1. Reply to this post and I'll assign you a letter.
2. List (and upload, if you feel like it) 5 songs that start with that letter.
3. Post them to your journal with these instructions.

huskyteer has given me the letter "R".

1. Roll Over Beethoven - Electric Light Orchestra [Spotify] [YouTube]
   A cover version trumping the original artist (sorry, ( Read more... )

There was an interesting story on the BBC web site on Thursday that didn’t seem to get the attention I might have expected, so I thought I’d post a reference to it here. A band called The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing has released a single on wax cylinder. The BBC story includes a five minute video about trying (and failing) to build a ( Read more... )

Malcolm McLaren, the former Sex Pistols manager has died.

It was less than two minutes before it crossed my mind to wonder whether it was a publicity stunt. He'd probably have liked that.

Marina comes 2nd in the BBC Sound of 2010. Should have been 1st (IMHO ;-), but 2nd is not to be sneezed at. La Roux and Lady Gaga came 5th and 6th respectively last year.

• My previous entry about Marina and the Diamonds
• Marina's YouTube channel

I’ve done my bit for the future of civilisation by buying a copy of Killing In The Name by Rage Against The Machine.

I’m not a follower of RATM. I always liked their name, but to be honest, I couldn’t have named one of their tracks before this week. Luckily, it turns out I like the track ( YouTube | Spotify ) both for music and message, although ( Read more... )

When I was still at school in the early eighties, there was a young minister at the local church who lent me a copy of an album made by a band he’d heard at university in Edinburgh, where they were based. Only 500 copies of the album were made, to mark their retirement from gigging, and originals are apparently now highly collectable, fetching ( Read more... )

Musical tip: if you haven’t heard of her yet, check out Marina and the Diamonds. Yes, her ("I'm Marina, you're the Diamonds."). I think a fair proportion of the people who read this blog are likely to enjoy her music.

I’ve seen comparisons with Kate Bush, but I’m inclined to think they’re not fair to either artist. I Am Not A Robot reminds me of ( Read more... )

A few years ago, I was given an iPod as a freebie. As I think I’ve mentioned since then, I think the iPod is not a great design (clearly a significant proportion of the population disagrees with me), but it does play music and I couldn’t argue with the price.

Four and a half years later, one well known flaw in the design brought itself more ( Read more... )

Click to view