Yo! Familiar Desire Funk (June 3rd - 7th)

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.

It's a long weekend where I am, for Western Australia Day (formerly Foundation Day), so I'm looking forward to a Monday without any solid purpose. Right now I'm fighting a cold as well as a %#^^&$^&$# wisdom toothache, so forgive me if you know me irl and I'm a bit cranky.
  
A few new ones and some bands I just discovered this week. There's new releases from Camera Obscura and Bob Evans, plus Mona and Maria who I've only just found. Boards of Canada are another band I've been meaning to check out for a good 5 years or more. There's some rock classics from Blondie and Van Halen (on a huge Blondie kick still). A compilation packed full of funk and one with old school Hip Hop get a gig. The best of the Church is here too and lastly Pearl Jam's Backspacer.

Check it out:

• VA - Yo! MTV Raps
• Bob Evans - Familiar Stranger
• Blondie - Blondie
• Camera Obscura - Desire Lines
• Mona and Maria - My Sun
• Boards of Canada - Music Has The Right To Children
• Pearl Jam - Backspacer
• Van Halen - Van Halen II
• VA - Funk Soul Brothers
• The Church - The Best of the Radio Songs

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Al Green
2. Steve Martin & Edie Brickell
3. Suzanne Vega
4. Oblivians
5. The Sonics

Song of the Week : Kraftwerk - Electric Cafe

Because Daft Punk's new one was flavour of the month last week, I gave it a spin. I have to say I really enjoyed it. The production is great and it sounds terrific, inside headphones especially. It is nicely intricate and it plays around with that retro sounding electronica. 

And there's the thing. Everyone was falling over themselves to declare it a masterpiece and raving on and on and on about how great it was, but forgetting that it borrows pretty heavily from a number of sources that they wouldn't afford the same rave reviews.

So with that in mind, I span another album this week by Kraftwerk. The title track off Electric Cafe is, from this album at least, probably the best example of where some of the sound of Random Access Memories comes from. I'm not knocking Daft Punk for pastiching and blending the way they did. As Simon said, there are elements of ELO on RAM too. It’s great, but people should acknowledge the debts it owes when fawning over it.

Kommen sie bitte und listen to Kraftwerk

Toodle Oooh

Happy weekend bliss wherever you are, but especially in Perth with the long one. Be excellent to each other and drive safe if you're on the roads - especially around one particular big black Jeep with a cranky, sniffly old hipster dufus in it.

Hasala malakim.

Fuzzed California Desperation Boom (May 27th - 31st)

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.

It's another glorious Perth Spring day in Autumn today after more of the same all week. It's almost torture to be inside writing this, but the Eagles are on anyway. I'm watching while I type on my trusty laptop. 


There are a few bands here that I've only just discovered, or are new. Orgone has a record full of raw rock instrumentals that sound like a 70s cop film soundtrack. Trophy Wife's debut (and probably last, as they've split up) album is a cloud full of dream pop. Oblivions bring a punk rock slant on some indie rock. Balancing out the new bands, there's a few old ones; particularly The Sonics from the 60s and Al Green. There's two compilations again, one full of funk and the other full of that Californian 70s sound. After Daft Punk's big blow up, I decided to listen to Kraftwerk who do it so much better. There's a kooky collaboration between Edie Brickell and Steve Martin with a banjo. Lastly, for a dose of rhyme, there's the Eminem Show.  

Check it out:

• Oblivions - Desperation
• Orgone - Fuzzed Up
• Trophy Wife - Trophy Wife
• Kraftwerk - Electric Cafe
• VA - Take It Easy : The Sound of California
• Steve Martin & Edie Brickell - Love Has Come For You
• The Sonics - Boom
• Al Green - I Can't Stop
• VA - Funk Drops
• Eminem - The Eminem Show

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Otis Redding
2. Talib Kweli
3. Daft Punk
4. The Walkmen
5. Lisa Loeb & Nine Tails

Song of the Week : My Morning Jacket - Leaving On A Jet Plane

I know we all appreciate a good cover done well. This one is done so well that I mistook it for a cover from the 70s, the era the song was written.

From the recent tribute to John Denver, My Morning Jacket perform Leaving On A Jet Plane. Before I heard the album, I slipped a few of the songs I know the originals of onto a playlist for a road trip. When this one came on, I thought it was strange that I had an old cover of it on my iPod, until I found out it was MMJ.

I think what gives it such an authentic sound is the mix. The heavy reverb on the vocals and the jangling ring of the guitars just sounds so much like that easy listening 70s sound. The song itself is a little maudlin, but I am impressed with the way the essence of it and the time period it lived in has been captured so well. Perhaps it’s awed hush is a note of respect to Denver who we all know died in a plane crash. It actually opens the tribute album and it sets the tone nicely.

Adios

If you get a chance, have a listen to Orgone - Fuzzed Up, especially if you're a fan of 70s cinema. It really does sound like an excellent cop movie while being a great listen with some hard grooves. I've had it playing wile cooking and that works, but it should really be great to work to. 

Hasala malakim.

Daft Concrete Walkmen Tantrums (May 20th - 24th)

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.

Happy Saturday, one and all (unless you're in one of those kooky time zones where it's still Friday night). I've done the weekly dose of braving Dawn of the Dead style shopping malls to get a few lousy groceries to make some antipasto tonight. Here I am sitting down to tell you all about my playlist for next week.

With Otis Redding and Charles Bradley setting my ears on fire this week, I had to be careful not to go too heavy on the Soul, so I left off some compilations that will probably make it in a fortnight. A compilation that did make it is a tribute to John Denver. I have a healthy dose of 90s going on with Belly and Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories. Fitz and the Tantrums might be that extra bit of Soul I wanted to avoid, but I don't care; they rock. Talib Kweli's new one is here, as is the album that everyone is talking about from Daft Punk. Having recently found a second hand copy of the vinyl, I included Concrete Blonde - Free and that just leaves an early effort from The Walkmen.

Check it out:

• Charles Bradley - Victim of Love
• Concrete Blonde - Free
• Belly - King
• VA - The Music Is You: A Tribute To John Denver
• Otis Redding - The Essentials
• Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories - Tails
• Talib Kweli - Prisoner of Conciousness
• Fitz and the Tantrums - More Than Just a Dream
• The Walkmen - You and Me
• Daft Punk - Random Access Memories

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Concrete Blonde
2. The National
3. The Stooges
4. Ben Lee
5. She & Him

Song of the Week : Blondie - Hanging on the Telephone

This song has, almost by stealth, become one of my all time favourites. I'm not even sure I loved it this much as a kid - and I loved Blondie a whole lot as a 7 year old.


Hanging on the Telephone is one of those Blondie tracks that beautifully straddles the line between perfect Pop and another genre - in this case Punk. I wouldn't call it a punk song, but Blondie were considered Punk back then because they co-opted the essence of it into the mainstream; much as they did with disco and Heart of Glass (or indeed as Kiss did with I Was Made For Lovin' You). If you watch the film clip, she is thrashing about in a subdued pogo and pulling faces every bit as rotten as Johnny. Yet what you have in your ears is a radio friendly pop song with the requisite length, time signature and guitar riff.


What I love the most is Deborah Harry's "angry" refrain at the end "Hang up and run to me" While not being a John Lydonesque bitter spit, she uses the repetition and the obvious gravel in the low end of her voice with the "OOOOOooOOH' that she makes it an angry command. Couple it with the ruckus of the guitars and drums below her and it really rocks. If I ever stop singing this song, I should definitely make some room in my Hottest 100 list on my iPod at number 1.

Toodle-ooh 

Go and listen to Parallel Lines now. Go on. It's brilliant for Saturday afternoons. Again, apologies to those who are still asleep in Friday land. 

As I speak, my kids are in the room behind me, putting on a ballet and musical performance for themselves and their menagerie of stuffed toys. I'd really better go and check it out. Difficult to get tickets to these things, usually.

Hasala malakim.

Welcome Reincarnated Honky Rapper (May 13 - 17)

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.

Welcome back after another Work Tunes break for a week off. I've been looking after Mrs coreyj while she recovers from surgery on her hand to remove a ganglion and a benign tumor. But as of Monday, it's back to work I go, so I better get some music together.

There is a stack of new stuff this week, though it's a mixed bag. Firstly, the new Ben Lee sounds like an ambient/new age background soundtrack for a mud bath place. Iggy & the Stooges sound like they're 18 again and it's a great pay off. The third volume from She & Him, thanks to Zooey Deschanel's honey smooth vocals, sounds spectacular. 

Also new, Snoop 'Lion' has reinvented himself as a Rastafarian reggae rapper. A kid making a big splash is Chance the Rapper and his Acid Rap mixtape. The second half of the Paste April sampler is here, as is the second half of the Led Zep Mothership box. In the not so new category, there's Elton John's classic Honky Chateau (superb even just for Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters and Rocket Man), Neko Case's breakout Fox Confessor Brings the Flood and lastly, the first Wavves album.

Check it out:

• Led Zeppelin - Mothership (Side 5 - 8)
• VA - Paste Magazine April 2013 Pt 2
• Iggy & the Stooges - Ready To Die
• Chance the Rapper - Acid Rap
• She & Him - Volume Three
• Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings The Flood
• Ben Lee - Ayahuasca: Welcome To The Work
• Wavves - Wavves
• Snoop Lion - Reincarnated
• Elton John - Honky Chateau

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. She & Him
2. Otis Redding
3. Eric B & Rakim
4. Whiskeytown
5. Justin Townes Earle

Song of the Week : Otis Redding - Send Me Some Lovin'

One thing I got to do on my week off which I don't do a lot of under normal circumstances is cook. I made a few pretty simple dishes, but I started to enjoy all the food prep and such that I only really do on special occasions these days because I'm just home too late for it. Much like at work, I chose a different album each night to play while I chopped, cooked and cleaned. The one that really seemed like it belonged in the kitchen was an Otis Redding compilation. Funny enough, on surgery day while I waited at home, I watched a German film called Soul Kitchen about a restaurant that played Soul.


I'm not sure what it is about true Soul music that seems to go hand in hand with good company, good food and good times; especially given the content of such music is usually forlorn and pleading, but it just does. Try it yourself. 

I picked Send Me Some Lovin' because it was the track that most stuck in my mind when I sat down to write my SOTW knowing I'd chosen the album. This song, this music sings right through me and if I believed in the existence of souls, I'd say that's where it resonates and that's why they call it that. But I don't, as such, so all I can say is how great is this?!

Keep on Truckin'

Yep, Keep on Truckin'. Ah the Seventies. What a blast it must have been if you weren't 0 - 7 years old at the time. 

If you're reading this, play that Otis Redding song up there. Whatever you're feeling, whether good or bad, you will feel spectacular when you hear Otis sing. Plus, if you don't already know, Soul music is the only kind you really need in a crisis of any kind.

Happy music questing, tunesters. Hasala malakim.