Green Worker's American Swim (July 29th - August 2nd)

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.

If you can believe it, I'm running ahead of time with my list this week. I've had it chosen since early in the week, to avoid rushing it. A few albums that I just haven't heard in a while managed to pop up.

One of those albums that has slipped the Work Tunes net forever is REM's excellent Green. @sunky mentioned another Mazzy Star LP last week and it made me think of Among My Swan. Jay-Z has been all up in everyone's grill lately, so I had to grab Vol. 3. A Billy Bragg album I'm yet to hear makes the cut this week, as does the My Girl soundtrack thanks to @BreeMateljan's SOTW. The very latest pack of funky tracks from Orgone is here and the Italian horror rock of Goblin. Incesticide is another neglected LP that made my list this week. What's left is some jangly folk pop from The Whispertown 2000 and some darker alt country infused folk from A.A. Bondy.  

Check it out:

• R.E.M. - Green
• Mazzy Star - Among My Swan
• Nirvana - Incesticide
• A.A. Bondy - American Hearts
• The Whispertown 2000 - Swim
• Orgone - New You
• Goblin - Susperia
• Billy Bragg - Worker's Playtime
• VA - My Girl OST
• Jay-Z - The Life and Times of Sean Carter Vol. 3

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Bruce Springsteen
2. Alice In Chains
3. Nick Drake
4. Van Morrison
5. The Replacements

Song of the Week : Alice In Chains - Angry Chair

It has been some time since I listened to Dirt. It's a lot heavier than I remember it. When I look back on it though, a lot of grunge was fairly heavy - Soundgarden, Mudhoney, Tad, Dinosaur Jr. It was just Nirvana and Pearl Jam who brought that pop sensibility to it that crossed it into the mainstream. In any other circumstances, that would be called "selling out", but I'm really glad they did. Because let's face it, in 1991 in Perth, there is no way we'd have heard starving indie rock bands from Seattle if they hadn't sold out. 

I chose Angry Chair because it was one of the releases from this album and because it is quite stereotypically "grungy". The apathetically depressed lyrics, the wall of deep fuzz and the pounding drums are all on the heavy side of the sound that I once knew and loved so well. Nostalgia may not be what it used to be, but some days a familiar tune can be a good warm hug. Enjoy.

Hooroo
I'm just finishing this all up on a Saturday afternoon. The wife and children are at swimming lessons and I am left here tasked with domestic duties because we haven't been home all day. We're unbelievably short on time today. A good thing I had this list planned early, wasn't it?

Hasala malakim.

Vanishing Feedback Farm Magazine (April 29th - May 3rd)

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.

You might have noticed (though probably not) that there was no Work Tunes last week. That's because I didn't take any music to work as ANZAC Day and a day of annual leave left me with just three days. So instead i streamed all the First Listens on NPR and a played a couple of 8Tracks mixes and shuffled my iPhone. With the extra time off, you'd think I'd had plenty of chance to collate a carefully calculated playlist. You'd be wrong; but nice try. None-the-less, I'm happy with what I've chosen. 

To set my Jazz Funk senses tingling, I've grabbed Herbie Hancock's classic Headhunters. To compliment it nicely, I've chosen two fairly jazzy Hip Hop albums from Jurassic 5 and Mos Def. Always mindful of not neglecting to slow it down, I've got some Justin Townes Earle and A.A. Bondy for a twang fix. Can't slow it down for too long though, so I have two new albums from alt-rock legends Mudhoney and Meat Puppets. With my recent subscription to Paste Magazine comes a 7 track sampler of new music per week; and I have the first two weeks worth here. The other compilation is Songs in the Key of X, which is music from and inspired by The X Files. Lastly, a soundtrack of sorts from John Lennon, with the music from the documentary Imagine. 

Check it out:

• Justin Townes Earle - Midnight at the Movies
• Herbie Hancock - Headhunters
• VA - Songs in the Key of X
• John Lennon - Imagine OST
• A.A. Bondy - When The Devil's Loose
• VA - Paste Magazine April Pt. 1
• Mudhoney - Vanishing Point
• Meat Puppets - Rat Farm
• Jurassic 5 - Feedback
• Mos Def - The Ecstatic

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Best Coast
2. A Tribe Called Quest
3. Patti Smith
4. Josh Rouse
5. Bruce Springsteen

Song of the Week : Charles Bradley - Strictly Reserved For You

I have some Soul for your soul. The April NPR sampler had a track from Charles Bradley who I’ve heard before playing with The Menahan Street Band. You know what a sucker I am for Soul music; and to get something that sounds this classic being released in 2013 is blowing my mind.

Bradley’s voice on Strictly Reserved For You is somewhere between James Brown and Otis Redding. The big horns and the crooning backup vocals are like the JBs playing with The Temptations. Did I die and go to 60s Soul heaven? I don’t know anymore. But there is no bad mood that doesn’t disappear when I play tracks like this. 

They don’t write ‘em like they used to – or DO THEY?! See for yourself.

Peace Out

There will be another week off at Work Tunes after this week, when I am on annual leave to take care of Mrs Corey J while she recovers from surgery (in my head I just heard Homer's critique of Ned Flanders' chilli in my favourite Simpsons episode - "a bland, timid entry, suitable perhaps for patients recovering from surgery"). I'll be back the week after though, with the second part of the Paste sampler and a bunch of other albums I haven't selected yet.

Hasala malakim.

Playlist : October 31st - November 5th, 2011

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.

It's a 'surprise' long weekend here in Perth, with Her Majesty here to visit. We've all got Friday off (it's Thursday night as I write this) and there's some sort of mass barbecue happening. It feels a bit Jonestowny, but I was staying away for other reasons.

This week's list features the first Christmas album of the year that I'm willing to spin with the new She & Him. Some old grungey favourites in Triple J's Hottest 100 Volume 2 and The Breeders' Pod made the cut. Inspired by @BreeMateljan's SOTW, I've reached for ZZ Top - Afterburner. I've got some moody electronic stuff from Nightmares On Wax, some new tracks from Spin, a new Dylan compilation and some more.

Check it out:

• She & Him - A Very She & Him Christmas
• The Breeders - Pod
• Funkoars - The Quickening
• VA - Triple J's Hottest 100 Vol. 2
• Kool & the Gang - Icon
• A.A. Bondy - Believers
• VA - Spin November
• ZZ Top - Afterburner
• Bob Dylan - Pure Dylan
• Nightmares On Wax - In A Space Outta Sound

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Nina Simone
   
2. The Jam
3. Bliss N Eso
4. US3
5. Ben Lee

Song of the Week : Nina Simone - Mississippi God Damn

I am torn between two songs for SOTW today. Both have been inspired by some excellent televisual programming. I’m choosing this one because the program and the period of history that it covered was far more monumental. The PBS documentary series Eyes On The Prize from 1987 traces the history of the Civil Rights movement in the US. I recently watched episode 2 which deals with the period between 1957 and 1962. Key to this period was the integration of schools and in particular the resistance to same at Little Rock, Arkansas – home of the PUSA with the busy hands ;)

Mississippi God Damn is Nina Simone’s most scathing protest song, but it starts out like a sly joke. This version is live and you can hear the audience chuckling along with Nina’s trademark asides. Until she sings the verse that says “Don’t tell me, I’ll tell you!” and by the end of that, the silence is palpable. There’s a real threat in her voice when she says “Bet you thought I was kidding, didn’t you?” Then the lyrics get even harsher. It’s pure magic and surely one of the greatest protest songs of the era. She sings Strange Fruit like a sad hymn, but Mississippi God Damn is an incitement to riot. Enjoy.

Tah Tah

If you haven't heard it already, make sure you check out this week's Song of the Week. Nina's angry rant brought on by the bombing of a church in Alabama, killing four girls, is one of those songs that's a must for anyone who appreciates the power of lyrics and performance.

In "the old country", my grandmother and her brothers used to say 'May the road rise up to meet you'. My wish for you is that the road stays where the hell it is, because that just sounds dangerous.

Play safe kids. Hasala malakim.

Playlist : July 18th - 22nd, 2011

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.

Well, Revelation 14 has begun and I've recently attended opening night for a screening of the very entertaining Fire In Babylon. Thanks to the reggae and calypso music which punctuated that film, this week's playlist contains a Bob Marley & The Wailers album, as well as a Peter Tosh greatest hits compilation. The general 60s/70s vibe is rounded out with Pink Floyd's epic classic The Wall and the Velvet Underground's debut. On top of that there's the deluxe release of REMs Life's Rich Pageant, Jamiroquai and the follow up to an album I included a couple of weeks back from Boho Fau & Elevated Soul. Plus, there's the obligatory alt country from A.A. Bondy and Lambchop.

Check it out:

• REM - Life's Rich Pageant (Deluxe)
• The Summer Set - Everything's Fine
• Jamiroquai - A Funk Odyssey
• Boho Fau & Elevated Soul – Coffee House Swinger : Brewing Sessions
• Bob Marley & the Wailers - Exodus
• Peter Tosh - The Best Of
• A.A. Bondy - American Hearts
• Velvet Underground - Velvet Underground
• Pink Floyd - The Wall
• Lambchop - Nixon

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Rickie Lee Jones
2. Ratcat
3. U2
4. Queen
5. Hole

Song of the Week : Bob Marley & The Wailers - Get Up, Stand Up

Last night I went to opening night at Rev and they played Fire In Babylon. It was a documentary about the 1970s and 80s West Indies cricket team. Some might be just a tiny bit too young to recall, but others will remember that they were total rock stars of cricket. In fact, the movie states that between 1980 and 1993 they never once lost a test series. But the doco showed that they were once the dancing minstrels of the sport – entertaining to watch and always getting badly beaten. Australia’s fast bowlers at the time, Lillee and Thomson were fond of bowling dangerous bouncers at even their tail enders. After an embarrassing thrashing in Australia in ’76, the Windies set about recruiting some fast bowlers of their own.

Where my song comes from is Bob Marley was a fan of the team and often came into the change rooms. Supposedly the creative period of Jamaican music at the time was inspired by the Windies and the team says the music inspired them. Viv Richards tells how this song, Get Up, Stand Up was his pre-match wind up and he had it in his head every time he went out to bat. It’s a call to arms, a revolutionary cry to stand up for your rights. I need more reggae. It makes your head bob. I was still nodding by the time I got home and I listened to some Wailers in bed. In a way I guess reggae it’s just like soul music, except for the Caribbean.

What the doco showed was that there was terrible racism during the apartheid years even here in AUS from the crowd as well as the cricketers. Tony Greig, then captain of England, made some remark about making the Windies grovel and my lord they let him have it. They felt as if he was degrading their race itself. And those bouncers were no joke!

Do Svidánija

Sunday sees me off to Revelation again and I'll be seeing not 1 but 4 films that day. I'll be trying to find the time very soon to review everything I see on MFNM. Until next week, may the road rise to meet you, may the wind be always at your back and may nobody ever spout Celtic prayers at you again.

Ciao bambinos.