[14:14]  <earthman> my guitar teacher added me on facebook
[14:15]  <nick> you have a teacher?
[14:15]  <earthman> nick: I did when I was 15
[14:15]  <nick> I thought you just burst out of a granite cocoon, guitar in hand?
[14:15]  <earthman> LOLZ

–c.
PS. The guitar teacher in question is Mick Hutchinson, who is still awesome. He taught me for 18 months when I first started in December 1988, and without him I would not be the player I am now.

#050. Jack Johnson – In Between Dreams (2005) [spotify]

Jack Johnson - In Between Dreams

If you like acoustic-y singer-songwriter-y stuff, then odds are you like Jack Johnson. If you don’t, feel free to skip ahead to #49 where there is rawk and stuff. This is still one of the favoured “Sunny afternoon chillout” albums at Murray Mansions, and has been since it came out. It’s my belief (though I haven’t checked it) that Johnson was, like David Gray before him, churning away for ages before one particular major release catapulted him up the charts, at least in this country. Certainly it was this, his third release, that brought him to my attention, and it immediately became part of the soundtrack to Summer 2005 with classics like “Sitting, Waiting, Wishing”, “Better Together” and “Staple It Together”. Always puts a smile on the dial.

TOP TRACK: #7 “Staple It Together”.

#049. Forty Deuce – Nothing to Lose (2005) [spotify]

Forty Deuce - Nothing to Lose

Like many, I loves me some Richie Kotzen. I must confess though, that my favourite stuff is his early period – Fever Dream, Electric Joy, Mother Head’s Family Reunion. The whole thing where he took it down a notch and released (seemingly) about fifty albums that sound pretty much the same, is I’m sure artistically verifying for him and all that, but I can take it or leave it. Everything from 1996′s Wave of Emotion up to 2004′s Get Up just does very little for me, and that’s when I kind of stopped paying attention. (Note: 2009′s Peace Sign is excellent, btw.)

But in 2005 he released this album under the monicker Forty Deuce, and went some way back to his hard rock roots, and the result is superb. Proper hard rocking tunes, verging on heavy, and some frankly incandescent guitar work without ever really labouring the point. “Start It Up”, indeed.

TOP TRACK: #2 “Oh My God”.

#048. Underride – One of Us (2008)

Underride - One of Us

Historically, when you think of Seattle, you initially think of one band. That band is obviously Queensrÿche. (If you said Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam or any of the early 90s grungers, go to the back of the class.) But it’s always been a musical melting pot – aside from the 90s grungesplosion, people like Hendrix, Nikki Sixx and Duff McKagan all cut their teeth in Jet City, as well as such nonrock luminaries as Sir Mix-A-Lot, Kenny G, and jazzer Bill Frisell. Scant surprise then when it turns out a top quality rawk band, which it has done with Underride. Not heard of them? I’m not surprised – I caught a mention of them on Sleaze Roxx one day, and took a punt on the album as it was payday, but good thing I did. This is some really energised no-nonsense rock music led by a fan-fucking-tastic singer. Get it if you can find it.

TOP TRACK: #6 “Upstart Coming Up”.

#047. Zero 7 – When It Falls (2004) [spotify]

Zero 7 - When It Falls

Some albums are amazing whenever and wherever you listen to them, but others suit a specific situation, and if there is a better “sunny Saturday afternoon, BBQ in the garden, friends round, couple of drinks, chilling out until sundown” album out there, I’ve yet to hear it.  Beezer.

TOP TRACK: #2 “Home”.

#046. Black Stone Cherry – Black Stone Cherry (2006) [spotify]

Black Stone Cherry - Black Stone Cherry

When I first heard these boys I knew they were going to be something special. This is their self-titled debut album, and it gets right down to business with the chuggy Zeppelin-esque riffage of “Rain Wizard”, and doesn’t let up from there. One thing that hits you immediately is the depth and character of singer/guitarist Chris Robertson’s voice. He sounds like he’s been out there rocking the free world for thirty years or more, but in truth he hasn’t even been alive that long. This band are young, but that doesn’t mean they’re green – the 13 songs on this album are expertly crafted blocks of Southern-fried rock standing somewhere between Black Label Society and Lynyrd Skynyrd in terms of heritage, and by the time the final cut “Rollin’ On” has faded away, you’ll know you’ve been Cherryed.

TOP TRACK: #5 “When the Weight Comes Down”.

#045. American Pearl – American Pearl (2000)

American Pearl - American Pearl

Can’t remember for the life of me how I came across this CD, though thinking about it it was more than likely one of those “customers who bought X also bought Y” thingers on Amazon. Never heard of before or since, Wikipedia offers scant information other than that the band was the brainchild of one Kevin Roentgen, who did some other stuff afterwards. Hmmm. Well, whatever, this is an ace hard rock record – well constructed rock songs, good riffs, tasteful guitar (no huge solos knocking holes in the songs) and nice raw production. Effective – recommended.

TOP TRACK: #2 “Automatic”.

#044. Wheatus – Wheatus (2000) [spotify]

Wheatus - Wheatus

Wheatus, the brainchild of Brendan B Brown, will have first come to the attention of most readers (if at all) with their monster hit single of 2000, “Teenage Dirtbag”, which as well as being a huge MTV smash was also on a hit movie (if the movie “Loser” was a hit, I don’t really know to be honest) soundtrack, and thus found its way into the ears of millions that Summer. My then girlfriend (now wife) quite liked it, and talked me into buying the album one day in Virgin on Oxford Street and it’s been a favourite ever since. Catchy and fun, and not afraid to offend on occasion, few albums in my collection can raise a smile as reliably as this one.

TOP TRACK: #8 “Love Is a Mutt from Hell”.

#043. Alter Bridge – One Day Remains (2004) [spotify]

Alter Bridge - One Day Remains

If you’re anything like me – and I know I am – then you loved the music that Creed were making, but just found the singer Scott Stapp a little bit irritating sometimes. It’s not that he’s a bad singer – he really isn’t, he’s pretty bloody good, but his style just grates with me a little bit sometimes, y’know? So wouldn’t it be cool if you could take the band and make them write stuff roughly 12% heavier, and replace the singer with someone even better? It would be, and the result is called Alter Bridge. Singer Myles Kennedy is so freaking good that it’s almost unfair to compare Stapp to him, inevitable though that is. Anyway, musically here you have Tremonti and co riffing away like their lives depend on it in a variety of dropped tunings and Kennedy wailing over it all like some dark angel of rock, and by god what a record. I shut up, you go listen.

TOP TRACK: #2 “One Day Remains”.

#042. Coldplay – Parachutes (2000) [spotify]

Coldplay - Parachutes

Yeah yeah yeah, I don’t want to hear it. Fashionable as it (still!) is to knock Coldplay and to sneer at Chris Martin, I have always liked their music. “But it’s just pop crap, it’s audio beige, it’s by-the-numbers cranked out faux-pop-rock bullshit” – yawn. Are you finished? Good. Hang on a minute, I think I have 20p somewhere, you can go phone someone who cares.

Now, I used to like Radiohead, but as mentioned before, I only liked them in their early days – Pablo Honey and The Bends, and OK Computer was for me where they started to go off the rails and I stopped being interested. The reason for this? I liked the style of music on those first two albums, and not so much on the latter ones. I admire Radiohead for being adventurous and changing styles, but I just happen not to like the styles they chose as they grew and changed – and this left a musical hole, which Coldplay filled nicely when they came along in 2000 with Parachutes. I think you have here a really well written and delivered pop album, and if you just forget about Chris Martin and his “we’re going to save the world through the use of wristbands” nonsense, you can really enjoy the songs and the instrumentation. Well produced, too.

I like it a lot, you may not. You are welcome to your opinion, and so am I.

TOP TRACK: #6 “Trouble”.

#041. Nickelback – Silver Side Up (2001) [spotify]

Nickelback - Silver Side Up

Yeah yeah yeah, I don’t want to hear it. Fashionable as it (still!) is to knock Nickelback and to sneer at their brand of corporate rock, I have always liked a lot of their music.

This was their breakthrough album, despite having two previous albums under their belts, kicked hugely into the public eye on the back of the ultra-success of the mega-single “How You Remind Me”. (By the way, if you’ve only ever heard that song on the radio, you should really hear the album version. It has guitars in it.) Now it’s true that since then, Chad’s cut most of his hair off so he appeals to more girlies, there are four ballads on every album, and three of them are the same songs with different-ish lyrics, and yes, they did that fucking “Rockstar” song. But this album is still excellent, and tracks like “Never Again” and “Too Bad” are undeniably rockmungous.

TOP TRACK: #4 “Too Bad”.

Anyway, today I noticed a really cool thing on The Awesomer – The Blank Wall Clock. A wall clock that has no numbers on it, but a writeable surface and it comes with a dry-wipe pen. Price? $155, or £97.

Fuck that right off, and come back when it’s £40. I might think about buying one then.

–c.

Are you married? Do you know how much preparation goes into a church wedding with full reception afterwards? It’s a lot. And following that there was the honeymoon, and now of course I am back at work and life is returning gradually to normal, and I suddenly don’t have to spend every waking second thinking about the wedding.

So I’m using it to work on music for my second album. Yes, that’s right, a second Clive Murray album is slowly forming in the 1s and 0s of my hard drive. I don’t know exactly when it will be complete, or exactly how I am going to go about turning it into a real object for people to enjoy, but it will definitely happen at some stage, so stay (loosely) tuned.

I am aware that I only got halfway through my countdown of my top 100 albums of 2000-2009, and this will be resumed shortly.

And finally, through a chance occurrence on Twitter, this afternoon I played Dave Gorman at table-tennis. I won 21-17, and he is a thoroughly nice chap, as you might expect if you know his work or listen to his radio show. Thanks for that Dave, if you fancy a rematch at darts, I’m happy to accept that challenge, though I appreciate you’re busy and I won’t hold my breath.

Cheers all, and thanks for waiting,
–c.

I’m a bit busy what with getting married and all that.

Yes, married. 36 hours from now, in fact.

Yes. Really.

–c.

Please can it be arranged that I spend the majority of my days playing guitar, writing music and drinking coffee? I mean… really?

Thanks, much appreciated,
Clive.

This weekend I made it. Download it if you like.

–c.

Firstly, let’s get the obvious crap out of the way:

• I like my iPhone
• I know that other smartphones do various things the iPhone doesn’t
• I don’t care if your Blackberry, Android, or whatever has better camera/speed/apps/whatever than the iPhone
• I don’t evangelise my choice of phone to other people, please afford me the same courtesy
• No, really

OK? Still here? Then let us continue.

I’ve had my iPhone 3G (8GB) for just over 17 months now, and my contract is an 18-month one, so O2 have been urging me to upgrade to the shiny new iPhone 3GS, which is something I want to do*, so I popped into the local O2 store to talk turkey, and more relevantly, money – specifically focussing on contract lengths and handset costs.

I got my iPhone on an 18 month contract at £35/mo, and the handset cost me £99 at the time. Total money handed to O2: £729. Not inconsiderable, n’est ce pas? Now, if I was just any old Joe off the street wanting an iPhone 3GS (16GB, for that is the smallest size of the new model), and wanted to keep the monthly cost down around £40, these would be my options:

• 18 months @ £35/mo, handset cost £149. Total: £779
• 18 months @ £40/mo, handset cost £89. Total: £809

Those are basically the two plans I would be interested in. They both come with the standard O2 unlimited mobile data, unlimited texts, and enough minutes for me not to have to worry about it (the £30/mo plan only has 100mins whereas these two have 300 and 600 respectively).

OK, so either of those sound about doable. But! Hey, those prices are for any old bloke who wants a new iPhone – what about me? I’ve been a loyal customer for the last 17 months, never missed a payment, never caused O2 any trouble except for the minor inconvenience of having to count the money I hand over to them on a monthly basis. Surely they’ll waive the handset fee? Surely. I’d even go to the £40/mo plan, which would mean I’m still worth £720 to them over the next 18 months – it’s not like I’m asking for the moon here. I’m asking for an £89 handset charge to be knocked off in recognition of the fact that I’ve already handed over £700+ without so much as a quibble.

Nope. Not a bit of it. They don’t want to know. It’s full bloody price, or don’t bother. Been with us a year-and-a-half have you sir? Well that’s nice, but it doesn’t count for squat. Excuse me sir, there are clamouring hordes of customers behind you all queuing up to pay full price. Don’t let the door hit you on the arse on the way out.**

Screw them. Orange’s prices are almost identical, and they have far better data coverage***.

O2 – you are the weakest link. Goodbye.

–c.

* Please, honestly, leave it. Any comments along the lines of “You should get an HTC! They piss all over the iPhone you stupid fanboy!” will be left here for all to see just how boring you really are.
** No, of course he didn’t actually say that, but that was the inference.
*** Yes they cap 3G usage, but 750MB/mo is included and I’ve never been anywhere near that.

[10:32] <earthman> I love my mondeo
[10:32] <earthman> mind you, it’s the V6
[10:32] <nick> you have a car?
[10:32] <earthman> aye
[10:32] <nick> I thought you went everywhere in a huge black chariot, pulled by dragons?

I wish!
–c.

#060. Foo Fighters – In Your Honor (2005) [spotify]

Foo Fighters - In Your Honor

Who ordered Grohl? Honestly, there’s loads of it to go around. Practically drowning in Grohl, we are. Grohl, anyone? Go on, it’s tasty!

One of the hardest working men in rock, the guy who used to be “the drummer in Nirvana” has certainly stepped out from under that massive shadow. His ties to acts like Tenacious D, Queens of the Stone Age and recent supergroup Them Crooked Vultures aside, just the work he’s put into Foo Fighters alone speaks volumes. This album is a bit of a departure from previous in that it’s a game of two halves – one disc of 10 rock tracks and one disc of 10 mellower acoustic tracks, but unlike the somewhat patchy predecessor One By One, they got it right here. It’s literally all good.

Fact Box: Dave likes his coffee fresh. For reals.

TOP TRACK: #3 “Best of You”.

#059. Chickenfoot – Chickenfoot (2009) [spotify]

Chickenfoot - Chickenfoot

Did someone say supergroup? A marketing dream. This is how I heard it went…:

“OK, so who are we gonna get on vocals? Um… oh hey, here’s an idea – now that Van Halen have reformed with DLR, Sammy Hagar is definitely free. He rocks, let’s get him! Yeah cool, great idea. Oh and hey, you know they got Eddie’s son on bass, right? I know, fucked. Totally. But that means Michael Anthony is free, and his backing vocals are awesome. Great, so we got a singer and a bassist, from one of the biggest bands in rock! Awesome, great start! OK, what about drummer? Um… fuck, dunno. Oh hey, you know who’s awesomely solid, and sings too, and can handle any shit you throw at him? That guy out of the Red Hot Chilli Peppers! And they’re on a break, right? See if he’s free. He is? Fucking nice! This is going really well. OK, so now we need a guitarist. Um… can’t be just any guitarist, obviously. I mean, we have Van Halen meets Red Hot Chilli Peppers already. Yeah, I know, pinch me! OK, so who do we get on guitar…? Got to be a big name. Not someone who wants to get any lead vocal limelight though, Sammy’s got that covered. OK, so that rules a few out. EVH? No, fuck him, we’ve already got two members of Van Halen, plus he totally jumped the shark a couple years ago. Um… hey, you know what, it would be totally awesome if we could get… nah, he’s too huge. And probably busy. Mind you he did do that Deep Purple thing a few years back. Hmmm. OK, stay with me here. See if you can get Joe Satriani on the phone. Yeah, I know, but try. Just pick up the phone, what we got to lose? Try him now, Stargate is on, and he’s addicted to that show, so he’ll be at home. No, really. It’s like a ritual with him. Always with the Stargate marathons and endless bags of cheesy poofs. I know, drives his wife nuts. Try him, dude, get dialling. He said WHAT? No no, tell me again, I dropped my lite beer. He said…? Wow. Fuck me sideways.”

Allegedly.

Brilliant album too.

TOP TRACK: #3 “Sexy Little Thing”.

#058. The Prodigy – Invaders Must Die (2009) [spotify]

The Prodigy - Invaders Must Die

This is a long fucking way from “Charly Says”, let me tell you. Srsly. The Prodigy, as ever, don’t fuck about and once the bass buildup and intro riff of track 1, the title track, have gone round a few times a muted voice says “We are… The Prodigy” and then your brain gets kicked in the fucking face. Hard.

From that point on it gets a bit mental. In fact, it kicks off, it what it does. This is a superbly heavy dance album that always sounds 100% like The Prodigy, even though iconic spike-barnetted gurning microphone-botherer Keith Flint’s vocals are only featured on a small number of the tracks (I can’t verify exactly how many right now – 3 or 4 I think). Don’t worry though – this really is proper Prodigy, and most of this album makes Fat of the Land sound like Celine fucking Dion.

TOP TRACK: #2 “Omen”.

#057. Angels & Airwaves – We Don’t Need to Whisper (2006) [spotify]

Angels & Airwaves - We Don't Need to Whisper

I’d never heard of these chaps, until a friend bade me listen to them one evening, following which I was still pretty unimpressed. He assured me it was “great smoking music”, but since I haven’t toked the weed in many years this was not such interesting news to me. A few weeks later I found myself in the house alone, a shade drunk, and casting about for something newish to listen to, and so I popped this album on again and this time it properly hit home. A&A are the brainchild of Blink 182 singer/guitarist Tom DeLonge, and the band came about when Blink 182 went on hiatus in 2005. The music is far more laid back than anything Blink ever did, and the lyrics tend towards the introspective rather than the expectorative, and you know what? It’s bloody great.

TOP TRACK: #10 “Start the Machine”.

#056. Korpiklaani – Karkelo (2009) [spotify]

Korpiklaani - Karkelo

Well folk me sideways, we’re folking again! The lead single from this album – “Vodka” – was one of the gateway tracks that first led me down the folk metal path, and I still challenge any of you to listen to it and not at least raise a smile, perhaps even a shot glass. My folk metal research at the time told me that while many folk metallers have been metal musicians/bands beforehand and then decided to go down a folk-ish road, Korpiklaani did it the other way round. They used to be a full-on folk band called Shaman, but changed the name to Korpiklaani (which means “Forest Clan”, by the way) when they went metal. These guys are Finnish, and that means they drink a lot. No, really. Only two songs on this album are in English, and those are “Vodka” and “Bring Us Pints of Beer (If You Don’t Drink, You Can Leave)”, though two of the Finnish tracks are booze related too: “Juodaan Viinaa” apparently translates to “Let’s Drink Booze”, and the slightly sombre closing track “Kohmelo” means “Hangover”. I happen to have all of Korpiklaani’s albums, and I can assure you that this is not a new development – a quick squizz at the discography reveals such wonders as “Let’s Drink”, “Happy Little Boozer”, “Beer Beer”, “Ryyppäjäiset” (which means “Booze-Up”), and “Wooden Pints”. Much of their stuff is in Finnish, and as with other folk metal bands I have found this to matter not one jot. If you like your metal to be good-natured and jolly throughout, and to contain accordions, Korpiklaani are the band for you.

Anyone fancy a pint?

TOP TRACK: #1 “Vodka”.

#055. Damien Rice – O (2003) [spotify]

Damien Rice - O

Now then.

Allmusic win the hyperbole award for Charles Spano’s review of O, calling it “nothing less than a work of genius”. Now while we know “genius” to be one of the most overused words in music, Damien Rice’s debut album comes at least very close to deserving it. This could quite easily have been an album of simple acoustic songs, well written with heartbreaking lyrics and heartfelt delivery, and it would have been no less than great. But it’s in the instrumentations and arrangements that O kicks down the front door of your soul and occupies every part of your attention until it’s had its way with you and departs, leaving you lying emotionally spent and broken on the couch, yet also strangely uplifted at the same time.

Yeah. Really. No guff, Chet. This is a hell of an album, and no mistake. The reason it’s not higher in the chart is I just don’t listen to it that often, for the simple reason that I don’t always want to make the emotional investment and have to go through musical rehab afterwards. Though as I say this, I’m humming “Volcano” in my head. Hmmm. Maybe I will give it a listen. I’m not doing anything tomorrow that can’t be cancelled.

TOP TRACK: Very hard to pick, but I’ll go with #3 “The Blower’s Daughter”.

#054. Flight of the Conchords – Flight of the Conchords (2008) [spotify]

Flight of the Conchords - Flight of the Conchords

It’s the album of the TV show, and it contains all the best tunes therein. If you watched series 1 of FotC then you’ll already be acquainted with such wondertunes as “Business Time”, “Robots”, “Mutha’uckas”, “Leggy Blonde” and the utterly awesome Pet Shop Boys homage “Inner City Pressure”. Get it, listen to it, relive Jermaine’s excellent dancing from that bit with the party, get a bit wistful about New Zealand and maybe even think about watching Lord of the Rings again.

It’s business… it’s business time.

Fact Box: I share Jermaine’s birthday.

TOP TRACK: #2 “Inner City Pressure”.

#053. Josh Todd – You Made Me (2003) [spotify]

Josh Todd - You Made Me

It’s no secret, I loves me some Buckcherry. Mmmm! Yum! In fact there’s only one act with more entries in this chart than Buckcherry (not counting this solo effort), and you’ll have to wait until near the end to find out who that is. But back to the illustrated man, Todd. Buckcherry were riding pretty high after their awesome second album Time Bomb in 2001 yet the band broke up not long after. They reformed to great success in 2005, but in between Todd released this solo album, and very different it is in musical style to any of Buckcherry’s stuff. The riffs are heavier, the production is crisper, the overall sound is nearer to Korn and the Deftones than the L.A. strip sound that Buckcherry carried out so well. And Todd’s lyrics are less about getting wasted and partying, and show a more introspective side to a man who clearly either has a lot of issues to purge, or who just watches too much TV. Either way, he’s on absolutely top form here. Superb.

TOP TRACK: #4 “Flowers & Cages”.

#052. Scissor Sisters – Scissor Sisters (2004) [spotify]

Scissor Sisters - Scissor Sisters

I get the feeling I might lose the room with this one, but I am unashamed. I love this album. From the opening bars of “Laura” to the closing piano parts of the excellent “Return To Oz”, it just makes me grin. The big (nay HUGE) single was of course “Take Your Mama”, which is to this day one of best dancey disco tunes made since the 70s, and the audacious and splendid cover of Pink Floyd‘s “Comfortably Numb” proves, if proof be need be, that the whole thing is done with tongue firmly in cheek. Might be best not to think about which cheek perhaps, but there you go. There are a couple of duddos – “Filthy/Gorgeous” and “Music Is The Victim” spring to mind – but overall it’s wonderful. Track 10 “It Can’t Come Quickly Enough” is a particular highlight.

TOP TRACK: #2 “Take Your Mama”.

#051. Peter Gabriel – Up (2002)

Peter Gabriel - Up

The mighty mighty Peter Gabriel continues his minimalistically titled album theme into the 2000s with Up (following 1986′s So and 1992′s Us), and a cracker it is too. Never afraid to experiment or venture into new sonic territory, Gabs gives us a bit of an emotional runaround on this album – from the abrasive opener “Darkness” through the reflective “I Grieve” and “No Way Out” and the frankly beautiful “Sky Blue” to the classic Gabriel-style pop tunes “Growing Up”, “More Than This” and the epic “The Barry Williams Show”, there’s not a bad tune on here and like the earlier albums, I recommend it be consumed as a whole. It’s a musical journey worth taking every now and then.

TOP TRACK: #3 “Sky Blue”.