One of the most amusingly random and weird music news stories to emerge this calendar year has got to be the revival of Jesus Christ Superstar as a touring musical. That in and of itself isn’t so much random and weird, as it’s been a longtime favorite and classic production from Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. The random and weird part is the casting, which has such a WTF factor that I spit out a portion of my drink when I saw who was lined up to play key roles. Michelle Williams of Destiny’s Child fame was Mary Magdalene. JC Chasez of ‘N Sync was Pontius Pilate. Both of those make some degree of sense, given their lack of other work these days. It seems natural they would gravitate towards musical theatre. But then it gets stranger. Brandon Boyd of Incubus gets the role of Judas Iscariot. Sure, the guy looks the part, but is Incubus not doing well right now? Last I checked they were still pretty popular and continuing the cycle of album, tour, album, tour. Last but certainly not least, there’s John Lydon aka Johnny Rotten from The Sex Pistols/Public Image Ltd as King Herod. If you don’t find that casting bizarre, go back and explore the man’s catalogue. Now if all this sounds like a random and strange good time, I’m inclined to agree with you, though I’d never fork over more than about five bucks to see the results. Apparently a lot of other people felt that way too, because they’ve now cancelled the entire 54 city tour just days before it was set to launch, not citing poor ticket sales but one might assume that’s the primary reason. Producers saw they were going to lose a lot of money and decided to pull the plug while they still had the chance. So tragically we’ll never find out how much of a mistake this could have been. Of course, we did get a little video preview the other day courtesy of Good Morning America, where Brandon Boyd and Michelle Williams performed a song from the famed musical. At the very least, we’ll always have that. Now then, how about today’s Pick Your Poison? Good stuff in this set comes from Canopies, Collarbones, Emma Garrett, Slow Dancing Society, We Are Temporary and Young Braves. In the Soundcloud section after the jump, stream new songs from The Cold and Lovely, Liam Bailey, A Million Billion Dying Suns, White Reaper and Wonderful Humans.
Doobious & Bazooka – Chain Gang
Emma Garrett – Change Your Bones
Grandtheft & Keys N Krates – Keep It 100
Mackenzie Shivers – Nothing to Fear
The Verve Pipe – Crash Landing
We Are Temporary – Machine Love (ft. Misfit Mod)
Young Braves – Black Country
SOUNDCLOUD
The Cold and Lovely – Radio
Liam Bailey – On My Mind
A Million Billion Dying Suns – Daydream (Journey cover)
We Have Band – Modulate (The Penelopes Remix)
White Reaper – Cool
Wonderful Humans – Edge of the Night
