30 Day Song Challenge - Day 07

A song to drive to.

I don't drive, but if I did, I'd have the windows down and be blasting this one out. In fact, on long road trips, I like to piss the driver off as soon as possible by falling asleep 400 yards out of the drive, and then loudly snoring and farting for the next four hours:

Mott the Hoople's  'All the Way From Memphis'  was yet another song discovered via a music magazine compilation. I think my music kudos are quickly flushing down the shitter at this point. The knowledge that half of my music choices in this 30 Day Song Challenge were provided to me by music compilations put together by Mark Ellen and David Hepworth is not the most satisfying of thoughts.

30 Day Song Challenge - Day 02

A song with a number in the title? 

One of the quicker choices to make. I have that old man habit of rediscovering old music and hammering it to death on either Spotify or YouTube  . . . until I move onto the next (new) old band. The middle of last month caught me in a My Life Story binge, so I immediately thought of '12 Reasons Why I Love Her', arguably their known song. 

I always had a soft spot for MLS. I guess they'd be dismissed nowadays as Brit Pop also rans, but I loved their debut album Mornington Crescent - another piece of music from my past record collections which has disappeared into the ether - and always thought they were London kindred spirits to Pulp. I'm not going to pretend that they are some kind of lost classic band. They never had the tune on a par with a Common People or a Girls and Boys, but they did have a certain something. Maybe Jake Shillingford tried a little too hard, wanted to be a pop star too much and he was sadly a set of cheekbones away from reaching the big stage at Glastonbury. (Yeah, I know that sounds better in my head.)

Honorable mention also to Spiritualized's '12 Steps'. On another day, I would have picked that burst of noise, and it's another song discovered via a music magazine compilation.

30 Day Song Challenge - Day 01

What do you mean I can't do two song challenges simultaneously? It's End Days; I can't do whatever the fuck I want.

The Ten Album music challenge was bestowed upon me by an old schoolmate on Facebook. This one is also from Facebook, but this one I nicked from one of Kara's oldest friends back in the Mid West. I've been itching to do a good Song Challenge for ages now, and the good thing about this one is that I've been participating in it since the middle of last month on Facebook, so I don't need to think about it too much over the next few weeks. It's already sorted.

First up, a song with a 'color' in the title. I cheated, and picked a song title with two: the beautifully haunting 'Scattered Black and Whites' by Elbow. In retrospect I may have picked this song too soon in the Song Challenge, as it could have fitted a number of the upcoming days. (It might get a mention in later days.) I'm sure I discovered it via a music magazine compilation, which I'm not too sniffy about because I've found some great songs down the years via compilation tapes or CDs attached to the front of music papers or magazines. One of the few songs in my life that has actually moved me to tears. It must have been an especially bad day . . . 

Stone the Roses

I knew that Manchester's Timperley's Monkey Man was long in the tooth, but I wasn't expecting him to be staring back at me at the bottom of the page of this excellent post from Mine For Life music blog.

It's the cheek bones and insolent stare that gives the game away, but does he go by Robin George or Ian Brown when curled up on the sofa with his laminated copy of the Timperley Village Anarchist? And you have to check out the chorus to 'Robin George's' 1985 non-hit, 'Spy':

"The FBI or the CIA or MI5 or the Red Brigade

I don't know

They're getting closer

Moving in on you

The FBI or the CIA or MI5 or the Red Brigade

I don't know you, moving in on you

Pisses all over 'Illegal Attacks'.