Monday 10 May 2010

Look Over There! A Badger With A Gun!

We've been through a quarter of a month (edit: er, year, obviously) (and how the fuck did that happen?), so it's time for another first line quiz, mainly to buy me time whilst I work on the actual quiz (which will arrive late Wednesday or early Thursday) and keep chipping away at a fairly long album review I'm working on.

Same rules as last time. No artist appears more than once, and the songs are listed in what I think is increasing order of difficulty (which just about worked last time). No googling, but feel free to listen to songs you think are right if you want to check.

Right. Here we go:

1. "Just a small-town girl, living in a lonely world." Journey - Don't Stop Believing (Brutal Snake)
2. "A lovestruck Romeo, sing the streets a serenade." Dire Straits - Romeo & Juliet (Senior Spielbergo)
3. "Two jumps in a week, I bet ya think that's pretty clever, don't you boy?" Radiohead - High And Dry (Jamie)
4. "Transmission third world war third round, a decade of the weapon of sound above ground." Rage Against The Machine - Guerrilla Radio (Chuck)
5. "All is quiet on New Year's Day, a world in white gets underway." U2 - New Year's Day (Jamie)
6. "Home grown, rock to the rhythm and bop to the beat of the radio." Kings Of Leon - Fans
7. "Shiver for me, girl, deliver for me my darling." Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Warm Tape

8. "Before this world starts up again, it's me and night." Jimmy Eat World - Big Casino (Nemain)
9. "Turn me apart and boil my bones, I'll not rest 'til she's lost her throne." The Stone Roses - Elizabeth My Dear (Tomsk)

10. "I look good in a glass pack, I look good and mean." R.E.M. - The Wake-Up Bomb (Jamie)
11. "Cold, cold water, surrounds me now." Damien Rice - Cold Water
12. "A devastating backstroke all the way from France." Vampire Weekend - The Kids Don't Stand A Chance

13. "Elysium, is everyone chipping at your cordiality?" Madness - Elysium (edenspresence)
14. "I can't explain glacial motion, or why Los Angeles don't drop into the ocean." The Presidents Of The United States Of America - Naked & Famous
15. "Take heart, my little friend, and push back your seat." Eels - Daisies Of The Galaxy
16. "I was born in the Merrie City; I've been trying to get out of it." The Cribs - I've Tried Everything
17. "These chords are old but we shake hands, because I believe that they're the good guys." Josh Ritter - Good Man
18. I'm trolling food court for girls, yeah it's the best job in the world. Ben Folds - Rent A Cop (Jamie)
19. "Yes, I'm sorry that I missed you." Midlake - Chasing After Deer
20. "I left my school, I left my job." Belle & Sebastian - Belle & Sebastian
21. I got these thoughts in my head, dirty as fuck and never leaving. Alkaline Trio - Old School Reasons (Chuck)
22. "'36 Hudson in the garage." The Mountain Goats - Broom People
23. "Don't cry my love, don't cry my love, don't cry my love, for all you cannot change." Mark Erelli - Delivered
24. "Well this is easier now, I've found all the pieces I lost in the flood." Frightened Rabbit - Not Miserable
25. "You can call them chronicles, you can call them songs." Get Cape, Wear Cape, Fly - If I Had A Pound For Every Stale Song Title I'd Be 30 Short Of Getting Out Of This Mess


The usual bevy of all but useless clues: there are 18 true bands, 4 solo artists, and 3 bands that are clearly just fronts for a single bloke. All 25 vocalists are male. 15 of the songs are by American artists, the rest are either English (7), Scottish (2), or Irish (1). Three titles are actually within the first lines.

The highest score for these things remains 44%, but even by my standards this is a tough set. Get to it.

19 comments:

Brutal Snake said...

1 is Journey - Don't stop believing. Apart from that got no idea.

SpaceSquid said...

The first domino falls...

Dan Edmunds said...

2 is Dire Straits - Romeo and Juliet

let's see if we can take them in order people!

Jamie said...

3 is High and Dry by Radiohead
5 is New Year's Day by U2
10 is Wake Up Bomb by REM
18 is by Ben Folds, but I can't remember the name - shall have to look it up on the cd at home.

SpaceSquid said...

A good haul for Jamie. The title of 18 is still up for grabs, though.

(Jamie, there's one more song you should absolutely be able to get).

SpaceSquid said...

Actually, one at the very least.

Tomsk said...

9 is Elizabeth My Dear by the Stone Roses

Jamie said...

The Ben Folds song is Rent a Cop.

I will give the others more of a perusal (some are nagging on me - but this directing lark is seriously using up most of my brain cells...)

SpaceSquid said...

Correct, both of you.

Up to 28% already! Good work.

Nemain said...

Number 8 is Big Casino by Jimmy Eat World. :)

Jamie said...

Hmm, I suppose I should have got that, but I'm not very good at lyrics of any Jimmy Eat World album except the Bleed American one...

SpaceSquid said...

Correct, Nemain. We're almost at a third now.

I thought you might have gotten JEW, Jamie, but if it makes you feel any better there are two more up there that you're far more worthy of derision for failing to recognise.

Jamie said...

I have actually looked up the two that were vaguely familiar on Google. Obviously I'm not going to reveal what they were because I've waived that right, but I just couldn't tease the tune out of one of them (I was thinking that it was a different band, although my mind did dredge up the second line); for the other one, I genuinely don't really know the lyrics to the song.

John Rhodes said...

13. Elysium - Madness

SpaceSquid said...

Correct!

Chuck said...

21. Alkaline Trio - Old School Reasons.

Chuck said...

4. Rage Against The Machine - Guerilla Radio

I'm pretty sure I know 15 too...

SpaceSquid said...

Both correct.

You've certainly heard 15, Chuck; in fact the album in question exists within your house. I'm pretty sure you own 6, as well, judging from previous conversations/performances.

SpaceSquid said...

Oh, also, thanks to a few late entries my Adoring Fans (TM) have now equalled their previous high score! Get down with your bad selves! And remember, just one more correct guess (which I'd ordinarily expect to come from Jamie except his pathetically short attention span keeps taking him out of the running) and we'll have a new record.