Playlist : February 6th - 10th, 2012

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.


Well, I must say, Hugo was spectacular. Scorsese used the 3D tech to bring the characters to life, more so than the action; and to add magical touches like snow in the theatre. If you're a film obsessive like me, you'll love details like seeing the iconic Moon scene from Le voyage dans la lune in 3D and you'll love Scorsese's complete affection for the art of movie-making. But enough Hugo plugging, let's talk about Sets baby. 


The Golden Era Mixtape for 2012 dropped this week, for free, so that's here and you can grab a copy. For the quiet moments during the long week at work, I've got some jazz from Coltrane and the sweet indie pop of the Away We Go soundtrack; more Bonnie 'Prince' Billy; another mixtape, this time from Rhymesayers' I Self Divine; some X, The Doors and Vetiver; as well as Dan Mangan who I only just discovered and The New Pornographers' 2003 effort Mass Romantic.


Check it out:

• VA - Golden Era Mixtape 2012
• John Coltrane - The Gentle Side of John Coltrane
• Bonnie Prince Billy - Ease Down the Road
• Dan Mangan - Oh Fortune
• I Self Divine - LA Mixtape
• X - Wild Gift
• The New Pornographers - Mass Romantic
• VA - Away We Go OST
• The Doors - LA Woman (Remastered)
• Vetiver - Vetiver

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Public Enemy
   
2. Hilltop Hoods
3. The Felice Brothers
4. Bonnie 'Prince' Billy
5. James Taylor

Song of the Week : The Felice Brothers - Frankie's Gun!

This week I’ve got a track from The Felice Brothers’ self-titled LP from 2008. Frankie’s Gun! is a dirty country rock song which seems to be about a guy working as a bagman for criminals who is either shot by Frankie or is pretending that he was to justify a missing $30 meant for a girl named Lucille. The song is sung to Lucille explaining how Frankie shot the narrator.


What I love about the track besides its rollicking fun time jig is the rhyming scheme in the lyrics. Some lines almost make me laugh at the rhymes and the way the words get packed in – “My car goes / To Chicago / Every weekend to pick up some cargo” and “I saw a man hit my Mom one time, really / I hurt him so damn bad I had to hide in Jersey”. It’s just a lot of fun with a timeless vibe like it’s about the bootlegging era but could just as easily be about today.


I hope you dig it.

Ciao For Niao

So there you have it. If anything takes your fancy, go and check it out. Drop me a comment if you know anything you think I might want to hear. 


Be good to each other kids; we're all we've got. 


Hasala malakim.

Playlist : November 29th - December 3rd, 2010

Well, what a week it’s been in the world of tunes.

I got a crush on Wilco all over again last week. I also confirmed my love for Best Coast. Both bands helped bring something to the plate this week. With Wilco, it was twang and lyrical songs with real emotion and complex narrative. Best Coast made a little bit of noise a good thing. What came out of that jumbled mix looks like this:

• The National - Alligator : The official full length third album from The National was released in 2005. They had a solid following before that with their debut self-titled, but it wasn't until 2007s Boxer that they 'blew up'. I'm a big fan of the debut, but Alligator is a quality set including the superb Daughters of the Soho Riots and Mr November - the latter used as an informal Barack Obama theme song.

• The Bob Dylan - Bootleg Series Vol. 1 : With the recent release of the Witmark Demos (Bootleg Series Vol. 9), Dylan's bootlegs are becoming like the Police Academy franchise - except awesome. This the first disc in a three disc set and contains mostly early finger-picked folk songs written when Robert Zimmerman first came to New York City. Disc 2 next week.

• Cold Chisel - Breakfast at Sweethearts : Chisel! amirite? Growing up with a love of all things 'bogan', I was exposed to Chisel very early on. However, for the most part, everybody got their Chisel fix from Radio Songs, the Best Of compilation (and later Gold). It was the only Chisel CD I owned until recently. The title track of this LP is one of their best.

• The Slits - Cut : The Slits were a punk band out of the UK who formed in the genre's heyday of 1976 (before it officially broke). Their sound is like a perfect segue between the raw distortion of Punk, the yet to be popular Ska pop and the much later New Wave. The lead singer of The Slits, Ari Up, died last month. Cancer. Fuck Cancer.

• Indigo Girls - Despite Our Differences : When I decided to put this on my list, I tweeted that I was going to sing a song from Cougar Town - Comfortable With My Sexuality. Yes the Indigo Girls are best known as lesbian singer songwriters, but something they really do well is lyrics and acoustic guitar. I like both of those. With songs on this disc like Dirt and Dead Ends about a neighbor with an illicit methamphetamine lab and the road trip themed Three County Highway, I enjoy the stories these ladies tell. So there.

• Prince - Dirty Mind : A recent formspring.me question I got asked who the most underrated musician was. My answer was unequivocally Prince. People tend to see the Purple one as just this guy who changed his name to a squiggle and wears feminine clothes (or had a rib removed in order to perform autofellatio, if you're into urban myths). Most of them have no idea that he is a multi-instrumentalist who carves pure gold out of guitar strings and quite possibly channels the ghost of the late great Jimi Hendrix. Plus, he is a funky mutha-ucka.

• The Muffs - The Muffs : The Muffs are an all girl alterna-grunge type band formed in 1991 in SoCal. This is their 1993 self-titled debut. Probably their most famous track is their cover of Kids In America which appears on the Clueless soundtrack. This LP is just a collection of noisy indie pop bubbles.

• Run DMC - Raising Hell : My friends are probably sick of this story, but back in 1985, between Primary School and High School, my then best friend came home from Bali with a tape for me. He told me it was 'Breakdance' music (we had been b-boys in 1984). Breakdance was already played out, so I scoffed. When he went home, I threw that tape on. It was Raising Hell. And within months, Walk This Way and by association, Rap was the biggest thing on the planet. This album watered my Hip Hop seed; planted with breakdance in 1983.

• VA - Thunder Road - Songs Inspired by the Boss : I'm hoping to get hold of The Promise for next week, Springsteen's outtakes from the acclaimed Darkness On The Edge Of Town. In the meantime, this is another great Uncut magazine compilation, this time full of Springsteen covers by a variety of artists from country to art rock. Stand outs are my favourites the Cowboy Junkies and Mary Lou Lord's subdued rendition of Thunder Road.

• The New Pornographers - Together : It wasn't until my mate Sunky went to The New Pornographers gig recently that I knew the always brilliant Neko Case was fronting the band. This is their latest release and is a nice showcase of Neko's voice and Carl Newman's songwriting. Also interesting is an appearance by the horn section of Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings.

About the wisest thing I’ve heard this week was from Miss 4, who said (and is fond of saying) ‘Can’t we all just get up with each other?’ which is her take on getting along. So, answer that, Koreas? Can’t we all just get up with each other? Of course we can.

Ya’ll come back now, ya hear?