Showing posts with label michael jackson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label michael jackson. Show all posts

Friday, December 6, 2013

Those Drive-By Reality Seeds (December 9th - 13th)

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.

Just back from the terror that is holiday season retail. Went to get my sister a present. I knew what I wanted. I knew where it was. I wanted to get in and get out. They of course had run out. I came home with something else for her, plus a bunch of stuff I didn't intend to buy. Seriously, how hard is it, with modern stock control programs, to make sure you have enough stock to cover Christmas for an obviously popular present. Grrr.

Besides finishing the Paul Kelly/Neil Finn and Michael Jackson sets off, I'm grabbing a DBT album I haven't heard. Then there's new stuff from Those Darlins and a live KCRW session from Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. A compilation from Inertia called Critics' Choice gets a gig along with a remix of Midnight Marauders. Snoopzilla (*eye roll*) and Dam Funk bring 7 Days of Funk and lastly the soundtrack from probably my favourite film ever is going to ease me through my last full week of work for 2013. 

Check it out:

  1. Adam Ant
  2. Jason Isbell
  3. Michael Jackson
  4. Graham Reynolds
  5. Neil Finn & Paul Kelly

Song of the Week : Artists Against Apartheid - Sun City



A Facebook post about The Specials and music teaching you things is the impetus behind my SOTW. 

As a teenager, it was Rap that taught me about things like the Civil Rights marches, Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks and Malcolm X. We didn't learn any of that in school. Same as we didn't learn about Apartheid and Nelson Mandella. All I knew of South Africa then was a bunch of Australian cricketers got kicked out of the team for going over there to play. It wasn't until U2 and Silver and Gold from Rattle and Hum that I really heard the word Apartheid. Then this song came out and was getting airplay on the Hip Hop show I listened to on Saturday nights - Scratch FM.

I bought the 12" vinyl of this, but the only digital copy I have comes from an 80s compilation. This is Artists Against Apartheid and features Lou Reed, Little Steven, Kool Dj Herc, Run DMC, Melle Mel (hence the Scratch FM airplay), Dylan, Gil-Scott Heron, John Oates, even Miles Davis, Pete Townshend and Herbie Hancock. It's basically the We Are The World of anti-Apartheid songs. 

With the death of Mandella and the Specials post, I thought it was a good time to celebrate the way we learn so much from the music we love - especially the good stuff (not much to be learned from Beiber I don't think). 

Au Revoir
That's all there is to it this week. I'm still dirty about not getting that present I was after. I'm certain the replacement will be well liked too, but that's hardly the point. Never mind. Onward and upwards. 

Vale Mandella. Hasala malakim.

Friday, November 29, 2013

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:

  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.

Friday, November 16, 2012

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.

  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.

Friday, November 9, 2012

More Arkansas Spring Spaghetti (November 12th - 16th)

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.

Just back from a great bike ride on the river and up the hill to Heathcote. I'm scrawling this all together while my kids have lunch and before we take off again to the shops. Best get right into then, hey?

There's a bunch of funk in the trunk this week, with another MJ disc, the latest from The Menahan Street Band and Cody ChesnuTT's new one. I've lowered the risk of contracting funkitis by splashing liberal amounts of hipster from Mumford & Sons and folk from Michelle Shocked. There's a free sampler from Muse as well. Representing "Straya" I've got the second disc of the Hip Hop Show compilation and the new Paul Kelly. That just leaves some "classic" rock from Alice Cooper and GnR.

Check it out:

  1. Pearl Jam
  2. Angie Hart
  3. The Jackson 5
  4. Paul Kelly and the Coloured Girls
  5. Kiss

Song of the Week : Stevie Wonder - Signed, Sealed and Delivered (I'm Yours)



In celebration of the victory of Good over Evil in the US, I am going to choose Stevie Wonder's Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I'm Yours) for SOTW. This is the song that was playing when Mr Barack Hussein Obama walked out to give his acceptance speech. 

Nothing you can say about the song itself can ever do it enough justice. More soul than a New Orleans fried chicken restaurant and funkier than a plate of black eyed peas cooked by James Brown himself. Stevie Wonder's voice is always incredible, but this is one of his finest moments.Such a powerful delivery and he punches it like a horn section.

As for the Prez, well, I am certainly glad he got over the line against Karl Rove and Donald Trump and all the other right wing crazies who wanted Romney to deliver them a big win for greed.


Toodles

Thanks for stopping by. I'm off to the library and the shops now. You all be on your best behaviour until I get back. Or not. Whatever's good for you. Have fun, whatever you do.

Hasala malakim.

Friday, November 2, 2012

Under the Lost Motown Master (November 5 - 9)

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.

It's Friday night and I've been watching 56 UP with Mrs coreyj. Having come home determined to drink too much, I managed 2 beers, as usual. Nevermind, so I'm a cheap date. And speaking of dates, here's the music I'll be listening to from the 5th to the 9th. 

For starters I have two disc ones - one for JJJ's Hip Hop Show and the other for a 3 disc set of Michael Jackson / Jackson 5 Motown songs. There's more of Thurston Moore and old favourites from Justin Townes Earle and Boogie Down Productions. I have a solo effort from Frente's Angie Hart and a true Australian classic from Paul Kelly since I saw the Stories of Me documentary last week. Filling out the rawk portion of this week's slice of my working life, I have the first Kiss album I ever owned (I was 8) and the Lost Dogs collection from Pearl Jam. Finally, for some sombre reflection there's a set from Bonnie "Prince" Billy. 

Check it out:

  1. Hilltop Hoods
  2. U2
  3. Evil Eddie
  4. 10,000 Maniacs
  5. Joe Jackson

Song of the Week : Stephen Cummings - From St Kilda To Kings Cross



After seeing the Paul Kelly doc, Stories of Me at the weekend, I have chosen From St Kilda to Kings Cross. However, I'm selecting the Stephen Cummings cover version. I chose the cover because I think it is more literal with the mood of the song.


The story the movie told was that after The Dots, Paul Kelly's writing dried up for two years. He had written one song and that was Water In The Well which is about not being able to write. So he left Melbourne for Sydney. The writing then came in a flood which led to Post, Under The Sun, Gossip and Comedy - all great albums.

So this song starts up in wonder of the Sydney landscape, face pressed in anticipation to the glass window of a bus. He describes everything as shining like a post card and how nobody stops to notice it with "everything goes on just the same". When the bridge comes in, he's suddenly talking of hungry 'fair weather friends'.

Finally, in the last verse it's Melbourne he is pining for and he wants to trade Sydney in for St Kilda pier even after acknowledging that St Kilda isn’t the shining pretty place that Sydney is  “Where the beach needs reconstruction / Where the palm trees have it hard”. 

This is not an upbeat, happy and carefree song the way it sounds when PK sings it. It’s about a guy who has left his home on a 13 hour bus trip and come to a city where he doesn’t have any real friends. Which is why I chose Stephen Cummings and his exhausted, resigned and maudlin piano cover.

Unfortunately, the cover is not on YouTube, so here's the Paul Kelly video.  

Checkyalater

It's just after midnight here now and I'm thinking of throwing on my Music Jamboree DVD before climbing into bed with Sickboy, Begbie, Renton and Spud in Porno. Whatever you do this weekend, stay safe and happy and try to cram as much music in as you can. 

To our American cousins who are going out to vote next week, please do the right thing by the rest of the world and put Barry back in the big chair. Cheers.

Bye for now. Hasala malakim.