Sail the Dirty Mystic Highway (May 28th - June 1st)

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.


Terrible week this time around tunesters. Lots of hard graft at work and the likely loss of the family pet. But you get by. Music always helps. And here's what I have.


I've slipped in a few Australian classics from AC/DC, Cold Chisel and The Saints. I'll probably have a few more next week. For my Hip Hop fix I've got LL and Plug One and Two of De La Soul. The latest LP from Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band is here, as is a classic from Randy Newman. For a bit of a Soul hit, who better than Sam Cooke and Mavis Staples. Finally, as always a bit of twang from Drive By Truckers.


Check it out:

• Mavis Staples - We'll Never Turn Back
• Conor Oberst and Mystic Valley - One Of My Kind
• AC/DC - Highway To Hell
• Plug One and Plug Two - First Serve
• LL Cool J - Icon
• Cold Chisel - Circus Animals
• Drive By Truckers - Dirty South
• Sam Cooke - The Man and His Music
• Randy Newman - Sail Away
• The Saints - (I'm) Stranded

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Beastie Boys
2. Melissa Etheridge
3. The National
4. Elvis Costello
5. Bob Evans

Song of the Week : Bob Dylan - Things Have Changed

This week I have had a number of songs following me around, which makes it impossible to choose just one. So instead I'll celebrate the 71st birthday of Mr Robert Zimmerman, known to his mates as just plain Bob Dylan. The song I chose is the Academy Award Winning song from Wonder Boys - Things Have Changed.


Apart from being a solid rocking blues song, this track perfectly suited not just the main character of Wonder Boys (who was a disgruntled author with writer's block) but also His Bobness himself. Once upon a time the voice of a generation, the white people's sounding block for the Civil Rights movement, the poster boy for the radical Left; Bob grew up a bit jaded and a little more laid back. We should have seen it coming though, he signposted it in My Back Pages: "But I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now."


Things Have Changed reminds me that we all shift our priorities constantly. Some of the things that seem at some point to mean everything to us, that get us fired up, can wind up seeming trivial at best. Certain things are always going to be worth caring about, but so much of the baggage we carry around could just be jettisoned. Bob's refrain "I used to care, but things have changed" is genius in that it could mean he just doesn't care anymore or that the things around have changed so much, it's hard to know what to care about. 


Happy birthday to Bob, the "savage gift on a wayward bus" Dylan.

So Long

Not much more to say this week. I'll be happy when it's over and I get to try again next week, only this time without the terrible hassles and the grief. 


Thanks for stopping by. Hasala malakim.

Futuristic Violet Model Pleasures (May 21st - 25th)

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.


Well, I got my first take down notice from the DMCA. For The Spectrals - Get A Grip of all things. Not very punk rock guys. Still, who am I to take perceived income away from starving multinational corporations. So I dutifully took it down and I will henceforth quit posting a streaming link to Song of the Week. You'll just have to watch the YouTube video and go buy the single without hearing it properly. But of course, if you'd heard it in good quality streaming, you'd have been more likely to buy it, right? Isn't the Internet the new radio station? I wish corporations really were people, so we could punch them in the face. But I digress...


For my listening pleasure this week I'm holding Steve Tannen's Big Senorita, a CD I just got delivered from The Weepies' site. I have what must be the only BDP album I haven't heard; plus an album from Digable Planets' own Doodlebug. Reaching for some classics I have Elvis Costello and Joy Division; Melissa Etheridge is here because I just bought the vinyl; The 3rd disc of the Mermaid Avenue sessions is here; Pump Up The Volume thanks to a recent #Clay5 on Twitter; Jimmy Smith - Root Down because of the Beastie Boys sample; and finally High Violet because it has been quite some time. 


Check it out:

• Doodlebug feat. D.O.R. - Futuristic Sci-Fi
• Steve Tannen - Big Senorita
• Boogie Down Productions - Edutainment
• Elvis Costello - This Year's Model
• Jimmy Smith - Root Down
• Billy Bragg & Wilco - Mermaid Avenue: The Complete Sessions (Disc 3)
• Melissa Etheridge - Never Enough
• VA - Pump Up The Volume OST
• Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures
• The National - High Violet

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Beastie Boys
2. U2
3. The Clash
4. Dinosaur Jr.
5. Suzanne Vega

Song of the Week : Neutral Milk Hotel - Ghost

This week's song comes courtesy of a TV show; the very great Parks and Recreation. I was a late comer to Parks n Recs, only getting into it after Season 3 was complete, but I've since caught up. I'm pretty sure you all watch it, but sometime in Season 3, April Ludgate mentioned Neutral Milk Hotel as her favourite band. The name didn't ring a bell at the time, so I decided to check them out .


As soon as I heard this song, Ghost, I knew I had heard them many times before. I even knew the words to it. I think I've stumbled across them on sites like themixtapeclub and 8tracks etc because they are obviously quite a popular act. They sound a bit like The Decemberists to my ears with a smattering of Arcade Fire. 


I dig this song in particular for its folky hipster vibe and the catchy melodies of "dee dee dee dee dee dee" and the line that I instantly recognised “She was born in a bottle rocket, 1929" I'm almost positive you know it, so I hope you like it.


Byeeee

Peace out homeys. Be safe, go well and don't let the Man bring you down. Go Eagles!


Hasala malakim.

Nasty Suburban Sea Songs (May 14th - 18th)

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.


First up, I have to say I am still smarting from the passing of MCA. This week's Song of the Week was a special tribute edition and you'll see later on that it's quite long. It isn't just the tragedy of losing a great artist either, it's awful to see a man taken from his family and friends at such a young age. I am listening to To The 5 Burroughs and Hello Nasty this week to continue to pay respect and enjoy the music.


Besides the two Beastie LPs, I've grabbed my favourite Josh Rouse; there's the latest effort from Best Coast; Neutral Milk Hotel I am checking out thanks to Parks and Recs; I bought a bonus EP copy of Hand It Over on the weekend, so that's here; Australia's own Bob Evans makes an appearance; Suzanne Vega has been sounding great in the wetter weather; U2s monumental live album is along for the ride and finally a Bloodshot Records compilation. 


Check it out:

• Josh Rouse - 1972
• U2 - Rattle and Hum
• VA - Down to the Promised Land : 5 Years of Bloodshot
• Bob Evans - Suburban Songbook
• Best Coast - The Only Place
• Beastie Boys - To The 5 Burroughs
• Dinosaur Jr - Hand It Over (w/Bonus EP)
• Beastie Boys - Hello Nasty
• Suzanne Vega - Songs in Red and Grey
• Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Beastie Boys
2. Sonic Youth
3. 2Pac
4. The Lemonheads
5. Nirvana

Song of the Week : Beastie Boys - Right Right Now Now

The first time I saw the Beastie Boys was the film clip to Fight For Your Right. Being 14 / 15 at the time, these three brats from NYC talking about smoking and drinking and porno were the three coolest guys on the planet. (Side Note: I don’t know if you know or remember this, but kids actually used to steal VW emblems to hang around their neck like Mike D. I never did, but I remember trawling the streets of Koongamia looking for a Beetle to gank one off).


Part one of my multimedia tribute is the video on my tumblr (www.coreyj.tumblr.com) of an unaired live performance on Chappelle’s Show. This is how they were when I found them; raucous, NYC, precocious and wild. Part of them stayed exactly like that even as they matured.


After I saw the film clip for Fight, I immediately took some money from my Kmart job and bought the 45 of the song.  On the other side was Paul Revere. It was that song that for me established MCA as the “bad ass” of the three. Ad Rock was always the whiny brat and Mike D the smooth ladies man. MCA always came across as the tough guy, and that sort of has always carried on.

That’s why I chose Right Right Now Now from The 5 Burroughs as my SOTW. I think 5 Burroughs is unfairly underrated by even big Beasties fans. I have always loved it. This song shows beautifully how MCA was the counterpoint to the old school Beastie brattiness. As Simon pointed out, they still had fun while they spoke on important topics. Have a look at some of the exchanges of lyrics across the song:


Ad Rock:  With the sound delight we rock all night / And yes we're gonna party for the right to fight
MCA: What we do now is future moulding / Columbine bowling, childhood stolen / We need a bit more gun controlling


Mike D: I'm not here to fight, or incite  / I'm like the beach in the Bahamas make you feel alright 
MCA: I'm getting kind of tired of the situation / The US attacking other nations


When I watched Awesome! I F%#^n’ Shot That last night and saw them play as a live band, instruments and all, it drove home just how far they’d evolved from the hardcore punk band who wanted to be terrible at playing, through their rap pioneering and onto being accomplished instrumentalists as well as highly respected rappers. The band, the culture and the world will never be the same without MCA. It was a sad, sad day when we lost him.


Woah, long one. Sorry about that. But I think you know how I’ve dragged the Beastie Boys around with me like a security blanket from the age of 14; a constant touchstone to that part of my personality and culture. I sure am going to miss them – because I don’t think there’ll be any more output from the other two as a group. Hopefully there’ll be some lost tapes or something with MCA as star.

Nnnnnddroooop!

TTFN brothers and sisters. May your whole week be charged with new music and old favourites. If you're going out, play safe. Happy Mothers Day if you're a Mum in Australia. 


Go Eagles! (no chance) Hasala malakim.

Shame Dirty Nashville Jack Crosby (May 7th - 11th)

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.


It's been a very busy and very productive week at work. A last minute task I completed on time has received rave reviews; which is always awesome. The wet weather is making the drive to and from all that more sucky, but you get by... you get by < /Cartman >.  So here's what I need to sail me through another working week. 


First of all, a note. I've just updated my list to include two great albums from the Beastie Boys after hearing at 2am this morning that MCA had passed (more on that later). I can't guarantee that next week's list won't have two more.


I'm finally getting around to listening to Crosby, Stills & Nash; I have a straight up 90s essential from the Lemonheads; a little bit of Sonic Youth; the latest from Beach House and Jack White; a bonafide classic from The Clash; a free mixtape from the Nashville Film Festival; and finally a familiar Weepies set for reliable service. 


Check it out:

• Crosby, Stills & Nash - Crosby, Stills & Nash
• Lemonheads - It's A Shame About Ray
• Sonic Youth - Dirty
• Beastie Boys - Licensed To Ill
• Beastie Boys - Ill Communication
• Beach House - Bloom
• VA - Nashville Film Festival Mixtape
• Jack White - Blunderbuss
• The Weepies - Happiness
• The Clash - London Calling

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Beach Fossils
2. Pixies
3. Snoop Dogg
4. Bonnie "Prince" Billy
5. Iron & Wine

Song of the Week : Spectrals - Get a Grip

Thanks to the lovely wet and cold weather, I almost went with a Bonnie "Prince" Billy song, but Spectrals have been my band of the week. After loving Beach Fossils all last week, I checked out Spectrals because Songl had them under Similar Artists. 

Turns out they are probably more like The Smiths than Beach Fossils. Very English, a bit Stone Roses, a bit Blur, a bit Smiths, detached hipster irony a-plenty. 


This song, Get A Grip is jangly and upbeat. What it shares in common with Beach Fossils is probably the echo and the layered guitars. A similar feel if not a similar sound. Check it out and see what you think.

Toodle-Ooh

Whatever you do this weekend folks, have a total ball. Eat great food, drink great (*insert your poison here*), have great laughs and listen to a ton of great tunes. I'll be here next week with some more of what I'm digging at the time.


Be good to each other. Go Eagles! Hasala malakim.


Post Script May 5th, 2012: I've just now finished writing a tumblr post on the passing of MCA of the Beastie Boys. I'm completely floored by the news. It's 2:03am Saturday morning and I'm off to bed with a very heavy heart. 

Timing like a clock when I rock the Hip Hop
Top notch is my stock on the soap box
I've got more rhymes than I've got grey hairs
And that's a lot because I've got my share

Rest in Power MCA.

Short Beach Pixies Give Up (April 30 - May 4)

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.


I've got a biannual Record Fair this weekend and I'm looking forward to picking up a few great records at a bargain price - or a couple of hard to find classics at a premium. If I find anything especially great, I might just rip it to digital and whack it on next week's list. 


This week's list is a little heavy on the indie and the dinosaur rock. I've found a couple of bands I didn't previously know and dug up a Television album I haven't heard. Here's what I have to get me through week ahead. 


After getting quickly addicted to the What A Pleasure EP, I've got Beach Fossils' debut; Songl told me Spectrals were like Beach Fossils, so there's that; I have one of the last Bonnie Prince Billy albums I'm yet to hear; the best of the Pixies; The Postal Service's one and only album; some funky jazz hop from Ninety One; the second disc of Tupac's Greatest Hits; some Iron & Wine and U2's Boy.


Check it out:

• U2 - Boy
• Television - The Blow Up
• Tupac - Greatest Hits (Disc 2)
• Spectrals - Bad Penny
• Beach Fossils - Beach Fossils
• Bonnie "Prince" Billy - The Letting Go
• Ninety One - Short Nights
• Pixies - Wave Of Mutilation
• Iron & Wine - Our Endless Numbered Days
• The Postal Service - Give Up

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Beach Fossils
2. Snoop Dogg
3. Brian Eno
4. Ambulance LTD
5. Ninety One

Song of the Week : Beach Fossils - Face It

I first heard this album (which is really an EP) half way through last year and it just sort of washed right over me. You know, I enjoyed it but it didn’t really make an impact. I think that’s because I wasn’t listening too close and because the music feels like a long lazy swim or somebody scoring your daydreams.


This track is Face It and it’s been stuck in my head all week. Not sure if it’s because we have been thinking about moving to Darlington (and the refrain says “I’d give up the city life”) or because my wife left the country for me (and it says “I’d give up the country life”) but I feel like I can relate to the song and I’ve been constantly singing and humming it. Plus, I’ve played the What A Pleasure EP at least three times since ANZAC night. 


I think if you took the massive reverb off the vocals and crunched up the guitars a little, the whole EP would pretty much rock out. But instead the sound has been filtered through almost a Vaseline lens.


I’ve since grabbed their debut to check it out and that will be on the playlist for next week. If you like the sound of this track, definitely check out What A Pleasure.

Arrivederci

So there you have it. From a personal stand point, not a bad list to take with me on another busy week. Hopefully there's something you haven't heard that you can check out and get into. I'll be at the record fair Sunday, looking for new gems. I'll let you know if I find any.  


Ciao for now. Go Eagles! Hasala malakim.

NY Teenanger Ambulance Jets (Apr 23 - 27)

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.


It's been another busy week at work and I was glad to have some good music to get me through. Next week is going to be just as busy and the ANZAC Day public holiday is smack bang in the middle. I have an Australian LP in the mix to honour the Diggers, but as a general rule, the records I chose are mostly older, either electronic, punk or rock with a slice of gangsta thrown in. 


I've got disc 1 of Tupac's Greatest Hits because the Coachella "hologram" (not a hologram) was so bizarre; which of course led me to pick a Snoop release; I've got a Mojo compilation of NY punk thanks largely to a doco I just watched on the New York Dolls; Van Halen's 1984 \m/, a compilation of civil rights inspired soul; some Brian Eno who I've only recently started paying attention to as an artist rather than a producer; Kraftwerk because they seem to be following me around at the moment; a new LP from Teenanger, punk band; Ambulance LTD thanks to @BreeMateljan and finally the aforementioned AUS LP from Tim Rogers' "side project" The Temperance Union.    


Check it out:

• Teenanger - Frights
• Ambulance LTD - Ambulance LTD
• VA - Mojo Presents I HEART NY Punk
• Brian Eno - Here Come The Warm Jets
• Van Halen - 1984
• Kraftwerk - The Man Machine
• VA - Change Is Gonna Come: The Voice of Black America 1963 - 1973 
• Snoop Dogg - Tha Doggfather
• Tupac - Greatest Hits (CD 1)
• The Temperance Union - The Temperance Union

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Prince
2. Sonic Youth
3. Black Flag
4. Mos Def
5. The Far West

Song of the Week : New York Dolls - Jet Boy

Recently I watched a documentary called New York Doll on Arthur "Killer" Kane, bass player for the New York Dolls. Coincidentally, I watched a collection of Old Grey Whistle Test videos on DVD, one of which was the New York Dolls doing Jet Boy. You can watch the video on YouTube here.


Only the lead vocals are live apparently, which was the style at the time ;) What's at the end of the video is the presenter of The Old Grey Whistle Test snorting derisively at the end of the performance and scoffing " Ha. Mock rock". He is completely taking the piss and obviously thought they were too.


Clearly, what he didn't realise is he was witnessing a very early middle finger stuck up at the Rock establishment from the kids who'd come to be known Punks. I wouldn't call this my favourite song of theirs, but the incident live at the BBC was quite fascinating to watch. 


Listen to the song if you like, but for a bit more fun, try and check out the video and imagine you don't know about Glam Rock or the Sex Pistols or the Ramones or even the Stooges (who were around but wouldn't have been exposed to a British audience yet). And then watch the presenter’s reaction, because it’s priceless. And it’s not like The Old Grey Whistle Test was a stuffy old show – they were quite contemporary for the time. It’s just they were of the present and the Dolls were from years in the future.

Bye For Now

Thanks for stopping by. It's my 10th wedding anniversary on Saturday 21st, so I'll be pampering my lovely wife with diamond jewellery and a night out. If you're a couple, I hope your weekend is as romantic as I hope to make mine. Pity the WCE v HAW game is on the same night. DOH! (Go Eagles!).


If you're Australian, have a great and reverent day off on Wednesday. Being a left wing hippy socialist, I don't believe that war is the answer, but I am grateful to the men and women who go out and put their lives on the line for our country. I just curse the politicians who make it necessary. 

You fasten all the triggers
For the others to fire
Then you sit back and watch
While the death count gets higher
You hide in your mansion
As young people's blood
Flows out of their bodies
And is buried in the mud.

Lest we forget. Hasala malakim.

Kamaal the Sad Television Companion (April 16 - 20)

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.


I can't begin to tell you how busy my week has been, so I won't try. Suffice to say I shall be busy at work from now until, roughly... the END OF TIME! To get through this overwhelming metric ton of work for the foreseeable future, I'm going to need plenty of tunes. 


Which is why I have some smooth Hip Hop grooves from Q-Tip and Mos Def's Black on Both Sides; some anarchic and cathartic punk from Black Flag;  self-titled LPs from both The Far West and Television; The National's mostly overlooked second LP;  the latest from Counting Crows and M. Ward; the first album in the first Holy Trinity from Bob Dylan and a solid compilation from KCRW.


Check it out:

• Q-Tip - Kamaal The Abstract
• Black Flag - Damaged
• Mos Def - Black on Both Sides
• The Far West - The Far West
• Television - Television
• The National - Sad Songs For Dirty Lovers
• Counting Crows - Underwater Sunshine
• M. Ward - A Wasteland Companion
• Bob Dylan - Bringing It All Back Home
• VA - KCRW Sounds Eclectic 3

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Prince
2. Drive-By Truckers
3. Uncle Tupelo
4. A Tribe Called Quest
5. U2

Song of the Week : Prince - Nothing Compares 2 U

So now to my song for the week. I was bitterly disappointed (though not at all surprised) that Prince isn't coming to Perth. I could probably wrangle a work flight to Melbourne and see him there, but I don’t want to stay away from home to catch him. Besides, what was touted as “keeping with current tour prices” (which was as low as $25) has become, I’ve seen, as much as $850 a ticket. Ridiculous.


So I’m definitely not going to see Prince. But I can pick my favourite live Prince track for SOTW. This is the original and best version of Nothing Compares 2 U. A world away from Sinead O’Connor’s forlorn pop ballad version, this is heart wrenching Soul from the purple one and Rosie Gaines. Gaines’ voice is amazing and you can hear Prince smiling as he coaxes responses from her within the song lyric. 


Besides missing a moment like the legendary George Harrison tribute, I think what I upsets me most about missing the Prince tour is the chance to hear some of Pop music’s greatest songs done live by a living legend. C'est la vie. Enjoy.

Hoo-roo

Until next time, may your weekend be filled with music and the good kind of mayhem. If you find something new to listen to, don't be a selfish hipster and hide it away for yourself - hook a brother up.


And speaking of shared knowledge, I just got back from The Record Finder in Fremantle. I go there every chance I get, which is a lot, but now something is bugging me. The range is huge, no doubt; but the prices on new LPs are out of whack and the used vinyl is sealed up so you can't check it. I think why it suddenly bothers me is that Mills Record Bar up the road have beefed up their selection and cut the prices to very reasonable levels. The range may not be the same, but they do stock some of the best records ever made - from Bob Dylan to The National. So my advice if you're hunting vinyl in town is only check Record Finder for more left-field used vinyl and be prepared to ask to see it. 


Vinyl tragics unite! Hasala malakim.