Digging for good stuff is part of our job description, but we did so much of it in the run-up to Flatpack that I think we blew a fuse which left us good for nothing more than cake-consumption and slack-jawed channel-hopping. For some reason the hunger returned this week, so here’s my current top 5 by way of Friday afternoon distraction…

1) Buster Keaton shorts
Bloody superb box-set of all Keaton’s shorts between 1917 and 1923. Can be got here at the bargain price of £20.

2) Cambodian pop
This was actually flavour of the office last year, yesterday resurrected by our discovery of LA-based surf-rockers and Cambodian covers band Dengue Fever. They play the Scala in London next month, and look out for their road-trip documentary Sleepwalking Through the Mekong. If you want to hear the originals – and believe me, you do – then go download the Cambodian Rocks compilation from WFMU, or a home-made alternative at The Horse Drawn Zeppelin.

3) Birmingham super prix
In anticipation of a guest-turn at the 24 Hour Scalextric being put together by Stans Cafe next month (on which, more next week), we have been delving into the history and hearsay surrounding Birmingham’s brief hey-day as the UK’s only legal city-centre street-race. This youtube clip from 1989 is nice and tense.

4) Glückskugel
Discovered for £7 in Rise, Warwick Arts Centre’s great little record shop (it’s like Fopp never went bust). One of the earliest releases by Andy Votel’s Finders Keepers label, a half-hour assortment of proto-techno, quirky mood music and machine noises composed by Bruno Spoerri.

5) Roy Andersson
Currently beating Lukas Moodysson hands-down for the title of Sweden’s Greatest Living Director. Finally I caught up with Songs from the Second Floor, and like pretty much everything else by Andersson it’s ideal viewing for anyone contemplating social meltdown. Strangely enough he has also made a good living out of directing adverts – here’s a selection: