Day 289 Jorge Ben "Fio Maravilha"

It's Saturday - football day. And I doubt there's a cooler football song been made than this...

Day 288 Sam Cooke "Lost And Lookin'"

Hands down the best voice I've ever heard...

Day 287 Faust "It's A Rainy Day, Sunshine Girl"

The Germans are rather unfairly maligned, I think. We're just jealous, I suspect. Successful football teams, great music and (the ones I've met anyway) a very dry sense of humour. Just don't mention...

Day 286 The Watersons "North Country Maid"

The other 60's. Grimy, shrouded in fag smoke...closer to my Mum & dad's 60's than anything I've seen before.

Day 285 Serge Gainsbourg & Brigitte Bardot "Bonnie & Clyde"

Serge and Brigitte pretending to be gangsters. Ahead of its time...

Day 284 Desmond Dekker "007 (Shanty Town)"

It's stating the bleeding obvious I know, but for a country of less than 3 million people, Jamaica really punched above its musical weight in the 60's 70's and 80's (maybe since - I haven't heard much good recently, but I admit that's probably more down to me than to people of Jamaica.)

If the opening chords of this don't make your heart leap, shame on you...

Day 283 Firehose "Brave Captain"

Mike Watt. He was in The Minutemen AND Firehose. What a legend...

Day 282 Dirty Beatniks "Latinhead"

Big Beat: it was awful, wasn't it? The leering, gurning, beery sound of the 'Loaded' reader at play. There were honourable exceptions, of course. This is one of them.

Day 281 St Germain "Thank U Mum (4 Everything You Did)"

It's my Mum's birthday today, and while I doubt she's the biggest St Germain fan in the world (although I haven't tested this theory out), it's a great track nonetheless...

Day 280 Stereolab "Ping Pong"

A band that reminds me of days at RTM/Vital in the late 90's. God, but the video looks dated now.

Day 279 808 State "Pacific State"

Spring is in the air...time to dust off some late 80's rave gear, then?

Day 278 The Moles "We Are The Moles"

The ultimate underground classic (arf arf). Once rumoured to be The Beatles (God knows why, ity sounds nothing like them), it was, much more prosaically, Simon Dupree. Bloody good, either way.

Day 277 The Undertones "Get Over You"

Happy St Patrick's Day, everyone. Enjoy yourselves, but remember - no U2, ok?

Day 276 Blackstreet "No Diggity (Urban Takeover Remix)"

I'm in dnb mode this week for some reason. Mickey Finn's finest moment?

Day 275 Source Direct "A Made Up Sound"

Who'd have thought you could get nostalgic for 'the sound of the future'? Probably more to do with me than the track though...

Day 274 Fugazi "Waiting Room"

I never had too much time for Minor Threat, but Fugazi...what a band. Saw them live once (a year or two after this). I wish I'd seen them a whole lot more.

Day 273 The Aquarian Age "10,000 Years In A Cardboard Box"

Prime British freakbeat from Twink and friends. "How do you do it's NOT nice to see you": See what they did there..?

Day 272 Van Morrison "Linden Arden Stole The Highlights"

Another video of a record going round, complete with surface noise. Wonderful...

Day 271 Scott Walker "Thanks For Chicago, Mr James"

A lesser known Scott track, I suppose, but excellent nontheless

Day 270 William Bell "A Smile Can't Hide A Broken Heart"

I never cease to be amazed at the volume of great music that was made in America in the late 60's. I've been discovering it for all of my adult life, really, and still I hear things for the first time and wish I'd heard them 20 years ago. Like this.

The Ollie & The Nightingales version (which is, if anything, even better) isn't even on Youtube.

Day 269 The Rutles "Cheese And Onions"

From one Pre-fab Four yesterday to another one today. From "Yellow Submarine Sandwich"...

Days 268, 269 and 270 The Monkees "Stepping Stone", "Porpoise song" and "Hey! Hey! We're The Monkees"

Three in one, as I've been offline for a time. By no means my favourite Monkee (let's face it, there was always the whiff of musical theatre about him) it's still sad to see Davy Jones has died. Here's three of their best: first, my favourite of thier songs as a youngster - snotty and garagey; second, the theme to "Head" ; and finally the song that soundtracked summer mornings in the school holidays (just before "Why Don't You", and after "Junior Kickstart", if I remember correctly).