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Pick Your Poison: Monday 5-13-13

For those that don’t know, Daft Punk’s new album Random Access Memories will officially be released next Tuesday. The hype about this record has been building ever since the day it was announced, and people kept freaking out thanks to seemingly random commercials featuring seconds of new music that aired during Saturday Night Live and other fare. Posters featuring the robot heads of Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo also started to appear everywhere, including SXSW where it was hotly tipped that the duo would be performing a secret show. While that never happened, it certainly got and kept people talking. There’s been so much excitement in the lead up to this that I don’t fully understand why. Allow me to explain before you get all upset and angry with me. Daft Punk put on an incredible live show. I feel honored to have seen it a few years back, as my life certainly hasn’t quite been the same since. Yes, it’s one of those things you just don’t forget. They also don’t play many shows, which makes the rarity of them that much more special. I suppose it’s for that very reason that people love Daft Punk. Well, that and their two truly classic records of Homework and Discovery. Where my confusion lies is in how people can blissfully ignore the fact that these guys haven’t released a great album since 2001. For 99% of bands, if your last great album came out 12 years ago, you don’t have much of a career left to salvage. 2005’s Human After All was a major disappointment compared to what had been released previously, and things like a live album (without a DVD of the mindblowing visuals?!) or the soundtrack to Tron: Legacy simply didn’t cut it. You can basically call Random Access Memories an official follow-up to Human After All then, which I guess creates an 8 year “gap” of truly original, signature Daft Punk material to rebuild their empire and help fans forget. So this time with a massive collection of guest stars in tow, including Pharrell, Panda Bear, Nile Rodgers and Chilly Gonzales, the duo want to remind you why you fell in love with them in the first place. As the title suggests, they want you to randomly access your memories of their classic albums and insane live show to remember the good and forget the bad. They’re playing this game, and I’ve got to give them kudos for doing it right. With that, I’m pleased to tell you (if you didn’t already know) that Random Access Memories is now streaming in full over at iTunes. If you’re interested to hear what they’ve come up with, by all means have at it. Might I also recommend checking out today’s Pick Your Poison, since you’re already here? There’s some strong songs today from Arc Rev One, Four Tet, The Morals, VOWS and Young Hunting. In the Soundcloud section after the jump, stream songs from The 1975, The Child of Lov (ft. Damon Albarn), The-Dream (ft. Jay-Z), The Love Language, Rogue Wave and Var.

Arc Rev One – Transference

The Delta Routine – New York Avenue

Four Tet – Unspoken (Promo Version)

The Herbaliser – Crimes & Misdemeanours (Lopez Remix)

Kyle Andrews – The Way to Wonder

Monophona – Give Up

The Morals – Birds
The Morals – Noah Part I

Mr. Muthafuckin’ eXquire – Noble Drew Ali

No Middle Name – When Forever Ends

Shaun McGyver – 2 Stories With the Same Ending

Shooting Stansfield – Sign of the Times

Sivu – Bodies (Cloud Boat’s Let the Bodies Hit the Floor Remix)

Tracy Walton – If I Ever Get Away

VOWS – Symbol System

Young Hunting – Wrecking Ball

Pick Your Poison: Thursday 5-9-13

It’s Thursday, which means it’s time for another weekly dip into the pool of music news, interviews and videos that I like to call This Week In Music! Yes, in addition to the normal Pick Your Poison mp3s and Soundcloud streams, I like to toss out links to a bunch of other music-related content that I’ve found interesting or worthwhile over the course of the week. I encourage you to check some, if not all of these things out, particularly if you’re looking to waste some time. There’s plenty to see, read and hear:

Music Video: The Lonely Island – Spring Break Anthem (+ “Between Two Ferns”)

Watch Wilco’s Glenn Kotche find a way to make sinks, pots and pans into percussion instruments in a new commercial

Listen to Queens of the Stone Age perform 2 new songs on a Belgian radio station

Third Man Records is releasing a limited edition gold and platinum LP version of The Great Gatsby soundtrack

Music Video: The National – Sea of Love

Watch a short film about DFA Records, narrated by Mark Maron

Music Video: David Bowie – The Next Day

Watch Thom Yorke perform Atoms for Peace’s “Ingenue” live on the Jonathan Ross Show

Music Video: Smith Westerns – Varsity

Music Video: Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Mosquito

As far as today’s Pick Your Poison goes, allow me to recommend tracks from Graham MacRae, Jesse Ruins, Lake Isle, Sam Vicari, Two Inch Astronaut, Wild Moccasins and Wise Blood. In the Soundcloud section after the jump, stream some great songs from Lust For Youth, The Mantles, The Orwells, Tree (ft. Danny Brown) and These New Puritans.

Botzy – Thrill Is Gone (ft. Justyn Dow)

Graham MacRae – Game Changer

Jesse Ruins – Talk to Alicia

Koloto – Primer

Kriget – Sleeping With Buddha

Lake Isle – Steel Rails

Rituel – Club Zanzibar (Extended Instrumental)

Ross Crean – Daniel

Sam Vicari – Heart Explosion

Steelwells – Dead Song

Two Inch Astronaut – Blood From A Loyal Hound

Wild Moccasins – Gag Reflections

Wise Blood – Universe Is Blessed

Young Jeezy – RIP (ENFERNO Remix)

Pick Your Poison: Wednesday 5-8-13

I’d like to take a moment as part of this Pick Your Poison introduction to make mention of a small issue that’s been plaguing the site these last few months. Namely, the lack of content outside of Pick Your Poison posts. Back in the earliest days of the site, even prior to the incarnation we’ve been at now for the last 3 years, I used to write 4-5 album reviews each week. For whatever reason I’d power through and crank out review after review like it was nothing. Of course reading those reviews today, there was a certain crap-tastic factor to them that might explain why they were so easy to write. Let’s just say it was very stream of consciousness. The last couple years, reviews on the site have slowed down to 2-3 per week, and these days it can be almost lucky if I make it to one review each week. There’s a lot of really great records out there that I still listen to and form opinions about every week, but don’t review them on the site because I simply don’t have the time. Clawing my way through close to 200 site emails every day takes a good couple hours, then writing these Pick Your Poison intros can pull another 30 or so minutes of daily focus as well, and with a full time job and some semblance of a social life I can only devote so much time to writing reviews each week. Which is why most reviews are built over the course of 4-5 days as I write and edit them when I have some free minutes. In many respects I regard it as quality over quantity. But for every one review I write, there’s about 5-6 more that pass me by that I’d love to review as well. Which is why I’m currently considering a new album review format. Instead of writing paragraphs of detailed analysis, reviews would be extremely cut and dry, with 5-10 bullet points attempting to highlight a record’s strengths, weaknesses and greatest moments. It lacks charm and depth (well, perhaps I can manufacture some charm), but it’ll get the job done. Anyways, it’s just a concept right now and nothing definite or locked in place. If you’ve got an opinion about the proposed changes (which, mind you, would not affect Pick Your Poison whatsoever), let me know in the comments. If I decide to go forward with the idea, it’ll probably debut on the site at the start of June or July. So we shall see. In the here and now, or should I say hear and now, there’s a bunch of great tracks in today’s Pick Your Poison. I’d like to recommend songs from Alexander Spit, Capital Cities (covering the Bee Gees), Free Time, German Error Message, Mother Falcon, Speedy Ortiz, Tangled Star and Way Yes. In the Soundcloud section after the jump, stream songs from Airbird & Napolian, Man or Astro-Man?, Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, and Prins Thomas’ remix of Shout Out Louds.

Admonic & Davies – Ascension

Alexander Spit – Valet Park, CA

Capital Cities – Stayin’ Alive (Bee Gees cover)

Crystal Fighters – You & I (Gigamesh Remix)

Free Time – I Lost Again

German Error Message – There’s A Place

Her Royal Harness – Blood + Fire

Lane 8 – Sleepless

Memoryy – Don’t Give Up

Mother Falcon – Blue and Gold

Speedy Ortiz – Tiger Tank

Svavar Knútur – Baby Would You Marry Me (ft. Marketa Irglova)

Tangled Star – Head in the Sand

Way Yes – Macando

Pick Your Poison: Tuesday 5-7-13

Well what do you know – it’s another new music Tuesday. There’s a bunch of new albums in stores today, and to help make sure you don’t miss a good one, here’s a quick list of artists celebrating today: AM and Shawn Lee, Co La, Deerhunter, Eksi Ekso (featured below!), Fitz and the Tantrums, The Hussy, Little Boots, Mikal Cronin, Mother Falcon, Noah and the WHale, Patty Griffin, Savages, Shannon Wright, She and Him, Still Corners, The Great Gatsby soundtrack (ft. Lana Del Rey, The xx, Jay-Z and more), and Way Yes. If you’re more of a singles person, maybe some of the tracks in today’s Pick Your Poison will tickle your fancy instead. Look out for cuts from The Blood Arm, Bridges and Powerlines, Casey Black, Jack Wilson, Morningbell, Steel Phantoms and Thunderbird Gerard. In the Soundcloud section after the jump, stream songs from Archer & Light, Chris Schlarb (ft. Sufjan Stevens), Editors and Thundercat.

The Blood Arm – Bubblegum

Bridges and Powerlines – Bushwick

Casey Black – Fire Fire Fire Fire

Dikembe – Scottie Spliffen

Eksi Ekso – All Hail the Alchemist

Hot Natured ft. Anabel Englund – Reverse Skydiving (Benoit and Sergio Remix)

Jack Wilson – Cowboy

Jon Hopkins – Open Eye Signal (Nosaj Thing Remix)

Lana Del Rey – Young & Beautiful (The Golden Pony Remix)

LiL TExAS – Talkin 2 U

Misun – Sun Made

Morningbell – Yes Wonderful Things

Steel Phantoms – Curtain Call

Thunderbird Gerard – Trouble

Tim & Adam – One Little Taste

Pick Your Poison: Monday 5-6-13

And now, a few words about Nine Inch Nails. There was a period in my life when NIN was more than just a band to me – they were an obsession. That period primarily occurred during my adolescent years, when records like The Downward Spiral and even The Fragile tapped into the rage, depression and general darkness that seemed to consume my puberty addled brain. Unlike many of the bands I listened to during that period however, NIN actually remained a constant fixture in my music library straight through their final shows back in 2009. Puberty ended and I became a relatively well-adjusted human being with little to no anger issues, yet the songs stayed with me and I was always eager to hear what Trent Reznor had up his sleeve next. It broke my heart when they shut down the project a few years ago. Yet I also understood where Reznor was coming from in his decision to move on. That band and their catalogue can be tough to continue to push forward with, especially in a live setting, when you’ve been doing it for 20 years straight and have reached 40 years old. Part of me hoped that unlike Soundgarden or Stone Temple Pilots or any other number of bands that have reunited and fired up the cash cow once again, maybe NIN would be different. Reznor had movie soundtracks and the new band How to destroy angels_ with his wife, so the need to reach back and revive the sleeping giant shouldn’t have been much of a temptation. Yet here we are four years later, and NIN will be back touring this fall. Apparently there will also be new music in the pipeline, to go with the new band lineup that aims to do something a bit different with the classic NIN catalogue. I’m equal parts disappointed and excited at the prospect. What I really wanted to mention in this post, and it’s kind of pointless now, but earlier today the band uploaded their 1993 short film broken onto Vimeo. The film is something of a cult phenomenon, never officially released and something that’s really only been passed around on VHS bootlegs and certain torrent sites. Directed by Peter Christopherson, it collects the videos for all the tracks on the Broken EP which results in a snuff film that includes torture, masochism, dismemberment and cannibalism. To call it graphic and extreme would be putting it lightly. Anyways, I was going to link to the Vimeo post where you could find it and watch it yourself (if that’s your thing), but the administrators took it down because it violated the site’s terms of service. As somebody that’s seen a lot of rather explicit things on Vimeo before, you’ve really got to do something horiffic to have your video taken down. So clearly, nobody is meant to have easy access to watch this film. If you’re really compelled to see it, perhaps a torrent is your only friend. Good luck on your quest! For the rest of us, let’s talk Pick Your Poison. Nothing quite so explicit here, but some good songs nevertheless. I’m happy to recommend tracks from Cool Ghouls, The Hussy, The Koo Koos, Plastic Visions, Trivial Shields and Young Knives. In the Soundcloud section after the jump, stream new songs from pacificUV, Sibille Attar, WALLA, and Chad Valley’s remix of Bell X1.

bare pale – Shame

Chief Keef – Love Sosa (RL Grime Remix)

Cool Ghouls – Natural Life

Debbie Neigher + Tidelands – Atoms

e-dubble – Big Ships

The Hussy – Zummer

KLP – Roll With It

The Koo Koos – Love and Pain

Lipstick Lumberjack – Phantom Kin (ft. Button Willow Locomotive)

Me and My Drummer – So Foreign (Rampue Remix)

Mosé – Rose Gold

Plastic Visions – Kamikaze

There Is Danger – Passport

Trivial Shields – Enough

Young Knives – Reproduction

Album Review: Little Green Cars – Absolute Zero [Glassnote]



Little Green Cars have that intangible quality talent scouts will tell you can only be described as “IT.” When someone has “IT,” they are undoubtedly destined for stardom. Indeed, this Irish five-piece band of 20-year-olds have crafted a debut album Absolute Zero that feels big and expansive and full of everything that seems to be popular in rock music today. Look at bands like The Lumineers, Of Monsters and Men, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes, and Mumford & Sons – they’ve all got a very similar, folk-strewn sound to them, replete with male-female vocal interplay and gorgeous harmonies that can send chills up your spine if heard at just the right moment. They’ve also got big, memorable choruses that are often easy and fun to sing along with whether you’re driving around town or in the crowd at a show. Little Green Cars have all these qualities and deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as those other, much more popular bands. Why they’ve yet to truly permeate the worlds of the masses perhaps best called neo-folk fanatics remains a mystery. As with most new artists, perhaps their time will be six months or a year from now, giving them a little bit of time to gather momentum before skyrocketing to the upper echelons. When the band embarked on their short U.S. headlining tour earlier this spring, they played small venues with low ticket prices. In Chicago they were going to play the 250 capacity Schubas, but thanks to some radio support and a $5 ticket price, demand was high enough that the show got moved to the 500 capacity Lincoln Hall. Strangely enough, the radio support for the band stopped immediately after they drove out of town. Apparently the station was only playing their song “The John Wayne” to sell tickets and nothing more, which also suggests they felt the song or the band weren’t good enough to leave in regular rotation. They’ll be returning to Chicago for Lollapalooza, where they’ve got a placement 2/3rds of the way down the lineup but are slated to play the same day as The Lumineers and Mumford like it’s kismet. Perhaps by the time August arrives, so will their moment to truly shine.

But let’s dive into the record itself and the strengths and weaknesses that can be found within. As with just about every band, you want to put your best foot forward and suck as many people into your record straight from the very first note. That probably explains why the single “Harper Lee” kicks off Absolute Zero. When the track begins, it’s just an acoustic guitar and Steve Appleby’s voice as he sings the line, “Like a crash I wait for the impact.” When the verse ends and the chorus enters, so does that impact. The full band comes in and charges ahead full speed with effortlessly harmonized “oohs” and a rather impressive lyrical hook. “There’s a gun in the attic, let me go grab it / I’d blow holes in my soul just so you could look past it,” Appleby effuses with the rest of the band in harmony backing him up. For those that don’t know, the song title is also the name of the famed author of To Kill A Mockingbird, and the while the lyrics have nothing to do with that on the surface, they do reflect a loss of innocence and the fight against becoming a responsible adult, which happen to parallel the themes found within the book. The ability to showcase such depth and creativity in a song that’s so anthemic and stadium-ready is a sign of Little Green Cars’ strength as a band and their desire to raise the discourse in mainstream folk today.

Those massive and memorable sing-along choruses mixed with strong lyrics are all over Absolute Zero, even taking a relatively mid-tempo track like “Angel Owl” and providing just the surge needed to keep it from falling into throwaway territory. Credit Markus Drav’s work as producer as key to this record’s success, because his previous jobs with Arcade Fire, Coldplay and Mumford & Sons have proven he knows how to make a big record that will inspire millions. If it weren’t for the intense harmonies, it’d be easy to suspect that the pounding piano and crashing cymbals of “Big Red Dragon” might have been pulled straight from a Keane or Coldplay record, which would be a strike against the band if it didn’t sound so good on them. In fact, the only real misstep on the entire album comes right at it’s center with the track “Red and Blue.” It sounds like it comes from a completely different band, straight down to the synths and AutoTune, both of which don’t appear anywhere else on the record. Arguably you could call it an attempt to pull off some sort of Bon Iver-esque ballad circa the Blood Bank EP era (see “Woods”), but that was 2009 and what worked then doesn’t always work today. A lot has changed in music over the last four years, believe it or not. Then throw in the fact that every single member of Little Green Cars has the voice of an angel, and it seems downright idiotic to let a machine process those vocals into something more inhuman and robotic. Why the band wanted to try such an odd approach and why they felt it fit in with the rest of the album remains a bit of a mystery.

It’s worth mentioning that Faye O’Rourke is the co-lead singer of Little Green Cars, and the three tracks on Absolute Zero where she takes over are some of the album’s strongest moments. She gives off a very Florence + the Machine vibe on “My Love Took Me Down to the River to Silence Me,” a track that starts with some gospel choir-like chanting of the song’s title but then allows her to belt out the chorus to the rafters. “This love’s killing me, but I want it to,” she wails, drawing the delicate line between pain and passion. O’Rourke chooses to play the long game on “Please,” starting out in aching ballad formation before transitioning to a surging and confident rock song at the end. Her versatility as a vocalist and her whipsmart songwriting would be quite impressive in most bands, but not so much in this band because it’s so chock-full of talent. That said, it’s a shame Little Green Cars played it so safe on this debut record, because they have the potential to be so much more than an Irish folk band that sounds like a whole bunch of other, more popular folk bands. At the very least, they prove that the same genre that’s brought us Mumford & Sons and The Lumineers still has a little bit of room left in it for people who know what they’re doing and can elevate a sound that grows more stale by the minute.

Little Green Cars – Harper Lee

Buy Absolute Zero from Amazon

Pick Your Poison: Friday 5-3-13

Happy Friday! I usually like to keep the Friday intros short because it’s the start of the weekend and nobody wants to mess around with words. I’d like to wish everyone a Happy Star Wars Day and a Happy Cinco de Mayo in advance, as that’s what’s happening on Saturday and Sunday. Both days are fun, and for entirely different reasons. I hope you’ve got something enjoyable planned for your weekend. I foresee a little Iron Man 3 in my future, personally. Anyways, check out today’s Pick Your Poison, which includes some good stuff from Dana Falconberry, The Impossible Girl, Jan St. Werner, Majical Cloudz, Stat Lines, Tele Novella and Young Rival. In the Soundcloud section after the jump, stream songs from Balthazar, Caged Animals, JC Brooks & the Uptown Sound and Sky Larkin. Have a great weekend!

Dana Falconberry – Crooked River

Dfalt – Moon Milkshake

Honeymilk – Situations of You

Houses – The Beauty Surrounds (Silent Rider Remix)

How to destroy angels_ – Keep it together (Nosaj Thing Remix)
How to destroy angels_ – Between the spaces (SONOIO Remix)

The Impossible Girl – Fix You Good

Jan St. Werner – Feed Opener

Jeremie Rose – Cold Heart

Majical Cloudz – Bugs Don’t Buzz

Night Club – Poisonous

State Lines – Linger

Tele Novella – Excalibur

Two Charming Men – I Want (Effy Remix)

Young Rival – Time

Pick Your Poison: Thursday 5-2-13

It’s Thursday, which means it’s time for another weekly dip into the pool of music news, interviews and videos that I like to call This Week In Music! Yes, in addition to the normal Pick Your Poison mp3s and Soundcloud streams, I like to toss out links to a bunch of other music-related content that I’ve found interesting or worthwhile over the course of the week. I encourage you to check some, if not all of these things out, particularly if you’re looking to waste some time. There’s plenty to see, read and hear:

Pitchfork’s Cover Story: Savages

Video: Tame Impala perform Outkast’s “Prototype” on Triple J Radio

Stream the soundtrack to The Great Gatsby ft. Lana del Rey, Florence + the Machine, The xx and more

Watch Vampire Weekend’s full set from 4/28 at the Roseland Ballroom

Watch Tyler the Creator’s Mountain Dew commercial, called “the most racist commercial of all time”

Watch Phoenix perform a 45 minute set on “Live on Letterman”

Listen to a YouTube stream of a new song from Braids called “Amends”

Video: Band of Horses cover Songs: Ohia’s “I’ve Been Riding With the Ghost” on Jimmy Kimmel Live

Atoms for Peace perform new song “Magic Beanz”

Download Chance the Rapper’s Acid Rap mixtape

In today’s edition of Pick Your Poison, enjoy songs from CREEP, Emily Bell, Josephine Foster, Night Panther, Sarah Neufeld (of Arcade Fire), Wampire and Wrapping Paper. In the Soundcloud section after the jump, stream songs from Max Frost, Nude Beach, Selebrities, Standish/Carlyon and Two Door Cinema Club’s remix of Is Tropical.

Challenger – How Are My Thoughts Not My Own? (Grossymmetric Remix)

CREEP – Introduction (ft. Planningtorock)

Dead Trend – Jet ’88

Emily Bell – Back to the Way I Was

Joie 13 – Paul Mack (ft. E-40)

Josephine Foster – Shay Shay

Midnight Faces – Feel This Way (Certain Creatures Remix)

The Milliband – jERRY lEE lEWIS

Mortar and Pestle – Pristine Dream

Night Panther – All for Love

Renny Wilson – Lady Pain (Jay Arner Remix)

Sarah Neufeld – Hero Brother

Wampire – Trains

Wrapping Paper – You Could Appear Anywhere

Young Aundee – Aimless

Pick Your Poison: Wednesday 5-1-13

My relationship with Beck’s music has been nothing short of an interesting one. It seems like I go through phases where I admire different facets of his catalogue for various different reasons. Perhaps it depends on my mood, but I suspect quality often comes into play as well. For example, I thought his albums Guero and The Information were rather good when they first came out. A few years later, looking back, I stopped listening to those albums around a year after they were released and haven’t really looked back since. If I don’t get a craving for a song to act as a gateway back into a full length album, there’s an almost pseudo-suggestion that maybe it wasn’t that great to begin with. Yet I don’t exactly hold Beck’s Midnite Vultures in the highest regard, but have listened to it at least once a year since 1999. There’s no faulting Odelay either, and that may be the album I’ve heard in full the most. It’s also got his largest collection of singles too, and for great reason: It’s one of the best albums of the ’90s. But when all is said and done, I think Beck’s true piece de resistance is 2002’s Sea Change. It’s a largely acoustic and somber album, something I only listen to when I’m in a very contemplative or sad mood, yet I can’t help but think it’s the truest representation of the man’s artistic skills. With last year’s Song Reader sheet music ploy as the last official offering from Beck, and one we couldn’t even hear unless we played it ourselves and sang the words with our own voices, I was beginning to wonder if we were ever going to get a follow-up album from 2008’s Modern Guilt. Word on the street was that Beck has been working on a new record since 2008, and whether he’s been dealing with writer’s block or other issues since then, reports surfaced at the start of this week that the new album is finally finished after he found “a burst of inspiration.” That follows in the wake of a handful of new tour dates announced, which at first were all labeled as acoustic shows but have since been adjusted so that only about half of them are. Why acoustic? Apparently that’s what the new album is and he wants to perform a bunch of tracks from it. Does this mean a return to the Sea Change days? One can only hope. Anyways, if you’re on the East or West coasts, there might be a date near you (acoustic or full band). There might be a bunch more in the pipeline as well that will be announced in the coming weeks and months. All I know is that I’d love to see him in Chicago as soon as possible in whatever capacity he might choose. But speaking of choices, there’s plenty in today’s Pick Your Poison. Let me advise you to check out tracks from AfterParty, Ballerina Black, BNLX, Hey Anna, Lemonade, Marina and the Diamonds with Charli XCX, Run the Jewels, The Shouting Matches and SKATERS. In the Soundcloud section, stream new songs from Tessa Rose Jackson, Tricky and Dead Boots.

AfterParty – Jungle Dreams

Ballerina Black – Knves

Bitch – In Us We Trust

BNLX – Vibrant

From the Airport – Timelines

Hawk and Dove – Send Your Blood to War

Hey Anna – Dance Until Three

Lemonade – Perfect Blue

Lyriciss – Vent

Marina and the Diamonds & Charli XCX – Just Desserts

Run the Jewels – Get It

Salvatore Ganacci – Godfather

The Shouting Matches – Avery Hill

SKATERS – Armed

The Variable Why – Hazy Mystery

Pick Your Poison: Tuesday 4-30-13

And just like that, we’ve reached another new release Tuesday. Yes, the albums keep coming, even if you’re too overwhelmed to listen to them all. I feel like that every now and then myself. Anyways, there’s plenty good out there for the avid music fan, and I don’t want you to miss something potentially great or something from one of your favorite artists that somehow just slipped past your radar. So here’s the list of artists with new material out today: !!!, Adventure, The Airborne Toxic Event, Akron/Family, Alice Russell, Bambara, Beacon, The Belle Sounds, Colin Stetson, Daughter, Death Rattle, Guided By Voices, Hanni El Khatib, The Heliocentrics, Iggy and the Stooges, The Melvins, Neon Neon, Ola Podrida, Olympians, Os Mutantes, The Postelles, Solar Bears, Sun Kil Moon and Jimmy Lavalle, and Wolf People. There’s plenty of decent albums in that list, but I’ll definitely recommend that you pay close attention to what’s coming next week. I’ll have more details on that when we get there. In the meantime, please enjoy this edition of Pick Your Poison. Tracks to keep an eye on today come from Date Palms, Futuregrapher, Lid Emba, Louis Matteo, Phantoms and Picture Day. In the Soundcloud section after the jump, stream songs from Eluvium (ft. Ira Kaplan of Yo La Tengo), Kelis and Matias Aguayo.

Azekel – No Ordinary Love

Bloodgroup – Cut Out Your Tongue

Date Palms – Yuba Reprise

Futuregrapher – Panda Walk With Me

The Kobra Kicks – Krokodil

Lid Emba – Hazel in My House

Lorde – Royals (Magnifik Remix)

Louis Matteo – Blossom

Milo’s Planes – The Day We Almost Made It Home

No Name Gypsy – Sunday Morning

Okey Szoke – Light

Phantoms – The Nowhere Tape

Picture Day – One of Us

Tanaka Samuel – All Night Long

Pick Your Poison: Monday 4-29-13

Well, it finally happened: Neutral Milk Hotel are reuniting. It’s been 15 years since they broke up, and in that time frontman Jeff Mangum chose to become a bit of a recluse and hide from the spotlight for quite a long time. His resurfacing in late 2010 came as something of a surprise, with a couple of small solo acoustic shows announced that later led to a full blown tour in 2011 and 2012. Most people (including myself) thought that’d be the end of it. Not that he’d recede back into the darkness (though that was certainly a possibility), but might continue to challenge himself in new and interesting ways either as a solo artist or with a new band. Yet earlier today, a strange message appeared on the Neutral Milk Hotel website accompanied by a few tour dates billed not as more Mangum solo shows but actual Neutral Milk Hotel ones. Yes, the band of Mangum, Scott Spillane, Julian Koster and Jeremy Barnes, which first came together after the 1996 release of On Avery Island, is officially back in action. If you live in Georgia, North Carolina, Japan or Taiwan, those are the places announced first for this tour, with the promise of more to come. It’s probably safe to assume they’ll hit every major U.S. city this fall, but we’ll see officially in the coming weeks and months. I know lots of people are really excited about this, and while I certainly understand the compulsion, to me the thrill feels almost unnecessary. Sure, these four guys are collectively responsible for one of the greatest albums of all time, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, but I wonder how much of an impact they have on the overall sound when performing together. To put it a different way, after seeing Mangum perform NMH songs solo with a few of his friends occasionally stepping out from the shadows to fill in a horn section or some other important instrumental piece beyond the acoustic guitar, I’m not so sure that was much different than what the full band is going to sound like. I suppose it’ll be fuller and overall louder than the solo performances, but better? The power of these songs lies not so much in their robust compositions but instead the melody paired with Mangum’s incredible vocals and lyrics. Stripped away in a solo environment they retained all their essential qualities, so I could have cared less about the rest of the band. Still, will I go see them if (or when) they come to Chicago? Absolutely, without a doubt. I hope you’ll pick up a ticket should they come through your city as well. It’s thrilling that the band is back together, but let me know if they’re going to record any new material. That’s when I’ll really start jumping up and down with excitement. Okay, now onto today’s Pick Your Poison. Let me recommend tracks from Coloured Clocks, Mick Harvey, Mike Marlin, Saskatchewan, Saturday Night Gym Club and Wades. In the Soundcloud section after the jump, stream new songs from Clams Casino, Free Energy, Pure X and Chicago’s own Twin Peaks.

Chris Hickey – June Fifth

Coastal Cities – Entropic (Crash and the Coots Remix)

Coloured Clocks – Maze

Disco Fries – Murika

Firetail – End Beginning

Gentlemen Hall – Sail Into the Sun (Dani Deahl & Animale Remix)

Mick Harvey – I Wish That I Were Stone

Mike Marlin – The Murderer

Paper Diamond – In My Right Mind (ft. Gavin Turek)

Saskatchewan – Possession

Saturday Night Gym Club – The Nowhere Team

Show of Hands – Palisades

Thomas D’Arcy – I Wake Up Everyday

Wades – Hydrophone

Pick Your Poison: Friday 4-26-13

Happy Friday! Avid readers of the site may have noticed that the Friday editions of Pick Your Poison have been largely absent these last few weeks, and on that point I’d like to address why. Simply put, the content isn’t always up to the level that I feel warrants a Friday post. I try to keep a relatively fixed number of tracks in each daily edition of Pick Your Poison, and Fridays are typically slower days where I don’t get sent so much and what gets sent isn’t always anything worth writing or posting about. So basically, if I’m not satisfied with what I’ve got to offer you, I won’t offer it. Not that those tracks that don’t get used are discarded, but I like to filter them in other spots where the quality is often already higher. So as a means of quality control, please keep in mind that there might be weeks without a Friday Pick Your Poison. This week is obviously not one of them. There’s actually quite a few excellent songs in this batch, and I’m happy to recommend songs from Baobab, Georgia’s Horse, The Gorgeous Hands, GRMLN, Heliotropes, Last Days of 1984 and Sheare. In the Soundcloud section after the jump, stream Atoms for Peace’s remix of Four Tet, and new tracks from Matthew Herbert, Phaseone and an acoustic cut from thenewno2. Have a great weekend!

Baobab – Magdalene Street

Dead Stars – Waste Away

Dead Trend – No Sympathy

Georgia’s Horse – Ginger

The Gorgeous Hands – Desperate Mainstream

GRMLN – Hand Pistol

Heliotropes – Psalms

Last Days of 1984 – Lost Hearts

Keith Top of the Pops & His Minor UK Indie Celebrity All-Star Backing Band – Morrissey Will Never Forgive Me

Little Daylight – Name in Lights (Pacific Air Remix)

News of the Fire – Veiled in Cement

N8 ST9 – Morning Hero

Schonwald – Mercurial
Schonwald – Gemini

Sheare – We Might As Well Be Dreaming

Suzuki Method – Ask for the Moon (Adam Suzuki Remix)

Pick Your Poison: Thursday 4-25-13

It’s Thursday, which means it’s time for another weekly dip into the pool of music news, interviews and videos that I like to call This Week In Music! Yes, in addition to the normal Pick Your Poison mp3s and Soundcloud streams, I like to toss out links to a bunch of other music-related content that I’ve found interesting or worthwhile over the course of the week. I encourage you to check some, if not all of these things out, particularly if you’re looking to waste some time. There’s plenty to see, read and hear:

Stream Deerhunter’s new album Monomania (out on 5/7) at NPR

Grimes wrote a great missive that touches on topics like invasion of her personal space, her fashion sense, weight issues, the environment and sexism in music.

Rolling Stone interviews Thom Yorke & Nigel Godrich

Lyric Video: Sigur Rós – Ísjaki

Watch: AlunaGeorge performs “Attracting Flies” on “Later…With Jools Holland”

The Knife share insane details about what their upcoming live shows will look and sound like

YouTube Stream: The xx – Together (from The Great Gatsby soundtrack)

Music Video: Thee Oh Sees – Toe Cutter – Thumb Buster

The National will perform their song “Sorrow” for 6 hours straight at MoMA PS1 on May 5th

Music Video: Disclosure – You & Me (ft. Eliza Doolittle)

Now then, as for today’s Pick Your Poison, I’m pleased to recommend tracks from Banquets, The Basement Tapes, High Pop, Loon Lake, Giraffage’s remix of Owl Eyes, Dirty Projectors’ remix of Phoenix, and Smalltown DJ’s remix of WIN WIN. In the Soundcloud section after the jump, you can stream songs from Jessie Ware (covering Martika), Hebronix (former Yuck frontman Daniel Blumberg’s new project), Rare Books, Secret Colours and Sonny & the Sunsets.

Banquets – Call It A Comeback

The Basement Tapes – Release Me

The Cannanes – Zone (Dr. Version Remix)

Fort Frances – I Had Love

High Pop – Loner

Jake McKelvie & the Countertops – Oh, The Ghost!

Keith Top of the Pops & His Minor UK Indie Celebrity All-Star Backing Band – #ProperMusic

Loon Lake – On Fire

My Name Is You – We’re Alive

Owl Eyes – Closure (Giraffage Remix)

Phoenix – Entertainment (Dirty Projectors Remix)

SLUGGERS – Dimes

Sorrow – Dreamstone (ft. CoMa)

WIN WIN – Landloper (Smalltown DJs Remix)

Pick Your Poison: Wednesday 4-24-13

I wonder how many people were really truly aware of all the things that actor Steve Buscemi did before his most recent spotlight role on Boardwalk Empire. He plays such a serious, button-down gangster, that it can be easy to forget the many goofball parts he’s played over the years. Actually, seeing him vamping it up again in this spring’s The Incredible Burt Wonderstone was something of a treat, even if the movie itself wasn’t that great. But when he wasn’t playing a serial killer in Fargo or even the straight man in a trio of crazies in The Big Lebowski, you could often catch him playing bit parts in Adam Sandler comedies (almost all of them) or adding some comedy to a big blockbuster action drama like Armageddon. The reason I bring this up is because Steve Buscemi is now set to direct a live webcast of a Vampire Weekend show in New York this upcoming Sunday night at 9 PM ET/6 PM PT. It’s part of the American Express Unstaged series, which you may recall also featured legendary thespian Gary Oldman directing a Jack White show last year. Unlike that and some of the other Unstaged shows, they’ve put together some pretty smart and inspired promos for this Vampire Weekend one that I think are worth watching even if you’re not a fan of the band. I don’t know about you, but Steve Buscemi doesn’t quite seem like the sort of guy you’d call a fan of the band either, which is why the promos for this have been so amusing. In the first episode, he meets the band for the first time and things get awkward. In the second episode he goes with the band on a train and to a bowling alley to promote the show, but things get awkward there too. The third episode is just Buscemi on the street harassing people walking around and driving by about the show. They’re all pretty good, along with a couple of extra vignettes involving a double decker tour bus and New York politician Bill De Blasio. If you’d like to watch them all, here’s a link where you can do that. It’s also the place where you can tune in to the live show on Sunday night. I have a feeling that’s not going to be as hilarious, but it’ll still be a good time. Okay, let’s get to today’s Pick Your Poison. I’m pleased to recommend tracks from The Belle Sounds, Demon Queen, Gracie, Lovelife, SWIMM, Work Drugs and Xenia Dunford (who coincidentally has a new record out this week). In the Soundcloud section after the jump, you can stream songs from The Appleseed Cast, Baths, Jens Lekman, Wild Nothing, and remixes of Animal Collective and Generationals songs.

360 – Boys Like You (ft. Gossling)

The Belle Sounds – The Starry Eyed

Carrie Ashley – Old Winds That Blow

decker. – Weight in Gold Pt. 2

Demon Queen – Rude Boy (ft. N8NOFACE)

Gondola – We Are the Map

Gracie – My Pet

Kae Sun – When the Pot

Lovelife – Dying to Start Again

New Metro – Ugly

Poor Things – Morgan

SWIMM – Wanderer

Walter Sickert and The ARmy of BRoken TOys – Droog and Devotchka

Work Drugs – West Coast Slide

Xenia Dunford – The World Is Yours

Pick Your Poison: Tuesday 4-23-13

As we all drift out of the post-Record Store Day haze, it’s important to remember that there’s a bunch of new music coming out this week that we should be paying attention to along with our exclusive, ultra-cool pickups. Artists releasing new albums this week include The Appleseed Cast, Brass Bed, Cowboy Indian Bear, Fort Frances, Frank Turner, Junip, Laura Stevenson, Lori McKenna, The Neighbourhood, No Joy, Phoenix, Snoop Lion, Steve Martin and Edie Brickell, Thee Oh Sees, Xenia Dunford and Young Galaxy. How delightful. I hope you’ll look into picking some of those records up, because a couple I know are quite good. But if you’re more of a singles person, or just really like trying to discover the next big artist, perhaps today’s Pick Your Poison can help you out. I’ll advise you to download tracks from Belgrade, Christopher Paul Stelling, Frank Rabeyrolles, Messrs, Paper Crows and Four Tet’s “refix” of a RocketNumberNine track. In the Soundcloud section after the jump, you can stream new tracks from Chelsea Wolfe, Lana Del Rey (off The Great Gatsby soundtrack), Mac MIller, Matt Pond (covering Stevie Nicks) and MGMT (their new single released for RSD).

Belgrade – Protest

Big Electric – Curses!

Cherri Fosphate – Wool

Chester Endersby Gwazda – Skewed

Christopher Paul Stelling – Brick x Brick

Chrysta Bell – Real Love

Frank Rabeyrolles – Sf

London Grammar – Hey Now (Magnifik Remix)

Marie Lalá – Without You

Messrs – Desert

M O S C O W M E T R O – S P I R I T O F A C I T Y

Paper Crows – White Noise

RocketNumberNine – Rotunda (Four Tet Refix)

Tying Tiffany – One Place

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