Blackbyrds Clash the Sky Road (February 18th - 22nd)

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.

Well the company website I designed and wrote has launched, so you'd think things would be slowing down for me. But no, now I have a newsletter to make and a conference greedy for collateral to plan.Good thing there's music to get me through the work-a-day grind - which is exactly why I started writing all these lists down.

This week I have quite a few brand new releases, from Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Iceage and Beach Fossils. The ACBs who I'd never heard of, gave their Stona Rosa album away for free, so that is here. I just discovered a fantastic band that the recently deceased Donald Byrd had played in, The Blackbyrds. I also have The Hard Road, which I was certain had been on a hundred lists already, but no. There's J Mascis and early Margot & the Nuclear So and So's; as well as The Smiths and classic Ice-T. 

Check it out:

• The ACBs - Stona Rosa
• Beach Fossils - Clash The Truth
• The Blackbyrds - Happy Music: The Best Of the Blackbyrds
• Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Push The Sky Away
• Ice-T - Power
• The Smiths - Strangeways Here We Come
• Margot & the Nuclear So and So's - The Dust Of Retreat
• J Mascis - Several Shades of Why
• Hilltop Hoods - The Hard Road
  
• Iceage - You're Nothing

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Gil Scott-Heron
2. The Weepies
3. Dinosaur Jr.
4. Wilco
5. Belly

Song of the Week : The Avett Brothers - Live And Die

Yesterday being Valentine's Day, I of course showered my lovely wife with gifts. One of those gifts was a mixtape I threw together on one single premise. We happened to catch a Mumford & Sons clip on Rage last Saturday morning and she mentioned she "liked their sound". So I grabbed a bunch of bands including Mumford and Iron & Wine, Bon Iver and The Avett Brothers and stuck them on a CD to show her there was in fact an actual sound like that going around. I called the mix Folky Hipsters.

Today's SOTW is the track I used to close out the mix. The Avett Brothers - Live and Die which appears on the soundtrack to the film This Is 40. The awfulness of that film being released the year I turned 40 was not lost on me.

The song is pretty upbeat and extra hoedowny with that banjo and the jangly percussion. I thought Mrs Corey J would like it because it is jaunty and she isn't often one for maudlin folk tunes - unlike yours truly.

Ciao for Niao

Thanks for stopping by. I think I'll be catching Django Unchained this weekend, so maybe look for a review soon on MFNM.

Until then, as always, hasala malakim.

Faithless British Lambchop Sirens (March 5th - 9th)

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.


Well, I had an incredible time at the Ryan Adams concert. The man himself was in fantastic form, cutting up his stripped-back heartbroken songs with hillarious asides in between and a few insane improvs (about sneezing, about only being popular when playing and about the 'soft as fuck' Mr Cat.). Plus, the company I was keeping was just as hysterical and the crowd was 'diverse'. We had a cameo appearance by Warrant (couple in their 50s, both long white hair) and some guy who kept practicing his Werewolf call. There were a couple of young women who obviously won their tickets from Nova or something, because they never shut up whispering the whole concert.


But enough of all that. It's all about the music. That music this week is a hodge podge of what I feel like listening to. Besides the new one from Lambchop, there's some Jason Isbell that I got after enjoying his opening set for Ryan Adams; Nirvana, Judas Priest and Metallica, thanks again to the BBC; Noisetrade artist Chasing Summer to check out for free; some rap from Bias B and Talib Kweli; Whiskeytown for obvious reasons and The Smiths because the CD came in the mail this week.


Check it out:

• Lambchop - Mr M
• Judas Priest - British Steel
• Jason Isbell - Sirens of the Ditch
• Metallica - The Black Album
• Chasing Summer - Chasing Summer
• Bias B - Been There Done That
• Whiskeytown - Faithless Street
• Talib Kweli - The Beautiful Struggle
• Nirvana - In Utero
• The Smiths - Best ...II

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Ramones
   
2. Palace Brothers
3. Wilco
4. Cowboy Junkies
5. Jamiroquai

Song of the Week : Beck - Already Dead

While browsing @sunky 's latest iPhone album list, I saw Sea Change and it struck me that it would be a great album to listen to at bed time. So that's what I did, but I ended up laying there, headphones in, listening to the whole thing without being asleep.


I don't think I've ever listened so closely to it before. I took in the bass and the strings behind it as well as all the silence. I really love the overall feel of it. There's an atmosphere across the whole album that could be the soundtrack to floating silently in space; it's that quiet and vast. I'm only a casual Beck fan. I like his music and I have a few albums, but I think Sea Change is his masterwork. Without all the smart aleck irony and slacker posing of other albums, it is just a sublimely serious piece of art. ...And now I want the vinyl!


I could have picked any song, but I chose Already Dead because it is a good illustration of the atmosphere of the whole album and because it's short enough to leave a decent size file for download.

Toodle Pip

It's another long weekend this week, for Labour Day. I plan on digging out the lead to my Atari 2600 and maybe writing a review at MFNM. Whatever you do, do it safe and have fun. Thanks for stopping by. See you next time. 


Hasala malakim.

Playlist : February 13th - 17th, 2012

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.


So the bad news is, I didn't get to go to the Hilltop Hoods gig. I had to sell my tickets because my cousin/old mate could barely walk, let alone stand for hours in a mosh pit. These things happen. I'll throw my Parade of the Dead DVD on, turn the lights out and mosh in my lounge instead.


To the music then. This week's list is a little bit all over the place. Don't you judge me! I've got Paul Simon's monumental Graceland; the very latest from KRS One; a bit of Pearl Jam; the soundtrack to High Fidelity, plus Three EPs by The Beta Band featured in that film (I watched it on the weekend); some My Bloody Valentine for obvious reasons; Tori Amos; Beastie Boys; The Smiths and Jason Isbell because he's supporting Ryan Adams in a couple of weeks and I've never heard him.


Check it out:

• Pearl Jam - Vitalogy
• The Smiths - Meat Is Murder
• VA - High Fidelity OST
• The Beta Band - Three EPs
• My Bloody Valentine - Loveless
• Tori Amos - Under The Pink
• Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique
• Paul Simon - Graceland
• KRS One - The BDP Album
• Jason Isbell And The 400 Unit - Here We Rest

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Bonnie 'Prince' Billy
   
2. The Doors
3. Melissa Etheridge
4. John Coltrane
5. X

Song of the Week : Hilltop Hoods - City Of Light

I don’t know if you saw my indignant rant, but I recently read an article on how JJJ listeners were bitching about the amount of airplay AUS rap gets. That’s a matter of personal choice and I don’t have any problems with that, but the author of the article tried to say the reason was that AUS rap is no good; that it’s a pale imitation of current US rap. For starters, US rap is a pale imitation of itself these days; and secondly, AUS rap has always been it’s own phenomenon.


The writer seemed to be questioning the authenticity of Australian rappers; as if because they didn’t grow up in Compton doing drive-bys that they don’t know how to rap, or aren’t part of the culture. Why they pay people to write who have no idea of their history is beyond me. Australia, whether people like it or not, has had it’s own Hip Hop culture since the early 80s. What the best AUS rap acts are doing isn’t trying to be American, it’s telling their own stories in their own voices. Kids today seem to think that rappers should be talking about guns and bling and bitches, because they don’t know any better.


So my song (and this is also because I missed the gig) is Hilltop Hoods – City Of Light. I choose it because it’s a telling of their time growing up within Australia’s Hip Hop subculture. These are stories of Australian graffiti writers, Australian fashion trends (I bet Tupac never wore a Country Road parka), Australian open mic gigs. The Hoods helped get me back into rap after my long absence precisely because I was relating more to the lyrics and to the style. I fell off because I didn’t care for gangsta rap and I got back on because this wasn’t gangsta.

Turrah

There goes another list for another week. I'm writing this rather hurriedly at 1:30am on Friday because I've been up making Mrs coreyj a Valentine's Day present. I promise that no macaroni, glitter or PVA glue was used in the construction of said present. Plus, there will be other pleasant, more store-bought, treats.


Be excellent to each other, people. If you have a special someone and you celebrate such commercial constructions, have a happy Valentine's Day. If you can't be with the one you love, love the one you're with ;).


Arrivederci amanti.