Hurry Sing Trouble Pilgrim (June 10th - 14th)

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.

I'm just back from the Program Launch of the 2013 Perth Revelation Film Festival after checking out The Deep. Quite an enjoyable film, shot tremendously well. Check it out if you like Icelandic films based on the true life events of a fishing boat tragedy at sea. I think I'd have structured it differently; but what would I know? I'll just get on with the music, shall I?
  
Again this week I've got a couple of artists I've never heard before in Laura Mvula and City and Colour. The other new album this time around is from The National. There's some old, old releases from Pixies and Sonic Youth, as well as a late career release from Concrete Blonde.Two compilations will be on rotation, a Tour Of Duty soundtrack and one of my favourites from KCRW, Rare On Air. Repping Hip Hop for the week, there's two legends in Mos Def (now Yasim Bey) and Brother Ali. 

Check it out:

• Laura Mvula – Sing To The Moon
• Concrete Blonde - Mexican Moon
• VA - The Best of Tour of Duty
• Mos Def - The New Danger
• Brother Ali - The Truth Is Here
• Pixies - Come On Pilgrim
• Sonic Youth - Sonic Youth
• City and Colour - The Hurry and the Harm
• VA - KCRW: Rare On Air Vol. 1
• The National - Trouble Will Find Me

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Boards of Canada
2. The Church
3. Pink Floyd
4. Blondie
5. Bob Evans

Song of the Week : J Geils Band - Freeze Frame

My song this week is just a bit of fun that was conjured up by my roller skating trip on Sunday. As a bit of background, from the time I was about 9 to the time I was 14 and got serious about skateboarding, I was a roller skater. I took actual lessons in figure skating when I was about 11 - 12 down at Kwinana’s then number 1 teen hang out – Astroskate. After each lesson at Astroskate, there’d be a free skate session on a Saturday afternoon. When I’d moved into speedskating, Sunday at 2pm was the session to be at (where a young lad could meet and snowball with lots of likely lasses).

Throughout my time as a roller skater, a few songs were absolute mainstays to certain parts of the session – such as J Geils Band – Freeze Frame  and The Angels – Take a Long Line for speed skate. Imagine my surprise down in Cockburn on Sunday when this song from the was the song of choice for the speed skate session. I know that roller skating is kind of the sport that time forgot, but I was really surprised that the people who control the music were playing Beiber and Psy and all that garbage but still holding onto their staples (Ne Order – Blue Monday in particular).

The only other song by J Geils Band that I know is Centrefold and that got flogged to death at Astroskate too. I’m not sure what this one is really about, other than a model(?!) but I never considered it either while whizzing around the blue concrete wearing my Adidas footy boots with shiny blue trucks and some wheels that were the business back then but who’s name I can’t even recall now. Enjoy!

Ciao 

That's it for this week. If you're a movie person, run on over to the Revelation site and check out the program. Even if you're a music person, there's a bunch of great music docs playing this year; including the Big Star documentary and the one on the late Oz Hip Hop legend, Hunter.

Hasala malakim.

Short Beach Pixies Give Up (April 30 - May 4)

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.


I've got a biannual Record Fair this weekend and I'm looking forward to picking up a few great records at a bargain price - or a couple of hard to find classics at a premium. If I find anything especially great, I might just rip it to digital and whack it on next week's list. 


This week's list is a little heavy on the indie and the dinosaur rock. I've found a couple of bands I didn't previously know and dug up a Television album I haven't heard. Here's what I have to get me through week ahead. 


After getting quickly addicted to the What A Pleasure EP, I've got Beach Fossils' debut; Songl told me Spectrals were like Beach Fossils, so there's that; I have one of the last Bonnie Prince Billy albums I'm yet to hear; the best of the Pixies; The Postal Service's one and only album; some funky jazz hop from Ninety One; the second disc of Tupac's Greatest Hits; some Iron & Wine and U2's Boy.


Check it out:

• U2 - Boy
• Television - The Blow Up
• Tupac - Greatest Hits (Disc 2)
• Spectrals - Bad Penny
• Beach Fossils - Beach Fossils
• Bonnie "Prince" Billy - The Letting Go
• Ninety One - Short Nights
• Pixies - Wave Of Mutilation
• Iron & Wine - Our Endless Numbered Days
• The Postal Service - Give Up

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Beach Fossils
2. Snoop Dogg
3. Brian Eno
4. Ambulance LTD
5. Ninety One

Song of the Week : Beach Fossils - Face It

I first heard this album (which is really an EP) half way through last year and it just sort of washed right over me. You know, I enjoyed it but it didn’t really make an impact. I think that’s because I wasn’t listening too close and because the music feels like a long lazy swim or somebody scoring your daydreams.


This track is Face It and it’s been stuck in my head all week. Not sure if it’s because we have been thinking about moving to Darlington (and the refrain says “I’d give up the city life”) or because my wife left the country for me (and it says “I’d give up the country life”) but I feel like I can relate to the song and I’ve been constantly singing and humming it. Plus, I’ve played the What A Pleasure EP at least three times since ANZAC night. 


I think if you took the massive reverb off the vocals and crunched up the guitars a little, the whole EP would pretty much rock out. But instead the sound has been filtered through almost a Vaseline lens.


I’ve since grabbed their debut to check it out and that will be on the playlist for next week. If you like the sound of this track, definitely check out What A Pleasure.

Arrivederci

So there you have it. From a personal stand point, not a bad list to take with me on another busy week. Hopefully there's something you haven't heard that you can check out and get into. I'll be at the record fair Sunday, looking for new gems. I'll let you know if I find any.  


Ciao for now. Go Eagles! Hasala malakim.

Playlist : November 28th - December 2nd, 2011

Hello and welcome to the Work Tunes that almost never was.

I recently had to let go of my 160Gb iPod Classic after a few good years of service. It actually still works, but it wouldn't connect to iTunes, so it made playlists a very hard thing to make during my lunch breaks as I'm used to. I'vbe got a new one now and I'm beginning the arduous task of filling it up again. But I have a list now, even though it was a little rushed.

Classic albums and artists are over represented, probably because they're the best thing to reach for when you don't know what you want. Luckily Spin came through with the December issue so I have some brand new tunes too. Thanks to a viewing of Rock The Bells, I grabbed Wu-Tang's classic 36 Chambers. I threw in some Iggy Pop to go with my recent obsession with Velvet Underground. I got so excited about the new The Roots LP coming soon that I hooked up an old one and that's about it.

Check it out:

• Wu-Tang Clan - Enter The Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers
• Bruce Springsteen - Tracks (Disc One)
• The Rolling Stones - Some Girls
• Bob Dylan - Bootleg Series 6 : Concert at Philharmonic Hall
• Melissa Etheridge - Breakdown
• Pixies - Surfer Rosa
• Iggy and the Stooges - Raw Power
• James Brown - Live at the Apollo
• The Roots - The Tipping Point
• VA - Spin Magazine December

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Mr Bungle
   
2. The Doors
3. KRS One & Marley Marl
4. Kathleen Edwards
5. The Deep Dark Woods

Song of the Week : Bob Dylan - I'll Keep It With Mine

Musically speaking, there has been a strangely coincidental Velvet Underground theme following me around. I happen to have chosen Beck's Record Club tribute to the Velvet Underground & Nico album for this week's list, but more than that I watched a doco on Sunday about Lillian Roxon who photographed and wrote about VU and also Bowie and Iggy Pop in the early days at Max's. I've also seen a bunch of people bagging out the Lou Reed / Metallica collaboration (and so I won't listen to it and sully my high opinion of Lou Reed). This all lead me to listening to lots of VU and checking out Nico's solo album Chelsea Girl on Songl. On it, she covers Bob Dylan - I'll Keep It With Mine.

There are only two versions of Dylan's original that I have heard. One is solo piano and it's called Bank Account Blues. The other is with a band on the Bootleg Series. Hearing Nico sing it in a slow droning monotone, reminded me how good Bob's Bootleg version was. It's a pretty catchy pop melody without the throw away lyrics. What's most enjoyable about this version though is that Dylan is playing it with the band during the Blonde On Blonde sessions for the first time. They haven't rehearsed it, they're throwing together the backing as they play. You hear the producer reassure Al Kooper on the organ to play what he was playing earlier and then Al starts up. Bob at the end of a verse asks the band, "Right?"

I find it a fascinating insight into how great songs are recorded. It's also frustrating that the song wasn't ever recorded properly. There are far too many songs that have been thrown away by great musicians that never made their own releases. I'm thinking about Springsteen never doing Because The Night, Paul Kelly giving Cake and the Candle to Kate Ceberano and Nico strangling the life out of this song.

This YouTube video is not the version from Bootleg Series Vol. 2, but it is an instrumental version with footage from Wim Wenders' Paris, Texas. But the song title link is the real deal. Enjoy!

Ya'll Come Back Now

To my American friends, I hope your Thanksgiving and Black Friday were exceptional. To those of here in Perth, how about this heat hey? To everybody else, thanks for stopping by.

Hasala malakim.

Playlist : August 9th - 13th : The 1980s

After handing last week's list over to the 1970s, it seemed only logical to have an all 1980s week this week. When I was choosing this week's list, what struck me as funny about the 1980s was how there was a stark dichotomy of music style going on. I suppose all decades are that way, but the difference between say , WHAM! and Pixies is insane. I've tried to grab a little bit from both sides.

• Guns N' Roses - Appetite For Destruction : Everybody in my high school had this album; girls and boys. Slash was a guitar hero then too, just nobody made a video game. And of course, Sweet Child O Mine was a massive hit that every kid and his Fender copy wanted to play.

• Pixies - Doolittle : The fuzzy indie pop riffs and catchy melodies of Pixies is a world away from the 1988 best seller George Michael's Faith, or Kylie Minogue's self-titled set. Did anyone guess that the Pixies would go on to influence my generation's Beatles and Stones in Nirvana and Pearl Jam (and indeed much of the Seattle sound).

• Violent Femmes - Hallowed Ground : Another band who sounded very little like the era's mainstream bubble gum pop and who have never followed the crowd. Something about the happy tragic tunes and jaunty rhythms of the Violent Femmes really works for me.

• INXS - INXS : This was INXS before the XS made them no good. Arguably Australia's most successful musical export next to AC/DC, INXS were then less the rock stars and more the geeky synth pop hipsters without a sax player.

• AC/DC - Who Made Who : A true bogan classic but not as good as Back In Black - despite what my critics said about my review in my Year 10 school paper! I got a smack in the chops for my troubles, but I was right. It's not a bad album, but its no Back... I put it in here instead because I've not heard it in a while.

• The Smiths - The Smiths : More music from (comparatively) another planet. Despite the mopey Moz lyrics and whiney vocals, I find The Smiths rather good to work to. I couldn't tell you why.

• The Psychedelic Furs - Mirror Moves : I added the Furs to compliment The Smiths and Violent Femmes. Furs have the same intelligent music as they do and the sound is a complimentary style. I reckon if iTunes Genius put them together, I wouldn't mind at all.

• Various Artists - Breakin' : Breakdance, the dance and the movies, was a big part of the 1980s for me. The first Breakin' film I saw with my older cousins at Piccadilly in Perth. There were hundreds of kids around our ages there for a Saturday matinee session. You'd never see so many people at Piccadilly these days - which sucks, because its a magical old place.

• Various Artists - 1984 Shakin' : Another big part of the 1980s was the compilation. There must have been 3 or 4 a year. My now sister-in-law's mother used to buy every single one on vinyl and slip us a cassette copy (my SIL and me) to play in our tape decks. Home taping sure didn't kill music for me - it kept the passion up and showed me new bands til I earned money to buy things. Anti-torrent types should remember what mixtapes and dubs were all about.

• Jimmy Barnes - For The Working Class Man : Barnsey! Another ubiquitous classic for us flannel and DB wearing Kwinanaites. This album was everywhere. From Mandurah to Koongamia, I couldn't have escaped it if I wanted to. And I didn't. Why would I? It's Barnsey!

• Public Enemy - It Takes A Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back : This is truer to my own personal sound of the 1980s. In 1987 I had heard Run DMC and the Beastie Boys and along came these guys, Public Enemy with Yo! Bum Rush the Show. Already sounding dangerous and angry, when they dropped Nation, they were harder than hard militant rap soldiers who had something to say. So you best listen.

• U2 - The Joshua Tree : When Joshua Tree was still quite popular, I remember when Rattle and Hum came out. Along with INXS dropping Kick, I don't think I've seen as clear an illustration of when a band goes from being popular to being monumental. U2 blew the hell up from there on until they lost it somewhere after All That You Can't Leave Behind. Joshua Tree is still awesome.

• Madonna - Madonna: Speaking of blowing up, this is another LP that came before the crucial moment. After this self-titled and solid set of likable pop, Madonna gave us Like A Virgin and you all know the rest. Can I just take this time to suggest Lady Ga Ga find another vault to violate.

• Wham!- Make It Big : If you want the 1980s, you have to take the cheese that goes with it. Two blokes with hair like girls and delusions of soul who wrote some pretty good tunes as it happens. And then filled every Blue Light Disco, classroom party and rollerskating rink with it until 1986 when they split and George Michael went solo. Then his songs took over.

I hope you get a nostalgic giggle from some of the tracks in this list. For the good stuff, I hope it you haven't heard it you will check it out.

Have a mintox week. Push pineapples, grind coffee. Happy birthday for Monday to my clever chops oldest daughter who turns 4.