Daft Concrete Walkmen Tantrums (May 20th - 24th)

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.

Happy Saturday, one and all (unless you're in one of those kooky time zones where it's still Friday night). I've done the weekly dose of braving Dawn of the Dead style shopping malls to get a few lousy groceries to make some antipasto tonight. Here I am sitting down to tell you all about my playlist for next week.

With Otis Redding and Charles Bradley setting my ears on fire this week, I had to be careful not to go too heavy on the Soul, so I left off some compilations that will probably make it in a fortnight. A compilation that did make it is a tribute to John Denver. I have a healthy dose of 90s going on with Belly and Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories. Fitz and the Tantrums might be that extra bit of Soul I wanted to avoid, but I don't care; they rock. Talib Kweli's new one is here, as is the album that everyone is talking about from Daft Punk. Having recently found a second hand copy of the vinyl, I included Concrete Blonde - Free and that just leaves an early effort from The Walkmen.

Check it out:

• Charles Bradley - Victim of Love
• Concrete Blonde - Free
• Belly - King
• VA - The Music Is You: A Tribute To John Denver
• Otis Redding - The Essentials
• Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories - Tails
• Talib Kweli - Prisoner of Conciousness
• Fitz and the Tantrums - More Than Just a Dream
• The Walkmen - You and Me
• Daft Punk - Random Access Memories

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Concrete Blonde
2. The National
3. The Stooges
4. Ben Lee
5. She & Him

Song of the Week : Blondie - Hanging on the Telephone

This song has, almost by stealth, become one of my all time favourites. I'm not even sure I loved it this much as a kid - and I loved Blondie a whole lot as a 7 year old.


Hanging on the Telephone is one of those Blondie tracks that beautifully straddles the line between perfect Pop and another genre - in this case Punk. I wouldn't call it a punk song, but Blondie were considered Punk back then because they co-opted the essence of it into the mainstream; much as they did with disco and Heart of Glass (or indeed as Kiss did with I Was Made For Lovin' You). If you watch the film clip, she is thrashing about in a subdued pogo and pulling faces every bit as rotten as Johnny. Yet what you have in your ears is a radio friendly pop song with the requisite length, time signature and guitar riff.


What I love the most is Deborah Harry's "angry" refrain at the end "Hang up and run to me" While not being a John Lydonesque bitter spit, she uses the repetition and the obvious gravel in the low end of her voice with the "OOOOOooOOH' that she makes it an angry command. Couple it with the ruckus of the guitars and drums below her and it really rocks. If I ever stop singing this song, I should definitely make some room in my Hottest 100 list on my iPod at number 1.

Toodle-ooh 

Go and listen to Parallel Lines now. Go on. It's brilliant for Saturday afternoons. Again, apologies to those who are still asleep in Friday land. 

As I speak, my kids are in the room behind me, putting on a ballet and musical performance for themselves and their menagerie of stuffed toys. I'd really better go and check it out. Difficult to get tickets to these things, usually.

Hasala malakim.

Colossal Walkmen Machine Mix-Up (June 11th - 15th)

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.


A short week for me this week and next as I take the Friday off to prepare and the Monday off to recover from my f-f-f-f...firty fifth birthday. I've just had the Revelation Film Festival program launch, so expect me to be talking too much about film until at least early August. The festival itself is a month away, but that won't stop me going on about the films I want to see and bugging my friends and family with schedules. You see, I'm doing it already. On to the music.


I'm still not over the loss of MCA and good instrumentals are great to work to, so there's The Mix-Up. I recently purchased a 3 disc set of Sugar Hill tracks, so I'll add those one disc at a time. So damn funky, I'm frightened of the consequences of playing it at work, The Commodores are here. When I found out my favourite Hole song was a cover, I had to get the album that has the original from Young Marble Giants. There's some new ones from The Tallest Man On Earth and The Walkmen, some oldies from Violent Femmes and The Triffids; Alexi Murdoch's album where a few songs from Away We Go came from; and finally, can you believe there's a Wilco album I haven't heard yet? There is and it's the live set from Chicago, Kicking Television.

Check it out:

• Beastie Boys - The Mix-Up
• VA - The Sugar Hill Story : To The Beat Ya'll (Disc One)
• The Commodores - Machine Gun
• Young Marble Giants - Colossal Youth
• The Tallest Man On Earth - There's No Leaving Now
• Wilco - Kicking Television: Live In Chicago
• The Triffids - Calenture
• Violent Femmes - Violent Femmes
• The Walkmen - Heaven
• Alexi Murdoch - Time Without Consequences

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. The Avalanches
2. Missy Elliott
3. Elvis Presley
4. The Birthday Party
5. Leonard Cohen

Song of the Week : Young Marble Giants - Credit In The Straight World

I recently discovered that one of my favourite Hole songs is a cover. I say recently discovered, but I must have once known this and forgot. I distinctly remember pouring over the liner notes to Live Through This at the time of release searching for writing credits by Kurt Cobain. I don't think there is any, but at the time I thought he had to have had some kind of input. Hole haven't come close to that good since.


This track, Credit In The Straight World seems to be so obviously about Courtney's addiction and the way fame and fortune allowed her to continue the lifestyle without the downfall of your everyday regular junkie. It's always felt so raw and real coming from her. Knowing it's a cover doesn't change how real it feels though - I think it just makes it one hell of a well-chosen cover.


The original version by Young Marble Giants is very post punk pop with a slant toward electronic beats and keys. The voice of the lead singer is very English and quite reserved. Of course, when Courtney did it, she belted it out like a sneer. Both versions have a creepy undertone of the seedy world of drugs. Hole's just approaches it from a more aggressive perspective while Young Marble Giants sound a little more gothic and dark. I hope you enjoy it.



Ya'll Come Back Now

Thanks for stopping by. That's your lot for the week and I hope you see something you might have a listen to. If nothing else, if you're a Hole fan, check out Colossal Youth. 


I may very well be enjoying a Winter Wonderland and Dinosaurs this weekend, all going to plan. Whatever you're doing, behave - because if I have to, so do you.


Hasala malakim.

Playlist : 10 Albums I Missed in 2010

Hello and welcome back to Work Tunes for 2011.

Last post last year was a collection of my favourite albums of 2010. Naturally, I wasn't the only one who wrote down my Top 10 list. For my first week back at work this year, I have decided to listen to a few albums that others chose and I hadn't heard. Mostly these are collected from music blogs and news sites, as well as from the recommendations of friends.

My 10 albums I missed in 2010 looks like this;

• We Are Jeneric - Animals Are People Too : With a sort of freak-folk sound and tracks that don't take themselves too seriously (how could they with titles like A Sister and Brother in the Kitchen Trying to Fly like Eagles by Jumping Off of Counters), this is an enjoyable set that sounds like a few friends jamming at a late night party. It is a concept album of sorts, with all the songs about animals.

• Jackie Greene - Till The Light Comes : A recommendation by @poopsiegirl of Twitterati fame. This is the first I've heard of Jackie Greene. My twitter buddy was right to assume I'd dig him; he sounds like Josh Rouse and Ray LaMontagne had a baby with John Cameron Mitchell. That is a very good thing in my mind (as disturbing as the literal image is o_O )

• Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Before Today Ariel Pink, one-time Animal Collective collaborator and notorious eccentric has released a more cohesive and less lo-fi album under the new moniker. This is indie-as-all-hell, electronically grimy rock-pop that grooves just a little.

• Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings - I Learned The Hard Way : I was introduced to Ms Jones through the awesome 100 Days, 100 Nights album a few years back now. Recently, at work, I heard one of our Melbourne managers was into her and was bigging her up to a visiting Perth staffer. It made me realise I had totally missed her latest effort. So here it is.

• Karen Elson - The Ghost Who Walks : A little bit of countrified folk and a good dose of songwriting chops made me take notice of Karen Elson on previewing this album. I don't know if this is a debut or not, but I think I'll be doing some homework based on the strength of these songs.

• Cotton Jones - Tall Hours In The Glowstream : There's something of a 50s/60s revival going on in music at the moment; have you noticed? Bands like She & Him, Best Coast and Kitty, Daisy and Lewis are tapping either a bit of a go-go inspired, or else folk-revival vein. Cotton Jones do it too. These songs sound like popular country from the late 50s. Even the album cover shows a beach scene from that era. Could all this nostalgia be the result of the Global Financial Crisis?

• The Walkmen - Lisbon : Apparently The Walkmen have been releasing albums since 2002 with Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me is Gone. News to me. Regardless of how these guys slipped under my radar, this is a decent set. Their somewhat jangly indie pop is well worth a listen. They may have a new fan.

• Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy : Everybody has always loved or hated Kanye. Not me, I have ignored him, mostly. This album was on nearly every Best of 2010 list I read. I don't understand the fuss about the man; okay, he's Kanye and we're not, but what little I have heard has not inspired me. In fact, Kanye's "George Bush hates black people" line is imho his greatest lyric ever. But I will none-the-less give this LP a spin.

• Beach House - Teen Dream : Heavy on the keys and the sentiment, Teen Dream sounds a lot like its title. Beach House have added a bit of pop to their usual whispy synth scape and it works.

• The Black Keys - Brothers : Another album that made every Top Ten list but mine. Good bluesy tunes with a little bit of crunch in the bottom end. I quite like it, but it definitely wouldn't have been one of my ten personal favourites from last year. Possibly number 11.

So that's my listening schedule for my first week back. To ease me on into a whole new working year, my employer has generously provided a lunch and pistol shooting day on Friday. We like to call it Om Nom Nom Pew Pew Pew! I'm looking forward to it.

Hang loose bro; rock n' roll \m/