Playlist May 2nd - 6th, 2011

Well hello there tunesters. It's been a massive break for me over Easter. After the first weekend was spent working day and night, I tried to make the most of every day I had left. It was an excellent break.

And so on to the music. This week's list contains a number of new ones, from The Waifs, Okkervil River and Drapht. Plus I'm trying to hear some classics I haven't heard in a while (Blondie) or at all (50 Cent). Here's what I've got:

• Blondie - Parallel Lines
• Okkervil River - I Am Very Far
• Drapht - The Life of Riley
• John Mayer - Battle Studies
• The Strokes - Is This It
• JEFF the Brotherhood - We Are The Champions
• 50 Cent - Get Rich or Die Tryin'
• John Mellencamp - No Better Than This
• The Waifs - Temptation
• VA - Spin Magazine April 2011
  

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Tori Amos
2. Beastie Boys
3. Ryan Adams
4. Bob Dylan
5. Neko Case

Song of the Week : Psychedelic Furs - Pretty In Pink

One of the things I managed to squeeze into my holidays was a 20 minute visit to a record fair in Vic Park. We were running late with everything we had to do that day, so I only just got there in time. I managed to pick up three great records for a total of less than $20. Madonna’s debut, Van Morrison – Moondance and the Pretty In Pink soundtrack.

I think I’ve mentioned before that Pretty In Pink was the first soundtrack (besides Grease) that I remember everybody my age (about 14 at the time I think) having. I wasn’t even really a fan of the film, beyond Molly Ringwald, but the soundtrack is superb. It has a pretty obvious euro vibe with New Order and The Smiths and OMD. Even Suzanne Vega sounds more English than American. Probably because she’s Canadian (I think, eh?).

I chose the Psychedelic Furs title track to the film, which inspired the film itself. I can’t tell you how 80s geeked out I was when I got this pristine condition vinyl ($9 thanks!) home and put it on the turntable. I had it on cassette back in the day, because I had my own ‘boombox’, but hearing it on wax was transporting. I played it twice in a row that day and I’ve spun it twice since. This is what the 80s sounded like. Enjoy.

Until May

I was going to resurrect the old style Work Tunes for May, but I got so busy on the holidays that I've changed my mind.

Until next week, may your mornings always be hot buttered toast with cartoons and your nights forever be cocktails and moonlight.

Playlist April 11th - 15th, 2011

What's shaking this week Hep Cats? This is my last week of work before I get some holidays for Easter, so no Work Tunes for a while.

What I'll be listening to at work next week sounds a little bit country, a little bit hip hop, a little bit Australian and a bit of everything else; just like me.

• Outkast - Stankonia
• Common - One Day It Will All Make Sense
• Tracy Chapman - Crossroads
• Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - I See a Darkness
• Jebediah - Jebediah
• Golden Smog - Down By The Old Mainstream
• Counting Crows - Hard Candy
• Bjork - Debut
• Ben Lee - Ripe
• VA - Batman Forever Soundtrack
  

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Digable Planets
2. Radiohead
3. Josh Rouse
4. Fleet Foxes
5. Jenny Lewis

Song of the Week : Digable Planets - Nickle Bags

I haven’t had a lot of time to think about SOTW. Nevertheless, I have chosen a track that I’ve been into all week. I recently took delivery of a Digable Planets record for which I paid far too much money due to a nasty eBay bidding war that I didn’t want to lose. Well worth it though, because darn this sounds eleventy billion kinds of funky on wax. The funky grooves of the record as a whole are why I chose this track. Nickle Bags is smooth as butter and funkier than I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter left in the sun. This album isn’t the one I bought, it’s basically a Best Of Digable Planets with a couple of new tracks, but the track itself is on my record along with half this compilation. Here’s a jam to kick your Friday into a smooth mellow good vibration kind of feel. Enjoy!

Until May

It's going to be a strange month because I'll be on holidays and there'll be no work for almost a fortnight. So after a two week break, I'll resurrect the old style just for May. Make sense? Too bad, that's what I'm doing.

Until May, don't let the Man get you down. Power to the people. Right on.

Reviews - March 2011

Hello Peeps, what's shaking?

What we have here for you is the albums I enjoyed the most during the month of March; one from each list each week. You might be surprised by at least one I chose. I was supposed to be saving myself time by doing it this way, but I found that once I started reviewing an album I liked, I wrote way too much. What you see below, believe it or not, is the edited versions of these reviews.

Gillian Welch - Revival

I have been a fan of Gillian Welch and David Rawlings since I caught their KCRW Live at West 54th Street set on late night television in 1997. I used to record every episode of Sessions and for the longest time, I had to make do with a cassette tape of the set that I made from the VHS. I just couldn't find any CDs.

What initially blew me away about the pair was Gillian's fabulous voice and incredible guitar work and Rawlings complimentary harmonies and even more incredible guitar work. I was oblivious to Alt Country at the time and obsessed by early Dylan. I was amazed that I was hearing old time folk in a new day and it sounded contemporary and relevant.

Revival contains much of the music Welch played the first time I saw her. Tear My Stillhouse Down, Orphan Girl and Paper Wings still sound like the KCRW performance in my head when I think of them. What wasn't played and is among the best songs on the LP is One More Dollar, a tale of a transient fruit picking worker looking to get home to his family after the next crop brings enough money. The imagery of the Depression and Welch's pining and soaring melody, is heartbreaking. More heartbreaking still, the lonely Orphan Girl is autobiographical, with Welch adopted out at birth.

I can't say enough good things about Gillian Welch. My major gripe with her would have to be no new albums since 2003's solid Soul Journey. Her masterpiece though is the impossibly superb Time (The Revelator) from 2001. Go, get it now.

Blind Pilot - 3 Rounds and a Sound

I hadn't heard of Blind Pilot when I stumbled across them via Accuradio. Their folky hipster melancholy put me in mind of some of my favourite bands, such as Bright Eyes, Vetiver and Dolorean. So I thought I would look further.

What I have since discovered about the band is that they hail from Portland and that 3 Rounds and a Sound is their only full length album, released in 2008. There was an iTunes EP that I don't have and a tour anounced in 2010. But basically, this is it from the Oregon cycling enthusiasts.

The tracks on the album all have the same acoustic folk feel with varying tempos and overall moodiness. The dirge like Poor Boy waltzes along with depressing resignation, while Go On, Say It skips along like a drunken sing-along.

3 Rounds and a Sound is well worth a listen. Paint or Pollen features a little ukelele and a nifty xylophone break, Two Towns From Me sounds like a Scottish folk love song and Things I Cannot Recall is a sweet reminiscence of a life together past. Grab a copy, if you like your indie folk.

Television - Marquee Moon

This now widely acclaimed ahead-of-its-time classic sits somewhere confidently between the worlds of punk and new wave. It has been listed on virtually every All Time list somewhere near the top. The reason being that this is music with incredible foresight.

The raw and edgy sounds of the other bands on the CBGBs scene at the time (Ramones, Misfits et al) is what became known as Punk. Television's sound has more of a progressive 80s pop / rock feel about it. The guitar work is legendary and quite diametrically opposed musically to the general punk style of thrashing out whatever works.

The jangling, atmospheric riffs of Elevation; the driving crunchy bass on the opener See No Evil; and the sprawling, more than 10 minute long title track are just the start of Marquee Moon's brilliance. On the whole, this LP has not aged a day. If you haven't heard it, get on that right now.

Various Artists - Pretty In Pink OST

Regardless of whether, at the time, they liked the movie, everybody seemed to have this soundtrack. My first big soundtrack, and the first record I owned, was Grease, but I don't remember there being any in between that had an impact until this one and Stand By Me. There was The Big Chill for the oldies, but for teens, Pretty In Pink was the biggest.

The album has a bit of a UK feel and a pop vibe with tracks by Suzanne Vega, New Order, OMD, Echo & the Bunnymen, The Psychadelic Furs and The Smiths among others.

The New Order track, Shell-Shock and OMD's massive hit If You Leave were the most popular, but the enduring classics are The Smiths' Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want and The Psychadelic Furs' theme for the film Pretty in Pink.

Pretty In Pink, both the film and the soundtrack is a perfect piece of sweet pop bubble gum from the dizzyingly self-absorbed peak of the 80s.

Bye For Now

Thanks for stopping by to see what was going down in March. I'll see you in May for April's run down. Have a great Easter.

Ciao for now!