Wednesday, June 04, 2008

bespoke

the final in this series of 1 hour of music in 20 minutes bespoke is up on abc dig now.

bespoke is a tribute to some of my favourite songs that are favourites because of their lyrics. i noticed a few trends in my own playlists when it comes to adding spoken/wordy songs. they're funny, odd, poetic, beautiful, silly, insightful and delightful.

tracks in this 1in20 are as follows:
(track/artist/album)
gas daddy gas/tobin sprout/carnival boy
everybody knows/leonard cohen/i'm your man
what's he building?/tom waits/mule variations
take 5, d/minutemen/double nickels on the dime
old red eyes is back/the beautiful south/898
when i win the lottery/camper van beethoven/key lime pie
if i had $1,000,000/the barenaked ladies/gordon
the young lutheran's guide to the orchestra/garrison keillor/lake woebegon loyalty days
new math/tom lehrer/the remains of...
the east river/jeffrey lewis/the last time i did acid i went insane
bruces philosophers' song/monty python/the ultimate
my pink half of the drainpipe/bonzo dog do dah band/cornology
fifteen/baterz/the yellow corduroy ep
bowie/flight of the conchords/folk the world
the remix/demetri martin/these are jokes
ideology/billy bragg/talking with the taxman about poetry
from little things big things grow/paul kelly/best of

and this is the last because things are changing in the digital radio world as well as in my little life. i will keep an eye out for opportunities to share music that i love with people who want to know what that might be. i never assumed that i had any more 'right' to select music than anyone else. i just love it. if you love it, then i love you.

if you've enjoyed any or all of 1 hour of music in 20 minutes - then i sincerely thank you for listening and wish you all the best!

yours in music,

~ hermione

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Soundtracks

It is my great pleasure to direct this blog's notice to the new 1 Hour of Music in 20 Minutes: Soundtracks which has gone up on abc dig

This one has been brewing for a while, and already it seems I might have to produce a sequel because there is just so much great music that I’ve got from films and this podcast is only about fifteen songs long.

I made myself a mix cd of all these songs while this was being prepared and it struck me repeatedly just how much of this playlist is real honest-to-god favourites. Like Billie Holiday! This is literally where I first heard Pennies From Heaven.

One thing has been bothering me though, I assumed that because the song Via Con Me was used in French Kiss that Paolo Conte was French but then, listening more closely to the song’s lyrics it gradually dawned on me… oh dear, I think this bloke is Italian, and he in fact is, so – my apologies for that error. The way it’s used in the film makes it sound so very French!

Anyway, I reckon it’s a pretty glorious playlist, (especially the Deb Talan song – what a jewel that is!) and I hope you like it!

Song/by/from the film
Stuck In The Middle With You/Stealers Wheel/Reservoir Dogs
Need You Around/Smoking Popes/Clueless
To You I Bestow/Mundy/Romeo + Juliet
Kissing You (Love Theme From Romeo + Juliet)/Des'ree/Romeo + Juliet
I've Been Waiting/Sixpence None The Richer/View From the Top
Toxic Girl/Kings of Convenience/Shallow Hal
Political Science/Randy Newman/Blast From the Past
Pennies From Heaven/Billie Holiday/Corinna Corinna
Peace Piece/Bill Evans/Corinna Corinna
The Lark Ascending/Ralph Vaughan Williams/The Year My Voice Broke
With a Girl Like You/The Troggs/The Year My Voice Broke
What Makes The Sunset/Frank Sinatra/Anchors Aweigh
Via Con Me/Paolo Conte/French Kiss
Forgiven/Deb Talan/Lovely and Amazing
Where Is My Mind?/Pixies/Fight Club

yours in music,

~ hermione

p.s. there is a lovely film which i saw the other day which has excellent original music written especially for it by dishy young Norwegian singer/songwriter Sondra Lerche - the film is Dan In Real Life directed by my dear Peter Hedges (Pieces of April, What's Eating Gilbert Grape? - novel and screenplay). It's lovely music and a lovely film :)
p.p.s. and here's an interview with Sondra Lerche about making music for the film from Cinematical, if you're interested

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Art

Well, it did take me an unusually long time, but the new 1 Hour of Music in 20 Minutes - Art is up now on Dig.

I went to see the Guggenheim exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria recently and read a great quote by German artist Thomas Demand in the catalogue. He said "things enter reality through photography... Tourists don't know they've seen the sights until they can match their experience to the picture postcard"

I wondered if music can work the same, like we know it's time for the slow dance, time to be romantic when the DJ plays Careless Whisper at the school social. Do we use music to create, define, and even supplant our memories? Thinking of the roles performed by music chosen for weddings, funerals, dinner parties, children's birthdays. I imagine it's unlikely someone will choose to walk down the aisle to Peaches' I Don't Give a Fuck (though, I would find that pretty funny)

Anyway, that's not really what the program ended up being, but it went through lots of research and writing before I was ready to put it out there. I bought lots of new records and had to really give them proper 'listens' before I worked out what I was really 'saying' :)

What 1in20 - Art is, in the end, I hope, is an enquiry into the role of art in inspiring musicians, the ways art and art institutions help to form musical groups, what "art rock" is and what it sounds like, what a musician who is really an artist seems to be doing with their music and whether or not this complex, ambitious music is palatable to people.

Have a listen... i hope you like it. Hopefully it won't be nearly so long between this one and the next one!

Track listing: [track title / artist / album]

hieronymous / the clouds / penny century
gatherings / trio typology / sight specific music
wuthering heights / kate bush / the kick inside
boy child / scott walker / boy child: 67-70
common people / pulp / different class
take me out / franz ferdinand / franz ferdinand
virginia plain / roxy music / roxy music
television man / talking heads / little creatures
freedom of choice / devo / freedom of choice
map ref. 41 n 93 w / wire / 154
i got you / split enz / true colours
o superman / laurie anderson / big science
far out / blur / parklife
ashes to ashes / david bowie / scary monsters (and super creeps)
keep the car running / arcade fire / neon bible
concrete paving, magpie raving / joseph goodman / time capsule (released by the university of melbourne)

yours in music,

~ hermione

Sunday, August 26, 2007

Mixed Gifts

Please excuse the week-lateness of this blog about the new programme - 1 Hour of Music in 20 Minutes - Mix Me a Gift - I got bronchitis and haven't moved for most of the last week after I finished it.

But I do love music and I'm also a bit of nut about the hows and such of recording it, copying it and mixing it. It's amazing to think how much music I've learned to love from having been given it by friends, family, even strangers.

The unifying theme here is mixes I've been given. CDs and tapes.

I hope you like it!

Here's the full track listing:
1. combat baby by metric
2. the gift by the velvet underground
3. quiet nights by astrud gilberto
4. obsession by animotion
5. paranoid by black sabbath
6. marquee moon by television
7. dirt by the stooges
8. white lights by the handsome family
9. providence vector by grand salvo
10. 1970 by black cab
11. guilt is a useless emotion by new order
12. gorecki by lamb
13. rhythm without a pause by terranova
14. by the offcuts, mushroom cloud
15. by sunny day sets fire - adrenaline


Best,

~ Hermione

Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Love and Hearbreak: Heartbreak

It's up now, the second part of the project that became Love and Heartbreak.
1 Hour of Music in 20 Minutes- Love and Heartbreak Part Two: Heartbreak

Heartbreaking songs are such favourites of mine that I had no trouble finding a selection, but I didn't think it was enough to just play a series of sad songs. I wanted to examine why heartbreak happens and how it is represented in songs. One line that I ended up cutting from the programme said that maybe heartbreak was the product of an insufficient aqcuaintance with ourselves. That heartbreak can only result from some form of miscommunication, deliberate or incidental... I cut it because it sounded too preachy :)

I now have a playlist in my iTunes called non-love heartbreakers, to file away the songs that I thought might work but turned out weren't really about relationships.

I'll load up the entire list of track I used soon, but in the meantime, please enjoy the programme.

I'm working on the next few 1in20s, but **also** - if you happen to be in Melbourne this Friday July 6th, come and hear me DJ live at Loop Bar (23 Meyers Place, Melbourne) from 10pm. I'll be joined by Chestwig 5001 and MBug for the first of a new dance club night called Space Station. You will hear music from Star Wars, as well as Hot Chip, !!!, The Smiths etc.

xo

~ Hermione


Track Listing:

Sunshine on Leith / The Proclaimers / Sunshine on Leith
Wave of Mutilation (UK Surf) / The Pixies / The Complete b-sides
Happy Together / The Turtles / Summer Gold (compilation)
Never Tear Us Apart / INXS
Run / Snow Patrol
Warning Sign / Coldplay / A Rush Of Blood To The Head
Big Rat / The Wedding Present / Watusi
Spangle / The Wedding Present / Watusi
Ocean / Aarktica / Pure Tone Audiometry
Hapless, Hopeless / Home for the Def / The New Testament
And I was a boy from school / Hot Chip / The Warning
Hello Hammerheads / Caribou / The Milk Of Human Kindness
So Long, Marianne / Leonard Cohen / the best of leonard cohen
Hole In The Head / Sugababes / Three
Stay / Rogue Traders
156 / Mew / Half the World is Watching Me
Think (Let Tomorrow Be) / Sebadoh / Bubble & Scrape

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

Love and Heartbreak: Love

you know that phil spector song that goes 'to know know know him, is to love love love him...'?

well, I heard a local group perform that at a little cafe recently and maybe it has inspired me to get off my bum and finish part one of my two parter - love and heartbreak.

1 Hour of Music in 20 Minutes - Love and Heartbreak, part one: Love is up now on the abc.net.au/dig

here's the full track list:

Drunken Butterfly/Sonic Youth/Dirty
Love and Some Verses/Iron and Wine/Our Endless Numbered Days
These Words/Natasha Bedingfield/Unwritten
Really In Love/Andrew W K/The Wolf
I Want You Around/Ramones/Rock'n'Roll High School
Lets Stay Together/Al Green
Hyperballad/Björk/Greatest Hits
Beautiful/Fun Lovin Criminals
Truly Great Thing/Sebadoh/III
Fell In Love/Benjow/Millipede EP
Our Way to Fall/Yo La Tengo/And Then The Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out
A Chicken With Its Head Cut Off/The Magnetic Fields/69 Love Songs Vol. 1
Web in Front/Archers of Loaf/Icky Mettle
You Will. You? Will. You? Will/Bright Eyes/Lifted or The Story Is In The Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground
Galaxies/Laura Veirs/Year of Meteors
Go/Sparklehorse & The Flaming Lips/The Late Great Daniel Johnston Discovered Covered
Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah/The Wedding Present/Watusi

yours in music,

~ hermione

Friday, May 04, 2007

Drive

driving is one of my favourite things to do. I love being on my own in the car listening to a nice selection of music and enjoying the flow of movement. I don’t much like traffic, but I love outsmarting it, like knowing where to turn to miss a congested intersection or which roads don’t get held up by the trams or buses.

I have been on lots of long drives, which I guess being an Australian driver, is pretty much par for the course. when I drive between capital cities I know I’ll need a good ten hours worth of music, and that that music is going to have quite a job to keep me awake, amused, tuned in and happy.

my car music cds that I make have become some of my best mixes. I like to throw them together, rather than painstakingly assemble them. I try out songs to see if I’ll like them, and I’ll put old favourites on them as well.

this 1 Hour of Music in 20 Minutes is dedicated to driving, and the listening space that is the automobile…

I would actually love to know what people think about music to walk or ride to… is that different?

and what are your favourite car music experiences?

for those wondering about the playlist for this one, here it is unabridged…


Drivin' On by The Breeders from Last Splash
California by Phantom Planet
24 Hours from Tulsa by Gene Pitney
La Femme D'Argent by Air from Moon Safari
Music is Math by Boards of Canada from Geogaddi
Cherry Lips by Archie Bronson Outfit from Derdang Derdang
The Wonder by Figurines from Skeleton
Starsigns by Underground Lovers from Ways T'Burn
The Sunshine Underground by Chemical Brothers from Surrender
Fighting in a Sack by The Shins from Chutes Too Narrow
Death Defy by Motor Ace
The Riddle by Nik Kershaw
A Lady of a Certain Age by The Divine Comedy from Victory For The Comic Muse
Thursday by Asobi Seksu from Citrus
Two Trains by Gareth Dixon
The Drive Home by Chicane from Far From the Maddening Crowd