First Day on a Brand New Planet

To quote the great Scott Walker and appropriate the royal 'We,' today we came through. Today was my first day back at work since before Christmas so definitely was the first day on what was rapidly becoming a strange and forgotten world. I survived, made it home in one piece and reacquainted myself with the refreshing taste of beer at the end of the day as opposed to beer in the middle of the afternoon. Good times.

A recurring theme of this blog is my penchant for taking the obvious route when it opens itself up to me. An example of my thought process: "I feel like doing a five a day today, what should I do? Well, it was my First day at work so I might try and do songs with the word First in the title." And there we have it...

Explosions in the Sky: First Breath After Coma



The combination of slow burning songs with oblique titles, swirling guitar lines building to epic crescendos of noise and a fanbase that has a higher than average level of facial hair have seen Explosions in the Sky lazily labelled "the Texan Mogwai." In the interests of fairness I hope Mogwai are known as "the Glaswegian Explosions in the Sky" over there.

Urusei Yatsura: First Day on a Brand New Planet



Urusei Yatsura only made three albums and they are little nuggets of lo-fi pop magic. They split in 2001 but I reckon if you give it another couple of years the inevitable reunion will swing its way around and this post will turn out to be instrumental in that.

Morrissey: First of the Gang to Die



Given the up and down nature of Morrissey's solo output you've got to take any chance to post one of the highlights. You Are the Quarry is possibly his most consistent solo album and this is one of its highlights.

Pulp: Do You Remember the First Time?



I don't think this needs much of an introduction - simply one of Pulp's greatest songs.

The Secret Machines: First Wave Intact



It's getting late, my brain is starting to shut down so I am going to be massively lazy and quote from the holy book of Rolling Stone magazine and their description of The Secret Machines:

"They take Pink Floyd psychedelia, Led Zeppelin stomp, and The Who-inspired choruses and charge them full of big-rock beats, atmospheric keyboards and all kinds of electronic whooshes."

I need to go recharge - this working lark has knocked me for six (in the best possible way).