Playlist : November 1st - 5th, 2010

I've gone a bit heavier than usual on the compilations this week. There's also an 80s vibe as well as some classic Beatles and the usual Skip Hop.

The soundtrack of my life for the next week will be;

• VA - KCRW Summer Mix : Another excellent and free compilation from the outstanding San Franciscan radio station that gave us Rare On Air and Sessions at West 54th Street. This mix features Eels, Moby, Iron & Wine, Sonic Youth and a stack of lesser known indie artists.

• VA - Hitwave '81 : Whatever happened to the kind of awesome compilation tapes we had in the 80s? The most recent compilation I can recall was sponsored by Mentos or something, Not to mention the featured artists were not a patch on Adam & the Ants, Visage, Split Enz, Elton John and Men At Work. Plus, this has Loverboy - Turn Me Loose \m/

• Ryan Adams - 29 : The last of Grizzly's 2005 output and the one he didn't put the Cardinals on. I remember on first listen of this, @sunky and I, who'd both been awaiting it's release impatiently, were convinced Ryan Adams was going to be a suicide within the year. With lines like "Can you still have any famous last words if you're somebody nobody knows" and the cover art showing Death approaching what looks a little like the house on Ryan's Freightwhaler Sessions bootleg, can you blame us?

• The Beatles - Rubber Soul : I bought this album on vinyl at the Melville markets last weekend for $10. Ten dollars. Bargain. There are some classic tracks on Rubber Soul, one of the LPs considered part of The Beatles' psychedelic output. As well a Drive My Car, there's Michelle, Norwegian Wood and Nowhere Man. All good to have on vinyl.

• VA - Soundtrack - Singles : I have been away from the brilliance that was the early to mid 90s lately. When they were new, this soundtrack and the movie were frequent places to visit for me. If you haven't seen the film, you're not missing too much, but its well worth it to see Eddy Vedder acting along side Matt Dillon.

• Flowers - Icehouse : Yes, that's the right way around. Iva Davies' band Icehouse was originally called Flowers and they changed their name based on the name of this LP. Two Icehouse tracks everyone knows appear on this album; We Can Get Together and Can't Help Myself.

• The Herd - An Elefant Never Forgets : A bit disillusioned with the more xenophobic elements of our online community lately, I have listened to the brilliant 77% a lot in the car. While the rest of this album doesn't come close to the vitriol that Ozi Batla spits in that track, it's overall a decent listen. "Wake up! This country needs a fuckin' shake up."

• Jurassic 5 - Quality Control : I've had this album for quite some time now and probably only heard it twice in total. Given I'm usually hearing the Jurassic's as part of the Dino 5 children's compilation I bought Miss 4, its only right that I give their main work a fair go.

• Kathleen Edwards - Failer : The very first time I heard Kathleen Edwards was an Uncut magazine compilation. That was a song called 12 Bellevue which appears on this album. I'm grateful to Uncut for the introduction, because other songs on this album are even better (Hockey Skates and One More Song The Radio Won't Like). Plus, Old Time Sake from the Back To Me LP is in coreyj's Hottest 100.

• VA - Uncut - Only Love Can Break Your Heart : And here is that Uncut compilation that introduced me to Kathleen Edwards, as well as Jesse Malin and Tim Easton. Malin's fantastic tale of hipster ennui, Brooklyn, is another of my 100 favourite songs. Tim Easton's Watching the Lightning was once a Song of the Week and I am convinced it is about Courtney Love and Kurt Cobain. Find a copy and let me know what you think.

That's another list done and dusted. I'm looking forward to bunkering down inside my headphones with a ton of editing and review to do next week.

Stay golden, Ponyboy.

Playlist : October 25 - 29, 2010

A new artist (for me), some old favourites and a couple of classics make up this week's list. It's probably just a tad funkier than usual with the compilation and some roots rap on board.

Here's what will be playing in my ears;

• A Tribe Called Quest - Midnight Marauders : A little bit of Native Tongues always goes down a treat. A friend told me she'd been hearing a bit of rap lately and it was full of the F and N words. Groups like Tribe and De La Soul were always and still are against that sort of garbage. Long live true Hip Hop.

• The Roots - Phrenology : More positivity to go with Tribe. It was great to hear The Roots as a full on Funk and Soul band on the recent John Legend collaboration. I'm going back to The Roots (haw haw) to keep up my fix, otherwise I'd just keep playing Wake Up! (the Legend collaboration) over and over.

• VA - 70s Funk n Soul Classics : A really great compilation which dishes up exactly what it promises - classics from the 70s. Some of the best tracks include The O'Jays - Love Train; Curtis Mayfield - Superfly; Kool & The Gang - Jungle Boogie and The Staple Singers - Respect Yourself. Get yo funk on.

• Something For Kate - The Official Fiction : It's been quite some time since I heard this album. It was the first I had heard of SFK. It's a solid set with stand outs like Deja Vu and Light at the End of the Tunnel. They probably should have done an Australian Classic Albums doco on it. I think it's in that lofty company, anyway.

• Ryan Adams & The Cardinals - Jacksonville City Nights : I've decided to play each of 2005's Radams releases. Last week I played the brilliant double that kicked off the year in Cold Roses. JCN is a lot more traditional country than Cold Roses. It's got a lot of pedal steel and it sounds more like a drunken moan in some bar.

• S.O.U.L. - Can You Feel It : With the rise of new Soul this year, I have been wanting to relisten to all the old stuff I have. SOUL are a sort of jazzy half instrumental collective heavy on the flute and the sprawling solos with some honey smooth vocals and a bit of politics for good measure.

• Paul Kelly - Live May 1992 : PK is the man. Since I'm not going to see him when he plays here soon, I'm going to listen to and enjoy this double LP live set from 92. This is the album I used to get my wife into Paul Kelly. We played it at our wedding. It came with a VHS of the concert that I still have somewhere at home. I really enjoy it, every listen. If you're Australian and you haven't heard it, be like Molly and 'do yourself a favour'.

• Bob Dylan - Blonde On Blonde : As the final chapter in the holy trinity, I had to give Blonde a spin this week. Last week's Highway 61 Revisited was a blast. Blonde features what I consider one of the best, lyrically, songs ever in Visions of Johanna, as well as the tracks everybody knows Just Like a Woman and Rainy Day Women Nos 12 & 53 (even if a lot of people call it Everybody Must get Stoned after the refrain).

• Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - The Boatman's Call : This album was a last minute inclusion on this list because a clever twitter friend (*waves fondly at @a_musedly) quoted (Are You) The One That I've Been Waiting For? this morning - reminding me of one of the main reasons this is my favourite Nick Cave release.

• Fyfe Dangerfield - Fly Yellow Moon : The first I had heard of Fyfe Dangerfield was this week when I came across the Billy Joel cover (Always a Woman). I quite liked that, so I went looking for the album. The cover is not on this set, but it's all I could find. Fairly dreamy indie pop.

I hope something there turns you on to a new musical journey. As always, be excellent to each other and remember the words of Edward Furlong's Danny in American History X : "Hate is baggage. Life's too short to be pissed off all the time."

Peace man, right on.

Playlist : October 18th - 22nd, 2010

Welcome back to our regularly secheduled program.This week's list seems to have a little funk in the trunk, along with a touch of country twang.

Check it out.

• Mavis Staples - You Are Not Alone : Produced by and guest starring Wilco's Jeff Tweedy, this is the latest offering from the always brilliantly voiced Mavis Staples. Just another in the collection of great Soul records being released this year.

• Concrete Blonde - Still In Hollywood : I admit it; I'm a hopeless Concrete Blonde fan. Everything up to and including Mexican Moon, at least. This album of rare songs and b-sides has been missing from my iPod for a long while. Worth it for the covers and for Probably Will.

• VA - Soundtrack - Semi-Pro : For the life of me, I couldn't tell you why I find Will Ferrel so hysterical. By all logic, a self-confessed film snob like me should look down on him. But you can't beat Semi-Pro, Taladega Nights, Step Brothers and even his bit part in Starsky & Hutch for good laughs. Plus, this is one funky soundtrack.

• Queen Latifah - All Hail The Queen : Back in the day, Latifah was a strong, independent female rapper with a militant eye on feminist and racial politics. Now, she's just a strong independent female. Damn you Hollywood. Damn you all to HELL!

• Black Star - Black Star : This has probably been on a couple of playlists by now, but I don't care. It reamins in the upper eschelons of my favourite Hip Hop albums. Jazz sensibilities and Mos Def & Talib Kweli with a positive message and butter smooth rhyme flow always sounds good to me.

• VA - Can't Stop It - Australian Post Punk : I missed it, I'm afraid, but it seems Australia was the place to be for young post-punk bands in the 70s and 80s. High unemployment and prevelant drugs meant there were a lot of bands around. After hearing a great JJJ podcast on the topic, I hunted this album down.

• Ryan Adams & The Cardinals - Cold Roses : Much as I've been neglecting Whiskeytown of late, I have all but forgotten Radams and Co. Cold Roses is just one of the man's all solid 2005 efforts - and a double album at that. Hard to believe he released this brilliant set, Jacksonville City Nights and 29 all in the same year.

• Kasey Chambers - Little Bird : True story, Kasey Chambers wrote my wife and I a wedding card. We had a mutual acquaintance. Namely, her then partner Corey. I was a big fan of her first three LPs but she fell off for me for a while there. This new set seems to have recaptured some of the fire.

• Menahan Street Band - Make the Road By Walking : An album of funky intrumentals that I fdound out about via a free KCRW iTunes mix. This is like a nice smooth groove of jazz with a funky edge.

• Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited : For some reason, I was surprised by how good Bringing It All Back Home sounded last week. Bob Dylan's 115th Dream became the song of the week because I really enjoyed the rollicking blues rock of 'side one'. I just had to slip this one in as part two of the Holy Trinity.
  

There you have it cats. Stay golden, don't get hung up, peace man, right on, keep it real and all that good stuff.

Playlist : October 11 - 15, 2010

You might have noticed there was no playlist last week. Yours truly was struck down with a scorching case of tonsillitis and spent all week off work. Friday I wasn't all that sick, but it seemed silly to go in for one day - plus I had to look for a new car to replace my hail-damaged bucket - so I took annual leave. I managed to get out with my wife and see Inception too, so that was a good end to a lousy week. So, anyway, I rolled last week's playlist into the week just gone and here we are.

As for this week's list, it has made me realise that the best thing about keeping this blog is that it gives me a simple way to see what I'm listening to and by default, what I'm not. It helps me choose something different each week that I may not have heard for a while, as well as keeps me on the lookout for new music. This week, the forgotten nuggets are by Things of Stone and Wood and by The Lemonheads.

It looks like this:

• Grinderman - Grinderman 2 : The first Grinderman album was a bunch of musicians who won't grow up having a wow of a time and making a ruckus in the process. I hope this is more of the same.

• Ben Folds & Nick Hornby - Lonely Avenue : A collaboration between Ben Folds, who's always liked to tell a story, and writer Nick Hornby. The result is a wealth of majestic piano melody, Ben Folds intense sincerity and a nice dose of the words.

• Bob Dylan - Bringing it All Back Home : The LP that started the holy trinity. I chose it right after a discussion I had with @sunky about the new You Am I album which has been described as Dylanesque. I recalled how damn good Blonde on Blonde is. But since it got a play not long ago, I go back to where the trilogy began. What followed this first listen on wax of an electric Dylan were two of the greatest rock records ever released - Highway 61 Revisited and then Blonde on Blonde.

• The Lemonheads - It's A Shame About Ray : Fingers crossed I'm hoping to catch The Lemonheads at the Rosemount Hotel in December. That gig will be the band playing this album in its entirety. I haven't heard it in a good long while, so I'm hoping to refamiliarise myself with it.

• John Lennon - The John Lennon Collection : The same discussion with @sunky that brought up You Am I and Dylan took a sidestep to discuss Lennon solo vs The Beatles (and the class of Ms Yoko Ono). Which is why I enjoy talking music with @sunky. I chose the compilation because it gives me a broad spectrum of solo work that I can listen to in order to reinforce what I already believe - some solo Lennon is better than some The Beatles tracks and better than anything the others did solo.

• Surreal & the Sound Providers - True Indeed : Just a little bit of jazzy hip hop groove to wind down the working week. I may be working away from the office on Friday though, so it could be getting a play earlier on - which isnt when I normally like the laid back tunes.

• Oasis - Definitely Maybe : Noisy, brash, grinding and difficult to listen to at times - and that's just the Gallagher brothers. ZING! I like this album. It's Oasis when they thought they ruled Rock n Roll but before they actually did for a time.

• Things of Stone and Wood - The Yearning : This album got such a playing from me at Uni. The band even played my Uni one lunchtime. Right up until I swapped CDs for an iPod, the CD was on high rotation. It's Australian violin and mandolin soaked folk music with a taste of Melbourne. I realised just a week or so ago that it wasn't on my iPod for some reason and I don't know how long it's been since I heard it.

• Billy Bragg - Talking With The Taxman About Poetry : Listening to a KCRW podcast of Billy Bragg live at Newport Folk Festival a couple of weeks back, I remembered what I've always liked about him. He has something to say that he cares about - and too many performers these days don't. What Billy Bragg says in an 'ugly' way (with a jangling guitar that doesn't always sound tuned and a voice like a drunken yob at the pub) is easier to listen to than all the meaningless pop sung by pretty girls and boys with 5 octave ranges.

• Ray LaMontagne and the Pariah Dogs - God Willin' & The Creek Don't Rise : I don't know if this has anything at all to do with Spike Lee's follow up to When The Levees Broke (called If God Is Willing and da Creek Don't Rise) but it sounds pretty good.
  

If anything strikes your fancy, remember : See something, play something. Take care cats and remember to keep a good head and always carry a lightbulb.