Another week is almost done. I hope you’re excited for the weekend. To help get you there, here’s another snazzy edition of Pick Your Poison. Great stuff today includes tracks from AIDS Wolf, Banjo or Freakout, Oh Land and So So Glos. Check them out, it’s all delightful.
AIDS Wolf – Teaching To Suffer
Banjo or Freakout – Over There
Christopher Paul Stelling – Strange Darkness
Mariage Blanc – Whatever You Say I Am
Saharan Gazelle Boy – Halfhair Girl
Holy wow there’s a lot of great stuff in today’s Pick Your Poison. A full mixtape from Das Racist, which features contributions from Chairlift, El-P and The Very Best, among others. Then there’s the free EP that John Vanderslice released today, available in all its 320kbps mp3 glory below. There’s also The Radio Dept.’s scathing indictment of the Swedish government in a brand new song. Frankie Rose and the Outs have released a new mp3 as well. And Chicago’s own Urge Overkill haven’t put out any new music in the last 15 years, but today I’m proud to offer you something brand new from them. Great stuff.
ANR – The Endless Field of Mercury (Single Edit)
Das Racist – Sit Down Man Mixtape (feat. Chairlift, El-P and The Very Best
First Love, Last Rites – Slow Wind
Frankie Rose and the Outs – Candy
Hot Panda – Mindlessnesslessness
John Vanderslice – Green Grow The Rushes EP (ZIP)
Led to Sea – Is This The Last Time
The Radio Dept. – The New Improved Hypocrisy
I had jury duty today. It was a drag (sitting around for hours doing nothing until dismissed), but on the plus side I did get to spend the time listening to some great new music. Some of it is in today’s edition of Pick Your Poison. Be sure to download new tracks from J. Tillman (of Fleet Foxes), Secret Cities, Murdocks and Shadow Shadow Shade, but really most of these songs are great.
Betsy Franck and the Bareknuckle Band – City of Gold
David Vertesi – All Night All Night All Night
Gianna Lauren – Become What You Can’t Be
James and Evander – Turtle Two
Leonard Mynx – Song With No Name
Murdocks – Black Jesus Knocking
Seymour Bits – Style
Seymour Bits – This Is The Place To Be (TWR72 Remix)
Another start to another week. I hope you’ve got something to look forward to that’ll make the time go by faster. If not, maybe some mp3s will soothe those early week blues. Recommended songs today include cuts from Erland & the Carnival, Houses, Sharon Van Etten and Wira. There’s also an old school Fela Kuti mp3 that could be considered a great introduction to such an important artist of the 60s and 70s. For those of you looking for a mixtape, there’s a good one from Korallreven that features such luminaries as Taken By Trees, jj, Memoryhouse and Salem, among others.
Bridges and Powerlines – Mirabell
Erland & the Carnival – Trouble In Mind
Korallreven – A Dream By Korallreven For Korallreven In Collaboration With Korallreven For Korallreven (Mixtape feat. Taken By Trees, jj, Memoryhouse, Salem)
Satellite Stories – Kids Aren’t Safe In The Metro
Satellite Stories – Mexico
This week’s edition of Live Friday is proud to feature a session from Akron, Ohio’s own Black Keys. The band released their sixth and newest album “Brothers” back in May to what’s ultimately continued critical acclaim. Sure, it may not be the greatest Black Keys record, but it does feel like a return to their bluesy form after the much more psychedelic turn they took on 2008’s “Attack and Release”. The album was recorded at a few studios around the country, including the legendary Muscle Shoals in Alabama and The Bunker in Brooklyn. The band talks a little bit about that during the interview portion of the session, which is available to stream via the link below. But one of the more recent developments in The Black Keys’ camp is that singer/guitarist Dan Auerbach had built his own studio in their hometown of Akron. Ostensibly the band no longer needs to use any other studio when making albums, and they have the convenience of being able to use it 24/7 free of charge. Of course that doesn’t mean they’re going to always use the new studio, and they can also have a little fun with it by inviting people over to hang out while they play some songs. That’s what much of this session is. Recorded the week that “Brothers” was released to stores, the band plays four songs from the album at the unofficially titled “Auerbach Studios”. The Black Keys are known to be a vibrant and exciting live act, and touring around this record they’ve gone from a duo to a foursome just to help flesh out the song arrangements a little bit more. It shows in this session, which is nothing short of excellent. Download the songs, stream the interview, and have a great weekend.
The Black Keys, Live at Dan Auerbach’s studio, 5-20-10:
The Black Keys – Too Afraid To Love (Live at Auerbach Studios)
The Black Keys – Tighten Up (Live at Auerbach Studios)
The Black Keys – Everlasting Light (Live at Auerbach Studios)
The Black Keys – Howlin’ For You (Live at Auerbach Studios)
Congratulations on making it to the end of this shortened holiday week. As a reward for all your hard work, Friday’s edition of Pick Your Poison is extra delightful. A Memory Tapes remix of a Clare Maguire song should catch your ear pretty nicely. If you’re into polarizing experimental pop music, a track from CocoRosie may or may not be good for what ails you. Also coming highly recommended by me are tracks from Megafaun and Monotonix. Have a great weekend!
Acid Washed – Acid Washed (Danger Remix)
Clare Maguire – Ain’t Nobody (Memory Tapes Remix)
Grant Cutler & the Gorgeous Lords – Our Love Is A Mighty Fortress
In Grenada – Distance and Temptation
The Thermals aren’t really about making any “small statements” with their music. Their records, at least the last few, have all featured overarching themes that took on topics like government, religion, and how we deal with tragedy. Not that one topic is better than the other or that these concepts are wearing progressively thinner, but it does seem the band’s high energy punk rock songs aren’t as effective (or energetic) as they used to be. Last year’s “Now We Can See” was great evidence that the band was having just a little bit of a hard time as they stumbled into a newfound maturity and pushed their hard-driving punk into something with a significantly smoother pop edge. For their new album “Personal Life”, The Thermals maintain much of the maturity they gained last time around but move away from that pop polish and rough up the edges a bit. The theme this time is relationships and all the good, bad and ugly that comes along with them. You could say that’s also how this collection of songs shakes out.
Okay, so there’s nothing particularly ugly or even bad about “Personal Life”, but there’s definitely moments that shine compared to others. Opening track “I’m Gonna Change Your Life” introduces us to the new reality of The Thermals, something a bit slower and almost testy, and if the song title is a mission statement it falls pretty flat. Things pick up almost instantly after that with first single “I Don’t Believe You”, which is easily one of the most fun and catchy songs the band has ever made. “Not Like Any Other Feeling” has some fascinating guitar work that may come off as a little fragile and tepid but that careful composure is also what makes it one of the most winning tracks on the album. A good second single would be “Your Love Is So Strong”, as its backing “oh”‘s really encourage a sing-along. Almost equally delighful is “Only For You”, which could benefit from a slight tempo increase but still pulls its weight with a compelling melody and emotional resonance. But in between all these triumphs and semi-triumphs are tracks that fail to strike with the necessary force to remain memorable. It’s about a half-and-half game of good and bad almost directly correlating in an alternating fashion track by track. It may be fine lyrically (most of the record is, as usual), but “Never Listen to Me” doesn’t do much instrumentally, with Kathy Foster’s bass line hitting the same notes over and over again and Harris’ electric guitar holding down a somewhat dragging tempo that’s close to but not quite danceable. “Alone, A Fool” is almost worth not mentioning, that’s how forgettable this acoustic ballad is. It drops in almost like a deadweight trying to pull the songs that surround it down with it. And though it fares a little better, “A Reflection” feels like just that, thinking out loud for a moment without so much as a chorus to go back to, just a constant stream of thought.
One of the things The Thermals tend to do great with on every outing are the lyrics, which Hutch Harris really gets to the heart of whatever subject he’s writing about. Any emotions outside of rage aren’t really felt in his vocals, but the wordplay is pretty fascinating each and every time. Compared to past Thermals outings, “Personal Life” doesn’t fare so well, and maybe one part of the problem is subject matter. When Harris rants against the government or organized religion, these are universal topics people tend to disagree on. Everybody has an opinion and whether or not you agreed with Harris at the very least he made his points with conviction. By taking on the topic of relationships, that’s less a debate and more a blatant truth. Everybody has been in a failed relationship at least once in their lives, and that’s a private concern between two individuals rather than a group or sect. It’s why the album title is what it is. But in minimizing the conflict it also minimizes the impact. Yes it’s still relatable on a mass spectrum but the experience is different for each person. That plus the calmer, downtempo moments turn “Personal Life” into a bit of a drag at parts. One could argue that these sorts of moments come with the territory of growing up, but if you look at a similar artist like Ted Leo who’s still cranking along with high impact punk rock tracks many years into his career, there’s proof it can be done. If The Thermals are looking for a hot button universal topic to tackle for their next effort, the environment might just be the thing to stir up some of that old fashioned rage Harris used to spit out like water from a faucet. “Personal Life” may be something of a wash, but grab a sponsorship from PETA and save some wildlife next time and things might just turn around for the little punk band from Portland that could.
Happy Friday Eve, where we celebrate like it’s Friday but a day early. I hope you’ve got some fun planned as a result. A lot of the songs in today’s Pick Your Poison are fun, and I’ve got a handful of recommendations for you as usual. Be sure to check out tracks by The 88, Callers, Jesse Payne and One Hundred Flowers. You’ll definitely also want to download new songs from Owen Pallett and Low. Do it to it, the weekend is just a day away.
Jesse Payne – Manhattan Project
Lek Fonq – Inner Rhythm (Trust Mix)
One Hundred Flowers – Rat Trap
Canadian pastoral folk band The Acorn first attracted a lot of attention with their 2007 album “Glory Hope Mountain”, a 12-track concept album that served as a loosely detailed account of the life of Gloria Esperanza Montoya aka singer Rolf Klausener’s mother. You didn’t need to be aware of the concept to enjoy that record, though it was supremely beneficial if you listened to the entire thing in one sitting. After some great reviews and a lengthy tour to support that last album, The Acorn retreated to a forest cottage in a desolate area of Northern Quebec to work on a follow-up. “No Ghost” is the result and it’s finally out in the U.S. this week, a collection of songs that continues in the band’s rich and gorgeous folk/Americana sound though this time without a singular theme to hold it all together.
At their core, The Acorn aren’t doing much new on “No Ghost”, and that’s both compared to their past releases as well as just in general compared to other similar artists. They’re almost a Canadian version of Grizzly Bear, but with a little more breathing room. Grizzly Bear get so carefully constrained with their songs you could fit them in a neat little box, while The Acorn go all expansive and open field more often than not. But the harmonies are often there, though with less emphasis on them and more on the delicate melodies that the acoustic guitars and a handful of other instruments provide. With less of a thematic element to tie everything together this time, the band is able to focus more on individual songs and throw in a little diversity to their highly traditional style. They use electric guitars a bit more among other things, and the energy is higher and lighter than on past efforts. There’s some feedback and a little bit of electronic noise that factors into opening track “Cobbled From Dust”, though if you weren’t paying close attention it’d be easy to miss those things. “Restoration” is a jaunty finger-picked acoustic track with rimshot percussion that’s simply a delight. Electric guitars actually ruin the serene folk of “I Made the Law”, snatching away what started out as something beautiful and turning it into something with classic rock undertones that just doesn’t fit with the rest of the record. “Crossed Wires” might be the closest thing to a normal indie rock song The Acorn have ever written, with a fast bass pushed up to the front of the mix and a piano gliding along barely in the background. There’s just enough of an off-kilter rhythm though that keeps the song from reaching its full catchy potential. Still, it’s got an almost Neutral Milk Hotel-type charm to it that makes for one of the more exciting tracks on the album. The same could be said of “Bobcat Goldwraith” with its very tribal beats and outright enthusiasm. There’s a horn section that slips in every now and then that really pushes things even farther in the right direction. The title track is an interesting piece of scattershot music, kicking off with some rough electric guitar and electronic noise before breaking down into something a little folkier. It’s almost like the band is channeling a louder version of Animal Collective but not quite getting everything just right. In other words, a noble attempt at experimenting that only partly works out. By contrast, the acoustic alt-country balladry of “Slippery When Wet” is a delight and a return to what The Acorn does best. “Almanac” takes things just a little too far in that direction though, fixating on lots of silent moments between the sparse acoustic guitars, drum rimshots and vocal harmonies. As gorgeous as the song is, it still feels a little frozen in place by not moving beyond where it starts.
For fans of bands like Fleet Foxes, Midlake, Grizzly Bear and more than 2 dozen other folk-driven acts around today, The Acorn is another notch for your belt to grab onto. If you’ve not yet heard any music by this band before and like their sort of music, nothing should be holding you back. What will hold some back is knowing that everything The Acorn does sounds familiar, probably because somebody else has done it before. They’re not the most unique or intensely brilliant band around. Instead they take an all-too overused musical genre and continue to breathe life into it. Their songs are often immensely gorgeous and there’s absolutely merit in that, even if the lyrics can be a bit of a hodgepodge mess at times. “No Ghost” is the ideal record for a day of relaxation outdoors with the sun out and nature on display around you. Given that fall has unofficially started now, it’s also great for watching the leaves change color. “Glory Hope Mountain” may continue to be the gold standard of Acorn albums, but at the very least this new one proves that brilliance wasn’t just some flash in the pan. Keep an eye on these guys, they could very well be going places in the next few years.
Pretty great set of songs for today’s Pick Your Poison. The new Blonde Redhead album “Penny Sparkle” is out next week, and you can grab a preview track below. And though the album has been out for awhile, Field Music have just given out another song off of it. You can also get a brand new song from The Tallest Man on Earth, who has a new EP available digitally now. Also worth checking out are songs from Jesse Woods, Low Sea and Royal Baths. Seriously, some excellent stuff. By all means download away.
Blonde Redhead – Not Getting There
Field Music – All You’d Ever Need to Say
Gary Wilson – Electric Endicott
The Horror, The Horror – Time Is A Spinning Wheel
The Horror, The Horror – Black Barn
Low Sea – Falling
Low Sea – Never Yours
I hope everyone had a great Labor Day. If you were working as I was, hopefully it was less painful than a normal day. The good news is that now it’s Tuesday and though you have to return to work, there’s plenty of new music to help get you through it. Highlights of today’s Pick Your Poison include a remix of a Nina Simone track. There’s something of a supergroup in the new band OFF!, which has members of Black Flag, Burning Brides and Hot Snakes. There’s a new dance cut from Royksopp. A remix of a Sebastien Tellier song. The bands The Black Twig Pickers and Translations are worth checking out as well. And for some fun, check out the cryptic website of the band Longstay, where you can click through a maze with multiple paths and endings.
The Black Twig Pickers – Don’t Drink Nothing But Corn
Longstay – Old Heads on Young Shoulders
Check out Longstay’s maze of a website
Moondoggies – It’s A Shame, It’s A Pity
Nina Simone – I Put A Spell On You (MiM0SA remix)
Royksopp – Malangen Fra Bruhodet
With the holiday weekend just getting started, everyone’s checking out early to travel out of town or just plain relax for the next few days. I hope you get the chance to spend quality time with family and friends over the next few days. Understandably then, Pick Your Poison is a tiny bit thin today. Another song from ARP gets a double thumbs up from me. You should also have a listen to songs by Oholics and The Super Vacations (the perfect band name for this weekend, right?). Faronheit will be taking Monday off thanks to Labor Day (where we celebrate not working), but things will resume as normal on Tuesday. Have a great extended weekend everybody.
ARP – From A Balcony Overlooking The Sea
The Biters – Melody for Lovers
Lavinia – A Damning Confession
Mackintosh Braun – Could It Be (ZIP)
Oh what a great Live Friday this is set to be. Let’s kick off your Labor Day weekend right with a great set of jams from LCD Soundsystem. This is practically appropriate for the holiday weekend given that once he’s done supporting the latest LCD record James Murphy says he’s going to pretty much retire from music. Actually, he does clear that up a little bit in the interview (which is you can stream via the link below). Essentially he doesn’t want to feel that cyclical pressure that comes from making an album, touring around it, then doing the whole thing over again. Expectations keep rising with each new album and he’d rather go out on top than on the decline. Murphy also says that while he plans to stop touring completely, there may be more LCD Soundsystem music in the future, such as some singles or even another album – just don’t expect it soon or under any sort of timetable. He wants to work at his own pace.
So, about the music. The band plays 3 songs off the new album “This Is Happening”, and one classic otherwise known as “Daft Punk is Playing at My House”. The session was recorded in a London studio while the band had a little down time this past June, and in most cases these versions of the songs sound as good or better than they do on the album. “I Can Change” is just a little disappointing to me, mostly because there’s an echo vocal effect applied to James Murphy’s voice that I find off-putting. Otherwise though, everything is fantastic and more than worth a download.
(Note: Due to some bandwith issues, I had to downsample aka lower the quality of a couple of the mp3s in this session. The original, higher quality versions are available via the alternate links below. Sorry if that’s an inconvenience.)
LCD Soundsystem, Live in London, 6-29-10:
LCD Soundsystem – I Can Change (Live in London) [Higher quality: ZShare]
LCD Soundsystem – Drunk Girls (Live in London)
LCD Soundsystem – All I Want (Live in London) [Higher quality: ZShare]
LCD Soundsystem – Daft Punk Is Playing At My House (Live in London)
In case you weren’t aware prior to right now, the very lovely Jenny Lewis has a boyfriend. You may know Jenny Lewis from a little band called Rilo Kiley, or also through those couple records she’s released under her own name. Her boyfriend goes by the name of Johnathan Rice. He has a music career of his own and has released a couple albums and EPs over the past few years. While Rice has gotten a fair amount of press thanks to his music being used on “The OC”, his career is nowhere near as high profile as his girlfriend’s. Well, now they’re playing together as Jenny and Johnny, and one can’t help but wonder who came up with the idea. Their debut album “I’m Having Fun Now” is out this week, and it pretty much goes as the title suggests. She’s a little bit country, and he’s a little bit rock and roll, and together they make something that sounds a little like both.
Consider “I’m Having Fun Now” to be something of an old school affair, and that’s just the way Jenny and Johnny wanted it to be. The sound of the record is a very classic duet sort of thing, reaching back to the 50s and 60s for inspiration. It is, in many ways, the pair’s attempt to pull off a She & Him, the Zooey Deschanel/M. Ward collaboration. The main difference between the two projects is that the creative divide is clear-cut in She & Him, where Deschanel does virtually all the vocals and Ward handles guitars and arrangements. Jenny and Johnny is extremely interactive by comparison. As they both have singer-songwriter credits to their names, sometimes Jenny will take the lead on a track, and other times Johnny will. They’ll also lend backup vocals and other small singing elements to each other’s songs. A few times they even harmonize their voices for an entire song. For what they’re looking to accomplish, it works quite well. Almost every track is pretty lighthearted and bouncy, good enough to keep your toes tapping and heads bobbing. It sounds like they really enjoyed making this record, and in turn there’s a lot to enjoy while listening to it.
Here’s the thing – there’s a reason why Jenny Lewis has attracted so much attention throughout her career. She’s got an exceptional singing voice, is an impeccable lyricist, and pretty much kicks ass on guitar as well. Johnathan Rice, on the other hand, is just enough of a talent to get signed and sell some records. There’s a reason why he hasn’t reached the levels of popularity and critical acclaim that similar singer-songwriters have (see: Pete Yorn, Ryan Adams, etc.) in recent years. So by teaming up, Jenny and Johnny split the balance between amazing and mediocre pretty evenly. Really what happens is that every time Jenny makes her vocal presence heard, she stomps all over Johnny’s comparatively weak singing. To be clearer, his vocals aren’t bad in the least, they’re just sort of wispy and unmuscular and pale in the face of what Jenny is doing. As to the songwriting, it’s all pretty good. Jenny and Johnny have been writing music together for a few years now, as he helped out on her second solo album “Acid Tongue” and she helped out with his second record “Further North”. They do fine on the words. It’s the execution where the mixed bag enters the fray. It stands to reason that if there were more Jenny and less Johnny on this album, it’d be a better record overall.
While preparing to promote “I’m Having Fun Now”, Jenny and Johnny have been doing a fair number of interviews lately. The way they explain the origins of this project make a fair amount of sense. They’ve been working on each other’s music for awhile now, they’ve been touring together and since they’re also in a relationship, this just made a lot of sense. Additionally, both of them have gone on record saying that being a solo artist is a challenge, having to carry the burden of an entire record on your shoulders without other band members to share it with (yes, most “solo” artists have backing bands, but that’s not the point and they don’t share any credit for the music). Jenny and Johnny was really born out of both wanting to make more music but not alone. As sensible as that may be, “I’m Having Fun Now” kind of hurts both their solo reputations. Longtime fans of Jenny Lewis will be upset that Johnny keeps stepping on some of these melodies. And Johnathan Rice spends much of the record getting steamrolled by his girlfriend’s easy charm and strong musical talent, so it’s sort of embarassing for him. Lightening up a bit though, Johnathan Rice is not a BAD artist by all means and he is legitimately talented to the point where his career to this point is justified. This record is just the equivalent of having some relatively indistinguishable NBA player face off against Michael Jordan in his prime. The guy was good enough to get to the NBA, but he’s no superstar just as Johnny is good enough to be signed to a label and tour nationally, but he’s not of the same caliber that Jenny is. Ignoring the two talents behind this project though, “I’m Having Fun Now” is a pretty nice folk and alt-country record that should satisfy a whole lot of people. Try not to criticize it too much (as has been done here), and it’s extremely easy to like. This probably isn’t intended to be anything brilliant or revolutionary, so you could say it serves its purpose exactly. Give it a try if you’re looking for an easy and breezy record to listen to while hanging out with friends on a lightly chilled fall evening.
I hope you’re as psyched about the upcoming Labor Day weekend as I am. It’s sort of a “last hurrah” for summer, what with everyone breaking out the BBQ and hanging around outside before the temperatures really start to drop. In eager anticipation of that, Pick Your Poison is pretty great today. The Chicago band City State makes some pretty good music, and they’re giving much of it away for free, which is why I’d also like to encourage you to follow the link below and donate a buck or two to help them out. Additionally, Crocodiles are giving away a free EP of instrumental songs that’s worth your time. Arcade Fire fans, you’ll definitely want to hear The Drums covering the great “Suburbs” track “We Used to Wait”. Speaking of covers, Telekinesis covers the band Green, which is pretty cool as well. And The Intelligence gets a big old recommended stamp from me as well. I really “like” their song, if you catch my drift.
Brad Laner – Crawl Back In (Baths Remix)
Brent Amaker and the Rodeo – Man in Charge
City States – Okay
Download more free music from City States, and donate if you can
Crocodiles – Fires of Comparison EP (ZIP)
The Drums – We Used to Wait (Arcade Fire cover)
The Intelligence – Like Like Like Like Like Like Like
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