Platinum Radio Wax Renaissance (August 19th - 23rd)

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.

It's late Saturday night and I am just sitting down to write. It's been another long day. I got all negative test results today, so that's positive... ha ha. The doctor asked me today if I had any compulsive behaviours; alcohol, food, biting my nails etc. I told him about the only thing I was addicted to was making playlists on my iPod. And here's another one for you.

Because I dug on In The Street for SOTW last week, there's Big Star. I've been meaning to play some Stevie Wonder, so one of his best is here. Kiss add another 70s dose to my list, Bob Dylan reps the 60s and Hank Williams takes us back into the 50s. For relatively new stuff there's the soulful R&B of Valerie June and something else from Joshua Radin. My weekly serve of Hip Hop comes from 50 Cent and Q-Tip. Last of all I have the soundtrack from one of my favourite films, Waking Life, which is a sort of classical requiem for a dream.

Check it out:

• Big Star - Radio City
• Hank Williams - Best Of Hank Williams
• Bob Dylan - Biograph (Disc 3)
• VA - Waking Life OST
• Joshua Radin - Wax WIngs
• Kiss - Double Platinum
• Stevie Wonder - Innervisions
• Q-Tip - The Renaissance
• 50 Cent - Get Rich or Die Tryin'
• Valerie June – Pushin’ Against A Stone

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Orgone
2. Bob Dylan
3. Prince
4. The Handsome Family
5. Blind Pilot

Song of the Week : Big Star - In The Street

My song this week comes from the soundtrack to a documentary about Big Star. You’ll be familiar with the song if you ever watched an episode of That 70s Show; they use it in a modified version for their theme song. 

In The Street is rock song about bored kids. It has that feel of bored, lost and nihilist teens. That’s an odd thing, given its from 1972 and (in Australia at least) the post-60s hangover was still around. I don’t tend to equate slacking with the 60s kids, who seem over earnest and naïve as opposed to cynical and bored – if the way Hollywood portrays them is to be believed. The attitude on show in In the Street seems like it belongs a good 5 years later in ’77 with the punks. It’s a feeling I knew as a teen in the 80s, a uni student in the 90s and sometimes a cynical old man in the Two-Tens! 

Musically, there is a lovely bit of cow bell in there to go with a few killer guitar licks and a whole lot of noise. Alex Chilton sings in a whine like a brat and it all makes sense. I think it was gold that the used it for That 70s Show, but I noticed they changed the line about the joint to “We’re All Alright!” Much like the show tiptoes around its drug use. 

I chose the documentary mix just so you’d get a different version of it. The difference seems to just be in the polish. I can imagine this mix would sound better in a theatre than the original because the original is a bit more abrasive in the high end. 

Goodnight

It's time for me to watch the latest Futurama and then go to bed with Brett Easton Ellis. Fun times planned tomorrow. A fuse blew in our FM transmitter though, so I may be forced to make a mix CD for the car tomorrow. It's like living in a developing nation in a way. 

Hasala malakim.

Daft Dirt River Replacements (22nd - 26th July)

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.

I've been laid up with afflictions all of these last few days, so I have again rushed my list. But it's still pretty good.

I decided to continue my second chances for late-period Pearl Jam - I'll see if Binaural stands up now like it didn't before for me. To compliment Pearl Jam , I grabbed Alice In Chains. After Newsroom used Into the Mystic in the closing credits, I reached right for Moondance. I've got some Replacements here and the soundtrack to a doco on Big Star. Those two CDs seem complimentary. Another soundtrack is from The Wackness starring Ben Kingsley. After enjoying the production of Daft Punk's latest, I've gone back in time a bit with them. Back in time also with De La Soul and way back with Nick Drake's dream-like folky Pink Moon. All that leaves is Bruce Springsteen's classic double album from 1980, The River. 

Check it out:

• Pearl Jam - Binaural
• The Replacements - Tim
• Van Morrison - Moondance
• Bruce Springsteen - The River
• Alice In Chains - Dirt
• VA - The Wackness OST
• Big Star - Nothing Can Hurt Me
• Daft Punk - Homework
• De La Soul - Stakes Is High
• Nick Drake - Pink Moon

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Foghat
2. Bob Marley
3. Why?
4. Josh Pyke
5. Dinosaur Jr.

Song of the Week : Chic  - Le Freak

After a few different discussions over the last few weeks, I've been thinking about disco and about Daft Punk's new album and how it is a) very disco and b) massively overhyped. But overhype aside, it's a decent listen if you like a bit of 70s disco. What I like about it, besides the pastiche of retro sounds is the engineering on it. It reminds me of 70s engineering too, because every layer seems to be painstakingly balanced and nuanced just right. Not every band bothers with all that trouble these days and a lot of pop music sounds like mud.

But no, my SOTW isn't Daft Punk, it's Chic - Le Freak. I hadn't heard this song in ages until my Daft Punk wonderings got me thinking about disco. There is a bit of this song in a lot of the tracks on Random Access Memories, in particular that funky little guitar chord riff so synonymous with disco. This will get your boogie shoes on.

Interesting aside if you haven't heard the tale, but Nile Rodgers says the song was initially titled "Fuck Off!" because they couldn't get in Studio 54 one night. Off home they went, wrote a funky ass bassline and chanted "Fuck Off!" instead of Freak Out! which is what they decided on to appease record companies. 

TTFN
If there is anything on my hurried list that sounds like it might suit you, go and have a listen. Spotify or Songl or Rdio that tish all you like. Life is too short for bad music. 

Hasala malakim.

Open My Big Cyclone Beach Home (August 6th - 10th)

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.


Guttentag meine kameraden! What's the haps yo? A comfortingly standard week for me this week just gone with a viewing of The Dark Knight Rises thrown in to shake things up. I enjoyed it, but honestly, Mr Nolan sir, EDIT just a little bit eh?

Alright then, let's get right into the tunes. What have I got this week you ask? Well, there's a compilation of songs for the road I picked up from the eBays which looks like it might have been sold at a petrol station; I thought I'd throw in som Jay-Z which made me think of Ice T and the 99 Problems line that Jay-Z stole; I've got some Kiss because, well it's Kiss; sticking with the 70s I've got the first disc of Elton John's remastered greatest hits; I also have volume 1 of Trainspotting because I'm still reading Skagboys (and I will have volume 2 next week); Neko Case is always great; there's Beach House's first album, some Babes In Toyland and finally Big Star thanks to my rediscovery of Thirteen this week.

Check it out:

• VA - Open All Night : On The Road
• Jay-Z In My Lifetime Vol. 1
• Kiss - Dynasty
• Elton John - Greatest Hits 1970 - 2002 (Remastered) (Disc One)
• Babes in Toyland - Nemesisters
• Ice T - Home Invasion
• Neko Case - Middle Cyclone
• Big Star #1 Record
• Beach House - Devotion
• VA - Trainspotting OST (Volume One)

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Cheap Trick
2. The Beatles
3. Snoop Dogg
4. Indigo Girls
5. Divinyls

Song of the Week : Big Star - Thirteen

This week's track comes courtesy of James. In a roundabout way. When he requested the Evan Dando cover of Sam Stone, it made me add Dando's Live At The Brattle Theatre to my playlist.


One of the songs on the album is Thirteen. When I was listening to it this week, I knew I'd heard it before and it must be a cover. At first, I worked out I had heard Wilco do it, but I knew it wasn't a Wilco song. So I looked on the iPod and sure enough Wilco - Thirteen appears on Big Star Small World a tribute LP to Big Star.


I have a copy of Big Star's 3rd, but had never heard #1. So this is Thirteen from that album. I like it for its subtlety. It's a teen rebellion song with a protagonist who sounds like he'd rather sleep than run riot. I like that if you take away the "school" references, there isn't any line that couldn't relate to most people with a generational conflict. So it is the title and the inclusion of school that gives it a great deal of its meaning. Subtle and understated. Not enough of that these days.

Toodle Pip

Thanks for stopping by. Last minute preparation and supplementary gift buying this weekend as Miss 5 becomes Miss 6 on Thursday. She's been given permission to choose the meal for her birthday dinner and she's gone with pizza. I can't argue with that. She didn't say beer, but I'm sure she was thinking it, so I'll just have one to honour her wishes. 


Derby day today. It would be typical of my Eagles to lose this one if everything else goes right for them, like Hawthorn losing already has, so I won't get my hopes up. May the best team (not wearing purple) win.


Go Eagles. Hasala malakim.