B100: #85 “We Are Your Friends” by Justice vs Simian

France’s second best electronic duo feature now in my B100 favourite songs list, with “We Are Your Friends” by Justice (vs Simian).

379 to 50: #8 “One More Time” by Daft Punk

“Celebrate and dance so free…” – “One More Time” is my Daft Punk top song choice, actually a fairly simple personal choice despite so many great tracks by the Parisian robots.

379 to 50: #24 “Trans-Europe Express” by Kraftwerk

Travelling further down my favourite 50 songs list, it’s time to take a trip to Dusseldorf city on the “Trans-Europe Express” to meet Kraftwerk, the electronic Beatles.

379 to 50: #40 “Lisztomania” by Phoenix

Breaking into my the top 40 of my 50 favourite tunes now, with a first trip to continental Europe: the aptly named “Lisztomania” by Phoenix, from their 2009 fourth album “Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix”.

USA 2011 Chapter 2 – Austin: Bikers, bats and Back In Black

As originally posted on my Tumblr site while travelling around the USA in 2011…

So, I’m currently sat in my hotel bar and it’s the last night of my stay in Austin, taking it easy before heading out on a road trip to New Orleans tomorrow. I’m also going to try to go into less detail than I did about Dallas or I could be here all night; suffice to say that it has been great here in Austin, a brilliant city.

I arrived here on Friday with a five hour Amtrak journey through the oilfields, deserts and small towns of Texas. As I said in my last post, it’s so much more pleasurable an experience than any train I’ve ever caught in England, especially with the right tunes to soundtrack the sights. I was certainly listening to a lot of Glen, Gram and Gene amongst lots of other country/southern rock.

The Amtrak to Austin

USA 2011 Chapter 9 – New York: Timmy Malletts, thousands of ’em…

As originally posted on my Tumblr site while travelling around the USA in 2011…

Another day, another US city then, but this time it was the biggest of them all and the only place I had actually previously visited as well. For this reason, when planning my trip I had actually contemplated not going to New York only to think it would be pretty odd not to visit such a great city while travelling down the North East American coast. And while it is undoubtedly a great city, I would say that I actually didn’t enjoy my time here as much as many of the places I’ve visited so far.

Upon disembarking from the train at Penn Station, the famous bustle of New York was immediately noticeable, even more than upon my last visit. Of course, this could be to do with the fact that last time I had come directly from London and was only having a week’s break from my job whereas I have now barely spent much time in the land of the beefeaters since April and not worked since the end of March.

New York’s High Line