Dunno if this will turn into a series but hey.

Recently, I’ve been listening to this song a lot. It’s called “Play Crack the Sky” and it’s by Brand New. I’m not terribly familiar with much of their work, but if it’s is good as this, then maybe I should invest in an album. Here’s the song:

The lyrics are really moving and it’s quite hard work to listen to in its entirety. I always feel drained after I listen to it, but it seems to sum up some things that are happening around me just now.

Anyway listen to it, and let me know if you like it. Thanks to Will for introducing me to it!

I had made a CD compilation with a view to introducing it at the flat party we had last month, but alas, the weather did not really match the bright, cheery nature of most of the songs.. Maybe I’ll roll it out next year…

Anyway, here it is, comments/criticisms/cheques for large amounts of money welcome.

1. Bohemian Like You – Dandy Warhols

2. A Boy Named Sue (live)- Jonny Cash

3. Do the Bartman- The Simpsons

4. Last Night- the Strokes

5. All My Life- Foo Fighters

6. Let Forever Be- Chemical Brothers

7. First Date- blink-182

8. Dance Wiv Me- Dizzee Rascal (cos it’s hilarious)

9. Slight Return- The Bluetones

10. Hate to Say I Told You So – The Hives

11. Boys of Summer -DJ Sammy

12. Sunburn – Muse

13. All Sparks – Editors

14. Slide – Goo Goo Dolls

15. Bleed American – Jimmy Eat World

16. Honey – Moby

17. Last Summer – Lostprophets

18. Walking Barefoot – Ash (the CD version is better than the live one)

Maybe I should have made a CD of this..

New format this time, instead of 100 arbitrary facts (I’m not that interesting) I present to you my top ten top ten lists. You can find other such posts here and here. This is a list of my favourites and may not be an indication of what is actually “best”. Booya.

List I: Top ten Bible books

I Ecclesiastes

II Gospel of John

III Revelation

IV Proverbs

V Genesis

VI Acts

VII Romans

VIII Ezekiel

IX Gospel of Luke

X Hebrews

List II: Top ten Non-religious books

XI L’étranger by Albert Camus

XII Lord of the Flies by William Golding

XIII La Peste by Albert Camus

XIV The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

XV Eureka! The Birth of Science by Andrew Gregory

XVI Fermat’s Last Theorem by Simon Snigh

XVII The Miracle of Castel di Sangro by Joe McGinnis

XVIII The Story of the World Cup by Brian Glanville

XIX Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

XX La Symphonie Pastorale by André Gide

List III: Top ten Movies

XXI Terminator 2: Judgement Day

XXII The Terminator

XXIII Serial Lover

XXIV Return of the Jedi

XXV A Beautiful Mind

XXVI Juno

XXVII The Dark Knight

XXVIII Batman Begins

XXIX Spiderman 2

XXX Casino Royale

List IV: Top ten TV shows

XXXI Doctor Who

XXXII Peep Show

XXXIII Torchwood

XXXIV Mock the Week

XXXV Have I Got News for You

XXXVI QI

XXXVII Match of the Day

XXXVIII Give My Head Peace (RIP)

XXXIX Futurama

XL Gavin and Stacey

List V: Top Ten Radio Shows

XLI I’m Sorry, I Haven’t a Clue (RIP Humph)

XLII The Now Show

XLIII The News Quiz

XLIV The Chris Moyles Show

XLV Sport on Five

XLVI The Scott Mills Show

XLVII Mark and Lard (I know it’s not on anymore, but still)

XLVIII Fighting Talk

XLIX Stephen Nolan

L Richard Bacon

List VI: Top ten Pet Hates

LI People standing at pedestrian crossings and waiting, having not pressed the button

LII Cyclists going through red lights & riding on Jawbone Walk

LIII Smug Mac users & Apple fanboyism generally

LIV People saying “3AM in the morning” or “5PM in the afternoon”

LV “Apostrophe’s” or, worse, “comma,s” where they aren’t supposed to be

LVI Windows Vista

LVII James Allen on ITV F1 coverage

LVIII People who shout “Come on [insert British player here]” at Wimbledon

LIX The general attitude towards Mathematics these days

LX The obsession with celebrities

List VII: Top ten music artists

LXI Muse

LXII Green Day

LXIII REM

LXIV Ting Tings

LXV Manu Chao

LXVI Arctic Monkeys

LXVII Amy MacDonald

LXVIII Snow Patrol

LXIX Blink 182

LXX Bloc Party

List VIII: Top ten countries other than the UK & Ireland I might want to live in

LXXI Canada

LXXII Monaco

LXXIII Germany

LXXIV New Zealand

LXXV Australia

LXXVI France

LXXVII Denmark

LXXVIII South Korea

LXXIX Luxembourg

LXXX Switzerland

List IX: Top ten on my iTunes most played

LXXXI Still Alive by GlaDos (from the Portal soundtrack)

LXXXII Machines by Biffy Clyro

LXXXIII Pork and Beans by Weezer

LXXXIV Folding Stars by Biffy Clyro

LXXXV Jesus of Suburbia by Green Day

LXXXVI Great DJ by Ting Tings

LXXXVII Imitation of Life by REM

LXXXVIII Supernatural Superserious by REM

LXXXIX Mr Rock & Roll by Amy MacDonald

XC From Despair to Where by Manic Street Preachers

List X: Random Facts

XCI I once played a former Romanian Olympic Table Tennis player. Surprisingly, I lost

XCII I’m currently watching “This Morning” in KB House

XCIII I like Roman Numerals

XCIV I couldn’t tell you exactly how long I’ve been a Christian for

XCV I don’t like it when it’s hot

XCVI My favourite Ice cream flavour is Mint Choc Chip

XCVII I don’t take as many photos as I used to

XCVIII The best thing to put on toast is peanut butter

XCIX Maps are great and I could look at one for hours

… and finally…

C Writing lots of things like this is really hard!

Thanks for reading, I don’t think I’ll be doing another one of these again somehow, but you never know! Cheerio!

I turned 24 yesterday (that’s just for you, identity theft fans), and I just want to say thanks to everyone who wished me a happy birthday!

To say thanks, here is an awful song made worse by translation into english (I might say more, but I am aware there is a 100th post narcissistic extravaganza coming up, so I’ll refrain from talking about myself for a bit).

I re-furbished my blog a wee bit, what do you think? Anyway, to the point..

This is largely for the benefit of Dougie, but here is the track listing for my new compliatory smash (?) Andy CD4 (which I know is a tad ironic after I just railed against the whole compilation CD industry…). This time you can view all the songs on youtube. Enjoy!

1. Overture to Candide by Leonard Bernstein

2. When I argue I See Shapes by Idlewild

3. Starlight by Muse

4. Mr Rock and Roll by Amy MacDonald

5. Face to Face by Daft Punk (no video- it was an album track)

6. Don’t Stop the Music by Rihanna

7. We Come 1 by Faithless

8. Letterbomb by Green Day (parental advisory- this is another album track so no official video)

9. Folsom Prison Blues by Johnny Cash

10. World Leader Pretend by REM (confession- I didn’t mean to leave this on the playlist, but it’s still good. Another album track)

11. I can’t decide by Scissor Sisters (parental advisory)

12. Under the Bridge by Red Hot Chili Peppers

13. Me in Honey by REM feat Kate Pearson (another accident, still good though. An album track.)

14. The Bomb! by the Bucketheads

15. Signal Fire by Snow Patrol

16. Love Shack by the B52’s

17. New Year’s Day by U2

18. Stand by REM

19. Local Boy in the Photograph by Stereophonics

Comments are welcome.

An observation: you often see adverts on TV (particularly the music channels) for these trance/ibiza/hardcore compilation albums.

I have noticed that these are little miracles in that they take terrible songs and make them sound much worse than they were previously (at least that’s if the adverts are anything to go by). I remember back in the day when you couldn’t watch Friends on a friday night without about three of these things being shoved down your throat.

So annoyed we were, that I had a massive rant about it in the school sixth form centre one day with some of the guys and created my own impromptu parody advert for

“Ibiza: nervous breakdown” :the only CD compilation in the world that brings you to tears!

Those were the days…

Then watch this, particularly if you are familiar with R Kelly’s “Trapped in the closet”

The other week, I heard a song on the radio. It was from the year 2000, I think, but I remembered that I had enjoyed it at the time, so I downloaded it on iTunes.

All fine, but on listening to the song again, I discovered that it was not as innocent as I had remembered it to be. The lyrics clearly describe a man trying to tempt a woman into an affair (possibly extramarital, but all we know is that she is wearing a ring), a theme thats clearly doesn’t fit in with the music itself.

So it seems that the music we listen to sometimes isn’t as innocent as it may seem. Does anyone else have any pieces of music that they discovered are less innocent than they first thought?

Incidentally, the song was “Follow Me” by Uncle Cracker (possibly spelt wrong)

We have a flat “tradition” where we produce our own CDs with songs on them (as opposed to what? hmm). Andy CD1 and Andy CD2 were generally well received except for that the songs were only in artist alphabetical order. And they were too long.  So I proudly present the track listing of Andy CD 3.

1. Kaiser Chiefs- Saturday Night (Employment)

2. Franz Ferdinand- Take Me Out (Franz Ferdinand)

3. Muse- Hysteria (Absolution)

4. Bloc Party- Flux (A Weekend in the City)

5. Jane’s Addiction- Just Because (Strays)

6. Moby- Run On (Play)

7. Manic Street Preachers- Australia (Everything Must Go)

8. Pulp-Disco 2000 (Different Class)

9. The Ting Tings- Great DJ (We Started Nothing)

10. Fountains of Wayne- Stacey’s Mom (Welcome Interstate Managers)

11. REM- The One I Love (Document)

12. Stereophonics- Bank Holiday Monday (Pull the Pin)

13. Radiohead- No Surprises (OK Computer)

14. Snow Patrol- Spitting Games (Final Straw)

15. Rihanna- SOS (A Girl Like Me)

16. The Wombats- Backfire at the Disco (A Guide to Love, Loss and Desperation)

17. The Fratellis- Whistle for the Choir (Costello Music)

18. Oasis – Rock and Roll Star (Definitely Maybe)

19. Coldplay- Everything’s not Lost/Secret Track (Parachutes)

Comments are welcome (within reason!)

So here it is, then. Ireland finished last in last years EuroVision, and it seems they aren’t done yet with turkeys.

Except this time, it is not a metaphorical turkey. It’s Dustin, an irritating puppet (think Otis the Aardvark with an annoying Dublin accent) from kid’s TV and you can watch it here:

Please don’t have nightmares.