Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.
Lovely day for it. The sun is shining, the birds are singing, bees are trying to have sex with them - as is my understanding of these things. No matter what else, I'm still making pointless Simpsons references, so everything is normal. And so, to the music.
There's mostly older stuff this week. I finished Just Kill Me, my punk history book and I've grabbed some X-Ray Spex. Some old favourites in a Lost Highway records compilation and Ben Folds' Rockin' The Suburbs are getting a spin. Even more old favourites this week are Reckoning from REM and Beyond from Dinosaur Jr. There's albums from Veruca Salt and 50 Cent that I haven't heard, plus Go-Go Boots from the Drive-By Truckers that hasn't had a play in a while. I have a Hip Hop album from The Cancel and I'll be bringing it's follow up in next week. Finally, because I'm still in awe of her most recent song for the Real to Reel compilation, I've got a Stevie Nicks album to give it a go.
Check it out:
Lovely day for it. The sun is shining, the birds are singing, bees are trying to have sex with them - as is my understanding of these things. No matter what else, I'm still making pointless Simpsons references, so everything is normal. And so, to the music.
There's mostly older stuff this week. I finished Just Kill Me, my punk history book and I've grabbed some X-Ray Spex. Some old favourites in a Lost Highway records compilation and Ben Folds' Rockin' The Suburbs are getting a spin. Even more old favourites this week are Reckoning from REM and Beyond from Dinosaur Jr. There's albums from Veruca Salt and 50 Cent that I haven't heard, plus Go-Go Boots from the Drive-By Truckers that hasn't had a play in a while. I have a Hip Hop album from The Cancel and I'll be bringing it's follow up in next week. Finally, because I'm still in awe of her most recent song for the Real to Reel compilation, I've got a Stevie Nicks album to give it a go.
Check it out:
- VA - Lost Highway: Lost and Found 1
- Stevie Nicks - In Your Dreams
- Drive-By Truckers - Go-Go Boots
- Ben Folds - Rockin' the Suburbs
- REM - Reckoning
- The Cancel - Daybreak
- Dinosaur Jr - Beyond
- 50 Cent - Curtis
- Veruca Salt - Resolver
- X-Ray Spex - Germ Free Adolescents
Top Five Artists Last Week
- Nirvana
- Brother Ali
- Jason Isbell
- Bill Withers
- Sonic Youth
Song of the Week : Best Coast - Fear Of My Identity
I had a hard time picking a song this week, and then I chose this one in a sort of protest. I don’t want to rant, but you've all probably seen that JJJ took over the digital radio station ABC Digg in an attempt to recapture the 30+ demographic that is being lost to JJJ. The gist of their press release was that 30+ year olds have left JJJ because they don’t follow new music anymore. The freakin’ nerve right? I have a bunch of 2013 releases in my possession and not just from established rock acts like Bowie. I’ve jumped on releases from California X, Teenanger, Wild Nothing, Beach Fossils, Iceage, Telekinesis, Surfer Blood etcetera etcetera this year. So I kind of took exception to the implication that us “oldies” don’t listen to JJJ because of new music. I just don’t think they play very good new music. At least not when I last listened a few years ago.
So when reaching for a SOTW I just picked one off of the newest set I brought to work this week – Best Coast’s new EP, Fade Away. I picked this particular track Fear of My Identity because I have dug it all week and also because it is sort of relevant with the “You taught me that my heart would grow old’ refrain. Best Coast are a relatively new band with their debut LP released in 2010 and I’ve been a huge fan ever since. Having said that, there is a lot of the aesthetic of 90s rock about them and that is the “sound” that the JJJ run Digg seems to think we all want after a certain age. I have to say they are probably right about that. When I first checked out the new Digg, they were playing Cherub Rock and it felt good, man. So maybe these bands I’ve discovered the last few years are just tapping into that 90s sound.
Nostalgia may feel comforting, but there is always room for new sounds, or new artists who reinterpret those old sounds (I’m thinking of how ‘old’ Fitz and the Tantrums or She & Him sound). I mean, wouldn’t we all kill for the next Nevermind to come out and take music in a whole new direction? I think if the new Digg is going to play a good mix of those old JJJ staples and the most innovative of the newest artists (and not mainstream synth pop songs) it could be a terrific thing to have around, plugged from my TV into my hifi (I don’t have any other digital radio source!).
Toodle-Ooh
I just bought a $4.95 DVD copy of Running On Empty. No, not the River Phoenix film, this one! Australia, bogans, 1980s, muscle cars, Deborah Conway acting. How fun is that?! Last time I watched it would have been 1986 on VHS. Funnily enough, I watched Rock n Roll High School last night. Must be a nostalgic week ahead, what with the old films and the old favourite sounds I selected. Plus, don't forget JJJ has retooled ABC Dig to sucker in old folks like me who miss the days when JJJ knew about good music.
C'est la vie. Hasala malakim.
I just bought a $4.95 DVD copy of Running On Empty. No, not the River Phoenix film, this one! Australia, bogans, 1980s, muscle cars, Deborah Conway acting. How fun is that?! Last time I watched it would have been 1986 on VHS. Funnily enough, I watched Rock n Roll High School last night. Must be a nostalgic week ahead, what with the old films and the old favourite sounds I selected. Plus, don't forget JJJ has retooled ABC Dig to sucker in old folks like me who miss the days when JJJ knew about good music.
C'est la vie. Hasala malakim.
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