Day 158 Kraftwerk "Computerliebe"

Last one for a while as computer up the spout and has to go into the shop for a couple of weeks. Best make it an appropriate one,eh?

Day 157 New Order "Temptation"

My favourite period New Order - no longer gloomy, but not yet larging it - reaching for that quarter of a tab euphoric feel. They nailed it here...

Day 156 Bob James "Angela (Theme From Taxi)"

No song says 'it's the end of the night, there's a solitary man sweeping up and it's time to go home' more than this classic from Bob james. Evocative.

Day 155 Gift Of Gab "Flashback"

great piece of 'back in the day' hip hop from Gift Of Gab..

...and the original, for those who are old enough to remember

Day 154 Maximo Park "The Coast Is Always Changing"

The steel grey sea in Wellington's harbour, and the frozen rain coming down in sheets remind me of a nice summer's day on the North East coast. Which in turn made me think of this.

Day 153 The Weavers "Lonesome Traveller"

I'm just reading Elijah Wald's wonderful book “How The Beatles Destroyed Rock & Roll”, and am up to the part about pop novelty producer Mitch Miller (an amazing character, well worth looking up) and how The Weavers worked with him, bizarrely, on “Goodnight Irene”. That's a good enough excuse for me to post this up. It's a hell of a lot better than “Goodnight, Irene”, that's for sure.

Day 152 Electrelane "The Valleys"

I love Electrelane - bluestockings who (occasionally) sing in Latin, ripping off Stereolab and The Slits in equal measure; a triumph of ideas of virtuosity.

For this particular track they seem to have nicked the choir from Scott Walker's "The Old Man's Back Again". To fine effect, too

Day 151 Arthur Russell "Arm Around You"

It's been a long day...

Day 150 Roy Montgomery "At The Intersection Of Herzog & Wenders"

I haven't posted very much New Zealand music yet, have I? I have to say a lot of the cannon leaves me cold. And, anyway, you don't need me to post it here - you can hear it while the ball's out of play at your local super rugby game.

There is some great NZ music around, of course - from the Chants R&B through Billy TK to The Dead C and this guy. Magical guitar...

Day 149 Nico "These Days"

Suitably bleak for the shortest day of the year I think...

Day 148 Chas 'n' Dave "Margate"

Before Pete Doherty and Blur these were the most most successful mockneys around, and I loved them as a kid. They were also the highlight of the best Xmas party I've ever been, when they played live at Key Production's cockney themed one back in the late 90's. Jellied eels, pie & mash and beer.Mmmm...

In a Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon type thing, Chas & Dave played on Labbi Siffre's "I Got The", subsequently sampled by Dre for Eminem.

Day 147 Flowered Up "Weekender"

In honour of what - for me, these days - is a big weekend, here's Flowered Up's finest moment. Whatever happened to Barry Mooncult & pals?

Day 146 Crass "Do They Owe Us A Living?"

Steve Ignorant coming to Wellington soon - I'm seriously thinking about going, although I do';t really do live gigs these days, and am broke.

all together now.."of course they fucking do!"

Day 145 Dusty Springfield "I'll Try Anything"

This may be the perfect pop song. Especially as it includes use of the phrase "minding my p's & q's"

The backing vocals in the bridge are sublime.

Day 144 Field Music "If Only the Moon Were Up"

Cracking single from the Sunderland's answer to Steely Dan (or, less kindly, Supertramp). The latest album is great too...

Day 143 Hall & Oates "Sara Smile"

We all have our guilty pleasures - this is one of mine...John Oates' moustache is an 80's icon, no?

Day 142 The Animals "Inside Looking Out"

Snarly, snotty garage punk. Oh yes!

Day 141 Betty Everett "Getting Mighty Crowded"

There seem to be a disproportionate number of soul singers called Betty. Betty Davis, Betty Lavette, Betty Harris and, of course, Betty Everett. Funny, because when I was young and I heard the name Betty, I used to think of her from the Rover's Return (Betty Turpin, was it?) I can't imagine her belting this out.

Day 140 Kenny Rogers & The First Edition "Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)"

What was Kenny thinking – or taking - when he did this psychedelic oddity? Sharon Jones does a great cover version which – if you tune in tonight - you can hear on The Soul Affair.

Day 139 The Four Tops "It's All In The Game"

I could have picked pretty much any track off “Still Waters Run Deep”. It is objectively a superb album. Reasons? Levi Stubbs sings the shit out of every song on there. It has touches of psychedelia (the guitar at the start of 'Bring Me Together', for one) without being faddish. And it has an uncountable number of great little moments that make you want to listen to it over and over again. In this song alone, Levi's exhortation to “sing it for me” and the repeating string pattern at the end are the perfect mix of rough and smooth. Wonderful.

Day 138 Boris with Michio Kurihara "Rainbow"

Thanks to Tim Hall for persuading me to listen to this lot when I would probably have dismissed them as boring stoner rock. This is viscerating, elegaic (and other music journo words) stuff.

Day 137 Tom Waits "On the Nickel"

It's almost impossible to pick just one Tom Waits song, but this seems the quintessential early TW song, before he discovered Beefheart and started banging old tin cans and the like.

Day 136 Yeah Yeah Noh "Another Side To Mrs Quill

One of the great unsung bands of the eighties (along with The Nightingales), if you ask me. Their lyrics pop into my head most days, and when they moved from the one string guitar Fall-a-billy of the early EPs to the curtain-twitching English psych of this single and accompanying album, I thought they were going to be serious contenders. Then they split up. Life is full of such little disappointments.

Day 135 The The "Uncertain Smile"

'Soul Mining' is an incredibly bleak record, full of self loathing and pummelling drum machine rhythms (and an accordian.) So it perfectly suited my mood when I discovered it at the age of 15. It's certainly not adolescent, though, in fact its world-weariness is probably why it's aged so well.

on a side note, it's difficult to believe that the person behind the amazing piano solo on this is professional irritant Jools Holland.

Day 134 Bobby Womack "Across 110th Street"

A candidate for the best film theme song. As is often the way with these things, the film itself is nowhere near as good as the music.

Day 133 McGough & McGear "So Much In Love"

Macca's brother & the bloke from the Scaffold - not a combination that inspires excitement, but this is rumoured to be Hendrix on guitar...

Day 132 Ray Columbus And The Art Collection "Kick Me"

He may be NZ's answer to Cliff Richard, but he did produce this one slice of Nuggetsy goodness

Day 131 The Buzzcocks "Time's Up"

“Cos that’s it now…time is up”

See you anon, all my PSA people. It’s been a blast working, drinking, laughing, crying and arguing with you over the last 4 years.

Day 130 Smith & Mighty "Walk On By (Mellow Mix)"

Ship shape and Bristol fashion…