Tricky Southeastern Surfer Punk (June 17th - 21st)

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.

It's my birthday tomorrow and I'm feeling old as dirt, so forgive any grumpiness. Let's all try to forget that I'm turning 35 (again) tomorrow, shall we, and get on with it. I reached for a few old favourites this week. Maybe a touch of nostalgia from the stupid birthday thing? Whatever.

I grabbed U2's reinvention, Achtung Baby and Bright Eyes' (imho) best album, I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning. There's more favourites in Wilco's Sky Blue Sky and a Punk compilation of music from 1977. Volume 2 of one of my desert island compilations, Rare On Air is also here. There's a few new ones too though, from the magnificent Jason Isbell and from Surfer Blood. I got hold of The Wild because they were filed under Folk Punk and I had to hear what that was like. For something Trip and Hip Hop respectively, I grabbed Tricky's Maxinquaye and Tape Two from Young Fathers; who are believe it or not a rap trio from Scotland. 

Check it out:

• Wilco - Sky Blue Sky
• U2 - Achtung Baby
• Jason Isbell - Southeastern
• Bright Eyes - I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning
• VA - Rare On Air Vol. 2
• Tricky - Maxinquaye
• VA - 1977 - The Spirit Of Punk
• Young Fathers - Tape Two
• The Wild - Dreams Are Maps
• Surfer Blood - Pythons

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Dolorean
2. The National
3. Sonic Youth
4. Concrete Blonde
5. Brother Ali

Song of the Week : The National - Fireproof

This week's SOTW comes from my LPOTW. You all know I dig on The National and their new album has done nothing to harm that fanboy relationship. It's full of solid songs, but the reason I chose this one is because I think it illustrates a lot of what I like so much about The National's sound. 

Fireproof is simple enough, with a consistent riff played throughout as the main backing music. There is a tightly constructed time sig about everything from the percussion to the guitar. And then you get Matt Behringer's vocals and lyrics which seem like a random ramble over the top, always seeming to threaten to get out of time with the track. When he starts singing "Jennifer you are not the only reason..." he sounds like he's mumbling to himself and there happens to be this tight riff under his thoughts. I've always liked the way he phrases a lot of words around a small bit of space.  

Enjoy!

Bye Bye Baby, Baby Goodbye, Baby 

I'm off to the video store (link included for those born after 1995) with the kids to get a bluray for tonight's viewing. I'm hoping Monsters Inc is available or I'll be stuck with The Lion King, or worse, Rio. 

Live long and prosper. No AFL for me this week, so I hope your team does well. 

Hasala malakim.

Playlist : March 21st - 25th, 2011

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes. For this week's listening, I've dug into an old school favourite I just bought on vinyl, grabbed an album from one of the 80s ultimate one hit wonders and slotted in yet another Dolorean LP.

Check it out:

1. Televison - Marquee Moon
2. Velvet Underground & Nico - Velvet Underground & Nico
3. De La Soul - Three Feet High and Rising
4. The Strokes - Angles
5. Wilco - Wilco (The Album)
6. Nas - Hip Hop Is Dead
7. Dolorean - Violence In The Snowy Fields
8. Uncle Tupelo - No Depression
9. Bright Eyes - Lifted
10. The Buggles - The Age of Plastic

Top 5 Artists This Week

1. Dolorean
2. Train of Thought
3. Jack Johnson
4. Blind Pilot
5. Hilltop Hoods

Song of the Week : Bright Eyes - We Are Nowhere And It's Now

I’ve always liked this album, but it has mostly been a likeable sound, if you know what I mean. I’d listen to it, but all it really was was melody that sounded good and Conor Oberst singing over the top. The lyrics, I never really listened to before, but there was a general sense of “I’m a hipster… I live in New York… I’m so cool it hurts… Usually, I’m drunk and sad.”

What happened the other night at sleep time though, due to using earphones instead of Bluetooth (earphones being louder), I didn’t sleep but listened to it. This song made me click that there is some really exceptional writing on this album. I’ve always known that about Lua but only because of the other version.

With lines like:

Like a ten-minute dream in the passenger’s seat

While the world it was flying by

I haven't been gone very long

But it feels like a lifetime

And

Where the waitress looks concerned

But she never says a word

Just turns the jukebox on

And we hum along

And I smile back at her

I suddenly had some interest in what was being said. And yes, it still says “I’m a cool NY hipster who is drunk and sad” but it lays out a series of images that seem like a scene from a mumblecore indie film. Plus it has Emmy Lou Harris, which is always a bonus. Hope you like it and it doesn’t bum you out too much.

Ciao for Now

Next week there will most likely be two posts. The first will be for that week's playlist and the second for a proper review of the best of the month. Hope to see you there.

Ciao for now, you kooky kids.

Playlist - February 7th - 11th, 2011

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes. What's shaking cats?

This week I've got some classic rock, a little bit of a sunshiney beach set, an alt-country favourite and a mix of songs Spin thinks were great from 2010. I've also made a mixtape of obscure old school tunes inspired by Nas.

Here's what it all looks like:

• Bright Eyes - The People's Key : I heard this latest Bright Eyes release last week via NPR. Their review of the set said it was the greatest Bright Eyes album ever. On first listen, I would have to disagree and say that I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning is still the best. I thought I would give this one another listen to see if it grows on me.

• The Rolling Stones - Let It Bleed : After blipping the great, rollicking track Song For Keith by Ryan Adams (who hung out and got drunk with Richards himself when they were at the same recording studio), I decided I was going to buy some Stones on vinyl. Nothing after 1979 or before 1967 though. This is from 1969 and includes the well-known Stones tracks Honky Tonk Woman and You Can't Always Get What You Want.

• VA - Spin Best of 2010 : I have a subscription to Spin magazine and Rolling Stone via Zinio on my iPad. The coolest thing about music magazines has always been the free CDs. A bit hard when you get a digital copy right? Wrong! Spin included a download code for redemption on the US iTunes store to get a bunch of tracks they considered the best of 2010. And here they are. I'm pleased with the inclusion of Boyfriend by Best Coast after their album Crazy For You was among my favourites all year.

• Josh Rouse - El Turista : After growing up on the coast all my life, I have only really now discovered a love of the beach. That might have something to do with taking my girls for a swim rather than chasing seals and going squid-jigging in rock pools around Point Peron, or walking across to Penguin Island on the Safety Bay sandbank as was the usual go when I was young. Either way, we've been going to the beach for a swim every morning on the weekends and I'm loving it. This album is a set of Spanish language/themed songs that sound like a beach in Spain.

• Ryan Adams - Gold : It's been some time since I listened to this album. It remains one of my very favourites. I am looking to get some vinyl by Ryan Adams/Whiskeytown soon and this is high on the wish list. I like the set for the quietly emotional La Cienega Just Smiled and the love letter to NYC in New York, New York. By now everyone knows that the film clip for that song is just Ryan Adams playing guitar by the river with the Twin Towers in the background and was filmed on September 7th, 2001.

• REM - Eponymous : For years I only had a cassette version of this LP that I got from Record Finder in Fremantle during a phase I went through of wanting everything REM had ever done pre-Monster. Now I have purchased the CD and this is it. Eponymous is the first Greatest Hits album for REM and was released by IRS Records in 1988 just before the band signed to Warner Brothers for Green. There are rare and previously unreleased tracks on here which make it well worth owning if you're a fan.

• Missy Elliott - This Is Not A Test : Missy Elliott tricked me, damn it. I emerged from a haze of grunge followed by a massive folk stage to rediscover rap. What was around when I emerged, besides The Marshall Mathers LP was Missy's brilliantly funky Pass That Dutch. That made me check this album out and through it get turned onto Jay-Z via the conscious and hard Wake Up. I also found Let It Bump to be deliriously groovy. So of course I went and got Missy's backlog expecting more of the same great tracks... Tricked me big time. Fake R&B bulltish. Still love this one though.

• Mixtape - Where Are They Now? : Hearing the news that Kool Herc was desperately ill and couldn't afford to pay his doctors bills, and also listening to Nas’ Where Are The Now? got me thinking about some of the old school heroes who dropped off the radar long ago. Nas’ great track says: Rap is like a ghost town, real mystic / Like these folks never existed / They the reason that rap became addictive / Play their CD or wax and get lifted. So that’s what I’m doing. I’ve made a mixtape of some of the artists Nas mentions and some he doesn't, and I've put the Nas track on the front. There are some rare and classic tracks here, and you can grab them yourself from the title link above. A full track list is included in the zip file, but some highlights include Biz Markie, The Skinny Boys, Spoonie Gee, the 12" version of Young MC's Principal's Office and C.I.A. who were the first group to feature Dr Dre and Ice Cube.

• Paul Kelly - The A - Z Recordings (Disc Four) : Compared with the first two discs from this eight disc box, I found disc three last week a let down. Not because the tracks weren't great, but because the one or two songs I didn't already know didn't amaze me. Still, the familiar songs are all fantastic, so who am I to whine. With songs as great as I Can't Believe We Were Married and Leaps and Bounds, I'm sure Disc Four will wipe that smug smirk right off my hating face :)

• Bob Dylan - Masterpieces : Last week I realised that in 1997, while I had a record player that needed a belt, I bought a Bob Dylan compilation on vinyl. I had never played it until just the other day. I was so impressed with 1997 coreyj, that I need to buy him a beer. This is the 3 Disc Masterpieces I bought on CD that first got me into his Bobness. From this set of classic Dylan, I obsessed over everything pre-Slow Train Coming and most things post. If you're a casual fan of the man - get this now.
  

Until next week, don't get hung up; stay cool.

Respect and best hopes to the people of Egypt. I wish for you the fair and democratic society you're fighting for and so richly deserve.

"Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed." - Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr

Playlist : November 8th - 12th, 2010

Welcome to another working week of Work Tunes. Maybe the changing weather and a little bit of rain is to blame, but things seem a little twangy and chilled on this week's playlist.

See what I mean:

• R.E.M. - Accelerate : I'm a longtime R.E.M. fan, so this release in 2008 was a big deal. It was a little punchier than they'd been putting out since New Adventures In Hifi, and I was initially in two minds about it. Strangely, I think the first listen was the last one, so I'm dusting it off for a spin.

• The Patty Duke Syndrome - The Patty Duke Syndrome : Ryan Adams' pre-Whiskeytown grungey rock punk band. The band split in 1994 and Whiskeytown formed shortly after. The music on this cobbled together bootleg holds up fairly well. Though he wasn't a founding member, you can hear Adams' influence on the songs and some sound as if they could have made Rock n Roll.

• Paul Kelly - Deeper Water : I'm not yet through with the Paul Kelly kick I've been on of late. This 1995 release was on massive rotation on my stereo when it was new - even cluttered with much louder albums such as In Utero still on constant standby. The raw emotion of I'll Forgive But I Won't Forget and the suburban salt of Anastasia Changes Her Mind are standout tracks for me.

• Bright Eyes - Oh, Holy Fools : I've always been a fan of Bright Eyes' I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning album and other offerings like Noise Floor. This album is a little more subdued and a bit morose, but it's a decent listen none-the-less.

• Josh Rouse - Nashville : After getting hold of a copy of 1972, purely because that was the year I was born, I have since gone and got everything Josh Rouse ever did - including collaboration project She's Spanish, I'm American. I regard Nashville as among the best of all those offerings. Bouncy pop folk like It's The Nightime and mellow soul like Saturday are offset with the sweet, quiet Sad Eyes and Life to make a near perfect set.

• Son Volt - American Central Dust : The band that formed, along with Wilco, when Uncle Tupelo split, Son Volt released this album in 2009. This is their most recent release and features the quite catchy (by their standards) Dynamite and the dirge-like Cocaine and Ashes.

• The Himalayans - She Likes The Weather : Before he gave us the monsterously successful Mr. Jones, Adam Duritz of Counting Crows was in The Himalayans with Mr Jones - Marty Jones, bass player for the band. This album was engineered from demos, studio recordings and radio interviews. The music is a little less radio friendly than Counting Crows and worth checking out whether you're a Crows fan or not.

• Quinine - Regrets Only : Heard about these guys from another blog I frequent. Quinine sound like an edgier Soul Asylum jamming with Toad The Wet Sprocket. Very 90s, a little grimey and not bad at all. This is a 1995 release and I can't seem to find anything else they put out. Bonus points for obscurity, Quinine. If you like 90s music, be sure to check out I Hate The 90s despite its name.

• Front Porch Poets - Off The Record : An always tasty Jazz Hop blog that I follow had a link to this album where the artist was giving away free downloads in a stack of formats. You can grab it yourself from the link on the title here. I've only given it a scan through, but it sounds okay.

• 2Pac - 2Pacalypse Now : I'll confess, I never really got into 2Pac. For one, I was pretty much away from Hip Hop when he came up and secondly, when I did hear him, I was very unfond of gangsta rap. Being a dedicated head though, I want to keep my knowledge of Rap complete, so I'm going to give Pac a go and start at the beginning. One thing I already know is anyone who claims he is the best rapper ever doesn't know their history.

If you've never heard any Josh Rouse, and you like a bit of country tinged pop folk, grab a copy of Nashville, it is well worth checking out.

Until next time, remember : The true revolutionary knows how to wait.