Most played old songs of 2009

These were the oldies I played the most in 2009 (as determined by iTunes play counts). I already wrote about Tusk.

Rank	Title	Artist	Album
1	Sara [Edit]	Fleetwood Mac	Tusk
2	Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)	Rolling Stones	Goats Head Soup
3	A Favor House Atlantic	Coheed and Cambria	In Keeping Secrets Of Silent Earth: 3
4	Beautiful Child	Fleetwood Mac	Tusk
5	Never Forget	Fleetwood Mac	Tusk
6	Heads Down, No Nonsense, Mindless Boogie	Alberto Y Lost Trios Paranoias	Heads Down, No Nonsense, Mindless Boogie 7"
7	The Man In Me	Bob Dylan	New Morning
8	Thoughts Of You	Dennis Wilson	Pacific Ocean Blue
9	On The Brink	Dinosaur Jr	Without A Sound
10	Livin' Thing	Electric Light Orchestra	A New World Record
11	The Ledge	Fleetwood Mac	Tusk
12	Storms	Fleetwood Mac	Tusk
13	That's All for Everyone	Fleetwood Mac	Tusk
14	Sisters of the Moon	Fleetwood Mac	Tusk
15	Angel	Fleetwood Mac	Tusk
16	Brown Eyes	Fleetwood Mac	Tusk
17	Never Make Me Cry	Fleetwood Mac	Tusk
18	Walk a Thin Line	Fleetwood Mac	Tusk
19	Tusk	Fleetwood Mac	Tusk
20	Kiss With A Fist	Florence and The Machine	Kiss With A Fist
21	(It's The Way) Nature Planned It	The Four Tops	50th Anniversary Anthology
22	Queen Of Cans And Jars	Guided By Voices	Bee Thousand
23	In The Morning	Nina Simone	To Be Free: The Nina Simone Story
24	Radio Luxembourg - Great Britain jingle	Radio Luxembourg

Most played new songs of 2009

LA ROUX 'BULLETPROOF'

These were my most played songs (as measured by play count in iTunes) that were released this year. There seemed to be some sort of sythpop/metal battle going on.

Rank	Title	Artist	Album
1	In For The Kill	La Roux	La Roux
2	Quicksand	La Roux	La Roux
3	Bulletproof	La Roux	La Roux
4	Cover My Eyes	La Roux	La Roux
5	Tigerlily	La Roux	La Roux
6	Colourless Colour	La Roux	La Roux
7	I'm Not Your Toy	La Roux	La Roux
8	As If By Magic	La Roux	La Roux
9	Growing Pains	La Roux	La Roux
10	Quintessence	Mastodon	Crack The Skye
11	Crack The Skye	Mastodon	Crack The Skye
12	Party In the U.S.A.	Miley Cyrus	Party In the U.S.A. - Single
13	Ultraviolet (Light My Way)	U2	2009-08-20 - Sheffield, England - Don Valley Stadium
14	Fascination	La Roux	La Roux
15	Reflections Are Protection	La Roux	La Roux
16	Remedy	Little Boots	Hands
17	Oblivion	Mastodon	Crack The Skye
18	Ghost Of Karelia	Mastodon	Crack The Skye
19	The Last Baron	Mastodon	Crack The Skye
20	Walkin Blue	Sonic Youth	The Eternal
21	Alice	SunnO)))	Monoliths & Dimensions
22	Armour Love	La Roux	La Roux
23	New In Town	Little Boots	Hands
24	Earthquake	Little Boots	Hands
25	Click	Little Boots	Hands
26	Divinations	Mastodon	Crack The Skye
27	The Czar: Usurper/Escape/Martyr/Spiral	Mastodon	Crack The Skye
28	Leaky Lifeboat (For Gregory Corso)	Sonic Youth	The Eternal
29	Poison Arrow	Sonic Youth	The Eternal
30	Malibu Gas Station	Sonic Youth	The Eternal
31	Aghartha	SunnO)))	Monoliths & Dimensions
32	Big Church	SunnO)))	Monoliths & Dimensions
33	Hunting & Gathering (Cydonia)	SunnO)))	Monoliths & Dimensions

Free Festive wrapping paper designed by Desmond Tutu

The all-time best Guardian masthead ever.

Picture Caption Competition

Adverts in Copenhagen International Airport call on world leaders to secure a deal at the Climate Summit.

Who is the striker who washes his hands as he walks away?

New song by Paul Weller "7 + 3 Is The Striker's Name" featuring Kevin Shields. So who is the striker who washes his hands as he walks away? Francis Lee perhaps?

Thanksgiving Maskers

Girls / Tamaryn / Dominant Legs @ Bottom of the Hill, San Francisco, 21 Nov 2009

I saw one song by Dominant Legs which is new Girls' guitarist Ryan Lynch's band. This was fun in a REM plus girly harmonies way.

I liked Tamaryn. The main sound comes from the John McGeoch style guitar of Rex John Shelverton, coupled with a driving bass. The focus of attention is on singer Tamaryn Brown. She is serious and passionate, brave and likable. She emotes, and dances, and throws a few shapes. Their fast songs are best, where the drummer starts to pound like Budgie. There's something not quite right about their sound, the singing is hard to hear at times because too much of the rest of the band are trying to play in the same tonal spaces. But overall this was rather good.

Both Tamaryn and Girls setup their own equipment. The main act didn't have a dramatic start as the guitar tuners slowly morphed into guitar players. Girls are an up and coming band from San Francisco. When they play at home they add to their lineup Miles, a percussionist, who is a bit of a Bez (without the dancing). The core of the band is singer/guitarist Christopher Owens. His songs seem to be to be about catching a mood, or a fleeting instance of happiness. The songs often end in a shimmery bit of improvisation as we try to keep the happy feeling from fading away.

It was a weird crowd at the Bottom of the Hill. Although it was a 21 and over gig there was a whiff of immaturity about. There was a lot of pushing near the front and eventually a small fight broke out. After the handbags had been put away I found the lost glasses of one of the combatants and was duly hugged. Then some people were shouting at the band, stupid things like "you rock". I saw pain and disgust pass across Christopher's face. The band seemed rattled. Can such a sensitive and subtle band survive in the world of rock? I hope that the inevitable transition to larger venues will actually help them. I am sure they will be successful as they are a bit special.

4 Superstars

There's also an interesting version by Bette Midler which cannot be embedded here. For details on the song see wikipedia.

Mitsuko Uchida

Mitsuko Uchida at the RFH in 1991, photographed by Clive Barda

Robert Enke Peta ad

Tusk

I don't want to like it, but I cannot help myself, I like Tusk. I can take or leave those other Fleetwood Mac albums but I like this one. I suppose Tusk is the In Utero of the soft rock world as it is the bolshy followup to a massive success.

Making a scythe for the grim reaper for halloween

This is a summary. For the complete instructions go to Making a Scythe for Halloween at Flickr.

Billie Holiday with Dog

New Japanese style crossing at Oxford Circus

Climate chief Lord Stern: give up meat to save the planet

Police in £9m scheme to log 'domestic extremists'

Where do you store WWII ships in case you need them?

View Larger Map

After the end of World War II, the U.S. Maritime Commission anchored thousands of cargo ships, tankers and battleships at sites around the United States where they could be preserved until needed for further military or civilian operations. Above you can see where they have parked some of the fleet in Suisun Bay for the last 50 years. Finally they are going to scrap some of the most polluting ships.

Flowered Up

Liam Maher, the frontman of Flowered Up, has died. Flowered Up seemed to appear out of nowhere, hyped onto the cover of the NME in 1990. OK, they weren't actually the best band in the world. But this song (Weekender) and its accompanying video short film capture something of the time. It's a pity they never made a longer version of this, it could have been a Tommy for the baggy generation.

If viewing on facebook you have to click on View Original Post (below) to see the videos.

BNP protest on front page of TheTimes

Zombie wedding cake

How to build a Cathedral, part 14

It has been more than a year since I took any photos of Christ the Light Cathedral. I was lucky that while I was at work in Oakland Walt pointed out to me that the new organ was finally being delivered. I rushed out and was lucky to be able to see it arrive:

There was applause from the watchers as the organ was displayed.

Inside the cathedral scaffolding has been built to the platforms where the organ pipes will be installed:

The body of the cathedral is filled with the many organ pipes waiting to be installed. The wood is similar to the fir used for the main wooden structures of the cathedral.

There are many, many mysterious pieces of wood. It will take four months to put it all together.

The guts of the organ were slid to this side room:

Already in the side room was this cover which I am guessing fits over the top of the main box.

For more details on the new organ see this article.

The Horrors @ The Independent, San Francisco, 3-October-2009

If it is true that talent imitates, genius steals, then The Horrors are pretty clever. The good thing about them is that they have good taste in who they copy: Joy Division, Stone Roses, My Bloody Valentine. I liked their latest CD and was hoping that their quality ingredients would be blended more smoothly when played live.

I was impressed to see that they have spent a chunk of their record company money on new clothes. I particularly liked the guitarist's jacket which you can see above, though I was not convinced by the bassist's attempt to introduce the double breasted jacket into rock.

OK, so they have OK songs, a tasty if unoriginal sound and they look great. How was the concert? Alas I was unconvinced. The vocals are hard to hear, the guitar seems aimless. it just did not blend for me. For another view I refer you to Hard Rock Chick.

Age of Chance: Kisspower

Age of Chance were a late 80's band. They did several things right:

• they had cool record sleeves designed by The Designers Republic
• they wore amusing cycling clothes when this was pretty new

• they did a fantastic cover version of Prince's Kiss

The Guardian had a nice article about them yesterday. It mentioned a remix of Kiss called Kisspower which was never officially released as it contained samples of Bruce Springsteen and Prince. If you want this you can go here to download an mp3: click on the little down arrow in the soundcloud control.