Playlist : October 18th - 22nd, 2010

Welcome back to our regularly secheduled program.This week's list seems to have a little funk in the trunk, along with a touch of country twang.

Check it out.

• Mavis Staples - You Are Not Alone : Produced by and guest starring Wilco's Jeff Tweedy, this is the latest offering from the always brilliantly voiced Mavis Staples. Just another in the collection of great Soul records being released this year.

• Concrete Blonde - Still In Hollywood : I admit it; I'm a hopeless Concrete Blonde fan. Everything up to and including Mexican Moon, at least. This album of rare songs and b-sides has been missing from my iPod for a long while. Worth it for the covers and for Probably Will.

• VA - Soundtrack - Semi-Pro : For the life of me, I couldn't tell you why I find Will Ferrel so hysterical. By all logic, a self-confessed film snob like me should look down on him. But you can't beat Semi-Pro, Taladega Nights, Step Brothers and even his bit part in Starsky & Hutch for good laughs. Plus, this is one funky soundtrack.

• Queen Latifah - All Hail The Queen : Back in the day, Latifah was a strong, independent female rapper with a militant eye on feminist and racial politics. Now, she's just a strong independent female. Damn you Hollywood. Damn you all to HELL!

• Black Star - Black Star : This has probably been on a couple of playlists by now, but I don't care. It reamins in the upper eschelons of my favourite Hip Hop albums. Jazz sensibilities and Mos Def & Talib Kweli with a positive message and butter smooth rhyme flow always sounds good to me.

• VA - Can't Stop It - Australian Post Punk : I missed it, I'm afraid, but it seems Australia was the place to be for young post-punk bands in the 70s and 80s. High unemployment and prevelant drugs meant there were a lot of bands around. After hearing a great JJJ podcast on the topic, I hunted this album down.

• Ryan Adams & The Cardinals - Cold Roses : Much as I've been neglecting Whiskeytown of late, I have all but forgotten Radams and Co. Cold Roses is just one of the man's all solid 2005 efforts - and a double album at that. Hard to believe he released this brilliant set, Jacksonville City Nights and 29 all in the same year.

• Kasey Chambers - Little Bird : True story, Kasey Chambers wrote my wife and I a wedding card. We had a mutual acquaintance. Namely, her then partner Corey. I was a big fan of her first three LPs but she fell off for me for a while there. This new set seems to have recaptured some of the fire.

• Menahan Street Band - Make the Road By Walking : An album of funky intrumentals that I fdound out about via a free KCRW iTunes mix. This is like a nice smooth groove of jazz with a funky edge.

• Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited : For some reason, I was surprised by how good Bringing It All Back Home sounded last week. Bob Dylan's 115th Dream became the song of the week because I really enjoyed the rollicking blues rock of 'side one'. I just had to slip this one in as part two of the Holy Trinity.
  

There you have it cats. Stay golden, don't get hung up, peace man, right on, keep it real and all that good stuff.

Playlist : September 20th - 24th, 2010

This is our weekend and it's ending, one second at a time. But not to worry, sit back and relax. Play some tunes. Dig yourself, man.

These are the songs that I'll be taking with me on my working week next week :

• Shonen Knife - Rock Animals : Looking at a list a bit full of alt-country, I went looking for something with some crunch. Shonen Knife rock my socks off. They are a Japanese all-girl punk rock band I first heard on the fantastic If I Were A Carpenter compilation, doing a superior cover of Top Of The World. On Rock Animals, the almost maddeningly catchy Catnip Dream is a gem.

• VA - Culture of Kings : An early skip hop compilation for hardcore Diggaz like me. Featuring Aussie hip hop luminaries like Koolism, Matty B, Suffa of Hilltop fame and the Hoods themselves. Mass MC's popular track The BBQ Song also features.

• Gram Parsons - Greivous Angel : After being moved by Gillian Welch's lyric from I Dream a Highway last week ("Now you be Emmylou and I'll be Gram") I felt like some Gram Parsons magic. Emmylou of course is Emmylou Harris, Gram's long-time friend and singing partner whose sweet harmonies make this great record even better.

• Eric B & Rakim - Let The Rhythm Hit 'Em : Usually when I reach for Eric B & Rakim, I go straight for Paid In Full - 1987's seminal golden age album. This time, I made a conscious effort to choose something I don't normally play. It's been a while, but I know this album to be a little jazzier than Paid and just as lyrically inventive.

• A.A. Bondy - When The Devil's Loose : Last week at work was kind of a drag and when things get a little low, alt-country always sounds it's best. A.A. Bondy are folkier and lonlier than a lot of the stuff I listen to, but this album is good for a spin.

• John Legend and The Roots - Wake Up! : I heard this album last week on stream from NPR. It's a really solid set of old Soul covers with a political bent. It sounds like music from a greater time with a modern day traveler on the mic. It also taught me that The Roots are a tight Funk band with some really tasty bass grooves. Going to get this album on vinyl as soon as I can find it.

• The Police - The Best of the Police : I felt like a little bit of classic rock and I haven't heard The Police in quite a while. I have this album on vinyl and few songs in my record collection benefit from the sound of wax quite like Roxanne. With The Police and me, the rule seems to be the earlier the better.

• VA - Music from the Motion Picture Crooklyn Volume II : One of my all time favourite Spike Lee joints, Crooklyn is a partly autobiographical tale of living in Brooklyn in a large family in the 70s. The soundtrack is packed full of some of the coolest Soul tunes ever made. Spike is brilliant, Crooklyn is fantastic and the soundtrack is killer.

• John Cale - Paris 1919 : I don't know a lot about this album, but I've always wanted to hear it. Ever since a 1997 issue of Uncut magazine published a list of the most depressing albums of all time, I have been slowly acquiring them all. John Cale was a member of Velvet Underground until 1968 when he went solo. Paris 1919 is his most famous album and Uncut said if you listen close you can hear Cale weeping at the mixing desk in the middle of a breakdown. Good times.

• Ornette Coleman - Free Jazz : Having only discovered Ornette Coleman tunes last week, I have quickly found out that Free Jazz is widely renowned as wholly original and as fine a jazz album as you'll find outside of Trane. Sounds good to me.
  

It would be great if you found something new in amongst all of that. Get the John Legend album if you dig Soul, because it is totally ace. I'm off to Beat Route tomorrow for a little vinyl and turntable shopping. Hopefully I'll have something I can add to next week's list.

That's it from me. Go safe my anonymous friends. Don't forget how blessed you are.