I’m slowly but surely going through my CD collection and sucking it all into iTunes. Its one of those things I’ve wanted to do for ages, but just haven’t been able to until recently — I’ve only just got a PC with enough hard disk space and processing power to cope with the job.

Its having a nice side effect — waking me up to old albums that I’d almost forgotten

So far I’ve only decided against importing one CD, an old Smash Hits compilation that I was given for Christmas in 1998 — largely because its a steaming pile of doo-doo. Put it this way: its got Kavana, Boyzone, Aaron Carter and 911 on there (I look forward to the backlash from their fans).

This process may be a bit boring and laborious, but its having a nice side effect. Its waking me up to old albums and EPs that I’d almost forgotten that I ever had. I stick iTunes on random play and find myself listening to things that hadn’t even left their CD cases for years. Things like Orbital’s In Sides (I had the poster years before I eventually bought the album) and Everything But The Girl’s Walking Wounded, which I was so re-enamoured with that I’ve listened to it all week at work!

Even if you can’t be arsed to plug them all into your PC, I reccommend that you go through all of your old CDs and pick out some classics you’d forgotten about. Put them on, turn them up loud and enjoy them all over again. You know it makes sense!

It was Stuart who first introduced me to Audioscrobbler. Its goes like this:

1. You visit the site and sign up.
2. You download and install a little plugin for your media player of choice.
3. Now everyone in the world can see what you’re listening to and tell you just how bad your musical tastes are! Acetastic!

What completely threw me was the large similarities between the music that myself and Stuart listen to. Still, I guess we’re both English blokes of a similar age. Its just that he’s already gone and done some horrendously grown-up things like emigrate and get married. Both things I can’t ever see myself doing at the moment. Hey ho.

Legendary radio DJ John Peel dies.

I don’t usually get particularly emotional about celebrities dying. When Princess Di was killed I didn’t really bat an eyelid – in fact I was ever so slightly worried for the sanity of the country at such massive public grief. For some reason this is really getting to me though. I was sat at work reading some of the tributes on the web, sometimes smiling, sometimes on the verge of tears.

Maybe its because Radio 1 has been such a central part of my life thus far. It wakes me up in the morning and its usually on until late in the evening – just when he’d be on. He’d been there since the word go back in 1967. Of course, I wasn’t born for another eleven years, but he was there, on the Radio, right through my childhood.

The amazing thing is that my mum used to listen to him on Radio 1 back when when she was my age. She’s grown up, had kids and listens to Radio 4 now – and he’d be there telling his Home Truths. He quite literally spanned generations.

My younger sister, Florence, is only just getting into music in a big way, so she won’t have her muscial horizons constantly stretched in all directions by Peel’s fantastic late night radio shows. I only hope that the newer generation of DJs – the Zane Lowes, Steve Lamacqs and Huw Stephens of this world – can carry on where he left off. Great new music, no matter what anyone else thinks.

Zane Lowe played Orbital’s “Belfast” a few minutes ago. They’re one of the artists that I have absolutely loved from the very first time I heard them. Without John Peel’s support they might never have got their career off of the ground, let alone enjoyed the success that they did. So when they decided to call it a day, they played their very last session for his show. The same goes for Pulp, Nirvana, SFA, The Sex Pistols, Radiohead, The Smiths, Supergrass, Joy Division, New Order and countless others. He’s shaped the musical landscape for the last forty years people.

Who else is going to play swedish thrash metal, 1920s swing tunes, dark drum’n’bass and random charty-pop music, in the same show, without anybody batting an eyelid? No other DJ could get away with it, let alone get praised for it.

You’ll be missed John. Rest in peace.

So, we’re at work talking about what albums we might buy at lunchtime…

• Owen: The Killers? Who?
• Me: They’re ace, you’d like them.
• Baggus: They’re the best British band to come out of America.
• Me: They’re American!?

Well apparently they are. I guess I just thought that their music sounded British. I’m rather liking the album Hot Fuss though. The two acts aren’t really comparable, but as pop-rock albums go, its right up there with Jimmy Eat World’s Bleed American. Lots of really catchy stuff, groovy basslines and huge guitar riffs.

I really have to stop saying this, but Rock Right On!

I’ve just come across One Hundred Albums You Should Remove from Your Collection Immediately (Hat-tip: sidesh0w).

Now apart from the fact that I’m a bit of a hoarder, meaning I probably wouldn’t chuck any CD’s out in the first place, I’m in agreement with most of that list. While there’s a few I really wouldn’t chuck due to their blatant aceness (31 and 95 come to mind), most of the albums on the list are prime for removal/sale/burning.

Or would be, if I owned them. Especially Oasis.

I was in HMV ealier, to see if they had a copy of the new Evil Nine album yet. They didn’t, but the new Mylo album DestroyRock&Roll was going cheap. So I bought it. Its rather good on first listen. But hark, whats that I hear?

Can it be? It bloody well can. Track 5 (called In My Arms) samples Boy Meets Girl‘s eponymous classic Waiting for a Star to Fall!

Sorry, did I say “eponymous classic”? I meant complete stinker. I seem to remember buying the single when I was little. I also seem to remember ritually destroying it a bit later in life. I downloaded it to see just how bad it was – and I wasn’t too surprised to find that it was a good deal worse than I remembered. Though on browsing the web I was surprised to find that they also penned a couple of hits for Whitney Houston, including “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” (another unmitigated stinker).

And yet that little sample (“In my arms baby, yeah”) repeated over a housey beat seems to work quite nicely. This worries me a bit. Am I going to look back at my CD collection in another ten years time and find that its full of complete stinkers? Will I regard DestroyRock&Roll to be on a par with the very band it samples? Or will it have the cult appeal of something like the KLF’s The White Room perhaps?

Not that it matters right now, because I’m enjoying bouncing around the room to “Drop the Pressure” and “Paris Four Hundred“, two of the stand-out tracks on the album. How loud to you reckon it’ll go before the neighbours complain?