Playlist : September 28th - October 1st, 2010

Welcome to my surprise long weekend. I didn't have any idea until Wednesday that we had a day off this Monday. So every minute of Monday is a bonus and hopefully I'll be out at the Zoo with the girls for Miss 1's first ever trip.

For a short week but not a short list :

• Kasey Chambers - The Captain : I hadn't heard Kasey Chambers in a good long while until recently our travel playlist randomly chose Cry Like A Baby. Funny enough, she released her first new album in a while that same week. This is a little hardcore country for me these days, but a lot of these songs still sound pretty good.

• Brand Nubian - Everything is Everything : A little bit of Jazz Hop never hurt anyone and Brand Nubian is as good an exponent as anyone.

• Calexico - Garden Ruin : I recently heard a podcast of Calexico playing live and it reminded me how much I like their Tex-Mex crunchy sound.

• James Brown - In The Jungle Groove : My mate Mr Kelly hooked me up with a heap of JB last weekend and I've always wanted to hear this album in full because of Funky Drummer. Anything I can say about the magic of James Brown wouldn't be enough.

• Ice T - O.G. (Original Gangster) : After quoting a Pegz line ("Who remembers Ice T was king?") on Twitter recently, one of my followers and I got into a chat about how cool Ice was and still is. This album was pride of place in my collection as a tape, then a CD. I'm going to rediscover it as MP3 now.

• Whiskeytown - Faithless Street : I try to avoid adding Whiskeytown or Ryan Adams to my playlists because I always listen to them and I like a little variety. But it has gotten to the point where I've put off adding certain albums that long that these two have lost their standing as my number 1 and 2 artists on last.fm. That 'honour' goes to Josh Rouse now with Radams at 2, Hilltop Hoods at 3 and Whiskeytown a paltry 4th. Time to remedy that.

• Aloe Blacc - Good Things : There seems to be a renewed popularity going on for Soul music at the moment. Those of us who never stopped loving it won't be surprised. The latest offerings from Mavis Staples and John Legend and The Roots have been given a lot of positive attention. Aloe Blacc's new LP is another worthy example of how real Soul is back, baby.

• The Beatles - Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band : On a vinyl expedition on the weekend, I managed to get a good condition, original AU pressing of Sergeant Pepper for $4 of your Earth dollars. Yep, just four. Talk about a bargain. Sounds really good too. These are the mp3s from CD though.

• Tracy Chapman - Tracy Chapman : On the strength of Fast Car and Talkin' About a Revolution, when this album came out it was capital M massive. So much so that I spent my not-very-hard-earned Kmart Autos casual wage to buy it on vinyl. If i recall right, I bought vinyl because it was cheaper than cassette. I'm really glad I was a cheapskate, because I'm stoked I've got the vinyl now.

• Ryan Bingham - Junky Star : The first I heard of Ryan Bingham was the Crazy Heart soundtrack, from which I really liked Fallin'& Flyin' and The Weary Kind. I thought it might be a good idea to check out some more Bingham. This is the latest offering from the band.

So there you have it. My advice to you is get some Soul if you want to be hip and happening (and polka dots - I've seen them on some stylin new sneakers and a few indie kids lately). And as always, don't get hung up man; stay cool.

Playlist : September 20th - 24th, 2010

This is our weekend and it's ending, one second at a time. But not to worry, sit back and relax. Play some tunes. Dig yourself, man.

These are the songs that I'll be taking with me on my working week next week :

• Shonen Knife - Rock Animals : Looking at a list a bit full of alt-country, I went looking for something with some crunch. Shonen Knife rock my socks off. They are a Japanese all-girl punk rock band I first heard on the fantastic If I Were A Carpenter compilation, doing a superior cover of Top Of The World. On Rock Animals, the almost maddeningly catchy Catnip Dream is a gem.

• VA - Culture of Kings : An early skip hop compilation for hardcore Diggaz like me. Featuring Aussie hip hop luminaries like Koolism, Matty B, Suffa of Hilltop fame and the Hoods themselves. Mass MC's popular track The BBQ Song also features.

• Gram Parsons - Greivous Angel : After being moved by Gillian Welch's lyric from I Dream a Highway last week ("Now you be Emmylou and I'll be Gram") I felt like some Gram Parsons magic. Emmylou of course is Emmylou Harris, Gram's long-time friend and singing partner whose sweet harmonies make this great record even better.

• Eric B & Rakim - Let The Rhythm Hit 'Em : Usually when I reach for Eric B & Rakim, I go straight for Paid In Full - 1987's seminal golden age album. This time, I made a conscious effort to choose something I don't normally play. It's been a while, but I know this album to be a little jazzier than Paid and just as lyrically inventive.

• A.A. Bondy - When The Devil's Loose : Last week at work was kind of a drag and when things get a little low, alt-country always sounds it's best. A.A. Bondy are folkier and lonlier than a lot of the stuff I listen to, but this album is good for a spin.

• John Legend and The Roots - Wake Up! : I heard this album last week on stream from NPR. It's a really solid set of old Soul covers with a political bent. It sounds like music from a greater time with a modern day traveler on the mic. It also taught me that The Roots are a tight Funk band with some really tasty bass grooves. Going to get this album on vinyl as soon as I can find it.

• The Police - The Best of the Police : I felt like a little bit of classic rock and I haven't heard The Police in quite a while. I have this album on vinyl and few songs in my record collection benefit from the sound of wax quite like Roxanne. With The Police and me, the rule seems to be the earlier the better.

• VA - Music from the Motion Picture Crooklyn Volume II : One of my all time favourite Spike Lee joints, Crooklyn is a partly autobiographical tale of living in Brooklyn in a large family in the 70s. The soundtrack is packed full of some of the coolest Soul tunes ever made. Spike is brilliant, Crooklyn is fantastic and the soundtrack is killer.

• John Cale - Paris 1919 : I don't know a lot about this album, but I've always wanted to hear it. Ever since a 1997 issue of Uncut magazine published a list of the most depressing albums of all time, I have been slowly acquiring them all. John Cale was a member of Velvet Underground until 1968 when he went solo. Paris 1919 is his most famous album and Uncut said if you listen close you can hear Cale weeping at the mixing desk in the middle of a breakdown. Good times.

• Ornette Coleman - Free Jazz : Having only discovered Ornette Coleman tunes last week, I have quickly found out that Free Jazz is widely renowned as wholly original and as fine a jazz album as you'll find outside of Trane. Sounds good to me.
  

It would be great if you found something new in amongst all of that. Get the John Legend album if you dig Soul, because it is totally ace. I'm off to Beat Route tomorrow for a little vinyl and turntable shopping. Hopefully I'll have something I can add to next week's list.

That's it from me. Go safe my anonymous friends. Don't forget how blessed you are.

Playlist : September 13th - 17th, 2010

Happy Saturday to you, cats. May your weekend be filled with perfect moments and dazzling insights. Otherwise, at the very least a beer or two and some pizza.

Here’s what I’ll be listening to at work next week:

• Gillian Welch - Time (The Revelator): After reading something recently that said Ms Welch was working on a new album, it struck me that I hadn't heard Time for quite a while. On further investigation, it turned out that was because it hadn't made it back onto my iPod yet since I had to restore it a year ago. This bum deserves all the critical praise it gets.

• The Weepies - Be My Thrill : As mentioned last week, I was hoping to get my new The Weepies CD in time for this week's list. Lucky for me, it showed up Friday afternoon at work. I've listened to it via stream recently and I'm looking forward to giving it another spin.

• Justin Towns Earle - Harlem River Blues: Having just discovered the old time folk bluegrass of JTE, and having played 2009's Midnight at the Movies last week, it seemed a good idea to play the new album. This is another set I've heard via stream, except I've been back t it several times since. Keeps getting better.

• Bob Dylan - Blood on the Tapes : This is the album that was meant to be the brilliant and timeless Blood on the Tracks. The story goes that Dylan came to the studio and poured out the brutally autobiographical songs quickly with a personally collated session band. Later, right before the album was due for release, he rearranged the mix, changed words around to obscure their meaning and dropped some tracks. It is believed he modified the album to hide the naked pain of these fantastic songs. This bootleg is widely available so you can judge for yourself.

• Tori Amos - Boys For Pele : Since 1992's Little Earthquake until probably Scarlett's Walk in 2004, I was a big Tori Amos fan. She has lost me a little with her changing incarnations, but Iyou can't help respect her piano paying and her live performances. Maybe what has changed is her honesty - she doesn't feel open and truthful anymore. I guess you can't keep the scars open forever. Little Earthquakes was a gaping wound and Boys For Pele bleeds.

• Josh Rouse - Dressed Up Like Nebraska : Like The National for me, too much Josh Rouse is never enough. 1972 is usually my addiction of choice, but Nebraska has whole bunch of great songs including the title track and the tuning Late Night Conversation. It also contains Suburban Sweetheart, which is the first I ever heard of Josh Rouse and a few alt-country artists in fact on the Uncut compilation Sounds of the New West.

• Dinosaur Jr - Without a Sound : The first Dinosaur Jr album I ever bought. J Mascis and co have been rewarding me ever since as I plowed through their back catalogue at a rate of knots. Stand out tracks the JJJ hit Feel The Pain and the subdued dark-hearted beauty of Outta Hand. Mix in the sarcastic Yeah Right and the slightly psychedelic Mind Glow and you have a fine batch of tracks worthy of a listen,

• De La Soul - Stakes Is High : After adding a little rap as an afterthought last week, I figured I'd make up for it with some hip hop gems. De La Soul's jazzy, acclaimed, widely plundered Stakes Is High ought to be a good start. A guest appearance by Common and the popular Itsoweezee are highlights.

• The Fugees - The Score : Most people who know me know I fell off hip hop for a while when I went grunge and then folk. During that time, Tupac happened, B.I.G. happened, Snoop happened and the Fugees happened I know this album is well regarded. I know it was an important milestone in the 'big ass story' that is Hip Hop, but I have never heard it. I figure it was time to remedy that.

• Lauryn Hill - The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill : See my comments on The Fugees. All I know about this album is a) it sold a squillion copies and b) the name comes from Carter G Woodson's 1933 book The Mis-Education of the Negro. I haven't ever heard it. I m unsure that I'll like it, given it is most likely going to be neo-soul/ fake R&B, but it deserves a listen.

I hope you discover something in there amongst the sounds that will be my working week. Some of it is new to me too.

Have an ace week. Right on. Oh didn't I tell you? I'm bringing the word 'ace' back. Tell all your friends. It's ace.

Playlist : September 6th - 10th, 2010

I'm blogging this later than usual and I only just finished a very enjoyable conversation on Twitter about musical genius and the icons of our age. It made me reorganise the list and add some more albums.

• The National - High Violet : One of those albums that came out a little while back, I bought and listened to once or twice thanks to my obsession with The National, but haven't listened to since. The band's self-titled debut and Boxer are usually on rotation, so this needs more attention.

• Justin Townes Earle - Midnight at the Movies : I just discovered Justin Townes Earle (son of Steve Earle) last week while streaming his new LP Harlem River Blues on NPR. That album isn't out yet, so I bought the title track on iTunes to make it Song of the Week last week and am listneing to this now. Its old time blues/folk with a wry New York hipster smile.
  

• Ornette Coleman - The Shape of Jazz to Come : Having watched a few episodes of Ken Burns' fantastic documentary Jazz on the weekend, I rediscovered some artists other than Charlie Parker, Miles Davis and John Coltrane who usually take up all my jazz spots. The brilliance of Coleman's riffs and BillEvan's bass are why I chose Ornette.
  

• Jimi Hendrix - Experience Hendrix : What Jimi did with a guitar was as close as anyone has come to what Charlie Parker did with a saxophone. Hendrix's chops were every bit as sprawling and difficult and fast as Parker's flurry of notes. We always lose the really good ones before their time, somehow.

• Jay Bennet - Kicking at the Perfumed Air : The last album the late, great Jay Bennet of Wilco fame ever made. It was released for free by the Jay Bennet Foundation website and you can still get it here.
  

• Ramones - End of the Century : Because she knows what a vinyl tragic I've become, and because she wouldn't know where to start choosing a record for me, my lovely wife let me select a Fathers Day 'side' from Planet Video Mt Lawley. I chose End of the Century because it has Do You Remember Rock n Roll Radio? on it; which Miss 4 and Miss 1 like to dance to using coreography Miss 4 made up. And my wife says I'm brainwashing their musical taste...
  

• Jenny and Johnny - I'm Having Fun Now : God bless NPR for their fantastic First Listen feature. Last week I found Best Coast, Justin Townes Earle and Jenny and Johnny. Jenny I knew - she's Jenny Lewis - but the pairing is different. Good stuff.

• The Weepies - Hideaway - The new The Weepies album Be My Thrill has been ordered and is on its way. Last week I spun Say I Am You so this week it's Hideaway. Hopefully the new CD will arrive in time for next week.

• Bob Dylan - Blonde On Blonde : After @DylanLyrics quoted Visions of Johanna last week, it reminded me how great that song is and how long it's been since I listened to this particular entry in the holy trilogy. Captured here is a piece of art spun from the finest threads of what Bob called 'that thin, that wild mercury sound'.

• Gil Scott-Heron - I'm New Here : It hasn't been that long since I heard this album, but when someone on twitter asked who GSH was, it made me wantto hear it again. The difference between Heron's 70s work and this is almost a lifetime of hard living later and a ravaged voice - but has lost none of its potent militance and defiance.

• Afrika Bambaataa & Soulsonic Force - Planet Rock : The rap albums in the mix were added late after twitter discussion led me to the realisation that rap and Hip Hop already had their legendary icons the way Jazz did. Hip Hop's legends are people like Herc, Bambaataa and Flash. Bam was a pioneer in DJing and in turning gang members into b-boys with the Zulu Nation.

• Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five - On The Strength : Flash was the kid who one day thought 'doesn't it sound cool when you slide the needle back and forth on the record and 'scratch' it in time to the beat?' It doesn't get any more pioneering to any musical genre than Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa and Grandmaster Flash.Herc brought the very first kernel of Hip Hop to the US from Jamaica and people like Bam and Flash took it and ran with it.
  

Until next week, don't get hung up, stay cool and definitely don't bug out daddy-o. And in closing, my favourite Hip Hop prayer ;

In the name of Herc, Bam and Flash. Yes ya'll.