Twisted Suburban Detroit Skin (August 27th - 31st)

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.

A stock standard busy-as-you-like week at work this week. I got some projects finished, had some finished product delivered and started a couple of new ones. Plus, I'm beginning a restructure of the whole company website, so that is going to be a ton of writing and 'html-ing'. Really looking forward to seeing the fruits of that project up and running. In the meantime, I'll be working away with a bunch of albums on the go.

To start with, there's two soundtracks - one from the Sex Pistiols film and the other from a great rock/road film about Kiss fans. Speaking of rock, I've grabbed a little Sabbath compilation for some good old-fashioned vitamin RAWK. To calm things down, and for the first time in a while, I have Nizlopi and Bob Evans; I've added Celebrity Skin because I watched Hit So Hard last week. There's the self-titled Pretty & Twisted LP from Concrete Blonde's leading lady Johnette Napolitano; I've got some LA rap from Ice-T and some from Melbourne rhymes via Pegz. Topping it all off is some more downtempo beats from SineRider after I enjoyed LEURE last week.

Check it out:

• VA - Detroit Rock City
• Black Sabbath - We Sold Our Soul for Rock 'n' Roll
• Bob Evans - Suburban Kid
• Sex Pistols - The Great Rock n Roll Swindle
• Nizlopi - Half These Songs Are About You
• Ice-T - VI Return of the Real
• Pegz - Axis
• Hole - Celebrity Skin
• Pretty & Twisted - Pretty & Twisted
• SineRider - The Watching Channel

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Billy Bragg
2. Ryan Adams
3. The Bamboos
4. The National
5. The Vaccines

Song of the Week : The Vaccines - Teenage Icon

I'm going with Teenage Icon by The Vaccines because of it's uber catchy chorus. I could have taken any track off of The Bamboos because I have really enjoyed it, but since J gave us one last week, I pick this. 

I don't know much about The Vaccines. They only seem a couple of years old and this is their second lp I think. Besides the catchy chorus, this track has that pop punk sound that was popular late 90s, early 2000s with bands like Living End.

See what you think.

Hooroo

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you found something you might want to listen to. If you check out The Vaccines song from last week, don't say you weren't warned about the catchy chorus. I'm still singing it.

I was going to go to the boat harbour in Hillarys this weekend for some lunch in the sun, but I found out City To Surf is on and there's a heap of road closures. So instead I'll probably stay local and head down to the wharf in Fremantle like I should have in the first place (6.5kms vs 39kms). Still, a change is as good as a holiday and all that. We'll see. 

Go Eagles. Hasala malakim.

Playlist : May 17th - 21st, 2010

Busy weekend this week, so I'm posting my list early. I seem to have gone with mostly somber or smooth tunes that match the weather. So I deliberately added some ruckus at the last minute.

This weeks list looks like this:

• Son Volt - The Search - After I realised the chorus chords to one of my favourite ever songs, Methamphetamine, were DEADEADEAD (spooky) I tweeted it and promptly picked up a new follower who said "I started following you based solely on your mention of Son Volt." So I figured I'd spin the album.

• Gil Scott-Heron - Spirits - I really enjoyed playing Glory last week. Also, the documentary I watched on Heron was excellent. I felt like more of old Gil <~ see what I did there? This album was the first released after the man served time for possessing cocaine. He was released in 1994, same as this album.

• The National - Alligator - As I said last week, too much of The National is not enough right now. Their second to latest release, Alligator was a critical hit and the first real commercial success for the boys from Brooklyn.

• Beck - Sea Change - An old favourite and one that always seems to make an appearance when it gets a little chilly. When it gets really, really cold, watch for Nick Cave.

• Jackson Browne - The Very Best Of... - While listening to a 70s internet radio station last week, I heard a non-single Browne track and it felt right. I am going to look into the man whom I am told writes a mean song beyond those old chestnuts we're used to on 94.5 et al.

• VA - What It Is! Vol. 3 - The third installment in the funky series. I'm loving these grooves of a Friday.

• Eels - End Times - My boss today told me Mr E. likes to write and record in a closet. But this album sounds like it's recorded in the back row of a funeral. Haunted and cracked and fit for a stormy day. Even the guy on the cover looks like he's freezing.

• Hole - Live Through This - Checking... nope, still not dated. This will always be one of my most treasured albums. Listening to the new Hole just reminded me how good this was. Polished and determined and hardcore rawk. Courtney Love : Had it, lost it.

• Nirvana - Singles - The perfect compliment to Live Through This, I chose this increasingly hard to get box set in case the guys at my work wanted a listen and hadn't heard some of the B Sides here. Also, I wanted a nice 90s hug to slip into with Hole and Nirvana. Interestingly, that Amazon link is to a US$146.99 unopened copy. Not that I'd ever sell my open one.

That's it then. It's almost 2am, time for bed. Off out to lunch with @2ompkins for Japanese tomorrow and out with my lovely wife @boobalee_ann to the movies Sunday. You crazy kids take care.