Anyone familiar with The Airing of Grievances (no, we are not talking about Festivus) knows that Titus Andronicus’ Patrick Stickles is not kidding around. At times, he’s a bit tormented, and possibly crazy, but honestly, a very logical, good-hearted and extremely bright young chap. So when the cool kids at VICE decided to throw an irony-fueled, 1994-themed Halloween party at a warehouse in Williamsburg and asked Titus to perform Weezer covers after Bad Brains and Jesus Lizard played, it’s safe to say it was going to be a pretty good night.

Wrong. At least according to Stickles, who wrote a very lengthy rant on the event, which, through his account, was an absolute disaster and a glimpse of a troubled generation. Exactly what you’d expect from a VICE party in a warehouse in Williamsburg on Halloween with free tequila. To be honest, no real “good,” can come from this, save another Doc Marten to the dome courtesy of Jesus Lizard’s David Yow, who always seems to be in tip-top shape. According to Stickles description of the night, Jesus Lizard was hard to enjoy due to swarming Arab Parrot wannabe’s constantly photographing every inch of cocaine/tequila debauchery—the hedonistic, depraved aesthetic that VICE has long championed in its publications, and to some extent, lived themselves for years.

While coke, annoying people, lame security, irresponsible management, phoned-in performances (courtesy of Bad Brains) and complaining from Patrick Stickles is what some people actually go to VICE parties for, the real question is why? Why do we play into this shit? We, the current youth, are a generation constantly advocating change, yet we consistently short change ourselves by playing into these moronic stereotypes, ideas that we are merely over-educated, over-privileged, irony-obsessed idiots desperately hoping to land a picture of us doing blow off one another on a party site. Sure, that sounds fun, but why limit ourselves to this when we could be doing anything, literally ANYTHING, that may, someday, to someone, make a difference. If there is one thing we should learn from the misguidance of our parent’s generation—those who set to change the world, but fell prey to dirty bank loans and scheming investments, preferring quiet comfort to making the world a better place—it’s to not do what we’re doing. If we don’t stop acting like children, we’re always just going to be children.

Stickles closes his note with a few strong words for the youngsters. “Kids, we are blowing it. Everything they say about us is true.”

Take this as a call to arms: Don’t fall into the trappings that so many have fallen into before. It wouldn’t be ironic. It would suck.

As is our want, we’ve flipped the script here at The Singles Collection and in the spirit of timeliness, this week we’ll be featuring seven-inches that were exclusive to last Saturday’s Record Store Day (our newest all Sacred Bones feature will now run next week). Now, some of you may be listening to these as you read this, others may have unfortunately been shut out, while other still may have no idea these singles, or Record Store Day for that matter, even existed. At any rate, we’re only scratching the surface of the exclusive platters that were available on the 18th (for a full list, go here), and we hear some stores may even still have stock on some of these titles, so if anything strikes your fancy, best get a googlin’.

To kick things off this week, we’ve got a pair of split singles from Matador featuring the kings & queen of the alternative universe, Sonic Youth aka Sonik You*h. The first split features another icon, Beck, in a mutual appreciation style love fest which finds them covering each others’ songs — SY tackling “Pay No Mind” while Beck takes on “Green Light”. As you might imagine, Thurston & Co. thoroughly rough up the Mellow Gold sleeper, injecting it with their patented off-key/kilter harmonies/harmonics and some skuzzy meta-ooze thrown in for good measure. On the flip, Beck takes the EVOL track and turns it into a lovely, acoustic cloudburst that, if you didn’t know better, you’d swear was one of his very own.

The second exclusive RSD jam from Sonic Youth is their split with Memphis’ favorite son, Jay Reatard. For his part, Jay’s track, “Hang Them All” is a scorcher, a blink-and-you-missed-it track that bubbles with skittering synth and a clap-trap rhythm reminiscent of the Blood Visions-era. It alone is worth the price of admission, and certainly bodes well for his upcoming full-length. The SY track, “No Garage” is a rehearsal space jam that, well, sounds a lot like you’d figure a Sonic Youth rehearsal would. Which isn’t to say it’s bad, but it’s essentially instrumental meandering with a nice, Kraut-y groove that eventually denigrates into their trademark squall of loping distortion and ear-piercing feedback. Both of these splits are, ostensibly, sold out, but stores with extra stock seem to pop up daily, so make sure to keep a close watch if you don’t want to pay eBay prices.

The Sub Pop stable did their part and released a handful of limited 45’s for RSD, the best of which is the Obits‘ “I Can’t Lose” b/w “Military Madness”. For those not already familiar, Obits are Rick Froberg from Hot Snakes/Drive Like Jehu’s new project, and while their sound doesn’t really deviate too much from either/both of those outfits, it’s still new Froberg jams so who are we to complain? “I Can’t Lose” is less dissonant/angular than we’re used to hearing him, yet it roars with a heads-down fury and undeniable hooks-a-plenty. On the flip, their take on Graham Nash’s “Military Madness” flips the original on its ear, injecting it with a venomous core that’s both touching and destructive in equal measure. Copies of this still seem to be kicking around places like Reckless Records, so if you need some more Froberg in your life, you know where to go.

Lastly this week, we’ve got one of the lost gems from RSD, the super limited Kim Phuc & Centipede E’est split on Dear Skull Records out of Pittsburgh. These were primarily only available in the Pittsburgh area, with some other notable stores (Permanent Records in Chicago, Academy in NYC) getting the remaining stock to give away to punters who came out early and purchased vinyl. We’re not sure if this is going to get a proper release or not, but it truly deserves one as the two tracks here are absolute stunners. On the A-Side, Kim Phuc’s “Rustbelt Noose” delivers all the spit-crusted-psych-punk power you’ve come to expect from them, and has now officially taken the mantle as the greatest KP song yet. Not to be outdone on the flip, Centipede E’est offer up “Stingray”, an epic space-rock jam that’s ebbs and flows with terse psych-grooves and sky-melting crescendos. These are absolutely gorgeous, all hand-numbered out of 200 and featuring fantastic screened covers. We’re not sure if they are still available anywhere or not, but we’d suggest trying Paul’s or Wicked Discs in Pittsburgh if you are trying to track one down.

We hope you’ve enjoyed our truncated look at some of the Record Store Day exclusives, and make sure to also keep an eye out for others like the Slayer “Psychopathy Red” 45 and the totally awesome Jesus Lizard 9×7″ collection Inch as they’re both totally worth your time and hard-earned loot. Also make sure to come back next week to read about the newest batch of gems from one of our favorite labels, Sacred Bones Records.

If you grew up in the 90s like some of us (no names will be mentioned), then you must be creaming your collective pants. Let’s see, we’ve had Jane’s Addiction, Blur, Faith No More, Sublime, Jesus Lizard, Pavement, Orbital and The Libertines all in the news in the past couple months about confirmed or rumored reunions. And that’s not even taking into account The Specials or Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Well, add one more to your list. The already once-reformed and broken up Pixies are at it again three years after their 2004 reunion stint.

Earlier today, NME reported that the Pixies will be playing Isle of Wight Festival on June 14 before headliner Neil Young. Festival promoter John Giddings was quoted as saying, “It was hard to think of someone capable of complementing the musical talent of Neil Young, but once I had the idea it was blindly obvious and it will surely be a legendary day on the Isle Of Wight.”

The Isle Of Wight Festival line-up so far is:
The Prodigy
Basement Jaxx
The Ting Tings
Pendulum
Stereophonics
Razorlight
Neil Young
Pixies
The Charlatans

And in case you want some juice with your news, Pitchfork has reminded us that in 2007 Kim Deal said, “I think [a new Pixies album] is something to bring up whenever [Frank Black] needs press. That’s the only time I hear about it. I have no idea, dude.”

And in fact, Frank Black does have have somethings to promote, including a new album with his wife, Violet Clark, under the name Grand Duchy, out April 14 in the U.S. on Cooking Vinyl. He also produced Art Brut’s latest LP, Art Brut vs. Satan, and there may or may not be a new Breeders EP in the works.

Ironically, not reported first by Pitchfork, but instead by respected Chicago Sun Times music critic Jim DeRogatis [via The Daily Swarm], the 2009 Pitchfork Music Festival will be dropping their “Don’t Look Back” classic-album theme, and instead will allow fans the chance to come up with the set lists as part of a new series called “Write The Night: Set Lists By Request.”

According to DeRogatis’ posts, the acts announced so far for Friday, July 17, are Built to Spill, reunited Chicago noise-rock legends the Jesus Lizard playing their first show in Chicago in 11 years, as well as respected classics Tortoise and Yo La Tengo. Acts announced for Saturday, July 18, include the National, Pharoahe Monch and the Pains of Being Pure at Heart. And the performers unveiled for Sunday, July 19, are Grizzly Bear, The Walkmen and the Vivian Girls.

Voting for the set lists begins when tickets go on sale on March 13 and ends on June 12.