Cheese Club MUSIC
Music is a massive part of both the Cornelius Cheesemongers and Cow With A Crown Distillery businesses. Cutting up cheese and distilling can be long, solo jobs, and music often plays a part in motivating us, inspiring us and just basically chilling us out.
We also personally have an insane love of music - from Matt DJing, to Gab playing the piano - so, we thought, why not combine our love of cheese and music and share it with our cheesy mates!
AND if you have a playlist you would like to share, let us know and we’ll make sure to share it with the group.
Janaury
Welcome to our Soundtrack to Cheese.
Music and finding new artists is as important to Matt as discovering more about the world of cheese, listening all day while working in the cheese cave, always looking for something new, interesting, old, different, sometimes mainstream, sometimes a little off the beaten track.
Quit It from Mariam Makeba was his introduction to the artist, it was love at first listen, like the first time you ate triple cream Brie. In my brain, the two are intrinsically linked as the first time I heard the song was in 2016 at a Photoshoot for Cornelius Cheesemongers.
He’s been a fan of Nervous Records for decades now, you'll often hear something from them in the cheese cave retail shop. Their Latest Release with Julius Papp, Cueball Volume 1 is a delight from their vintage label. Ceci n'est pas un Cliche from Charlotte Adigery and Bolis Pupul has been the soundtrack to our Summer at Cellar Door on the Mornington Peninsula.
Enjoy!
February
A soul and early disco exploration this month, some of my absolute favourite artists singing their hearts out on spectacular tracks. Nina Simone's See-Line Woman is a departure from what we typically think of as a Nina Simone Track - Simone at her best as a band leader, commanding from the Piano.
Sly and The Family Stone and their tight harmonies, counter harmonies and early explorations of what was to come for Funk Music on If You Want me to Stay. You may be familiar with Our Day Will Come from its spectacular cover by Amy Winehouse and her Dynamite Producer Mark Ronson, what you might not have heard was Ruby and The Romantics version, just as soulful and longing with this raw recording really demonstrating the power of Ruby's Vocals.
I was reminded this morning of the existence of Nights Over Egypt by The Jones Girls by my favourite barista and playlist creator. Early disco had such a vibe, the 4 to the floor beat is unmistakable but in these early days of disco there's less urgency, more musicality.
Enjoy it with a nice glass of Crisp Chardonnay and our Feature Cheese this Month Vully Rouge.
MARCH
I had a really good time this month making the playlist, we knew pretty early it was going to be a Portuguese cheese as the hero. So I did a bit of a dive into Portuguese music, threw in some classic Fonda, Some more contemporary numbers and then went a bit left of field and included Nina Simones biggest hits in Portugal as well as something from first generation Canadian Portuguese Nelly Furtado with No Hay Igual.
APRIL
Smooth. Enough said….
MAY
There's really very little cheese theming on this months playlist, this is an assortment of songs that accompanied me through April and May. My barber and I had a long conversation about the band Cake, and I Will Survive is a fantastic and anthemic cover of one of my favourite disco hits. Not in the playlist but definitely worth a listen is another Cake song - Comfort Eagle. Speaking of covers, The White Stripes, one of my all time favourite bands, covering I Just Don't Know What to Do With Myself is anthemic, Jack white embraces the longing of the lyrics. Speaking of Jack White, Primus, another band featuring this month, have recently had their entire catalogue of singles reissued on Jack's Label Third Man Records. So, I hope this little playlist is as much of a vibe for you as it was for me making it.
JUNE
It’s no secret I love pop Divas but I do like them when they’re on the raw edge of collaboration and creativity. We kick off this month with what always should have been; the ultimate power team of Jake Shears (Scissor Sisters) and Kylie Minogue (Street Fighter). Kylie absolutely killing the iconic Scissor Sisters ‘uhha’. Purple Disco machine and Sophie and The Giants have released their follow up to the anthemic Hypnotised with Paradise. We’ve got some early and some late Roisin Murphy here too, her early Party Weirdo Phase with Moloko and a hark back to those days and her creative core with a single of her new solo work Fader. Dominoes from Jungle just has a phenomenal bassline and should be played loud while eating cheese and drinking wine. Anyway, enjoy!
JULY
This month is brought to you by the third phase of Miles Davis' Career and his iconic, revolutionary work Miles on the Corner, some of the first forays and fusions of Jazz and Funk. Lonesome Blues and Jazz from Billy Cobham, Organ and Bass driven Funk from The Meters and finishing with some bizarre early monophonic synth experiments from Billy Cobham on Snoopy's Search. Just a month of great music.
AUGUST & SEPTEMBER
We open with Sineads protest anthem from the infamous and misunderstood SNL appearance War - Bob Marley and the Wailers. Anohni makes an appearance on her earlier work with Antony and the Johnsons - You Are My Sister a hauntingly beautiful song from a multi talented artist. The sounds of hope start to emerge with Untitled #3 from Sigur Ros. The final bars of Tom Troubadour's Blue by Tom Waits close this month's selection with all the power of their restraint. This is not an easy selection of songs, certainly not dinner party music but important, beautiful works from wonderful artists I treasure.
OCOTBER
Kicking off this month with a classic from Peggy Gou, her breakthrough single from 2022 Starry Night. Mike Skinner aka The Streets has to be one of the wittiest lyricists out there and his new single Each Day Gives doesn’t disappoint. We would love to see him in the Amphitheatre at Golden Plains 2024 but we missed out on tickets so we’re keeping our ears out for a side show. I’m often reminded of older music or listening to new music from the amazing Mary Anne Hobbs from BBC Radio 6. Her weekday podcast has introduced me to so many wonderful artists and rekindled my love for so many more. Well worth a listen.
novemBER
The man behind the scenes, possibly the greatest behind the scenes but still part of the scene music influence of the past 40 years is Gilles Petterson. His radio 6 show, his appearances at festivals all over the world, his phenomenal and encyclopedic knowledge and passion for music are infectious. His legendary 6 hours DJ sets run the gamut of soul, funk, Brazilian infused beats, techno, disco, house and more. Peterson has put together what he defines as the best 20 disco songs of all time, and you know what? I have to agree. This list absolutely slaps. My highlight would have to be Thousand Finger Man from Candido. What an intro into what is an extended banger. Love it.
DECEMBER
This month I dug through some older playlists thinking, hey, I remember this! Taking me back to my teenage years and into my 20s. The songs I sometimes put on, the guilty pleasures and the classics you know every word to and sing along to on road trips, at least I do. Starting with Helena from My Chemical Romance, a band that I initially dismissed as part of the Emo trend of the early 2000s only to later discover they’re an awesome band. Following that up with some Smashing Pumpkins, some B side punk from Greenday, and another highlight, Jim,my Eat World, remember them? The middle is such a bop. Anyway, enjoy. No Mariah Carey on this one.