Christina Courtin - “Rainy”

It snowed all day, Wednesday; things got buried.

I helped a Hasid in black push a car out of the snow. He was standing next to a telephone pole, bird chest heaving, holding a shovel. An older man was forcing the gas on a white Chevrolet, a car like my grandfather used to have, twisting the tires every which way. It skidded and slipped on the snow. I said, "Can I help push?" The younger looked at me. His eyes flashed from surprise to happiness to eagerness, like film passing in front of a projector. I lowered my hood. I kneeled into the curb. "Go," we said together. He had a yiddish accent; it made him sound German. He sounded so young. I thought: I'm young too. We pushed. It didn't work. The car slipped in the slush. We straightened. We tried again. We straightened. Before we strained a third time, two more people came over. They squinted in the flurries. One was a swaggery guy in a leather jacket, looked Greek or Turkish. He gave orders to the driver. The other was a girl, a young girl, French. She smiled at me like we had both stumbled across something, an amazing icicle maybe, in the woods. "One, two, three," we said together. We pushed. We straightened. "One, two, three," we said. The car moved, it moved and it was away, and the young Hasid said "Thanks; thanks so much," but we were away too, all of us with hoods raised, away from each other, down the white-packed street, bent into the blizzard. None of us said goodbye.

I know I should have said goodbye.

[buy]

The Soft Pack – C’mon” From the band’s self-titled full-length, out 2/2 from Kemado.

Chromewaves Favo(u)rite Albums of 2009

Rolling Stone profiles The Big Pink.

Sounds Like: A mix of suffocating shoegaze textures, arena-ready pop hooks and the occasional breakbeat, their debut album, A History Of Love, recalls classic 4AD labelmates like the Cocteau Twins and Dead Can Dance with an abrasive, violent grit.

Vue Weekly profiles Magneta Lane.

A year after forming, the trio released the critically acclaimed EP—The Constant Lover—and a year after that, Magneta Lane was on tour with k-os. It has been a bit of a whirlwind. The Toronto band has performed on stages from here to Japan, been compared to the Pretenders and is currently, on the heels of its second full-length release, on its second tour with Canadian indie icons Sloan.

iTunes offers a free 20-track mp3 holiday sampler.

Seattle Weekly profiles one of the most impressive local music blogs on the planet, Three Imaginary Girls.

The Chicago Reader reviews the recently reissued Lifter Puller albums.

Rolling Stone has named its albums of the decade.

WXPN's World Cafe interviews singer-songwriter Mason Jennings.

Ear Farm has released a holiday compilation album, Do You EAR What I EAR, with proceeds going to The Association for the Benefit of Children a good cause that is dedicated to permanently breaking the cycles of abuse, neglect, sickness and homelessness among disadvantaged children and their families.

They Shoot Music Don't They shares a couple of intimate performance videos of singer-songwriter Laura Gibson.

The new SALEM/Tanlines split 7″ from Fader/SoCo is now up for grabs — just go leave a comment on the Fader’s announcement post, and you’ll have a chance to nab one of the 500 copies.

And if you want an even better chance at nabbing one (i.e., being entered into a much smaller pool), you’re in luck, because we were actually handed a few copies to give away. Just enter your email below.

Contest over! Congrats D. and M.!