So, it’s a lazy Saturday and I’m trying to use up my last remaining credits on emusic as, after many years of using the service I’ve decided to cancel my subscription: not because there’s anything wrong with it, just because I need to get rid of direct debits to my UK bank account. Rock & roll eh?

Anyway, whilst browsing around the ‘Recommended for you’ sections, and traipsing around my favourite record labels, my mind starts to wander down a variety of nostalgic musical cul-de-sacs, leading me to an attempt to try and track down a half-remembered but much loved track.

Ooh, there’s that Ride album my old housemate had but I never bought, I wonder what other 90s indie they have. Ooooh, what was the name of that band, they had that song, was it Felt? No, Denim? No, House of Love (damn, they have no House of Love), fuck, I wish I could Shazam the inside of my head*.

Frustrated by the inability for me to vocalise the snippets of song playing in my mind, I decided to see if last.fm would be able to work out what I meant by checking related artists for Denim and, after scrolling through several pages, I came across Gene and decided that the track I had been trying to remember was their epic paeon to The Smiths Olympian, with its beautifully pretentious use of the French pronunciation of the word formidable.

Having tracked this down I ended up going on a splurge of mid-90s b-list indie classics. Step-up Shed Seven and Longpigs. All of which goes to show that in this era of the digital record rack treasures abound  for those of us who enjoy serendipity and also show that despite all the quasi-idealogical claims of the P2P fans, music has never been as cheap and there really are no reasons not to pay for what you listen to.

Oh yeah, and RIP Jaamit, from all accounts a modern Olympian.

Olympus photo by Christine Zenino on flickr

*I really did say I wish I could Shazam the inside of my head and I do.