They put a parking lot on a piece of land......

It's been a while since we had a Guest Editor around these parts, isn't it? Well, as chance would have it, I had a volunteer to have a crack, and I was only to happy to oblige. I think it's fair to say that he's had one or two goes at this in the past, but he's always welcome. Besides, if you don't ask, you don't get, do you?

Without further ado then, it is my great pleasure to introduce (again) for your earworming pleasure.......

Earworms of the week - guest editor #100 - Fiery Little Sod.

this feels like being greedy, however the kind bloghost has allowed me another go at his pages, so here's a mixed bag of tunes that will hopefully provide some light relief prior to your weekend

> Take it to the Limit - The Eagles

This song was a part of my childhood and though it contains all the California-rock components one might expect, the limit 25 years down the line is a very different place, and the lyrics mean a little more. I apologise for the cheesy AOR, but I am a child of someone else's times

> Die Young, Stay Pretty - Blondie

It is a small step forward from the live fast, die young adage as it assumes the protagonist is pretty in the first place. Anyway, Ms Harry is dishing out some of her finest and the support lacks little. Seems caught on the kinfe-edge of punk and 80's keyboard madness. Not their best known I expect, however provides a pointer to where musical taste may be headed

> Walking Down Your Street - The Bangles

No excuses, no blaming someone else. Chicks with guitars and harmonies. Survived in my head after I had heard it in the car and was walking down your aisle doing my . Very glad the girl bands could play instruments and write songs when I grew up.

> Cash Machine - Hard-Fi

Realised now I am a commuter again it appears that some folk believe I look like the eponymous article. I on the other hand spend an unnecessary part of my life avoiding the things that charge me for acquiring my own hard-earned wedge. Anyway, this cash machine (sorry, tune) is a modern classic and the keyboard harmonica intro is one of the most evocative (and crowd-erupting) I have heard.

> Come Dancing - The Kinks

Was on the way into work and trying to piece together the first verse and realised it is still true today. Unless one has built a "Selection of Executive apartments with underground parking and 35% affordable housing" then the cinema or palais will be left to crumble where it sits. Ahead of its time like most of their later songs and still contained the vital lyrical element I have yet heard matched

> I Love to Boogie - T-Rex

This is very simple. Twice or more a day I stand on (or stomp up and down) London Underground escalators and when I am not the man knocking you out of the way I gaze vacantly at the small adverts for West End shows. I am glad I know no tunes from the many others, but when I see a 'Billy Elliot' billboard I enjoy a touch of Marc Bolan and struggle not to jitterbug across the station concourse.

> The River - Bruce Springsteen

This chap's songs are still hanging around from seeing him live earlier this year and this song stuck. Why an earworm of the week though I pretend to hear you ask? No doubt about it when my neighbour who can play the guitar but needs to work on the voice chose this as his practice song after lights out on a school night. Not the cheeriest of his output but lacks nothing in quality.

> God Save the Queen - The Sex Pistols

Sadly for the monarchy, the only tune I really hear as I walk past Liz and Phil's house each day is this one. I no longer fear a fascist regime, but the one we have just now ain't too clever. Anyway, hardly melodic this, but gets the message across - even if it is a rather bleak one

> Left of Center - Suzanne Vega

This is where you will find me, I am in the outskirts and I have no idea for what I may be looking. But whilst out there I am totally listening to this kind of stuff. More importantly this tune does have some fine drums - oh, and she can properly sing. [ST's note: she can indeed - I like Luka]

> Klunk - Green Nuns of the Revolution

Courtesy of an unlikely source at work I was reminded of a quality tune that not only makes my brain operate differently but contains some of the most inspired samples I have ever had the privilege to hear. The lesson is that music works. Unlike some of the inventions....

that's it......Hasta luego

----

Thanks my friend - another quality selection. Always welcome around these parts... not least because it allows me (and everyone else who's sick of hearing that I'm earworming Flight of the Conchords again) to have a Friday off!

If anyone else wants to elbow FLS off his monopoly as Guest Editor-in-Chief around here, then just drop me a line in the comments below or via the email address in my profile above.

All welcome.

...And that's your lot. Have a good weekend, y'all. Stay classy.

I'm doing a stint on the Children in Need call centre tonight, so if you call 0345 7 33 22 33 between 9pm and 2am tonight, you might just speak to me (especially if you're from Wales. I always seem to get the Welsh callers for some reason). Be sure to say your name and address nice and clearly for me..... especially if it involves a ridiculous number of letters. My hearing isn't once what it was, and I still find it hard to tell my Caernarfons from my Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwll-llantysiliogogogochs....

Give generously now.

[Previous Guest Editors: Flash, The Urban Fox, Lord Bargain, Retro-Boy, Statue John, Ben, OLS, Ka, Jenni, Aravis, Yoko, Bee, Charlie, Tom, Di, Spin, The Ultimate Olympian, Damo, Mike, RedOne, The NumNum, Leah, Le Moine Perdu, clm, Michael, Hyde, Adem, Alecya, bytheseashore, adamant, Earworms of the Year 2005, Delrico Bandito, Graham, Lithaborn, Phil, Mark II, Stef, Kaptain Kobold, bedshaped, I have ordinary addictions, TheCatGirlSpeaks, Lord B rides again, Tina, Charlie II, Cody Bones, Poll Star, Jenni II, Martin, Del II, The Eye in the Sky, RussL, Lizzy's Hoax, Ben II, Earworms of the Year 2006, Sarah, Flash II, Erika, Hen, Pynchon, Troubled Diva, Graham II, Cat II, Statue John II, Sweeping the Nation, Aravis II, Olympian II, C, Planet-Me, Mike, Michael II, Eye in the Sky II, Charlie III, The Great Grape Ape, asta, Ben III, Earworms of the Year 2007, Cat III, JamieS & Wombat, Pynchon II, Briskate, Craig Cliff, Fiery Little Sod, Cody II, J, Yoko II, Rol, Lisa, Pollstar II, Joe the Troll, Eye in the Sky III, Jerry Cornelius, Stevious, Luke, FLS II, Earworms of the Year 2008, FLS III, Mik, Mark Again, Ben IV, Lisa, FLS V]

I used to glance beyond the stars....

--
Earworms of the Week

> "You Think I Ain't Worth A Dollar, But I Feel Like a Millionaire" - Queens of the Stoneage

Their gig at Rock City during One Live in Nottingham in 2002 remains one of the best concerts I have ever attended, and "Songs for the Deaf" is still a fantastic sounding record. I bought it on a whim too, and spent the rest of the day before I listened to it wondering if I'd made a terrible mistake and thrown £10 down the toilet. I needn't have worried: it's a masterpiece. The Josh Homme and Mark Lanegan songs are superb, but once in while I find that I need a little nihilistic screaming in my life, and Nick Olivieri fits the bill just perfectly. What a way to start an album. Dave Grohl returned to the drum stool as a favour to the band, and - naturally - sounds fantastic throughout. Shouty rock. Nice one.

> "D.O.A." - Foo Fighters
> "Keep The Car Running" - Foo Fighters

Jools Holland is an unctuous toad at the best of times, but "Later...." seems to have been absolutely diabolical this series. You used to at least be able to rely on a few really top mark acts to make things interesting, and I quite often found that I'd discover something new - Bloc Party, Ray LaMontagne, Interpol, Devendra Banhart. This series has been so poor though that I'd almost given up looking who was on. Not quite though, and I had a quick look this week to discover that the Foo Fighters were on. Well, they've got a Greatest Hits album to plug, after all. They played "Wheels", one of the new songs on the hits album, and "Times Like These". Neither are from the very top drawer of their ouevre, but they're not bad, and it's great to see a proper band performing on the show. Worth watching, if only to see the handover from a heavily bearded Sting performing awful lute-ridden seasonal music to Grohl kicking straight into "Times Like These". Neither of these two songs, incidentally, is on the Greatest Hits. "D.O.A." should certainly be there, no? I'd have put it on, anyway.

Anothe band appearing on the show were an unsigned band from Oxford called Stornoway. Well, judging by their awful lyrics talking about "going back to Uni", they should probably stay that way, eh?

> "99 Problems" - Jay-Z

Jay-Z was also on "Later....", performing "Empire State of Mind" and this song. He's quite a big deal, apparently, but he seemed happy enough to be playing second fiddle to the Foo Fighters. As I've said before, I'm not a big fan of the Zed, in the main, but I do like "Empire State of Mind", and you really can't go wrong with "99 Problems", can you? It's so good, in fact, that it inspired our team name at the quiz on Wednesday night: If You've Got Deep Fried Seafood Based Issues, I Feel Bad For You Son. I've Got 99 Problems but the Fishcakes Ain't One.

We won, of course... but I think I enjoy the laughs for the team name almost as much as I do winning.

> "Bad Romance" - Lady GaGa

"Rah-rah-ah-ah-ah-ah!
Roma-roma-mamaa!
Ga-ga-ooh-la-la!
Want your bad romance"

I love Lady GaGa. Official.

> "Protection" - Massive Attack
> "Karmacoma" - Massive Attack

Another set of earworms resulting entirely from listening to music in the bedroom. I try to choose something a little bit mellower as I drift off towards the land of nod. Massive Attack seemed to fit the bill just nicely. Mind you, last night I went to sleep listening to Probot, so it probably doesn't make all that much difference, eh?

> "Hurt Feelings" - Flight of the Conchords
> "Carol Brown" - Flight of the Conchords

Well, sorry about this, but they've brought out a new album and I can't get enough of them.

"Have you even been told that your ass is too big?
Have you ever been asked if your hair is a wig?
Have you ever been told you’re mediocre in bed?
Have you ever been told you’ve got a weird-shaped head?"

Rappers cry diamond tears, you know.

As for "Carol Brown", well she caught the bus out of town.....

If the last album is anything to go by, I'm afraid that you can expect a lot more of this kind of shit over the next few months. Sorry about that.

> "Manhattan Skyline" - a-ha
> "Stay on These Roads" a-ha

Two of the real highlights from Monday night's gig at the NIA, both showcasing Morten Harkett's undiminished vocal power. To be honest, I'm still reeling from the show. They were fantastic. I really wasn't expecting much, and - what with being in Birmingham and all - the whole thing seemed a little bit of a drag.....but they blew my expectations out of the water. They were superb, and I'm so pleased to have seen them. They're splitting up, but there's a farewell tour on the way, and I'm definitely going to see them again.

> "Earth Song" - Michael Jackson

I loathe this song, but you have to take your hat off to it's earwormability...... All together now

Ah aaaah aaaaaaaaaah-ah-ah-ah!
Ah aaaah aaaaaaaaaah-ah-ah-ah!

Grrr. If this has to be stuck on my internal jukebox, where's my internal Jarvis Cocker when I need him?

See you next week kids. Be good.

with your triumphs and your charms....

-
Earworms of the Week

> "Buddy Holly" - Weezer

Weezer have actually been around now since 1992, displaying a longevity you would never have imagined possible upon hearing their first album. Don't get me wrong, I have an enormous soft-spot for songs like "Undone - The Sweater Song" and "In the Garage", but you wouldn't have thought that they were going to be anything like as durable a band as they have become. The reason for that longevity is probably because they keep evolving their sound: right from the opening chords - event the name - of "Tired of Sex" on "Pinkerton", it was clear that the cheerful geeks we see mucking about in the brilliant, Spike Jonze directed, "Happy Days" video accompanying "Buddy Holly" were already a thing of the past. That said, "Buddy Holly" might just be the perfect.

> "Dumb" - Nirvana

Not really amongst their finer work, and something of a respite from some of the other, more sonically challenging, tracks on "In Utero", but a good song nonetheless. There's a hint of angst there, of course, but it's really a showcase for a melody. As is their wont, the band try and hide it: not behind feedback this time, but behind a very loose sounding recording. They know it's there though, and are confident enough in it to add a cello to the track. Quite a contrast to "Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge" and "Very Ape", the two tracks either side of the song on the album, anyway. Good band. Watch out for them.

> "Vietnam" - Jimmy Cliff

I saw Jimmy Cliff playing the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury on a gloriously sunny Sunday afternoon. It was an almost perfect festival moment, baking in the sunshine, drinking beer and listening to songs like "The Harder They Come", "Many Rivers to Cross" and this song. The first thing I did when I got home the following day was to place an order for a greatest hits album. He was brilliant. A proper legend.

> "Lazy Sunday Afternoon" - The Small Faces

Just on the cusp of being too twee to listen to, I actually quite like this song. Whilst not quite being up there with the genius of Ray Davies' "Waterloo Sunset", the lyrics of this song are a snapshot of a world that is now gone. Does anyone still get lumbago? Come to that, is anyone still called Bert?

> "L.E.S. Artistes" - Santogold

I always feel as though Santogold is an artist that I somehow shouldn't like. Perhaps it's because I like to categorise myself as the kind of man who listens to miserable guitar music played by skinny white boys. Whatever, this album is superb, and it gets better with every listen. To hell with you, self-musical stereotyping!

> Theme to "Magnum P.I."

Sounds remarkably similar played backwards to played forwards. I was always more of a Jim Rockford or Quincy man myself, but Magnum had his moments, I suppose.

> "Salute Your Solution" - The Raconteurs

I'm not too sure about the rest of the album, but it's worth the effort just for the adrenaline rush of the guitar riff in this song. I've no idea what Jack White is on about, of course, but since when did that ever matter?

> "I Know It's Over" / "Never Had No One Ever" - The Smiths

The opening up of my iTunes library over my wireless network has meant that I'm able to listen to more or less whatever I want as I potter around. In practice, this seems to have meant that I've listened to a whole lot of Smiths records. Worse still, the ones that have been sticking in my head are the especially miserable, depressing ones. These two, of course, sit side-by-side on "The Queen is Dead", and both are epic. "I Know It's Over" is a towering song, one of Morrissey's finest. Is there a bleaker opening line anywhere in the world than "Oh Mother, I can feel the soil falling over my head"?

As always, Morrissey is able to put voice to the worst fears of the disaffected and lonely youth.

"If you're so funny
Then why are you on your own tonight ?
And if you're so clever
Then why are you on your own tonight ?
If you're so very entertaining
Then why are you on your own tonight ?
If you're so very good-looking
Why do you sleep alone tonight ?
...Because tonight is just like any other night"

it's a great song, and it's followed by the preposterously lachrymose "Never Had No One Ever", which is self-pitying even by Morrissey's lofty standards:

"I had a really bad dream, It lasted 20 years, 7 months and 27 days".

There was a time in my life when I knew exactly what date it was when I hit that age myself and was wondering why the same thing seemed to be happening to me.

The answer is probably pretty simple, but to paraphrase another Smiths song, I just hadn't earned it yet, baby. I must suffer and cry for a longer time....

If you see the 20-something year old me, do me a favour and give him a slap will you?
Or a kiss.
Or both.

Have a good weekend, y'all.

you occupy the bench like toothache....

--
Earworms of the Week

> "The Man With the Golden Gun" - LuLu

Perhaps the best opening line of any song ever.

"He has a powerful weapon, he charges a million a shot."

The second line is pretty good too:

"An assassin, second to none, the man with the golden gun!"

I ask you, does it get any better than that, ladies and gentlemen?

> "Sweet Caroline" - Neil Diamond

Presented by Marcus Brigstocke on Argumental the other day as the reason why Michael Jackson could never be considered the undisputed king of pop.... Well, unfortunately timed topics on a light entertainment programme aside, there's not much you can do to defend yourself in the face of an earworm as potent as this one, is there? Surrender, would be my advice.

Phil Jupitus simply argued that Jackson couldn't be the King of Pop because pop was not, in fact, a monarchy. Perhaps a more compelling argument?

Who's touching who in this song again?

> "Love Me For a Reason" - The Osmonds

You might think this would have been planted in my head by recent coverage of Boyzone in the wake of the tragic death of Stephen Gateley. No. Sadly, I heard the original being played on hospital radio in the Queens Medical Centre as I waited for my appointment with the nurse on Thursday morning. It's no "Crazy Horses" for sure, but it's not a bad record, you have to concede.

> "Feel" - Robbie Williams

His comeback is already apparently being dubbed a failure on the basis of his appearance on X-Factor and the fact that his single, his fastest selling since "Rock DJ", has been beaten to number one by Alexandra Burke. Ridiculously unfair. As Jude Rogers says in the Guardian today, we should be saluting Williams for his defiant oddness and his resilience. Apparently his new album is sensationally good too. I won't be rushing out to buy it, but I can't help rooting for him. Better him than another Simon Cowell clone, anyway. Mind you, look what happened to Robbie. Perhaps an X-Factor clone will one day tread a similar path. Who knows? ...although if they do, I'm sure it will be without Cowell's support if they dare to tread off the mainsteam.

> "Fade Away & Radiate" - Blondie

I listened to "Parallel Lines" as I ate my breakfast the other day. It's a statement of the bleeding obvious, of course, but what an album that is. Surely better to eat my fruit & oat bagel with golden syrup and to drink my cup of tea listening to that than to put up with whatever Chris Moyles is ranting about, eh? An excellent way to start the day.

> "Wired for Sound" - Cliff Richard

I'm starting to think that this might just be the most persistent earworm of the year as I just can't seem to shake it. It's probably not in the least bit cool to say so, but actually I think this is a damn fine pop record. My mum likes Cliff, and so I used to have to listen to his music from this era in the car as we were driven to school. You know, "Devil Woman" and all that kind of stuff. Pretty good, actually. Having grown up there, I've even got something of a soft-spot for the video of Cliff wearing a walkman as he rollerskates in the Milton Keynes shopping centre just outside John Lewis. If you haven't read Bob Stanley's piece in the Guardian that attempts to put Cliff up where he belongs in the pantheon of British rock and roll pioneers, then you really should. It wasn't all "Millennium Prayer", you know.... and do watch this video: it's brilliant.

> "My Humps" - Black Eyed Peas
> "Milkshake" - Kelis

It's the little things that keep you entertained at work. I was in a meeting the other day; I was probably the senior stakeholder there, and I was being taken through a detailed requirements catalogue. When we came to a section about a piece of functionality called "my links", I couldn't help myself and blurted out:
"my lovely lady links".
Not everyone got it, but those who did looked at me in amazement.
Someone then confused the Black Eyed Peas with Kelis, and the second half of this earworm double-team was complete. For the record, I much prefer the Kelis record. The Black Eyed Peas? Nah... you can keep'em.

> "Kelly Watch the Stars" - Air

I fell asleep the other night listening to "Moon Safari". It's a good way to go, actually. You should try it.

> "Crying Lightning" - Arctic Monkeys

I was today presented with an unexpected opportunity to buy standing tickets for the Arctic Monkeys gig at the Nottingham Arena in November. It was predictably chaotic when the tickets first went on sale, so I didn't even bother... but now they're back on sale for some reason. I was tempted for a while, mostly because they were available, I think. Then I thought about it a bit more and decided that £30-odd for a ticket was quite steep both for a gig in an Arena (which I generally find unsatisfactory) and to see a band whose last album I didn't really enjoy all that much. I enjoyed watching them at Glastonbury a couple of years ago, and I may well go and see them again some time, but this time around I think I'm going to give them a miss. That said, I have been making a bit more of an effort with the album, and it has been growing on me. This song in particular has been working its way into my head. Alex Turner's way with a lyric is amply displayed in the way he works the pick n'mix metaphor through this song, throwing in a line about toothache for good measure. They're talented for sure, and they're a compelling live act.... just not compelling enough for me to risk an arena gig with a crowd I suspect will be filled with beer chuckers. Perhaps I'm now just too old and grumpy to put up with that....?

---

That's your lot. Have a good weekend, y'all and stay classy. I'll be mostly reading my book, drinking some Leffe Blonde and listening to Queens of the Stone Age. There are worse ways to pass the time, you know.

I'll follow you until you love me....

--
Earworms of the Week

> "Harold of the Rocks" - Primus

Amazingly, in spite of having quite a few of their albums, I don't actually have any Primus ripped onto my iPod. That's a situation that must change. How can anyone manage without some gloriously random, almost jazzy, bass driven metal on their portable MP3 player? I ask you? This song is on "Frizzle Fry", an album that I discovered when I was about 16 years old and have pretty much loved ever since. It reminds me, inevitably, of that emotional scene in Neighbours when Harold Bishop is lost, apparently swept out to sea, and all that remains are his glasses that are discovered in a rock pool. Heart breaking.

> "America" - Razorlight

Their first album was promising, with perhaps even some signs that there might be some substance behind Johnny Borrell's boasting. The second album promptly delivered them a number one single, but -- for me anyway -- was resolutely "meh". When the next album comes out, whenever that's going to be, I don't think I'll be bothering. Lightweight and with far too big an opinion of their own greatness. Still, this is a pretty decent song.

> "Monkey Gone to Heaven" - The Pixies

lots of incomprehensible screaming about the devil being six and God being seven? Brilliant, obviously.

> "Blue Skies" - Noah and the Whale

Breaking up with Laura Marling may well have hurt like a bastard at the time, but if the result of all that pain is an album as good as "The First Days of Spring", then -- from my point of view anyway -- it's got to have all be worthwhile, right? A breakup album, and no mistake, but superb.

> "Goddess on a Hiway" - Mercury Rev

One of the joys of finally making my iTunes available wirelessly is that I am now actively listening to music in the bedroom. Yes, I know that this is ridiculous: I have an iPod; I have speakers; I have various stereos I could move about the house... but the fact remains that in several years I have had access to all of these things, and I have mainly been entirely without music in the bedroom. Stick an Airport Express into the bedroom, and suddenly I'm listening to music all the time. Stupid, but there you go..... Anyway, one of the albums I listened to this week whilst reading my book was "Deserter's Songs" was released in 1998, but I reckon it sounds as perfectly out of time now as it did back then. It's superb. This is the best song on it by a country mile, of course, but it's a fantastic ethereal album.

> "Age of Revolution" / "Gentlemen & Players" - Duckworth Lewis

A concept album about cricket by the man behind The Divine Comedy? What a dreadful idea. Except that, actually, it works. Yes, "Jiggery Pokery" is probably the song that captures the headlines, but actually it's the least typical song on the album. The musical style varies hugely across the album, but the main thread is that all of the songs are loosely themed about cricket. "Age of Revolution" charts how the game has changed from being run by the Gentlemen to being taken over by the upstart players who are now "driving Bentleys, playing Twenty20". "Gentlemen & Players" is a more pastoral number, with a distinctly sepia-tinged view of the game. Sounds ridiculous, but sounds fantastic. Seriously, you should give it a go.

> "The Living Daylights" / "The Sun Always Shines on TV" - A-ha

Sad news this week that the legendary A-ha have split up. Their heyday was in the 1980s, but they never actually split up, taking a hiatus in 1994, but coming back together in 1998. You might not have heard anything new by them since something like 1988, but actually their 2002 album "Analogue" is actually really good (I must have listened to "Celice" alone hundreds of times... although that's at least partially because it's the very first track on my iPod on alphabetical order by artist, and if I hit the wrong button, that's the song that starts playing....). Their second album, "Scoundrel Days", was actually one of the very first albums that I ever owned. They're a big part of my life and I'm really sad to hear that they've finally called it a day. "The Living Daylights" is hardly their finest or best known song, but I like it as it manages to be both an A-ha song and also recognisably a James Bond theme tune. I also love the Nordic froideur and restrained passion that courses through "The Sun Always Shines on TV". Fantastic band. They'll be missed.

> "California Uber Alles" - Dead Kennedys

I was aware of "Too Drunk To Fuck", of course... but quite how good this song is was only latterly revealed to me. It's not just the choppy guitar riffs (although they're pretty damn good), it's the syncopation in the chorus

"California Uber Alles
California Uber Alles
Uber Alles California
Uber Alles California

Zen fascists will control you
100% natural
You will jog for the master race
And always wear the happy face"

Brilliant, brilliant record.

> "Karma Police" - Radiohead

...Speaking of brilliant records. "OK Computer" came out when I was working on the shopfloor of HMV York. Initially I was delighted to have a decent record to listen to whilst working instead of the usual succession of crappy "Now" albums, the Spice Girls or Ministry of Sound compiliations.... and then the constant repetition managed to kill it for me. It took me a good few years and a good pair of headphones before I realised quite how good this album really was. "Lucky" is probably my favourite song on the album, followed closely by "Exit Music (for a film)" - which works especially well through headphones as you can hear every catch as Thom Yorke takes a breath. You can't really argue with this song though, and the video is somehow archetypally Radiohead-y too, with Yorke looking especially miserable (not quite as archetypal as "No Surprises" though, it has to be said). I'm not massively keen on anything they've done since, but they remain a damn good band and few bands scale heights like this.

> "Paparazzi" - Lady Gaga

Gaga is something of a guilty pleasure of mine. I've nothing against pop, but it seems to me that there's something a little bit arty and edgy about Gaga. Yes, a lot of the album tracks are not all that far removed from other performers (like Pink), and she can sometimes seem a bit forced when interviewed (as she did on Jonathan Ross a while back), but the real standout tracks are something different. They're catchy, of course, but they seem to deal with sometimes quite dark lyrical themes - rough sex, for instance, seems to crop up several times. There's also something of an air of melancholy underneath all the glitz and shiny production sheen. Maybe I'm overanalysing. One thing's for sure: I'm certainly analysing it more than 22 y.o. at work, who seemed troubled by the question of whether he found Gaga attractive or not. Well, anyway. I like this song. I find it slightly haunting.

---

Right. That's your lot. The weekend is here and I have the prospect of buying some more speaker cables ahead of me as the development of my man room starts to take shape. I hope your weekend is somewhere near as exciting as that..... stay classy.

you know the preacher likes the cold, he knows I'm gonna stay.....

Right, well as I think I'm likely to be at the Nottingham Beer Festival tomorrow, I think I'd better get this week's earworms done today, eh?

Earworms of the Week

> "Walking in Memphis" - Cher

There I was, innocently minding my own business in the office, when I was suddenly landed with this. How does a conversation about the ten bestselling soundtrack albums of all time suddenly end up with me having to put up with bloody Cher, eh? Yeah, I suppose it's mildly amusing that someone might think that this song was written by Leonard Cohen (Marc Cohn / Leonard Cohen... easy mistake to make right?). It's not half so funny when you have this ringing around your head, let me tell you......

> "Marlon JD" - Manic Street Preachers

I was listening again to "Journal for Plague Lovers" the other day, and it really is a very good album. In the writing of this album, the band had finally returned to some lyrical fragments left behind by Richie shortly before his disappearance. The result, perhaps not surprisingly, is the best thing that they've done since.... well, pretty much since Richie vanished. Then again, "The Holy Bible" has always been my favourite Manics album, so perhaps I would say that. The lyrics are incredibly dense, seemingly packing in an impossible number of references into each line: I'd be surprised if anyone other than their author would be able to explain them. It was a brave decision by a band who have spent more than a decade trying to look forwards and not backwards, and I think the results entirely vindicate them.... not that they had anything to prove to anyone. I've no idea what this song is about, but it's brilliant.

> "Voodoo Chile" - Jimi Hendrix

Someone linked to this on Twitter the other day, and I'm not sure if I'm missing something, or if they really have made a Bob Marley t-shirt with Jimi Hendrix on it. Whatever, it was enough to plant this into my head anyway. Well, that and hearing it on the radio, anyway. It's not my favourite of his songs, but it's pretty unmistakeable. Is there anyone else who has quite such a recognisable guitar-playing style? All loose-limbed and effortless. His not the best singer in the world, for sure, but you can't have everything, can you? (and I'm afraid to say, that whenever I think of Hendrix, I end up coming back to that immortal line from Spinal Tap: you can't dust for vomit.....)

> "Hey Man (Now You're Really Livin')" - Eels

I love this band. It's not that E writes spectacular anthems or anything, but he does have this amazing knack of conveying emotion. He's had an apparently tragic life, but -- as here -- he has the lightness of touch to talk about some pretty heavy emotions with an almost incongruously upbeat tune.

"Do you know what it's like to fall on the floor
And cry your guts out 'til you got no more
Hey man now you're really living"

He's unique, I think. Great tune.

> "Vicinity of Obscenity" - System of a Down

Well, you couldn't get much more of a contrast from Eels than System of a Down, could you? Absolutely bonkers band. If I have no idea what Richie was talking about in that Manics tune, then what the hell are you to make of this?

"Banana Banana Banana Terracotta Banana Terracotta Terracotta Pie!
Banana Banana Banana Terracotta Banana Terracotta Terracotta Pie!"

I'm usually a lyrics man, and that looks suspiciously like nonsense to me....but the sheer weight of the music and the full on screaming commitment of Serj Tankian just about make it all work somehow.

Terracotta Pie Hey!
Terracotta Pie Hey!

> "Empire State of Mind" - Jay-Z

I'm not an especially big fan of Jay-Z, I have to say... but this song stood out at his Wembley gig the other week, and the more I hear it, the more I like it. There you go. I'm sure he'll be thrilled to know my view, so if you see him, please feel free to tell him.

> "PDA" - Interpol

Paul Banks still sounds like an undertaker reading a legal document, but I love Interpol and I was long overdue digging out their debut album and giving it a spin. Still sounds good to me.

> "Love it When You Call" - The Feeling

This was playing when I was in a bar last weekend, and it's just a sublime pop song, isn't it? My favourite bits are the band harmonies on the chorus echoing the main lyrics:

"I love it when you call
(he loves it when you call)"

etc.

Brilliant song.

> "I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris" - Morrissey

Morrissey is such a maddening artist: having come back with a bang from his years in the wilderness with "You Are the Quarry", he then quickly followed it up with an album - "Ringleader of the Tormentors" - that just never really did it for me. It was all sound and fury and lacking in substance, even if Morrissey's voice itself sounded as good as it has done in years. Having not really been that thrilled with it initially, his next album, "Years of Refusal" has grown on me. It's not my favourite Morrissey album by any stretch of the imagination, but neither is it "Maladjusted". This is the most immediate song on the album, and when it popped up on the CD player in the car, I found myself repeating it several times. It's short and sweet and certainly doesn't outstay its welcome. Good song. Would probably be enhanced by the presence of Johnny Marr, though..... but what wouldn't be??

> "California Dreaming" - Lee Moses

Given that the Mamas and Papas version of this song was deemed to be number 89 in the Rolling Stone list of the 500 greatest songs of all time, then you'd imagine that it would be pretty difficult to top. Well, perhaps Lee Moses doesn't quite manage that, but he does get pretty damn close. The style is completely different - well, what would be the point of trying to top Mama Cass and co. on vocal harmonies? - but that injection of soul works incredibly well, shifting the tone of the song completely and really making the song his own by not competing on the same pitch at all. I can only take my hat off to Red, who brought this song to my attention in the comments to Queenie's autumn playlist on Postculturist. It's superb. I can't stop listening to it......

And tomorrow night.... beer. There will be more than 600 casks of real ale, apparently. Well, I'll do my best.

Enjoy your weekends people.

if you're poorly, I will send poetry....

--
Earworms of the Week

> "Montague Terrace (In Blue)" - Scott Walker

A gloomy, damp Friday morning in October is somehow perfect for listening to the beautiful, but distinctly doleful, voice of Mr. Noel Scott Engel. He's still a going concern, of course, producing an arty and mostly unlisteneable album every six or seven years or so, but I very much prefer his earlier work, particularly the material he put on that run of imaginatively titled albums: Scott 1, Scott 2, Scott 3 and Scott 4. I absolutely adore his voice and the way that he chooses to use such a beautiful, lush instrument to sing songs of loneliness and despair. Not for the first time, I have cause to thank a Mr. Mark Preston for introducing me to this stuff when I was a heavy metal loving first year at University. Along with Morrissey, probably the single most influential artist in shaping my music taste.

> "Daniel" - Bat for Lashes

I was never really into Kate Bush (I much prefer the Futureheads version of "Hounds of Love" to the original). Still, the influence is there for all to see in Natasha Khan's work. I really like this album, and not just because of the duet with Scott Walker that closes the album. I think it's fair to say that I don't have a whole lot of music with female vocalists in my collection, but I have collected a few bits and bobs over the years, and there are times when nothing else will do. As you'll see from much of the below, this has clearly been one of those weeks. Haunting.

> "Rattlesnakes" - Tori Amos

For a long time, Tori Amos was probably the only female voice in the whole of my collection. "Little Earthquakes" remains my favourite of her albums by some distance, but I was curious enough to pick up "Strange Little Girls", her album of covers, when I saw it at a ridiculously knocked-down price a while back. All the reviews of it that I had seen tended to treat it as something of a novelty concept album, but that doesn't do it any kind of justice at all. The conceit, such as it is, it that Amos has deliberately chosen songs that were originally performed by men, and put a female spin on them. Songs on the record include "'97 Bonnie & Clyde" (originally by Eminem), "New Age" (the Velvet Underground", "Enjoy the Silence" (Depeche Mode), "Raining Blood" (Slayer) and my favourite, this version of Lloyd Cole's "Rattlesnakes". I wasn't actually familiar with the original, but listening to this version had me out looking for the album. Both are excellent. Her version of Neil Young's "Heart of Gold" leaves a little to be desired, mind....

> "The Distance" - Cake

Cake are one of those bands who are beloved of American college students. I used to work with a guy fresh out of college who would listen to practically nothing else as he sat behind his desk, hidden by a massive pair of headphones. Mind you, that guy now works for George Lucas at ILM on Skywalker Ranch, so who's laughing now, eh? (maybe it was him who did Jar-Jar?). Oddly, they came up in conversation this week, completely unexpectedly, and this song popped into my head. I also know their cover of "I Will Survive", but I'm actually thinking of maybe getting hold of a copy of "Fashion Nugget" and/or "Comfort Eagle" and seeing if they do anything for me.

> "Midlife Crisis" - Faith No More

Goodness, it's been a while since I listened to any of my Faith No More records... but since I put this one song onto that 9 hour playlist I built for my running, I've not been able to get it out of my head. I don't think it's their best song, by any stretch of the imagination, but it's certainly proving persistent. "Angel Dust" is a good album too, so perhaps I should give in and give it a proper listen, eh?

> "Rockin' in the Free World" - Neil Young
> "Keep the Car Running" / "No Cars Go" - Arcade Fire

....Speaking of my running playlist, although I don't remember many specifics about the route of the half marathon, or the songs that I listened to as I plodded around, I do remember these ones specifically. Neil Young helped me up a nasty hill in the University grounds, and I was pleasantly surprised how good Arcade Fire are to run to. Looking at them, I'm sure it's not something they thought of when they wrote the songs, but they really work very well when you're starting to tire and you've still got 7 or 8 miles to go.

> "A&E" - Goldfrapp

Another female singer, and this from the album that best showcases her voice by stripping the accompaniment back to basics. It's a lovely song.

> "Irish Blood, English Heart" - Morrissey
> "Handsome Devil" - The Smiths

I've been flicking through Simon Goddard's "Mozipedia" - the encyclopaedia of Morrissey and the Smiths. It's exhaustively detailed, featuring every single song and as many different events, influences and people that the author can think of. I'm not sure I'd want to read it cover to cover, but like any encyclopedia, it's been written to dip into.... and of course, the dipping made me want to listen to the music. I started with "You Are The Quarry", but as always, listening to Morrissey's solo work made me crave the presence of Johnny Marr, and so I popped on "Hatful of Hollow". It's my favourite of their albums, even if it isn't an album-proper. I love the rawness of some of those session tracks and, in my opinion, they're the definitive versions. This is an unusually sexually voracious track for Morrissey, who is normally much more oblique on such matters. On "Handsome Devil", it's all yelps and primal driving guitar...much like "Irish Blood, English Heart". I wasn't sure about that track when I first heard it, even though it was Morrissey's first proper recorded output for something like 7 or 8 years. It's grown on me though, ageing well where some of the other songs on "...Quarry" have not fared so well. It's short, sharp and explosive. Apparently people (including Goddard) have been confused by the lyrical assertion that the English monarchy are still in thrall to Oliver Cromwell...... ah, but is it really so hard? The English monarch reigns at the consent of parliament. All the real power resides with a body who, after all, ordered and then carried out the execution of a king. In a very real sense, the Queen does still salute Oliver Cromwell, or at least his modern day successors, whenever she attends Parliament.

Oh, hold on, I'm being a history bore again...

> "That Don't Impress Me Much" - Shania Twain

Well, this is a pretty radical change of pace. It's the usual story: I heard it accidentally and then the bastard thing stuck. In my office, they've started playing the "stores radio" channel that goes out in our shops in the main reception area. As I was on my way out of the building one evening, I was aurally assaulted by this drivel. It's still bloody there too. Does this stuff make people buy more stuff? Perhaps more than listening to Probot would, but still....

> "Between the Wars" / "The Milkman of Human Kindness" - Billy Bragg

My 22 y.o. colleague approached me at my desk the other day, when I was listening to my iPod, and he peered over my shoulder to see what I was listening to. "Billy Bragg? Who the bloody hell is that?" Nevermind his lack of knowledge of the Beatles, this is real ignorance. These two songs highlight nicely the two different sides of Bragg's muse: the first is an impassioned piece of empathy towards the working man struggling to make ends meet, written during the Miner's Strike, and the second is a wonderfully human piece of compassion. The man's a genius.... he is the milkman of human kindness and he will leave an extra pint.

Have a good weekend, y'all.

some are dead and some are living....

--
Earworms of the Week

> "Screamager" - Therapy?

I swear I didn't do it deliberately, but I have spent all day today listening to music pretty much exclusively performed by power trios. I enjoyed the Ungdomskulen gig last night, for sure, but it wasn't until I listed on Twitter what I'd been listening to that I realised quite what my subconscious had been up to: Ungdomskulen, White Denim, We Are Scientists, Supergrass and the Young Knives. It's not on my iPod, but for some reason, the moment of realisation was suddenly soundtracked by this astonishing track. I suppose it's probably because this probably the song that defines power trios for me. Oh, hang on, no sooner have I said that than my head is starting to play "Smells Like Teenspirit" just to show me quite how wrong I can be.....

> "Grace" - Supergrass
> "Richard III" - Supergrass

A completely different kind of three-piece band to either Therapy? or Nirvana, and actually I think they're officially a four-piece now anyway. I loved them from the moment that I first heard "Caught By The Fuzz" and "Mansize Rooster", when I was sat at the desk in my room as a third year undergraduate, listening to Mark and Lard and trying to revise for my finals. They appear to have lasted quite well, although I do generally prefer their earlier, rougher stuff to the britpop-y stuff. Still, good band though.

> "Death" - White Lies
> "In My Place" - Coldplay

It's not been all three-pieces in my head, and I suppose there would be something really wrong if nothing at all from last weekend's Wembley gig hadn't stuck in my head. I thought White Lies were pretty good, and I had to have a little chuckle at the idea of closing your biggest ever show with a song called Death.... I keep saying I'd like to see them at Rock City next month, but I still haven't pulled my finger out to get any tickets. I'd best get on that, eh? As for Coldplay... well, I like most of their stuff, although hearing "In My Place" reminded me quite how good a band I think they can be when they keep things simple. You can't get a much more straightforward song than this, and there's absolutely nothing fancy about it at all, but it remains for me perhaps the definitive Coldplay song, with the definitive Chris Martin worry-wort lyrics. Bless. I loved "Parachutes", but it was hearing this and "Politik" that really made me believe they were onto something. I listened to "Viva La Vida" tonight, actually... it's really very good, you know.

> "DOA" - Foo Fighters

Triggered by the sight of the proposed track-listing for their forthcoming greatest hits album. I've got all of their albums, but I've thought that they're a better singles band than they are an albums band. You'd have thought, therefore, that a Greatest Hits would suit them down to the ground... and I'm not sure that it does. It looks like a decent album, for sure, but it's not the tracklisting that I would have chosen. It doesn't include this belter, for starters......

> "Welcome to the Jungle" - Guns n'Roses

On the way down to the Coldplay gig last week, in salute to the fact that they were the last band I saw at Wembley Stadium (in 1991), I put on Appetite for Destruction. Damn, but that's a good album. Starts strong and just goes on and on. I think I listened to this to the exclusion of almost everything else for the duration of 1988, and it still sounds pretty good to this day. Shame what happened next, but this is an absolute, solid-gold, nailed on rock classic. tr-na-na-na-na-na-na knees, knees..... un-sing-alongeable, but brilliant.

> "Wired for Sound" - Cliff Richard

I'm blaming you for this one Sarah. Great video of Cliff on rollerskates in Milton Keynes shopping centre though, eh? oh-a-oh-a oh-a-wo-oh oh!

> "Falling from Grace" - Gentle Waves

As wholeheartedly recommended by Aertog the other day. As a big fan of B&S and Isobel Campbell, I immediately made my way over to iTunes and downloaded. A welcome relief from all the rock I've been listening to. A contrast, at the very least, that has cleansed my pallet for more ROCK!

> "After Hours" - We Are Scientists

Originally a trio, but a duo by the time they released this song. A fine song by a fine band and a great video to boot. They must be about due to tour again - I do hope so as they are brilliant live.

> "Up All Night" - The Young Knives (ninjas!)

I first saw Ungdomskulen supporting the Young Knives when they played the Rescue Rooms back in 2007. Even in the face of such a superb support band, and in spite of playing mostly new material, I thought they did pretty well. They're a bit awkward and hard to place, and I fear their faces don't fit, but I think they're a good, interesting band. When the mood takes them, which it does here, they can really get a pretty convincing stomp going. We're not sleeping, we are staying up all night....

> "Spartacus" - Ungdomskulen

I've raved about them enough for one week, but when played live, this song is a pretty much quintessential devil-horn hands in the air classic. Statue John would love them: they're like a looser, freer, rockier White Denim... and that really is saying something. (really - do go and have a look at the video - they're brilliant. The album version can be found here, but live is where it really breathes.)

> "In My Life" - The Beatles

Rubber Soul is superb. Statement of the obvious, but there we are. Johnny Cash does a cover of "In My Life" on one of the American Recordings albums.... and having an 80-odd year old singing wistfully about the people and places he has known has an obvious resonance. But fucking hell, the Beatles were 24 years old when they wrote this. 24! How much did you know when you were 24? What an incredible song. I especially love that chiming guitar at the start of every verse. This is a sublime song. Practically perfect.

Enough already. It's been a musical week and I'm off for a swim.

Have a good weekend, y'all. Stay classy.

stop them crazy horses on the run....

One of the most important things to remember when preparing for a race like the half marathon, they say, is that you should try not to do anything too differently to normal. Obviously, the presence of 20,000 other runners is going to be a bit of a change, but I'm going to wear the same trainers, drink the same amount of fluid beforehand... that kind of thing. I'm also going to be wearing a pair of headphones and carrying my iPhone strapped to my left arm. Partly that's because I'm going to have the Runkeeper application on and telling me how far I've run and what pace I'm running at -- it makes me run faster -- but also so that I can listen to music.

For me, music is a vital part of the whole process: apart from anything else, if you can focus on each song as it goes past, before you know where you are, you're another four or five minutes down the road and not worrying too much about how everything hurts. For the last few weeks, I've been training to a playlist made up of tracks by the likes of Metallica, Foo Fighters and Iron Maiden. There's something about the driving drums and screaming guitars that encourages me to pick my knees up and run as though the hounds of hell are on my trail.

For Sunday, I thought I might treat myself to a new playlist.

I've been combing through iTunes, pulling out songs that I think might be good. There's a fair bit of rock in there, but as I'll be listening to it on shuffle, I've thrown in a few wildcards to change the pace and to freshen things up from time-to-time.

I've been thinking about it for a little while now, and so, not surprisingly, this week's earworms are all taken from that playlist.

Earworms of the Week

> "Celebrity Skin" - Hole

Courtney has been in the news this week raging against the approval of Kurt's image for use in one of those Guitar Hero/Rock Band type games. As well as being able to play "Smells Like Teenspirit" (also on this playlist, of course), you are able to unlock the "Kurt" character and have him play songs by the likes of Bon Jovi. Yeah. I'd be pissed off too, but who gets the money?? Ah, whatever, this song remains a timeless reminder of the fact that the woman may be crazy but she does / did have talent.

> "The Lost Art of Keeping a Secret" - Queens of the Stone Age

QOSA make good running music, and I've slipped a few tracks onto the playlist ("No One Knows" is always good). This was actually initially my favourite track on "Songs For the Deaf", even though it's only included as a live bonus and actually appears on their previous album.

> "Make Your Own Kind of Music" - Mama Cass

Something of a change of pace, especially if it follows something like "Master of Puppets" or "Battery", but hopefully it won't make me slow down too much and will give me a bit of respite from the relentless metal. I ran out of patience with "Lost" not long after, but that opening sequence of the second season that was soundtracked by this song was absolutely brilliant.

> "Search and Destroy" - Iggy & The Stooges

If this doesn't make me pick my knees up, then nothing will. I actually discovered this song initially through a cover version by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, of all people. It's a b-side to "Under the Bridge", and it's surprisingly good. Less surprising once I'd worked out the quality of the source material though.

> "Foux du Fafa" - Flight of the Conchords

Mock French whimsy? But of course. I had to have some Conchords on the playlist too. Baguette!

> "Souljacker pt1" - Eels

Watching Okkervil River last night actually made me pine to see Eels. They're a band that I've never actually seen, and although I didn't especially enjoy last night's gig, there must have been something in their style that made me think of someone who also does a nice line in downbeat, sometimes lyrically dense material. Mark Everett also does it a whole lot better than Okkervil River, if you ask me. I picked this particular song, from one of the less celebrated albums, for the simple reason that it rocks in a way that "Climbing to the Moon" and "Mr E's Beautiful Blues" just don't. Both those other songs included, mind you...

> "Safe European Home" - The Clash

I've been obsessing about the Clash for a while now. Usually, I focus my attention on their debut album and songs like "Career Opportunities" and "White Riot" (both included), but for now my attention has been particularly taken by this one from "Give 'em Enough Rope".

> "Chasing Cars" - Snow Patrol

Another change of pace, but incredibly satisfying to run to. I once listened to this about five times in a row when I was out for a lunchtime run at work. It's not that I especially like the song, although it's pretty good, but for some reason it absolutely hit the spot about halfway round a 4 mile track. If it has the same effect at the ten mile mark on Sunday, then I'll consider it a job well done....

> "Fireball" - Deep Purple

Another earworm I can safely dedicate to Des..... it's that keyboard solo and the fact that it throws me back to the first CD I ever bought ("Protect the Innocent"). Other songs included from that album: "Ace of Spades" by Motorhead and "Paranoid" by Black Sabbath.

> "Crazy Horses" - The Osmonds

Included first and foremost because it's a (surprisingly) good song. Also included because I've been reading "America Unchained" by Dave Gorman, and he spends a fair amount to time explaining in great detail the madness of the Mormons. I was only dimly aware of some of it, but a book of golden plates? the angel Moroni? Urim and Thummin? Goodness me.... Still, it's a great record, isn't it?

Waaaah! Waaah!

---

I reckon I need a playlist that's about two-and-a-half hours long, to over some mucking about at the start and the two hours or so that I'll need for the race itself. After a careful process of elimination, my race playlist is now complete. You know how long it is?

9.4 hours.

That should cover it, eh?

Many thanks to everyone who has contributed to the sponsorship money we're raising for the MS Society. I was originally aiming to raise £1000, but the figure at the moment stands at the magnificent sum of £2,080... with £500 of that being matched by my office and still to be added to the total. That's pretty good, I reckon and you're generosity has both astounded and humbled me.

Still time to contribute of course - you can do that on our JustGiving page.

All that remains now is to forcefeed myself wholemeal pasta until the race starts on Sunday morning at 10am.

Wish us luck!

I reckon we'll have earned that pub lunch we've got booked for 2.30pm.....

oooh, we can eat cereal...

--
Earworms of the Week

> "Roadhouse Blues" - The Doors

I've not listened to The Doors in absolutely ages. There was a time, when I was around-about sixteen, that I used to listen to them all the time - often in the company of friends as we whiled away the spare time between lessons at school. This wasn't one of my favourites (I love "Riders on the Storm"), but given that I'd spent much of my adolescence up until then listening to heavy metal, listening to anything at all by The Doors made me feel a little bit sophisticated. C. was schooled in France, and she told me once that she used to hang around with her friends in cafes drinking coffee, smoking cigarettes and generally being pretentious. Well, we used to sit around listening to the Doors, talking shit and eating Jaffa cakes. Same thing, innit?

> "That's Not My Name" - The Ting-Tings

Inescapable last year, but I hadn't heard this for a while when I heard it twice on the same day. Naturally, it stuck. Actually, I still quite like this. It's aged pretty well and I find that the pointed humour in the lyrics is just enough to stop that tune and her singing from becoming annoying. I think they've got a new album coming out, haven't they? Are they in danger of having a career, do you think?

> "Frayed Ends of Sanity" - Metallica

I really need to put together a new running playlist before next week's half-marathon. Mind you, this is good running music, so.....

> "Crying Lightning" - Arctic Monkeys

I'm not sure if I like this song or not. I loved "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor" from the very first listen, and it was the same with much of their other stuff too. I can't make my mind up about this one. I'm not too sure about the tune, but I love that running lyrical motif about a bag of pick n' mix. It's not a grower, exactly, as I'm not sure it's catchy enough, but somehow it's hanging on the playlist inside my head. The album is much the same too. More time required before a definitive judgement is given, I think. (Hats off to the lyric "What came first, the chicken or the dickhead" on "Pretty Visitors" though. Brilliant.)

> "Lilac Wine" - Jeff Buckley

Have I told you the story of how I only saw Jeff Buckley live because he was playing in the Melody Maker tent at the Reading Festival in 1994 just before Gene? I have? Every single time anyone mentions him? Oh, right..... well he was good, and I'm very glad that I got to see him (I knocked back the chance to see Nirvana at the same festival on another year). Gene were superb too, mind.

> "The Bucket" - Kings of Leon

Speaking of the Reading Festival, I watched the KoL set last weekend on the BBC. They seemed pretty good to me, and I was quite impressed at how many of the songs the crowd knew all of the words too.... even the ones where Caleb is really mumbling.... when all of a sudden they cut back to the studio, and Reggie Yates was telling us that they KoL didn't want the BBC to broadcast the end of their set as they weren't happy with their performance. Well, they sounded alright to me, but since they've become such big stars, perhaps they've become a little more perfectionist than they were in the old days. They were a better band in the old days too. "Sex on Fire" is alright, but it's no "Red Morning Light", is it? There aren't enough songs about losing your hair, either.

> "Holiday in Cambodia" - Dead Kennedies

Nana worked her Bontempi magic this week, and although I failed to recognise this track in the LeftLion quiz on Wednesday night, it's been stuck in my head ever since. I'm obviously not playing Guitar Hero enough.....

> "A Cloud of Mystery" - Maximo Park

Maximo Park's new album didn't grab me at first, but it's really grown on me with each listen. It's perhaps not a massive stride forwards for them, but they're good at what they do. Saying it's a grower though, this song was the one that impressed me the most on first listen, and it's still my favourite. Paul Smith still seems suspiciously attached to his hats though...

> "A Rush and a Push and the Land is Ours" - The Smiths

"Strangeways..." may just about be my favourite Smiths album (if you don't count "Hatful of Hollow" as a proper album). I especially love the growls and yelps that are so prominent in Morrissey's voice on the first four tracks. In the context of his sometimes dubious lyrical imagery ("Asian Rut", "National Front Disco", "Bengali in Platforms"), I am somewhat suspicious of what he's driving at here, but I do love his sssssibilant, grrrrrowling delivery.

"A rush and a push and the land that
We stand on is ours
It has been before
So why can't it be now ?
And people who are uglier than you or I
They take what they need and just leave."

What a brilliant band. Please never reform ("so phone me, phone me, phone me...."). As always, time has increased my respect for how much Johnny Marr brought to the band.....

> "Jiggery Pokery" - Duckworth Lewis Method

A concept album based around a love of cricket? Done by Neil Hannon? A distinctly unpromising proposition for an earworm indeed, but amazingly an absolute gem of a record. Every song is good, but it's this little ditty about Mike Gatting's dismissal by Shane Warne in the 1993 Ashes Test at Old Trafford that sticks in the mind. How many songs have been written on such an arcane and specific topic? I love it. I don't where or how they recorded the album, but it sounds beautiful through headphones too. You should try it. And, praise be, for a Neil Hannon record, it actually sounds nothing at all like Scott Walker-lite..... even if he does nick that line about the cheese roll from Graham Gooch.

Thanks Fiery!

> "Carol Brown" - Flight of the Conchords

OK, OK... another week another Flight of the Conchords earworm. This one is from the episode in the second series where Jermaine accidentally sleeps with an Australian. It's a brilliant episode - directed by Michel Gondry - and actually features two brilliant songs ("Too Many Dicks (on the Dancefloor)" could easily have featured here too). This song is a riff on Paul Simon's "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover" and sees Jermaine telling us of the many ways in which he has been dumped, accompanied by a choir of his ex-girlfriends saying where it all went wrong. Very funny, not least because of the ridiculous instruments that Bret and Jermaine are playing.... (seriously - watch the clip)



Carol Brown? She took a bus out of town....

---

And that's your lot. I've got one last 60 minute run to negotiate this weekend before a taper down leading up to the half marathon next Sunday (we're up to £1540 now, but still time to sponsor us!). After this weekend, I'm actually going to try to cut out the booze and to start to take on board lots of pasta and water and stuff. Just call me the new puritan.

Well, after this lovely bottle of Chilean Carmenere anyway.....

Have a good weekend, y'all.

with your hands on your head or on the trigger of your gun....

--
Earworms of the Week

> "My Star" - Ian Brown

Ah, King Monkey! He couldn't carry a tune in a bucket, as anyone who has had the misfortune to see him live will be amply able to confirm, but he definitely has something about him. For starters, he was in one of the best British Bands ever, and that has to stand him in pretty good stead, and whatever his voice might be like live, on record he can be just about perfect. You want proof? Look no further than "I Wanna Be Adored" or "Fool's Gold", where that mumbling, shamanic chant of a voice really comes into its own. Some of his solo stuff is pretty reasonable too. I've no idea why this is in my head, particularly, although I did see a picture of the man himself in a magazine the other day reprising his appearance in Harry Potter (in the pub on Diagon Alley, reading "A Brief History of Time" and stirring his coffee without touching the spoon). This song was on a compilation tape that a friend gave me in about 1998 that I listened to when driving a colleague to a meeting in Wellingborough. He asked me to turn in down when this came on. Make of that what you will, but I like it. Military mission to Mars? Whatever you say, Ian.

> "Knights of Cydonia" - Muse

I'm not an especially big fan of Muse, I must say. I like the idea of them, and at their best they're pretty bloody good, but I really struggle to listen my way through a whole album. All that pseudo-classical symphonic nonsense really starts to hurt my head after a while. Still, credit where credit is due, and the solo on this song is just fantastic. You need a lift when you're out running sometimes, and this track was just the ticket for me the other day when I was about halfway through a 12-mile run and feeling the burn. There's a reason this is on Guitar Hero, you know.

> "Magnificent" / "Get On Your Boots" - U2

I wasn't the least bit tempted to buy "No Line on the Horizon" when it came out, but a colleague presented me with his copy the other day when he was raving about their live show in Cardiff. I really ought to give it a listen, apparently. I got about halfway through before I took it off and put on The Clash. I should probably say now that I quite like U2. It took me a long time to be able to admit that, but they slowly wormed their way into my brain and turned a pretty fierce loathing into a grudging respect and onwards to actually buying their records and seeing them live. The problem with this, and with their last couple of albums generally, is that the standout tracks are almost completely lost amidst a whole lot of turgid, over-emoting drivel. In my opinion, anyway. And even that is lost by the chronic over-exposure of that unbearable attention seeker, Bono. I like the band and I have a fair bit of time for the causes that Bono espouses, but I'm becoming increasingly less tolerant of having him hector me and am really starting to find their heart-on-sleeve-isn't-life-beautiful plods interchangeable. They're still capable of decent stuff, but I fear that for me it's getting lost amidst everything else about brand U2.

> "Killing in the Name" - Rage Against The Machine

I was reading Tom Morrello talking the other day (on Twitter, actually) in tribute to Les Paul; he was saying how he'd used a Gibson Les Paul on a few RATM tracks, mainly as overdubs, and quite a lot when in Audioslave. This was one of the overdubbed tracks he mentioned, and as chance would have it, it popped up on my iPod this week too. Well, I'm not sure what part chance has to play in the matter when I'm running more than 20 miles a week and I've been listening to the same playlist for weeks, but anyway.... it's a brilliant song this. Swearing has rarely been used to better effect on record.

> "Bulletproof" - La Roux

I can take or leave this whole "new-80s" thing that's happening in music at the moment, to be honest. I wasn't that big on this sort of thing the first time around, and I don't really get why people who weren't born the first time around are now picking the sounds and the fashions with such enthusiasm. Still, I do like this record, so.....

> "Ruby" - Kaiser Chiefs
> "Push It" - Salt n'Pepa
> "Build Me Up Buttercup" - The Foundations

"Ruby" is the earworm that will not die. It's been years now, and it's still going strong. Still, as someone pointed out to me when they heard me moaning about it, I should worry... their daughter is called "Ruby", so they can never, ever escape. The only possible cure is to try and find an earworm more virulent. My standby on these occasions is usually that Foundations record, but this chap suggested I try a touch of Salt n'Pepa. Not bad, but the relief was only temporary, and then the universe conspired to drop first "Never Miss a Beat" and then "I Predict a Riot" into my head. I'm learning to loathe the Kaiser bloody Chiefs, I tell thee....

> "All Hell Is Breaking Loose Down At Little Kathy Wilson's Place" - Wolfsbane

Another one for Des, this. Wolfsbane were a sadly much overlooked metal band from Tamworth, probably most notable for featuring future Iron Maiden singer Blaze Bayley on vocals. I loved them. Their records always sounded like they were recorded for about 12p, but they probably were. This song is based on the 1953 B-movie, "Invaders from Mars", which I discovered one night when watching the film on telly and wondering why the plot elements seemed so familiar. The album was about 20 minutes long and I loved it to bits. It's on my iPod, but I'm almost afraid to listen to it in case it's crap*. Aw, it's probably always been crap. That was part of the charm.

*actually, it sounds okay. Just click the link.....

> "Guns of Brixton" - The Clash

I've really got into The Clash recently, and was given a whole pile of their albums by my brother-in-law - a long-standing fan - for Christmas. I've been listening to "Live from Shea Stadium" in the car all week, and when this popped up in the bontempi organ round at the LeftLion pub quiz on Wednesday night, my fate was sealed and the song stuck. Credit where credit is due, it was C. who spotted the track first and won us the point... all those years listening to it through the wall from her brother's bedroom obviously paying off. Brilliant, brilliant song. The coolest bassist ever?

---

And that's your lot. We've a long bank holiday weekend to look forward to here, so I'm planning to do..... nothing. Hurray! Have a good weekend, y'all. It's a long way to the Christmas holidays from here, so let's make the most of this one, eh??

PUSH IT REAL GOOD...!