Blackbyrds Clash the Sky Road (February 18th - 22nd)

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.

Well the company website I designed and wrote has launched, so you'd think things would be slowing down for me. But no, now I have a newsletter to make and a conference greedy for collateral to plan.Good thing there's music to get me through the work-a-day grind - which is exactly why I started writing all these lists down.

This week I have quite a few brand new releases, from Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Iceage and Beach Fossils. The ACBs who I'd never heard of, gave their Stona Rosa album away for free, so that is here. I just discovered a fantastic band that the recently deceased Donald Byrd had played in, The Blackbyrds. I also have The Hard Road, which I was certain had been on a hundred lists already, but no. There's J Mascis and early Margot & the Nuclear So and So's; as well as The Smiths and classic Ice-T. 

Check it out:

• The ACBs - Stona Rosa
• Beach Fossils - Clash The Truth
• The Blackbyrds - Happy Music: The Best Of the Blackbyrds
• Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Push The Sky Away
• Ice-T - Power
• The Smiths - Strangeways Here We Come
• Margot & the Nuclear So and So's - The Dust Of Retreat
• J Mascis - Several Shades of Why
• Hilltop Hoods - The Hard Road
  
• Iceage - You're Nothing

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Gil Scott-Heron
2. The Weepies
3. Dinosaur Jr.
4. Wilco
5. Belly

Song of the Week : The Avett Brothers - Live And Die

Yesterday being Valentine's Day, I of course showered my lovely wife with gifts. One of those gifts was a mixtape I threw together on one single premise. We happened to catch a Mumford & Sons clip on Rage last Saturday morning and she mentioned she "liked their sound". So I grabbed a bunch of bands including Mumford and Iron & Wine, Bon Iver and The Avett Brothers and stuck them on a CD to show her there was in fact an actual sound like that going around. I called the mix Folky Hipsters.

Today's SOTW is the track I used to close out the mix. The Avett Brothers - Live and Die which appears on the soundtrack to the film This Is 40. The awfulness of that film being released the year I turned 40 was not lost on me.

The song is pretty upbeat and extra hoedowny with that banjo and the jangly percussion. I thought Mrs Corey J would like it because it is jaunty and she isn't often one for maudlin folk tunes - unlike yours truly.

Ciao for Niao

Thanks for stopping by. I think I'll be catching Django Unchained this weekend, so maybe look for a review soon on MFNM.

Until then, as always, hasala malakim.

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.

Open My Big Cyclone Beach Home (August 6th - 10th)

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.


Guttentag meine kameraden! What's the haps yo? A comfortingly standard week for me this week just gone with a viewing of The Dark Knight Rises thrown in to shake things up. I enjoyed it, but honestly, Mr Nolan sir, EDIT just a little bit eh?

Alright then, let's get right into the tunes. What have I got this week you ask? Well, there's a compilation of songs for the road I picked up from the eBays which looks like it might have been sold at a petrol station; I thought I'd throw in som Jay-Z which made me think of Ice T and the 99 Problems line that Jay-Z stole; I've got some Kiss because, well it's Kiss; sticking with the 70s I've got the first disc of Elton John's remastered greatest hits; I also have volume 1 of Trainspotting because I'm still reading Skagboys (and I will have volume 2 next week); Neko Case is always great; there's Beach House's first album, some Babes In Toyland and finally Big Star thanks to my rediscovery of Thirteen this week.

Check it out:

• VA - Open All Night : On The Road
• Jay-Z In My Lifetime Vol. 1
• Kiss - Dynasty
• Elton John - Greatest Hits 1970 - 2002 (Remastered) (Disc One)
• Babes in Toyland - Nemesisters
• Ice T - Home Invasion
• Neko Case - Middle Cyclone
• Big Star #1 Record
• Beach House - Devotion
• VA - Trainspotting OST (Volume One)

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Cheap Trick
2. The Beatles
3. Snoop Dogg
4. Indigo Girls
5. Divinyls

Song of the Week : Big Star - Thirteen

This week's track comes courtesy of James. In a roundabout way. When he requested the Evan Dando cover of Sam Stone, it made me add Dando's Live At The Brattle Theatre to my playlist.


One of the songs on the album is Thirteen. When I was listening to it this week, I knew I'd heard it before and it must be a cover. At first, I worked out I had heard Wilco do it, but I knew it wasn't a Wilco song. So I looked on the iPod and sure enough Wilco - Thirteen appears on Big Star Small World a tribute LP to Big Star.


I have a copy of Big Star's 3rd, but had never heard #1. So this is Thirteen from that album. I like it for its subtlety. It's a teen rebellion song with a protagonist who sounds like he'd rather sleep than run riot. I like that if you take away the "school" references, there isn't any line that couldn't relate to most people with a generational conflict. So it is the title and the inclusion of school that gives it a great deal of its meaning. Subtle and understated. Not enough of that these days.

Toodle Pip

Thanks for stopping by. Last minute preparation and supplementary gift buying this weekend as Miss 5 becomes Miss 6 on Thursday. She's been given permission to choose the meal for her birthday dinner and she's gone with pizza. I can't argue with that. She didn't say beer, but I'm sure she was thinking it, so I'll just have one to honour her wishes. 


Derby day today. It would be typical of my Eagles to lose this one if everything else goes right for them, like Hawthorn losing already has, so I won't get my hopes up. May the best team (not wearing purple) win.


Go Eagles. Hasala malakim.

Playlist : September 19th - 23rd, 2011

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.

In a really tiresome task, I am still dealing with transferring my music from my iPod, CDs and dodgy hard drive onto my shiny new 2TB drive alotted just for tunes. Not having access to everything is limiting my lists more than is ideal. Regardless, I've grabbbed a stack of tracks and they should see me right.

I'm continuing on with Left of the Dial, with disc 3 up next. There's a few new ones from old favourites Wilco, Tori Amos and Blind Pilot; plus a few I haven't heard in ages like Silverchair's debut. I'm spinning random Ryan Adams side project Sad Dracula, because I'm so excited about Grizzly's new album out soon. Ice T gets a guernsey because I have that classic rap album on order in nice shiny wax form.

Check it out.

• VA - Left of the Dial : Dispatches from the 80s Underground (Disc Three)
• Tori Amos - Night of Hunters
• Wilco - The Whole Love
• Talib Kweli - The Beautiful Struggle
• Ice T - The Iceberg / Freedom of Speech (Just Watch What You Say)
• Blind Pilot - We Are The Tide
• Sad Dracula - Fasterpiece
• Branford Marsalis and Joey Calderazzo – Songs of Mirth and Melancholy
  
• Iron & Wine - Around The Well
• Silverchair - Frogstomp

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Concrete Blonde
2. Whiskeytown
3. Shonen Knife
4. John Lennon
5. Kidz in the Hall

Song of the Week : Shonen Knife - Sheena Is A Punk Rocker

Today’s SOTW is brought to you by those kick ass little ladies from Japan called Shonen Knife. It comes from their latest release Osaka Ramones : A Tribute to the Ramones. I’ve always enjoyed Shonen Knife’s brand of high energy pop punk and on this album, sprinkled liberally all over 13 great Ramones tracks, it is even more amazing than usual.

The best thing about this tribute album is it instantly gives me an all-girl group doing accessible, mostly family-safe songs for my girls to enjoy. I chose Sheena Is A Punk Rocker because the Ramones version is already one of their favourites. They often sing it as Daddy is a Punk Rocker. I like that.

Bye

So that's another working week done and dusted with the weekend in the bag. If you're a West Coast fan, you'll want to be at the game or in front of the tv tonight cheering on the mighty blue and gold. If you're not, you probably want to watch anyway and seethe with bitterness while willing them to lose. Either way, bring it on.

Until next week, don't get hung up man, stay cool. Hasala malakim.

Once again, asalaam alikum brothers and sisters.