Music Diary Project pt2

...continued from yesterday, this is my contribution to the Music Diary Project.

Friday
I'm woken by the sounds of British Sea Power - the favourite band of the mate I'm staying in London with. BSP are a band that I've always liked whenever I've heard them by accident but I've never made much of an effort to listen to them properly. Something I really ought to remedy.

Today I'm going to Southend, the last leg of my week's jaunts. The weather is fantastic again but I'm not feeling particulary sunny: a bit nauseous thanks to the previous night's gathering in the pub of old Uni mates. It doesn't help that I'm carting my massive, heavy bag around again as I'm heading back to Manchester later.

Completing this log has made me realise that I would likely use my ipod a lot less if I wasn't so easily irritated - I tend to use it to drown out other noises, be it incessant sniffing, phone conversations, or the tish-tish of music leached from poor-quality earphones. So on the train I switch on the ipod with no prior thoughts about what to listen to. The screen opens on the Lightning Seeds and I then recall a conversation from the night before about them. I was looking to see what I had on there (Jollification and Dizzy Heights; I ought to put Pure and Sense on, or at least some of the tracks anyway). But Jollification is always a pleasure to hear and suits the weather so on it goes. I've never taken this train route before and spend a lot of time looking out of the window. Purfleet - isn't that where the Sky darts takes place? Rainham Marshes - manage to spot a couple of swans and a magpie as we zip past. Time for a look at the crossword...rubbish, my head is clearly not up to the task right now. BSP pop back into my head as I realise we're near Canvey Island ("H5N1, killed a wild swan...").

Mid-afternoon, on the train back to London. Listen to 'Mines' by Menomena and attempt the crossword again now that my head is a bit clearer. Do slightly better. I'm taking a different route back, passing through Billericay this time, which leads to thinking about Ian Dury.

Finally on the train back to Manchester and looking forward to a couple of days that won't involve rail travel. I flick through the ipod while dozing off, listening to bits of 'Lustre' by Ed Harcourt, 'Origin:Orphan' by the Hidden Cameras, and 'Pause' by Four Tet. Nearing home and being back in the north-west I feel I should listen to some Elbow and choose 'Station Approach', followed by some Doves (Kingdom of rust, 10:03, Black & White town).

Saturday
I don't recall listening to anything during the day, but I hear snippets of LOTS of songs in the evening when Claire and I see the hugely talented and very funny Frisky & Mannish. Their Eurorave version of 'Creep' is genius. Whenever I try and describe them to others it just sounds crap, so I won't bother and will just include a clip:



Sunday
Having done no exercise for a fortnight and with the Manchester 10k now only weeks away, I drag myself out for a run on Sunday morning. On previous runs I've flipped between listening to things like the Prodigy or the Wu-Tang Clan, to a documentary about Bob Monkhouse or a few instalments of the History of the World in 100 objects. Today I remember that I've not finished the Ken Bruce/Rob Brydon show from April 1st so continue with that.

I finally get the chance to write all of this up Sunday evening and listen to a mixture of Gruff Rhys, Leaves, Eels and Beck while I do so.