Posted 4 months ago

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I only have 30 albums on my iPhone at a time.

I love music, I have a 32GB iPhone and I have over 700+ artists in my iTunes. 

For most people with a similar amount of space and music collection their portable music player would be full of music, not for me though. I like to put a personal limit on the amount of music I carry, 30 albums by 30 artists. 

Why? 

It’s a way of forcing myself to listen to albums in full, as I always believe they were intended. It allows me to focus my attention on getting to know an artists work, rather than listening to a few songs and jumping to another album. I always try to include a mix of new albums,  albums that I just I love, albums I haven’t heard in a while and some that I never really have listened too in great detail. 

Anyway to start off the working year tomorrow, here are the 30 records I have on my iPhone: 

01. “Bang Bang Rock & Roll” - Art Brut
02. 13 - Brian Setzer
03. Starfish - The Church
04. London Calling - The Clash
05. 4:13 Dream - The Cure
06. Black Tie White Noise - David Bowie
07. Halcyon Digest - Deerhunter
08. Tied & True - The Detroit Cobra
09. Morrison Hotel - The Doors
10. Death by Sexy - Eagles of Death Metal
11. Elvis is Back! - Elvis Presley
12. Maggot Brain - Funkadelic
13. Sound Kapital - Handsome Furs
14. The Black and White Album - The Hives
15. Substance 1977-1980 - Joy Division
16. Saturdays = Youth - M83
17. Everything Must Go - Manic Street Preachers
18. Mclusky Do Dallas - Mclusky
19. Your Arsenal - Morrissey
20. Manners - Passion Pit
21. Give Up - The Postal Service
22. Ashes & Fire - Ryan Adams
23. Hatful of Hallow - The Smiths
24. Absence - Snowman
25. More Specials - The Specials
26. 20 Massive Hits - Toots and the Maytals
27. Vessels - Wolf & Cub
28. At Mount Zoomer - Wolf Parade
29. Fever to Tell - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
30. #4 Record - You Am I

Every few weeks I wipe this list clean and start over. I’ve done this for a while, I suggest trying it and don’t worry if you find it hard … that just means you love music too! It’ll also give you a reason to look through your collection more often.

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Posted 5 months ago

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Sunset & Vine 01. Tonite It Shows - Mercury Rev02. Race for the Prize - The Flaming Lips03. Love My Way - The Polyphonic Spree (cover of The Psychedelic Furs) 04. 1963-94 - New Order05. Radio Kaliningrad - Handsome Furs 06. Stadium Love - Metric07. No Cabaret - VHS or Beta08. Dangerous (CSS Remix) - Faker09. Miss Europa Disco Dancer - Manic Street Preachers10. A Forest (Tree Mix) - The Cure11. Wandering Star - Portishead12. Shelter - The Xx13. Sylvia - Pulp14. Cracked Actor - David Bowie The mix title comes from the line in Bowie’s track, Cracked Actor, which is a song about an ageing Hollywood star and their encounter with a prostitute. I’ve always been a fan of mixes that can tell a story, or suit a story that should be. The idea of this mix is to be a wild summer night out. The opening tracks are the idea of you getting ready, ‘Love My Way’ is while you’re in the cab and they are playing some 80’s music, then it’s all dancing for a while until The Cure kicks in and suddenly it’s the early hours of the morning. You’re a little wrecked from the night so far so you need a few songs to wind down and to complete it the final two are to be the soundtrack for the journey home.  That’s how the songs fell together for me.  Download: Sunset & Vine (Mixtape no longer available - comment and I’ll upload it again)

Sunset & Vine

01. Tonite It Shows - Mercury Rev
02. Race for the Prize - The Flaming Lips
03. Love My Way - The Polyphonic Spree (cover of The Psychedelic Furs) 
04. 1963-94 - New Order
05. Radio Kaliningrad - Handsome Furs 
06. Stadium Love - Metric
07. No Cabaret - VHS or Beta
08. Dangerous (CSS Remix) - Faker
09. Miss Europa Disco Dancer - Manic Street Preachers
10. A Forest (Tree Mix) - The Cure
11. Wandering Star - Portishead
12. Shelter - The Xx
13. Sylvia - Pulp
14. Cracked Actor - David Bowie

The mix title comes from the line in Bowie’s track, Cracked Actor, which is a song about an ageing Hollywood star and their encounter with a prostitute.

I’ve always been a fan of mixes that can tell a story, or suit a story that should be. The idea of this mix is to be a wild summer night out. The opening tracks are the idea of you getting ready, ‘Love My Way’ is while you’re in the cab and they are playing some 80’s music, then it’s all dancing for a while until The Cure kicks in and suddenly it’s the early hours of the morning. You’re a little wrecked from the night so far so you need a few songs to wind down and to complete it the final two are to be the soundtrack for the journey home. 

That’s how the songs fell together for me. 

Download: Sunset & Vine

(Mixtape no longer available - comment and I’ll upload it again)

Posted 5 months ago

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  1. The Brian Setzer Orchestra (244)
  2. Electric Light Orchestra (28)
  3. The Cars (20)
  4. Bo Diddley (20)
  5. America (7)

Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz

Posted 5 months ago

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Another year, another 12 months of music. Much like last year I’ve had my head in clouds discovering old music from artists of years gone by and I honestly thought I’d struggle to include any ‘new’ albums from this year. While the list consists of bands I’ve loved for a while and their new releases, there are a few new artists in there that I really enjoy in 2011.  Download: Eleven Songs … 2011 Tracklisting: 1. The Rose With The Broken Neck by Danger Mouse & Daniele Luppi taken from Rome 2. TNT for Two by Pajama Club taken from Pajama Club 3. Little by Little by Radiohead taken from The King of Limbs 4. Work by The Bewitched Hands taken from Birds & Drums 5. Serve the People by Handsome Furs taken from Sound Kapital 6. Futura by Battles taken from Gloss Drop 7. Dangerous (CSS remix) by Faker taken from How Did We Not Get Loved?  8. Hot Air by Adalita taken from Adalita 9. Lucky Now by Ryan Adams taken from Ashes & Fire 10. Black Treacle by Arctic Monkeys taken from Suck It and See 11. To Your Door by Jebediah taken from Kosciuszko

Another year, another 12 months of music. Much like last year I’ve had my head in clouds discovering old music from artists of years gone by and I honestly thought I’d struggle to include any ‘new’ albums from this year. While the list consists of bands I’ve loved for a while and their new releases, there are a few new artists in there that I really enjoy in 2011. 

Download:
Eleven Songs … 2011

Tracklisting:

1. The Rose With The Broken Neck by Danger Mouse & Daniele Luppi
taken from Rome

2. TNT for Two by Pajama Club
taken from Pajama Club

3. Little by Little by Radiohead
taken from The King of Limbs

4. Work by The Bewitched Hands
taken from Birds & Drums

5. Serve the People by Handsome Furs
taken from Sound Kapital

6. Futura by Battles
taken from Gloss Drop

7. Dangerous (CSS remix) by Faker
taken from How Did We Not Get Loved? 

8. Hot Air by Adalita
taken from Adalita

9. Lucky Now by Ryan Adams
taken from Ashes & Fire

10. Black Treacle by Arctic Monkeys
taken from Suck It and See

11. To Your Door by Jebediah
taken from Kosciuszko

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Posted 6 months ago

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Today (Broadway Rehearsal Demo)

Smashing Pumpkins

Song of the week: Smashing Pumpkins - Today (Broadway Rehearsal Demo) from Siamese Dream Reissues.

The Smashing Pumpkins released their reissues of Gish and Siamese Dream, totally remastered and extra songs. We are still waiting for the vinyl and CD versions to arrive but this is a digital version we’ve got our hands on. 

While listening to some of the interviews with Billy to promote this and then listening to the demo of Today I had an amazing realization. 

“a single guitar intro and can change the entire feel of a song”

Listen to the demo and what you have is a version of Today that would have been released by most of the ‘grunge’ bands in the 90’s. It’s good, but it’s fuzzy and doesn’t have that hook to make a hit. The softness and beauty the Pumpkins added with that simple guitar hook played throughout is really what makes them special, especially to me. 

So here it is, a look back to 1992. 

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Posted 6 months ago

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  1. David Bowie (147)
  2. Crowded House (75)
  3. The Decemberists (27)
  4. Xiu Xiu (21)
  5. The Smashing Pumpkins (15)

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Posted 6 months ago

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  1. The Hives (54)
  2. Zwan (40)
  3. Portishead (34)
  4. The Tomcats (22)
  5. The (International) Noise Conspiracy (12)

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Posted 6 months ago

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Wandering Star

Portishead

Song of the week: Portishead - Wandering Star

Well this week has to go Portishead, a band I’d looked forward to seeing and experience live for years and finally got too. One song that stood out was Wandering Star, it was really special to see Beth sit down in the dim light of the stage and just sing to that repetitive bass line. 

It was a pretty haunting show, as Bree said to me “This is the music of nightmares”. The setting of the Belviour was amazing, the night sky and the trees were great … the cold breeze not so much. This song was never a real stand out for me on Dummy, but seeing it live was awesome and unexpected.

(Decided to include it from the Melody Nelson collection rather than Dummy)

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Posted 6 months ago

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Boppin' The Blues

Brian Setzer

Song of the week: Brain Setzer - Boppin’ the Blues

Anyway, so I’ve been a bit blue this week, it’s been a tough one with work.

 One bit of news that made me smile was the announcement of Mr Brian Setzer and his Rockabilly Riot touring Australia next year! So I dusted off his solo album called Rockabilly Riot Vol. 1 - Tribute to Sun Records and drifted away in the sounds to another time. 

The track that I’ve picked is Boppin’ the Blues, originally by Carl Perkins, just for a bit of fun and it really helped me ‘bop’ the blues from this week. It’s a nice way to start a Friday.

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Posted 6 months ago

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  1. No Doubt (100)
  2. Ryan Adams (55)
  3. Mogwai (39)
  4. Morrissey (15)
  5. Grinderman (14)

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