Blues rocking legends The Snowdroppers –have been doing much more than stealing people’s underwear lately. The seminal Sydney crew have just dropped their brand new third album and it’s everything we’ve come to love and expect from the guys.
Titled Business the new record see the band’s long time mate and sound man Ryan Hazell (The Drones, The Fumes) distils the band’s live energy and unorthodox interpretation of rock n’ roll into a triumphant collision of potent song writing and discordant raw power. Garnering a swelling fan base over the past few years thanks to their hard gigging attitude, the band have really channeled their live energy and power into this release.
An ode to the working week, Business is a lot of fun, but we all no it’s not more fun than the weekend, so to celebrate the fact that it’s Friday and to celebrate the release of this killer LP – band members Jeremy and Pauly have curated a very special TGIF mixtape for you today. Check it out below and congratulate yourself for making it through another week.
Peter Gabriel – ‘Big Time’
[Pauly] “My favourite song from the SO album (which is a band favourite). A song about hubris from the decade of the same.. always makes me think of an cocaine fuelled business man with a giant mobile phone.”
Fountains of Wayne – ‘Hey Julie’
[Jeremy] “A pretty little love song that resonates with anyone who’s ever had to go through the 9-5 grind. Which is all of us except our trust fund baby bass player. Hating on your boss should be an Olympic sport by now.”
Midnight Oil – ‘Blue Sky Mine’
[Pauly] “I think Midnight Oil had a way of having politically themed lyrics that didn’t cross over into sloganeering territory – they still had this personal/romantic element to them. They were also masters of having these weird textural hooks in their songs that still sounded natural.. great imaginative production.”
Pink Floyd – ‘Have A Cigar’
[Jeremy] “Not much to say on this one really. It speaks for itself. I get asked a lot in interviews these days what advice I’d give to younger musicians to which my reply is always “read the contract” By the way, which one was Pink?”
Talking Heads – ‘Nothing But Flowers’
[Pauly] “One of the early concepts I had knocking about when we were writing the new album was to try writing an album where all the songs were consciously not about love or romantic relationships.. in the end that concept got diluted a bit and love inevitably sneaked on there, but I found it a really good way to get the ball rolling creatively. Just thinking – what else can songs be about? And then I happened to get more into Talking Heads and found David Byrne has talked about that in a roundabout way – I think this is a good example.”
The Rakes – ’22 Grand Job’
[Jeremy] “I still love this whole record. It’s such a great slice of British punk and I found it at a time when I was earning far less that 22 grand. Pounds or dollars.”
Tom Waits – ‘Get Behind the Mule’
[Pauly] A song about taking care of business. Nasty business in the verses, but the chorus is just like, “Get on with it. Put your head down and get through the muck.” Mule Variations is another band favourite album, we chucked down a cover of Hold On on the end of Business. At first it was like, do we wanna put a cover on the album? But it fit with our policy of, if it sounds good, why not?
Clipping – ‘Work Work’
[Pauly] Of course hip-hop is a goldmine of songs about business.. working, hustling, getting cash, having it rule everything surrounding oneself.. I think this is one of the catchiest takes on the theme from recent years, albiet marred by a unfortunately shithouse guest second verse that doesn’t fit the beat at all. I love how the ghetto synth comes for like 4 bars right at the end and then its all over.
Dolly Parton – ‘Working 9-5’
[Jeremy] “I shouldn’t have to explain this one so here’s a bit of Dolly trivia, I’m pretty sure she’s married to a brick layer.”
Billy Joel – ‘Everybody Loves You Now’
[Pauly] “I’m an unashamed Billy Joel tragic. BJ wrote a lot of songs about the business side of life (The Entertainer, Movin’ Out, Allentown, The Downeaster Alexa) but this one’s my favourite, from his first album, Cold Spring Harbor. He’s mostly known for his overly maudlin ballads, for better or worse, but he had a great sarcastic snarl at times.”
Huey Lewis and the News – ‘Working For a Living’
[Jeremy] “Their early work was a little too new wave for my tastes, but when Sports came out in ’83, I think they really came into their own, commercially and artistically. Which is a shame because this song is off Picture This.”
Business is out now via FOUR/FOUR, get it here.
