Cheap Soul / Happy Boss (July 30th - August 3rd)

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.


Well work was teh crazyies this week. Had the fiddly but fun task of making everyone custom magnetic name tags for a task board. People's choice of avatar said a lot about them. 


Does my choice of music say a lot about me? I don't know. Sometimes. This week, it says "I really have no idea what I want to listen to, so I'll pick some compilations and any albums that come up in conversation."

So that leaves us with the Sessions at West 54th Street and Spunk Sampler compilations; I have The Essential Cheap Trick because I'm still singing Surrender weeks after it was SOTW; I have albums from the diametrically opposed Snoop Dogg and Indigo Girls that I've not heard; my buddy Jamie mentioned Evan Dando's live set so that is here; checking out Gillian Welch's set lists of late has booked Dave Rawlings a spot; there's a Divinyls best of, an Ab-Soul album I read a review on and finally a true classic from the Fab Four.

Check it out:

• Cheap Trick - Essential Cheap Trick
• The Beatles - The White Album
• Snoop Dogg - Paid Tha Cost to be Tha Boss
• Ab-Soul - Control System
• Indigo Girls - Become You
• Evan Dando - Live At the Brattle Theatre / Griffith Sunset
• VA - The Best of Sessions at West 54th Street
• Dave Rawlings Machine - Friend of a Friend
• VA - We/Know/Where/The/Winter/Goes
• Divinyls - Make You Happy 

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Stevie Nicks
2. Nas
3. The Gaslight Anthem
4. Angus Stone
5. Passion Pit

Song of the Week : Stevie Nicks - Sometimes It's A Bitch

Recently on random shuffle this song popped up and I hadn’t heard it for ages. It’s Stevie Nicks – Sometimes It’s A Bitch. If I remember right it’s written by Meatloaf collaborator Jim Steinman (hence the sort of cliché title he’s so fond of). The song always brings a good friend of mine to mind who is a massive Stevie Nicks fan, so it’s always an enjoyable listen.


As a lyric I like the structure of good and bad, struggle and triumph. There isn’t a great deal of virtuoso musicianship in it. Not like Fleetwood Mac with Lindsay Buckingham behind it. Never the less I like the song like I love Will Ferrel movies – just a bit of harmless bubble gum. 

Goodbye

Thanks for stopping by. If you're in Perth, get out in this glorious weather and enjoy it while it lasts - I hear it's going to rain soon (which is also cool, but not so much for going out). 

Go Eagles. Hasala malakim.

NY Teenanger Ambulance Jets (Apr 23 - 27)

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.


It's been another busy week at work and I was glad to have some good music to get me through. Next week is going to be just as busy and the ANZAC Day public holiday is smack bang in the middle. I have an Australian LP in the mix to honour the Diggers, but as a general rule, the records I chose are mostly older, either electronic, punk or rock with a slice of gangsta thrown in. 


I've got disc 1 of Tupac's Greatest Hits because the Coachella "hologram" (not a hologram) was so bizarre; which of course led me to pick a Snoop release; I've got a Mojo compilation of NY punk thanks largely to a doco I just watched on the New York Dolls; Van Halen's 1984 \m/, a compilation of civil rights inspired soul; some Brian Eno who I've only recently started paying attention to as an artist rather than a producer; Kraftwerk because they seem to be following me around at the moment; a new LP from Teenanger, punk band; Ambulance LTD thanks to @BreeMateljan and finally the aforementioned AUS LP from Tim Rogers' "side project" The Temperance Union.    


Check it out:

• Teenanger - Frights
• Ambulance LTD - Ambulance LTD
• VA - Mojo Presents I HEART NY Punk
• Brian Eno - Here Come The Warm Jets
• Van Halen - 1984
• Kraftwerk - The Man Machine
• VA - Change Is Gonna Come: The Voice of Black America 1963 - 1973 
• Snoop Dogg - Tha Doggfather
• Tupac - Greatest Hits (CD 1)
• The Temperance Union - The Temperance Union

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Prince
2. Sonic Youth
3. Black Flag
4. Mos Def
5. The Far West

Song of the Week : New York Dolls - Jet Boy

Recently I watched a documentary called New York Doll on Arthur "Killer" Kane, bass player for the New York Dolls. Coincidentally, I watched a collection of Old Grey Whistle Test videos on DVD, one of which was the New York Dolls doing Jet Boy. You can watch the video on YouTube here.


Only the lead vocals are live apparently, which was the style at the time ;) What's at the end of the video is the presenter of The Old Grey Whistle Test snorting derisively at the end of the performance and scoffing " Ha. Mock rock". He is completely taking the piss and obviously thought they were too.


Clearly, what he didn't realise is he was witnessing a very early middle finger stuck up at the Rock establishment from the kids who'd come to be known Punks. I wouldn't call this my favourite song of theirs, but the incident live at the BBC was quite fascinating to watch. 


Listen to the song if you like, but for a bit more fun, try and check out the video and imagine you don't know about Glam Rock or the Sex Pistols or the Ramones or even the Stooges (who were around but wouldn't have been exposed to a British audience yet). And then watch the presenter’s reaction, because it’s priceless. And it’s not like The Old Grey Whistle Test was a stuffy old show – they were quite contemporary for the time. It’s just they were of the present and the Dolls were from years in the future.

Bye For Now

Thanks for stopping by. It's my 10th wedding anniversary on Saturday 21st, so I'll be pampering my lovely wife with diamond jewellery and a night out. If you're a couple, I hope your weekend is as romantic as I hope to make mine. Pity the WCE v HAW game is on the same night. DOH! (Go Eagles!).


If you're Australian, have a great and reverent day off on Wednesday. Being a left wing hippy socialist, I don't believe that war is the answer, but I am grateful to the men and women who go out and put their lives on the line for our country. I just curse the politicians who make it necessary. 

You fasten all the triggers
For the others to fire
Then you sit back and watch
While the death count gets higher
You hide in your mansion
As young people's blood
Flows out of their bodies
And is buried in the mud.

Lest we forget. Hasala malakim.