Lady wakes me again but she’s already had her walk. “M” is letting me sleep in today as
compensation for today’s return to work.
An hour or so later, I’ve plugged the iPod into the device that diverts
it through the car speakers and I’m off.
I normally don’t play music on the way to work. “M” works a short distance from me and so we
travel to and from work usually chatting all the way. In her absence an album is needed that will
last the 40-50 minute, traffic permitting, return trip and so I select;
Come – Eleven:Eleven
This is one of the best albums to have ever emerged from the US indie
rock scene. The album kicks up a
glorious noise as the duelling dirty guitars of Chris Brokaw and Thalia Zedek
fight for space against each other, the rhythm section and Zedek’s vaguely
Patti Smithesque vocals. Every track
sounds like an loud epic, even the ballad Sad Eyes. Even in such company, Off To One Side towers above all. A slow/fast/slow number, it is one of the
very first numbers I would seek to include in my fantasy C-90 compilation
tape. A great version of the Stones “I
Got The Blues” rounds things off nicely.
It’s a shame that their subsequent three albums and Melting In The Dark,
the Steve Wynn album in which they were the backing band, fall short but this is
probably a measure of the greatness of Eleven:Eleven rather that any
shortcomings those albums may possess.
I arrive at work in good humour. A significant number of the staff has also
returned today and the number of greetings and queries about our respective
breaks reminds me of a first day back at school. I proceed to my office which I share with my
colleague and overall good guy, Jack. We’ve worked in the same team for a few
years now and are attuned to each other’s moods and idiosyncrasies. Significantly, we are both able to listen to
our own music in a way that doesn’t disturb the other. I’ll be either plugged into my iPod or will
play discs on my boom box next to my computer.
Naturally neither is played very loud lest it interferes with my work or
obliterates the sound of my phone ringing. Albums with lyrical themes that could be
deemed offensive by others are not played on the boom box mainly as a courtesy
to others but also to prevent my falling foul of workplace laws.
I have no expectations as to the quantity of music I will
hear in on any given work day. It is
affected by any number of factors, meetings and frequents other daily absences
from my desk, off site visits and the like.
Assuming I have a day without any commitments (a rare occurrence) I will
have a pattern to the day‘s program.
First up, as I attend to emails, planning my day, etc, I tend to settle for something reasonably
light. This is usually a jazz, blues,
Americana or acoustic album. Today I opt
for;
Gillian Welch – Harrow And The Harvest
The current Queen of Americana, this is her most recent
album. It is fairly low key compared to
her previous output and probably lacks a standout signature track such as
Revelator on Time (The Revelator) but rewards repeated listens.
I next chose an album that sort of built on this musically;
Ry Cooder – Pull Up Some Dust And Sit Down
This is my favourite of the albums Cooder has released since
his return from creating movie soundtracks.
I suspect this is because this album sounds very much like his early 70s
classics such as Paradise And Lunch and Into The Purple Valley albeit with a
more explicit political bent. As always
his guitar playing is a treat.
Later in the day, I started to increase the tempo.
Flowers – Icehouse (bonus live disc)
Icehouse was originally called Flowers when their debut
album called Icehouse was released.
After the album took off in Australia an overseas assault was planned
but it was discovered that another band existed called Flowers. Thus Flowers (the band) became Icehouse, and
Icehouse (the album) became a self-titled debut. (The title track of the album remained
unaffected.) A 30th Anniversary
edition of Icehouse (the album), still attributed to Flowers in Australia was
recently released containing this live disc and a DVD. The live disc demonstrates just what a potent
live, new wavish, act the band was in those days and the adolescent screams
testament to the extent of their initial popularity. Just about the entire studio album is
represented along with covers of The Easybeats’ Sorry and John Lennon’s Cold
Turkey. The elongated version of the
first hit, I Can’t Help Myself was typical of how it was played at the time and
inevitably was the highlight of their shows.
The disc is culled from a number of different shows and my only gripe is
that a complete single show might have been more appropriate.
By late afternoon with energy levels starting to flag, I
usually try for something a bit more frenetic.
Today, I went to something I brought from my pending crate.
Meat Puppets – Lollipop
This is also the most recent album for this veteran band and
their mixture of country and punk. It
doesn’t have the ragged glory of their early classic albums which so endeared
them to Kurt Cobain but you’d expect a degree of polish to creep in over
time. But as the Kirkwood brothers sing
on Baby Don’t, “Anything [they do] is all right with me”.
All in all a good day back.
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