your favourite few seconds...

the parts where the drumbeat starts again ater the false endings in "Overkill" (Motorhead).

In James Brown's "Escape-Ism," the rising series of snare cracks signaling the chord change right after James yells "Get DOWN!"

"You're quite hostile . . ." "I got a right to be hostile man, my people been persecuted!"

With the snare coming in during the the second part of the sample and the beat and scratching kicking in right after . . . it's probably the best beginning of any rap song ever.

The way the guitar sounds at the beginning of the Stones' "Time Is On My Side." This has never been a song that I particularly cared about, but putting on Hot Rocks today for the first time in months, I marvelled at how much...CHARACTER, for lack of a better word, is in that guitar. He's (Keith or Brian?) not even playing especially hard notes, and the tune isn't much of anything, but the way they come together right there, the tone, the feel, is exquisite. It reminds me of a bird taking off, it has that strange unreal grace about it. Then the rest of the song comes in, and it's okay, pretty catchy, but I live for those first five or six seconds alone.

Various moments in "Ballad Of A Thin Man." The opening piano notes; the jaded, cruel voice Dylan finds for the song; the way he sings "OH MY GOD, am I here all alone?"

It's old news, but it never quite goes away.

Joy Div - "Shadowplay" from Les Temps Modernes. The bit after the bass-led intro where the guitar and drums come crashing in. Brutal.

23 Skidoo - "Coup".After the 2-basses, guitar and drums set-up the groove, the Aswad horn section steams in!

I also love the guitar solo in "Drinking & Drivin'" by Black Flag - because it sounds like a car wreck.

..and the feedback at the beginning of "Anthrax" by Gang of Four.

EVER? Well....

"A morning oddyssey" (and no I can't be bothered to spell it right) by the Sea Urchins, after two and a half minutes of loveliness, the song starts to revolves around a lovely Bm - E groove and from out of nowhere both James and Patrick Roberts start singing strange harmonies on either side of the stereo spectrum, you can't really make out what they're singing, but it sounds OK, and then at 3:32 they both sing "Do you know?" perfectly in tune, and with such an inflection of "Because WE do" and then the music continues grooving away for another minute, but it's that "Do you know?" that is probably my favourite 'moment' of any song.

As to currently, well the above because I'm playing the Delta album a lot this week and they were the Sea Urchins so... otherwise... for now, here's one from something I played today.

The very very end of "Found a little baby" by Plush, the song dies away and then there's this organ chord from nowhere, hit almost by accident, but it finishes the song 'just so'.

when the strings overtake the track at the end of Mouse on Mars "Paradical"; and

when the voices begin to chant the chorus of the Boredoms' "Super Shine". Holy fuck, that is a powerful moment. Might be my favorite few seconds of recorded sound.

Anytime Low sing 'Dinosaur act'

Mudhoney opening line to In'n'out of grace ... 'Jesus take to me to higher plain'

Any tens seconds you care to show me of Sliver by Nirvana

The Frogs when they finally get to 'tits coming off the backside, 69 to be exact' from He had the change

What a good thread to follow

"All" by the Descendants.
the "aaaaaaaAAAAAAAhhhhHHHWhambamthankyouma'am" from "Ziggy Stardust" by David Bowie.
The last verse & outro of "Just Like Heaven" by the Cure. The "...to People Like me, THERE IS NO ORDER!" from Problems, by the Sex Pistols.

It's from Sufragette City!

-- daniel

haha! so true!