This Ocean Glowstream Explosion (January 7th - 11th)

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes for 2013.

So this is it. Just a stock standard weekend to go and I'm back at work for a new year. I've been spending my holidays here, there and everywhere, but not at any planned vacation. We did almost make the last minute decision to get out of the suburbs on NYE, but we stayed in and it turned out to be one of the quieter nights all year. Brilliant. 


As for the playlist for my first week at work, I can't really say I've put a lot of thought in. I just sort of browsed my iTunes library and put in whatever seemed like it could do with a listen. Doing like this, at first the whole list looks a bit of an eclectic and random mix, but look carefully and you'll notice it leans heavy on a couple of vibes. 

The first vibe is soul with Marvin Gaye, Syl Johnson and Frank Ocean (though the Sesame Street song One of These Things is Not Like the Others comes to mind). The second vibe is the twangy folky country thing from The Autumn Defense, The Rural Alberta Advantage and the This Is 40 soundtrack. That just leaves a little math rock from Datarock, some indie rock from JEFF the Brotherhood, some dreamy pop jangle from Cotton Jones and the FM radio mellow of Bruce Hornsby.


Check it out:

• The Autumn Defense - The Autumn Defense
• Syl Johnson - Total Explosion
• JEFF the Brotherhood - We Are The Champions
• Cotton Jones - Tall Hours in the Glowstream
• Bruce Hornsby - Greatest Radio Hits
• Datarock - Datarock Datarock
• Frank Ocean - channel ORANGE
• Marvin Gaye - Let's Get It On
• The Rural Alberta Advantage - Departing
• VA - This Is 40

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Beastie Boys
2. Hilltop Hoods
3. Melissa Etheridge
4. The Rolling Stones
5. Whiskeytown

Happy New Year

Thanks for stopping by. My hope for 2013 is to find and hear more great music, rediscover old favourites and buy more vinyl. I also promised myself I'd play more guitar, but so far the year is guitarless. I never said I had great resolve. Let's not forget, I promised in 2012 to never read the comments - and that didn't go so well. 

Stay golden pony boys and girls. Hasala malakim.

Playlist : August 21st - 25th, 2011

Hello fellow travellers. Welcome to Work Tunes.

There very nearly wasn't a post this week, because I've had all sorts of technology fail culminating in a brand new hard drive and OS install. That of course meant installing all my programs again, including iTunes which made gathering a list a difficult task until the last minute.

So with limited time, here's how it turned out:

• Thin Lizzy - Bad Reputation
• Jay-Z - The Blueprint
• Tom Petty - Full Moon Fever
• Deep Purple - Machinehead
• Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks - Mirror Traffic
• VA - Encomium Tribute To Led Zeppelin
• Primus - Green Naugahyde
• The Autumn Defense - The Autumn Defense
• Telekinesis - 12 Desperate Straight Lines
• Eazy-E - Eazy Duz It

Song of the Week : Joan Jett and the Blackhearts - Victim of Circumstance

So that's the whole deal this week. Hopefully by next week I will have settled in with all my programs and my playlists back so I can get a bit more time to make a quality list. This one will serve me well though.

Ciao for now amigos.

Playlist July 4th - 8th, 2011

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.

Straight into the music this week. I was completely floored by Gillian Welch's new one The Harrow & The Harvest and so I'm spinning another of her classics this week in Hell Among the Yearlings. While trawling my iTunes, I found an album I'd forgotten about from Little Barrie and that's here too. Along with some smooth jazz hop from Pete Rock and some even smoother flows from Rakim, I've got two breakthrough classics from Madonna and the Boss, the soundtrack to Larry Clark's 1995 Kids and a little alt country as usual from Son Volt and The Autumn Defense.

Check it out:

• Gillian Welch - Hell Among The Yearlings
• Madonna - Like A Virgin
• Pete Rock & CL Smooth - The Main Ingredient
• VA - Spin Magazine July 2011
• Rakim - The Master
• VA - Kids OST
• The Autumn Defense - Once Around
• Little Barrie - Stand Your Ground
• Bruce Springsteen - Born To Run
• Son Volt - Wide Swing Tremelo

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Gillian Welch
2. T. Rex
3. Bias B
4. Jimi Hendrix
5. Ladybug Mecca

Song of the Week : Gillian Welch - Tennessee

The weather is partly responsible for my song of the week. A while ago, I preordered Gillian Welch’s new album. It’s been a long time between drinks for her and when she finally released something, I didn’t hesitate to grab it. The CD is in the mail, but on release day, I got a DL link to lossless quality mp3s of The Harrow & The Harvest.

I don’t know if it’s the cold, or the music or the high quality of the sound files, but the whole thing sounds amazing. I’m not sure what you’d call it, but there’s all this space in the tracks like it was recorded in some huge and ancient cathedral. Dave Rawling’s guitar rings out in the hollows like bells and you can hear the breath in Welch’s voice. I told someone it’s like the whole thing is haunted.

The track is the best example of what I mean about the haunting. The story goes that for all these years since her last LP Soul Journey, they have been recording things and then ditching them as not good enough. What I think has changed for the better is the personal aspect of the lyrics. Where once they’d write old gothic hillbilly tales, these songs are about their own lives but still sound like those Appalachian dirges. It’s just blown me away and is definitely the best thing she’s released since Time (The Revelator). You can stream the whole album at NPR http://n.pr/mvy5lL

Ciao Bellas

That's all folks. I'll see you at the same blog time, same blog channel next week. I'm going to bed now to listen to some tunes before some sweet, sweet sleep. Nighty night.