bookmark_borderEclectic Less

You are what they eat, they say, in which case I’m mostly caffeine and potatoes.

As for what you listen to, that too has an influence on who you are and, naturally, vice versa. With this in mind it is with some disdain that I find myself plumped among the masses when it comes to my music taste. Yes, I’m a snob. No, it’s YOUR problem.

Whilst I have a fairly wide taste of music, and I continue to try and steer myself away from the mainstream (something that is easier to do these days), I only have to look back at the statistics gathered for me by Last.fm which, based on the 83,000 odd tracks I’ve listened to in the past 4 years or so, suggests that my top 20 most frequently played artists are:

  1. Foo Fighters
  2. Radiohead
  3. Kings of Leon
  4. R.E.M.
  5. The White Stripes
  6. Massive Attack
  7. Muse
  8. Pearl Jam
  9. Elbow
  10. PJ Harvey
  11. Eagles of Death Metal
  12. U2
  13. Faithless
  14. Bjork
  15. Kanye West
  16. Aimee Mann
  17. Goldfrapp
  18. Portishead
  19. Leftfield
  20. Neil Finn

Hardly stepping off the beaten track, am I?

But this doesn’t tell the whole story, if you only take my listening habits from the last 3 months then Fleet Foxes, Lemon Jelly and Sigur Ros all make it into the top 10 which certainly feels, to me, a bit more representative of my listening habits.

The real reason I’m listing this here, now, is that (if I remember) I’ll revisit this topic in 6 months or so and see if the Genius button in iTunes has had much of an impact. We’ll see.

bookmark_borderTwo things

Neither related in any way, shape or form, other than that they have made an impression on me and I thought I’d share them with you.

1. Random Homer quotes rule
A couple of weeks back a few of us wasted our lunch hour downloading WAV files of his emminence Homer J. Simpson. Today, I decided to set my iTunes library to random and Homer has just announced “Ohhh floorpie!” between tracks from PJ Harvey and Matthew Herbert. Completely random, ticklingly hilarious.

Feel free to substitute your own personal comedy preferences, but regardless of that, it’s a sure fire way to brighten your day. Other suggestions include the Mnah Mnah song which I’ve used successfully on a mix CD a couple of times.

2. Alan talks about a near death experience
Every now and then someone posts about something that is in turn fascinating, insightful, gripping, well written and absorbing to read. Alan has done just that when he posted about the day his life changed. It’s well worth a read.

bookmark_borderStuck in draft

I seem to have a mental block at the moment, so I thought I’d “blog” about it with the hopes that it would break and release me from my “draft post” hell.

You see there are a lot of posts that I start, but never finish. They range from thoughts on the gender split in blogging, to the proposed M74 extension (Glasgow residents take note), my continuing dalliance with the River Clyde, how boring I am, and a couple of meme-like things that I can’t be arsed finishing.

That’s surely a sign that I have bloggers block, not even a meme or two can help me, woe is me indeed (if the was something important enough to inspire woe but it’s not so please don’t feel sorry for me, I have a good life, on the whole, and this little site is increasingly less/more of it).

So I’ve been doing what I normally do when this kind of malaise strikes. Re-design time! Haha. Kidding. Sort of…

Anyway, a couple of things to clear up.

1. As AnnMarie rightly points out, there has been a lot of USA bashing recently, and as is now being demonstrated the people of America ARE helping each other now that they are able to. From my previous post I’d like to clarify that, as was oft heard in my school days, “there’s always one that spoils it for the rest”. The devastation of Hurricane Katrina is what should be focussed on, helping people piece together their lives is THE most important thing. Let’s keep the political ramifications for later (but let’s also agree that they shouldn’t MUSTN’T be forgotten).

2. Er… dammit. I’ve forgotten already. Ohh hang on, just remembered. I’d just like to say that this is not a “please convince me that I’m worthy” post, I’m not looking for sympathy, in fact I’d ask you all to forego any “don’t worry, I get that too” panderings and instead tell it like it is. Go on, be honest, name ONE thing about this site, or what I post on it, that really REALLY annoys you. C’mon you bunch of cowards, come and have a go if you think your hard enough!

And finally I’d just like to say that my new Sennheiser PX100 headphones are the dog’s nads. Especially when PJ Harvey is pounding my eardrums.

bookmark_borderT in the Park #11

Doesn’t seem like two weeks ago that I started to bore you all silly with this… dammit, hang on a second…

(The only thing about sharing iTunes with my wife is the ‘shuffle’ mode which seems to prefer Wham! tracks to anything else).

Right, where was I? Ohh yes, firstly big thanks to everyone who commented, I won’t repeat it all again, suffice to say that if I have a crappy weekend I’ll know who to blame…

So, from all that sage advice, which acts will I be trying to see? Bold are MUST SEE acts.

Saturday: Ben Kweller, Michael Franti, Mylo, Basement Jaxx, British Sea Power, Faithless and Muse.
Sunday: Mull Historical Society, Orbital, Groove Armada, Chemical Brothers, Goldfrapp, Massive Attack, Scissor Sisters, Franz Ferdinand, PJ Harvey, and last but not least Pixes (!).

Any other bands are bonuses, and there will be others as I doubt very much, especially on the Sunday, that I’ll be able to catch full sets for a lot of the artists. Add in to the equation the fact that I’m going with three mates and I’ll happily be swayed by majority rule (with some obvious exceptions).

It looks like Sunday is gonna be particularly busy, so I’d better NOT spend too much time in the Hospitality tent. I will be taking my camera, but offer no guarantee of decent photos – although as two of my mates are fairly accomplished I’ll be looking for some tips from them.

So, that’s about that then. I’ll be back on Monday with reviews, photos and stories. Hell I may even post whilst I’m there, we’ll see if the motivation strikes.

And you know what, I’m beginning to get just a little excited.

bookmark_borderMusic to..??

There’s a lot of music being discussed over at Troubled Diva and it’s made me ponder… what am I missing?

Currently I think Akufen (from a mate a work) is high up my ‘now’ playlist, but I still find myself going back to older albums, in fact I think the newest album that I listen to often is the Kings of Leon one, or maybe PJ Harvey’s last one (she’s got a new one out soon!). I’ll probably get the new Faithless album although the last one still hasn’t really made an impression on me.. so.. well…

What next? Keane, Snow Patrol, Scissor Sisters, Modest Mouse are the most recent stuff I’ve snagged, ohh and CLOUDdead (CloudDEAD?).. what is this summer’s “must have” album?

bookmark_borderPhwwooarr Music

Difficult to describe this, and it affects Louise more than it affects me, but do you ever listen to some songs and just think… ohhh that’s raunchy…

Doesn’t have to be obvious, or overtly sexual in content, just something about it that makes you go… “Phwwwwoooaarrrr” ???

Or am I waffling again?

For the record: The White Stripes ‘Ball and Biscuit’ or PJ Harvey ‘This is Love’. The latter I can understand, the first one still has me baffled.