One of Salt Lake City’s few record stores (and one of even fewer ones of merit), Slowtrain, is currently liquidating its inventory and are planning on closing for good by the end of this year. The husband/wife owner pair of Anna and Chris Brozek are expecting their first child and they have made the commendable decision to focus what little free time they presently have — both hold down “regular” jobs in addition to running the shop — to raising their soon-to-be daughter. If one sliver of good news can come out of this otherwise terribly sad event it’s that Slowtrain isn’t closing because of financial constraints like most of their record store contemporaries — in fact, the Brozek’s have noted that “business couldn’t be better.” So although we’re losing one of the places that have made Salt Lake City bearable for me, the success and economic viability of Slowtrain shows how strong the demand for quality music is here in Utah. Who knows, maybe the opening of a replacement shop is not so far-fetched of an idea after all.

“Let’s get vulnerable for a minute, pals,” – that’s how David Greenwald, oversee-er of the site Rawkblog, opened a mood-crushing post last week. Unlike 99.999999% of self-proclaimed bloggers out there (myself included), Dave actually does music journalism as a profession. If you know how bad it’s been lately for the music industry and also know how bad it’s been for the newspaper business, try multiplying the two in order to grasp how utterly shitty the past few years must have been for someone involved in both. The post pretty much dives head first in the troubles Dave has had with keeping his head above water lately and proposes one way, through a digital musical subscription run through Spotify, which might help keep him afloat.

Although I can’t completely relate with the difficulties and tough decisions that Dave must be going through, the one thing that I kept coming back to is how, if I would have chosen a different path, I might as well have found myself in a similar situation. You know when people pose hypothetical questions like “what would you do if you had millions of dollars,” you typically respond with something along the lines of pursuing your “dream job” (well, after the Ferrari purchase, of course). Well, mine would be a position somewhere that is integrally involved with music: whether it be running a label, designing Korg synths, or making a damn-good music site. Instead, though, what happens in most people’s lives is that the real world, with its rent or student debt or car payments, gets in the way and your dreams slowly give way to your practicality. Just how I got more involved professionally with engineering, thus relegating my love of music to “just a hobby,” Dave seems to be at a crossroads as well (in his case, law school). Maybe it’s a little bit of living vicariously through others, but you can’t help but hope that Dave (and all the people that choose to do what they truly love to do – especially when safer alternatives exist) find a way to succeed.

As Dave puts it best with an anecdote about another financially strapped website: “…you should support the things you love; if you don’t, then they go away. It may have happened to your favorite record store already. It may be about to happen right here.”

Indeed, this poignant message is very apropos.

Subscribe to Dave’s Mercury Music Digital Record Club here.

SXSW just announced their first set of confirmed bands for this year’s festival and, in typical fashion, I recognize about 5% of the lot. Here are some of the highlights I saw after my first perusing:

• Class Actress
• Cloud Nothings
• Com Truise
• Outfit
• Parlovr
• Shout Out Out Out Out (the perennial SXSW-ers)
• Soft Metals
• Thee Oh Sees

No doubt, the list will grow to about a bazillion before the festival kicks of. So even if you don’t see you favorite bands on the list, odds are they’ll still make it to Austin the second week of March.

Class Actress // Keep You

Neon Indian // Sleep Paralysist (Com Truise ‘Eyelid’ Remix)

Soft Metals // Love or Music

Couldn’t have been more happier when I heard the news via facebook that my favorite new artist of 2011, Idahoan Trevor Powers, got signed to the famed Oxford, Mississippi label Fat Possum. Quite the accomplishment for quite the talented musician.

If you haven’t had the opportunity for Youth Lagoon to grace your ears you can check out my favorite track, “July,” below which seems appropriate enough for this time of year. Get ready to be wrapped in a blanket of a warm grandiose swell and the sweet cawings of the chorus.

Youth Lagoon // July

• ($50 OR MORE) PERIL HARBOR PARTY PAK: You get one autographed copy of our first EP “Something About the Chaparrals” under the moniker PERIL HARBOR w/ a hand-silkscreened sleeve (limited edition of 30) + PURO POP HITS VOL. 187 DVD & Puro Instinct shirt.
• ($100 OR MORE) HOLISTIC LIVING SEMINAR W/ PURO INSTINCT: Choose one of the following: minimalist makeover for your bedroom c/o Cody Porter the Rock n Roll Ecologist, 2 hours of retail therapy with Brooke Murray, 2 hours of record scavenging with Austin and/or Piper, 2 hour jam session with Mike Baum, 2 hour Crash Course in Cultural Anthropology with Piper, or 2 hour guitar lesson with Skylar.
• ($5,000 OR MORE) PURO PLEASURE: 1 Headbangers in Ecstasy Test Pressing (3 pressed) w/ opalescent protective chest scattered in feathers, shells, jewels, crystals, glitter, and pearls hand-made by the Puro sisters. Also includes the “Puro Dream Date”.

If I didn’t have a wedding in the next couple of weeks, I would totally splurge for the art-class-gone-wrong chest… Anyways, check out the kickstarter page here.

Puro Instinct // Stilyagi

Got inundated by a deluge of jj news from the past two days. The first are two brand new tracks that are part of the most outrageous record release imaginable, courtesy of the folks over at Sincerely Yours. For a paltry 100€, you can get this mini-release with one of ten “different, unique and handmade covers by jj and Malin Bernalt,” or for those not on the Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, you can download just the mp3s from Sincerely Yours’ website here (or check out my personal favorite below). Spring is definitely in the air…

The other news is that a video has surfaced for jj’s track “My Life / My Swag” — a cut from their very first release, appropriately entitled entitled jj n° 1 — depicting what can only be described as idyllic rural Swedish life. Take a look/listen:

jj // Ice

Philly’s garage-pop duo Reading Rainbow have a new one-sided 7” coming out in mid-April on the killer Hell, Yes! label, featuring their track “Cover the Sky.” Super pumped about pre-ordering this one. Check out RR performing the song live, pre-SXSW, in Atlanta below as well as an mp3 download for my favorite (and probably everyone’s favorite) “Wasting Time”:

Reading Rainbow // Wasting Time

One of my favorite new artists of oh-eleven, I’m a little embarrassed on how late I am with covering Christian AIDS. They have a new 7” coming out on the London-based Double Denim label at the beginning of May featuring the discothèque-ready track “Stay Positive” as the A-side (which you can stream below, courtesy of Double Denim’s soundcloud).

I also tried to assemble a couple of other songs that Christian AIDS have put out since January. The only mp3 I could find was of their track “Fever” which is a witch house-turned-dance party track that is sure to fit nicely on an iPod. There is also a remix they did of the recently reunited Death from Above 1979 that was released on their bandcamp page [NSFW] that I really dug as well as low-budget music vid done for the track “Scum” that I bookmarked from Altered Zones from a while back. Enjoy!

Christian AIDS // Fever

I’ll be the first to admit that I gave Planningtorock the shaft when writing about her contributions to the killer post-modern opera (#4 album of 2010, in fact) that The Knife put together last year. Well no more: with “Doorway,” my attention is all hers. What you have in that track is 3 1/2 minutes of a monotonic pulsating bass lines, violin plucking, and pitch-shifted vocals that make it extrememly obvious why The Knife chose to work with her for Tomorrow, In a Year. A combination a creepy and interesting makes for a truly captivating listen. The album W drops on May 16th via DFA Records.

Check out the track below as well as a five-minute avant-garde mix Planningtorock put together to coincide with the release of the song “Seeds” (from Tomorrow, In a Year) as a single:

Planningtorock // Doorway

Planningtorock // Five Minute Mix

I first caught wind of White Fang when they played a Portland show with my favorites The Numerators a year ago. They pretty much killed it — it was a great night.

Well they have a new record, their fourth on Marriage Records, scheduled to be released later this month, and with it they’ve sent out the sub-two minute lo-fi garage-rock anthem “Not Listening” that’s sure to rekindle the adolescence angst most of us have lost during our college years. And if the track alone isn’t enough for you to smack down the $15 to buy the LP, just check out the album art. SOLD!

You can download “Not Listenting” below and while you’re at it, check out the live vid of them playing everybody’s favorite, “Portland Sucks.”

White Fang // Not Listening