May 2013 Mixtape

Well, well, welcome to the first day of Summer if you're in the northern hemisphere, or the first day of Winter in your south of the Equator. The first day of winter here today is quite mild but they tell us it won't last long.

Despite the doom and gloom predictions, here's a heap of great music compiled lovingly over the last month for you to get down and dirty with.

This month we start with a few leftovers from April, but in addition we feature:

• New tracks from Kurt Vile, Frank Turner, !!! (Chk Chk Chk), Kasey Musgrave, Thee Oh Sees, Holy Ghost, Atoms for Peace, Jinja Safari and more
• Memories of stars passed, in memoriam of Ray Manzarek (The Doors), Alvin Lee (Ten Years After), Daddy Mac (Kris Kross)
• Classics from Ray Charles, Counting Crows, Dave Dobbyn, Cold Chisel, Metallica, Elvis Costello, Wilco, Bob Dylan
• Aussie legends from Grinspoon, The Fauves, The Mavis's, Baby Animals, Kisschasy
• and some of the songs I'm debating voting for in the 20th Anniversary of Triple J's Hottest 100 by the likes of King Missile, US3, Neneh Cherry, Groove Armada, Lard, Ash, Supergrass and more...

as well as songs from all the artists we have featured on the blog during the month.

Cue it up, put it on random, turn it up and, most importantly,

ENJOY!

News Roundup

Making for a varied post today, here's some of the most reported news stories this week in the world of music.

The music world is mourning the loss of two of its more recognisable names this week.

Firstly, Slayer guitarist Jeff Danneman died of liver failure at age 49 yesterday. He had been suffering from complications from a spider bite in 2010 and this is believed to be related to that incident.

Here he is in action with the band he formed in 1982, with my favourite track of theirs, "War Ensemble".



Also this week, hip-hop act of the 90s lost one half of their membership, Chris Kelly, aka "Daddy Mac". He dies of a drug overdose, aged 34. I wasn't much of a fan of their work back in the day, but the wearing of their clothes backwards was kinda cool.



The late, great James Brown had a birthday yesterday. Despite the fact he left us in 2006, he is still a legend. The sound he made with Bootsy Collins and the JBs is still one of the most played sounds around TSATF HQ and will be for years to come.

Here's the great man and his band circa 1970 with "Give It Up or Turn It Loose"



The Gaslight Anthem are touring Australia next week and I'm spewing that I have only just found out that they are touring!!! Meaning that all tickets are gone and I can't go unless I want to pay some overprices scalper for tickets. Dammit!

Here's one of my favourite tunes from their latest record "Handwritten", called "Here Comes My Man".



See you tomorrow.