Playlist : June 20th - 24th, 2011

Hey there tunesters. Welcome to another week at Work.

Last week I had my birthday. I'm 29 now (hey, 30's the new 20, okay!). It was on the whole unremarkable, except I played Hanging With Friends with Crazy Legs! If you haven't read my fanboy gushing tumblr post, it's here. This week I've picked the Brooklyn radio mixtape for 1983 in honour of that. The rest is some more Bowie, the seemingly well-liked The XX, some Hendrix thanks to Song of the Week, Buzzcoks, Radams, a free sampler from Josh Rouse (that you can download yourself) and some other stuff.

Here it is;

• The XX - XX
• Toad The Wet Sprocket - All You Want
• David Bowie - Diamond Dogs
• Edie Brickell & the New Bohemians - Shooting Rubber Bands at the Stars
• Jimi Hendrix - Are You Experienced
• Ryan Adams - Demolition
• Buzzcocks - A Different Compilation
• Bob Seger - Greatest Hits
• Josh Rouse - Summertime (Noistrade Sampler)
• VA - Rub Radio 1983

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Everclear
2. Kitty, Daisy & Lewis
3. David Bowie
4. Mathew Sweet & Susannah Hoffs
5. Best Coast

Song of the Week : Jimi Hendrix - All Along The Watchtower

I was standing there in JB Hifi looking at foreign film DVDs which are unfortunately close to where they sell car stereos and speakers. There was some song playing, way too loud for what it was. Something about loving a stripper. Vapid, autotuned, over-produced crap with a doof beat and “r&b” “singing”. It was driving me mental. So much so, I actually said out loud “This is f$%#^ing shite”, attracting rolled eyes from some douche who worked there and was obviously in charge of the car stereos. So I left that section to get away from it.

As I approached the space where the music DVDs are kept, they were playing something else on the AV receivers and home theatre speakers. It was Jimi Hendrix. I walked over there and two guys from JB greeted me with ‘hello’. I said “the music is waaaay better over this side of the store.” They laughed, not realising I was deadly serious and still pissed that on my birthday my ears had been raped by crap music.

Now, the latest episode of South Park makes fun of how grownups don’t ‘get’ the music of the kids; and how it always sounds shit to older folks. But I’m sorry, there are some things that you just cannot deny no matter how much you go on about changing fashions etc. Because for a start, Hendrix was dead before I was born. This is not my generation’s music. But this fantastic song, written by one of the great songwriters and played by probably the greatest guitarist ever, is straight up superb and there’s just no comparison between it and the completely wrong shit I was forced to endure at JB yesterday.

Adios

This is where I have to leave you and head on over to MFNM to review a little film I saw Wednesday night. In the meantime, I hope you find new and interesting tunes to keep you happy and feeling good. Adios muchachos.