Part of me wishes I had more time to write intros to these individual blocks of 10 albums. Ultimately, it’s the least important element of these countdowns, because the albums with numbers next to them are the real point. So I’m just going to leave this one short and sweet. Today we reach the halfway point in our countdown, then promptly move past it. With each passing day and number, my love for these records grows stronger. Writing about them again in little pieces for this bit of Listmas is a nice refreshing of perspectives I took any number of months ago. I hope you’re enjoying this so far. We’ve only got a couple days left. If you’d like to do some catching up, here’s a couple links to show you what you’ve missed.
Happy Hump Day to you and yours. Hope you’re already preparing for the weekend. It’s been raining all day in Chicago, which when you think about it is a great thing. According to a rain/snow scale, were it cold enough to be snowing and not raining, there would have been close to a foot of snow on the ground by now. Instead, we get a mild rain. In fact, there’s been only a few tenths of an inch of snow that has fallen in and around the city over the last few weeks. The longer we can do without significant snowfall, the better, I say. Farmer’s Almanac predicted one of the snowiest winters in history. I pray they’re wrong, otherwise January and February are going to be meteorological massacres. Let’s get to today’s edition of Pick Your Poison then. I’ll recommend tracks from Blonds, Jerry Leger, Leonard Friend, The Lower 48 and Roomdance.
For those that don’t know, Wilco is in the midst of a 5 night residency in their home city of Chicago at the moment. They performed on Monday night at the Civic Opera House for Night 1. I was unable to get tickets to that show (or I should say, rejected the option of buying very, very bad seats), but was able to make it out for Night 2 at the Riviera Theatre. This isn’t a show review, and I’m not going to write one right now for a couple reasons. The first being we’re in the middle of Listmas here and I’m buried in things I have to write. The second is that there are still 3 more Wilco shows to go before the week ends. I will be attending two of those three. Next week, once all the Wilco shows in Chicago have wrapped up, I’ll throw something together that essentially recaps all of them. For now, I wanted those looking for it to have the set list for the Riviera show. Naturally, the new album “The Whole Love” was (and will remain) the focus for the time being, however what I find most interesting are the choices made outside of the new material. Will the band try and attempt vastly different set lists each of their 5 nights in Chicago? The Riviera show featured plenty of changes from the Civic Opera House one, so we shall see. I must say that I LOVE how much attention “A Ghost is Born” got, and whipping out little-heard songs like “I Must Be High” and “Just A Kid” (from the freaking Spongebob movie soundtrack) was truly inspired. Overall a spectacular night, to the point where they even made the typically horrid sound system of The Riv work some magic. Must’ve been because I was standing next to the soundboard. Anyways, I’ll have more info and some additional set lists from the Wilco shows on Friday and Sunday nights as well, not to mention a full writeup/recap coming early next week. Until then, here’s the set list from The Riv show.
Less Than You Think
Art of Almost
I Might
Black Moon
Bull Black Nova
Side with the Seeds
I Got You (At the End of the Century)
Born Alone
You Are My Face
Open Mind
Kamera
I Must Be High
I’m Always in Love
Capitol City
Handshake Drugs
Can’t Stand It
Dawned on Me
Hummingbird \**ENCORE 1**/
Via Chicago
Whole Love
The Late Greats
Walken
Just A Kid
Monday
Outtasite (Outta Mind) \**ENCORE 2**/
Reservations
Spiders (Kidsmoke)
I’m A Wheel
Have you been checking out Listmas over this last week and a half? Last week we covered my Top 50 Songs of the Year. It was magical. All this week, we’re counting down my Top 50 Albums of the Year. It’s been fun so far, and if you’re not keeping an eye on it, I think you’re missing out. Otherwise, here’s your Tuesday edition of Pick Your Poison. I will recommend tracks from Beni, Dressy Bessy, Goodman Brown, Imbogodom, St. Even and Walter Rose (with Lucinda Williams). In the Soundcloud section, enjoy some audio streams from The Asteroids Galaxy Tour, Mouse on Mars and Weekend.
Yesterday was a whole lot of fun, crossing off the bottom 10 albums on my Top 50 Albums of 2011 list. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed putting it together. Today we hit Part II, in which #40-31 will spike your blood sugar. If you’re reading this, I’ll now drop a “hint” for you as to what the #1 album might be, just to satisfy your curiosity. I’ve yet to find a publication, in print or online, that has agreed with my choice for Album of the Year. That doesn’t so much tell you what it is, but more like what it isn’t. There should be a good 5-6 records at least you can cross off as candidates for that top slot. Just another couple days and you’ll know the full story. Until then, please check out yesterday’s 10 albums if you have yet to do so. Here’s the link to that.
Welcome my friends, to the second week of Listmas, and the first installment of my Top 50 Albums of the Year. To put it in the simplest terms possible, I love this list. I love everything on it and everything about it. In my opinion, it’s the finest list I’ve ever put together, the most balanced and well-ordered. I feel it truly encompasses the best of the best from 2011, and honestly I couldn’t always say that in previous years. I’ve always doubted myself in one aspect or another. To answer your next question, yes, I’m upset that there were a few albums that couldn’t quite make the cut. I set the limit at 50, because it seems to be the fairest and most encompassing number to use. Coming up with 50 wasn’t so much a problem, but 55 or 60 might have been. At the end of all this, I may include a couple of honorable mentions, but primarily what you’re seeing here is what you get, and I’ve only made one small adjustment from my initial first draft. So we’ll be going through the Top 50 Albums all this week, 10 each day, until we hit number one. I hope it makes for some excitement and a great read on your part, and I also hope you discover something new as well, even if the most voracious of music lovers might recognize every single one of these. And so we begin with #50-41 today. Click past the jump to read onward!
This is a warning. The warning is that this will be the last Monday edition of Pick Your Poison for 2011. In fact, this will be the last full week of Pick Your Poison for 2011 as well. Next week and the following week, otherwise known as the last two weeks of the year, Faronheit will be on a posting vacation, and that includes distribution of mp3s. That’s okay, plenty of other people are headed out of town or will be busy anyways. The music also kind of dries up for those couple weeks as well. I will be posting some music for you to download or stream during those weeks, but look for editions of Pick Your Poison to be reduced down to Fridays only. Then, starting the first week in January 2012, things return to normal. Consider yourselves warned, friends. Okay, now let’s tackle today’s normal-sized edition. I can recommend tracks from Cloud Nothings, Field Mouse, Lovers, Chicago’s own Meryll, Silverhawk, and to get festive, Yuzima doing a Christmas classic.
Well my friends, we’ve reached the end. The end of our countdown of the Top 50 Songs of the Year, that is. I pray you’ve enjoyed this recap thus far, as there’s been plenty of variety to hopefully satisfy tastes of all shapes and colors and ears. One of the things I wish I could have included more of on this particular countdown is hip hop, so I’d like to apologize for the lack of it. I don’t listen to a lot of hip hop, so that’s problem 1 right there, but also of the hip hop I did listen to, some I felt wasn’t quite good enough to qualify for this list (see: Jay-Z and Kanye West’s Watch the Throne) while others made it quite difficult to single out a particular track as being better or more special than the others (see: Shabazz Palaces). So there’s no hip hop to be found in the final 10 songs listed below. What we do have though are all really special to me in their own individual ways. There’s a touch of folk, some more traditional pop be it upbeat or balladry, a few flashes of experimental or undefined, a couple dance cuts, and the genre revival of the year, 90s alt-rock. I like to think that my pick for Song of the Year is a little bit controversial, in that I’ve barely seen any mentions of it in any year-end lists, but I also feel like my logic and justification of its placement are valid. I hope you will agree with me, or at least understand where I’m trying to come from. So let’s get into it, but in case you’ve missed the other 40 songs covered on this list, feel free to follow the links below to learn more:
Brrr! Chicago is in the midst of a cold front right now, and given that it’s December anyways, it makes the cold temperatures that much colder. When things don’t get above freezing for a couple days, it’s easy to get the blues (both emotionally and bodily). If you’re in a very chilly place, curl up indoors with the heat on, a cup of hot coffee, tea or chocolate, and watch some TV or a movie. Or you could try and warm your body up via alcohol. Whatever floats your boat, which by the way you shouldn’t be boating in freezing temperatures anyways. My point is, stay in or not, just try to avoid exposure to the elements. At least there’s no snow in Chicago. Best of luck if you’re dealing with that. Let’s have a look at the Friday edition of Pick Your Poison. Highlights today include tracks from Baron Bane, Dada Trash Collage, Dear Lions, Orienteers, Perfume Genius, Rodrigo y Gabriela and Sleeper Agent. In the Soundcloud section you’ll also find a great new cut from Band of Skull. That Young Magic song is pretty great too.
Thanks for hanging in there so far as we do Listmas 2011 proper with yet another day of counting down my Top 50 Songs of 2011. If yesterday was all about getting eclectic, today is much more thematically in the direction of upbeat pop and dark psychedelia. At least a couple of these songs have been in commercials or other such media-related ventures outside of the scope of music. That doesn’t so much matter to me, primarily because I’ve been listening to all these songs before they showed up anywhere outside of an album. In cases like that, I invoke the right of “finders keepers” in an effort to say that the music swayed me, not the product it may have been attached to in an advertisement or TV show. I hope these songs are familiar to you for those exact same reasons, and if you haven’t heard them before now, well, here’s your chance to make such a discovery. I hope this list has helped you find something new you may have missed earlier in the year. Speaking of things you may have missed earlier, have you checked out the first 3 installments of this Top 50 Songs of 2011 countdown? Here are the links so you can catch up:
Have you heard about this situation going on with Best Coast? Drummer Ali Koehler is no longer a member of the band, apparently. She doesn’t really know the reason why she was fired (or maybe she does and prefers not to say), but there’s a bit of a rumor mill with a couple potential explanations as to why. Other than getting into a very bad argument with principal members Bethany Cosentino or Bobb Bruno, there’s the suggestion that perhaps Koehler was fired due to an “image problem”. That is to say, delicately, that she’s not exactly the type of person you think of when considering female rock band drummers. Reportedly Best Coast is looking to hit it big on the “mainstream” circuit with their second album, and may be getting all the pieces in place to make that happen. I guess a session drummer has taken Koehler’s place, but that’s likely temporary as they seek out somebody full time. Bethany Cosentino has yet to officially comment on it, but Koehler has been on Twitter essentially puzzled as to why she was “let go”. As with her time in Vivian Girls, this is probably only a temporary setback for Koehler, who will likely find percussion work with another band very soon. I wish her the best of luck, and think that in an ideal world, you’d want the best musicians in your band, looks and personality come second. Okay, so on to the business at hand – Pick Your Poison. This Thursday edition is excellent, complete with recommended tracks from 33Hz, AU, Fol Chen, Islands, Matthew Dear, Saintseneca, and Scott Matthew (featuring Sia).
We’ve reached the halfway point in the Top 50 Songs of 2011 countdown. I hope you’ve enjoyed this list, and Listmas in general thus far. Today’s set of 10 songs are probably the most eclectic yet, going everywhere from psychedelically weird to warm electronica to lo-fi to spoken word poetry to R&B to a pair of some of the most popular songs of the year. When looking back at 2011, it’s important to give some recognition to all those different types of music. For those that missed the first two installments of this Top 50 Songs list, here are a couple links to help you catch up:
When you watch as much television as I do, certain trends become blindingly apparent to you. Case in point, with the release of their new album “El Camino” this week, I’ve seen more Black Keys TV appearances than just about any other band in 2011. Sure, it’s a hot record that will likely reach #1 on the charts by this time next week, but there comes a point where it gets to be too much. From SNL to The Colbert Report to Letterman to a couple other shows, “Lonely Boy” and/or “Gold on the Ceiling” have been played at every one. Good for the band and their success, but I’m starting to get overwhelmed. So here’s a decidedly Black Keys-free edition of Pick Your Poison, as so many of them are. Tracks I’ll affix a gold star to today come from 813, Cass McCombs, Earthquake Party, Moist, Rocket From the Tombs and School of Seven Bells.
Welcome to Day 2 of Listmas, and my countdown week of the Best Songs of 2011. Yesterday was a lot of fun and naturally as the week progresses I expect that to continue to increase. One fun fact I’ll reveal to you in regards to my composition of this list is that I highly doubt you’ll be able to guess any of my Top 3 songs, which will be revealed on Friday. Feel free to guess in the comments section, but those final 3 are in some ways curveballs of the most interesting sort. There will likely be complaints. We’ll see how it all shakes out though. There’s still a couple days left before we get to that point. For today, there’s another interesting set of songs, and I’d actually say there’s nearly a theme to these 10. Save for a couple more left field choices, a handful of these songs were moderately successful and popular in 2011. That is to say, I heard a few of them on the radio, some even more than once. Do with that what you will. Click past the jump to read the list, my thoughts on each individual song, and stream or download all of them too. Oh, and here’s the link to yesterday’s 10 songs in case you missed them: The Top 50 Songs of 2011: #50-41
This really is the last legitimate record release date of 2011. There’s a handful of interesting albums coming out today, not the least of which is the new Black Keys effort “El Camino”, Other notables include records from Childish Gambino, aka Donald Glover (of “Community” fame), The Roots, and Olafur Arnalds. The Cure are putting out a 2-disc Live at Bestival album that was recorded earlier this year, and Zomby have a new EP as well. Overall, a surprisingly good set of releases for the first Tuesday of December. The songs in today’s Pick Your Poison are great too. I’ll give a thumbs up to tracks from Christopher Paul Stelling, Evan Voytas, Gospel Music, Luke Roberts, Pond and Chicago’s own Unicycle Loves You. Chad Valley’s remix of Noah and the Whale is pretty decent as well.
