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.

Leave Magical Elbow Wheels Forever (April 2nd - 6th)

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.


Massive couple of weeks coming up, with Mrs coreyj's birthday, followed by Miss 2 becoming Miss 3 and then it's Easter. Not too long after that I will have been married for 10 years! I'm looking forward to spoiling both my wife and the little one with super dope presents (even if I lost one of them for a day...). Nevermind all that now, onto the music.


To get me through what seems like the eleventy billionth short week this year, I've got (I know, can you believe it) Grayson Hugh because Talk It Over came on the radio at Big W and I had forgotten I used to love that song. I have some Elbow; a Beatles remaster; the latest from Margo & the Nuclear So and So's; a B.I.G. album I didn't know existed (yes, I was late to 90s rap. I'm old school, yo!); Lucinda Williams' acclaimed Car Wheels..; more from Jason Isbell; a Soul band I found on bandcamp, The Revelations; Love's highly-rated Forever Changes and a U2 album that I haven't heard in at least 5 years.


Check it out:

• Grayson Hugh - Blind To Reason
• Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid
• Lucinda Williams - Car Wheels on a Gravel Road
• U2 - All That You Can't Leave Behind
• Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit - Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit
• The Notorious B.I.G. - Life After Death
• The Beatles - Magical Mystery Tour
• The Revelations feat. Tre Williams - An Introduction to The Revelations
• Margot & the Nuclear So and So's - Rot Gut Domestic
• Love - Forever Changes

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Uncle Tupelo
2. Creedence Clearwater Revival
3. Natalie Merchant
4. Hoodoo Gurus
5. MC Shan

Song of the Week : The Shins - Fall of '82

Today's tune is The Shins - Fall of '82. There's no real reason this is my song this week, except that I like the whole of The Shins new record and this track is uptempo, brassy and nostalgic.


For what it's worth, the 'Fall' of '82 was the year I turned 10. Always a big important time in a kid's life. I don't know that this song has captured any part of my tenth year, but there you go. 


Enjoy!

Ciao for Now

That's all folks! Shout out to the mighty West Coast for the start of the AFL season. Go you good things! 




Whatever you do, have fun and be safe.  Hasala malakim.

Margot Wrecking the Supreme Sun Clock (March 12th - 16th, 2012)

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.


Not much to report from a busy week at work, so it's right into the music. 


A last minute inclusion to this week's list is the new Hilltop Hoods LP Drinking From the Sun which released on Friday 9th. Thanks to 8Tracks again, I discovered two bands I hadn't heard of in Margot and the Nuclear So and So's and Jack's Mannequin. I lean a little heavy on the twang with Felice Brothers, the Farrar, Johnson, Parker, Yame collaboration and the new one from The Boss. Old favourite Cardinology makes the cut, as does Pearl Jam's era defining debut Ten and a compilation from The Cult. Rounding out the list, there's a Ghostface Killah solo album that a workmate recommended.


Check it out:

• Pearl Jam - Ten
• Hilltop Hoods - Drinking From the Sun
• Margot and the Nuclear So and So's - Not Animal
• Ryan Adams & the Cardinals - Cardinology
• Jack's Mannequin - The Glass Passenger
• The Felice Brothers - Yonder is the Clock
• The Cult - Pure Cult
• Ghostface Killah - Supreme Clientele
• Jay Farrar, Will Johnson, Anders Parker, Yim Yames – New Multitudes
  
• Bruce Springsteen - Wrecking Ball

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Whiskeytown
2. Black Sheep
3. The Smiths
4. Nirvana
5. Bias B

Song of the Week : Ryan Adams & the Cardinals - Stop

This week's song is a bit of a drag for a sunny Friday, but by the creed of SOTW where we choose the song that has had the most impact or defined our week or just generally loomed large over the last seven days, I chose Ryan Adams & the Cardinals - Stop.


Again a song I was listening to late at night stuck with me and infected the music part of my brain. This song is about addiction and the desire to quit. It seems to crawl along with repetitive phrases in the lyrics and seemingly unstructured piano lines before it gets a little epic with strings and crescendo like a drama.


To me the way it begins sounds like a man at his piano late one night, sick and coming down from a bender, telling himself he's gone too far and it's time to stop. He's coaxing himself through a very dark place with lines like "Lie down. Breathe." reassuring with "There's so many of us. You are not alone. Ever." The reverb on the piano means you can almost hear the empty silent space around him, like the piano is in the middle of a big room with a high ceiling - or even the basement of the church where "these people, they talk."


Sorry to bum you out, but enjoy anyway.

Peace Out

That's all folks. Be good to each other. Stay cool on ths sweltering weekend if you're in sunny Perf. Go out, get yourself something nice and just generally feel good. Okay?. 


Hasala malakim.