Let's see what kind of music my cousin's iTunes has on it.

When All Is Said and Done - Trapt
Foreward - Linkin Park
10 Years Today - Bullet For My Valentine
Cold gin - Kiss
Room 409 - Bullet for My valentine

Eh, not bad, too much Bullet for my taste..

Okay, a Thursday fivesome:

Placebo - 36 Degrees. I've got a lot of Placebo on the server and yet this is the first outing for them on my randomiser. Just like FotN yesterday.

Sigur Rós - Alafoss. Blimey, another band which has a large presence appearing for the first time.
I made the somewhat poor judgment call of playing this album in the car once, and this track took me off to a place that most experts would refer to as "being asleep", that's how relaxing it is. Mind, it didn't help that I was on the M6 near Birmingham at the time.

The Offspring - All I Want. Well, that sure snapped me out of my trance

The Darkness - Is It Just Me?. Possibly, Justin. Quite possibly...

Stiltskin - Inside. TV commercial generates One Hit Wonder, part 27. Got played a lot in Jillys. Was eventually usurped by Machinehead's "Davidian" as a floor favourite.

It's pissing it down outside, but I'm oddly happy. A five to (hopefully) reflect this:

Cigarette - Ben Folds Five. Hmm. A little maudlin...
A House Is Not A Motel - Love. Better, but still a little wistful.
We Ride - Strapping Young Lad. Jeeping f@ck! That came out of nowhere. Great stuff, though.
Johnny Cash - Sons And Daughters. Yes, that's the right way around. I love Sons And Daughters - top stomping tuneage with thick Scots accents.
It's Them - Themselves. From an Anticon sampler of weird lo-fi hiphop. Top banana.

I'd rather be sleeping 5:

Why - Joe Satriani
The unforgiven II - Metallica
When Two Worlds Collide - Iron Maiden
Let Me Entertain You - Robbie Williams
Ride The Lightning - Metallica

From the Songs I Added Today playlist.

For Those About To Rock We Salute You - AC/DC
Into The Snakepit - Slash's Snakepit
Aerodynamic - Daft Punk
First of May - Jonathon Coulton
Digital Love - Daft Punk

From my ipod:

Super Trouper - Deep Purple
Freedom's Prisoner - Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel
The Boys are Back in Town - Thin Lizzy
La Mucara - The Mavericks
2-4-6-8 Motorway - Tom Robinson Band

Eh, not bad. nothing great

Late shift blues:

Ballad Of A Paralysed Citizen - The Faint
Chinaberry Tree (Red Version) - Mew
High 5 (Rock The Catskills) - Beck
Black Hole - Girls Against Boys
Outlines - Clor

Mid-list emotional switcheroo there, and all the better for it. Good tunes all, mark you.

Late shift pizza binge five:

She Loves You - The Beatles
Machine Gun - Portishead
Pwdin Wy 1 - Gruff Rhys
Little Boys - Devendra Banhart
Nowhere To Run - Martha Reeves & The Vandellas

From my ipod:

Run to The Hills - Iron Maiden
Brainstorm - Arctic Monkeys
The Hand That Feeds - Nine Inch Nails
Aces High - Iron Maiden
Sureshot- Yellowcard

Trust In Me - The Fall
Etoile - Monade. A track from a Word mag freebie that I haven't really listened to before. French, and very pleasant. It's a keeper...
Occasional Rain - Terry Callier. Another unfamiliar comp track, this time from my old Music Zone bossman. He really knows his stuff, and this is a typically lovely acoustic number. I love trading comps with this guy...
Slow Country - Gorillaz
It's Not The End Of The World? - Super Furry Animals. I've been trying to think of music vids that I like to add to my Facebook page, and I think I've found a new candidate here. Great song, with an excellent video. God, I love SFA.

The Beatles - Michele - good mellow start
Real Thing - You And Me Are Everything - puts a smile on my face
Led Zeppelin - In The Evening
The Real Thing - You To Me Are Everything - yes, this is a slightly differently tagged version of the same song. Good times
Elton John - Blue Eyes - umm. yeah. not my fault.

3am iPod randomising!

Shaggy - Boombastic
Horace Andy - Return of DJango
Madness - House of Fun
Killer Queen - It's a kind of magic - from the We Will Rock You soundtrack
The Skatalites - Guns of Navarone

Yeah reggae

Seu Jorge - Starman this song makes me happy because it's the only Portuguese I can come within a reasonable distance of pronouncing correctly (because of playing and singing it all the time)
The Books - The Lemon of Pink, Part 2
Tom Waits - Green Grass. Never heard this before but it's growly and spooky like Tom Waits ought to be.
Talking Heads - No Compassion. This is really jangly compared to the last one. Tolerable Heads.
Xiu Xiu - Hives Hives. Super-weird drum-beaty, so I didn't notice when it went into
Brazilain Girls - Last Call. Slinky and infinitely preferable.

Jesus Of Surburbia by Green Day
Welcome To The Jungle by Guns N' Roses
Tired of Waiting For You by Green Day
Temple Of Love by Shebang
Rebel Rebel by David Bowie

Lol, I just remembered the first time we listened to that song. "Dude, shut up for a second, I think the song just said 'Hot tramp, I love you so..'..."

Too lazy to get iPod out of pocket..
/spam

Come To Daddy, Mummy Mix - Aphex Twin
The Bad Photographer - Saint Etienne
Bobbi, Bobbi, Bobbi - I'm Not God - Karma To Burn
The Gloaming - Radiohead
Alpha Centauri - At The Drive-In

Quite a varied selection, there. I'll settle for that.

Nice call on the Saint Etienne there, Inky.

Here's my "finally got the server working" five:

The Last Shadow Puppets - Calm Like You. The new outfit that Alex Turner put together after he got bored with the Arctics. Subtly different sound but much the same lyrical goodness.

Supergrass - Late In The Day. I really like this song, nice ballad from the 'grass.

The Cure - Like Cockatoos. Hmmm, another slower song. This one is from my favourite Cure album, "Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me", which also finds itself in my top 20 albums ever.

The Streets - Fake Street Hats. More slowness. Not that Mike Skinner ever does rapid.

Robbie Williams - No Regrets. And another ballad to finish, this one from my wife's collection.

I do love a bit of Saint Etienne, it's true. 'Fox Base Alpha' was a regular on the Music Zone store stereo.

Another five before I leave for the day:

Do You Remember Rock 'N' Roll Radio? - The Ramones
Wrong Kind Of Flirt - Lies
Saturday Night - Kaiser Chiefs
The Rollercoaster Ride - Belle & Sebastian
Leaders Of The Free World - Elbow

Crikey, I so nearly bought that album myself... the one thing that stopped me was the realisation that I had no money whatsoever. I've got "So Tough" on vinyl somewhere in a very large stack of records that really needs to be sorted, MP3-fied and stashed somewhere safe at some point.

Anyway, onwards with my Thursday lunch five:

The Prodigy - Out Of Space. Aaah, this brings back memories of Jilly's on a friday night. And of a children's birthday party where I played this for musical statues. Very funny watching a bunch of eight year olds trying to stand still when I stopped the music on the fast bits.

Kings of Tomorrow - No Problem. Violins over a house beat. Intriguing.

Shaznay Lewis - Dance. One of the big problems with people donating the entire contents of their MP3 collection is that you get stuff appearing in your own collection which wouldn't normally appear there. In some cases it's a good thing, because you discover something which you like. This isn't that bad, as it happens. A bit generic (even down to the obligatory rap at the break) but not entirely unlistenable.

The Automatic - By My Side. What's that coming over the hill? Is it a monster? Nope, it's this middling album track.

The Charlatans - North Country Boy. Many moons ago, I used to listen to Mark and Lard on the radio on my daily commute to work. They did a cover of this called "West Country Boy", complete with mock west country accents. Unfortunately, that song has rendered it impossible for me to listen to this song without transposing that one onto it.

Quick five before I nip out for lunch:

Echobelly - I Can't Imagine The World Without Me. Whatever happened to this band? I liked this album but then they disappeared. Very odd.

Tori Amos - Mother Revolution. Like a weird Kate Bush.

Vangelis - Memories of Green. Not quite in the same league as "L'Enfant" or "Bladerunner" as it's just too damn slow and moody. And why are we having memories of Scritti Politti's lead singer anyway?

Eurythmics - It's Alright (Baby's Coming Back)

Placebo - Hang On To Your IQ

The Silver Hawaiian - Helmet
I've Changed My Number - Plush. Excellent horn!
Special - Mew. Excellent drum intro!
Pure For - Beta Band
Bad Education - Tilly And The Wall. Excellent tap dancing!

Five more, for the sheer pesky heck of it:

GWAR - Bring Back The Bomb. I don't know, poor GWAR have had their bomb stolen. Tsk, some people, eh?

Oakenfold feat. Brittany Murphy - Faster Kill Pussycat. Shamefully not the movie "Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!" Oh well, can't have anything

Queen - Escape From The Swamp. Now this is what random is all about. This track, from the "Flash Gordon" soundtrack, just shows what nonsense gets on soundtrack albums, especially when it's a single artist doing the soundtrack. And especially especially when we have camp B movie at the heart of it all.

Danielle Dax - Cat-House

Boards of Canada - A is to B as B is to C. Ooh, an outing for the Boards! Shame it's such a short one, really. So with that in mind, let's have one more:

The Beatles - Back In The U.S.S.R. In the sixties this could've worked, but now it's as likely as going to Constantinople.

At the mall on a diet pill!

/SPAM! But who by?

Rock And Roll by Led Zeppelin
Nothing Else Matters by Metallica
One by Metallica
On The Wagon by Green Day
Let The Eat War by Bad Religon

Teeth gnashingly familiar, bu beyond my mortal powers of recollection. An answer would be very welcome, if only to save my sanity. And teeth.

Five for the sunny friday morn:

Broken Afternoon - Helio Sequence
Silent Hill - Akira Yamaoka
Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad? - Moby
Queremos Paz - Gotan Project
Chicago - Groove Armada

Bingo bango Japan electro tango mangle farrago.

Now I'm humming Bingo Bango.
Anyway- it's from track Funplex by the B-52s (they dropped their apostrophe for this album) from their latest album also called Funplex. It. Is. Awesome.

Ah-hah. I've stumbled across a couple of tracks from that album on magazine cover CDs, so that's probably why it sounded familiar. You can't go wrong with the 52s.

Lunchbreak five:

Star Of Wonder - Sufjan Stevens. Mmm, Christmassy
Pwdin Wy 1 - Gruff Rhys. Mmm, Welsh
Waking Up - Jasper TX. Mmm, long
Mutual Slump - DJ Shadow. Mmm, clattering
6/8 War - Leftfield. Mmm, stealthy. And rhythmic.

Saturday five:

Manager And Coordinator Of Prostitutes - Les Georges Leningrad
Welcome Singer - Roger Ferguson. Two tracks from 'Worried Noodles' - woo-hoo!
2KThr - Aphex Twin. Well, I like 'Drukqs' even if you don't
Homme Aphrodite Part 1 - Minty
The X - Blood On The Wall

What a very odd selection.

Sunday lunch five:

Down In Mississippi - Mavis Staples
Shiz Ko E - The Tuss. I don't care if it's Aphex Twin or not - it's brilliant acid squelch genius however you slice it
Made Of Stone - The Stone Roses
Victory - PJ Harvey
In My Time Of Need - Opeth

Sunday brunch five

-Death to Death -- Stars
-Swamp -- Talking Heads
-Chicago Seemed Tired Last Night -- the Hold Steady
-Let it Be -- the Beatles
-Ultimate -- Golgol Bordello

the last one is a bit redeeming, maybe. "If we are here not to do what you and I wanna do and go forever crazy with it, why the hell we are even here?" is the ultimate mangled soviet opening.

Rainy monday morning fiveage:

The Police - No Time This Time. Spotted a wrong tag on this one... Alternative rock? Since when? That'll teach me to rely on FreeDB for tag info!

Van Halen - Poundcake

Fear Factory - Acres Of Skin

Ali Farka Touré - Gomni. Very mellow, in stark contrast to the aural assault of Fear Factory.

New Order - Bizarre Love Triangle

Soggy monday afternoon quintet:

Alanis Morissette - All I Really Want. So that'll be a dictionary so you can look up the meaning of "ironic" then.

The Sugarcubes - Deus. I still can't decide which is weirder; the shrill Hopelandic of Sigur Rós or the ridiculous rantings of Einar. Bless those Icelanders

Buzzcocks - Autonomy

Outkast - Ms. Jackson

Soho - Hippychick From the first moment I first heard this song back in the very early 90s I despised it. It's not so much that it's a bad song; it's pretty dull and bland, not entirely offensive in itself and would normally be in the bucket marked "Meh". It's a big bucket. But the reason for the ire is due entirely to the fact they ripped off the reverbed riff from The Smiths' "How Soon Is Now", one of the best songs they ever did. For the sole reason they ripped off a great song and applied it to such a dreary piece of dross is why it transcends into loathing. Why is it on the server? Because it's attached to a compilation album which contains a lot of other much better tracks, such as Jesus Jones' "Real, Real, Real", New Fast Automatic Daffodils' "Big", The Charlatans' "The Only One I Know" and a really grungy version of The Wonder Stuff's "Circlesquare" which I adore.

Thank god that's the five done. The sixth track to come on is one I'd really rather not want to admit to. Even in the face of that last one!

Tuesday morning fiveage:

The Cure - Faith
Bruce Springsteen - Iceman
Damien Rice - Cannonball
Goldfrapp - Crystalline Green
U2 - Bullet The Blue Sky

I can't be bothered with the comments, save for the fact I like all of these songs and am therefore happy that my music randomisationising has pressed the appropriate satisfaction buttons. Especially when it ends on one of U2's more powerful tracks.

Five at eleven, instead of doing what I'm supposed to be doing...

Klaxons - Isle Of Her
2Pac - Ghetto Gospel. This was on the radio this morning as well. How odd...
Happy Mondays - Kinky Afro
Evanescence - Haunted
GOL - Angelica In Delirium

Lunchyfive:

Duffer St. George - Fiery Furnaces
Jam! - Mad Capsule Markets
.000.000 - Beck
Coelakanth Is Android - Polysics
Sound - James

o_O

I've got a shirt made by Duffer St. George. Cost me a small fortune as well...

Two-ish five:

The Sugarcubes - Chihuahua. Like the song. Loathe the wretched rat-dog it's about.

The Cure - 10.15 Saturday Night. But why is Bob sat in the kitchen sink? I think we should be told!

Green Day - 86

Texas - Prayer For You

The Kooks - Ooh La

Chaka Khan - I Feel For You

Sizzla - Hard Ground

Jimi Hendrix - Hear My Train A-Coming

Duffy - Warwick Avenue - wtf? where did this come from?

Kenny G - The Girl From Ipanema


Not such a great selection

I'd Rather be Thin than Famous - Jack Kerouac Haha, this is amazing. 38 seconds of weird greatness.
Episodes - The Roots
Yeh Jo Halka Saroor Hae - Jeff Buckley
Fieldtrip USA - Moonbabies They've been coming up a lot. Good job, Sweden!
Little Man - Atmosphere A little melodramatic. He's talking to his kid, his dad and himself.

I willed it to be there, Moose. I willed it. You see, anyone who has Kenny G in their collection must have something to balance it out. Something with class. Something not ripped off and ruined by a hack with a clarinet. And he also appears to have Michael Bolton's poodle cut. I wondered where that went.

Of course, it's okay if you like Kenny G. I'm not going to ostracise you for it. Well, not much, anyway.

Okay, my five, which now will no doubt be replete with Tweenies and Bob the Builder

Katherine Jenkins - L'Amore Sei Tu. Blimey! I suddenly feel all culturally relevant! Except for the small fact that it's an operatic version of "I Will Always Love You". Originally a Country song by the fabulous Dolly Parton (and written for Burt Reynolds, apparently). And then covered by the perpetually Cheap As Crack One in her typical warbly style for that godawful film "The Bodyguard". Which spent longer at number 1 over here than Rihanna. The song, I mean. But this version is nice.

Edison Lighthouse - Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes). Cheesy classic.

Soundgarden - Boot Camp

The Cure - 39. There seems to be a lot of Cure coming out in my randomings lately. This one is off "Bloodflowers". Acclaimed as the best album that The Cure had done in ages when it came out. I say this had a lot to do with the fact it was the only one they'd done in ages at that time.

Squeeze - King George Street

To be honest, I'm not too sure where the Kenny G came from either. My laptop is full of music from other people who live here.

Another five!

Status Quo - Rockin' All Over The World - Oh dear, not a great start

Buddy Holly & The Crickets - More Than I Can Say - come on itunes, bring up something to save my credibility

Meat Loaf - Paradise By The Dashboard Light - that really didn't help

Robert Plant and Alison Krauss - Gone, Gone, Gone (Done Moved On) - Yes! Finally a good song!

Bob Marley & The Wailers - No Woman No Cry - Eh, not one of my favourites but not a bad song.

CheeseMoose - I've often wondered about that Plant & Krauss offering. I like both voices, so perhaps I should make with the checking out of the stuff...

Lunchfive:

dael - Autechre
Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Your Grievience - Daniel Johnston
Maria - Green Day
Surfing On A Rocket - Air
Arnofio/Glo In The Dark - Super Furry Animals

Yeah, I have the same problem, my server is stuffed full of music that other people like in the house. And there's six of us, so I get all the wife's stuff (most of it quite good) but then it's offset by the emo dross that my teenage daughter likes and all the cheesy pop muzik that the little 'uns want.

Oi! You can't knock the Quo!

What??? This is a classic tune! How can you say that?? But... but... my god! Paint me speechless!


Okay, now you can paint me speechless. Something on Inky's player which doesn't ooze with cool.

Okay, here's my five for the afternoon. Good, bad, indifferent, just choon me!

The Cure - Fire In Cairo. Crimminy, yet more Cure coming out on the randomiser.

Barry Blue - Dancin' (On A Saturday Night)

Muse - Hoodoo

LL Cool J - Number 1 Fan

Whitesnake - Give Me All Your Love. Aah, David Coverdale. America's answer to Robert Plant. Just 10 years too late

A typically double-edged compliment.

I like Green Day, I will freely admit. I was the right age when 'Dookie' was released, and that's hard to shake. Also brings back memories of summer at Music Zone - their 'International Superhits' would shift like shit off a shovel whenever we put it on on a sunny day...

Alles Aus Liebe by Die Toten Hosen
Suffocate by Green Day
Beat On The Brat by The Ramones
Man On A Mission by Van Halen
Not On This Earth by Joe Satrani

Inky, liking Green Day before the hordes of hoodies started is okay.

Here's a Friday five:

Madness - Coldest Day
The B52's - Devil In My Car
Amy Winehouse - Cupid
Timbaland - Bounce
Cocteau Twins - Grail Overfloweth

I'm not in the mood to discuss these today. I'm really not feeling Friday at all. But having that old Cocteau's track at the end has put me in the mood to listen to the whole "Garlands" album.

Ahh, but leo, what I haven't mentioned is that I also love 'American Idiot'. Make of that what you will...

The turned-up-stupidly-early-for-the-late-shift five:

The Escape - Abdominal. DJ Format's rapper-in-chief - phenominal flow.
Heaven Is A Truck - Pavement
Good Life - Chris Difford
Vanishing - Lhooq. An early outfit for Icelandic producer/electromaestro Johann Johannsson. Very mid-nineties mellow trip-hop, not unlike Lamb.
The Outdoor Type - The Lemonheads

Yes, that's not a bad album either. But it does point to some latent contemporarisation within you which has hitherto been cloaked with a veil of cool disregard for such commercially successful stuff. So for you to like it is a bit like revealing a dark side in you or some such.

Anyway, stuff all this Green Day critique - I've kicked my streamer back to life and now it's playing my random five:

Blur - Magic America. From "Parklife", but sounds like it was dropped from "Modern Life Is Rubbish".

Madonna - Beautiful Stranger. The best thing about this song is it's association with the best of the three "Austin Powers" movies. That said, it's not that bad a song. But why did Madge insist on wearing men's trousers on the video? Most unflattering.

Whitesnake - Bloody Luxury. Bit of early 'snake for us here.

The The - GIANT. OH YES! I adore the "Soul Mining" album, it's Matt Johnson's finest hour in my opinion, even compared to the juggernaut "Infected" that followed it. From start to finish, there's not a bad song, not a note wasted, and it still sits comfortably in my top 5 albums. Glorious! This is still the only album I've got on vinyl that I could be bothered to convert to MP3, that's how good it is!

Bruce Springsteen - Cynthia. And a bit of The Boss to finish off.

Squeeze off another quick quintet before I go out:

Pearl Jam - Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town. One of my favourite song titles that aren't anything to do with the Biscuit.

Phil Collins - I'm Not Moving

Catatonia - Mulder And Scully

Van Halen - Dancing In The Street. This would've been much better without the ridiculous guitar looping nonsense. Talk about a wasted opportunity.

Mousse T - Horny. ARGH! The only reason I have this is because it's on the Cold Feet soundtrack.

Okay, time to leave!

And you have the Cold Feet soundtrack because...?

Final five for the day:

Disco Infiltrator - LCD Soundsystem. Mmm, yes - more of the funk, please.
Nothing Can Stop Us - Saint Etienne. Actually, that'll do nicely. More wistful pop please.
It's A Most Unusual Day - Andy Williams. Nice and easy. Just like my day wasn't.
Wang Dang Doodle - PJ Harvey. From the Peel session CD. Brilliant in the way only PeeJ can be.
Missile - Lhooq. Buh? You again? They only have one album, too. Must be Icelandic trip-hop day in MP3 land.

36 Degrees - Placebo. I loved the first 'bo album, but not so bothered about the later stuff. Still some corking singles, though.
Welcome To Paradise - Green Day. Oh, so this is to be my commercial mix, is it? Fair enough.
I'm Good - DJ Format. Heh heh. Or not. Another excellent Abs rap.
Summer Babe - Pavement. Live version from the S&E:L&R second disc. Yum
Amazing Grace - Sufjan Stevens. Banjoriffic.