbers, Decades, Ian Place, Picture Day and Qurious. In the Soundcloud section after the jump, stream new songs from Small Black, Shout Out Out Out Out, Vondelpark, Yellowbirds and Azealia Banks (covering The Strokes).

Autumn Owls – Semaphores (Acoustic)

Babe the Blue Ox – Dragging the Joneses

Candace Bellamy – Put Down the Foot

Chalk and Numbers – Pretty Colors

China Rats – Nip It in the Bud

Decades – Tonight Again

Home By Hovercraft – Lie in Your Bed

Ian Place – On the Other Hand

Jahan Lennon – Can’t Ruin My Fun

laymedown – X

Picture Day – Madoline

Qurious – Wunderkammer

Strongheart – Empty Hands

Trixie Whitley – Need Your Love (Schwarzwald Remix)

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Happy Friday! Happy First of March! Happy One Month Until April Fools Day Day! There are plenty of things to celebrate as we head into the weekend. Personally, I think that the start of March is the start of the end of winter. By the time this month is through, the snow will be off the ground and temperatures should reach a relatively mild 50-something degrees. At least that’s how it normally goes in Chicago. Spring is almost in the air, and I for one can’t wait. Of course this winter hasn’t been bad by any means, and the snow hasn’t exactly been piled high, but I miss spending time outside, flowers and grass, grilling and the summer music festival season. Speaking of which, if you’re a fan of or regular attendee at Lollapalooza every year, I’d like to point out that starting today and going through the end of the month I’ll be giving out lineup hints and rumors and “confirmations” (nothing’s officially confirmed until the fest says so) each weekday on Twitter. If you want some insight into who will be playing in Grant Park this year, you might want to check that out. Maybe one of the bands below will be there this year. Today’s Pick Your Poison highlights come from Adventure Galley, Belle Mare, Big K.R.I.T., Bloody Amateur, Midnight Spin, Monocle and Takka Takka. In the Soundcloud section (after the jump), stream tracks from The Black Angels, Lightouts, Patrick Stickles (of Titus Andronicus) covering Free Energy, and Blood Diamonds remixing Hundred Waters. Have a great weekend!

Adventure Galley – Semantics

The Antiques – Video Code

Belle Mare – The Boat of the Fragile Mind

Big K.R.I.T. – Shine On (ft. Bun B)

Bloody Amateur – The Light

Four Visions – About Us

Jerusalem in My Heart – Koll Lil-Mali7ati Fi Al-Khimar Al-Aswadi

Kazyak – Pieces of My Map

Little Daylight – Overdose (Ghost Loft Remix)

Midnight Spin – Conchis Bliss

Monocle – Chances Glide

Mortar & Pestle – U.V.

Takka Takka – We Are Pilgrims No More (The End of Our Traveling Days)

Tartufi – Underwater

Tjutjuna – Mousetrap

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