Ok, kids, just like 365 days ago I’m going to celebrate my second year of being on last.fm by counting down the artists I’ve scrobbled the most. Unlike last year, we’re counting down from 30 (not 20) and we’ll also keep track of total scrobbles per artist and how they’re moving relative to the rest of the list. (Now, since I only kept track of the scrobble numbers in the top 20, the change in rank compared to last year past the top 20 is only a guesstimate, hence the "about" in the descriptions.)

One year after my first list, I am starting to notice that there’s much more separation between the artists towards the top. There’s still room for artists to move, but quite a few artists seem to have a comfortable placement in the top ten. (The further you go down the list, especially past the top 50, the numbers are closer and tighter.) Anyhow, we'll note take of some stats and then count the list down.

(all figures as of 8pm CST 8/29/08)
total tracks scrobbled = 43,526
total artists in my library = 1,191
total friends = 16

30) Idaho (234 plays, up about 10)

Although lumped in the "slowcore" genre along with Red House Painters, Low, Rex and Codeine, Idaho have always been an island to themselves. From their four-string guitar philosophy to the deep, brooding vocals of founder and sole mainstay Jeff Martin, Idaho had a distinctive sound from the get-go. Nowadays, the rock leanings of the past has altered to more atmospheric, instrumental mood pieces. For my money, their 1996 album Three Sheets to the Wind is one of the best of the 90s and I still listen to it regularly.

29) Johan (236 plays, waaay up)

Speaking of bands who never got their due in the States, this Dutch quartet has only seen their debut issued over here, and that was 10 years ago! They have released two albums since then (2001's Pergola and 2006's THX JHN) and thanks to my emusic subscription, I've discovered them both in the past 12 months. Anyone looking for smart, adult guitar pop shoudl definitely check them out if the name doesn't ring a bell...they may end up in your top 30, too!

28) Foo Fighters (250 plays, down about 6)

One of the few current top 40 acts I have time for. Dave Grohl always seems to *gasp* ENJOY being a rock star and also geniunely loves making music for a living. That said, I wasn't exactly bowled over by last year's Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace but the Foos still have a pretty stellar track-for track batting average by my ears, so I would think they'll stick in the top 30.

27) Steely Dan (256 plays, down about 5)

Music fans tend to find the Dan a pretty polarizing band, some not able to get past the easy listening background to hear the great jazzy chord changes and eyebrow raising lyrics. Of course, this is my page and I say their 70s output remains as captivating today as they were when I first heard them in high school/college. Can't say much for their two "comeback" albums released this decade, except that sounds like it was formulated by people in white lab coats....

26) They Might Be Giants (257 plays, down about 3)

TMBG were a huge fave of mine back in high shcool and early college, and it took the Gigantic documentary to put some of their stuff in my iTunes library. I still don't listen to an album's worth of their matieral, but their short, quirky ditties work well in a shuffle context.

25) De La Soul (258 plays, down 10)

De La take quite a tumble, yet still are still the only hip-hop act in my top 30. Which is ironic because I've been listening to my fair share of hip-hop, but from a rather wide gamut (Wale, The Roots, Starpower, the new Ice Cube, etc) I keep meaning to get De La's latest, and once I do, I'm sure they'll rocket back up the charts.

24) Eric Mattthews (259 plays, up about 3)

After making 2 of my fave LPs of the 90s, Mr. Matthews took a eight year sabbatical. Considering he's released two EPs and two LPs in the last 3 years, it's safe to say he's making up for lost time. This year's The Imagination Stage returns to the formula that made him an act to watch ten years ago, with Eric's smoky croon wrapping around elegant chamber pop.

23) Gomez (261 plays, down 7)

I'll be honest; I forget about these guys sometimes. I like 'em just fine and none of their albums are out and out bad, but they fall out of my rotation and have a hard time getting back in. Maybe a new album will correct my oversight...

22) Eels (270 plays, down 5)

Like Gomez above, I haven't had much occasion to blast their stuff en masse. Unlike Gomez, I haven't been keeping up with their discography as there's their b-side comp Useless Trinkets-B Sides, Soundtracks, Rarieties and Unreleased 1996-2006 as well as their live album Live At Town Hall. (There's also a greatest hits album, but since I have all the LPs I think I'll pass on that.)

21) PJ Harvey (271 plays, waaaaay up)

Well, I finally got around to hearing White Chalk and I quite liked it, as PJ's sudden burst up my charts can attest to. Add in that I found the Dry / Demonstration bonus disc and am shocked at how much I prefer it to the actual album. So, miss Polly may climb higher yet... stay tuned.

T19) Suede (272 plays, down 5)

As I said last year, I have so much Suede material in my ITunes library, they're bound to stay towards the top of my charts, even 5 years after they broke up. Maybe I'll remove their stuff from the library one day, but I still get a kick out of them when they show up on my shuffle.

T19) The Who (272 plays, down 2)

Most of the time an artists moves up the charts, it's because I'm listening to full albums quite a few times (yes, some people still do listen to albums straight through!) This poses a problem for the Who because all their albums in my library are at least an hour, and I'm been gravitating towards shorter LPs. But when a Who kick arrives, it's gonna hit harder than Keith Moon used to.

18) Randy Newman (278 plays, up about 17)

Rather than credit his new one Harps And Angels which I have yet to hear, the main reason for Randy's big leap on my charts is getting the Guilty: 30 Years Of Randy Newman box set in my grubby mitts. Weird but true fact: Randy was quoted in the latest Rolling Stone is being really impressed by the lyrics of one Steven Patrick Morrissey....

17) Neil Young (288 plays, up about 8)

He puts out about an album a year, that humungazoid box set is finally set to come out, and even at his worst (the Human Highway soundtrack, anyone?) he's extremely interesting. That's how you stay at the top of my charts. And the above talley doesn't even factor in his Crazy Horse collaborations...

16) Idlewild (295 plays, down 5)

I finally did manage to get Promises/warnings (side note: that whole copyright control crap embedded in the disc which makes it very hard to put on an iTunes library makes you hate the album before you even hear it!) but their 2 classics remain 100 Broken Windows and The Remote Part so it remains to be seen if they can keep Idlewild towards my chart's upper reaches.

T14) Broadcast (302 plays, up about 7)

One of my favorite currently active bands... I love how they come out with a new sonic approach each album yet still remain a core sound and identity all their own. When they FINALLY release a new LP, expect them to soar up the charts.

T13) The Smiths (302 plays, down 1)

See my post last year....their songs still ring true, two decades after they pulled the plug. It says something their stature continues to rise every year. Reminds me of some Liverpool band of the 60s...

13) The Magnetic Fields (342 plays, down 6)

Unless my library searches become more fruitful, I figure Distorstion will be on my 2008 halo list, and considering I took off about 4 albums of theirs, they may slip further.

12) Pernice Brothers (344 plays, down 2)

Joe and company still get lots of plays here, and a new album would greatly assist in that regard, Er, hint, hint?

11) Blur (345 plays, down 2)

They only dipped a little (like Suede, there's a lot of their stuff in my library) but my enthuiasm for them continues to wane. I'm not even sure they'll still a band yet, with all of Damon Alburn's side projects and Graham Coxon out of the picture seemingly forever.

10) Morrissey (371 plays, down 2)

The Randy Newman-approved Pope of Mope won't have an album out now til the beginning of next year, and his Greatest Hits album released earlier this year comically overstates the staying power of his last two efforts, but Morrissey will always be a sentimental fave of mine, so don't expect him to dip much.

9) American Music Club (420 plays, up 10)

Another big gainer, much of it thanks to this year's The Golden Age. Mark Eitzel and co. have quite a few albums in their past that won't gather dust in the recesses on my iTunes.

8) Supergrass (431 plays, up 4)

See? Release a new album like the 'Garse (this year's Diamond Hoo Ha) and you move up the chart. Of course, it helps that it was a really good album, but then again, I've come to expect nothing less from them.

7) The Beach Boys (445 plays, down 1)

Another act who benefits by having a giant catalogue trapped in my ITunes, but I still discover new things from them. Plus, you have to figure Pet Sounds should get a few plays between now and next year...

6) Wilco (488 plays, down 3)

Wilco take a bit of a dip, but it's more other artists racking up much more plays than Wilco actually losing any. It may be a while before a new Wilco LP gets onto the shelves; hopefully it won't affect Wilco's position too much.

5) Radiohead (489 plays, up 14)

Yeah, how a year chages things, eh? You may not have heard about it, but Radiohead released a new album this year. in rainbows, I think it was called. They released it on the net, and it bombed. Nobody heard it except for me, I think. I heard Thom Yorke had to sell his spleen on eBay to make back some of the money. I hope a 14 slot advance is a bit of a consolation, and hopefully the boys in Radiohead will learn that deserting the major labels will only hurt you in the end.

4) XTC (597 plays, down 2)

I'm noticing an ongoing phenomenon, that current bands are moving up the chart, whereas bands that no longer exist are going down the chart. It is so bizarre, there's no way to explain it. But all that aside, don't expect XTC to fall too far -- I enjoy their approach and craft too much for them to do an utter nosedive.

3) R.E.M. (626 plays, up 2)

Hard to say a lot more about a band I've loved since, what, 7th-8th grade? Well, the new one's (Accelerate) pretty great, and their older stuff still hits me in the right place. So there.

2) The Beatles (647 plays, down 1)

The Fab Four finally abdicate their number one slot, and while I wouldn't go so far as saying the Beatles should pass a torch to the new number one act, it is fitting that both acts emphasize a band as a united front and each member sings different songs. The Beatles have sold a few more records, though.

1) Sloan (754 plays, up 3)

With enjoying both a new album and an album I haven't gotten around to yet, Sloan leapfrog into the number one position with a nice 100 track buffer between them and the former champ. Sloan stand for all the things I love about pop music: caring about the end product, yet not taking yourself too seriously. Each member getting a chance to create, but enough democracy to not become torn apart by ego. They're on their ninth album....am I selfish enough to humbly request at least one more?

Well, *whew* that's it....seeya next year!

Apprently this is a list of my top 20 albums, like, evah. Of course, that translates as: a list of my top 20 albums that I happened to have ripped to any of the specific lappies that I happened to be using at the time. Which is a remarkably small list of records. Comments at the end.
Zoonie's top albums
1. Ben Folds - Live (398) 2. Ben Folds - Rockin' the Suburbs (325) 3. Ben Folds - Songs for Silverman (267) 4. Beck - The Information (233) 5. XTC - Skylarking (153) 6. Art of Noise - Daft (138) 7. Ben Folds Five - Whatever and Ever Amen (125) 8. Brian Eno - Apollo Atmospheres & Soundtracks (117) 9. Arctic Monkeys - Favourite Worst Nightmare (99) 10. The Go-Betweens - The Friends of Rachel Worth (88) 11. Rachel's - Music for Egon Schiele (83) 12. The Flaming Lips - At War With The Mystics (71) 13. Radiohead - in rainbows (59) 14. Blur - Parklife (57) 15. Elliott Smith - Figure 8 (54) 16. Ben Folds Five - The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner (47) 17. Genesis - Nursery Cryme (38) 18. The Divine Comedy - Absent Friends (37) 19. The Divine Comedy - Promenade (36) 20. New Order - Technique (31)

I was thinking maybe of doing something like this when I got 5000 tracks scrobbled, but it's a dull evening and I've got a long download going, so let's go. Here's my current top 50 artists, and where I first encountered them:

1. Nine Inch Nails
Heard Closer on the radio in late 1994 when it cracked the Australian top 10. Took quite a few more years to become a fan though.

2. Nirvana
They were everywhere on the radio in 1991 and 1992. Of course you've heard a Nirvana song, even if you weren't even born then. As a young kid, all I knew then was that there suddenly seemed to be a lot of good music on the radio.

3. The Clash
Knew about these guys for quite a while, but the first time I was really conscious of "hey, I'm listening to the Clash" was at my brother's 21st. There'd been a mixup with the music and all we had to listen to was a Clash greatest hits album, and Rock the Casbah got played over and over...

4. Curve
I knew nothing about these guys before 2008. But the shoegazing music blog Shoegazeralive kept pimping the band (anyone who likes shoegaze should have it bookmarked), so I checked it out and found these guys had beaten Garbage to the punch by half a decade.

5. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Would have been 1995, cause that was when JJJ started broadcasting in Bendigo and we got to hear tons of unheard artists. The Let Love In album had been out for about a year but they still played plenty of Cave, particularly Red Right Hand.

6. Sonic Youth
Heard them on JJJ sporadically throughout the late 90's and early 00's. Didn't pay them any attention until I finally picked up Daydream Nation last year. I think they may be the greatest rock band still around.

7. Cruyff in the Bedroom
Also in 2007 I'd gotten into shoegaze music in a big way thanks to My Bloody Valentine, mostly because I wanted to find an album as impossibly beautiful as Loveless. This band came recommended on a music forum as high quality shoegaze, and after a listen to their album Hikarihimawari I think these guys are the best of the current shoegazers. Their guitars are a bit harder and cleaner than the shimmering tremolo of Kevin Shields, but the songs are hooky and use plenty of feedback texture.

8. Blur
I used to hear the Pet Shop Boys' remix of Girls and Boys a lot in 1994 while working out at the gym. Then came Country House...

9. Radiohead
Heard Creep plenty in 1994, it never made an impression. Few years later, all I remember hearing off their second album was My Iron Lung, which I thought at the time was wilfully difficult. It was the epic scale of Paranoid Android that finally changed my mind about the group.

10. Hüsker Dü
You can only hear an artist praised so long before you give in. I picked up New Day Rising in 2006 and heard a guitar sound I'd never heard before.

11. Killing Joke
Only knew these guys because they supplied Metallica with one of their better covers. Then I started getting into Ministry and Joy Division, and just this year finally got into them via the very radio-friendly Night Time. And then I found I remembered Love Like Blood from the 80's.

12. Depeche Mode
I knew Just Can't Get Enough, but the rest of their catalog was a mystery until I heard some of the Ultra singles. If you don't know this band much pick up the singles collections, they'll be a revelation.

13. Wire
Another band I got into because critics kept praising them and calling them things like "influential", "groundbreaking", etc. I like a lot of their stuff but Pink Flag is the only essential.

14. Red Hot Chili Peppers
Been a fan of these guys for a long time, right back to 1992 when I first heard Under the Bridge. The stats don't reflect this but I think I've listened to Blood Sugar Sex Magik more than any album I've ever owned.

15. Gogol Bordello
I saw their duet with Madonna and then picked up Multi Kontra Culti vs. Irony. It is impossible to listen to this album for more than two minutes and remain still.

16. Pixies
I went after Surfer Rosa a few years ago because I knew this band was a big influence on Nirvana, and this album in particular sounded a great deal like In Utero. That turned out to be the case but the songs are a great deal poppier and upbeat. Which is good.

17. Big Black
The band may have contained Steve Albini and been a big influence on Ministry, but I didn't have to hear a single note: saw the cover for Songs About Fucking and was sold.

18. Pearl Jam
Somehow I completely missed Ten: my first contact with these guys would have been the Go single. And Vitalogy was the second album I ever bought.

19. XTC
Senses Working Overtime was always on the radio, and that was the only track of theirs I knew when I picked up the Fossil Fuel singles collection. Judging by their scrobble count this must be the most overlooked band in history.

20. Faith No More
Epic, of course. Though I wasn't really a fan until King For A Day.

21. The Cruel Sea
Flipped for these guys after hearing Black Stick and thinking it was the strangest song I'd ever heard. And The Honeymoon Is Over turned out to be the third album I ever bought (you won't be hearing the first).

22. The Verve
Only heard about these guys when they broke onto Australian radio with Bitter Sweet Symphony. I don't own any of their albums: this scrobble count is based entirely off a bootleg of their performance at Blackpool in 2007, which I unreservedly recommend to everybody.

23. DJ Shadow
I like trip-hop but didn't know about DJ Shadow until last year, when I picked up Endtroducing.....

24. Ratatat
I don't know anything about these guys other than the songs on LP3, which I got cause I heard they liked to cross genres a lot. Still don't know exactly how you'd categorize this album.

25. Massive Attack
I got into this band after hearing Protection, which had a delicacy you never heard on the radio.

26. Pet Shop Boys
Another band you'd hear all the time on the radio, and I was prepared to write them off for life after that atrocious Absolutely Fabulous song. Then a few years ago I saw Discography and it looked like a good deal. It turned out they were something more than a couple of smartarses...

27. The Smiths
Back in 2003 or so I was curious about the band, mostly through having heard How Soon Is Now? on the radio, but didn't know where to begin. Then I saw Hatful of Hollow on special and snapped it up. Was a fan within a few songs.

28. Catherine Wheel
Got interested in them in 2007 as a shoegazer band, but these guys tend to change styles quite a lot from album to album. There's really no typical Catherine Wheel song.

29. Queens of the Stone Age
I remember the first I heard of these guys was when the Monsters in the Parasol single got some airtime. I wasn't a stoner rock fan at the time but Queens of the Stone Age turned out to be my gateway drug.

30. Thumlock
Case in point. This band was based in Wollongong but I never heard them on the radio. First I heard of them was on a music forum last year. They were described as stoner rock, like dozens of bands, but with a strong element of psychedelia and heavy doses of Hawkwind. Lunar Mountain Sunrise was the album, and if you think they might be something you'd like, give the title track a listen.

31. Manic Street Preachers
Australian radio knew nothing about these guys until If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next, which got tons of airplay and charted really high. Then radio entirely forgot about them again. But before that happened I'd picked up This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours on the cheap.

32. M.I.A.
Her first album missed me altogether and somehow I picked up the second without having first heard Paper Planes. Think it was a glowing review from Robert Christgau that made me check her out.

33. AC/DC
I was a little kid in short pants watching Hey Hey It's Saturday when they played the Thunderstruck video. Love at first sight.

34. Saul Williams
The only artist on this list I became a fan of for political reasons: Saul had teamed up with Trent Reznor and they'd put out his latest album as a free download, or $5 if you felt like it. Since I want to see more music put out this way, and Reznor was producer of the album, I bought it. Luckily it turned out to be really good, and in a way a companion piece to Year Zero.

35. My Bloody Valentine
I sometimes heard Only Shallow on the radio during the nineties, but that track alone won't tell you much about the band. I got Loveless a few years ago after seeing it in top ten list after top ten list. One listen alone with headphones...

36. Daft Punk
Da Funk made it onto the radio back in the nineties: maybe as a novelty track, but it made it. I borrowed a copy of Homework and thought it had a lot of filler. So in 2005 when I decided I wanted a copy of Da Funk, I made sure to pick up the greatest hits collection.

37. New Order
Everyone knows Blue Monday, but I got into these guys as a fan of Joy Division. I had the Joy Division singles collection Substance, and Substance seemed like a good way of continuing the story. It turned out to be even better, not just a greatest hits or singles collection but a unified, cohesive album that summed up their whole career.

38. Regurgitator
I heard I Like It Like That on JJJ in early 1995 and was a fan from the first point that static just randomly cuts through the song. I bought their first EP but my mum made me take it back to the store when she read the lyrics sheet. Which if anything just made me more of a fan.

39. Ethyl Meatplow
The album was posted randomly in a music forum with the sort of raves these albums usually attract, and I downloaded it just as randomly. This band gets described as industrial, but it's basically some shouting over a synthesizer rhythm track. The heavy use of slap bass always reminds me of the Doom soundtrack for some reason.

40. Joy Division
I'd known (and generally disliked) Love Will Tear Us Apart, and it wasn't until watching 24 Hour Party People that I realized they actually had a very strong body of work. Quickly picked up the three albums (Unknown Pleasures, Closer and Substance). A quick listen through Substance and I was hooked.

41. The Birthday Party
I'd become a big Nick Cave fan so I was always going to check these guys out, although for a while the only song I knew was Release the Bats, since they'd play the music video on Rage. I found a copy of Junkyard on the cheap in JB in 2005.

42. Soundgarden
First exposure was Black Hole Sun, inescapable on the radio in 1994. My favorite band to listen to while driving.

43. Moby Grape
Don't know why I sought after these guys, I think it was a rave review on All Music Guide, for some reason. Guess I must be a sucker for anything described as a lost treasure. Could not find this in stores, but while on holiday last year my cousin's husband offered to demonstrate his DC++ album downloading skillz (!), and I got him to download their self titled album.

44. Leftfield
I remember quite well a review of The Prodigy's The Fat of the Land album back in 1997, in which the reviewer said he preferred Leftfield as a techno act. They were getting played on the radio at the time, but they're the kind of band that can sit in the background very easily (like Air). I eventually bought Leftism simply because their name had stuck with me, and it turned out to be excellent chillout music. And I knew half the tracks already.

45. Kyuss
I was a fan of QOTSA, and after seeing Blues for the Red Sun described as the "stoner rock bible" picked it up in 2002.

46. Mono
This is in my top 50 but it's actually two artists: Japanese post-rockers Mono, and Portishead clone Mono. The latter I got into after hearing Life Is Mono on the radio, the former because I'd picked up an interest in Japanese rock and their names kept coming up.

47. Deerhoof
The Runners Four started getting a lot of hype, so naturally I went and bought Apple O' . Which was good really because it's much better.

48. Lush
Another shoegaze artist I had to follow up on once I fell for My Bloody Valentine. Think I have the Shoegazeralive blog to thank, again.

49. Mr. Bungle
I heard a track of theirs on the radio in 1999 - can't remember which one now, but it was utterly stuffed to the gills with genre switches, sudden loud bursts of noise, catchy poppy bits, and verbal gymnastics from Mike Patton (okay, that's every song from these guys). A few years later I started to really get into the Angel Dust, and since this was apparently the most Mr. Bungle-like FNM album, followed it up with California.

50. Beth Rowley
I was surprised to see her in the top 50, I picked her album up not long ago after hearing Nobody's Fault But Mine. It's not threatening music at all, but Beth's cute, charming and cool.

Okay. Maybe I ought to type less words per album...

I listened to a lot of music in high school in the 80's -- R.E.M., They Might Be Giants, The Icicle Works, Prefab Sprout, XTC, The Pogues, The Housemartins, The Colourfield, The Smiths, Men Without Hats, Ultravox... There was a guy in my crowd who would spend all his time at record stores picking out albums based on the track names and then he'd make cassettes for the rest of us (the early days of music sharing!). He found a lot of great stuff that way. And he probably listened to a lot of crap that the rest of us never heard.

Once I graduated and lost my source I wasn't really into music for about, oh, 20 years (rock music, that is -- I did develop an undying love of Broadway musicals during my 20's :D). And then, of course, I stumbled across Last.fm and could discover music for myself with no financial risk. Nice, that.

Over the last year at Last.fm I've noticed a few distinct phases I've gone through.

There was my starting-out phase, where I listened to all the big-name bands I'd heard of out in the world, like Muse, Linkin Park, Snow Patrol, Coldplay, and Travis.

Then I guess maybe I went through a little *ahem* emo phase, the less said about that the better.

And there was my British-bands-whose-names-start-with-"the" phase. The Coral, The Rifles, Maxïmo Park, The Courteneers, The Rakes, The Cribs, The Zutons, Dirty Pretty Things, The Kooks, Little Man Tate, Arctic Monkeys, The Enemy, The Sunshine Underground... (okay, not all of them start with "the")

I also had an indie/folk-rock-bands-with-watery-names phase, which included Okkervil River, Shearwater, Great Lake Swimmers, and Midlake. Some bands in this phase with drier names were Crooked Fingers, Fleet Foxes, Flowers From The Man Who Shot Your Cousin, and Band of Horses.

Right now I seem to be in a guys-who-use-their-own-names phase. Um, also known as singer-songwriters. Josh Rouse, Denison Witmer, Ali Whitton, Terry Springford, Fionn Regan, Patrick Park, and Josh Ritter are current favorites.

There's been a bit of Scandinavian music (The Perishers, Kings of Convenience, The Whitest Boy Alive, Seabear), and after listening to bisa's library for a bit, I think I may have a Dutch phase next, starting with Johan and Solo. :)

Of course these phases are not consecutive and discrete; most of them are still going on, I just focus more on one thing than another at any given time. Further recommendations in any of these areas would be most welcome. What am I missing out on?

How many of these have I done now?


1. How did you get into 31?
The Fucking Champs! Got sent an album to review. It was mega brill.

2. What was the first song you ever heard by 22?
Big Business. I guess the first song I heard is the first song on the first album I bought - 'Just as the Day was Dawning'.

3. What is your favorite lyric by 29?
The Postal Service: "I know there's a big world out there, Like the one I saw on the screen, In my living room late last night, It was almost too bright to see"

4. What is your favorite album by 49?
R.E.M.? Jesus. Errr. Green.

5. How many albums by 13?
Reuben. Two. 'Racecar is Racecar Backwards' and 'In Nothing We Trust'.

6. What is your favorite song by 50?
Clouds. New Amnesia. Awesome.

7. Is there a song by 4 that makes you sad?
Hmm, Faith No More? Not really...

8. What is your favorite song by 15?
Explosions in the Sky. I proper love Day 2. And First Breath After Coma.

9. What is your favorite song by 5?
Million Dead. What a band. Can I have a whole album? Smiling At Strangers on Trains.

10. Is there a song by 6 that makes you happy?
Mogwai don't really seem to do much happy...

11. What is your favorite album by 40?
Fantômas. Oooh. 'The Director's Cut'.

12. What is your favorite song by 12?
Rocky Votolato. Changes quite often... 'She Was Only In It For The Rain'.

13. What is a good memory you have involving 33?
This Town Needs Guns. None, really. First time I heard their split EP?

14. What is your favorite song by 37?
City and Colour. 'In the Water I am Beautiful'.

15. Is there a song by 19 that makes you happy?
Hahah. Gay for Johnny Depp! All of them!

16. How many times have you seen 24 live?
Mastodon. Only once. Unfortunately.

17. What is the first song you ever heard by 17?
Converge. 'Homewrecker'.

18. What is your favorite album by 11?
Brand New. 'The Devil and God...' is rather brilliant, but 'Deja Entendu' is something else!

19. Who is your favorite member of 1?
Hmm. Who is my favourite member of Frank Turner?

20. Have you ever seen 14 live?
Sigh. Cursive. No.

21. What is a good memory involving 21?
Weezer! I have many good memories involving Weezer. Don't think I'll share though.

22. What is your favorite song by 16?
Biffy Clyro. 'There's No Such Thing As A Jaggy Snake' is quite wonderful!

23. What is the first song you heard by 47?
Engerica. Well, I don't know. I seen them live before I knew who they were.

24. What is your favorite album by 45?
Rivers Cuomo. He's only got one, and it's more of a collection.

25. What is your favorite song by 18?
Botch. 'Mondrian Was A Liar'. 'The Opera Song' is fun too!

26. What is the first song you ever heard by 38?
Immortal Technique. I don't know about the first song I heard, but the first song I properly listened to was 'Dance With The Devil'.

27. What is your favorite lyric by 3?
Minus the Bear. There's just something so brilliant about these lines: "And I'll swim out as far as I can, And float on my back, Just waiting for nothing"

28. What is your favorite song by 2?
Radiohead. '2+2=5'.

29. What was the first song you heard by 32?
Sketchie. 'Feud At Saint East's'.

30. What is your favorite song by 8?
Aereogramme. This is much more difficult than I thought it would be. Trenches, maybe.

31. How many times have you seen 10 live?
Genghis Tron... Never.

32. Is there a song by 44 that makes you happy?
Hell Is for Heroes. They're not really a happy kind of band. Quite angry, actually.

33. What is your favorite album by 9?
mclusky. Do Dallas, obviously.

34. What is the worst song by 46?
XTC. Couldn't really tell you, I have't heard their full back catalogue really.

35. What was the first song you heard by 35?
Nick Drake. 'Pink Moon', still love it to this day.

36. What is your favorite album by 42?
At the Drive-In. 'Relationship of Command'. Easy.

37. How many times have you seen 28 live?
Never. Elliott Smith doesn't tour much... well not at all. Ever.

38. What is your favorite album by 35?
Drake again: Pink Moon, ha.

39. What was the first song you heard by 39?
Guillemots. It was 'Made Up Lovesong #43'.

40. What is your favorite album by 7?
The Paper Chase! Difficult one. 'Now You Are One Of Us'.

40 questions about 50 bands, and yet it seems to have missed loads! Including Mansun. Uncool.

First up, a note to those reading this...something along the line of the old media adage, "The opinions expressed in the following...blah blah blah". The top albums I've chosen for each of the 22 years of my life may be my picks but they are not definitively the greatest albums ever made, nor are they all neccesarily even my favourite albums: there are plenty of albums that came out too early to be up for selection, there are also some that never made the final cut because they were released in a particularly prodigous year (and, conversely, some that made the cut thanks to a lack of genuine competition that year). Please bear all this in mind when reading (and don't hesitate to recommend albums that you feel should be present!)

That being said, we can begin...

1986:
Top Album: Conflict - The Ungovernable Force

Runner Up: Chumbawamba - Pictures of Starving Children Sell Records

Worth a Mention: Dead Kennedys - Bedtime for Democracy

The year of my birth was ten years since the days of the Ramones and Sex Pistols, in the mainstream punk was dead and long gone; superceded by toned down power-pop on the one hand and more refined post-punk on the other. In the underground, though, punk was still thriving.

True, the old bands were all dead or lost their edge; The Clash's last album had been released four years ago; Crass had called it a day in '84, bogged down in jaded reactionism and 'anti-music' sentiment in their final years; John Lydon had moved onto greener pastures with the - far superior to the Pistols for me - avant-garde stylings of Public Image Ltd.. But across the pond in California one of Hardcore punk's greatest bands (themselves about to explode in a manner not too dissimilar to Crass) put out one final effort.

Dead Kennedys' Bedtime Democracy is considered weak by some fans; the band's opus by select others. Whether or not it stands up to the oft-praised first two records - or even the dark psychedelia of 1985's Frankenchrist - may be up for debate, what isn't is that Bedtime is a fine standalone album. The wide range of styles on offer - from the psychotic country-punk of 'Take This Job and Shove It' to the creepy prog-influenced sounds of 'Cesspools in Eden' and, of course, the aural blitzkrieg of 'The Great Wall' and 'Anarchy For Sale' - sets the album apart from much of 80s Hardcore.

At 21 tracks long, its no lightweight either, but far from sinking into the same cliched attacks on 'the system', no subject is safe from Biafra's piercing (and, let's not forget, often hilarious) analysis - the usual candidates of politicians and police are joined by a host of pop-culture references - 'Dear Abby' being one of my favourites (you really have to check out the lyrics to appreciate it) - and the punk community is fair game for scathing commentary just as much as the business community thanks to the epic 'Chickenshit Conformist' and others.

Back here in England, another band firmly rooted in punk music, but with an eye for different styles, announed their arrival with a debut LP that gave little indication of where they would be a quarter of a century later. Chumbawamba's Pictures of Starving Children Sell Records was released in '86 as a direct response, and criticism of, the Live Aid concert. Not unsurprisingly for a punk debut, Pictures... is a little rough around the edges musically but still precludes the band's future, more mellow, sound. Space is found for driving, funk influenced, basslines, some pretty guitar and vocal melodies, and outright folk music. The heavier parts belie a strong Crass influence, with a fuzzy, lo-fi guitar sound and vocals very reminiscent of Eve Libertine at her angriest.

Punk bands have often found it hard to pull off the concept album, that feeling of righteous indignation synonomous with punk rock struggles to lend itself to the kind of focused songwriting neccesary. Pictures... however, manages to stay well on-topic for much of its course. The associations between 'Starvation, Charity, and Rock 'n' Roll' and the wider roll of government and business conjured up by the album's lyrics flow well. One has to concede a certain lack of metaphor in the lyrics that might well make them cringeworthy for some, but there is undoubtedly no deficit of passion or imagery here. A challenging idea for even a well-established act, Pictures... comes very very close to being my top record of 1986, but is beaten by one of the finest - and underrated - hardcore punk albums of all time...

...Far-and-away the angriest of the 80s anarcho-punk bands, Conflict have sometimes been labelled as 'Crass' baby brother' (although it must be said the claim is rejected by as many people as make it). The Ungovernable Force, their third full-length LP, did more than any previous record to dispute that claim and set Conflict apart as a tighter, heavier musical force in UK punk.

The adrenaline - or amphetamine - driven fury of much of the record is well-balanced by lighter, catchier elements in songs like 'C.R.A.S.S.' and 'Statement'; these parellel musical themes reinforce the parellel themes of anger and peace in Conflict's philosophy and aesthetic perfectly. The band's first flirtation with dub reggae on 'The Day Before' is a spine tingling herald of things to come for them, whilst the use of tape loops and radio samples throughout is another nod towards the ubiquitous influence of Crass on the anarcho-punk scene.

The different vocal styles of Colin (at his most aggresive and impressive), Mandy (melodious, hopeful, and despondent all at the same time), and ex-Crass frontman Steve Ignorant (at times reminiscent of hip-hop more than punk), lend yet more eclecticism to the record.

The Ungovernable Force's ultimate strength comes from being both a product of its time and place; and a timeless classic of punk music. Musically and lyrically - especially lyrically - the album captures perfectly the anger, uncertainty and *ahem* conflict of the Thatcher years, yet it is not uncommon for new listeners to be genuinely shocked at how old the album is. It remains as fresh and relevant today as it did 22 years ago - despite all that has changed (musically and politically) in the intervening years - and probably offers a better signpost for contemporary radical music than anything on offer in the world of today.



p.s. The Following albums deserve some sort of mention:

Subhumans - 29-29 Split Vision

Public Image Ltd. - Album

The Flaming Lips - Hear It Is

Bad Brains - I Against I

XTC - Skylarking

Top Artists:

01 The Cure
02 The Beatles
03 Elvis Costello
04 Crash Test Dummies
05 Wolfsheim
06 David Bowie
07 Depeche Mode
08 U2
09 Element of Crime
10 Anne Clark


Top Albums;

01 Element of Crime – Mittelpunkt der Welt
02 Deine Lakaien – Acoustic
03 Manic Street Preachers – This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours
04 U2 – Achtung Baby
05 XTC – Drums and Wires
06 Crash Test Dummies – God Shuffled His Feet
07 The Cure – Disintegration
08 Keane – Hopes and Fears
09 Portishead – Dummy
10 Depeche Mode – Playing the Angel


Top Tracks:

01 Johnny Cash – Hurt
02 Pet Shop Boys – Go West
03 Amy Winehouse – You Know I'm No Good
04 Die Ärzte – Männer sind Schweine
05 Portishead – Roads
06 Anne Clark – Our Darkness
07 Kaizers Orchestra – Knekker deg til sist
08 Anne Clark – Killing Time
09 Keane – Somewhere Only We Know
10 Anne Clark – Leaving

Largely for my own personal reference, I've decided to keep monthly snapshots of my top 100 artists at the end of every month. So here's how things look at the end of July 2008:

1 Nightwish 711
2 XTC 474
3 David Bowie 455
4 The Cure 429
5 Tom Waits 420
6 The Fall 406
7 New Order 404
8 The Associates 396
9 Depeche Mode 370
10 Within Temptation 359
11Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds 330
12 Björk 320
13 Pet Shop Boys 316
14 Siouxsie and the Banshees 303
15 Echo & the Bunnymen 287
16 Cocteau Twins 284
17 Elvis Costello & The Attractions 277
18 Joy Division 276
19 Throwing Muses 273
20 Prince 262
21 Pulp 259
22 Blur 256
22 R.E.M. 256
24 Kate Bush 242
25 The Divine Comedy 235
26 The Smiths 230
27 The Beatles 229
28 Super Furry Animals 228
29 Wire 222
30 American Music Club 221
31 Bob Dylan 217
32 Saint Etienne 213
32 Madness 213
34 Yello 212
35 The Clash 207
36 The Go-Betweens 203
37 Soft Cell 202
38 Radiohead 201
38 Richard Thompson 201
38 Leaves' Eyes 201
41 The Auteurs 200
42 Elvis Costello 195
42 Marc Almond 195
44 Eels 190
45 The Human League 185
46 Cabaret Voltaire 184
47 Suede 183
47 Tarja 183
49 Half Man Half Biscuit 181
50 The Comsat Angels 178
50 Andy Partridge 178
50 Talking Heads 178
50 All About Eve 178
54 Air 175
55 Tindersticks 173
55 After Forever 173
55 Bauhaus 173
58 Barry Adamson 169
59 U2 167
60 Leonard Cohen 164
61 ABC 161
62 Garbage 160
63 Elis 158
64 Lacuna Coil 157
64 Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band 157
64