Sunday 22 November 2009

Latest Distractions

Not much to post about today (though go Harry Reid for getting us through exactly one of the three 60% + Senate votes that are now apparently necessary for ever getting anything done ever). Fortunately, it's been more than six months since I last employed my shameless place-holder post of choice, so I'm wheeling it out again.

Same rules as always, people. I give you the first line of a song, you tell me artist and title. Previous attempts at this have resulted in fairly low scores (I blame Jamie, who astonishingly manages to not only fail to recognise tracks he has in fact given me in the past, but also Counting Crows singles, which makes absolutely no sense). The first attempt garnered 44% success, and the second a truly feeble 28% (answers for both up now). Clearly, more knowledge of whiny white boys is required.

To encourage superior scoring this time around, I will introduce a further competitive element. The top three scorers thus far have been Jamie (seven) and Mozz and Moddey Dhoo (two each). Your challenge is to beat those scores. Your prize will be... probably fictional. But who knows?

Edit: I've been asked to clarify the rules, so here's some extra advice. Googling lyrics is cheating. Googling individual albums you think a given song belongs to is fine. Listening to a song you believe to be the right one is also fine. You could even go back through some of the videos I've put up on the blog, though that would only gain you one answer.

1. "I declare I don't care no more." Green Day - Burnout
2. "Whenever I'm alone with you, you make me feel like I am home again." The Cure - Lovesong

3. "Where I come from, silvery tree." British Sea Power - Down On The Ground (Jamie)
4. "Do you know what's worth fighting for?" Green Day - 21 Guns
5. "Birds beneath my window, dustying their wings upon the lawn." Josh Ritter - Snow Is Gone (Garathon/Edenspresence)
6. "Sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet little agony." Smashing Pumpkins - Sweet Sweet
7. "I met you before the fall of Rome." Barenaked Ladies - It's All Been Done (DhooModdey)
8. "Huffman don't take no nonsense." Kings Of Leon - Four Kicks (Chuck)
9. "Well I looked for the light fantastic." Semisonic - Ordinary Life (Garathon)
10. "Set me free, little girl." - The Kinks - Set Me Free (Pause)
11. "To come apart on mountain tops is to come apart in rain." Idlewild - Once In Your Life

12. "So strap yourself in again." Hundred Reasons - Oratorio
13. "I'm all lost in the supermarket, I can no longer shop happily." The Clash - Lost In The Supermarket (Tomsk)
14. "I was nothing but a lonely boy looking for something new." Meatloaf - All Revved Up With No Place To Go
15. "Go progress chrome, they paint the moon today." Grandaddy - Go Progress Chrome
16. "This is the first! (Thing I remember)" Blink 182 -
Stockholm Syndrome
17. "Judy, could anyone be loved any more?" Ben Folds - Give Judy My Notice (Jamie)
18. "I'm an ocean in your bedroom." - Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Don't Forget Me
19. "Hey Jack, it's me; I don't want to bother you." Styrofoam - Couches In Alleys
20. "It's been pretty simple so far." R.E.M. - Letters Never Sent
21. "It was meant to be but all along it never meant a thing." - Foo Fighters - Long Road To Ruin
22. "I hate a lot of things, I hate a lot of people that are lame." The Offspring - Cool To Hate
23. "I know the dog days of the summer have you 10 to 1 outnumbered." Joss Ritter - Still Beating
24. "I saw you again, I think you used me again." Blink 182 - Obvious
25. "He'd just finished eating dinner." Grandaddy - Everything Beautiful Is Far Away


Brief clues. The list contains 18 bands, three solo artists, two (edit: three) entries which include the song title itself, and exactly one song released before I was born. No artist is represented more than twice, which is a new rule to get around my i-Pod apparently developing a sudden and significant refusal to shuffle properly (it tried to include one band five times, and three other bands three times each. Lame!)

Update: C'mon, people! Thanks to Garathon we've hit 30%! Let's keep it rolling!

I decided to check up on how obscure the remaining songs actually are. Turns out at least six of the albums remaining went multi-platinum, and several more went gold. For the record, there are still 12 bands and one solo artist unidentified. And remember, of the 18 songs still unnamed, two of them have their title within the quote themselves.

15 comments:

Tomsk said...

Hurrah, I can avoid a duck this time: 13 is "Lost in the Supermarket" from London Calling by The Clash. Our musical tastes overlap at last!

PS: "Mozz and Moddey Dhoo" would be an excellent name for a children's TV show.

SpaceSquid said...

One down...

DhooModdey said...

7) Its all been done before - Barenaked Ladies

Pause said...

No. 10 is Set Me Free by The Kinks.

Little point tracking my score, but perhaps between all of us we can push above the 50 % bar for once.

You know, we can do it if we try...

Jamie said...

3. British Sea Power, 'Down on the Ground'

17. Ben Folds, 'Judy'

I don't think I'm going to get many more of these, not much is jumping out at me.

In my defence regarding the track(s?) I gave you, I assume you mean the Ben Folds track 'Dog' - I don't think I particularly like, so much so that I cannot remember for the life of me how it goes. I like a lot of the other tracks on those three EPs though.

I have no real excuse for 'Hanginaround' except that I can find it very hard to 'hear' the rhythm of written lyrics when I don't know what song it is, and there was something about that first line that just didn't jump out at me. If you see what I mean.

SpaceSquid said...

7) is "It's All Been Done", but DhooModdey is entirely close enough.

10) is indeed "Set Me Free", which makes me feel pretty foolish; there are actually three songs with the title in the first line.

3) is correct.

17) is actually "Give Judy My Notice", but I am feeling kind today. For the record, Jamie, it was the James track "Hello" that I was surprised you didn't recognise.

Also, "Dog" is entirely awesome. Best song Folds has written since Rockin' The Suburbs.

Jamie said...

I don't really know the lyrics to 'Hello', barring the chorus - it's one of those songs that floats past me without really latching onto my head. A lot of REM tracks are like that. I still like it, and can hum along, but not much more than that. Plus I haven't listened to Millionaires for yonks.

Chuck said...

8) Kings of Leon - Four Kicks

SpaceSquid said...

Correct.

C'mon, people! We're one away from this not being the worst attempt ever! Feel the burn, etc.

Garathon said...

I think (5) is a Josh Ritter lyric but I've checked and it's not on the album I have, so I don't know the track name (I can only assume it was on one of the CDs Squid brought over last time)... [Fortunately, it will soon be my birthday so maybe I'll know the answer next week.]

(9) Semisonics - Ordinary Life - from the album All About Chemistry

SpaceSquid said...

Correct on both counts. Let's see if anyone can work out which Josh Ritter song we're talking about.

Must remember to get your present in the post, Garathon...

Jamie said...

As for the rest? I still got nothin'.

John Rhodes said...

5. Snow is Gone

err...

John Rhodes said...

I take it 16 isnt First Day of my life by Bright Eyes... :P.. Just with a little bit more emphasis on "First"...

SpaceSquid said...

Afraid not. The exclamation mark is integral to the lyric.

I have added a bit more to the line, though, to ensure there exists an unique solution.