Pick Your Poison: Wednesday 3-26-14

Well, it’s finally happened. The lineup for Lollapalooza 2014 has officially been released. This year marks the 10th anniversary of Lolla’s reinvention from a traveling music festival to one that has a permanent home in Chicago’s Grant Park. I’ve attended all 10 years, this upcoming one included, and have watched how it’s evolved in that time to become the juggernaut it is today. With each new year, the tickets sell out faster and the lineup seems to get mainstream-ier. The headliners this year include Eminem, Outkast, Kings of Leon, Arctic Monkeys, Skrillex and Calvin Harris. While this is supposed to make me throw up in my mouth a little (for the record, it kinda does), part of me admires the strategy that the talent bookers have put together when developing this lineup. In short, they’re no longer targeting those of us who have been loyal Lollagoers over the last 10 years. We’ve gotten too old and apparently aren’t as willing to open our wallets compared to the youth of today. There’s a coveted 18-25 (more like 16-22) age demographic that’s a proverbial sweet spot, and these young adults LOVE this Lollapalooza lineup. They’re thrilled about attending this year, and even bought three day passes before the lineup was even announced. That’s how confident they were that it was going to be great. Others such as myself bought the three day passes sans lineup because we had to – they sold out after about an hour of going on sale, again with no acts officially announced. Earlier today when the lineup finally was unleashed, single day tickets went on sale and then those sold out too. It’s the fastest sell out in the history of the festival, and I’m sure promoters are licking their chops ready to crank out a similar lineup for 2015. Meanwhile I’m looking at the day-by-day breakdown hoping that there are going to be no schedule conflicts with the artists on the bill that I really like, since there aren’t a whole lot of them. Seems like fewer and fewer every year. But again, I’m “old” by this festival’s standards. Most of the people attending probably haven’t seen a majority of the bands before and are excited to learn more about them. If you’re one of them, good for you, have fun. For us more experienced attendees, things are starting to feel a little…let’s say stale. Of course I’ll still be covering the blow by blow here on the site this upcoming August 1-3. It’d be nice if I had a lot of positive things to say. Okay, on that upbeat note, let’s look at today’s Pick Your Poison. There’s some good tracks in this set from Arum Rae, Cathy, Honeymilk, Indianapolis JOnes, Jasia, Kaela Sinclair, Wildlife and Yumi Zouma. In the Soundcloud section after the jump, stream songs from Chance the Rapper, Haunted Hearts (Dum Dum Girls/Crocodiles collab), Eyes Wings and Many Other Things, Lust for Youth, Marika Hackman (covering Lykke Li), The Range and Varsity.