Pick Your Poison: Monday 12-17-12

Ah, the week before Christmas. Do you have all your shopping done yet? If you’re like me, which I’m sure many of you are, the shopping doesn’t REALLY begin until this week. I don’t blame myself for procrastinating, rather I blame everyone I’m buying gifts for because they’re all so indecisive. I ask at the beginning of December what they want, and then they toss out a few ideas, change their mind, and finally settle on something during this last week. I’ve been burned enough times to know that the earlier I shop, the more likely it is I won’t get the right gift. And it is about getting the right gift for the right person. So once I’ve got all that squared away and am able to get an official commitment from friends and family, I’ll map out a shopping plan and get most if not all of my shopping taken care of in a single day. Wham, bam, thank you ma’am. Long lines and frustrated shoppers aren’t for me, save for one day or two a year, and I’d like to think that makes everyone a little saner. By the way, did you happen to catch my Top 50 Songs of 2012 as I unveiled them last week? In case you missed it, you can go here to check out all the fun, post by post. I’ve also created a Spotify playlist for the Top 50 Songs in order, not to mention an alphabetically ordered playlist of 50 songs I consider to be “Runners Up”. Together those 100 tracks add up to over 6 hours of music, every bit of which is excellent in some way, shape or form. You probably won’t be in love with every song like I am, but I do hope you’re able to discover something new and great that you may have missed earlier this year. Of course you could also miss something new and great by skipping a day of Pick Your Poison, so don’t do that either. Today’s highlights include tracks from The Antlers (as re-imagined by Brent Arnold), Blackfeet Braves, Laura Warshauer (doing a Christmas classic), Sin Fang and Ellie Herring’s remix of Social Studies. In the Soundcloud section (located after the jump), there’s a bunch of new and great songs from Marnie Stern, Parquet Courts, Wavves, Widowspeak and William Tyler.