"I'm So Ronery" - Team America OST
Given that North Korea may yet be the cause of a global nuclear conflict, perhaps this shouldn't be funny. But you know what? It IS funny. I think it might even be funnier now that Kim Jong Il is dead and has been replaced by his tubby son with the daft - but state approved - haircut. Without wanting to make light of the gravity of a situation that sees millions of North Koreans starving to death, sometimes laughter is the only reasonable response. What little boy doesn't want to impress his father's generals?
"Crazy Crazy Nights" - Kiss
Dumb rock music (few come much dumber than Kiss). So.... what's your point?
"(Marie's the Name) His Latest Flame" - Elvis Presley
I first became aware of this riff from "Rusholme Ruffians" by the Smiths, but as I've got older, I become more and more attuned to the brilliance of the original. He was quite the shizz, back in the day, huh? Released in 1961 and still sounds totes amazeballs today.
"Wake Up and Make Love With Me" - Ian Dury and the Blockheads
I come awake
With a gift for womankind
You're still asleep
But the gift don't seem to mind
Rise on this occasion
Halfway up your back
Sliding down your body
Touching your behind
Poetry. Not very subtle poetry, perhaps... but poetry nonetheless.
"Mah Na Mah Na" - The Muppets
Irresistible, right?
"The Rains of Castermere" - The National / Sigur Ros
So, this would be the least appropriate choice ever for the first dance at a wedding, right? Performed by The National on the soundtrack to the Red Wedding, and by Sigur Ros for the Purple Wedding, both entirely unforgettable events. Matt Berninger's voice better suits my range, and it's a terrible dirge really.... but Game of Thrones is brilliant right? As a book reader, I was very pleased to see that the most recent episode (S4 Ep4) has veered off canon and stripped us of our smug fore-knowledge of what is going to happen.
Every time you ask George RR Martin when the next book is coming out, he kills another Stark.
"Marblehead Johnson" - The Bluetones
There's been an awful lot of revisionist shite written as a result of the 20th anniversary of Britpop, most of it suggesting that the whole thing was irredeemably awful. Well, bollocks to that. As with any other point in history, there was good and there was bad... and you're an idiot if you deal simply in extremes of black and white. You may not care for Menswear or Reef or Shed 7 or even Blur or Oasis... but you can't simply say it was all terrible. I hate it when good bands get casually thrown on the scrapheap, and collateral damage in this mud-flinging often includes bands like the Bluetones. Apart from not sounding anything like most of the other bands labelled as Britpop, if you use your ears, you'll find out that they were actually a really good band who released good records long after Princess Diana died, or "Be Here Now" was released or whenever else people are saying Britpop died. I heard Mark Morriss talking about Britpop the other day, and he was saying how you can't live off a platinum album... and that made me feel a bit sad. This is a brilliant record (with a memorable video). Love the lyrics, too. Properly good song.
"Real Life (Angel)" - Elbow
Go straight to the place where you first lost your balance
And find your feet with the people that you love
And bring us in an indigo dawn with the lovelorn and renegade
Yes you were the eyes of a men not forgotten
Get hold of the night that rises in your blood
Focus on your pulse, focus on your breath, know that we're never far away
I absolutely love Elbow's new album, and if there's a band currently working that is capable of coming up with lyrics as compassionate and big-hearted as those, then I'd like to hear them. Fantastic band.
"Something Good" - Alt-J
The BBC seem to have bought a job load of rights to this record as I keep hearing snippets used as bedding tracks to all sorts of things. Quite right too: it's a bloody brilliant album and I keep finding myself going back to it and it's just sounding better and better.
"Master of Puppets" / "Battery" - Metallica
Having managed to obtain a ticket to this year's Glastonbury Festival, I was absolutely delighted to hear the speculation that Metallica are just about to be named as the Saturday night headliners. The carping has started already, with people saying how they are completely inappropriate. Well, we had all this before with Jay-Z, didn't we? The festival and the rapper got an enormous amount of publicity out of that, and of course he played a really good set in front of a massive crowd and it really wasn't that big a deal. Expect more of the same here. Just as the famously white, middle-class audience apparently didn't listen to rap, so too do they supposedly not listen to metal. Actually, it's probably the one genre of music that is almost never represented at Glastonbury. Would Metallica headlining be a problem? No, it would be epic. They're one of the biggest bands in the world and they deliver one of the best live sets in the world. Even if you're not a massive fan - which I am - then surely you can imagine how amazing it would be to see them playing "Enter Sandman" on the Pyramid Stage? BOH! Fleetwood Mac would be a much more Glastonbury booking, but Metallica would be a much more interesting one. Come on Eavis! DO IT! If they are confirmed, then I don't think I will have been this excited as a headliner at the Festival in all my years of going, and I think this is my 12th or 13th. Hater's gonna hate, but anyone who hasn't got painted on ears would surely appreciate a band this good. Besides, there are at least ten other bands playing in the same slot, and you can always go and watch some cabaret, theatre, comedy or just piss off and be a miserable bastard somewhere else.
CANNOT STOP THE BAT-ER-RY!
Well, I'll believe it when they confirm it.
Have a good (long) weekend, y'all!
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