Okay, so I’m super busy this Wednesday and don’t have much time to talk, so let’s get right into this. Tracks I’ll put the spotlight on today include ones from Coast Jumper, Denison Witmer, The High Strung, Lucius, Tashaki Miyaki (covering Bob Dylan no less), The Unthanks (covering Robert Wyatt no less), and World Blanket.
It’s Tuesday, which means a bunch of new records have been released for your listening pleasure. Let me try and give you a brief rundown of some of those new records, keeping in mind this is just a list and not a collection of recommendations. A Place to Bury Strangers have a new EP out this week, as do Deer Tick and Fredrik. Full albums are coming out from Air, Ben KWeller, Blondes, The Darlings, Davila 666, Die Antwoord, Dr. Dog, The Duke Spirit, Mark Lanegan Band, of Montreal, Paul McCartney, The Plimsouls, Pretty Good Dance Moves, Royal Baths, Sharon Van Etten, Swell Maps, Trailer Trash Tracys, The Twilight Sad, The Unthanks, The Valery Trails, and Zee Avi. Speaking of things also available today, here’s a fresh set of Pick Your Poison mp3s for you, and a few of these I will recommend. Be sure to check out tracks from Ani DiFranco, Baby Eagle & the Proud Mothers, Jonathan Segal, The Quiet Americans, Realistic, Two Suns, and White Arrows’ remix of Active Child.
Did everyone enjoy the Super Bowl yesterday? Well, if you aren’t in the U.S. you may not have known or cared about it, so no worries. The big controversy that emerged from it this year didn’t happen during the game, nor was it some sort of crazy thing that halftime musical guest Madonna did. Yet halftime was the scene of the crime, for despite the hefty load of guest artists during Madonna’s show that included LMFAO, Cee Lo Green and Nicki Minaj, it was M.I.A. that got caught with her middle finger up to the cameras. It was about the polar offensive opposite of the “wardrobe malfunction” Janet Jackson had at the Super Bowl a few years ago, but of course everyone’s up in arms again with apologies being issued and fines being considered. According to a contract signed before the performance though, apparently M.I.A. will be responsible for paying any fines issued, because she’s responsible for her own actions. It has the potential to cost her a pretty penny too, if we’re going by previous offenses. We’ll have to wait and see what happens. Why am I not surprised that M.I.A., complete with so many controversial or politically motivated music videos and crazy statements to the press, was the one person in trouble at the Super Bowl? As her career has been fading rather quickly, I guess she needed something to keep people talking while we wait for her next album. Okay, let’s talk about something else, that being today’s Pick Your Poison. I’ll advise you to check out tracks from The D.A., Guy Capecelatro III, Leland Sundries, Qualms, and the remix exchange between Ra Ra Riot and The Submarines. Both bands remixed one another, to good end results. In the Soundcloud section, please stream and enjoy a new song from Here We Go Magic.
It’s Friday, I’m eager to get my big Super Bowl weekend started, and so we’ll just get on with it. By the way, I don’t really like either team playing in the big game because I think they largely bought their strong rosters, but when pressed for a choice I go Giants. They’re the underdogs, I believe New England may cheat a bit, and Tom Brady has enough going for him being married to Giselle. Okay, let’s do this extra large Friday edition of Pick Your Poison. I’ll recommend tracks from Big Sir, CFCF, Dada Trash Collage, First Person Shootr, Lindsay Fuller, Lissy Trullie, Rhye, Sauna, and Teitur. Lots of great stuff. And in the Soundcloud section, you should probably stream the track from oOoOO as it’s damn good. Have a great weekend!
Oh my, it’s Groundhog Day. It seems like we go through this every single year without end. That’s because we do, and I was also making some vague allusion to the classic Bill Murray film. My how I love that movie. But for those that paid no attention to the groundhog forecast, it seems that we’ll be dealing with another 6 weeks of winter. Considering “winter” this year has mostly been about 45 degrees and sunny, I’m not going to complain too much. That is, until we get hit with a bunch of snowstorms in a row. You know that’ll happen just to break the streak of nice weather. Also nice is today’s Pick Your Poison. I’ll throw a hearty thumbs up at tracks from Baby Baby, Cultfever, Escort, Mike O’Neill, Nick Waterhouse, Prinzhorn Dance School and Sophia Knapp. In the Soundcloud section, I hope you’re as intrigued as I am by The Dø’s cover of a Janelle Monae hit. That’s wild, wild stuff.
I want to take a moment, on this start to February and Black History Month, to pay tribute to a man that meant a lot of things to a lot of people. Mr. Don Cornelius, a long-time Chicagoan and the creator of the legendary TV show “Soul Train”, was found dead this morning at age 75, reportedly from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. While I was too young to have ever fully experienced the impact “Soul Train” has had on our culture, I was aware of the show and even caught portions of the occasional rerun on TV during my childhood. But Don Cornelius impacted me in a pretty unique way, too. This past September he returned to Chicago for a special 40th Anniversary celebration honoring “Soul Train”. There was a concert that took place at Millennium Park featuring a number of the bands that were frequent guests on the show, and the City of Chicago named a street Don Cornelius Way. Just hours before that celebration, I had the chance to sit down and interview the legendary host about his legacy and the legacy of the show. I found him to be a class act, and effortlessly cool. We spoke for about 10 minutes, and when our time was up, he shook my hand and with a glint in his eye said, “You da man.” Without even thinking, I instinctively responded, “No, you da man.” He instantly let out a hearty chuckle. That’s the way that I choose to remember Don Cornelius – as a guy who charmed me the way he’d charmed millions all those years hosting “Soul Train”, and who, at 75 years young, could look back on his life and be proud of what he’d accomplished. What drove him to take his own life, we’ll probably never really know. I have an enormous respect for the man, and hope his impact continues to be felt for decades to come. Below is today’s edition of Pick Your Poison. I’ll place the spotlight onto tracks from Bowerbirds, Callers & Delicate Steve, Cherub, The Big Pink’s remix of Ladyhawke, The Mary Onettes, Shearwater and Teen Daze.
Today is the last day in January, and what a month it’s been. For the first 31 days of 2012, I’ve been chewed up and spit out like a flavorless piece of gum. To put it another way, things haven’t exactly gone well for me thus far. I’m hoping February has a whole lot of changes in store for me, the good kind. Not only is it Black History Month, important for its own reasons, but it’s also a leap year, meaning we get an extra day to do with as we see fit. Most will work, I imagine. But here’s to the end of January, I will not miss you. The Pick Your Poisons have been pretty solid though, I’ll say that much. Today’s is no exception, and I’ll recommend tracks from Anothers Blood, Class of 2012 student A$AP Rocky, kayln rock, Mirror Lady, Night Genes, and Wild Nothing. In the Soundcloud section you may want to check out tracks from Neverever and Sameblod, among others.
Have you heard? Jack White is going solo! Yes, it’s been a long time coming, right? After The White Stripes and The Raconteurs and The Dead Weather and a host of other guest work on other records, he’s finally doing something for himself. The record will be titled “Blunderbuss” and it will be out on April 24th on his label Third Man, in association with Columbia. Expect it to be magic. If you’re itching for a taste of what the album is going to sound like, enjoy this first song from it, “Love Interruption”.
As far as today’s Pick Your Poison is concerned, I’ll recommend tracks from Ane Brun, BBU, Damien Jurado, Doe Paoro, Mark Lanegan Band, Pelican, and Terry Malts.
I literally get hundreds of emails about this here site each and every day, and that’s not an attempt to brag but makes for just a little note of concern on my part. If somebody really wants or needs a response from me about music they’ve sent me or want to send me, I do my best to write and send replies. On occasion though, some people have a tough time getting enough oxygen to their brains and they’ll ask me a silly or downright stupid question. If you’re an artist or a promotions/public relations person for an artist, please try to do a little leg work yourself. I get all kinds of emails asking if “Artist X” can have their mp3 featured in an edition of Pick Your Poison. These are the second and third emails I get from such people, and if I’m able, I’ll try and put their mp3 into a Pick Your Poison edition within a couple days of the very first email sent to me. Some artists and promoters are impatient, especially if they don’t see their song up on this site within 24 hours. Others fail to recognize that the music they’re hoping to promote has already been posted on my site, days or weeks beforehand. Here’s a helpful hint to all those people, and to you dear reader as well: there is a search bar. It is located near the top of the page on the right side. Type in whatever you want, an artist name, a song name, and so forth, and the search function will do its best to find all the posts matching your criteria. Brilliant, isn’t it? Just a helpful Friday tip from me to you. Oh, and thanks to the artists and promoters that are clearly paying attention to what’s being posted. You’re the smart ones and I appreciate the leg work you do to make that happen. Okay, now let’s do today’s Pick Your Poison. I’ll place the spotlight on tracks from Bleeding Knees Club, David’s Lyre, The Ex-Girlfriends Club, Isidore, Leema Mountain, Po Po, and Sharks. In the Soundcloud section enjoy Rick Rubin’s remix of Justice’s “On’N’On”, among others.
Let me do my best on this Thursday to give you a Class of 2012 update. I try to do this once a week, because typically there’s at least something to report. For example, this week it seems that Azealia Banks has been spending time with fashion icon Karl Lagerfeld. He’s apparently become smitten with her, and it’s not hard to see why. If you’d like to watch her perform at his house, simply click this link. Additionally, Class of 2012 artist A$AP Rocky unleashed a brand new, NSFW music video for his track “Wassup”. There are some naked people in it, just be aware of that before following this YouTube link. I should probably also say something about Lana Del Rey too. She’s been on the receiving end of some serious backlash the last couple weeks, spurned primarily from her disastrous SNL performance. They can’t all be winners. The anti-LDR sentiment is growing, and her debut album “Born to Die” is out on Tuesday. I’ll have a review of it before then, so pay attention to the site the next couple days if you’re itching to learn more. Would I slam one of the artists I predicted success for this year? Ah, there’s the rub, and the hook to hopefully grab your interest. What should have your attention right now though are the songs in today’s edition of Pick Your Poison. Plenty to love here, including tracks from Ariane Moffatt, Evan Voytas, The Darcys, Grace Woodroofe, The Just Barelys, The Head and the Heart, and Yukon Blonde, to name a few.
So the Joy Division-inspired Mickey Mouse shirt has been stopped. Yes, Disney decided that there may be some issues with the design, specifically the legality of it, and so they’ve decided to stop selling the shirt altogether. You can no longer find it for sale on the Disney website. They probably also got some flak from some people upset the company would align themselves with a band whose name had Nazi ties and whose lead singer killed himself. But whatever, it was an interesting piece of merchandise while it lasted, and got people talking. If you’re desperate to own one, right now your best friend is eBay, where they’re going for hundreds of dollars. Good luck. Okay, today’s Pick Your Poison is a good one, as they tend to be. I’ll give gold stars to tracks from Cardinal, England in 1819, Erin Passmore, Grand Duchy, Theresa Andersson (with Peter Moren of Peter Bjorn and John), Xiu Xiu and Zammuto (aka one half of The Books). Oh, and I can’t forget about Cynthia Lennon, John’s first wife, singing a ukulele version of the Beatles classic “In My Life”. There’s something just a little special about that.
It’s a very busy Tuesday for yours truly, and I apologize for not being able to write more as an intro to this edition of Pick Your Poison. All I’ll say is that some of this set’s highlights include tracks from Ducky, Elephant & Castle (featuring tUnE-yArDs), Gangrene, Liz Green, Sidi Touré and Yellow Ostrich. In the Soundcloud section check out new songs from Andrew Bird and Morgan Page (with special guests Tegan & Sara).
In today’s weird music news, it seems that Disney has unleashed an odd piece of merchandise – a t-shirt that repurposes the cover of Joy Division’s “Unknown Pleasures” into the shape of a Mickey Mouse head. Have a look on the Disney Store website where you’ll also notice it’s “sold out”. As somebody that owns a Joy Division “Unknown Pleasures” t-shirt myself (as I’m sure many others do as well), Disney’s version intrigues me for a few reasons. First and foremost, they claim the shirt was inspired by Joy Division. I’m inspired by Joy Division too, but Disney is about the last thing I think of when associating things with that name. Anybody that knows a thing or two about the band realizes they took their name from the brothels in Nazi concentration camps. There was controversy with the band when they changed their name from Warsaw to Joy Division for that exact reason. Ian Curtis and the boys were really just taking the piss out of the name. They weren’t really advocates for Nazi brothels. And while we’re talking Nazis and WWII, one of the icons of the war was Mickey Mouse, a symbol used to represent America and American capitalism and values. In a sense, both Mickey Mouse and the band Joy Division were anti-Nazi symbols, even as the band didn’t take on the name until some 40 odd years later. As to the issue of Ian Curtis hanging himself and the general darkness of Joy Division’s music, those really aren’t things you want associated with beloved children’s cartoon character Mickey Mouse. Now for the record, the shirt is made for adults, and hopefully most that buy it understand the history where I’m sure little kids are none the wiser. And finally, I point out the history of the “Unknown Pleasures” cover itself. The image is not a Joy Division original, but rather something they repurposed themselves. The image was originally generated by a computer in the 1960s, mapping out successive pulses from the first pulsar ever discovered. The image was then published first in a 1971 edition of Scientific American magazine, then a 1974 edition of Graphis Diagrams, and finally a 1977 edition of the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Astronomy. The boys in Joy Division first encountered the image in that 1977 encyclopedia, which featured black lines on white paper, and simply flipped the two colors for the album cover. The published 1974 version of the image actually had it the same way the cover of “Unknown Pleasures” has it. My point is the Mickey Mouse shirt may have been inspired by the “Unknown Pleasures” cover, but that cover was inspired by an earlier published image that’s entirely science-based. Make of that what you will. I’ve already said way too much on this trivial subject. How about some Pick Your Poison? Tracks I’ll recommend today come from Air Review, Barry Adamson, Coast Jumper, Eric Chenaux, Royal Canoe and The Violet Lights.
Happy Friday! I hope your week was great. I’d call mine solid. I don’t have much else to say beyond that. Oh hey, it seems that SOPA/PIPA has been put on hold for the time being, so that’s a small victory for freedom on the internet, which is great. Let’s hope we don’t have to deal with such nonsense again, though the legislation might be back at some point in a different form. Okay, let’s get to some mp3s, shall we? Today I’ll highlight tracks from Black Marble, Circus Devils, COnduits, First Person Shooter, Lee Ranaldo, Lower Dens, Narrow Sparrow, and Shearwater. In the Soundcloud section enjoy Clams Casino’s remix of Lana Del Rey, as well as a new song from Miike Snow.
It’s grin and bear it time in Chicago again. For the second time in two weeks, a snowstorm is blowing in and is set to drop several more inches of snow. I’ve got my rations all set for a day spent entirely indoors. I don’t want to go out in dangerous conditions unless I have to. Yes, tomorrow’s going to be a quiet day for me, and I’m pretty happy about that. If you’ll be dealing with a snowstorm at all tomorrow, stay safe. Maybe listen to some new music? There’s plenty here for you to check out. I’ll advise downloading songs from BOY, Fort Romeau, Oberhofer, Thomas White, and Two Suns. Lightouts’ cover of a Guided By Voices classic isn’t half bad either. In the Soundcloud section you may be interested in Flosstradamus’ remix of Major Lazer.
