Showing posts with label velvet underground. Show all posts
Showing posts with label velvet underground. 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.
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Friday, March 22, 2013

Build the Underground Temple (March 25th - 29th)

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.

 What's the good word? Everything is a little bit same ol' same ol' around these parts. It is Mrs coreyj and Miss Nearly 4's birthdays next week, so that will be exciting. Among the craft and lego stuff, we got her a KISS t-shirt and her very own inflatable jumpy castle.  Miss Nearly 4, not Mrs coreyj (she's not a huge KISS fan). If the power adapter for the compressor ever gets here, I'll even be able to inflate that jumpy castle. Stupid Australia Post. And on to the music.

 Just one new one this time, from Billy Bragg. I have to thank a workmate for In Rainbows this week as he reminded me how long it's been. The second volume of Use Your Illusion is here thanks again to Clay5. Grunge super-group Temple of the Dog pops in for a slab of tracks, as do 70s pioneers The Runaways. And speaking of pioneers, Velvet Underground are here along with an Uncut compilation of artists who inspired Gram Parsons. Beat Street is like a heartbeat - and it's here on my list. That just leaves all the Js - Jamiroquai and Joshua James. 

 Check it out:

  1. Josh Rouse
  2. Guns n' Roses
  3. Green Day
  4. The National
  5. Black Prairie

 Song of the Week : Stevie Nicks - You Can't Fix This


 Recently I got hold of the soundtrack to Dave Grohl's documentary on Sound City music studio. You might remember Paul MacCartney, Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic and Pat Smear 'reunited' Nirvana for Hurricane Sandy relief on a song called Cut Me Some Slack. That is on the soundtrack, but it's not what I chose.

 The song that has blown me away completely is Stevie Nicks' effort You Can't Fix This. It's an angry and brooding song about the perils of rock n roll decadence. The thumping bass drum and the subtle smoldering growl on the guitars are a building indignation while Stevie screams about going too far and never being able to turn back once you bring the Devil to the party.

 This for me has got to be her greatest song since Fleetwood Mac. The first time I played the album, I was working away to it and I literally stopped what I was doing about 5 seconds into Nicks' vocal. If you haven't already heard it, I hope it has that same effect on you.


 Adieu

I finally gave up fighting with my internet connection and bought a 3G pocket WiFi with 5GB on it to last until Telstra comes and *does their job!*. Our phone line is down, but the net seems to just drop in and out all the time. Of course, as soon as I got home and set up my WiFi modem, the internet stopped dropping out and hasn't gone down yet. Typical. 

 Hasala malakim.
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Friday, October 12, 2012

Long National Underground Nightmare (October 15th - 19th)

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.

 I'll be lucky if I get all the required albums tagged and rated in time for work this weekend. I have to set up a new PC and we all know what a hassle that is. I'm in that annoying half way stage of having to find spots for a bunch of data and make some tough decisions on what to ditch. I'll be happier when SSDs come in 2Tb size without having to take a second mortgage. 

 What I'll try and get together is a couple of rap classics from Big Daddy Kane and Brand Nubian. Somebody mentioned Teen Spirit online yesterday and I threw on Nevermind; loved it, so I have Bleach. A Jacksons album I may not have heard (though probably have) is here, as is a Velvet Underground set I definitely have. It seems like I am always choosing The National's debut, but it has been 2 years since it made a list. A record I keep meaning to play for the first time since I scored it, Brothers In Arms is here along with Suzanne Vega's debut which I also have in vinyl form. I have disc one from Triple J Hottest 100 vol. 13 here for compilation purposes. Last but definitely not least, I played Alice Cooper's Trash last week on songl, so I'm giving his bona fide classic Welcome To My Nightmare a spin this week. 

Check it out:

  1. Drive-By Truckers
  2. Dr. Dre
  3. Ryan Adams & The Cardinals
  4. You Am I
  5. The Hummingbirds

Song of the Week : Elvis Costello - Good Year For The Roses




 My SOTW is Elvis Costello - Good Year For The Roses. I've been mulling over it all week. On Monday driving in, it came on a random playlist and I got enthralled with the lyrics. It's such a simple song, really. A couple of very short verses and a chorus. But I found the more I analysed the lyrics, the more it said. In actual fact, it paints an entire story full of history and sadness with just a handful of well-chosen words. 

 When you think about what it says, you can gather that the narrator is an almost obsessive gardener who is not much chop at expressing his feelings and who had a wife who picked up after him who has now left him. She wears lipstick, smokes and has clearly had enough of his crap, as she doesn't even speak. Their marriage has been a war of words for 3 years and has now ground to a silent halt. I would hazard a guess too that she has left the baby and he can't even get up to take care of it when it cries. 

 Listen to the little clues like "you haven't made the bed" and "there's so little left to say we haven't said" And meanwhile, marriage over, this guy is in shock or numb to it so much that he can only think of the roses in his precious garden. This is, I think, one of those timeless songs which will always be part of the collective musical conscious. I hadn't really thought so hard about the words until this week.  

Dosvedanya, Comrades

 I'm trying to plea bargain with the Universe to give me a fine weekend, even if the forecast says rain. I'd be okay with rain at night and sunshine during the day so I can take my girls out riding. Fingers, toes and any other spare appendages crossed.

 Hasala malakim.
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Friday, January 20, 2012

Playlist : January 23rd - 27th, 2011

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.


Another short week at work next week, with the Australia Day public holiday coming up on Thursday. That's okay though, because the week I just had was extra long. Never mind all that now though, it's on to the music.


For my listening pleasure, I have an album of remixed Beastie Boys acapellas from Barzin (get the download free at Bandcamp and buy the CD for a pound, it's awesome). There's some new stuff from Nada Surf, Gem Club and a band I've only just met, First Aid Kit. From one of my favourite bands, Dolorean, I have an album of acoustic demos. There's some Belle & Sebastian because it's been ages; some Lil' Kim; a Dylan protest era classic; Bon Iver's debut and to round it all out Concrete Blonde's moody Walking In London.


Check it out:

  1. Camera Obscura
  2. Cream
  3. Boy and Bear
  4. Tom McRae
  5. Jay-Z
Song of the Week : The Velvet Underground - Sweet Jane



You all know me well enough that you might have guessed from my love of all things Iggy Pop, Lou Reed, New York, the 60s and 70s, Dylan and rock n roll, that I would dig on The Velvet Underground. I just this week picked up a copy of Loaded, the band’s first release after they broke up (on which Lou Reed had no say). There is a deluxe version available with some alternate versions of songs and some bonus tracks etc, but I got the original Loaded.


The song from Loaded I’m choosing today is Sweet Jane. I’m sure you all know it well. I was thinking about it this morning before work and it occurred to me that in rock n roll culture, there are a cache of songs that are like staples in a diet. Whether it’s Hey Jude, Like a Rolling Stone, Satisfaction, Space Oddity or even Creep, some songs are just must hears. Sweet Jane is to me in that same company. If the entire world of pop culture was an art gallery, and songs just pieces of art hung on the wall, Sweet Jane would be in the main gallery for all to see; but kept locked in an impenetrable glass case with a bunch of other super important songs.


As to what the song is about, well who knows. Some people say drugs and a transvestite called Jack. Mostly I think it’s about life choices and the difference between living the life of a rock n roll star and the 9 – 5 workaday schlub and how both choices are valid and neither should envy or judge the other. 


Enjoy it anyway. It’s a great song and it should serve you well on a Friday. 

Happy Invasion Day
Look, kids, I don't want to get all preachy or anything and ruin your public holiday, but the fact remains that the 26th of January marks a contentious date in Australian history. It has got to be a huge slap in the face to Aboriginal Australia when we're celebrating the day that Cook came, declared the place Terra Nullis and claimed their home. It would be like, say, me having to celebrate an "AFL Day"on the anniversary of the Dockers inaugruation - except a million times worse. 


All I'm saying is it couldn't hurt and only help to move the date. Let's pick something with no significance. Something in Summer, when the car parks are melting thongs and the beers are ice cold. Cliche it might be, but it's a hell of a lot more "Australian" than some English ponce sticking a flag in our beautiful dirt. 


And this Invasion Day, remember; 


"For those who've come across the sea, 
We've boundless plains to share.
With courage let us all combine,
To Advance Australia fair."



So stfu Abbott.


Arrivederci.
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Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Playlist : August 29th - September 2nd, 2011

Hello and welcome to a somewhat more normal edition of Work Tunes.

After last week's technology-related debacle, I am back to some semblence of normalcy at home in terms of my PC. The best thing was being able to overwrite the library for a brand new installation of iTunes with my old library file - instantly giving me back all my playlists and info. Yay! So picking a list to hear at work this week was a lot easier.

For listening duties this week, I've gone pretty heavy for the classic rock (*shock horror*) with a bit of Dylan, The Who, Velvet Underground, Led Zeppelin and The Replacements as well as R.E.M.'s punchy rock set Monster. Representing my Hip Hop sensibilities, Public Enemy's Apocalypse '91 and the Native Tongue sounds of Black Sheep's Non-Fiction. Throw in some hipper vibes from Blitzen Trapper and Head and the Heart and you got yourself a playlist.

Check it out:
  1. The Throne
  2. Thin Lizzy
  3. Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks
  4. Primus
  5. The Autumn Defense
Song of the Week : Dolorean - Black Hills Gold
Dolorean - Black Hills Gold is a tribute to the late Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson. I knew Wilson had drowned, but the story about how is what the video for this song is based on and I did not know the story. Here is what Al James said about it:
In 1983, however, he gave into the darkness and drowned at Marina Del Rey, the dock where his beloved sailboat "The Harmony" was once moored. He spent that day drinking and swimming, discovering bits of his life that had been thrown overboard years before during an explosive argument with an ex-wife. Dennis dove into the ocean over and over retrieving memories of his love and his life that were buried at sea. Ultimately, he dove too deep and was washed out into the abyss.
That has stuck with me since I read it on Monday and watched the video:


The song itself is more about what it takes to pull the gold out of the ground and craft it into a ring and how throwing that ring away means more than just a betrayal of the relationship. Interesting and eternally deep. Hope you dig it.

Ciao Bambinos
Thanks for stopping by. I hope you find something new and inspiring to listen to, or just enjoy the terrific Dolorean video. See you next week, same bat time; same bat channel.

As always brothers and sisters, asalaam alikum.
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Thursday, July 14, 2011

Playlist : July 18th - 22nd, 2011

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.

Well, Revelation 14 has begun and I've recently attended opening night for a screening of the very entertaining Fire In Babylon. Thanks to the reggae and calypso music which punctuated that film, this week's playlist contains a Bob Marley & The Wailers album, as well as a Peter Tosh greatest hits compilation. The general 60s/70s vibe is rounded out with Pink Floyd's epic classic The Wall and the Velvet Underground's debut. On top of that there's the deluxe release of REMs Life's Rich Pageant, Jamiroquai and the follow up to an album I included a couple of weeks back from Boho Fau & Elevated Soul. Plus, there's the obligatory alt country from A.A. Bondy and Lambchop.

Check it out:
  1. Rickie Lee Jones
  2. Ratcat
  3. U2
  4. Queen
  5. Hole
Song of the Week : Bob Marley & The Wailers - Get Up, Stand Up
Last night I went to opening night at Rev and they played Fire In Babylon. It was a documentary about the 1970s and 80s West Indies cricket team. Some might be just a tiny bit too young to recall, but others will remember that they were total rock stars of cricket. In fact, the movie states that between 1980 and 1993 they never once lost a test series. But the doco showed that they were once the dancing minstrels of the sport – entertaining to watch and always getting badly beaten. Australia’s fast bowlers at the time, Lillee and Thomson were fond of bowling dangerous bouncers at even their tail enders. After an embarrassing thrashing in Australia in ’76, the Windies set about recruiting some fast bowlers of their own.

Where my song comes from is Bob Marley was a fan of the team and often came into the change rooms. Supposedly the creative period of Jamaican music at the time was inspired by the Windies and the team says the music inspired them. Viv Richards tells how this song, Get Up, Stand Up was his pre-match wind up and he had it in his head every time he went out to bat. It’s a call to arms, a revolutionary cry to stand up for your rights. I need more reggae. It makes your head bob. I was still nodding by the time I got home and I listened to some Wailers in bed. In a way I guess reggae it’s just like soul music, except for the Caribbean.

What the doco showed was that there was terrible racism during the apartheid years even here in AUS from the crowd as well as the cricketers. Tony Greig, then captain of England, made some remark about making the Windies grovel and my lord they let him have it. They felt as if he was degrading their race itself. And those bouncers were no joke!

Do Svidánija
Sunday sees me off to Revelation again and I'll be seeing not 1 but 4 films that day. I'll be trying to find the time very soon to review everything I see on MFNM. Until next week, may the road rise to meet you, may the wind be always at your back and may nobody ever spout Celtic prayers at you again.

Ciao bambinos.
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Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Playlist : March 21st - 25th, 2011

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes. For this week's listening, I've dug into an old school favourite I just bought on vinyl, grabbed an album from one of the 80s ultimate one hit wonders and slotted in yet another Dolorean LP.

Check it out:
Top 5 Artists This Week
  1. Dolorean
  2. Train of Thought
  3. Jack Johnson
  4. Blind Pilot
  5. Hilltop Hoods

I’ve always liked this album, but it has mostly been a likeable sound, if you know what I mean. I’d listen to it, but all it really was was melody that sounded good and Conor Oberst singing over the top. The lyrics, I never really listened to before, but there was a general sense of “I’m a hipster… I live in New York… I’m so cool it hurts… Usually, I’m drunk and sad.”

What happened the other night at sleep time though, due to using earphones instead of Bluetooth (earphones being louder), I didn’t sleep but listened to it. This song made me click that there is some really exceptional writing on this album. I’ve always known that about Lua but only because of the other version.

With lines like:
Like a ten-minute dream in the passenger’s seat
While the world it was flying by
I haven't been gone very long
But it feels like a lifetime
And
Where the waitress looks concerned
But she never says a word
Just turns the jukebox on
And we hum along
And I smile back at her
I suddenly had some interest in what was being said. And yes, it still says “I’m a cool NY hipster who is drunk and sad” but it lays out a series of images that seem like a scene from a mumblecore indie film. Plus it has Emmy Lou Harris, which is always a bonus. Hope you like it and it doesn’t bum you out too much.

Ciao for Now
    Next week there will most likely be two posts. The first will be for that week's playlist and the second for a proper review of the best of the month. Hope to see you there.

    Ciao for now, you kooky kids.
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