Written Anti Eagle Pistols (August 5th - 9th)

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.

It's another glorious "Winter" Saturday in Perth today and I've so far been stuck at a doctor's surgery, at shopping and soon at an indoor swimming pool. There's not much chance of making the most of today's sunshine, so tomorrow had better be just as nice - and what do you know, it is forecast to be. There are some positives about this city, it can't be denied. 

So what have I got for my listening pleasure next week? It was so good to hear the My Girl soundtrack last week, that I've got The Big Chill this time. Another compilation comes from Noisetrade and Anti Records. Some neglected albums again make the list; namely the first of 3 discs from Dylan's Biograph, the Sex Pistols' one and only Bollocks and Californication from the Chili Peppers. Sliding in nicely next to the Soul of The Big Chill is the first Charles Bradley album, because last week's listen of Victim Of Love just wasn't enough. I'm checking out Laura Marling after Rolling Stone called her the new Joni Mitchell; and Tori Amos' bonus LP from the Under The Pink tour should compliment Marling nicely. For my Rap fix, there's Nas. Lastly, I've included the new Ben Lee album, which I actually donated to Kickstart for. It's a weird kind of ambient thing and I wanted to give it another chance; because frankly it creeped me out the first time.  

Check it out:

• Sex Pistols - Never Mind The Bollocks... Here's The Sex Pistols
• Bob Dylan - Biograph (Disc 1)
• Laura Marling - Once I Was An Eagle
• Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication
• VA - Noisetrade: Anti Records Summer Sampler
• Charles Bradley - No Time For Dreaming
• VA - Big Chill OST
• Ben Lee - Ayahuasca: Welcome To The Work
• Tori Amos - More Pink
• Nas - It Was Written

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Nirvana
2. Orgone
3. Mazzy Star
4. Pearl Jam
5. R.E.M.

Song of the Week : Orgone - Strike (feat. Niki Crawfod)

This week has been hard to pick a SOTW because I’ve been a bit down due to being sick and sore. And when I get like that, I tend to cling to tunes I know and love that make me feel good. Which is all well and good, but doesn't make for an interesting SOTW. So I am deliberately choosing a new song (even if it sounds old). 

A little while ago I found a band called Orgone. They are a funk and r&b band who do a lot of instrumentals. The first album I heard from them, Fuzzed Up, sounds like the soundtrack to a Troy McLure 70s car chase film! Recently they released a new album called New You.  This time it’s not all instrumentals. There’s a bunch of guest female singers. What that sounds like added to 70s car chase music is a 70s Blaxploitation disco action flick. Something like Car Wash or Superfly TNT or Fioxy Brown. 

This song is Strike (feat. Niki Crawford) and it is jam packed with funky horns and a badassssss bassline for some wah wah to play around on. Ms Crawford sounds like Beyonce took lessons from Anita Baker and Mavis Staples. I can see this being the montage song from a film about workers who take over a factory in protest at conditions in 1970s Detroit. I hope you dig it, brothers and sisters.

Ciao
Well it's time for swimming soon and then I've got to race back to watch what might be the last West Coast win for Season 2013. I say we forget this year happened at all and next year the Eagles who turned up in 2011 and most of 2012 can get on the park again. Sound good? Cool. 

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.

Remember the Blue Brotherhood Decade (July 16th - 20th)

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.


More great times for me at work this week with a bunch of important projects finishing up and a few more beginning. I managed to catch a few films at Rev on the weekend just gone, including The George Méliès Project which I am really glad I got to see. Didn't catch any during the week though, but that's okay because it meant more time at home with the wife and children. I am getting out there this weekend to at least two and maybe more before it closes. For now, let's talk about music, not film.


There's a healthy dose of Australian tunes this week with Augie March, early Ben Lee and Deborah Conway. Plus there's Split Enz who are one of those New Zealand acts who are so good we claimed them for Australia. I've added the latest from JEFF the Brotherhood and one of Lou Reed's best. For my weekly dose of rap I've picked some Jay-Z and the soundtrack to the movie Colors. A compilation of covers from KCRW and the first disc of the Neil Young retrospective round it all out nicely.


Check it out:

• Lou Reed - The Blue Mask
• JEFF The Brotherhood - Hypnotic Nights
• Split Enz - History Never Repeats : Greatest Hits
• Jay-Z - The Dynasty
• Augie March - Moo You Bloody Choir
• VA - Sounds Eclectic : The Covers Project
• Ben Lee - Something To Remember Me By
• Neil Young - Decade (Disc One)
• Deborah Conway - Bitch Epic
• VA - Colors OST

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. 50 Cent
2. Rickie Lee Jones
3. Ryan Adams
4. Cypress Hill
5. Bright Eyes

Song of the Week : The Korgis - Everybody's Got To Learn Sometime

I chose this song at the beginning of the week, because I have really enjoyed the tendency lately to find out songs were covers when I hadn't heard the original. This is Everybody's Got To Learn Sometimes by The Korgis, which was covered by Beck for the soundtrack of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.


This original version is one of those 80s ballads that is now kind of hard to take seriously. You know the kind, the ones with a clawing over-earnestness about them. The underlying strings sustain a sort of dull whine and it reminds me a bit of The Cars - Drive but a tad more saccharine.  


Beck's version on the other hand is bleak and stark like the Montauk winter scapes it plays over. I don't know if you all have seen the film, but you should if you haven't. I'm guessing you have. So Beck's version to me is far better - even if I believed until very recently that the song was his. 

Au revoir

I just finished watching 2 Days In New York (Julie Delpy directed), so I'm feeling a little bit French. Fun little film; a bit like its director - smart and cute. 


Thanks for stopping by. Here's hoping your weekend is full of all the joys of life - you know the ones; pizza, beer, music, love, laughter, pretzels, all that good stuff. 


Go Eagles. Hasala malakim.

Playlist : October 24th -28th, 2011

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.

This week the Australian and more specifically Perth Hip Hop community mourns the loss of Hunter of the SBX Crew. Hunter battled cancer for more than a year and managed to organise a compilation of Australian rap acts to raise money for Canteen. The disc is due out in November and you can order it here on release. Condolences to Hunter's son and family, the Syllabollix Crew and the whole Australian Hip Hop community on a great loss.

So with a heavy heart, it's on with the music. I had to have a "Skip Hop" contingent and I've chosen Bliss n Eso and the excellent Culture of Kings compilation where I first heard Hunter. Watching This Is England '86 this week has put me in the mood for The Jam. New albums from Ben Lee and Noel Gallagher; a Nina Simone anthology, Dixie Chicks - yeah Dixie Chicks. What pimp?! Come at me - plus some other gems and there you have a whole week's listening. It's actually a short week this week because of the relocated-just-for-CHOGM long weekend.

My list goes:

• Ben Lee - Deeper Into Dream
• Ray LaMontagne - Gossip In The Grain
• Bliss n Eso - Day of the Dog
• VA - Culture of Kings Vol 2
• The Jam - Greatest Hits
• VA - Retrospace : Soul Mixtape
• VA - Elizabethtown OST Vol. 2
• Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds - S/T
• Nina Simone - Sugar In My Bowl : The Best of Nina Simone
• Dixie Chicks - Home

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Hilltop Hoods
2. Nas
3. US3
4. The Pleased
5. Sonic Youth

Song of the Week : Hunter - Jam Roll

Yesterday morning, Perth rapper and long-time Syllabolix Crew member Hunter lost his battle with endocrine cancer. You can read about it at PerthNow.

This is one of the only solo tracks of his that I know. It appears on Culture of Kings Vol. II. Hunter and the SBX crew were among those who first gave Australian Hip Hop its own sound. In the early days, we had Mighty Big Crime who were Beastie Boys rip offs, plus a bunch of mostly American-style lesser lights. Even the DJs on 100FM who I listened to in the 80s would put on fake US accents to rap or to talk Hip Hop.

SBX’s uniqueness gave us a completely Ocker sound and content. They rapped about Centrelink and beer and trainlines. Hunter actually has an LP called Going Back To Yokine where he raps all about his home suburb. This track Jam Roll is about fudging Dole forms and living unemployed. I think that now Australian Hip Hop has found a happy medium between the larrikin and the serious exponent of the culture, but back when people like Huntz got started, it was still finding its way ahead. He really was a pioneer for what we have now.

As I said, I have only heard a few of his songs apart from his appearances in other people’s tracks like Drapht, Hilltop Hoods, Bias B and Matty B, but I have been following him on Twitter for the last year. It has been a little bit of a humbling journey. He ran the gamut of emotion from day to day from upbeat positivity to out and out depression. It was a sad day for the heads yesterday and a lot of us felt it. So this is me pouring a ‘forty’ on the curb for a ‘homie’ who’s gone. Except Hunter hated US rap.

RIP Hunter

Rest in peace to a rapper who helped point Australian Hip Hop in it's own direction. Without Hunter, things wouldn't be quite the same. He introduced a uniquely Australian identity to the music and elements of it still remain. That identity was the reason we managed to shake off most of the US imitation from our collective backs.

Play safe out there kids, no matter what you do. And don't forget to have fun. Hasala malakim.

Playlist April 11th - 15th, 2011

What's shaking this week Hep Cats? This is my last week of work before I get some holidays for Easter, so no Work Tunes for a while.

What I'll be listening to at work next week sounds a little bit country, a little bit hip hop, a little bit Australian and a bit of everything else; just like me.

• Outkast - Stankonia
• Common - One Day It Will All Make Sense
• Tracy Chapman - Crossroads
• Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - I See a Darkness
• Jebediah - Jebediah
• Golden Smog - Down By The Old Mainstream
• Counting Crows - Hard Candy
• Bjork - Debut
• Ben Lee - Ripe
• VA - Batman Forever Soundtrack
  

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Digable Planets
2. Radiohead
3. Josh Rouse
4. Fleet Foxes
5. Jenny Lewis

Song of the Week : Digable Planets - Nickle Bags

I haven’t had a lot of time to think about SOTW. Nevertheless, I have chosen a track that I’ve been into all week. I recently took delivery of a Digable Planets record for which I paid far too much money due to a nasty eBay bidding war that I didn’t want to lose. Well worth it though, because darn this sounds eleventy billion kinds of funky on wax. The funky grooves of the record as a whole are why I chose this track. Nickle Bags is smooth as butter and funkier than I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter left in the sun. This album isn’t the one I bought, it’s basically a Best Of Digable Planets with a couple of new tracks, but the track itself is on my record along with half this compilation. Here’s a jam to kick your Friday into a smooth mellow good vibration kind of feel. Enjoy!

Until May

It's going to be a strange month because I'll be on holidays and there'll be no work for almost a fortnight. So after a two week break, I'll resurrect the old style just for May. Make sense? Too bad, that's what I'm doing.

Until May, don't let the Man get you down. Power to the people. Right on.