Playlist : September 20th - 24th, 2010

This is our weekend and it's ending, one second at a time. But not to worry, sit back and relax. Play some tunes. Dig yourself, man.

These are the songs that I'll be taking with me on my working week next week :

• Shonen Knife - Rock Animals : Looking at a list a bit full of alt-country, I went looking for something with some crunch. Shonen Knife rock my socks off. They are a Japanese all-girl punk rock band I first heard on the fantastic If I Were A Carpenter compilation, doing a superior cover of Top Of The World. On Rock Animals, the almost maddeningly catchy Catnip Dream is a gem.

• VA - Culture of Kings : An early skip hop compilation for hardcore Diggaz like me. Featuring Aussie hip hop luminaries like Koolism, Matty B, Suffa of Hilltop fame and the Hoods themselves. Mass MC's popular track The BBQ Song also features.

• Gram Parsons - Greivous Angel : After being moved by Gillian Welch's lyric from I Dream a Highway last week ("Now you be Emmylou and I'll be Gram") I felt like some Gram Parsons magic. Emmylou of course is Emmylou Harris, Gram's long-time friend and singing partner whose sweet harmonies make this great record even better.

• Eric B & Rakim - Let The Rhythm Hit 'Em : Usually when I reach for Eric B & Rakim, I go straight for Paid In Full - 1987's seminal golden age album. This time, I made a conscious effort to choose something I don't normally play. It's been a while, but I know this album to be a little jazzier than Paid and just as lyrically inventive.

• A.A. Bondy - When The Devil's Loose : Last week at work was kind of a drag and when things get a little low, alt-country always sounds it's best. A.A. Bondy are folkier and lonlier than a lot of the stuff I listen to, but this album is good for a spin.

• John Legend and The Roots - Wake Up! : I heard this album last week on stream from NPR. It's a really solid set of old Soul covers with a political bent. It sounds like music from a greater time with a modern day traveler on the mic. It also taught me that The Roots are a tight Funk band with some really tasty bass grooves. Going to get this album on vinyl as soon as I can find it.

• The Police - The Best of the Police : I felt like a little bit of classic rock and I haven't heard The Police in quite a while. I have this album on vinyl and few songs in my record collection benefit from the sound of wax quite like Roxanne. With The Police and me, the rule seems to be the earlier the better.

• VA - Music from the Motion Picture Crooklyn Volume II : One of my all time favourite Spike Lee joints, Crooklyn is a partly autobiographical tale of living in Brooklyn in a large family in the 70s. The soundtrack is packed full of some of the coolest Soul tunes ever made. Spike is brilliant, Crooklyn is fantastic and the soundtrack is killer.

• John Cale - Paris 1919 : I don't know a lot about this album, but I've always wanted to hear it. Ever since a 1997 issue of Uncut magazine published a list of the most depressing albums of all time, I have been slowly acquiring them all. John Cale was a member of Velvet Underground until 1968 when he went solo. Paris 1919 is his most famous album and Uncut said if you listen close you can hear Cale weeping at the mixing desk in the middle of a breakdown. Good times.

• Ornette Coleman - Free Jazz : Having only discovered Ornette Coleman tunes last week, I have quickly found out that Free Jazz is widely renowned as wholly original and as fine a jazz album as you'll find outside of Trane. Sounds good to me.
  

It would be great if you found something new in amongst all of that. Get the John Legend album if you dig Soul, because it is totally ace. I'm off to Beat Route tomorrow for a little vinyl and turntable shopping. Hopefully I'll have something I can add to next week's list.

That's it from me. Go safe my anonymous friends. Don't forget how blessed you are.

Playlist : July 5th - 8th, 2010

Hey hey kids. Short week this week for me, but not a short list. Short because I have Friday off while the school holidays are on (Mrs @coreyj is an educator) to take Miss Nearly 4 to see her first ever film at the cinema. We're taking her to Toy Story 3, which from what I hear is a good place to start your movie journey.

Speaking of movies, I moved Make Films Not Movies over to WordPress and I am thinking of taking Work Tunes there too. Mainly because I can blog from my iPad with the WordPress app, much easier than I can to Blogger with Safari. I'll let you know.

So the week's list, that I might not get through, looks like this:

• The Roots - How I Got Over
The latest from The Roots and featuring, it seems, a whole mess of artists as diverse as Joanna Newsom and Monsters of Folk.

• Band of Horses - Infinite Arms
Since I like my indie twangy, I figured it was time I discover Band of Horses. Where better to start than with their latest, so I don't get in the 'I like your old stuff better' mindset off the bat.

• Beastie Boys - Sounds of Science
Two disc best of compilation from the Buddhist boys from Brooklyn. I just recently bought this collection but have been a Beasties fan since Licensed to Ill never left my tape deck back in the day.

• Ben Folds - Songs For Silverman
It's been a while since I dusted this one off. Still in my opinion Ben Folds' strongest work, including the Ben Folds Five stuff.

• Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - No More Shall We Part
Grinderman last week gave me a taste for Nick Cave, so I've popped on one of my two equal favourite albums from the man (the other being The Boatman's Call that may make it next week).

• Cold Chisel - East
I was admonished on Twitter last week by a friend not to forget my bogan roots. I told him I would always have Cold Chisel around somewhere. I also have a flanell shirt somewhere. Chisel. Barnsie! Noice.

• VA - Sweet Relief II - The Music of Vic Chestnutt
The Sweet Relief project was created to raise money for alt-country songwriter Victoria Williams who had health problems that needed treatment. A bunch of alterna-acts like Pearl Jam (who did the excellent Crazy Mary) covered Williams' songs. This follow up was to raise funds for Vic Chestnutt, eccentric songwriter and brother in law of Madonna (who appears here with Darius Rucker). Stand out tracks from REM, Garbage and Soul Asylum are why I still play this CD.

• Van Halen - 5150
Another nod to my bogan roots. I wouldn't call myself a Van Halen fan, but this particular album has always been top shelf for me. Wether it's just the memories that I associate it with now, or I genuinely like the music, doesn't really matter. It's enjoyable.

• Charlie Parker, Miles Davis - Blue Bird, Legendary Savoy Sessions
I am really starting to appreciate good jazz at work. This is some of the best jazz there is, led by two of the four or five greatest ever jazz musicians. Miles and Bird were not even human, let's be honest. Even the word Genius is selling short these two Gods of jazz. Superb.

If anything there catches your eye, I say check it out. If you like it, pay me back with a recommendation of your own. Ya'll come back now, ya hear?

Playlist : May 3rd - 7th, 2010

Welcome to another week of tunes. It's Saturday lunchtime and it's blissfully quiet at my house as the girls nap and their Mother watches Gray's Anatomy. So I've been compiling my weekly playlist. I'm really looking forward to tucking into a couple of these - especially Malcolm McLaren.

Here's the whole list.

• The Waifs - Up All Night - Western Australia represent! A bit of Fremantle style folk for May Day.
  
• Nizlopi - Make It Happen - I was introduced to Nizlopi with the sparklingly sentimental JCB Song via @_pants_ when my first child was pending. I only just heard about this 2008 LP and can't wait to hear it.
  
• Bright Eyes - Noise Floor (Rarities: 1998 - 2005) - While it doesn't contain my very favourite Bright Eyes rarity, Lua (feat. Gillian Welch), I am still excited to give this a spin.
  
• Melissa Etheridge - Fearless Love - I was once an unashamed ME fan. I saw her live in 1996 and her Unplugged set got me to start playing guitar again. Then she went a little pop. Then she was diagnosed with Leukemia and went (understandably) a little perky and sappy. From the cursory scan I have had of this LP, it sounds like a return to more tight musical rock stylings. Fingers crossed.
  
• Boogie Down Productions - Criminal Minded - This album was the soundtrack to all Hip Hop culture in 1987. Songs like 9MM Goes Bang and South Bronx were the first taste of 'gangsta' rap most of us (in Perth anyway) ever heard; and Scott La Rock was the first Rap artist we heard about getting shot and killed. It doesn't get anymore classic than this for the Old Skool.
  
• Richie Cunning - Night Train - A recommendation from a Hip Hop Jazz blog I follow. This is warm brass, wet streets, cold air and train tracks in the dead of night.
  
• Malcolm McLaren & The World Famous Supreme Team - Buffalo Gals : Back To Skool - A tribute to the often overlooked contribution that Malcolm McLaren made to New York Hip Hop back in the day. Featuring legends like KRS-One and Rakim, and made while McLaren was still alive, this is a fitting memorial for the crazy geezer and iconic 'ranga.
  
• Branford Marsalis Quartet - Music from Mo' Better Blues - Bebop bliss from Spike Lee's jazzy joint Mo' Better Blues (starring Denzel Washington and Wesley Snipes) written by the cooler of the Marsalis brothers.
  
• VA - What It Is : Funky Soul & Rare Grooves Vol. 1 - Funk and dusty Soul from well known as well as some obscure artists from 1967 - 1977. Part of a four disc set, I'll be adding one volume to each of my next three playlists.
  
• Editors - The Back Room - Another band I picked up on via Twitter, from @bronwen of Twitterati fame, this Editors album has a very UK 80s indie pop sound but with louder guitars - like the Smiths collaborating with Oasis.
  

So that's me done for the week. If you're reading this and you know and love any of these albums, or are going to check some out, feel free to comment or turn me on to some different sides.

Playlist : April 27th - 30th, 2010

Another short week. Do we really have so many crammed together? Maybe we should space some out. Move the non-important ones like Queens Birthday. I'll talk to Parliament.

Speaking of parliament (the government, not the awesome Funk band), there appears to be a bit of a political theme running through this week's list. I put that down to watching Chicago 10 last week, followed by some Black Panther produced documentaries and listening to Gil Scott-Heron and the Last Poets.

This week's list:

• Billy Bragg - Back To Basics : Conscious tunes from the darling of UK left-wing socialism and heir to Guthrie's throne.
  
• John Coltrane - Giant Steps : I've been enjoying bebop via iTunes radio while working lately. I figured I better bring in some of my own. To say Trane is a genius is a ridiculous understatement.
  
• The Roots - Things Fall Apart : Another political leaning album, this time from the ghettos of Philadelphia.
• The Staple Singers - Soul Folk In Action : More politics of civil and human rights from the sweet 60s Soul of The Staple Singers and the always amazing voice of Mavis Staples.
• Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes : I think it was @crich who tweeted "Whatever happened to Fleet Foxes?" last week. Turns out their second album has been delayed by touring demands. It's due later this year. In the meantime...
• VA - Judgment Night : Music from the motion picture Judgment Night (1993) - a thriller about some boys in the wrong hood. The soundtrack consists of some unintentionally humorous pairings of rappers and rockers.
  
• Natalie Merchant - Leave Your Sleep : The latest offering from the 10,000 Maniacs former lead singer. This double CD is a collection of newly composed and anciently inspired children's folk songs.
• Sly & The Family Stone - There's a Riot Goin' On : If The Staple Singers are sweet with their soulful political determination, Sly & Co. are polar opposites. This is a raised left fist and a funky chicken dance in one.
  

During the week I will also be listening to the latest The National LP, High Violet via the New York Times. Click the link to read Nicholas Dawidoff's profile of the band as well as stream the new album.

Happy listening. All power to the people.