Quiet Midnight Mellow FUNK (December 2nd - 6th)

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.

Today's Work Tunes is coming to you from the comfort of my loungeroom on my laptop. It's been a typically busy late November Saturday today and I've only just had time to sort some tunes out. I'm in the lounge watching The Living Room (a pretty crappy lifestyle program from Channel 10) just to see Ben Stiller and the Walter Mitty preview. It looks good. 

The Greek scented soundtrack of my favourite film for 2013 is here. I've decided to give the newest Adam Ant album a listen, as well as something from Keller Williams evocatively titled FUNK. A bit of a sidetrack through power ballads this week has led to a Chicago best of and Guns n Roses Lies. Thanks to Clay 5, there's an early INXS classic. Paul Kelly and Neil Finn together have a new album and the first disc is playing this week. For some rap, there's a Band Camp freebie from Mellow and an MTV compilation of old school stuff. Last up this week I've got the first disc of MJ's This Is It. 

Check it out:

• VA - Before Midnight OST
• Keller Williams - FUNK
• Adam Ant - Adam Ant Is the BlueBlack Hussar in Marrying the Gunner's Daughter
• Michael Jackson - This Is It (Disc 1)
• Mellow - The Quiet Ones
• Chicago - Greatest Hits
• INXS - Underneath The Colours
• VA - Hip Hop Back In The Day
• Neil Finn and Paul Kelly - Goin' Your Way (Disc 1)
• Guns n' Roses - Lies

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. U2
2. Keb' Mo'
3. Illy
4. John Lennon
5. Counting Crows

Song of the Week : Def Leppard - Love Bites

On the weekend, in the car, Def Leppard's Love Bites played from a shuffled playlist and Mrs CoreyJ and I had the following conversation (pretty much):

Her: I love this song! I like those songs that... what do you call it when...
Me: Wuss Rock?
Her: Yeah! Wuss Rock. I love it when they really sound like they mean it.
Me: That's a power ballad. You like power ballads.

So I made her a CD for the car of a few power ballad pearls. You can see the list on Spotify at spotify:user:1231117449:playlist:2FNd0XYnESXAJWoOFq1iFV

What I like about this kind of tune, and I think what Mrs CoreyJ was thinking, is how they're so cheesy and so cliché and meaningless, but you'd never know it by the treatment they get. The impassioned singing, the swelling growl of big heavy guitar chords, epic orchestration, the works. If you didn't speak English and you heard one, you would swear the lyrics were great works of literature - or else why would they sound so epic?! 

I do remember when this song was released when I was in high school. It was one of those songs that the 'chicks' and the 'dudes' liked. And if you had a girlfriend/boyfriend at the time, it meant this song was like, really deep you know? Like it really spoke to you and that? Yeah. Good times :)

Rock out with your socks out folks.

Adieu

With my list finished, it's almost time to take the kids to swimming lessons. No rest for the wicked, hey?

Hasala malakim.

10 Nebraska Gemini Killers (November 19th - 23rd)

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.

It's Friday night and I'm getting this all done now before a big weekend visiting the In Laws. They have a lovely 5 acre patch of bushland but hardly any 3G coverage. I'm hoping to get in a bit of kayaking on the lake while I'm there, so that should keep me distracted from the Internet. Keeping me from getting distracted at work next week, I've got some sweet, sweet tunes.

I have the vast dichotomy of a collection of Ice Cube songs and Springsteen's homemade classic, Nebraska. A classic also from The Lemonheads. Because @sunky got me thinking about Wild Nothing, I'm playing Gemini; Los Angeles from LA punks X is here; you can thank Metal Evolution again for Van Halen. The final disc from The Motown Years is here, as is an Us3 album I only recently found. Patterson Hood, Drive-By Trucker is here with a solo effort. And last of all, as a tribute to the band's announcement that they've played their last show (some would say, thankfully) I have the 25th anniversary edition of INXS - Kick.

Check it out.

• Bruce Springsteen - Nebraska
• The Lemonheads - Come On Feel The Lemonheads
• X - Los Angeles
• INXS - Kick 25th Anniversary
• Van Halen - Van Halen
• Us3 - Questions
• Michael Jackson - The Motown Years (Disc 3)
• Patterson Hood - Killers and Stars
• Wild Nothing - Gemini
• Ice Cube - 10 Great Songs

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Cody ChesnuTT
2. Mumford & Sons
3. Paul Kelly
4. Alice Cooper
5. Wild Nothing

Song of the Week : Cody ChesnuTT - 'Til I Met Thee

If you haven't already heard it, check out the new Cody ChesnuTT album, Landing On A Hundred. It's packed full of some really funky soul. 

The only other ChesnuTT track I knew before this was Look Good In Leather, which is funky as hell, but not very serious and soulful. The tunes on this album seem to borrow from all over the Soul spectrum, grabbing Stevie Wonder style rhythms here and there, Sam Cooke crooning and on my SOTW, Marvin Gaye's horns.

The song is 'Til I Met Thee and I am sure you will hear the Marvin Gaye all over it. There's the horn section and the doo wop backing as well as the smooth bass and the layer on layer of instrumentation. I guess ChesnuTT picked it up too, because he seems to be trying to channel Marvin through his voice as well. 

Adios

Thanks for stopping by. May this weekend be the one you have that epiphany you've been waiting for; and may you get as much of a lie in as you need.

Hasala malakim.

Seriously Liquid Chairlift Pass (March 19th - 23rd)

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.


Good tidings to you fellow tunesters. It's been another fairly uneventful week with just the one exception - new iPad! Unfortunately, this lovely piece of new technology comes with the bittersweet realistion that it is for a very frightening milestone birthday in June. I won't say what milestone that is, but let's just say my life will begin...


On to the music and let us never speak of birthdays again. To ease my pain and also show my age, I have some Saturday Night Fever; some INXS and some Phil Collins. Having just seen Scorsese's brilliant George Harrison documentary, I've plugged All Things Must Pass in. There's some old school rap from Queensbridge legend MC Shan and some GZA thanks to a workmate. Also from a workmate I have Chairlift. Spin put out a free compilation of SXSW 2012 acts and that's here and it's all rounded off nicely with Iggy Pop.


Check it out:

• Chairlift - Does You Inspire You
• GZA - Liquid Swords
• MC Shan - Q.B. O.G. : The Best of MC Shan
• George Harrison - All Things Must Pass
• VA - Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack
• INXS - INXS (Remastered)
• Counting Crows - Across A Wire : Live in New York City
• Phil Collins - ...But Seriously
• VA - Austin Power : Spin's Best SXSW Acts 2012
  
• Iggy Pop - Lust For Life

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Hilltop Hoods
2. Farrar,Johnson,Parker,Yames
3. The Cult
4. Bruce Springsteen
5. Jack's Mannequin

Song of the Week : Television - See No Evil

This week's song is literally the song of my week. It's been following me around every day. It's been stuck in my head. It's popped up on randomised playlists more than once. I even had a dream where someone was busking and singing it! So I figured this song has worked hard to make itself my SOTW and who am I not to reward effort. So, without further ado, congratulations to: Television - See No Evil.


I am sure I've made these guys SOTW before, their debut album Marquee Moon is one of my desert island discs and the vinyl in excellent condition is a white whale for me. At least ten years ahead of its time, the 1977 release is a hybrid of proto-punk and the arty wankery of people like the Velvet Underground. Punks with a brain, basically.


See No Evil is a post-punk song written before punk broke. It has a touch of new wave about it and even elements of 90s indie rock. The line "I understand those destructive urges" has been running through my brain on loop all week. I must be feeling like a riot :) I hope it doesn't make you guys riot.

Laters

Thanks for stopping by. Hopefully you find some new music this week. If you haven't heard Marquee Moon, where this week's song of the week was taken from, check it out. It's one of those albums everyone should hear. 


May your weekend be full of magic. Go Eagles!


Hasala malakim.