National Development of Moon Vaccines (August 20th - 24th)

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.


No news to report this week. I finished Skagboys and I've decided to read Trainspotting and then Porno again, so it will be like an Irvine Welsh shindig for a while around here


Lots of new stuff this week music-wise though, starting with albums from The Vaccines and The Bamboos on recommendation from friends; another recommendation, also new, from The Thousands blog was Leure, which is downtempo beats I was surprised I liked the sound of; for a rap fix there's more new stuff from Arrested Development and I Self Devine; there's old stuff too from Pink Floyd, The National and Billy Bragg; a new Fleetwood Mac tribute and one of fifteen live sets from Ryan Adams' Live After Deaf box top it all off. 


Check it out:

• The Vaccines - Come Of Age
• The Bamboos - Medicine Man
• Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
• VA - Just Tell Me That You Want Me - Tribute to Fleetwood Mac
• The National - The National
• Ryan Adams - Live After Deaf (Copenhagen)
• Arrested Development - Standing At The Crossroads
• I Self Divine - The Sound of Low Class Amerika
• Billy Bragg - Back To Basics
• Leure - Holland Sky

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Brand Nubian
2. Elton John
3. Concrete Blonde
4. Ice-T
5. De La Soul

Song of the Week : Elton John  - This Train Don't Stop There Anymore

Over the last couple of weeks, I have had each disk of an Elton John Best Of in my playlists. I have been a fan of Elton since I was a kid, but we all know that sometime in the late 80s, he kind of started sucking and he never fully recovered. Except, in my humble opinion, for the Songs From The West Coast album, from which this song This Train Don't Stop There Anymore, comes.

Do you know what gave Mr John (not his real name) his inspiration to make a decent album? He heard a little record called Heartbreaker by one Mr Ryan Adams. I've heard Elton interviewed about it and he says he heard Heartbreaker and he was embarrassed. He said he was hearing honesty and a real love of songwriting in Adams that he had lost himself.

So this song is all about the loss of inspiration, the dying spark inside Elton to write real soSengs - which ironically is one of the best songs he's ever put out for mine.

"I used to be the Mid Express / All steam and whistles heading West / Picking up my pain from door to door / Riding on the storyline, furnace burning overtime / But this train don't stop there anymore." 

Bon Voyage

Thanks for stopping by. If you like a bit of electronica; which, it has to be said, I don't usually, check out Leure via the link and throw a tenner down on it. The Arrested Development album is free via the link, so grab that if you're a fan. 


That's all from me this week. I'll be back next week with another set of tunes to get me through the working week, and hopefully turn you onto something you haven't heard. 

And speaking of what you haven't heard, if you don't know about #Clay5 and you're on Twitter, you're missing out. Check it out via the blog over at clay5.blogspot.com.au or just follow @Clay5. 

Go Eagles. Hasala malakim.

Hardcore Haunted Jazz House (August 13th - 17th)

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.

A momentous week this week with Miss 5 becoming Miss 6. She got to chose her birthday dinner and picked Dominos pizza including (her first) delivery. She seemed ok with the results but I could tell she was a little confused, being used to her Mum's homemade gourmets on stones from the bbq or at the very least woodfired from Blend down the road. 

But enough about cheese and dough and tasty, tasty bacon, you came for the music not food. What's on the menu this week? Lashings of American Hardcore punk; a second helping of both Trainspotting and Elton John; there's a cheeky new jus of Ariel's Pink Haunted Graffiti; the ever faithful Concrete Blonde debut features along with the familiar flavours of Josh Rouse; you'll find hints of Ornette Coleman, with a slab of AC/DC to drink, all topped off with a cleansing dollop of Brand Nubian and De La Soul for dessert. 

Check it out:

• VA - American Hardcore
• VA - Trainspotting OST (Disc 2)
• Elton John - Greatest Hits (Disc 2)
• Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Mature Themes
• Concrete Blonde - Concrete Blonde
• Ornette Coleman - The Shape Of Jazz To Come
• Josh Rouse - Country Mouse, City House
• Brand Nubian - One For All
• AC/DC - Back In Black
• De La Soul - De La Soul Is Dead

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Elton John
2. Babes In Toyland
3. Big Star
4. Jay-Z
5. Neko Case

Song of the Week : AC/DC - Thunderstruck

This week's SOTW, believe it or not, is AC/DC - Thunderstruck. I know, I know, I'm so little of an Ackadacka fan that I copped an arse-whoopin' at high school for giving Who Made Who a bad review in the school paper. But like I said even then, Back In Black is great stuff! 

The story behind my choice is just that someone at work on thursday mentioned one of those SS thunder ute things, another guy starts singing the song and we've all got it stuck in our head. So he wants me to find him a copy to listen to and get it *out* of his head. I didn't have a copy, so I chased down a link on Grooveshark and I listened to it too. 

That relentless riff of squeally tapping, the chant aaaahahahahahahahaah! This song is the big dumb action movie of rock and roll - it's big, dumb and fun. In fact, I'm pretty sure it has appeared in several BDAMs by now. 

So crank this, enjoy it for what it is - sweaty, simple and honest hard rock from Straya.

Seeya

Thanks for stopping by. If you're in Perth, get outside before the rain comes because it is glorious yet again. We're just back from the beach and everything was magnificently smooth and clear. I was hoping for more of a stormy driftwood kind of a vibe, but it's actually quite warm. 

Until next week, be good to each other. Go Eagles. Hasala malakim.

Open My Big Cyclone Beach Home (August 6th - 10th)

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.


Guttentag meine kameraden! What's the haps yo? A comfortingly standard week for me this week just gone with a viewing of The Dark Knight Rises thrown in to shake things up. I enjoyed it, but honestly, Mr Nolan sir, EDIT just a little bit eh?

Alright then, let's get right into the tunes. What have I got this week you ask? Well, there's a compilation of songs for the road I picked up from the eBays which looks like it might have been sold at a petrol station; I thought I'd throw in som Jay-Z which made me think of Ice T and the 99 Problems line that Jay-Z stole; I've got some Kiss because, well it's Kiss; sticking with the 70s I've got the first disc of Elton John's remastered greatest hits; I also have volume 1 of Trainspotting because I'm still reading Skagboys (and I will have volume 2 next week); Neko Case is always great; there's Beach House's first album, some Babes In Toyland and finally Big Star thanks to my rediscovery of Thirteen this week.

Check it out:

• VA - Open All Night : On The Road
• Jay-Z In My Lifetime Vol. 1
• Kiss - Dynasty
• Elton John - Greatest Hits 1970 - 2002 (Remastered) (Disc One)
• Babes in Toyland - Nemesisters
• Ice T - Home Invasion
• Neko Case - Middle Cyclone
• Big Star #1 Record
• Beach House - Devotion
• VA - Trainspotting OST (Volume One)

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Cheap Trick
2. The Beatles
3. Snoop Dogg
4. Indigo Girls
5. Divinyls

Song of the Week : Big Star - Thirteen

This week's track comes courtesy of James. In a roundabout way. When he requested the Evan Dando cover of Sam Stone, it made me add Dando's Live At The Brattle Theatre to my playlist.


One of the songs on the album is Thirteen. When I was listening to it this week, I knew I'd heard it before and it must be a cover. At first, I worked out I had heard Wilco do it, but I knew it wasn't a Wilco song. So I looked on the iPod and sure enough Wilco - Thirteen appears on Big Star Small World a tribute LP to Big Star.


I have a copy of Big Star's 3rd, but had never heard #1. So this is Thirteen from that album. I like it for its subtlety. It's a teen rebellion song with a protagonist who sounds like he'd rather sleep than run riot. I like that if you take away the "school" references, there isn't any line that couldn't relate to most people with a generational conflict. So it is the title and the inclusion of school that gives it a great deal of its meaning. Subtle and understated. Not enough of that these days.

Toodle Pip

Thanks for stopping by. Last minute preparation and supplementary gift buying this weekend as Miss 5 becomes Miss 6 on Thursday. She's been given permission to choose the meal for her birthday dinner and she's gone with pizza. I can't argue with that. She didn't say beer, but I'm sure she was thinking it, so I'll just have one to honour her wishes. 


Derby day today. It would be typical of my Eagles to lose this one if everything else goes right for them, like Hawthorn losing already has, so I won't get my hopes up. May the best team (not wearing purple) win.


Go Eagles. Hasala malakim.

Cheap Soul / Happy Boss (July 30th - August 3rd)

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.


Well work was teh crazyies this week. Had the fiddly but fun task of making everyone custom magnetic name tags for a task board. People's choice of avatar said a lot about them. 


Does my choice of music say a lot about me? I don't know. Sometimes. This week, it says "I really have no idea what I want to listen to, so I'll pick some compilations and any albums that come up in conversation."

So that leaves us with the Sessions at West 54th Street and Spunk Sampler compilations; I have The Essential Cheap Trick because I'm still singing Surrender weeks after it was SOTW; I have albums from the diametrically opposed Snoop Dogg and Indigo Girls that I've not heard; my buddy Jamie mentioned Evan Dando's live set so that is here; checking out Gillian Welch's set lists of late has booked Dave Rawlings a spot; there's a Divinyls best of, an Ab-Soul album I read a review on and finally a true classic from the Fab Four.

Check it out:

• Cheap Trick - Essential Cheap Trick
• The Beatles - The White Album
• Snoop Dogg - Paid Tha Cost to be Tha Boss
• Ab-Soul - Control System
• Indigo Girls - Become You
• Evan Dando - Live At the Brattle Theatre / Griffith Sunset
• VA - The Best of Sessions at West 54th Street
• Dave Rawlings Machine - Friend of a Friend
• VA - We/Know/Where/The/Winter/Goes
• Divinyls - Make You Happy 

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Stevie Nicks
2. Nas
3. The Gaslight Anthem
4. Angus Stone
5. Passion Pit

Song of the Week : Stevie Nicks - Sometimes It's A Bitch

Recently on random shuffle this song popped up and I hadn’t heard it for ages. It’s Stevie Nicks – Sometimes It’s A Bitch. If I remember right it’s written by Meatloaf collaborator Jim Steinman (hence the sort of cliché title he’s so fond of). The song always brings a good friend of mine to mind who is a massive Stevie Nicks fan, so it’s always an enjoyable listen.


As a lyric I like the structure of good and bad, struggle and triumph. There isn’t a great deal of virtuoso musicianship in it. Not like Fleetwood Mac with Lindsay Buckingham behind it. Never the less I like the song like I love Will Ferrel movies – just a bit of harmless bubble gum. 

Goodbye

Thanks for stopping by. If you're in Perth, get out in this glorious weather and enjoy it while it lasts - I hear it's going to rain soon (which is also cool, but not so much for going out). 

Go Eagles. Hasala malakim.

Good Handwritten Passion Anthems (July 23rd - 27th)

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.


Not a lot to report this week. It was a big week at work with important presentations to be made and what have you. Oh and performance reviews (dun dun DUN!) Last weekend was the end of Rev and I managed to see Surviving Progress and finish it up with the locally produced Buff (congrats to Director, Gavin Bond on a really funny little documentary). That's about the whole week, so i suppose it's on with the music.


It's mostly new stuff this week. There's the solo effort from Angus Stone thanks to a workmate who hooked me up; I have some new rap from Nas and Public Enemy; American Songwriter put out a sampler for July and that is here; the latest from Passion Pit, Gaslight Anthem and Anaïs Mitchell are here; an old favourite from Josh Rouse; and finally there's the second disc of Neil Young - Decade and the best of Stevie Nicks.

Check it out:

• Josh Rouse - Nashville
• Angus Stone - Broken Brights
• Nas - Life Is Good
• Public Enemy - Most of My Heroes Still Don't Appear On No Stamp
• VA - American Songwriter Muse July Sampler
• Stevie Nicks - Timespace - The Best of Stevie Nicks
• Neil Young - Decade (Disc Two)
• Gaslight Anthem - Handwritten
• Anaïs Mitchell - Young Man In America
• Passion Pit - Gossamer

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Augie March
2. Neil Young
3. Ben Lee
4. Split Enz
5. JEFF the Brotherhood

Song of the Week :Wilco - Impossible Germany

This week's song is Impossible Germany from Wilco. I know, another Wilco track Corey, how novel. But this is one of those weeks where it couldn't have been anything else. 


Yesterday I finally managed to watch the DVD that came with my copy of Sky Blue Sky. Before a live in a lounge room performance of the song, Tweedy explained what it was about. It's about where you think you might be on the day you wake up out of denial and decide you have to fix what's wrong. For Tweedy of course, that was drugs. 


What I like most about this song is the extended instrumental break that closes it. In particular I like the solo which starts off so sweet and mellow and degenerates into metallic noise. Given the stated subject matter of the song, you could see the ending as representative of the journey of drug addiction; with the initial bliss of the drug at the beginning which takes a dive into nightmare by the end. 


Some comedian who I can never remember once said of Wilco something like 'Tweedy has deep and sensitive emotions that he tries to express through soft and gentle songs, but it's no good because someone always comes along and plays a solo with a chainsaw'. I think maybe they were listening to Impossible Germany when they wrote that. 

Bye Bye 

There's your tunes for another working week. Hopefully something sparks your interest and sets you on a new musical journey. Or not. Be excellent to each other. Peace be with you and all that good stuff.


Go Eagles. Hasala malakim.

Remember the Blue Brotherhood Decade (July 16th - 20th)

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.


More great times for me at work this week with a bunch of important projects finishing up and a few more beginning. I managed to catch a few films at Rev on the weekend just gone, including The George Méliès Project which I am really glad I got to see. Didn't catch any during the week though, but that's okay because it meant more time at home with the wife and children. I am getting out there this weekend to at least two and maybe more before it closes. For now, let's talk about music, not film.


There's a healthy dose of Australian tunes this week with Augie March, early Ben Lee and Deborah Conway. Plus there's Split Enz who are one of those New Zealand acts who are so good we claimed them for Australia. I've added the latest from JEFF the Brotherhood and one of Lou Reed's best. For my weekly dose of rap I've picked some Jay-Z and the soundtrack to the movie Colors. A compilation of covers from KCRW and the first disc of the Neil Young retrospective round it all out nicely.


Check it out:

• Lou Reed - The Blue Mask
• JEFF The Brotherhood - Hypnotic Nights
• Split Enz - History Never Repeats : Greatest Hits
• Jay-Z - The Dynasty
• Augie March - Moo You Bloody Choir
• VA - Sounds Eclectic : The Covers Project
• Ben Lee - Something To Remember Me By
• Neil Young - Decade (Disc One)
• Deborah Conway - Bitch Epic
• VA - Colors OST

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. 50 Cent
2. Rickie Lee Jones
3. Ryan Adams
4. Cypress Hill
5. Bright Eyes

Song of the Week : The Korgis - Everybody's Got To Learn Sometime

I chose this song at the beginning of the week, because I have really enjoyed the tendency lately to find out songs were covers when I hadn't heard the original. This is Everybody's Got To Learn Sometimes by The Korgis, which was covered by Beck for the soundtrack of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.


This original version is one of those 80s ballads that is now kind of hard to take seriously. You know the kind, the ones with a clawing over-earnestness about them. The underlying strings sustain a sort of dull whine and it reminds me a bit of The Cars - Drive but a tad more saccharine.  


Beck's version on the other hand is bleak and stark like the Montauk winter scapes it plays over. I don't know if you all have seen the film, but you should if you haven't. I'm guessing you have. So Beck's version to me is far better - even if I believed until very recently that the song was his. 

Au revoir

I just finished watching 2 Days In New York (Julie Delpy directed), so I'm feeling a little bit French. Fun little film; a bit like its director - smart and cute. 


Thanks for stopping by. Here's hoping your weekend is full of all the joys of life - you know the ones; pizza, beer, music, love, laughter, pretzels, all that good stuff. 


Go Eagles. Hasala malakim.

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:

• The Korgis - Dumb Waiters
• Japandroids - Post-Nothing
• Alabama Shakes - Boys and Girls
• Trembling Bells & Bonnie 'Prince' Billy – The Marble Downs
• James Brown - Star Time Disc 4
• Rickie Lee Jones - Naked Songs
• VA - Culture of Kings III
• Gillian Welch - Soul Journey
• Ryan Adams - Easy Tiger
• Tracy Chapman - Matters of the Heart

Top Five Artists Last Week

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.