Showing posts with label ornette coleman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ornette coleman. Show all posts

Friday, September 6, 2013

The Devil's Loaded Eye (September 9th - 13th)

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.

Well, as I stated on Twitter; I went. I voted. I sausaged. It is a sad day for Australian politics on the Left, when only The Greens have true left values, Labor are trying hard to be right-wing and everyone else is a greedy or xenophobic conservative. It is clear now that the LNP will govern Australia for the next 3 years; no doubt blaming the ALP for any failings long enough to get a second term. They come to power on a ticket that says Labor is incompetent; conveniently brushing aside the lowest cost of living increase in 25 years, record low unemployment and uninterrupted growth, not to mention superb management through the GFC all thanks to Labor. In the end, in any democracy, you get the government you deserve. So, what can you do. Rant over.

The music looks like this: I've added the second disc of last week's Alt Country compilation. I am checking out the new Nine Inch Nails and the new Belle and Sebastian. Some old Van Halen gets a gig and so does some even older Velvet Underground. There's Arrested Development's one big album and D12's most successful. I have two EPs from Dolorean squished together to make an album and Tracy Chapman's debut classic. Lastly there's some jazz from Ornette Coleman whose The Shape Of Jazz To Come LP I *almost* bought last weekend. 

Check it out:

  1. Gillian Welch
  2. Talib Kweli & Hi-Tek
  3. A Tribe Called Quest
  4. Van Halen
  5. The Donnas

Song of the Week : Bad Company - Feel Like Makin' Love


I've recently developed a healthy obsession with 1970s US muscle cars and the whole big dumb decadent summer vibe that goes with them. For some reason, I associate this song with that same vibe. I must have seen it in a road movie or something, because it's inextricable.  But having searched IMDB I cannot find proof of this association.* 

It has been stuck in my head for weeks while I've read muscle car mags and watched Death Proof (with Vanishing Point and maybe Cannonball due this weekend). Yesterday at work, listening to it, I could barely stop myself from stomping my feet. In fact, I didn't stop myself at all. I stomped. 

An air guitar classic for sure, I think the genius of Feel Like Makin' Love is the tiny silence between "feel like makin' " and that tasty guitar riff. It all seems like a harmless wuss rock ballad until that guitar and then it begins to rawk \m/ So I hope you all enjoy a good old fashioned rock out.

*(Postscript: I just found out it was in the Simpsons episode where the school is snowed in. It plays on the radio and Homer claims to have written it. For Lady Di!).


Vaarwel 

Lefties, let us bow our heads in solemn (non-secular) prayer that there is some semblance of sanity in the Senate to ensure we can't all get shipped off to toil in Jabba Rinehart's underground salt mines to pay for the tax cuts to the wealthy and fund our own, gutted public services. 

Hasala malakim.

Friday, June 21, 2013

Shape the Leather Seapony (June 24th - 28th)

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.

It's been a bit of a hurried Saturday since we just got back from shopping and it's almost time for swimming lessons. Mrs coreyj just showed the girls how to open and eat fresh coconut - their first time. They want the shells for their Crazy Crabs. Now everyone is relaxing and I'm here with you. So, shall we?

Another mixed bag of things I love and haven't heard for a while along with a new album and an old remaster. In the old favourite basket, there's Gillian Welch, Seapony, Guns N' Roses, Dolorean and Prince. The new album comes from Justin Rutledge. The remaster is Bob Dylan's rock classic Highway 61 Revisited. Into the mix I've thrown an old Run DMC record and a compilation of radio friendly indie artists doing kids friendly songs. The crowning jewel is Ornette Coleman's brilliant free jazz outing The Shape Of Jazz to Come.

Check it out:


Top Five Artists Last Week
  1. Bright Eyes
  2. The WIld
  3. Jason Isbell
  4. U2
  5. Surfer Blood

Song of the Week : Jason Isbell - Elephant



On Tuesday when I heard this song for the first time, it seriously busted my chops. I mean, I was choked up and everything over it. I knew it should probably be my SOTW, but I thought it was too morbid and sad to hang it on you all. Then James Gandolfini died which was awful news, and then worse, personally, I woke this morning to the news that I'd lost an Aunt (my Mum's sister) to a heart valve operation. It made me think that life really is a bitch sometimes and that if someone can take a little piece of grief and craft a song that can break the heart of someone they don't know with a couple of clever lines, that deserves recognition.

The instrumentation of Elephant is sparse and hushed. Lyrically, it is immense. Isbell shows us a drunken couple with the woman dying of cancer and he takes telling little vignettes - sweeping lost hair from the floor; her voice all gone for singing; gin in a coffee cup - and imbibes them with the sadness of grief and alcoholism and clinging to every tiny bit of respite. Then he places a giant Elephant in the room and gives death a foreboding presence that these drunks are ignoring.

I can't believe that anyone in these cynical times can write such raw and unbelievably emotional scenes with barely any words at all. I'm sorry if it makes you sad like it did me, but I have to admire the craft of it all. If anyone has little ears in the background, or clients/bosses, there’s a pronounced F bomb, so turn it down.

Arrivederci

Big Italian feast to cook tonight (well, bruschetta and sausage with fresh shaved Parmesan. What's that? Get some red wine you say? That's actually a good idea. I just might.

Alla prossima settimana. Hasala malakim.

Friday, August 10, 2012

Hardcore Haunted Jazz House (August 13th - 17th)

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.

A momentous week this week with Miss 5 becoming Miss 6. She got to chose her birthday dinner and picked Dominos pizza including (her first) delivery. She seemed ok with the results but I could tell she was a little confused, being used to her Mum's homemade gourmets on stones from the bbq or at the very least woodfired from Blend down the road. 

But enough about cheese and dough and tasty, tasty bacon, you came for the music not food. What's on the menu this week? Lashings of American Hardcore punk; a second helping of both Trainspotting and Elton John; there's a cheeky new jus of Ariel's Pink Haunted Graffiti; the ever faithful Concrete Blonde debut features along with the familiar flavours of
Josh Rouse; you'll find hints of Ornette Coleman, with a slab of AC/DC to drink, all topped off with a cleansing dollop of Brand Nubian and De La Soul for dessert. 

Check it out:
  1. Elton John
  2. Babes In Toyland
  3. Big Star
  4. Jay-Z
  5. Neko Case

Song of the Week : AC/DC - Thunderstruck




This week's SOTW, believe it or not, is AC/DC - Thunderstruck. I know, I know, I'm so little of an Ackadacka fan that I copped an arse-whoopin' at high school for giving Who Made Who a bad review in the school paper. But like I said even then, Back In Black is great stuff! 

The story behind my choice is just that someone at work on thursday mentioned one of those SS thunder ute things, another guy starts singing the song and we've all got it stuck in our head. So he wants me to find him a copy to listen to and get it *out* of his head. I didn't have a copy, so I chased down a link on Grooveshark and I listened to it too. 

That relentless riff of squeally tapping, the chant aaaahahahahahahahaah! This song is the big dumb action movie of rock and roll - it's big, dumb and fun. In fact, I'm pretty sure it has appeared in several BDAMs by now. 

So crank this, enjoy it for what it is - sweaty, simple and honest hard rock from Straya.

Seeya

Thanks for stopping by. If you're in Perth, get outside before the rain comes because it is glorious yet again. We're just back from the beach and everything was magnificently smooth and clear. I was hoping for more of a stormy driftwood kind of a vibe, but it's actually quite warm. 

Until next week, be good to each other. Go Eagles. Hasala malakim.