Showing posts with label tracy chapman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tracy chapman. Show all posts

Friday, September 6, 2013

The Devil's Loaded Eye (September 9th - 13th)

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.

Well, as I stated on Twitter; I went. I voted. I sausaged. It is a sad day for Australian politics on the Left, when only The Greens have true left values, Labor are trying hard to be right-wing and everyone else is a greedy or xenophobic conservative. It is clear now that the LNP will govern Australia for the next 3 years; no doubt blaming the ALP for any failings long enough to get a second term. They come to power on a ticket that says Labor is incompetent; conveniently brushing aside the lowest cost of living increase in 25 years, record low unemployment and uninterrupted growth, not to mention superb management through the GFC all thanks to Labor. In the end, in any democracy, you get the government you deserve. So, what can you do. Rant over.

The music looks like this: I've added the second disc of last week's Alt Country compilation. I am checking out the new Nine Inch Nails and the new Belle and Sebastian. Some old Van Halen gets a gig and so does some even older Velvet Underground. There's Arrested Development's one big album and D12's most successful. I have two EPs from Dolorean squished together to make an album and Tracy Chapman's debut classic. Lastly there's some jazz from Ornette Coleman whose The Shape Of Jazz To Come LP I *almost* bought last weekend. 

Check it out:

  1. Gillian Welch
  2. Talib Kweli & Hi-Tek
  3. A Tribe Called Quest
  4. Van Halen
  5. The Donnas

Song of the Week : Bad Company - Feel Like Makin' Love


I've recently developed a healthy obsession with 1970s US muscle cars and the whole big dumb decadent summer vibe that goes with them. For some reason, I associate this song with that same vibe. I must have seen it in a road movie or something, because it's inextricable.  But having searched IMDB I cannot find proof of this association.* 

It has been stuck in my head for weeks while I've read muscle car mags and watched Death Proof (with Vanishing Point and maybe Cannonball due this weekend). Yesterday at work, listening to it, I could barely stop myself from stomping my feet. In fact, I didn't stop myself at all. I stomped. 

An air guitar classic for sure, I think the genius of Feel Like Makin' Love is the tiny silence between "feel like makin' " and that tasty guitar riff. It all seems like a harmless wuss rock ballad until that guitar and then it begins to rawk \m/ So I hope you all enjoy a good old fashioned rock out.

*(Postscript: I just found out it was in the Simpsons episode where the school is snowed in. It plays on the radio and Homer claims to have written it. For Lady Di!).


Vaarwel 

Lefties, let us bow our heads in solemn (non-secular) prayer that there is some semblance of sanity in the Senate to ensure we can't all get shipped off to toil in Jabba Rinehart's underground salt mines to pay for the tax cuts to the wealthy and fund our own, gutted public services. 

Hasala malakim.

Saturday, July 7, 2012

Journey of the Dumb Naked Kings (July 9th - 13th)

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.


It was another enjoyably busy week at work, with a Thursday off to see Miss 5 get her very first honour certificate. It was for writing, because writing and illustrating stories is what she likes to do in her spare time away from school. A tad proud? Yes. She also has a great appetite for reading which she is learning at a rate of knots. I learned a little too late in life that the best way to get smarter is read everything*. *Except the comments.


Revelation started Thursday night and I missed Opening Night for the first time in a while. I will be catching a stack of films this weekend and next though, including The Georges Méliès Project for which I can not wait.


As far as the music goes, I felt like I leaned a little hard on the noisy side last week, so I have deliberately toned it down. So, that's how I ended up with some Tracy Chapman, Rickie Lee Jones, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, Gillian Welch and Ryan Adams all in the same list. Talk about a folk backlash. A folklash. To balance the folk, I have some funk from James Brown, some Soul from Alabama Shakes (on recommendation from @sunky) and some rock from the first Japandroids album. Got to have some hip hop too, so say hello to the third volume of Culture of Kings. Finally, I found out that one of my favourite Beck songs was a cover of The Korgis, so I have their album here. 

Check it out:

  1. 50 Cent
  2. Queen
  3. Japandroids
  4. Cypress Hill
  5. James Brown

Song of the Week : Cheap Trick - Surrender



This has been another week almost completely smothered in work. Except I took yesterday off to go see Miss 5 get her first honour certificate (yay!). She got it for being an 'independent writer' because she is always writing and illustrating stories in her own time. So it was great to do the selfish thing and see her collect the award and try and see who was prouder, her or me.


So this song Surrender, which featured on the soundtrack to a cheesy 70s teen melodrama I saw on the weekend (Over The Edge. Matt Dillon looked about 13!), is a tribute to doing the selfish thing. To surrendering yourself to the work you have to do, but never forgetting the things that are truly important. 


It's a decent song in its own right, but unfortunately I think it might be forever associated with this campy film for me now. Not a completely bad thing, but not Cheap Trick's intention, I'm sure.


Toodle Pip, What What!


Thanks for stopping by. If you're in Perth, try and get out to Revelation and catch a film or two. You won't get a better chance to see some of these terrific movies, unless they happen to be one of those that ends up popular and showing in the multiplexes. Who needs Hoyts though when you can get to The Astor and bask in all of its art deco glory.


Stay safe, warm and dry kids. Go Eagles, even if I can't watch the game because I'll be at the movies. Hasala malakim.


Post Script: Eagles won after clawing their way back from a 35 point deficit. It was kind of ironic today since I saw two films at Revelation where people fought against the odds, except the heroes lost. I came home and watched the second half of the West Coast match that I had recorded. The good guys prevailed. Suck it, haters. 

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Playlist April 11th - 15th, 2011

What's shaking this week Hep Cats? This is my last week of work before I get some holidays for Easter, so no Work Tunes for a while.

What I'll be listening to at work next week sounds a little bit country, a little bit hip hop, a little bit Australian and a bit of everything else; just like me.
  1. Digable Planets
  2. Radiohead
  3. Josh Rouse
  4. Fleet Foxes
  5. Jenny Lewis
Song of the Week : Digable Planets - Nickle Bags
I haven’t had a lot of time to think about SOTW. Nevertheless, I have chosen a track that I’ve been into all week. I recently took delivery of a Digable Planets record for which I paid far too much money due to a nasty eBay bidding war that I didn’t want to lose. Well worth it though, because darn this sounds eleventy billion kinds of funky on wax. The funky grooves of the record as a whole are why I chose this track. Nickle Bags is smooth as butter and funkier than I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter left in the sun. This album isn’t the one I bought, it’s basically a Best Of Digable Planets with a couple of new tracks, but the track itself is on my record along with half this compilation. Here’s a jam to kick your Friday into a smooth mellow good vibration kind of feel. Enjoy!

Until May
It's going to be a strange month because I'll be on holidays and there'll be no work for almost a fortnight. So after a two week break, I'll resurrect the old style just for May. Make sense? Too bad, that's what I'm doing.

Until May, don't let the Man get you down. Power to the people. Right on.