Fade a Bronzed Familia (October 21st - 25th)

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.

Bit of a late one this week, because the day just got away from me. I've been out with the fam into town at MYRE and the markets, plus the usual Saturday grocery run and then swimming so I'm only just sitting down. Better get into it then hey?

Besides the second disc of the Essential Bill Withers, there's a David Wilcox LP and some LCD Soundsystem. A few new ones make the list this week, with Best Coast's new EP, the soundtrack to a Spanish film from Josh Rouse and the enticingly titled (for me) Jazz Hop from Gas-Lab and Traum Diggs. Also new, kind of, is the 2013 mix of Nirvana's brilliant In Utero. Slotting in nicely with the noise of Nirvana, there's Dom and Sonic Youth. Finally, just a bit of Missy Elliott along for the ride.   

Check it out:

• Bill Withers - The Essential Bill Withers (Disc 2)
• Dom - Sun Bronzed Greek Gods
• Josh Rouse - La Gran Familia Española OST
• Gas-Lab & Traum Diggs - Jazz Hop
• David Wilcox - Home Again
• Sonic Youth - Goo
• Best Coast - Fade Away EP
• Nirvana - In Utero (2013 Mix)
• LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
• Missy Elliott - This Is Not A Test

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Ryan Adams
2. Soul Asylum
3. Pearl Jam
4. Devo
5. LL Cool J

Song of the Week : Wilco - My Darling

When my Brother in Law and Sister in Law had their first child, I made them a video using the footage I’d taken on our hospital visit and this song. At the time, Mrs CoreyJ and I didn't quite have children on the radar. When we did have our first, I used a different song than the one I used for her cousin because I didn't want them to be the same. I've always been bummed about that, because this is such a beautifully simple song and it just says so much with very little. If I’d used something else for my niece, I definitely would have snatched this one up for Miss 7. 

I’m pretty sure you’re familiar with it. It’s got that rickety honky tonk piano in the intro and throughout. The acoustic guitar strumming beneath is steady and plain, while the drums and the backing vocals are what ramps it up a little. What the lyrics are saying is universal, I think. Go to sleep, I’ll take care of everything, don’t grow up too fast, your parents love you and each other, we’re a family. It’s all so cheesy and yet isn't  because it’s a universal truth.

I’d really love to hear a remix with just that piano and Tweedy, because it would be a completely different song. I’d still want to have the original to listen to, but I would love to hear a different form. Garage band, get on it!    

Bye
No point waffling on then, I'm already late. I have to go prepare some tapas soon from a bunch of stuff we bought while out and about. I do believe it will go well with a beer and all. 

The best of the weekend to you and yours. Hasala malakim.

Old Batman Knights Stage Left (June 4th - 8th)

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.


Well, this week turned out even sadder than the last one, with our much loved cat Moses shuffling off his fluffy grey coil. Sadder still was Miss 5's little broken heart when I told her the news. It was her first taste of real heartache and it shattered us all to see it. Even Miss 3 who still hasn't quite grasped the cat dying, was upset to see her big sister hurting so bad.


It's a long weekend this week, so I'm going to spend it spoiling the girls and trying to take their minds off their loss. I spent this morning with Miss 3 playing Dora on PS2 while Miss 5 was out at a birthday party. Tomorrow it's Fox and the Hound on the big screen and Monday might be dinosaurs at Scitech. I'll do what I can to bring as much joy as possible to them. For myself, there's always the tunes.


It's a bit of a wildly mixed bag this week. There may be something similar aboout the new Leonard Cohen album and Charlotte Gainsburg's latest effort; Prince's Batman soundtrack would be nothing like Elvis' Sun Sessions. Add to that some Missy Elliott and Surfer Blood, plus Robert Glasper. Finally, more than a passing look at Australian acts with The Avalanches, The Birthday Party and Def Wish Cast all getting a gurnsey.


Check it out:

• Leonard Cohen - Old Ideas
• Prince - Batman
• Charlotte Gainsburg - Stage Whisper`
• Elvis - The Sun Sessions
• The Avalanches - Since I Left You
• Surfer Blood - Astro Coast
• The Birthday Party - Prayers On Fire
• Robert Glasper - Black Radio
• Missy Elliott - Under Construction
• Def Wish Cast - Knights of the Underground Table

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Sam Cooke
2. Plug 1 & Plug 2
3. Drive-By Truckers
4. AC/DC
5. Dolorean

Song of the Week : Clare Bowditch and the Feeding Set - The Thing About Grief

So, my SOTW is a bit of a sombre one. I'm going with Clare Bowditch and the Feeding Set - The Thing About Grief. This morning when we told the kids about Moses, Miss 3 didn't really understand, but I just about heard Miss 5's heart break in two. She was inconsolable and I was instantly reminded of where I'd seen a girl cry that way before - my sister when my Mum died.


It really hurt that my daughter was feeling that and I just couldn't stop it. And then there's the realisation that this is just her first real broken heart and many more will follow. I've never seen her so deeply affected by anything and I hated that I just couldn't stop it for her.


I chose this song because the first time I heard it, I knew that Bowditch had been there. She knew all about the grieving process for young adults / kids. My sister did lose friends because she went through some issues and took a while to recover. I spent a year being stoic and strong but finally lost my shit on the first anniversary after a stressful day on Prac at Mandurah High. And early on in the process, you do get scared to speak their name in case everything bubbles to the surface and you're lost to sadness for weeks.

I hope you enjoy the song, even though the context sucks.

Adieu

Thanks for stopping by. Sorry for being a bit of a damp sponge; Captain Bringdown if you will. Onwards and upwards from here - although the dreaded milestone birthday whose name shall not be spoken, quickly approaches. Hey, at least there'll be paella and presents.

RIP Mosey boy. We miss you. I'll never forget you always standing with your paws up the side of the kitchen cabinet when we were cutting chicken - like you were just stretching and omg did we just accuse you of wanting our food?! And when you ran off and got lost somewhere for months and when we finally accepted you'd probably been run over, you waltzed back in the house - on Easter Sunday.
Best. Cat. Ever.


Go Eagles. Hasala malakim.

Playlist - February 7th - 11th, 2011

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes. What's shaking cats?

This week I've got some classic rock, a little bit of a sunshiney beach set, an alt-country favourite and a mix of songs Spin thinks were great from 2010. I've also made a mixtape of obscure old school tunes inspired by Nas.

Here's what it all looks like:

• Bright Eyes - The People's Key : I heard this latest Bright Eyes release last week via NPR. Their review of the set said it was the greatest Bright Eyes album ever. On first listen, I would have to disagree and say that I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning is still the best. I thought I would give this one another listen to see if it grows on me.

• The Rolling Stones - Let It Bleed : After blipping the great, rollicking track Song For Keith by Ryan Adams (who hung out and got drunk with Richards himself when they were at the same recording studio), I decided I was going to buy some Stones on vinyl. Nothing after 1979 or before 1967 though. This is from 1969 and includes the well-known Stones tracks Honky Tonk Woman and You Can't Always Get What You Want.

• VA - Spin Best of 2010 : I have a subscription to Spin magazine and Rolling Stone via Zinio on my iPad. The coolest thing about music magazines has always been the free CDs. A bit hard when you get a digital copy right? Wrong! Spin included a download code for redemption on the US iTunes store to get a bunch of tracks they considered the best of 2010. And here they are. I'm pleased with the inclusion of Boyfriend by Best Coast after their album Crazy For You was among my favourites all year.

• Josh Rouse - El Turista : After growing up on the coast all my life, I have only really now discovered a love of the beach. That might have something to do with taking my girls for a swim rather than chasing seals and going squid-jigging in rock pools around Point Peron, or walking across to Penguin Island on the Safety Bay sandbank as was the usual go when I was young. Either way, we've been going to the beach for a swim every morning on the weekends and I'm loving it. This album is a set of Spanish language/themed songs that sound like a beach in Spain.

• Ryan Adams - Gold : It's been some time since I listened to this album. It remains one of my very favourites. I am looking to get some vinyl by Ryan Adams/Whiskeytown soon and this is high on the wish list. I like the set for the quietly emotional La Cienega Just Smiled and the love letter to NYC in New York, New York. By now everyone knows that the film clip for that song is just Ryan Adams playing guitar by the river with the Twin Towers in the background and was filmed on September 7th, 2001.

• REM - Eponymous : For years I only had a cassette version of this LP that I got from Record Finder in Fremantle during a phase I went through of wanting everything REM had ever done pre-Monster. Now I have purchased the CD and this is it. Eponymous is the first Greatest Hits album for REM and was released by IRS Records in 1988 just before the band signed to Warner Brothers for Green. There are rare and previously unreleased tracks on here which make it well worth owning if you're a fan.

• Missy Elliott - This Is Not A Test : Missy Elliott tricked me, damn it. I emerged from a haze of grunge followed by a massive folk stage to rediscover rap. What was around when I emerged, besides The Marshall Mathers LP was Missy's brilliantly funky Pass That Dutch. That made me check this album out and through it get turned onto Jay-Z via the conscious and hard Wake Up. I also found Let It Bump to be deliriously groovy. So of course I went and got Missy's backlog expecting more of the same great tracks... Tricked me big time. Fake R&B bulltish. Still love this one though.

• Mixtape - Where Are They Now? : Hearing the news that Kool Herc was desperately ill and couldn't afford to pay his doctors bills, and also listening to Nas’ Where Are The Now? got me thinking about some of the old school heroes who dropped off the radar long ago. Nas’ great track says: Rap is like a ghost town, real mystic / Like these folks never existed / They the reason that rap became addictive / Play their CD or wax and get lifted. So that’s what I’m doing. I’ve made a mixtape of some of the artists Nas mentions and some he doesn't, and I've put the Nas track on the front. There are some rare and classic tracks here, and you can grab them yourself from the title link above. A full track list is included in the zip file, but some highlights include Biz Markie, The Skinny Boys, Spoonie Gee, the 12" version of Young MC's Principal's Office and C.I.A. who were the first group to feature Dr Dre and Ice Cube.

• Paul Kelly - The A - Z Recordings (Disc Four) : Compared with the first two discs from this eight disc box, I found disc three last week a let down. Not because the tracks weren't great, but because the one or two songs I didn't already know didn't amaze me. Still, the familiar songs are all fantastic, so who am I to whine. With songs as great as I Can't Believe We Were Married and Leaps and Bounds, I'm sure Disc Four will wipe that smug smirk right off my hating face :)

• Bob Dylan - Masterpieces : Last week I realised that in 1997, while I had a record player that needed a belt, I bought a Bob Dylan compilation on vinyl. I had never played it until just the other day. I was so impressed with 1997 coreyj, that I need to buy him a beer. This is the 3 Disc Masterpieces I bought on CD that first got me into his Bobness. From this set of classic Dylan, I obsessed over everything pre-Slow Train Coming and most things post. If you're a casual fan of the man - get this now.
  

Until next week, don't get hung up; stay cool.

Respect and best hopes to the people of Egypt. I wish for you the fair and democratic society you're fighting for and so richly deserve.

"Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed." - Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr