Talking Dead White Blowout Relics (September 3rd - 7th)

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.

I'm just writing this all down on a Friday night (no, wait, Saturday morning) before bed. It's taken a while to figure out what I want to hear next week. I still think there'll be changes before I publish this. The list you read below will probably be different to the first one I put down. 

So what have I got so far then? I have Oasis because how long has it been?! There's the recently released B-side compilation from Elbow; also in compilation format, I have the soundtrack to Wayne's World (party time, excellent); in the Rap corner I've got Jay-Z's Black album because it's been a while since I heard it from start to finish and I have Blowout Comb because I can never say no when my brain puts Digable Planets in my head. For something a little gentler I have The Weepies and Sea Wolf. There's some ancient artifacts from Pink Floyd and an EP from Dinosaur Jr. (whose new album comes out soon and I can't wait). Lastly I've chosen Billy Bragg again because I'm in rather a politically indignant mood lately - as you'll see from SOTW below.

Check it out:

• Oasis - What's the Story, Morning Glory?
• Pink Floyd - Relics
• Jay-Z - The Black Album
• Dinosaur Jr.- Whatever's Cool With Me
• Digable Planets - Blowout Comb
• The Weepies - Say I Am You
• VA - Wayne's World OST
• Sea Wolf - White Water, White Bloom
• Billy Bragg - Talking With The Taxman About Poetry
• Elbow - Dead in the Boot

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Ice-T
2. Tracy Chapman
3. Sex Pistols
4. Black Sabbath
5. Pegz

Song of the Week : Tracy Chapman - So

I haven't really had a song step up and present itself for SOTW this week. Whenever that happens, I tend to look for topical happenings that have caught my eye and then find a song to go with it. This week's happening was Gina Reinhart calling for the lowering of the minimum wage and telling ordinary Australians to "get out of the pub" if they wanted to be rich like her. Sorry, but only 200 odd years ago, we would have cut her head off for that.

There were so many songs about clueless, spoilt, rich idiots that I could have picked. Think Common People, Rich Girl, Talkin' About a Revolution, but I chose Tracy Chapman's So. This song is almost Folk music in its purest form. It's political, it's scathing and indignant, yet it's a sweet tune carried by a soothing voice and some smooth ringing chords and a flowing bass.

It was an affront to me to read Gina's words. I have worked minimum wage. And not just as a student living at home; I was even on the dole at one stage and renting a place. Now back then it cost 2 of us a shared $90 a week for a flat on the river, but the dole wasn't that much less than it is now. Anyone claiming that minimum wage should be lowered is insane - or has an agenda, a la Gina.

To be clear, I didn't only choose this because it talks about the rich getting fat. My criticism of Gina has nothing to do with her appearance. It's the unmitigated gall of someone who stepped into a fortune on the pure fact she came out of Lang Hancock's scrotum who thinks she can speak on the value of hard work. I chose it above all the others because of:

"You grind and grind and you push and shove

Claim that those most worthy

Will get what they deserve.

It can't be true.

'Cause I've seen too many hungry faces

I've seen too many of the likes of you."

So yeah, I have a problem with the ruling class :) I still have blue collar bogan blood - what are you going to do?

Addio, Amici

Thanks for stopping by. A happy Father's Day to all the Dads in Australia. I can almost taste the Spanish omelette and bacon tortilla I've been promised for breakfast on Sunday. It really is the little things, isn't it.

Adieu. Hasala malakim.

Leave Magical Elbow Wheels Forever (April 2nd - 6th)

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.


Massive couple of weeks coming up, with Mrs coreyj's birthday, followed by Miss 2 becoming Miss 3 and then it's Easter. Not too long after that I will have been married for 10 years! I'm looking forward to spoiling both my wife and the little one with super dope presents (even if I lost one of them for a day...). Nevermind all that now, onto the music.


To get me through what seems like the eleventy billionth short week this year, I've got (I know, can you believe it) Grayson Hugh because Talk It Over came on the radio at Big W and I had forgotten I used to love that song. I have some Elbow; a Beatles remaster; the latest from Margo & the Nuclear So and So's; a B.I.G. album I didn't know existed (yes, I was late to 90s rap. I'm old school, yo!); Lucinda Williams' acclaimed Car Wheels..; more from Jason Isbell; a Soul band I found on bandcamp, The Revelations; Love's highly-rated Forever Changes and a U2 album that I haven't heard in at least 5 years.


Check it out:

• Grayson Hugh - Blind To Reason
• Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid
• Lucinda Williams - Car Wheels on a Gravel Road
• U2 - All That You Can't Leave Behind
• Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit - Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit
• The Notorious B.I.G. - Life After Death
• The Beatles - Magical Mystery Tour
• The Revelations feat. Tre Williams - An Introduction to The Revelations
• Margot & the Nuclear So and So's - Rot Gut Domestic
• Love - Forever Changes

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Uncle Tupelo
2. Creedence Clearwater Revival
3. Natalie Merchant
4. Hoodoo Gurus
5. MC Shan

Song of the Week : The Shins - Fall of '82

Today's tune is The Shins - Fall of '82. There's no real reason this is my song this week, except that I like the whole of The Shins new record and this track is uptempo, brassy and nostalgic.


For what it's worth, the 'Fall' of '82 was the year I turned 10. Always a big important time in a kid's life. I don't know that this song has captured any part of my tenth year, but there you go. 


Enjoy!

Ciao for Now

That's all folks! Shout out to the mighty West Coast for the start of the AFL season. Go you good things! 




Whatever you do, have fun and be safe.  Hasala malakim.

Playlist August 8th - 12th, 2011

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.

In this week's list, I have a repeat performance from two bands I really enjoyed last week - The Donnas and Elbow. I threw in some classic Prince because a borrowed Weather Report LP had me feeling funky. I also threw in that Weather Report LP. The most recent episode of True Blood featured a great track from Neko Case, so it made me add that album too. The No Boundaries compilation was picked up in an Op Shop for $1, pretty sweet huh? And there's other stuff too. Check it out.

• VA - No Boundaries: A Benefit For The Kosovar Refugees
• Weather Report - Black Market
• Elbow - Build a Rocket Boys!
• The Donnas - Bitchin'
• Q Tip - The Renaissance
• Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin II
• Prince - Prince
• Neko Case - Blacklisted
• Jay Farrar - Sebastapol
• Sound Providers - An Evening With The Sound Providers

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. The Civil Wars
2. The Donnas
3. Eminem
4. Grateful Dead
5. Elbow

Song of the Week : Gotye - Somebody That I Used To Know

This week’s song I almost had to post the YouTube to, because I didn’t have it, but then I realised I’d emailed it to someone and booya! Sent folder baby. That being said, the clip is really cool, so you might want to watch it anyway : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UVNT4wvIGY

This is the newest song from Gotye. I don’t know much about him, I only have Like Drawing Blood and wouldn’t call myself a proper fan. But this track in duet with Kimbra is amazing. Not just for the terrific film clip but for the good old-fashioned melody and rock-ballad-esque intensity. Something about it puts me in mind of 70s Sherbert or Peter Gabriel. Listen when he sings “you didn’t have to stoop so low” or “I guess that I don't need that though”, its very Gabriel. Looking forward to hearing the album. The YouTube clip says its Making Mirrors and out on August 19.

До свидания

That's it for another week. My the time does fly. Thanks for stopping by. This weekend I'll be celebrating Miss 4's graduation to Miss 5 with the adding of sizzle to sausages and trying not to freak out about how fast it has all gone o_O

Asalaam alikum brothers and sisters.

Playlist : August 1st - 5th, 2011

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes. Let's get straight to the music.

Two big losses to the world of music this week in the form of British singer/songwriter Amy Winehouse and Dan Peek of America fame. I had an America compilation on rotation a while back, but I've slotted Winehouse's Back to Black into this week.

Everywhere I go lately, everyone is talking about Elbow, so I've chosen their 2001 debut LP, Asleep In The Back. I might play their most recent effort next week.

Inspired by a question posed online by Harry Allen ("Hip Hop activist and media assassin") about whether Eminem would be considered as great if he were black, I've got Em's breakthrough Slim Shady LP and the whiteboy frat party stylings of Asher Roth, another once-much-vaunted whiteboy rapper.

Finally, amongst other selections, I have one more LP inspired by Revelation - The Best of The Grateful Dead, which I chose thanks to the secret screening on Sunday past - Magic Trip (2011).

But that's not all, so check it out:

• Amy Winehouse - Back to Black
• The Grateful Dead - The Very Best Of The Grateful Dead
• The Donnas - Spend the Night
• Eminem - Slim Shady LP
• Asher Roth - Asleep In The Bread Aisle
• Civil Wars - Barton Hollow
• Deep Purple - Machinehead
• Black Rose Noise - The Manifesto
• REO Speedwagon - Hi Infidelity
• Elbow - Asleep In The Back

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Beck
2. Pentagram
3. Guns N' Roses
4. Midlake
5. INXS

Song of the Week : Charles Bradley & The Menahan Street Band - Stay Away

Spin Magazine put out a free tribute to Nevermind, since this year is the 20th anniversary of its release. Twenty years! Think about that. I clearly remember the first time I held a copy of Nevermind and I distinctly recall my first listen. I’d only heard Teen Spirit at the time and I thought it was great, but I had no inkling of what the whole LP would come to mean to us all.

The Spin tribute features a stack of bands, but most of them do covers that, while very different to Nirvana, still have the same indie rock ethic. I chose this Menahan Street Band cut, because it’s the one track that completely removes the song from its indie hole and turns it into something else entirely. And the coolest thing about this version of Stay Away, is it sounds just like it’s always been a Soul song. Nothing about the lyrics betray the Soul sensibility the way Charles Bradley sings it. I hope you enjoy it. You can DL the whole tribute LP if you haven’t already, here.

Adeus

In the immortal words of the Beastie Boys; that's it, that's all, that's all there is. I have a date with my wife on Saturday morning to go and see Morgan Spurlock's The Greatest Movie Ever Sold and an outing planned for some second hand vinyl and other bric a brac on Sunday.

I hope your collective weekends are copacetic. As always, asalaam alikum.