Just Released - 2013 [Ep.48]

“I’m really gonna miss it, all the treasure and the trash,

And later in the evening, I can just imagine,

You’ll put on Junior Murvin and push the tables back…”

                  “How To Make Gravy” [Paul Kelly - 1996]

Another year of Just Released is all but done ‘n’ dusted.

The tinsel and champagne corks have been cleared away after last week’s ‘Best Of 2013 JR Awards®’ and preparations are now underway for the next celebration:  The3^rd Annual JR ‘Christmas Special’.

From Studio B on the 4^th floor of the historic Abernathy Building, we’re approaching this “most wonderful time of the year” from a slightly skewed angle to present a selection of Christmas music for people who don’t like Christmas music. The weather man assures it won’t be anything like the proverbial White Christmas around here (if it is, we’re in real trouble) so we’ve eschewed the idea (as well as the song) in favour of seasonal tunes that are somewhat more universally inclusive. Absent, are “chestnuts roasting on an open fire”, snowmen who go by the name of “Frosty” and reindeer, no matter what colour their nose might be. In their place, we have The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl with one of the greatest Christmas songs ever - Ray Charles proving he could sing any kind of fluff and make it his own - and the hardest workin’ man in show business, James Brown using a Christmas song to thank his fans, pimp his records and plug his concerts. (Lest we forget, James Brown died on Christmas Day seven years ago).

American a cappella group Straight No Chaser rework two Christmas classics in this edition, incorporating the original voices of Paul McCartney and Otis Redding.

Making his first-ever seasonal record this year was the always affable Nick Lowe. His tongue-in-cheek, “Christmas At The Airport” featured in JR a couple of editions back but also from his ‘Quality Street’ album is an old favourite from the ‘60s written by Joe South (“Old Toy Trains”). Another notable cover is Linda Ronstadt’s version of Joni Mitchell’s “River”, a song highlighting that for some at least, Christmas can also be a time of great loneliness.

Along with Joni, another songwriter with unimpeachable credentials is Paul Simon, whose song “Getting Ready For Christmas Day” samples a sermon by Baptist preacher and gospel singer, the Reverend J.M. Gates from 1941. Meanwhile, one of Australia’s greatest songwriters, Paul Kelly will always be known for “How To Make Gravy” viewing Christmas from the perspective of a man behind bars.

This is the final edition of Just Released for 2013 but we will be back early next year for season 4.

Wherever you happen to be this Christmas, we hope you enjoy the break.

Both Bill and myself wish you all the best for the season and a for prosperous and happy year ahead.

Stay frosty…  

   

      

The Pogues featuring Kirsty MacColl: “Fairytale Of New York”

Straight No Chaser featuring Paul McCartney: “Wonderful Christmastime”

Straight No Chaser featuring Otis Redding: “Merry Christmas Baby”

Linda Ronstadt: “River”

Jethro Tull: “A Christmas Song”

Katie Noonan and Tim Friedman: “Maybe This Christmas”

Ray Charles: “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town”

James Brown: “Soulful Christmas”

Troy Cassar-Daley: “Christmas For Cowboys”

Nick Lowe: “Old Toy Trains”

Paul Simon: “Getting Ready For Christmas Day”

Pretenders: “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas”

Tony Bennett: “I’ll Be Home For Christmas”

Paul Kelly & Neil Finn: “How To Make Gravy”

To stream Just Released (any time):  Find 'Just Released' here. 

You can also connect via local web pages at the links below..

Just Released:  Heard Saturdays at 12pm & repeated Sundays at 4pm (AEDST or AEST) on ABC Digital Radio through Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne,Adelaide and Perth, and streaming on demand at the Gold Coast, Newcastle, Hobart and Darwin web pages. JR can also be heard on Radio Australia throughout Asia & the Pacific.

              ♫

    ♫   {](-_-)[}   ♫         Thanks for listening.

  

Just Released - 2013 [Ep.47]

“From the brim to the dregs,

 It poured sweet and clear,

 It was a very good year …”

                  “It Was A Very Good Year” [Frank Sinatra - 1965]

JR’s Best of 2013:

We live in an era where some commentators will claim that the album is dead. In spite of that there is no doubt that many musicians in 2013 have embraced the medium as a vehicle for serious artistic expression. Among them were Janelle Monáe and Daft Punk whose albums were thematic, if not totally conceptual. Where Ms. Monáe looked to the future to continue with the Android theme established on her previous album, Daft Punk looked to the past, reviving the world’s interest in Giorgio Moroder and Nile Rodgers into the process.

Other creative minds, notably including those of Bill Callahan, Jonathan Wilson, Nick Cave and David Thomas (of Art-Punk collective, Pere Ubu) have used the album as a canvas to create records which in turn, were pastoral (Callahan), psychedelic (Wilson), broodingly literate (Cave) or experimentally fractured (Pere Ubu).

There were also albums we heard this year which, while not thematically linked, were more than just a collection of songs. England’s Arctic Monkeys made a huge leap forward with their 5^th album ‘AM’ easily being the best of their career. Meanwhile, more evidence of artistic maturity came from Vampire Weekend, Country singer Kacey Musgraves and Roots musician Valerie June. Former Drive-By Truckers guitarist, Jason Isbell also released his strongest solo album to date in ‘Souheastern’ with its confessional stories of reaching rock-bottom, rehab and redemption.

We’re not ranking these albums and songs in any kind of order or handing out awards but merely giving credit where we believe it is due. However, just as we did last year, we do name our ‘JR Song Of The Year’ for the record that achieved greatness in 2013, for all the right reasons.

The holiday season is almost upon us but before we plot the flight plan for the summer escape, we hope you can join us for next week’s 3^rd annual ‘JR Christmas Special’.

  

      

Valerie June: “Workin’ Woman Blues” (from the album, ‘Pushin’ Against A Stone’)

Vampire Weekend: “Step” (from the album, ‘Modern Vampires Of The City)

Arctic Monkeys: “I Wanna Be Yours” (from the album, ‘AM’)

Bill Callahan: “Ride My Arrow” (from the album, ‘Dream River’)

Jonathan Wilson: “Fazon” (from the album, ‘Fanfare’)

Janelle Monáe featuring Erykah Badu: “Q.U.E.E.N.” (from the album, ‘The Electric Lady’)

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds: “Water’s Edge” (from the album, ‘Push The Sky Away’)

Jason Isbell: “Songs That She Sang In The Shower” (from the album, ‘Southeastern’)

Kacey Musgraves: “Merry Go Round” (from the album, ‘Same Trailer, Different Park’)

Robin Thicke featuring T.I & Pharrell: “Blurred Lines” (excerpt)

Daft Punk featuring Pharrell Williams: “Get Lucky” (excerpt)

Lorde: “Royals” (from the album, ‘Pure Heroine’) [JR Song of 2013]

Pere Ubu: “Feuksley Ma’am, The Hearing” (from the album, ‘Lady From Shanghai’)

To stream Just Released (any time):  Find 'Just Released' here. 

You can also connect via local web pages at the links below..

Just Released:  Heard Saturdays at 12pm & repeated Sundays at 4pm (AEDST or AEST) on ABC Digital Radio through Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne,Adelaide and Perth, and streaming on demand at the Gold Coast, Newcastle, Hobart and Darwin web pages. JR can also be heard on Radio Australia throughout Asia & the Pacific.

              ♫

    ♫   {](-_-)[}   ♫         Thanks for listening.

  

Just Released - 2013 [Ep.46]

“My brother’s back at home with his Beatles and his Stones,

 We never got it off on that revolution stuff …”

                  “All The Young Dudes” [Mott The Hoople - 1972]

Box sets are a convenient (albeit expensive) way of collecting the recorded history of a particular performer or group. Among the more impressive box sets to be issued in 2013 were those of Sly And The Family Stone, John Martyn, The Clash and Bob Dylan. Others like, ‘The Band: Live At The Academy Of Music 1971’, serve to document a specific occasion or event. Not many venture to comprehensively curate a particular style of music but that’s what makes ‘Oh Yes We Can Love: A History Of Glam Rock’ sound so impressive. Glam (or Glitter) Rock was most prominent between 1971 (when T. Rex appeared on Top Of The Pops) and 1976 (when Punk arrived) but spread across 5 discs, ‘Oh Yes We Can Love’ traces Glam Rock’s history from the influence of Noel Coward in the 1930s - through its ‘70s salad days - and beyond, through bands like Suede, The Darkness and Goldfrapp. In this edition of JR we check out the collection and find the link between ‘70s flared jeans and platform boots and the tribal rhythms of East Africa’s legendary Burundi drummers.

The 3^rd Annual JR Christmas Special is coming your way soon and this week, we’re setting the mood with a couple of new seasonal collections from England’s Nick Lowe and Australia’s Buddy Goode. Both are in good humour (if not completely irreverent) and intent on spreading the Christmas cheer.

At last year’s ARIA presentations, Buddy Goode claimed the award for Best Comedy Album. This year’s ARIA’s were presented last weekend and from one of the night’s multiple award winners, Flume, we now have a just released EP (‘Lockjaw’). Another of this year’s winners was Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, for Best Adult Contemporary Album + Best Independent Release. Following up their acclaimed album, ‘Push The Sky Away’ is the band’s just released, ‘Live From KCRW’.

Another just released Live album featured in this edition is ‘His Life And Music’  from Indigenous superstar Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu, recorded at the Sydney Opera House in May this year with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.

   

And offering yet another texture to JR this week, we have some fresh Electronic Pop with new singles from Australian duo Empire Of The Sun, New York duo, Duck Sauce and the dual personality of New York based Englishman, Devonté Hynes aka Blood Orange (aka Lightspeed Champion).

      

Empire Of The Sun: “Celebrate” (new single)

Blood Orange: “You’re Not Good Enough” (from the album, ‘Cupid Deluxe)

Duck Sauce: “Radio Stereo” (new single)

Gurrumul and The Sydney Symphony Orchestra: “Bapa” (from the album, ‘His Life And Music’)

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds: “The Mercy Seat” (from the album, ‘Live From KCRW’)

Nick Lowe: “Christmas At The Airport” (from the album, ‘Quality Street: A Seasonal Selection For All The Family’)

Buddy Goode: “A Marvelous Time Of The Year” (from the album, ‘It’s A Buddy Goode Christmas’)

Burundi Steiphenson Black: “Burundi Black” (from the box set, ‘Oh Yes We Can Love: A History Of Glam Rock’)

Mott The Hoople: “All The Young Dudes” (from the box set, ‘Oh Yes We Can Love: A History Of Glam Rock’)

Flume & Chet Faker: “Drop The Game” (from the ‘Lockjaw EP’)

Gurrumul and The Sydney Symphony Orchestra: “Wiyathul” (from the album, ‘His Life And Music’)

To stream Just Released (any time):  Find 'Just Released' here. 

You can also connect via local web pages at the links below..

Just Released:  Heard Saturdays at 12pm & repeated Sundays at 4pm (AEDST or AEST) on ABC Digital Radio through Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne,Adelaide and Perth, and streaming on demand at the Gold Coast, Newcastle, Hobart and Darwin web pages. JR can also be heard on Radio Australia throughout Asia & the Pacific.

              ♫

    ♫   {](-_-)[}   ♫         Thanks for listening.

Just Released - 2013 [Ep.45]

“And it whitens your teeth (Lone Star),

  It’s not just good for leprosy …”

                  “Lone Star Commercial” [Dale Watson - last night]

In the last edition of JR, we played a song from Dale Watson’s album, ‘El Rancho Azul’ (“I Lie When I Drink”) and mentioned he’d soon be back in Australia. JR caught his show last night. Dale Watson and The Lone Stars sing about drinkin’ – and the relationships that begin (or end) by association with that drinkin’. And in between those songs, they do their own “commercials” for their favourite Texas brewski. It’s the way Country music used to be: Honky Tonk, Rockabilly and Western Swing. If you’re not a fan of ‘modern’ Country music, your opinion is shared by Dale Watson. His authentic ‘Ameripolitan’ style is for those who prefer the real thing.   

When Tears For Fears released their original version of “Everybody Wants To Rule The World” back in ‘85, Ella Yellich-O’Connor – known to the world as Lorde – was not yet born. Her version of the song, for the soundtrack of the 2^nd movie in The Hunger Games franchise is totally unlike the jolly shuffle of the original and it’s one of a few film-related songs you’ll hear in this edition of JR. (BTW, Lorde’s, “Royals” is now spending its 9^th consecutive week at #1 on the US chart.) Also soon to be featured on the big screen are new songs from Ed Sheeran (in ‘The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug’) and U2 (in ‘Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom’).

It’s that time of year when box sets and ‘Best Of…’ collections begin to appear and following Dido’s most recent album, ‘The Girl Who Got Away, we now have her first ‘Greatest Hits’ collection. A new inclusion on the album is the song, “NYC” which you’ll also hear in this episode.

Along with the various career retrospectives showing up in time for yuletide, we also have previews of albums arriving early in the new year. Among them are songs from UK-based Pop quartet, Glass Animals - and small “s” supergroup, Dead Daisies, fronted by Noiseworks singer, Jon Stevens and featuring a line-up of players who cut their teeth with the likes of Guns ‘n’ Roses, Thin Lizzy and The Rolling Stones.

Another preview we have for you is the title song from the forthcoming album by Bruce Springsteen (‘High Hopes’) ahead of his return next year for another round of Australian concerts. “High Hopes” dates back to the time of Springsteen’s Australian tour earlier this year, when he recorded the song in Sydney.

And we have more fresh sounds, from American singer/songwriter Amos Lee and up-and-coming Indie artist, Sky Ferreira, who’s proposed next EP expanded to become her full-length debut album.

With the recent passing of Rock legend, Lou Reed, a live version of his Transformer-era song “Satellite Of Love” has been just released as a tribute by English singer, Morrissey. And we pay our own small tribute with one of our favourite Aussie songs of this year from Sydney band, The Preatures. The group is one among many nominees vying for a statuette at this weekend’s ARIA Music Awards being held in Sydney.   

    

      

U2: “Ordinary Love” (new single)

Dido: “NYC” (from the album, ‘Greatest Hits’)

Lorde: “Everybody Wants To Rule The World” (from the soundtrack album, ‘Hunger Games: Catching Fire’)

The Dead Daisies: “Washington” (preview from the album, ‘Dead Daisies’)

Glass Animals: “Psylla” (preview from the album, ‘Glass Animals’)

Sky Ferreira: “You’re Not The One” (from the album, ‘Night Time, My Time’)

Ed Sheeran: “I See Fire” (from the soundtrack album, ‘The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug’)

Amos Lee: “Chill In The Air” (from the album, ‘Mountains Of Sorrow, Rivers Of Song’)

Bruce Springsteen: “High Hopes” (preview from the album, ‘High Hopes’)

Morrissey: “Satellite Of Love” (new single)

The Preatures: “Is This How You Feel?” (‘Is This How You Feel? EP’)

To stream Just Released (any time):  Find 'Just Released' here. 

You can also connect via local web pages at the links below..

Just Released:  Heard Saturdays at 12pm & repeated Sundays at 4pm (AEDST or AEST) on ABC Digital Radio through Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne,Adelaide and Perth, and streaming on demand at the Gold Coast, Newcastle, Hobart and Darwin web pages. JR can also be heard on Radio Australia throughout Asia & the Pacific.

              ♫

    ♫   {](-_-)[}   ♫         Thanks for listening.

  

Just Released - 2013 [Ep.44]

                                

“There’s a beast eating every bit of beauty,

 And we all feed it …”

                  “There’s A Beast And We All Feed It” [Jake Bugg 2013]

Three years back, Jake Bugg was a 16 year-old English kid with an acoustic guitar and a big dream. Today, he’s a 19 year-old singer/songwriter, acclaimed in his own country and trying to find a wider audience in the USA. His 2^nd album, ‘Shangri La’ is named after the studio of the noted American record producer Rick Rubin, who oversaw its making. Jake Bugg may still be young but if the above lyric is any indication he knows a thing or two about the industry he’s working in. Following his first Australian gigs five months ago, Jake Bugg’s return has just been announced in the lineup for Bluesfest 2014. You’ll hear music from the new ‘Shangri La’ album in this edition of JR.

We also have a pair of innovative Tribute albums for you this week, with the teaming of Green Day frontman, Billie Joe Armstrong and Norah Jones, respectfully revisiting the songs of influential ‘50s giants, The Everly Brothers - and Diesel & Dub’s Reggae-fied homage to the songs of Aussie Rock icons, Midnight Oil.

On The Comeback Trail this week we spotted a leaner, healthier and creatively rejuvenated Boy George. Now in his early 50s and with the ‘troubles’, of recent times now behind him, George returns with his first album of new songs in 18 years. Also making a creative return is Australia’s John Butler Trio with the first song from their forthcoming ‘Flesh And Blood’ album, due early next year. The JBT are playing a series of select (and sold out) shows through the end of November but return in March/April 2014 for a more comprehensive national tour.

There’s more new Aus-Music from the forthcoming album by Sydney singer/songwriter, Sally Seltmann. Her yet-to-be-titled album, due early next year is Sally’s first since her 2011 collaboration with Sarah Blasko and Holly Throsby as Seeker, Lover, Keeper. Meanwhile, also on the road - and with a just released EP (‘Wichita’) is Melbourne Indie Folk/Pop trio, Whitaker.

We also head back to one of the year’s most successful albums ‘My Head Is An Animal’, from Icelandic band Of Monsters And Men for the new single, “Dirty Paws” soon to be heard in the new Ben Stiller movie, ‘The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty’.

And there’s more tour-related activity in this edition, with a new single from City & Color (aka Canadian singer/songwriter Dallas Green), touring Australia through until December, and Texan singer/songwriter, Dale Watson who’s touring this month with his band, The Lonestars. You might call it Country but Dale Watson calls his music “Ameripolitan”. As he describes it: “Americana is original music with a prominent Rock influence - Ameripolitan is original music with a prominent Roots influence.”  He coined the term to differentiate his own style from what he calls Country music’s “Nashville Rash”. Call it what you will - but Dale Watson is about as real as it gets.

      

John Butler Trio: “Only One” (preview from the album, Flesh And Blood’)

Diesel & Dub: “The Dead Heart” (preview from the album, ‘Diesel & Dub’)

Boy George: “Live Your Life” (from the album, ‘This Is What I Do’)

Jake Bugg: “There’s A Beast And We All Feed It”/”Messed Up Kids” (from the album, ‘Shangri La’)

City & Colour: “The Lonely Life” (new single)

Billie Joe Armstrong & Norah Jones: “Long Time Gone” (from the album, ‘Foreverly’)

Dale Watson: “I Lie When I Drink” (from the album, ‘El Rancho Azul’)

Whitaker: “Wichita” (from the ‘Wichita EP’)

Sally Seltmann: “Billy” (preview from the forthcoming 2014 album)

Of Monsters & Men: “Dirty Paws” (new single)

To stream Just Released (any time):  Find 'Just Released' here. 

You can also connect via local web pages at the links below..

Just Released:  Heard Saturdays at 12pm & repeated Sundays at 4pm (AEDST or AEST) on ABC Digital Radio through Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne,Adelaide and Perth, and streaming on demand at the Gold Coast, Newcastle, Hobart and Darwin web pages. JR can also be heard on Radio Australia throughout Asia & the Pacific.

              ♫

    ♫   {](-_-)[}   ♫         Thanks for listening.