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.

Reasonable April Mothership Shambles (April 15th - 19th)

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.

It's a comparatively chilly Saturday in Perth today and over in Melbourne it's just gone half time at the MCG  in the Melbourne V West Coast match. All I can say about West Coast's game so far is WTF! So let's get on with the music.  

First up, courtesy of NPR, I have a 10 track sampler of new music for April. Also new are the latest from Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Dawes. Some Australian flavour this week too, from punk pioneers The Saints, indie rock heroes Jebediah and unofficial poet laureate, Paul Kelly. Speaking of Punks, I've got a Greatest Hits from John Lydon's PIL. Thanks to Amazon's amazing new retrospectively active AutoRip feature on vinyl (and some creative getting around a geotardation) I have the digital version of one half of my Led Zep Mothership vinyl. Finally, in the Hip Hop corner, jazzy consciousness from De La Soul and gangsta swagger from the King of New York, Jay-Z.

Check it out:

• VA - NPR April Sampler
• Jebediah - Of Someday Shambles
• De La Soul - Buhloone Mind State
• Dawes - Stories Don't End
• Paul Kelly - Ways & Means
• Led Zeppelin - Mothership (LP 1 & LP 2)
• Saints - Know Your Product
• Jay-Z - Reasonable Doubt
• Public Image Ltd - The Greatest Hits, So Far
• Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Mosquito

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Beach Fossils
2. Counting Crows
3. Ryan Adams
4. Elvis Costello
5. Gram Parsons

Song of the Week : Kacey Musgraves - Follow Your Arrow

First up, let me apologise up front for the total cheese of this week's choice. However, I found myself in a situation where it has been the ear worm every single day of the week so far and I thought I'd share the love :)

This is Kacey Musgraves – Follow Your Arrow from an album called Same Trailer, Different Park. That should clue you in to how whitebread and country this girl is. I hadn't heard of her until NPR streamed her album and I thought I'd give it a listen for giggles. Most of it is a Dixie Chicks bluegrass hybrid and pretty bland overall. But this one song, as cheesy as it is, won't let go of my eardrums. 

I suppose I like the sentiment, I quite like her voice and the melody is very catchy. It’s also a little bit of an insight into some contemporary issues for grrrrls, I suppose. See what you think, but don't blame me if it takes hold of your brain too - in the way that annoying jingles can do.

Toodle Pip

Thanks for stopping by. With any luck you'll find some new music this week that changes your life - or just some annoying song you can't get out of your head. It's all good. 

Hasala malakim.

Hardcore Haunted Jazz House (August 13th - 17th)

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.

A momentous week this week with Miss 5 becoming Miss 6. She got to chose her birthday dinner and picked Dominos pizza including (her first) delivery. She seemed ok with the results but I could tell she was a little confused, being used to her Mum's homemade gourmets on stones from the bbq or at the very least woodfired from Blend down the road. 

But enough about cheese and dough and tasty, tasty bacon, you came for the music not food. What's on the menu this week? Lashings of American Hardcore punk; a second helping of both Trainspotting and Elton John; there's a cheeky new jus of Ariel's Pink Haunted Graffiti; the ever faithful Concrete Blonde debut features along with the familiar flavours of Josh Rouse; you'll find hints of Ornette Coleman, with a slab of AC/DC to drink, all topped off with a cleansing dollop of Brand Nubian and De La Soul for dessert. 

Check it out:

• VA - American Hardcore
• VA - Trainspotting OST (Disc 2)
• Elton John - Greatest Hits (Disc 2)
• Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Mature Themes
• Concrete Blonde - Concrete Blonde
• Ornette Coleman - The Shape Of Jazz To Come
• Josh Rouse - Country Mouse, City House
• Brand Nubian - One For All
• AC/DC - Back In Black
• De La Soul - De La Soul Is Dead

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Elton John
2. Babes In Toyland
3. Big Star
4. Jay-Z
5. Neko Case

Song of the Week : AC/DC - Thunderstruck

This week's SOTW, believe it or not, is AC/DC - Thunderstruck. I know, I know, I'm so little of an Ackadacka fan that I copped an arse-whoopin' at high school for giving Who Made Who a bad review in the school paper. But like I said even then, Back In Black is great stuff! 

The story behind my choice is just that someone at work on thursday mentioned one of those SS thunder ute things, another guy starts singing the song and we've all got it stuck in our head. So he wants me to find him a copy to listen to and get it *out* of his head. I didn't have a copy, so I chased down a link on Grooveshark and I listened to it too. 

That relentless riff of squeally tapping, the chant aaaahahahahahahahaah! This song is the big dumb action movie of rock and roll - it's big, dumb and fun. In fact, I'm pretty sure it has appeared in several BDAMs by now. 

So crank this, enjoy it for what it is - sweaty, simple and honest hard rock from Straya.

Seeya

Thanks for stopping by. If you're in Perth, get outside before the rain comes because it is glorious yet again. We're just back from the beach and everything was magnificently smooth and clear. I was hoping for more of a stormy driftwood kind of a vibe, but it's actually quite warm. 

Until next week, be good to each other. Go Eagles. Hasala malakim.

Sail the Dirty Mystic Highway (May 28th - June 1st)

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.


Terrible week this time around tunesters. Lots of hard graft at work and the likely loss of the family pet. But you get by. Music always helps. And here's what I have.


I've slipped in a few Australian classics from AC/DC, Cold Chisel and The Saints. I'll probably have a few more next week. For my Hip Hop fix I've got LL and Plug One and Two of De La Soul. The latest LP from Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band is here, as is a classic from Randy Newman. For a bit of a Soul hit, who better than Sam Cooke and Mavis Staples. Finally, as always a bit of twang from Drive By Truckers.


Check it out:

• Mavis Staples - We'll Never Turn Back
• Conor Oberst and Mystic Valley - One Of My Kind
• AC/DC - Highway To Hell
• Plug One and Plug Two - First Serve
• LL Cool J - Icon
• Cold Chisel - Circus Animals
• Drive By Truckers - Dirty South
• Sam Cooke - The Man and His Music
• Randy Newman - Sail Away
• The Saints - (I'm) Stranded

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Beastie Boys
2. Melissa Etheridge
3. The National
4. Elvis Costello
5. Bob Evans

Song of the Week : Bob Dylan - Things Have Changed

This week I have had a number of songs following me around, which makes it impossible to choose just one. So instead I'll celebrate the 71st birthday of Mr Robert Zimmerman, known to his mates as just plain Bob Dylan. The song I chose is the Academy Award Winning song from Wonder Boys - Things Have Changed.


Apart from being a solid rocking blues song, this track perfectly suited not just the main character of Wonder Boys (who was a disgruntled author with writer's block) but also His Bobness himself. Once upon a time the voice of a generation, the white people's sounding block for the Civil Rights movement, the poster boy for the radical Left; Bob grew up a bit jaded and a little more laid back. We should have seen it coming though, he signposted it in My Back Pages: "But I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now."


Things Have Changed reminds me that we all shift our priorities constantly. Some of the things that seem at some point to mean everything to us, that get us fired up, can wind up seeming trivial at best. Certain things are always going to be worth caring about, but so much of the baggage we carry around could just be jettisoned. Bob's refrain "I used to care, but things have changed" is genius in that it could mean he just doesn't care anymore or that the things around have changed so much, it's hard to know what to care about. 


Happy birthday to Bob, the "savage gift on a wayward bus" Dylan.

So Long

Not much more to say this week. I'll be happy when it's over and I get to try again next week, only this time without the terrible hassles and the grief. 


Thanks for stopping by. 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.