Lovin' Fanfare Saturday Aftershock (November 18th - 22nd)

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.

No list last week because I was off work for two out of five days and I just shuffled my phone and streamed some album previews. I haven't had much of a chance to put this one together, but I'm squeezing it in before swimming.

Thanks to some recommendations, I'm checking out the latest from Of Montreal and some very old Tom Waits. I got hold of the 94 East album featuring Prince and thought I'd give that a spin. The recently released Marshall Maters LP II and a new one from Young Dro are my rap selections. There's a little bit of heavy grind with new albums from Motorhead and Fuzz. I realised the other day that I have no Offspring, so I remedied that with the Greatest Hits. I read good stuff about Johnathon Wilson so I'm giving Fanfare a listen. Lastly, I stumbled across the soundtrack to the very brilliant This Is England (the film, not the equally brilliant This Is England '86 and '88 TV series).

Check it out:

• Jonathan Wilson - Fanfare
• Motorhead - Aftershock
• Of Montreal - Lousy With Sylvianbriar
• Young Dro - High Times
• Eminem - The Marshall Mathers LP II
• 94 East - Lovin' Cup
• VA - This Is England OST
• Fuzz - Fuzz
• Tom Waits - The Heart Of Saturday Night
• The Offspring - Greatest Hits

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Dolorean
2. Indigo Girls
3. Pearl Jam
4. Ryan Adams
5. Pink Floyd

Song of the Week : Evil Eddie - Hungover Again

I didn't have a song picked out because I wasn't paying attention for the three days I was at work, just shuffling my phone all day. I am going with what I woke up with in my head. 

Last night being Thursday, I wouldn't normally drink, but as I'm off until Monday, I figured why the hell not. It's not like I had too much, but I woke up with Hungover Again by Evil Eddie in my head and it won't go away. I wasn't hungover, but I was probably a bit guilty with myself for putting 3 beers down on a school night :)

The song is about a much bigger binge than that. I was never much of a drinker even in my late teens, but I have had a few hangovers in the distant past, so I know the feelings being spoken about. The song itself is pretty melodic as far as raps go. The music behind it too is not the usual beats and samples, but more like a band with a guitar, bass and drum brushes.  The lines that haven't left me alone all day are after the 'apology song' line:

But I can't even write myself a rap
Like this line is crap
Doesn't even rhyme...
And that.

There is no film clip for Hungover on YouTube, so here's a Spotify link:

Bye

There you have it, short and sweet again. I really get a lot of use out of the recommendations of friends, so I hope there's something here that can get your musical groove moving. 

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.

Fuzzed California Desperation Boom (May 27th - 31st)

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.

It's another glorious Perth Spring day in Autumn today after more of the same all week. It's almost torture to be inside writing this, but the Eagles are on anyway. I'm watching while I type on my trusty laptop. 


There are a few bands here that I've only just discovered, or are new. Orgone has a record full of raw rock instrumentals that sound like a 70s cop film soundtrack. Trophy Wife's debut (and probably last, as they've split up) album is a cloud full of dream pop. Oblivions bring a punk rock slant on some indie rock. Balancing out the new bands, there's a few old ones; particularly The Sonics from the 60s and Al Green. There's two compilations again, one full of funk and the other full of that Californian 70s sound. After Daft Punk's big blow up, I decided to listen to Kraftwerk who do it so much better. There's a kooky collaboration between Edie Brickell and Steve Martin with a banjo. Lastly, for a dose of rhyme, there's the Eminem Show.  

Check it out:

• Oblivions - Desperation
• Orgone - Fuzzed Up
• Trophy Wife - Trophy Wife
• Kraftwerk - Electric Cafe
• VA - Take It Easy : The Sound of California
• Steve Martin & Edie Brickell - Love Has Come For You
• The Sonics - Boom
• Al Green - I Can't Stop
• VA - Funk Drops
• Eminem - The Eminem Show

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Otis Redding
2. Talib Kweli
3. Daft Punk
4. The Walkmen
5. Lisa Loeb & Nine Tails

Song of the Week : My Morning Jacket - Leaving On A Jet Plane

I know we all appreciate a good cover done well. This one is done so well that I mistook it for a cover from the 70s, the era the song was written.

From the recent tribute to John Denver, My Morning Jacket perform Leaving On A Jet Plane. Before I heard the album, I slipped a few of the songs I know the originals of onto a playlist for a road trip. When this one came on, I thought it was strange that I had an old cover of it on my iPod, until I found out it was MMJ.

I think what gives it such an authentic sound is the mix. The heavy reverb on the vocals and the jangling ring of the guitars just sounds so much like that easy listening 70s sound. The song itself is a little maudlin, but I am impressed with the way the essence of it and the time period it lived in has been captured so well. Perhaps it’s awed hush is a note of respect to Denver who we all know died in a plane crash. It actually opens the tribute album and it sets the tone nicely.

Adios

If you get a chance, have a listen to Orgone - Fuzzed Up, especially if you're a fan of 70s cinema. It really does sound like an excellent cop movie while being a great listen with some hard grooves. I've had it playing wile cooking and that works, but it should really be great to work to. 

Hasala malakim.

Blonde Celebrity Kingdom Revolution (February 25th - March 1st)

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.

Just back from a haircut to hurriedly throw this all together. Seems I have to hurry through everything at the moment with so many deadlines going around. Be that as it may, there's always time for music.

A couple of Best Ofs this week from folk rocker Tim Easton and 80s icon Pat Benatar. There's a grimy old Dinosaur Jr. and a more saccharine Cranberries debut. I found an Eminem bootleg and I'm spinning Jay-Z for a rap fix. Thanks to Clay5 I have my number 1 favourite Bob Dylan album. There's the Forrest Gump soundtrack courtesy of my Aunt who gave me all her CDs. It's been a while, so Out of Time is here; and lastly, something new from Atoms For Peace.

Check it out:

• Tim Easton - Before the Revolution
• Eminem - Trailer Park Celebrity
• Dinosaur Jr - You're Living All Over Me
• Pat Benatar - The Very Best Of Pat Benatar
• The Cranberries - Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We?
• Atoms For Peace - Amok
• R.E.M. - Out Of Time
• Bob Dylan - Blonde on Blonde
  
• VA - Forrest Gump
• Jay-Z - Kingdom Come

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Hilltop Hoods
2. Eminem
3. Beach Fossils
4. Sonic Youth
5. The Whitlams

Song of the Week : The Blackbyrds - Happy Music

I'm horridly pushed for time at the moment. So I'm picking a rushed SOTW but still a good song. 

In early February, jazz trumpeter Donald Byrd died aged 83. Byrd (not that one) played with a bunch of greats like Hank Mobley, Art Blakey and even Coltrane. He was one of the pioneers of taking the jazz horn section and turning it into funk and soul.  

What I didn't know is that a bunch of the students he taught at Howard formed their own funk/fusion band The Blackbyrds in 1973. When I read that in an obit, I checked them out via a Best Of compilation.

I chose Happy Music from the best of, because of our talk last week about maudlin songs. It seems appropriate and it's a really kick-arse funky track for a Friday afternoon.

Arrivederci

Did I mention I think I saw Poh Ling Yeow down the shops? She's cute and affable, but I'm not enough of a fan to bother her for a photo. Was pretty cool to see her though. She's probably home now marveling at how she saw me and didn't want to bother me. Probably.

Peace out homes. Hasala malakim.

Pink Moon Summerteeth Hideaway (February 11th - 15th)

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.

It's a hot one this weekend in Perth. I'm enjoying the relatively mild 37 today before we hit 42 tomorrow apparently. I haven't cranked the airconditioner yet, but it is imminent. Right after I finish writing all this down.

This week I have a couple of selections inspired by some recent vinyl purchases - from Joni Mitchell and Television (Yes! they finally reissued Marquee Moon on vinyl and one of my long time white whales is GOT). There's the final disc of the Gil Scott-Heron compilation, as well as a Wilco favourite. A recent documentary viewing has inspired Wish You Were Here and I've slotted in Belly - Star for a hit of nostalgia. And speaking of nostalgia, there's Bat Out Of Hell II - don't you judge me! Finally, two bonafide classic albums from the greatest and probably the second or third greatest rapper ever - B.I.G. and Eminem.

Check it out:

• Gil Scott-Heron - The Revolution Begins (Disc 3)
• The Notorious B.I.G. - Ready To Die
• The Weepies - Hideaway
• Television - Marquee Moon
• Meatloaf - Bat Out of Hell II
• Joni Mitchell - Court and Spark
• Wilco - Summerteeth
• Belly - Star
• Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
  
• Eminem - The Marshall Mathers LP

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Gil Scott-Heron
2. Jurassic 5
3. Jesse Malin
4. José James
5. Veronica Falls

Song of the Week : Local Natives - Black Balloons

I don't know much about this band other than people have been raving about the album. So I decided to check it out and it is pretty good. 

The song I picked, Black Balloons is a bit much of a Bon Iver derivative, but Local Natives have infused that distinctive sound with a bit more rock by adding a bit of grunt on the drums. But the layered vocal harmonies and especially the main riff sound like a Bon Iver royalty cheque. Not everything on the album sounds that way though and it's a good listen if you haven't already. See what you think.

Toodles

There you have it. Thanks for stopping by. 

Enjoy your weekend people. Wherever you are, I hope the fun, the tunes and the laughs are free flowing. 

Hasala malakim.

Sugar Sweet Fables of Sea Police (June 25th - 29th)

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.


What a busy week it's been at work. I've been busy on several projects at once and have barely had time to think about anything else. Which makes deciding what to listen to a bit trickier than usual. But never fear, because music inspiration is all around and eventually there's a list to be made. 


This particular list began with a bit of The Cure, because I've been reading Skagboys and obsessing over 80s music. The Police made it for the same reasons. I finally updated my cassette copy of REM Fables, so that's here. I'm continuing on with the Sugar Hill and James Brown compilations. I'm not over my hardcore trip yet, so I added the Circle Jerks. How long has it been since you heard My Name Is?! Slim Shady is here. For some new tunes, I've got the Bon Iver iTunes session and something from Daughn Gibson. Lastly, there's an old faithful compilation in Sweet Relief II.

Check it out:

• R.E.M. - Fables of the Reconstruction
• VA - The Sugar Hill Story : To The Beat Ya'll (Disc 3)
• Daughn Gibson - All Hell
• Circle Jerks - Group Sex
• James Brown - Star Time Disc 2
• Eminem - The Slim Shady LP
• The Police - Zenyatta Mondatta
• VA - Sweet Relief II
• Bon Iver - iTunes Session
• The Cure - Staring At The Sea (The Singles)

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Meat Puppets
2. Bad Brains
3. Beck
4. A Tribe Called Quest
5. Get Smart!

Song of the Week : The Cure - Let's Go To Bed

This week I started reading Skagboys, Irvine Welsh's prequel to Trainspotting. It's set in the early to mid 80s where Renton has passed his punk phase and is tiring of his Northern Soul phase. There is a lot of music explicitly referred to in the book and it's mostly new wave. People like John Swan the drug dealer listen to 60s stuff like The Doors. Even before I started reading the book and found out how musical it was, I started doing this really nerdy thing where I make 80s genius lists to be the soundtrack to my reading.


So this week's song is one that turned up on one of those. I remember really loving this song, on this 80s compilation, as an 11 year old with no idea who The Cure were. While I was hip enough to dig on Grandmaster Flash, my music tastes were hardly refined back then, with me listening to the Top 40 on 6pm AM radio. All the kids in my class were into the 80s pop of the time (Wham!, Duran Duran, Flock of Seagulls etc). So we all had these compilations and on this one, Let's Go To Bed was my favourite song. I didn't even understand it, I don't think. It just sounds great. 


When I read Skagboys, this UK 80s gothic sound is the overwhelming tone in my head. Even if the jukeboxes are playing songs like Too Shy and The Message.

Bye Bye

Thanks for stopping by. My birthday was fantastic, thanks for asking. It was good to see the fam and get some good nosh in together. My sister and brother in law were kind enough to slip me Mad Max 2 and Blow on Bluray along with the latest Best Coast. Saved me buying them. I also got some butterscotch schnapps, but the less said about that, the better.


That's it for another week. Where does the time go?! Be good to each other, kids.


Go Eagles. Hasala malakim.

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.

Playlist : May 30th - June 3rd, 2011

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes - brought to you without the amazing power of lazer beams!

On this week's playlist, I've got a couple of albums I want to buy on vinyl from U2 and Bob Dylan; an REM classic thanks to @bobearth mentioning it on Twitter, some Black Box Recorder I grabbed because I'm a fan of their Andrew Ridgely track, Gillian Welch because she has a new album out soon, early BDP because of a discussion about where Hip Hop started and Viva Hate because of Ryan Adams and Dave Rawlings' argument that opens Heartbreaker. Plus some other stuff.

This is it here:

• U2 - Achtung Baby
• R.E.M. - Automatic For The People
• Bob Dylan - Bringing It All Back Home
• Eminem - Encore
• VA - Spin Magazine June 2011
• Black Box Recorder - England Made Me
• Morrissey - Viva Hate
• Boogie Down Productions - By All Means Necessary
• Nick Cave - The Boatman's Call (Remastered)
• Gillian Welch - Hell Among the Yearlings

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Anthony Da Costa
2. The Rural Alberta Advantage
3. Tim Easton
4. Seapony
5. Bon Iver

Song of the Week : Anthony Da Costa - Love Is Not Enough

One of my Perth Twitter peeps, who is a massive Whiskeytown/Adams fan asked me last week if I knew Anthony Da Costa’s music. I didn’t. In her words, he sounds like “Heartbreaker era Ryan” She wasn’t kidding. This is almost a case of Radams pretending to be someone else. That of course isn’t a good thing for Mr Da Costa, but I have only heard this one album, there are more. Dylan sounded just like Woody Guthrie on debut, so let’s give Da Costa the benefit of the doubt. My twitter buddy is hooking me up a mix.

This song, Love Is Not Enough, as well as sounding like Grizzly, is pretty well written and features a decent acoustic guitar fill with a fiddle and piano lines. It’s got a catchy chorus that I’d be singing except I’m too busy thinking ‘Damn this guy sounds like Ryan Adams”. Enjoy.

Ciao For Niao
That's all you get this week kids. Thanks for playing. May the tunes you love be fruitful in the belly of your headphones... or something.