Like The Very Easy Dawn (October 14th - 18th)

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.

Just back from a charity breakfast with the Wilderness Society and a spot of shopping. Last week's relaxing day at the supermarket was more than made up for by the mad rush that was today. Ah well, the Universe is in balance now I guess. 

Speaking of balance, I'm not sure if I got this list right, but I'll give it a go. I've been meaning to stick Brother Ali's Us on again for a while and finally have. The same goes for Easy Tiger and Dressed Up Like Nebraska which I haven't heard in some time. A recent purchase from Soul Asylum gets a gig, as does the latest from Pearl Jam. For a bit of a crazy interlude, there's Devo and Pink Floyd. Another volume of Street Sounds Hip Hop is here and I've got some early Justin Townes Earle. Finally, disc one of a two disc set of the Essential Bill Withers will make for some nice soul. 

Check it out:

• Bill Withers - The Essential Bill Withers (Disc 1)
• Brother Ali - Us
• Josh Rouse - Dressed Up Like Nebraska
• Ryan Adams - Easy Tiger
• Pink Floyd - The Piper At The Gates of Dawn
• Devo - Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo
• Pearl Jam - Lightning Bolt
• Soul Asylum - Playlist: The Very Best of Soul Asylum
• VA - Street Sounds Hip Hop 17
• Justin Townes Earle - The Good Life

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. The Lemonheads
2. Justin Townes Earle
3. The Breeders
4. Slackwax
5. Pulp

Song of the Week : The Head and the Heart - Another Story

I had a song picked out on Tuesday and then one turned up yesterday and took its place. This is from the new The Head and the Heart album, which I streamed yesterday. I have their self-titled album (which I think is their first) and it’s far more upbeat and poppy than this song, as is the rest of this new album. This song, Another Story is introspective with a quietly beautiful melody. 

The way I interpret this song is it’s about tragedy and the way people respond to it. Not necessarily personal tragedy, but the abstract, ‘out there’ tragic stories of the day. A car bomb, a neglected child, plane crashes and the like. It’s about how we hear these things, we feel like everything has gone to hell, and then we quickly suck it up and go on. It also puts forth that nothing will change – not the propensity for tragedy to happen and not the fact that there’s also love in the world.  In the Soundcloud app I was streaming from, someone commented that it was about the Sandy Hook shootings. I don’t know if that’s true, but it makes sense. I think if it is true, it’s about Sandy Hook as part of a bigger metaphor for big tragedies. 

There’s a video on YouTube that I found and which sold me on this track as SOTW. Firstly because of the landscape and urban images in it and secondly because the lyrics are all over it, which helps highlight their importance. You can watch that here if you like

Farvel

We've decided to break the year long seal on the barbecue tonight and cook up a sizzle with some salad. Looks like it might be too cold to eat it outside yet though. 

And I've just realised you could care less what I have for dinner tonight. Just make with the music monkey man. Nah, just kidding, you're alright. 

Hasala malakim.

Real Silver River Ace (September 16th - 20th)

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.

Let's make this quick, shall we? I think I want to play some GTA IV while the kids are in the lounge watching The Little Mermaid for the hundredth time on a squally post swimming Winter's day. 

There's a bit of noise this week; firstly from Motorhead, then from Kim Gordon's Body/Head project and finally from psychedelic lo-fi rock band Sebadoh. The last two albums are new releases. Also new is The Silver Gymnasium from Okkervil River. For some albums I haven't spun in a while, I have Things of Stone and Wood, Real Estate and Eminem's Encore (picked because the new Eminem album is coming soon). Another rap album added to the list is one of my top 10, Brother Ali's The Undisputed Truth. Last of all, because I've been reading all about their exploits in a Punk history book I have, The Velvet Underground and The Stooges are here. 

Check it out:

• Motorhead - Ace Of Spades
• Things of Stone and Wood - The Yearning
• Brother Ali - The Undisputed Truth
• The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground & Nico
• The Stooges - The Stooges
• Body/Head -  Coming Apart
• Real Estate - Days
• Eminem - Encore
• Okkervil River - The SIlver Gymnasium
• Sebadoh - Defend Yourself

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Nine Inch Nails
2. Van Halen
3. Dolorean
4. Belle and Sebastian
5. Talib Kweli & Hi-Tek

Song of the Week : The Velvet Underground & Nico - Femme Fatale

This week's song could only have come from one ragtag mix of artists and visionaries - the gang at Warhol's Factory. I'm reading Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk and the seeds of punk music as we know it were sown by The Velvet Underground. I have a smart playlist on my iPod which randomly picks Velvets, Stooges, Bowie, Dylan and Lou Reed songs for a Factory vibe and that's all I've been hearing at night lately.

Andy Warhol, lovable kook that he was, told the Velvet Underground that they needed a girl singer. Someone that the audience could fall in love with. Someone with an idiosyncratic voice that nobody could forget. He chose Nico. My SOTW is her and the Velvet Underground with Femme Fatale. I have seen footage of her looking gorgeous, but in this clip I don't see it.

The song itself is one Lou Reed wrote about Edie Sedgwick at Warhol's request. The irony being that Sedgwick was Andy's golden girl until Nico took that muse mantle from her - and to hear the others tell it, Edie just quietly disappeared from the Factory crowd until in 1971 she died of a barbiturate overdose. 

This is a classic melody and probably should be considered one of 'those' songs - you know, in the univeral lexicon of pop tunes. I've heard it covered a dozen times but you can always tell which is Nico - so I guess Andy got that bit right.

Auf Wiedersehen 

Whatever you're up to this weekend, I hope the weather where you are is more hospitable than it is in Perth at the minute. If you're a Perthie then yeah, good luck with that. 

Hasala malakim.

Hurry Sing Trouble Pilgrim (June 10th - 14th)

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.

I'm just back from the Program Launch of the 2013 Perth Revelation Film Festival after checking out The Deep. Quite an enjoyable film, shot tremendously well. Check it out if you like Icelandic films based on the true life events of a fishing boat tragedy at sea. I think I'd have structured it differently; but what would I know? I'll just get on with the music, shall I?
  
Again this week I've got a couple of artists I've never heard before in Laura Mvula and City and Colour. The other new album this time around is from The National. There's some old, old releases from Pixies and Sonic Youth, as well as a late career release from Concrete Blonde.Two compilations will be on rotation, a Tour Of Duty soundtrack and one of my favourites from KCRW, Rare On Air. Repping Hip Hop for the week, there's two legends in Mos Def (now Yasim Bey) and Brother Ali. 

Check it out:

• Laura Mvula – Sing To The Moon
• Concrete Blonde - Mexican Moon
• VA - The Best of Tour of Duty
• Mos Def - The New Danger
• Brother Ali - The Truth Is Here
• Pixies - Come On Pilgrim
• Sonic Youth - Sonic Youth
• City and Colour - The Hurry and the Harm
• VA - KCRW: Rare On Air Vol. 1
• The National - Trouble Will Find Me

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Boards of Canada
2. The Church
3. Pink Floyd
4. Blondie
5. Bob Evans

Song of the Week : J Geils Band - Freeze Frame

My song this week is just a bit of fun that was conjured up by my roller skating trip on Sunday. As a bit of background, from the time I was about 9 to the time I was 14 and got serious about skateboarding, I was a roller skater. I took actual lessons in figure skating when I was about 11 - 12 down at Kwinana’s then number 1 teen hang out – Astroskate. After each lesson at Astroskate, there’d be a free skate session on a Saturday afternoon. When I’d moved into speedskating, Sunday at 2pm was the session to be at (where a young lad could meet and snowball with lots of likely lasses).

Throughout my time as a roller skater, a few songs were absolute mainstays to certain parts of the session – such as J Geils Band – Freeze Frame  and The Angels – Take a Long Line for speed skate. Imagine my surprise down in Cockburn on Sunday when this song from the was the song of choice for the speed skate session. I know that roller skating is kind of the sport that time forgot, but I was really surprised that the people who control the music were playing Beiber and Psy and all that garbage but still holding onto their staples (Ne Order – Blue Monday in particular).

The only other song by J Geils Band that I know is Centrefold and that got flogged to death at Astroskate too. I’m not sure what this one is really about, other than a model(?!) but I never considered it either while whizzing around the blue concrete wearing my Adidas footy boots with shiny blue trucks and some wheels that were the business back then but who’s name I can’t even recall now. Enjoy!

Ciao 

That's it for this week. If you're a movie person, run on over to the Revelation site and check out the program. Even if you're a music person, there's a bunch of great music docs playing this year; including the Big Star documentary and the one on the late Oz Hip Hop legend, Hunter.

Hasala malakim.

Purple Highway Sugaring Trees (October 1st - 5th)

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.

Big Saturday today with the AFL Grand Final on and the long weekend under way. I watched the Swans deservedly win an epic football battle and not long after my TV decided that it wasn't fixed any more. So I spat the proverbial and bought another one online. Free delivery in 4 to 5 working days. You have to love the Internet. It's 3D and all, so I threw a 3D Bluray player in for good measure. I look forward to hundreds of hilarious viewings of Piranha 3DD.

I have a whole bunch of new albums this week, namely from Ben Folds Five, Brother Ali, Beth Orton and finally, Mumford & Sons. For something old, there's Deep Purple's monster hit In Rock, as well as Devo's Freedom of Choice. I'm still on my latest Sonic Youth kick, so I grabbed a Thurston Moore solo effort from 2006. Cameron Crowe's grunge era pop culture zeitgeist, Singles, turned 20 last week, so the soundtrack is here. Paul Kelly (for like 2 minutes) on TV for the Grand Final is the reason why Foggy Highway is here. Rounding it all off with a dose of old skool nostalgia thanks again to Art of Rap, a Def Jam compilation from 2001.

Check it out:

• Ben Folds Five - The Sound of the Life of Mind
• VA - Singles OST
• Brother Ali - Mourning in America and Dreaming In Color
• VA - Def Jam 1985-2001: History of Hip Hop, Vol. 1
• Devo - Freedom of Choice
• Beth Orton - Sugaring Season
• Paul Kelly & the Storm Water Boys - Foggy Highway
• Deep Purple - In Rock
• Thurston Moore - Trees Outside the Academy
• Mumford & Sons - Babel

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Sonic Youth
2. Eric B & Rakim
3. Pearl Jam
4. The xx
5. Band Of Horses

Song of the Week : The Replacements - Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out

For my song of the week, I'm going with the hysterically coincidental track from Let It Be - no, not that one, The Replacements' one. I had put Let It Be on my weekly list without remembering that there's a track on there called "Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out". 

As you know, my little 'Tommy' got her tonsils out this week too. I am happy to report that they were not "rip rip!" ripped out. The operation itself was over and done with rather quickly, but I'm sure all care was taken. This track is even in keeping with the car theme, because the doctor has his Cadillac running. 

You can hear in this song all the elements of LA Hardcore punk which was big at the time, but of which The Replacements aren't really exponents. I've chosen it for the coincidence and nothing more. I hope you get a giggle.

Onward to Victory

Thanks for stopping by. If you are a Sydney Swans fan (and not one of the Victorian bandwagon hoppers who refers to your team as "The Bloods"), congratulations. Hawks fans, commiserations; as an Eagles supporter, I know how it feels to lose to the Swans in a close one. Please, tell your team to rest on their laurels and not use their hunger for a flag to destroy us all in 2013. Thank you. 

Hasala malakim.

Playlist September 26th - 30th, 2011

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.

Sad news on the band front this week with R.E.M. announcing they've broken up. I put the first Best Of compilation from IRS in this week's list because it is my number 1 desert island disc. When Out Of Time was huge, I was riding buses to Uni with that and this almost permanently stuck in my ears. R.E.M. were a great band who did everything their own way. Fame and fortune took a long time because they refused to play by the rules. While they probably represented dinosaur rock in their later years, they were at heart Indie as hell.

I was also saddened that I couldn't connect with the latest offering from Tori Amos. Maybe I just don't dig the classical vibe. I've added Little Earthquakes so as not to forget what's so great about our Ellen. Along with disc 4 of Left of the Dial, I've added two other compilations; the soundtrack from a great film I saw recently, Once, which features the band The Swell Season, as well as Live On Letterman, a collection of Late Show performances.

A dose of Camera Obscura and the last Brother Ali album, plus some Sly to keep it funky and here's what you get:

• VA - Left of the Dial : Dispatches from the 80s Underground (Disc Four)
• Tori Amos - Little Earthquakes
• Sly & The Family Stone - A Whole New Thing
• VA - Live on Letterman : Music From the Late Show
• Camera Obscura - Let's Get Out Of This Country
• Brother Ali - Us
• VA - Once OST
• Gram Parsons - GP
  
• REM - The Best of REM (IRS)
• Bjork - Telegram

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Iron & Wine
2. Tori Amos
3. Sad Dracula
4. Talib Kweli
5. Marvelous Mag

Song of the Week : R.E.M. - (Don't Go Back To) Rockville

The best bands will always be an integral part of your life for a time or for always. Your favourite songs will always resonate with a moment of your life whether by being the soundtrack or by having lyrics that feel custom written. The really, really loved songs will always have a story. This one’s got two.

The first comes from the REM bio I have called It Crawled From The South. The story goes that Rockville was originally a faster, almost metal thrasher and the producer for the album really wanted it to make the cut. So REM being REM decided to switch it to this style and put it on.

The second story is about a guy who was chasing the object of his unrequited high school affections. Every year something would delay this guy and his intended from getting it together. When the perfect time came to make a case and ask her out, she decided she was going to go teach in the country.

Cue boy on bus to Uni playing Rockville over and over… “Don’t go back to Rockville and waste another year.” Cue the sour grapes of “It’s not as though I really need you.” Cue the empty threats of “Walk home to an empty house, sit around all by yourself”. Cue the insulting “I believe you’ll be coming back before too long.” This song is not the only REM song to have meant something so personal to me over the years, but it’s my favourite of all of them.

Over and Out

There's another week worth of listening for you. Thanks for stopping by.

Earlier tonight I caught a special event screening of Nirvana Live At Paramount to mark the 20th anniversary of the release of Nevermind. If you're a fan of the band, or even just of good and raw live music, I highly recommend you head over to getmusic and grab a copy. It was an amazing concert and the sound in the cinema was incredible, so grab the bluray and use your swanky home theatre system.

Good luck to my football team this weekend. I am sorry to say that they will very much need it. Regardless, you will not hear me complain about their effort and dedication this year. Well done Eagles, I forgive you for 2010.

Until next week, all power to the people and hasala malakim.

Playlist July 11th - 15th, 2011

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.

This week's list has a little bit of a classic rock vibe. I think that has something to do with my slow and steady descent into Audiophile hell. There's no denying that rock music had a certain sound to it in the 70s and that was largely to do with wanky audiophile sound engineers and the nerdy audiophiles who collected records and built great component systems. And the quality of the music, of course.

So what I've got is some classic, remastered Queen, some Steve Miller, a Stax compilation, ABC from the Jackson 5 (that I recently bought my oldest daughter for her 5th birthday on vinyl), two of my favourite Hip Hop LPs from Brother Ali and Pegz, plus some early Ratcat and U2. I threw in the new The Grates and a Rickie Lee Jones for good measure :

• Queen - A Night at the Opera
• Jackson 5 - ABC
• VA - Stax Gold : Memphis Hits
• The Grates - Secret Rituals
• U2 - October
• Brother Ali - The Undisputed Truth
• Steve Miller Band - Fly Like An Eagle
• Rickie Lee Jones - Evening Of My Best Day
• Pegz - Drama
• Ratcat - Inside Out

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Gillian Welch
2. Nightmares on Wax
3. Son Volt
4. Bias B
5. The Autumn Defense

Song of the Week : Sex Pistols - God Save The Queen

Because this week has been so stressful, everything has pretty much played as wallpaper to my crappy days. I haven’t really heard anything apart from in the car and at home. Earlier in the week while riding the exercise bike in my office, I watched a DVD I have of a Classic Albums episode – this one on the Sex Pistols – Never Mind the Bollocks. It’s a great episode and I recommend you search it out if you haven’t seen it. You can tell by the interviews and the old footage that the Pistols were just a bunch of ratbag kids who were only in it for a laugh, while McLaren was a business man who saw dollar signs in everything but in particular controversy.

This week’s SOTW is a song that clearly made #1 in the UK but was never recorded as such because it was banned. When the papers would list it in the charts, the title and artist would be blacked out or left off completely. I chose this song because it’s astounding nowadays to think it would cause so much controversy. A bunch of National Front members beat up on the band and the sound engineers at a pub because of the song. If you listen to it though, now it’s virtually safe to play to kiddies. Not even NINs controversial Closer raises much of an eyebrow now. And maybe, just maybe, that’s why rock is dead – because nobody can set the world on fire with any shocking ideas any more. Damn you Internet… damn you all to HELL!

TTFN

This weekend is a long one for me, as my very generous employer has given us all Monday off as reward for hard work. I'll be making the most of my surprise break with a trip to the Zoo with the munchkins and the wife. It better not rain!

Whatever you're doing, I hope it's a lot of fun. Peace man, right on.