Yankee Swap 2008: "The Future"

The theme of this year's Yankee Swap was THE FUTURE. I was very pleased when a CD-R of my mix got "swapped" several times around the party!

When I first thought of this idea, all I had in mind was "In The Year 2525" by Zager & Evans, "Mr Roboto" by Styx, and "The Body Electric" by Rush. I had an OK first draft done when I asked my lovely wife for her perspective. She thought it was too focused on robots and spaceships, and she started suggesting songs about "things that will happen someday" which are NOT sci-fi oriented. Her ideas vastly improved the mix, as you will see...

1. Battlestar Galactica Theme: My brother used this song (from the classic 1970s TV show) as his wedding ceremony recessional theme. I kid you not.
2. "1999" Prince: A 26-year-old song, about partying 9 years ago, IS about the future.
3. "Fly Like An Eagle" Steve Miller Band, aka "Time keeps on slippin, slippin, slippin... into the future!"
4. "Until The End of the World": My wife thought of this one.
5. "Robots [live]" From the Flight of the Conchords CD THE DISTANT FUTURE: 'It is the distant future. The year 2000.'
6. "The Body Electric" Rush
7. "Someday I Suppose" I found this Mighty Mighty Bosstones song because it's next to "Someday, Someway" in my iTunes.
8. "My Science Fiction Twin" Elvis Costello: Another suggestion from my wife.
9. "The Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades" Timbuk 3
10. I found the Leonard Cohen song "The Future", from the Natural Born Killers soundtrack, by searching for FUTURE in iTunes.
11. I bought the Flaming Lips song "One More Robot/Sympathy 3000-21" especially for this mix,
12. "Robot Chicken Theme" The show Robot Chicken isn't actually about the future per se, but this Les Claypool instrumental is short and fun.
13. "Pets" by Porno for Pyros song is perfect for this mix. I first heard this song as Beavis & Butthead were watching the video for it on MTV!
14. "In The Year 2525" The words to this Zager & Evans hit are kinda weird!
15. "Robot Parade" There were many They Might Be Giants songs to choose from.
16. "Mr. Roboto" Styx
17. The Jetsons Theme: I could not find the original theme song on iTunes, so I settled for this barely-better-than Casio keyboard recording.
18. "Attack El Robot! Attack!" Calexico
19. "When I'm Sixty Three and a Half" After the Beatles recorded "When I'm Sixty-Four" in late 1966, Paul McCartney, intending to make his voice sound "younger", asked producer George Martin to speed up the master tape, just enough to shift the key of the song a half-step sharp. To undo this change, I have pitch-shifted the song a half-step down (flat), to match the key in which McCartney originally sang it. The tempo has not been changed.)
20. "Someday We'll Know" New Radicals
21. "Someday, Someway" Marshall Crenshaw
22. "My Flying Saucer" Billy Bragg & Wilco
23. Star Trek Theme
24. "Tomorrow Never Knows" The Beatles

Two Minutes, 42 seconds

As I write this, I am listening to a mix of songs which only have one thing in common- they're all 2 minutes, 42 seconds long. There's this internet "meme" going around which says that 2:42 is a "magic number" for great songs, so I'm putting it to the test. I sorted my entire iTunes library by length (13,000 songs). Then I selected ALL the songs which clock in at 2:42. Then I weeded it down to about 30 songs, down to a small group of songs or bands I especially like. I haven't sequenced this group at all. Here's the result:

• "Under The Boardwalk" The Drifters
• "Streets of Fire" New Pornographers
• "Lighten Up" Beastie Boys
• "Oceans" Pearl Jam
• "September Gurls" The Bangles
• "The Way You Do The Things You Do" The Temptations
• "In My Room" Grant Lee Buffalo
• "Divine Hammer" The Breeders
• "Sheila Take a Bow" The Smiths
• "Revolving Dora" Fountains of Wayne
• "Leggy Blonde" Flight of the Conchords
• "Lovely Rita" The Beatles
• "Poison Ivy" The Coasters
• "May Queen" Liz Phair
• "Come See About Me" Supremes
• "Rome Wasn't Built In A Day" Nick Lowe
• "Don't Worry Baby" Beach Boys
• "From Small Things (Big Things One Day Come)" Bruce Springsteen
• "Pictures of Lily" The Who
• "I Second That Emotion" Smokey Robinson & The Miracles
• "You Never Can Tell" Chuck Berry
• "Go Home" Barenaked Ladies
• "California Dreamin'" The Mamas & Papas
• "Teen Beat" Fleetwood Mac

Not surprisingly, the mix leans heavily on the early 1960s, and the 1970s and 1980s are barely present!

119: ROCK You Can Believe In

Use of my iPod's "Shuffle Songs" tool continues to heavily influence my song selection: letting pure chance pick out great unknown songs from my favorite bands is paying dividends!

1. "Dropped" Phantom Planet: A great kick-off song. I find a lot of new songs and new artists these days from the soundtracks of TV shows. For example, NBC's action-comedy Chuck includes a lot of alt-rock music on the soundtrack. But where do I go when I want to hear more from the band whose song was featured in that chase sequence? Most popular shows have fansites which list songs from each episode. I love the Internet!
2. "Sarayushka" Andy West, Henry Kaiser, & Michael Maksymenko: This is a faithful cover of the ZZ Top song "La Grange", sung in Russian. The LP is called Crazy Backwards Alphabet. In college, I was the host of a radio show Gyroscope on WERS-FM Boston, which featured world music, plus all sorts of avant garde jazz, and whatever else the college DJs felt like. Having no world music background, I specialized in covers of classic rock: The Gipsy Kings covering "Hotel California" in Spanish, Tito Puente covering "Day Tripper", A polka rendition of "People Are Strange", a bluegrass cover of "Brain Damage", and this nugget.
3. "Wild Rock Music!" is a mashup: Madonna singing "Music" over Steppenwolf's "Born To Be Wild". Mashed up by smash@mash-ups.co.uk
4. "27 Jennifers": Mike Doughty is the former lead singer of Soul Coughing. The singles off his solo CDs (this song is from Golden Delicious) are decidedly more "poppy" and less "out there" than Soul Coughing (which I appreciate!)
5. "Should've Been In Love" from Wilco's debut album A.M.
6. "Sweet Soul Dream" World Party: All my favorite contemporary bands in high school were heavily Beatles-influenced, including World Party. I found this track thanks to my iPod's "Shuffle Songs" setting.
7. "Nobody's Child", The Traveling Wilburys donated this maudlin track to Nobody's Child, a CD to benefit Romanian orphans.
8. "Debra" An exceedingly silly "white soul" classic from Beck.
9. "Smile On" Deee-Lite
10. "Proto-Pretty", The Wondermints were a one-hit wonder. I found this song on the Power Pop collection Poptopia.
11. "My Bird Performs", XTC: I did not like the XTC album Nonsuch at first, but it's grown on me.
12. "Great DJ", The Ting Tings: I heard this song featured on the podcast of a good friend of mine. Check out Radio Free Jersey.
13. "Something Beautiful": Back in the late 1990s, I was a big fan of Tracy Bonham's first two albums, The Burdens of Being Upright and Down Here, but I had lost track of her over the last decade. I went on iTunes and bought a few more recent tracks of hers, including this gem.
14. "The Twist", Frightened Rabbit: This song (also featured on the TV show Chuck) needs a better arrangement, but it's catchy nonetheless.
15. "Dance Me to the End of Love": All I know about Madeline Peyroux is that she sounds just like Billie Holliday.
16. "Dark Side of Night": Foxboro Hot Tubs are a "secret" side project of Green Day. They're going for a mid-1960s garage rock sound here.
17. "Borrowing Time", Aimee Mann
18. "You Don't Know Me", Ben Folds featuring Regina Spektor: There aren't many artists whose CDs I will buy automatically when they come out. Aimee Mann and Ben Folds are on the list. This Ben Folds song, a duet with Regina Spektor, is insanely catchy. The album, Way To Normal, is hit-or-miss, but the several gems make up for some underbaked dross. I think I mixed too many metaphors there!
19. "Chelsea Dagger", The Fratellis: Also known as "the song from that Amstel Light commercial."
20. "The 20th Century Is Over", Ellis Paul: My wife and her parents are huge Ellis Paul fans. I think he's great too, but I am still getting to know his stuff, including this dark, non-folky track from his album Sweet Mistakes.
21. "Fake Empire" The National: This song was featured on at least one Obama campaign video, including the one played in Chicago soon before Barack stepped onstage on Election Night. My friend Julie heard it and identified it for us. Obama's campaign slogan CHANGE YOU CAN BELIEVE IN was the inspiration for this mix's title.

118: I Hear The Bells

1. Aye Davanita - Pearl Jam. I found this brief instrumental from Vitalogy thanks to the Shuffle Songs feature on my iPod.
2. Watch The Sunrise - Big Star. Ditto.
3. Viva La Vida - Coldplay. Another iPod commercial song!
4. Use It (live) - The New Pornographers perform one of my favorite songs of theirs (an iTunes exclusive.)
5. You Can Call Me Late - Paul Simon. I went to a wedding this summer where the awesome wedding band played "You Can Call Me Al" followed by "Late in the Evening." A few months later, as I deejayed a birthday party for a friend, I cross-faded these two songs together, right at the bass solo in "Al." The birthday girl had danced at the wedding, so I hoped she would get a kick out of dancing to these two songs again. It worked!
6. Hanging Upside Down - David Byrne. Another iPod shuffle discovery.
7. Too Much of Nothing - Peter, Paul and Mary. Ditto.
8. Why Do You Let Me Stay Here? - She & Him.
9. Celebrity Sanctum - Dogs Die in Hot Cars. Another iPod shuffle discovery. DDIHC are also known as "That Band That Sounds Exactly Like XTC. Seriously, It's Uncanny."
10. Good Times - Hoodoo Gurus, featuring The Bangles on backup vocals. The Bangles have also contributed backing vocals to a Tom Petty song, "Waiting For Tonight."
11. I Hear The Bells - Mike Doughty.
12. Stars & Planets - Liz Phair.
13. Shine - Tracy Bonham was a alt-rock star for one season in the Alanis Morrisette Era, with her song "Mother Mother". I have two of her CDs, and I am glad to hear she's still making music.
14. High & Dry - Jamie Cullum
15. I Feel It All - Feist
16. I Still Want You - The Del Fuegos. I found the Del Fuegos' LP Boston, Mass. at a hipster's yard sale in Arlington last summer. The Del Fuegos were one of those early 1980s rock bands who got signed to a major label, put out one LP, and were never heard from again. Every local music scene has that band which "shoulda been a contender", but never caught anyone's attention at the national level. The Del Fuegos have become a footnote to lead singer Dan Zanes' successful second careeer as a children's music star.
17. Scare Easy - Mudcrutch. This boring Tom Petty song is from his reunion-ized early 1970s band Mudcrutch.
18. F.N.T. - Semisonic. I read the rock memoir from the drummer of Semisonic. Titled "So You Want to be A Rock & Roll Star", it might as well have been called "Diary of a One-Hit Wonder." I like their music: their hit "Closing Time" might be my least-favorite song of theirs. After reading about the endless touring and promotional interviews for their singles, I felt obliged to buy a few of these songs from iTunes!
19. Sweet Sweet Baby (I'm Falling) - Lone Justice
20. Surfin' Bird - The Trashmen.

Sharon's Birthday Dance Party

Here's a playlist I assembled in preparation for a four-hour birthday dance party for my friends Sharon and Marc. Of course, there's no way to play 100 songs in four hours, so many of these songs didn't get played that night, but this was my roadmap for the night's voyage.

Instrumental Background Music: these ten instrumentals were set aside for the first hour when the guests were arriving.

1. Groove Holmes • Beastie Boys
2. Mick's Up • Style Council
3. Cantaloupe Island
4. Guero Canelo • Calexico
5. The Staunton Lick • Lemon Jelly
6. Untitled Instrumental • Bo Diddley
7. Flying • The Beatles
8. Homage to Patagonia • Lemon Jelly
9. S'il vous Plait • Fantastic Plastic Machine
10. Rodney Yates • David Holmes

Swing & Soul: It's important to play some golden oldies at the outset, to give the older early birds (parents, grandparents) something easy to dance to before they split.

11. A String of Pearls • Glenn Miller
12. Flip, Flop, and Fly • Big Joe Turner
13. Jump, Jive, and Wail • Louis Prima
14. Rock Around The Clock • Bill Haley & His Comets
15. Mustang Sally • Wilson Pickett
16. Lonely Teardrops • Jackie Wilson
17. Tequila • The Champs
18. Diner • Martin Sexton
19. Little Bitty Pretty One • Clyde McPhatter
20. Let's Stay Together • Al Green
21. Mr. Big Stuff • Jean Knight
22. Ruby Baby • The Drifters
23. Sweet Soul Music • Arthur Conley
24. Tears Dry on Their Own • Amy Winehouse
25. Birthday • The Beatles
26. Let's Get This Party Started • Black-Eyed Peas
27. Mr. Blue Sky • ELO
28. History Repeating • The Propellerheads featuring Shirley Bassey
29. My Sharona • The Knack
30. You Dropped a Bomb On Me • The Gap Band
31. Best of My Love • Emotions
32. I'm Coming Out • Diana Ross
33. What I Like About You • The Romantics
34. September • Earth, Wind, and Fire
35. Atomic Dog • George Clinton
36. If You Don't Know Me By Now • Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes
37. Take a Chance On Me • ABBA
38. Like A Virgin [ext dance mix] • Madonna
39. Faith • George Michael

Totally Eighties: Alternative & New Wave

40. Kiss Me On The Bus • The Replacements
41. This Charming Man • Smiths
42. Just Can't Get Enough • Depeche Mode
43. Bizarre Love Triangle • New Order
44. Tainted Love • Soft Cell
45. Don't You Want Me • Human League
46. The Safety Dance • Men Without Hats
47. Don't Bring Me Down • ELO
48. Borderline [new mix] • Madonna
49. Don't Stop Til You Get Enough • Michael Jackson
50. Wake Me Up Before You Go Go • Wham!
51. Love Shack • The B-52's

Hip Hop

52. Hey Ladies • The Beastie Boys
53. Bust A Move • Young MC
54. Me Myself and I • De La Soul
55. Fantastic Voyage • Coolio
56. Cantaloop • US3
57. Connected • Stereo MC's

Soul

58. Dashboard • Modest Mouse
59. Jackie Wilson Said • Van Morrison
60. The Underdog • Spoon
61. Everyday People • Sly & The Family Stone
62. Sly • The Cat Empire
63. Short Skirt, Long Jacket • Cake
64. Tenderness • General Public
65. Close To Me • The Cure
66. When The Stars Go Blue • Blake Lewis
67. Sexx Laws • Beck
68. Groove Is In The Heart • Deeee-Lite
69. Shotgun • Junior Walker & The All-Stars
70. Do You Love Me? • The Contours
71. Good Times • Chic
72. Come On Eileen • Dexy's Midnight Runners
73. Private Eyes • Hall & Oates
74. Soul Finger • The Bar-Kays
75. Night Fever • The Bee Gees
76. Waterloo • ABBA
77. Signed, Sealed, Delivered • Stevie Wonder
78. Hey Ya! • Outkast
79. Raspberry Beret • Prince & The Revolution
80. I Wanna Dance With Somebody • Whitney Houston
81. Machine Gun • Kool & The Gang
82. Superstition • Stevie Wonder
83. It Wouldnt Have Made Any Difference • Todd Rundgren
84. Ain't Too Proud To Beg • The Temptations
85. I Got Ants In My Pants • James Brown
86. Tears of A Clown • Smokey Robinson & The Miracles
87. Good Lovin' • The Rascals
88. You Can Call Me Al/Late In The Evening • Paul Simon
89. Suspicious Minds • Elvis Presley
90. Poison • Bel Biv Devoe
91. Creep • TLC

Last Call: The Party Wraps Up. Because I knew that I had over-scheduled the playlist, I set aside 10 songs for the end of the night. I went to this section when I discovered the "last gasp" of the party about to arrive.

92. Been Caught Stealing [12" remix] • Jane's Addiction
93. Love Rollercoaster • The Ohio Players
94. Rock Your Body • Justin Timberlake
95. Smile • Lily Allen
96. The Sweet Escape • Gwen Stefani
97. Music Is My Hot, Hot Sex • CSS
98. Get Ur Freak On • Missy Elliott
99. Dancing Queen • ABBA
100. Dancing With Myself • Billy Idol
101. Let's Go Crazy • Prince & The Revolution