Musical stuff

I've got a fairly eclectic taste in music. I like all sorts of stuff, but I especially like stuff with guitars, with good thumping riffs. Possibly because I play one (not very well). In fact I've got 3 guitars - one electric, a Yamaha Pacifica if you're interested, and two acoustic - neither well known makes - in fact I've had the oldest about 27 years, and it came from a mail order catalogue my dear old Mum had, but that's another story.

Back to the point of this post. There are some tracks that crop up now and again, and really hit you, like a blast from the past. I recently heard Boz Scaggs' Lido Shuffle on the radio, a song I liked way back when (1976 I think), and I vowed to dig it out on iTunes or Amazon. Typically, I forgot all about it, until tonight, but after a quick shufti on iTunes with it's new hear a clip function, decided to download the version from Boz's Greatest Hits Live album. I think this track is brilliant. Much newer than the original, but I think it's a better track all round, because of the throbbing baseline and reverb rhythm that wasn't on the "poppy" original. I never much liked any of his other stuff, this was almost a one off.

There are a few other tracks I've variously heard recently which have prompted me to go and purchase the whole album, and largely I haven't been disappointed. Specifically:

• Muse: The Resistance. Despite their massive popularity, I can't say I'd heard much Muse stuff before their Christmas ToTP appearance, when "Uprising" made me sit up and pronounce it the best song I'd heard in years, go straight upstairs and download the album (most of which is pretty decent) and Uprising has already become one of my all time favourites.
• Midnight Oil: Remember them. Doubty rockers from Oz, much of whose music supports the rights and trials of the indigenous population, and their Diesel and Dust track Beds are Burning has one of the best in your face base lines ever.
• The Hooters: Another band from way back, and again one I'd never really heard much of. Driving home from work one night Chris Evans players "Satellite" and it was another of those, walk through the door and download the superb "One Way Home" album before doing anything else.
• The Nolans: Only joking.......

As I said, my tastes are varied - I've got everything from Les Miserables to Sandy Denny, Kate Bush , Jimmy Nail, Clapton, Billy Joel, the Beatles, Seasick Steve, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Blondie, Squeeze and more besides on my iPhone. No Nolans though.