Day 17 - 30 Day Movie Music Challenge

Music by an artist that appears in a movie as themselves 

Does this challenge make sense? For example, I could have gone for Alice Cooper in Wayne's World, or Rush in I Love You Man - two films I have already featured here.

The one I've chosen for today is a slight cheat - Lemmy in the film Airheads. It is a slight cheat because he is credited in the titles as "Lemmy von Motörhead". However, it is close enough for this purpose and gives me the excuse to link to this track from the soundtrack:

The video quality is pretty poor but close your eyes and enjoy Lemmy doing what he does!

To be honest, I could do without the Ice-T bits... but you can't have everything.

Day 23 – A song you play when you want to relax

30 Day Song Challenge
Day 23 – A song you play when you want to relax

Sometimes I sits and thinks. But sometimes, I just sits...

I am struggling to think when I last had a chance to relax while listening to music! Unfortunately, listening to music now-a-days tends to happen while I am doing something else; driving; walking the dogs; marking essays; ...

It's difficult to say what I would listen to if I did have the chance to relax and listen to music. Probably I'd just go for something at the extra noisy that I can enjoy without having to think too much about it:


Too be fair, there are probably other Motörhead tracks I'd have to think even less about than this one, but it's one of my favourites.

(Thinking further about this, is it my definition of "relax" that needs reconsideration? I find the physical activity and release involved in pumping up the volume and brining out the air guitar usually makes me feel better. Is that relaxing?)

Motörhead update

Friday afternoon, the beer people announced they had made another 10,000 copies of the Bluesed up version of Ace Of Spades available for download - see Free Download Friday #76: Motörhead play the Blues for details.

Go get one while stocks last!

Update on the update: That's them gone again! If you have Spotify though you can hear it in full there: Ace Of Spades (Slow Version) or you can listen to the Beer company's Slowed Down Tracks playlist.

Free Download Friday #76: Motörhead play the Blues

Last week it was cars (see Free Download Friday #75: Green Police). This week it's beer. I wouldn't normally combine drinking and driving but in this case, I'm making an exception.

Mr. Lemmy Kilmister
Originally uploaded by Edvill

I am, however, sorry that this is the second advert associated free download in a row but this one was too good to miss. Motörhead have re-recorded Ace Of Spades for a beer commercial... and it sounds awesome.

They have slowed it right down, taken out the bass and added a harmonica. It has gone from a 90mph rock classic to a down and dirty Blues track. Lemmy's growls his way through the lyrics and sounds better than ever.

There has been a change to the lyrics too. After he sings, "I don't want to live for ever", there is a pause before he adds, "But apparently I am!"

Since it is being used in a beer advert, to get the track you have to enter a date of birth as well as giving a valid email address but it is a small price to pay to get access to this re-imagining of a classic!

I would love to hear a whole album of unplugged Bluesed-up versions of classic Motörhead tracks. I suspect it's not likely to happen but it would be fascinating if it did!

{Public health warning: If you are interested in living for ever; Lemmy is probably not the best role model!}

Update: A message from the beer people on the YouTube channel says:

"We've run out of downloads for the slow version of Ace of Spades! Working hard to get some more. Thanks for all your support and for digging the track. Follow us on Twitter @k1664slow for updates."

Well that's poor! I guess they completely underestimated how many people would want to download it. Silly Billies! You can still watch the ad on YouTube but it's not the same as getting the whole track for download. Sorry, clearly this is not my best ever Free Download Friday!

Update 2: A Twitter message posted Friday 12 November said they have made another 10,000 available. Go get one while they last!

Where do I get my music?

I occasionally buy new albums online or in music shops. (I try to avoid supermarkets. I'd rather support shops like Fopp - even though they are no longer independent. I like physically browsing through stacks of CDs - something you don't really get to do online or in supermarkets.) I also pick up a fair few CDs in charity shops. (Latest finds being A Crow Left Of The Murderand Victorat £1.99 each.) However, for the last year and a bit, the place I've bought most of my new music is eMusic.



With eMusic, the focus on independent music rather than the big mainstream labels but there is still a huge range of stuff to choose from and they do have are some big names. (Although, it pays to do a bit of checking first as some of the downloads are obscure live recordings or dodgy "before they were famous" stuff.) A year on and I still have no problem downloading 75 tracks per month and have a backlog of albums that I want to download next.

Here are a few of my favourite finds so far to give you a flavour of what's there:

Rainbow Live in Munich: Pretty much the definitive Rainbow line up as far as I'm concerned and with some extraordinarily long tracks, you get a lot of musical bang for your download buck!

Joe Bonamassa - Sloe Gin: Sorry to keep going on about this... but Joe Bonamassa is currently my most listened to artist.

Chris Whitley - Dirt Floor: Painfully stark, stripped down acoustic Blues. Beautiful!

Motörhead-Motörizer: Loads of Motörhead stuff is available on eMusic including this, their most recent.

If you find yourself stuck for ideas, get back to me and I'll give you some more suggestions such as Thin Lizzy, EndeverafteR and Lethargy. As well as bucket loads of old Blues.

The best thing about eMusic though is that you can sign up, download fifty tracks for free. Then, if you don't like the look of what you see, you can cancel your subscription and keep the fifty tracks you've already downloaded.

With fifty tracks to gain, what have you got to lose?