Happy 4/20 to you and yours. Today is a holiday for many, and if it is for you, I hope you enjoy indulging in the many…benefits a day such as today has to offer. Just be careful, and keep an eye out for authority figures. It’s also Friday, which means the weekend and fun lined up. Make the most of it and visit with friends or family. They surely miss you. Of course there’s always an edition of Pick Your Poison to whet your whistle. I’ll offer up highlights from The Driftwood Singers, Keep Shelly in Athens’ remix of Jonquil, Kool A.D., The Leg, Mornin’ Old Sport, The Neighbourhood and Pure Bathing Culture. In the Soundcloud section there’s a couple good remixes by the Scissor Sisters and Odd Future’s The Internet, taking on Ladyhawke and Lana Del Rey, respectively.
A couple quick points of business for you this Thursday. First up, consider this your weekly reminder that Faronheit has a Facebook page. I’m starting to post some extra content like videos and random songs that I love, in addition to the normal feed of what gets posted here on the site. Go check it out, click the “Like” button if you would, and I’ll love you forever. Secondly, I want to make a mention about a specific track in today’s Pick Your Poison. Those with keen eyes will notice that Mr. Tom Jones has slipped into today’s pile. Before you react weirdly to it, I just wanted to justify its presence here. In a nutshell, I wouldn’t hesitate to post a Tom Waits mp3 in this list, so it stands to reason that Tom Jones covering Tom Waits holds up too. So that’s just a little FYI in case you were wondering. Oh, and Tom Jones does a surprisingly decent job with the Tom Waits song too. I don’t know if I can fully recommend it, but you may want to check it out, should curiosity get the best of you. Things I’ll definitely recommend today come from Beast Make Bomb, Carina Round, Exray’s, The High Strung and North Lakes. In the Soundcloud section there’s some great streams of songs from Kindness and Mogwai, along with a pretty dope Current Value remix of Bjork’s “Solstice”.
Chicago’s own Maps & Atlases haven’t gotten to the point of popularity they’re at today by pandering. They’re daring, carve-their-own-path sorts of musicians, willing to take their songs in unexpected directions while still maintaining a modicum of structure and thematics. That’s a big part of what made their two EPs Tree, Swallows, Houses and You and Me and the Mountain such unique and compelling listens. They’re also what earned the band a place underneath the intricate “math rock” umbrella. Consider that early material falling somewhere between Minus the Bear, Battles and Don Caballero. Their 2010 debut full length Perch Patchwork still held steadfast to many of those elements (particularly on the second half of the record), but expanded the band’s reach by becoming much more pop-centric. They were able to take their oddities and intricate instrumentation and subdue them just enough to make them more attractive to a wider audience. At the same time they played with tempos and percussion to explore more Afro-pop and freak folk ideas that had been brewing for awhile. The end product was still good, just a little uneven. For their sophmore effort Beware and Be Grateful, the band has yet again ironed out the creases in their sound to streamline it just a bit more. The production is squeaky clean, and Dave Davison’s warming warble sits front and center. Opening track “Old and Gray” pulsates with harmonized vocal loops that wouldn’t sound too out of place on an Animal Collective record, while the the electric guitar noodling bears an eerie resemblance to something Dirty Projectors might churn out. Yet when combined and taken as a whole, the track feels like it has more in common with TV on the Radio than either of those two bands. That blends seamlessly into the sprightly “Fever,” a very fun and catchy pop song that is probably one of the most straightforward tracks Maps & Atlases have ever written. Fans of the band’s older material will find solace in “Winter” and “Bugs”, both of which have heavy math rock leanings. They also push further into the territory of Paul Simon and Vampire Weekend with tracks like “Be Three Years Old” and “Old Ash”. And with soft rock reaching popularity again, a song like “Remote and Dark Years” has Peter Gabriel’s fingerprints all over it. Somehow the record comes together quite well, in spite of any apparent genre jumping that may occur. Where Beware and Be Grateful falters is in its length. Four out of the album’s ten songs breach the 5 minute mark, and there’d be nothing wrong with that if they could justify the length. Most of it is the result of sustained melody, but given how pop-flavored these songs are, 3.5 minutes is a good time to aim for. At least a couple of these songs could be made better simply by chopping a minute off the runtime. Additionally, you can tell the band worked really hard on this album. Kudos to them for that, however with songs like these you want the presentation to come off as effortless. The more aware you are of the sweat that went into making this record, the less fun and memorable it becomes. You can marvel at the technical precision, but that’s engaging your head and not your heart. Maps & Atlases are certainly on the right path with Beware and Be Grateful, they just need to learn that sometimes you need to put the directions down and let your emotions take the wheel.
Music fans, may I remind you that this Saturday is a very, very important day. Once a year (technically speaking…let’s ignore part deux in November), much hype is made about trekking out to your local independent record store and buying something. It is the phenomenon we otherwise know as Record Store Day. To help inspire you to actually get out to your local store, many labels and artists have planned for exclusive releases to be available for that one day only. Additional details, along with the list of Record Store Day exclusives, can be found very easily at RecordStoreDay.com. Have a look at the list, find something amazing to buy, and then wake up before your local record store opens and try to pick it up before it gets wiped out. The last couple years I’ve waited in 45 minute lines out the door of Reckless Records in Chicago trying to get some good stuff. Typically I only get one or two things out of the dozen or so I really desire, either because there were so few copies created or everyone else got to them before me. Still, it’s a fun time, a great way to meet some real music fans, and a great way to support brick and mortar independent record stores. Don’t forget! This Saturday, April 21st! In the here and now, today’s Pick Your Poison recommendations are for tracks from Coke Weed, The Doc Marshalls, Hot Panda, Phoebe Jean & The Air Force, and Twin Cabins. In the Soundcloud section you’d be wise to stream songs from Dead Mellotron and Win Win. Amtrac’s remix of Chromatics is solid too.
On Tuesdays I typically like to give you a rundown of all the new records coming out that you can purchase and hopefully enjoy. This week is no different, but I do want to take a brief second to highlight a record that came out a couple weeks back that’s very much worth your time and cash. NYC artist Natalie LeBrecht has been performing under the name Greenpot Bluepot for quite a few years now, and her reputation for creating otherworldly and dynamic songs has steadily earned the attention of many. One of those people is Animal Collective’s Avey Tare, who agreed to co-produce the new Greenpot Bluepot record with LeBrecht. The final product is Ascend at the Dead End, a very freak-folk, vocal-based album that is unlike almost anything you’ll hear these days. She’s one part Bjork and another part Cat Power, and but in the end such descriptions don’t do Greenpot Bluepot justice. You need to hear the record for yourself. Naturally then, here’s a full album stream for your listening pleasure. Oh, and if you’re interested, you can buy the album here.
Now, I promised I’d tell you about this week’s album releases. In stores today, you’ll find new records from Allo Darlin’, Battles (a remix record), Horse Feathers, Lushlife, Maps and Atlases, Moonface (Spencer Krug of Wolf Parade/Sunset Rubdown), Sidi Toure, and Spiritualized, among others. Azealia Banks was supposed to release an EP today as well, however due to her changing management a few days ago, that has been delayed for a bit. She’s apparently planning to re-record some of the tracks to help give them a better fidelity now that she’s come into some money. Good for her, I say. Good for you is today’s Pick Your Poison. I’ll recommend tracks from Andy the Doorbum, Cadence Weapon, Conner Youngblood, Death Grips, Ican Ican’t, Jesca Hoop, and King of Prussia. And hey, in the Soundcloud section you can hear a new song from The Walkmen.
Spencer Krug is a genius. There’s not a whole lot of ways to disprove that statement, except in saying that one person’s gold is another person’s trash, and vice versa. We’re all entitled to our opinions. But one needs only to look at Krug’s track record to find evidence of his brilliance. He was a member of Frog Eyes during their most creative period. He went on to become one of two principal singers and songwriters in Wolf Parade, whose three full-length efforts range from very good to one of the best of the last decade. His solo work as Sunset Rubdown eventually became a full band as well, and everything from Shut Up I Am Dreaming onward has been one fascinating conceptual musical experiment after another. Krug also dipped his ink into the indie supergroup Swan Lake along with Destroyer’s Dan Bejar and Frog Eyes’ Carey Mercer, leading of course to more general acclaim. To think all this work, 8 albums and 3 EPs, was produced between 2005 and 2010. Suddenly, it was almost like a light switch flipped off.
Krug introduced yet another new project in early 2010 that he called Moonface. An initial EP called Dreamland: Marimba and Shit-Drums followed closely behind, a single 20-minute track in which he played around with the titular instruments. Late last summer came the first Moonface LP Organ Music Not Vibraphone Like I’d Hoped, which was yet another effort informed by its title. The album was 5 tracks over 37 minutes, with the shortest song clocking in at just over 6.5 minutes. Much of it was droning, flat and uninspired. It was a true introduction to what Krug truly hopes Moonface will be – a name under which he can try anything and everything his heart desires without being bound to the conventions of traditional songwriting or structures. There is no easy way to define the sound of Moonface, because it keeps changing with each new release and that’s the way Krug likes it. On this new Moonface record, his second in a year, he’s made the choice to collaborate with the Finnish band Siinai, who sound a lot like Explosions in the Sky but with less guitar and more piano/synths.
The end product, With Siinai: Heartbreaking Bravery, is in some ways a return to form for Krug. With a full band behind him, he suddenly finds himself grounded once more. The songs get shorter, have verses, choruses and hooks, and burst forth with a refreshing urgency. That doesn’t necessarily mean they’re good though. This is certainly a far cry from the Shut Up I Am Dreaming days where the arrangements were much sparser and in some ways more virile. It seems difficult for Siinai to do anything halfway or minimal, but you’d think that’d lend itself perfectly to Krug’s lyrics, which tend to be flights of fancy involving kings and dragons and wars fought over a woman. Yet these complex and widescreen topics appear to be less important to Krug these days, and the more literal, to-the-point lyrics he tried out on the last Moonface record continue here. “I’ve got the blood/but not the bloodlust you need,” he moans on “Heartbreaking Bravery” amidst shimmering guitars and graceful piano. He’s bemoaning the loss of a relationship because of it, something that’s been a frequent theme in his past songs that gets a more plainspoken turn here. While that works just fine, and “Heartbreaking Bravery” is arguably one of the most beautiful songs Krug has ever put together, the more straightforward lyrics can sometimes be a double-edged sword. “Shitty City” is perhaps the best example of this, with the supremely bland chorus of, “It’s a shitty city now/It’s a shitty/city/now.’ That’s not exactly poetry.
There are a few moments on With Siinai: Heartbreaking Bravery that are truly excellent both lyrically and compositionally. “Quickfire, I Tried” swirls with carefully considered psychedelia, and “Teary Eyes and Bloody Lips” finds Krug trying to grasp onto shreds of hope amid the ruins of a relationship. In spite of the markedly darker overall mood of this record compared to just about anything else Krug has done with any of his many projects, what really helps make it special is the overall sense of maturity on display here. Not that his other, earlier work was childish and petty, but he’s never really sounded so adult and grounded before. The only unfortunate thing about it is that collaborating with Siinai on a record like this probably wasn’t the best decision to make. Both sides seem to be coming from different places at times, and the album suffers because of it. Still, it remains the best thing Krug has released under the Moonface name so far. Of course the bar was set pretty low there. As he continues to try new things and collaborate with new people, hopefully he’ll find others performing at his advanced and complicated level.
On Monday editions of Pick Your Poison, I typically like to regale you with tales of interesting or important shows in and around the Chicagoland area that are worth your time seeking out. That is, if you live here of course. Today is a particularly special edition of that, because the two shows I’m going to mention are Chicago-centric in every way possible. Quintessential Chicago is what I’d call them, so if you’re interested in learning more about the city and its music scene, go see these bands play or at the very least listen to the music samples I’m providing to you below.
First of all, if you don’t know the Waco Brothers, you don’t know country music and you don’t know Chicago. Ok, so Chicago isn’t nearly Nashville or Dallas when it comes to country, but that doesn’t mean great country music can’t be made here. Of course it’s anything but traditional country, and the Waco Brothers have achieved something of a legendary status for their crazy live shows that are more punk rock in style than anything else. For their new record Great Chicago Fire, they’ve collaborated with Nashville legend and auteur Paul Burch. If the title track is any indication of what to expect from the entire album, it’s going to be a real treat when it’s released next Tuesday 4/24. In celebration of that, the Waco Brothers and Paul Burch will be playing a record release show next Thursday, April 26th at FitzGerald’s in Berwyn. The show time is 8:30PM and tickets are $15. Buy tickets here.
Secondly, I hope you’ve heard of JC Brooks and the Uptown Sound. If there’s one Chicago band that’s truly breaking out in 2012, it’s these guys. They unleashed their latest album Want More last fall to critical acclaim, and have been touring almost nonstop since then. They played nearly a dozen shows at SXSW this year, and I feel privileged to have seen the very last one, taking place at 1AM on a Saturday night. The crowd was completely worn down. The band was completely worn down too, as it comes with the territory of playing 3-4 shows a day for 3-4 days in a row. Yet everyone persevered and summoned up the energy for one last hour of pure musical enjoyment. There was magic in that show, in part because there’s magic in this band. They’re soulful, funky and fun, quickly on their way to becoming not only a Chicago treasure, but an American one too. On Friday, April 27th, they’ll be rolling through town for one of their biggest shows to date – headlining at Metro. It’s an all-Chicago bill that night too, in the best way possible as rising stars Gold Motel and Blah Blah Blah will be opening. Soul Summit DJs will be spinning in between sets as well, to keep the party going. And what a party it will be. Having looked over the full concert calendar for that day, I will officially guarantee you there will not be a better show happening in Chicago that Friday night. If you’re around and need something to do that night, come on out and we’ll have some serious fun. Have a listen to the latest JC Brooks and the Uptown Sound single “Sister Ray Charles” to help push you in the right direction. Or watch the video for the song. Perhaps their dynamic cover of Wilco’s “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart” will be more your speed. The show on the 27th starts at 8PM and tickets are only $12. Buy tickets here.
As for today’s Pick Your Poison, I’m pleased to recommend tracks from Air Traffic Controller, The Bombay Royale, Higgins, Co Pilots’ remix of The Naked and Famous, Old Bricks, School Knights, What Hearts and Wymond Miles. In the Soundcloud section, don’t miss streaming songs from Royal Headache, Supreme Cuts, Tim Hecker, Yuck and SBTRKT’s remix of Frank Ocean.
I’m happy to say we’ve reached another weekend. Breathe that sigh of relief, assuming you don’t have to work. Grab a glass or bottle of your favorite beverage, sit down and perhaps enjoy some good music? As usual, Pick Your Poison has you covered. Today I’m recommending tracks from Brother Dege, Channel Cairo, Diamond Rugs, Island Twins, Prinzhorn Dance School, Sleep Party People, and These United States (who coincidentally play a sold out show at Metro with Trampled By Turtles tonight, Chicago friends). In the Soundcloud section I’ll advise you to stream songs from Crystal Fighters, Henry Clay People, Me and My Drummer, and Neneh Cherry’s cover of Suicide. Have a great weekend! (Oh, and by the way, be on the look out for weird stuff – it’s Friday the 13th!)
On the record, I hate allergy season. Pollen counts are at dangerously high levels across much of the country right now, and those of us with allergies are suffering because of it. I’ve been a sloppy, congested mess all week long and am none too happy about it. I’m grateful that I’m not one of those hay fever-type people, sneezing like I just fell into a mountain of pepper, but it’s still sheer frustration of trying to keep my airways clear for an extended period of time. If you’ve got allergies, I hope you’re faring better than me through this time of year. Thankfully my ears are working just fine, and I hope yours are too for the sake of today’s Pick Your Poison. There are some strong tracks today from Anabot, Cheers Elephant, Deep Time, Ed Schrader’s Music Beat, Elisa Luu, Modern Time Machines, Sonreal and Warm Weather. In the Soundcloud section there’s plenty worth streaming too, with tracks from Friends, The Paper Jets, and Simian Mobile Disco.
Bradford Cox is often seen as the brilliant mastermind behind Deerhunter and Atlas Sound. The amount of music he’s released in the last few years has been astounding, with seven full length records and a couple EPs since 2007. Worst of all, nearly every single bit of it has been very, very good. You could say he’s been putting his Deerhunter bandmates to shame. Most people couldn’t even tell you the names of the other three guys in Deerhunter. Yet that band very much remains a collaborative effort, and it’s likely the loss of one of them would be felt in subsequent records. One person that isn’t taking his role in Deerhunter lying down is guitarist Lockett Pundt, who has done a nice job establishing the fuzzier and more psychedelic elements of Deerhunter’s sound. He maintains his own solo project Lotus Plaza. The Floodlight Collective was the first Lotus Plaza full length, released in 2009 to what could best be described as polite applause. To put it another way, the album struggled to break free from the ambient, shoegaze-laden haze it maintained, drifting by in a nice but unremarkable fashion. Lotus Plaza’s second long player Spooky Action at a Distance seeks to change how the project is perceived a bit by moving away from amorphous blobs of ambient noise and placing an emphasis on more traditional songwriting and arrangements. That’s not to call the album conventional or an easy listen, but it has more easily definable boundaries and a few stand out moments. Virtually every song is propulsive and swirling in that good, psych-pop sort of way that Deerhunter has been doing with relative ease for years now. Lotus Plaza is denser and more shoegaze-inspired, though it’s difficult to describe the album as buried in guitar fuzz in a My Bloody Valentine sort of way. Pundt’s vocals are strikingly up-front and clear, and the melodies maintain strict, often looped patterns that really stick with you after awhile. After the drifting and out of place “Untitled” intro, the drum roll of “Strangers” sucks you in and the guitar gymnastics keeps you there. The percussion base on “Out of Touch” has quite the Animal Collective vibe to it in the best sort of way, and “Remember Our Days” holds this jangly slacker element to it reminiscent of Pavement filtered through psychedelic glasses. It’s good to hear some acoustic guitars used on “Dusty Rhodes” and closer “Black Buzz”, both of which provide necessary moments of calm amid the fray. Even a long number like the 6.5 minute “Jet Out of the Tundra” skates by and feels much shorter than it is as Pundt keeps adding more elements to the mix without disturbing the overall melody. The entire record actually does a nice job of cruising along without any detours into the staid and boring. You may not fully grasp the subtle nature of Spooky Action at a Distance the first or second time around listening through it, but a closer focus on each song reveals gems you probably didn’t notice originally. Sometimes the best albums are ones that sneak up on you. This is one of those.
Wednesdays are the one day every week where I like to remind everyone that Faronheit has a Facebook page. It’s there as just another way for you to find out about content on this site without actually having to visit. I’m also working hard on ideas for extra content like music videos and such you’ll be able to check out that wouldn’t otherwise appear here on the site. So I encourage you to log onto Facebook and the site’s page and click the “Like” button. I know I’d very much appreciate it. As for your daily dose of Pick Your Poison mp3s, there’s plenty to like and appreciate here too. Be sure to check out and download songs from Aesop Rock, Black Lips, The Creepy Crawlies, The Sanctuaries, Spank Rock as remixed by Shabazz Palaces, and Torche. In the Soundcloud section, you’ll want to stream songs from Airbird, Clams Casino’s remix of Joyce, and Storms OV Jupiter.
It’s that time of year, friends: Lollapalooza lineup time. Spring is in the air, but soon enough summer will be here and so will Chicago’s great music festivals. Unless you bought tickets well in advance, I’m sure this year’s Lollapalooza lineup will be the deciding factor as to whether or not you make your way to Grant Park this August 3-5. Ticket prices have risen this year, no doubt in part because the supreme tax deal the festival was getting from the City of Chicago has all but gone away. Early bird tickets have all sold out, and general 3-day passes are currently on sale for $230 (service fees included). Is it worth the cost? Well, that’s for you to decide. The full lineup is listed below, and is headlined by Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Black Keys, Black Sabbath, Jack White, Florence + the Machine, and At the Drive-In. Okay, so those last 2 headliners don’t really seem like they deserve the official “headlining” slot. I’d argue that The Shins and Sigur Ros are more deserving of headlining than Florence + the Machine and At the Drive-In are. That said, I’m still excited that reunion acts Black Sabbath, At the Drive-In and The Afghan Whigs will be there. Other noteworthy acts include Passion Pit, M83, The Weeknd, Bloc Party, Metric, Childish Gambino, tUnE-yArDs, The Tallest Man on Earth, Of Monsters and Men, Alabama Shakes, Tame Impala, The Walkmen, Neon Indian, Dum Dum Girls, Washed Out, Givers, Chairlift, Sharon Van Etten, Polica, First Aid Kit, FIDLAR, Bombay Bicycle Club, Bowerbirds, JEFF the Brotherhood, and Chicago’s own JC Brooks and the Uptown Sound. If you’re a fan of Perry’s electronica stage, Avicii, Justice and Bassnectar will all be headliners, with others sets from Kaskade, Calvin Harris, Santigold, and Little Dragon, among others. Again, have a look at the full lineup after the jump. If you ask me, this is pretty damn good. Worth the price of admission? I’d say so. Buy tickets here.
It’s Tuesday, time for the weekly roundup of new album releases. If you’re shopping for new music today, be aware you can buy records from the following artists starting now: Alabama Shakes, Alex Winston, Amadou & Mariam, Bassnectar, Black Dice, Choir of Young Believers, Dinosaur Feathers, Eight and a Half, M. Ward and oOoOO. As for today’s Pick Your Poison, I’ll recommend tracks from Anna Ternheim, Broncho, Caravan Palace, Fallon Cush, I Am Dive, Tiger High, Unicycle Loves You and Zulu Winter. In the Soundcloud section enjoy streaming tracks from Dappled Cities, Electric Guest, Solar Bears, and The Malex Kings (with a song about Chicago).
2012 is arguably the year of the excellent synth-pop record. Releases from Grimes, Chromatics, Chairlift and Tanlines all have made great use of synths and dance-heavy electro beats to suck you in and leave you addicted. Now Bear In Heaven look to continue that trend with their third record I Love You, It’s Cool. This follows their 2009 breakthrough album Beast Rest Forth Mouth, a record that defied easy description with its psychedelic twists and towering pop choruses. The singles “Lovesick Teenagers” and “Wholehearted Mess” were two of the most addictive songs of that year, and proved they could also work on multiple levels thanks to Beast Rest Forth Mouth Remixed that came out a year later. Bear In Heaven must have learned quite a bit from those experiences the last few years, because they seem to have a firmer grasp on where they’re headed with this new album. The overall format is locked down pretty firmly, that being huge, synth-infused pop melodies made even denser than ever before thanks to some heavy use of sequencers. “Lovesick Teenagers” seems to be their point of inspiration when composing these songs, and it’s a smart choice to have made, allowing the record to sink into a groove that positively shimmers as it keeps your toe tapping. “Idle Heart” is an icily beautiful way to start things off, the synths washing over you like waves, the peace only disturbed by a distorted beat that pushes its way as far to the forefront of the mix as possible. There’s so much going on in first single “The Reflection of You” it even threatens to overwhelm Jon Philpot’s vocals, but it’s balanced just precariously enough to prevent that from happening. That actually happens multiple times on the album, and it’s almost enough to turn great songs like “Sinful Nature” and “World of Freakout” into something less impressive and catchy. Perhaps it’s all in how you listen to I Love You, It’s Cool that determines what truly catches your ear. Headphones seem to invoke fears of claustrophobia, every single available space filled with one element or another. Listening in the car is a little better, but a large theatre or outdoor concert venue is probably ideal for the breadth of these intense melodies. Huge as these songs may be, not to mention remarkably danceable, Bear In Heaven somehow fail to fully capitalize on the things they do right. With all the electronica elements splattered across every inch of this record (again making it ripe for remixing), the band seems unable to fully flesh out their ideas in 3-4 minute spurts. On most tracks they seem poised to build tension and then have an explosive release, but almost every time they do it too early, too late or not at all. Sometimes they just settle into an ambient section that fails to add to a song, leaving it to stagnate instead on the thought it could go on forever without interruption. The pieces of the puzzle are there, just not necessarily put together in the right order every time. Tracks like “Cool Light” and “Warm Water” wind up more as boring filler than engaging moments that keep the record going. That’s unfortunate, because at 10 tracks and 44 minutes, I Love You, It’s Cool turns out to be only a little more than half of a great album. Then again, maybe when they perform it live at a packed venue with people that came to dance, it’s a great record from beginning to end.
Hope you had a great holiday weekend, if you celebrated Easter or Passover or just being alive. For my Chicago people, I want to spend a couple minutes talking about some upcoming shows that are worth your time and hard-earned money to check out. First up? These United States. They’ll be at Metro this upcoming Friday, the 13th. They’re opening for Trampled By Turtles, who by the way, are also pretty good. The show starts at 8pm and tickets are $20. Download a song from These United States below, and buy tickets to the show here.
Secondly, we have Said the Whale. Their album Little Mountain came out last month and is quite the indie pop delight. You can stream the whole thing at their website and download a sample mp3 of the song “Heavy Ceiling” here. They’ll be headlining a show at Double Door on April 18th with a fully packed bill that includes Audiences, Otter Petter, Bambi Raptor, and Chains of Love. Tickets are only $7 if you buy them in advance, which ultimately comes out to about to just over a dollar a band. You can buy tickets to that show here.
As for today’s week-starting Pick Your Poison, I’ll recommend tracks from Catcall, Cookies (with Colin Stetson), Dive covering a Kurt Cobain demo, The Great American Canyon Band, Led Er Est, Six60, The Wedding Present and Wintersleep. I also recommend the These United States track, if you didn’t understand that implication when I was talking about their show at Metro a minute ago. Oh, and in the Soundcloud section you can stream some great songs from Alpine and introduce yourself to upcoming Pitchfork Music Festival artist Outer Minds.
