Playlist : May 30th - June 3rd, 2011

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes - brought to you without the amazing power of lazer beams!

On this week's playlist, I've got a couple of albums I want to buy on vinyl from U2 and Bob Dylan; an REM classic thanks to @bobearth mentioning it on Twitter, some Black Box Recorder I grabbed because I'm a fan of their Andrew Ridgely track, Gillian Welch because she has a new album out soon, early BDP because of a discussion about where Hip Hop started and Viva Hate because of Ryan Adams and Dave Rawlings' argument that opens Heartbreaker. Plus some other stuff.

This is it here:

• U2 - Achtung Baby
• R.E.M. - Automatic For The People
• Bob Dylan - Bringing It All Back Home
• Eminem - Encore
• VA - Spin Magazine June 2011
• Black Box Recorder - England Made Me
• Morrissey - Viva Hate
• Boogie Down Productions - By All Means Necessary
• Nick Cave - The Boatman's Call (Remastered)
• Gillian Welch - Hell Among the Yearlings

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Anthony Da Costa
2. The Rural Alberta Advantage
3. Tim Easton
4. Seapony
5. Bon Iver

Song of the Week : Anthony Da Costa - Love Is Not Enough

One of my Perth Twitter peeps, who is a massive Whiskeytown/Adams fan asked me last week if I knew Anthony Da Costa’s music. I didn’t. In her words, he sounds like “Heartbreaker era Ryan” She wasn’t kidding. This is almost a case of Radams pretending to be someone else. That of course isn’t a good thing for Mr Da Costa, but I have only heard this one album, there are more. Dylan sounded just like Woody Guthrie on debut, so let’s give Da Costa the benefit of the doubt. My twitter buddy is hooking me up a mix.

This song, Love Is Not Enough, as well as sounding like Grizzly, is pretty well written and features a decent acoustic guitar fill with a fiddle and piano lines. It’s got a catchy chorus that I’d be singing except I’m too busy thinking ‘Damn this guy sounds like Ryan Adams”. Enjoy.

Ciao For Niao
That's all you get this week kids. Thanks for playing. May the tunes you love be fruitful in the belly of your headphones... or something.

Playlist : May 23rd - 27th, 2011

Hello to all of you who didn't get picked for Team Rapture. Welcome to Work Tunes.

I'm writing all of this in a bit of a hurry on a Friday night. I'm not normally this rushed, but I lost a day of work on Thursday to look after Miss 4, so I've been playing catch up. That aside, I seem to be in a rush a lot lately. Instead of finding more time to review movies by paring down this blog, I have found less time even for this. WHo knows where the time goes.

On to the music anyhow. This week there's a lot of new albums I either stumbled across or had recommended to me. I'm glad I'll get to hear the new Bon Iver that everybody loves. There's also Michael Hutchence's side project Max Q from 1989, added after a conversation about how great INXS once were. I just now added Prince - Purple Rain because I have been watching the man himself carve up the stage playing the solo in a tribute rendition of Georg Harrison's While My Guitar Gently Weeps. If you haven't seen it, check it out - Prince channels Hendrix, I swear.

• Seapony - Go With Me
• Bon Iver - Bon Iver
• Max Q - Max Q
• The Rural Alberta Advantage - Hometowns
• VA - Bob Dylan - 30th Anniversary Concert Celebration
• Tim Easton - Since 1966
• Jay-Z - The Blueprint
• Prince - Purple Rain
• Anthony De Costa - Not Afraid of Nothing
  
• Nas - Nastradamus

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Warner Brothers
2. Eddie Vedder
3. The Pretenders
4. INXS
5. The Rural Alberta Advantage

Song of the Week : The Rural Alberta Advantage - Two Lovers

This morning’s song comes again from a band I only just discovered. Apparently they have two albums out. The song came on AccuRadio on the Au Naturale channel that I put on as working background sometimes.

What caught my ear with the song was mainly the mix and the melody. There is a good deal of sonic warmth in the vocal track and it sounds immediate and close. I don’t know if that will come out in the lower bitrate version I have for you guys (the 320kbps is 8mb) but hopefully it will.

Two Lovers seems to be about dangerous obsession, though it’s a sweet sung ballad. It’s obvious they are apart with lines like “If I ever hold you again” yet he’s singing about holding her ‘tight enough to crush a vein’. It’s creepy as well as sweet. Weird. I dig it.

Are We There Yet?

If you still haven't received your pass onto the Mothership, don't worry. Those of us left behind get more resources, more land and less discrimination to go around.

If you check out anything on this list besides the new Bon Iver, give The Rural Alberta Advantage a go, they're very good if you like your music to twang. Bye for now.

Playlist May 16th - 20th, 2011

So Blogger has been a bit of a pain in the proverbial lately, huh? I haven't had a lot of time to write this post, so forgive the briefness and any typos.

Let's just get straight into the music, shall we? This week comes with a couple of new albums, some new discoveries and a bizarre collection of ukulele tracks from Mr E.Vedder.

1. Pretenders - Pretenders II
2. The Warner Brothers - Talking in Your Sleep
3. The Rural Alberta Advantage - Departing
4. The Pharcyde - LABCABINCALIFORNIA
5. Eddie Vedder - Ukelele Songs
6. Foo Fighters - Wasting Light
7. Beastie Boys - Hot Sauce Committee Pt II
8. Tallest Man on Earth - The Wild Hunt
9. Florence and the Machine - Lungs
10. Pegz - Drama
    

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Bruce Springsteen
2. Pretenders
3. Paul Kelly
4. Black
5. Don Henley

Song of the Week : Pretenders - The Wait

Last weekend, I managed to get a stack of wax for cheaps. One of the LPs I got was the Pretenders debut. I had obviously heard Brass In Pocket before, but that was about it. So when I got it home and slipped it on the turntable while playing Skate 3 with Mr Kelly architect, I was rather impressed with what I heard. They have a very listenable post punk pop rock sound. A little like X-ray Specks and a bit like The Police. I wasn't aware of that. If you haven’t heard the album, I recommend a listen. Here is one cut that rawks out a bit, The Wait. I’ve heard that main rhythm riff (duh duh duh duh duuuuh) a hundred times since I reckon. The walking bassline and the jangle just goes off. Chrissie Hynde \m/

Outro

I have a template for this blog post, and the standard title I wrote is Outro and right here the placeholder text says "This is my outro bitches". So, yeah. This is it.

Until next time.

Playlist : May 9th - 13th, 2011

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.

This week's list is devoted to a recent haul of cheap second hand vinyl I scored at Melville Markets. I've become a tad addicted to buying wax, so it helped the wallet (and my marriage) a lot that these were such bargains. I managed to pick up a couple of LPs on my Amazon wish list as well as some albums I'd never heard but only cost $2. At least one of which was well worth it.

Here's most of what I bought. I left off The Man From Snowy River soundtrack because it wasn't for me. I also left off Joni Mitchell - Blue because it was on a recent list.

• The Pretenders - Pretenders
• Bruce Springsteen - Darkness On The Edge of Town
• Black - Wonderful Life
• Don Henley - Building The Perfect Beast
• The Pretenders - Get Close
• Paul Kelly - Under the Sun
• U2 - Rattle and Hum
• The Jacksons - Destiny
• Bruce Springsteen - Born In The USA
• Little Heroes - Play By Numbers
• Rod Stewart - Greatest Hits
• Sly & the Family Stone - Greatest Hits

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. 50 Cent
2. Blondie
3. Drapht
4. John Mellencamp
5. Bingethinkers

Song of the Week : JEFF the Brotherhood - Mellow Out

For this week’s song, I’ve gone with a band I just discovered. JEFF the Brotherhood are a little punky, a lot of grungey and a little bit pop. Their album, We Are The Champions, is a bit of fuzzy fun. This track, Mellow Out has more than a pinch of Weezer in it. I chose it for the Weezer sound, but also to remind myself I need to mellow out this weekend and wash the week off me. Out, out damned spot! I hope you like this little punk pop ditty.

See You Real Soon

Happy Mother's Day to all the Australian Mums and their Mums and even theirs. Until next week, may we not misquote MLK, but instead apply the rule of law in all contexts, to all.