135 Calamity Music

1. "We Belong" Big Daddy's Pizza in Brighton has good pizza, excellent hot sandwiches, tasty fried dough bites, the best crab rangoons, and a dance remix of this Pat Benatar on their "hold" music.
   
2. "Every Little Kiss" I have wanted this Bruce Hornsby & The Range CD for twenty-five years. The drums and synths sound super-dated, but I don't even care anymore.
   
3. "Crash And Burn" The synths on this 'til tuesday song also sound dated, but Aimee Mann is so terrific, I have been trying to squeeze this song onto a mix for 10 years.
4. "Dawned On Me" My favorite song from Wilco's new album The Whole Love.
   
5. "Secret Smile" I have been a fan of Semisonic even since I read the drummer's memoir of their one-hit wonder moment in the spotlight: So You Want to Be a Rock & Roll Star. This ballad has that post-Achtung Baby "One" production sound.
   
6. "She's The One" When I heard this World Party song on the radio, I was immediately reminded of...
   
7. "Still Fighting It" Ben Folds
   
8. "Kiss From A Rose" When I was a radio DJ in 1994, I played this Seal song on the radio at least 6 times a week for six months, so naturally, I spent most of the last 17 years avoiding it. However, the karaoke version on Community cracks me up and has resurrected the song for me.
9. "Crazy On You" Heart: The classical guitar intro fits nicely with the baroque feel of the Seal song.
10. "Calamity Song" I love every song on The Decemberists new album The King Is Dead. This is the latest favorite. Andalusian tribes, indeed! Fits nicely with the "end of the world" 2012 Mayan baloney going around these days.
    
11. "Romance" I used to play this R.E.M. song on the radio when I was in high school. It's from their "best of" album Eponymous, released at the end of their contract with IRS records. According to the sleeve notes, the song "used a microsecond in the still despairing Alan Rudolph's 1987 film "Made In Heaven".
    
12. "Never There" CAKE
    
13. "Crazy Love, Vol. II" Paul Simon
    
14. "Long, Long, Long" The Beatles
    
15. "I'll Be Back" I forget where I heard that Shawn Colvin covered this obscure Beatles track. She only released it on her Best Of collection, but, in the era of iTunes, you don't have to buy a Best Of collection to get the one new song anymore!

MELLOW GOLD Collection

The track listing of the three-LP collection MELLOW GOLD. The magic of the Internet: for only $33 (minus whatever songs you already own) you can recreate this collection with mildewy sleeve and no changing the platter five times! I think I have 14 of these songs already, so, assuming nothing's out of print, I am $19 away from bringing this collection BACK TO LIFE!

Side 1

"Sundown" Gordon Lightfoot
"Midnight at the Oasis" Maria Muldaur
"I Say a Little Prayer for You" Aretha Franklin
"Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye" The Casinos
"Long Train Running" The Doobie Brothers

Side 2
"You Were on My Mind" We Five
"Sunshine" Jonathan Edwards
"Cherish" The Association
"Hey Jude" Wilson Pickett
"Ma Belle Amie" The Tee Set
"That’s the Way I Always Heard it Should Be" Carly Simon

Side 3
"S.O.S." ABBA
"How Can I Be Sure?" The Rascals
"I’d Like to Get to Know You" Spanky and Our Gang
"Everybody’s Talkin’" Nilsson
"My Special Angel" the Vogues
"Love the One You’re With" Stephen Stills

Side 4
"Anticipation" Carly Simon
"Dock of the Bay" Otis Redding
"Doctor My Eyes" Jackson Browne
"Feel Like Makin’ Love" Roberta Flack
"One of a Kind (Love Affair)" The Spinners

Side 5
"Summer Breeze" Seals & Crofts
"Baby, I’m Yours" Barbara Lewis
"Hello, It’s Me" Todd Rundgren
"Send in the Clowns" Judy Collins
"She’s Gone" Daryl Hall and John Oates
"(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" Aretha Franklin

Side 6
"Fallin’ in Love" The Souther, Hillman, Furay Band
"Good Time Charlie’s Got the Blues" Danny O’Keefe
"Baby Don’t Go" Sonny and Cher
"Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love to Town" Kenny Rogers & The First Edition
"Everything That Touches You" The Association

When I Was Eleven: 1983

This is not a "my favorite songs from 1983" playlist. This is a "when I was eleven, this is what I listened to" mix. I even think I thought "Der Kommissar" and "Major Tom" were the same song. If I ever heard a mashup of those two, my brain might melt.

1. "Der Kommissar" After The Fire
2. "Major Tom (Coming Home)" Peter Schilling
3. "Break My Stride" Matthew Wilder
4. "I Can't Go For That (No Can Do)" Daryl Hall & John Oates
5. "Bang The Drum All Day" Todd Rundgren
6. "Steppin' Out"    Joe Jackson
7. "She Blinded Me With Science" Thomas Dolby
8. "Who Can It Be Now?" Men At Work
9. "Only Time Will Tell" Asia
10. "Rosanna" Toto
11. "Tainted Love"    Soft Cell

When I Was Ten: 1982

This playlist represents what I remember about pop music just before I began to pick what I wanted to listen to for myself. Basically this is music I was exposed to by my mother, and by whatever Top 40 radio managed to break through to a boy who didn't listen to the radio yet.
I was ten years old in 1982. The mix for 1983 is much, much different.

1. "Gloria" Laura Branigan
   
2. "Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song" B.J. Thomas
   
3. "Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue" Crystal Gayle
   
4. "When I'm Sixty-Four" is the first song I remember singing with my mother. We would go on to harmonize on several other Beatles songs, including "If I Fell"
   
5. "Elvira" Oak Ridge Boys
   
6. "Rainy Days And Mondays" The Carpenters
   
7. "Take Me Home, Country Roads" John Denver
   
8. "Danny's Song" Anne Murray
   
9. "Leaving On A Jet Plane" Peter, Paul & Mary
   
10. "Monday, Monday" The Mamas & The Papas
    
11. "Flowers on the Wall" The Statler Brothers
    
12. "The Boxer" Simon & Garfunkel
    
13. "You Should Hear How She Talks About You" Melissa Manchester
    
14. "Back In Baby's Arms" Patsy Cline
    
15. "A Boy Named Sue" Johnny Cash
    
16. "Theme From Greatest American Hero (Believe It Or Not)" Joey Scarbury

There should probably be some Ricky Nelson and Barbara Mandrell in there too- I distinctly remember their well-coiffed photos on the covers of their Greatest Hits LPs.

Concert Souvenirs?

It's always nice when my favorite band releases an official live album to accompany a tour I attended. And every once in awhile an actual performance I saw is recorded and released. These days it's easier than ever for a band to make every recording available. Three concerts I went to were recorded and released on offical live albums:

"Eleanor Rigby" live at the Worcester Centrum February 9, 1990 
Paul McCartney: Tripping The Live Fantastic

Unlike the contemporary trend towards releasing an entire concert from one night, McCartney recorded many dates of his 1990 tour. The resulting two-disc live album appears to select the best recording of each performance from the rigid set list. The result? The 37-track album was recorded in ninteen different cities. For example, eight tracks are from an eleven-night series at Wembley Arena, but they're from five different nights, and no two songs from the same night are presented together. I has a great time at the show (I had just turned 18, and had been a rabid Beatles fan for exactly 30 months) even if the Rolling Stone concert review spoiled all the surprises in the set-in-stone set list.
In the spring of 1990, six months before Tripping was released, while in New York City on a school trip, I visited a Greenwich Village record store and bought a three-LP bootleg recorded in Los Angeles the previous autumn. The bootleg was pressed on white vinyl with red, white, and blue spin-art designs in the vinyl. (photos to come)

Pearl Jam live at the Orpheum Theater Boston, April 12, 1994
The best rock concert I ever attended was the penultimate date of the 1994 Vs. tour. Thanks to my friend Meg (Goldstein) Chapman, who sold me her tickets. The show, when they finally started, was amazing. Mudhoney was the opening act, then there was a long interval (at least 45-60 mins) before Pearl Jam came on. I remember loving "Go" and "Animal" and the new song "Not for You". In 2011, Pearl Jam released a three-CD Deluxe Edition of Vs. including a full CD of the Orpheum show. Due to size constraints, the disc leaves out a third of the set list:

Included

• Oceans
  
• Even Flow
  
• Sonic Reducer (Dead Boys cover)
  
• Immortality
  
• Glorified G
  
• Daughter
  
• Not For You
  
• Rats
  
• Blood
  
• Release
  
• Tremor Christ
  
• Once
  
• Fuckin' Up (Neil Young cover)
  
• Dirty Frank
  
• Rearviewmirror
  
• Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town
  

Excluded

• State Of Love And Trust
  
• Hard to Imagine
  
• Go
  
• Animal
  
• Alone
  
• Better Man
  
• Yellow Ledbetter
• I've Got a Feeling (The Beatles cover).

Ben Folds Live at Avalon June 8, 2002
June 8, 2002, three months before we would meet for the first time, my future wife and I would both attend this Ben Folds solo show at the former Avalon nightclub in Boston. It was a lot of fun, even if I am not a fan of the Reinhold Messner album.  The live album recorded during that tour features a photo taken at our show (I am not pictured) At least one song from the CD or limited edition bonus DVD was recorded on the night we attended.

Seventies Easy Rock

Also known as "Yacht Rock", this is another great mix from my wife.

1.    “Operator (That's Not the Way It Feels)” Jim Croce
2.    “How Much I Feel” Ambrosia
3.    “On and On” Stephen Bishop
4.    “Sara Smile” Daryl Hall & John Oates
5.    “After the Love Has Gone” Earth, Wind & Fire
6.    “Dance with Me” Orleans
7.    “We'll Never Have to Say Goodbye Again”, and
8.    “I'd Really Love to See You Tonight”
England Dan & John Ford Coley
9.    “I Keep Forgettin'” Michael McDonald
10.    “This Is It” Kenny Loggins
11.    “Just Remember I Love You” Firefall
12.    “Sailing” Christopher Cross
13.    “Summer Breeze” Seals & Crofts
14.    “I Love a Rainy Night” Eddie Rabbitt
15.    “Steal Away” Robbie Dupree
16.    “Lotta Love” Nicolette Larson
17.    “Arthur's Theme” [live]  Christopher Cross
18.    “Baby Come Back” Player
19.    “Listen to the Music” The Doobie Brothers
20.    “Take It Easy” [live & acoustic] Jackson Browne

134 Mayhem

 

1. "Twenty-Five Miles" Edwin Starr (1969), or, as my wife put it, "that song from Adventures In Babysitting"
   
2. "Junk Of The Heart (Happy)" The Kooks
   
3. "Cold Comfort Flowers" Fountains of Wayne
   
4. "Hammer And A Nail" Indigo Girls
   
5. Upon listening to "Careful" by Guster last month, I was immediately reminded of "Hammer and a Nail"
6. "Mayhem" great muscular arrangement and sassy vocals by Imelda May.
   
7. Eurythmics "Would I Lie To You?" This song (from Be Yourself Tonight) has always been one of my favorite rave-up fast driving songs. I found this extended edit on a 12 inch single. As far as I can tell, it's the same mix as the LP, but it doesn't fade out until 25 seconds later.
   
8. Pearl Jam "Jeremy" [2009 Remix] Thinking about this song a lot lately as "Pumped Up Kicks" has been all over the airwaves.
   
9. Gomez: "How We Operate" I love the loud-and-soft dynamics. Reminds me of Led Zeppelin?
   
10. "Lost In My Mind" The Head And The Heart
    
11. "Ramble On" Led Zeppelin
    
12. "It's Only Natural" Crowded House
    
13. "Stripped" A cover of the Depeche Mode song from Duncan Sheik's Eighties Covers LP.
    
14. "Outta Mind (Outta Sight)" Wilco
    
15. "Candy" from Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers' MOJO LP.
    
16. "For You Blue" The Beatles
    
17. "She Walks In So Many Ways" As soon as I heard this new Jayhawks song on the radio, I immediately knew (by the two-part harmonies) that it was the Jayhawks, and I knew I wanted to buy it!
    
18. "As for Now" Another "thanks to SoundHound" find. This song by newcomer Lindsay Rae Spurlock (the EP is called Heart On) was featured on the Adult Swim show Childrens Hospital. I held my smartphone up to the speaker, triggered SoundHound, and her name popped up!
19. David Bowie "Modern Love" Nile Rodgers is one of my favorite producers, definitely my favorite producer of the 1980s. Love his drum sound.
    
20. The Cadillacs "Speedo" Recently picked up the soundtrack CD for...anyone, anyone? GoodFellas.
    
21. "You're The Inspiration" At the Beelzebubs' chapel show at Tufts Homecoming Weekend, the Bubs performance of this Chicago classic (from Chicago 17) was a highlight. Of course, the song is old enough to be the prom theme of the Beelzebubs' parents! Aiee!

133 Paradise by The "C"

1. "Cissy Strut" The Meters (1969) The squeaky hi-hat pedal is practically it's own instrument!
2. "Stranded In A Limousine" Paul Simon, a 'new' song from his Greatest Hits, etc. (1977)
3. "Options" Gomez
4. "Don't Play No Game That I Can't Win" Beastie Boys featuring Santigold this terrific song from Hot Sauce Committee Part Two is my nominee for Summer Song of 2011, but I think Lady Gaga's "Edge of Glory" may have edged them out.
5. "Gimme All Your Lovin" ZZ Top
6. "Rumour Has It" I didn't dream that Adele could equal the power of "Rolling in the Deep", but she did! I was blown away when I first heard this on the radio.The lyrics! drums! handclaps! backing vocals! Wow.
7. "Hangman Jury" Aerosmith
   and
   
8. "Barton Hollow" The Civil Wars, two swampy songs together.
9. "I'm A King Bee" The Rolling Stones, as heard on the cop show Memphis Beat. A brief aside: Memphis Beat (starring Jason Lee as a Memphis PD detective by day, blues singer by night) is an old-school cop/detective show. It feels like an old Simon & Simon episode. But, they spend a lot of money on music clearances for bands like The Rolling Stones. Actually, now that I think of it, Jason Lee's last show, My Name Is Earl, had lots of brand-name rock music too.
10. "Monday Monday" Matthew Sweet & Susanna Hoffs, or, as we sing it to our son: "Mango Mango"
11. "If You Love Somebody (Set Them Free)" This William Orbit remix removes all of Sting's jazz trappings in favor of a synth-heavy dance groove. All of Brandford Marsalis's saxophone is gone.
12. "Just Another Night" I heard this Ian Hunter song, from his LP You're Never Alone With A Schizophrenic, and thought it sounded like a Bruce Springsteen song. Turns out I'm half right: the recording features Roy Bittan (keyboards) Garry Tallent (bass) and Max Weinberg (drums) from the E Street band.
13. "Freeway of Love" [Extended Remix] Aretha Franklin featuring Clarence Clemons - One of Clarence's best guest spots.
14. "Did It In A Minute" Daryl Hall & John Oates - the arrangement is a little overcomplicated, but the hook is solid. Maybe their biggest hit which didn't make it onto the 1983 Rock N Soul Pt 1 which I listened to 1,000,000 times as a teenager.I heard this song for the first time when I took their LP Private Eyes (1981) out of the Topsfield Town Library. Yes kids, these things HAPPENED.
15. "If I Can't Change Your Mind" (Solo Mix) Sugar - This is one of my favorite songs of the 1990s, so when it was selected for the Onion A/V Club's Undercover series, I was excited. The A/V Club invites bands to visit their office a cover a song from a pre-selected list. Somehow, Bob Mould visited and covered his own Sugar song, then, the Decemberists visited and covered it too. Since I can't buy these songs on MP3, I've added the solo mix of "If I Can't Change Your Mind" to my mix-- the B-side which singer Colin Meloy cites as his favorite.
16. "I Might" Wilco, the first single from their upcoming album The Whole Love
17. "China Grove" [live at the Greek Theater 1982] The Doobie Brothers
18. "Paradise By The "C" [live at the Roxy] Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band 

The Big Man 1942-2011

132 DJ Zoomba

One of my favorite apps on my Android phone is SoundHound- the app listens to music and identifies it for you. Just press one button, hold the phone up to the speaker, and presto! This is super-handy for identifying songs from the radio, incidental music from TV and movies, and in public spaces. Once it IDs the song, I simply press "bookmark", then I can go back later and buy the songs wherever I want. Unlimited uses are free, so perhaps I overuse it, but the novelty has not worn off yet.

1. "Breaking The Girl" Anna Nalick sings that song "Breathe (3AM)" which I included in my last mix. I found her cover of the Red Hot Chili Peppers' song while buying the "Breathe" song on Amazon.
2. "Tree By The River" Iron & Wine
3. "Clocks" An amazing salsa-ification of the Coldplay recording by something called 'Rhythms Del Mundo'. It's not a cover- more like a remix.
4. "Quattro (World Drifts In)" Calexico, from their album Feast Of Wire.
5. "Untitled" [live] Shockra: One of the coolest experiences of my Emerson College experience was working at WERS. One of the cool experiences of that cool experience is my three-year association with the world-funk-jazz combo Shockra. I was a host and manager of the world music show Gyroscope, and Shockra became our favorite band. We played their music every day, mostly from promo cassettes, we saw them live a dozen times across town, and they came to the studio to perform live in the studio regularly. In 1993 we released a live CD, which included this epic 10 minute track, maybe Shockra's most ambitious song. I was thrilled to be sitting in the studio for the recording, as the host of that day's live music. After their encore, the crowd in the control room went apoplectic; at the end of the CD you can hear (21-year-old) me "out-troduce" the song, then open the control room door to let in the applause.
6. "Let The Light In" I don't know anything about Bob Schneider, but I heard this song on the radio, and it has a nice thumb-piano part.
7. "Sound And Vision" from David Bowie's Low (1977). Fun fact: David Bowie's lead vocal does not begin until exactly halfway through this three-minute song.
8. "Burning Down The House" this live performance, from Stop Making Sense, is far superior to Talking Heads' studio recording.
9. "One Thing Leads to Another" The Fixx
10. "On Melancholy Hill" Gorillaz
11. "Les Yeux De Ton Pere" Fun story here: I used to play this Franco-Clash song ("Eyes of Your Father") from Les Negresses Vertes, regularly on WERS Gyroscope in the early 1990s. Fast forward to the MP3 era, the LP is out of print and the song is not available for 99c download. The song was also included in the movie French Kiss, and its soundtrack CD. I wasn't about to pay $17 for one song, but so I have kept my eye out for it--- until May 2011, when I finally found the French Kiss CD at a church tag sale. Persistence pays off!
12. "You, Now" I heard this Greg Laswell song on the "Adult Alternative" channel on my cable TV.
13. "Mandolin Rain" This recent live performance from Bruce Hornsby & The Noisemakers is a little too "jazzy" for me. I don't know if he has discarded most of the melodic hooks for artistic reasons, or because he's too old to hit the notes anymore, but it's not the same melody anymore.
14. "Sweet Love" Anita Baker
15. "Come and Find Me" Josh Ritter: As heard on the ABC-TV show Castle!
16. "To Kingdom Come" Passion Pit
17. "Jane Says" Jane's Addiction
18. "Time To Pretend" MGMT

(Some Titles Are) Parenthetical

The parenthetical song title is a unique phenomenon to music. Why do song titles have parens? This morning, I read a post on theawl.com with a list of 169 parenthetical song titles. Each title fits into a type:

• The title is too short/not descriptive, so they add more words "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)"
• The title is too long, so they chop it off "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)"
• The record label worries that people won't recognize the song they heard on the radio because the title is not the chorus. Sometimes these parens only appear on the 45, not the LP:

•  "Pride (In The Name of Love)"
• "Brass In Pocket (I'm Special)"
• "Train In Vain (Stand By Me)"

• Beck just being weird "Truckdrivin’ Neighbors Downstairs (Yellow Sweat)" 
• REM just being weird "Auctioneer (Another Engine)"
• Movie Theme Songs (Theme From "This Blog")
• Silly jokes "She Got the Goldmine (I Got the Shaft)"
• Completely arbitrary "Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)"

I have selected 75 parenthetical song titles, and severed the main title from the paren part. Print out this page, and try and match them back up again. Remember, some parens go in front, some at the end. Good luck! (Answers here).

December 1963	(500 Miles)
4th of July, Asbury Park	(All Night)
A Natural Woman	(And I Feel Fine)
Against All Odds	(And That's the Truth)
All Night Long	(Anthony's Song)
Bang A Gong	(Are Made of This)
Chelsea	(But I Like It)
Da Doo Ron Ron	(But I Won't Do That)
Died In Your Arms	(Come Out Tonight)
Don’t Forget Me	(Coming Home)
Don't Go Away Mad	(Don’t Go Back To)
Don't Know What You Got	(Don't Fear)
Don't You	(Enjoy What You Do)
Dude	(Everything I Do)
Earth Angel	(For Me)
Escape	(For My Love)
Exhale	(Forget About Me)
Falling in Love	(Get It On)
Fascination	(Gonna Be Alright)
Fight For Your Right	(I Can’t Get No)
Good Riddance	(I Don’t Want to Go to)
Happy Xmas	(I Feel Good)
He Hit Me	(I Just)
Higher and Higher	(I Like It)
I Believe	(I Think It's Going To Be A Long Long Time)
I Can't Go for That	(I'm Only Bleeding)
I Do It For You	(I'm Sorry)
I Got You	(Is Hard on the Knees)
I Knew You Were Waiting	(It Felt Like A Kiss)
I Never Loved a Man	(It's in His Kiss)
I Ran	(I've Been)
I Wanna Dance with Somebody	(I've Had)
I’m Gonna Be	(Just Go Away)
I'd Do Anything for Love	(Just Like)
I'd Lie for You	(Keep Feeling)
In Hammersmith Palais	(Let Me Be Your)
Instant Karma	(Looks Like a Lady)
Istanbul	(Man in Motion)
It’s The End of the World As We Know It	(Naive Melody)
It's Alright, Ma	(Nine to Five)
It's Only Rock 'n' Roll	(No Can Do)
Jump	(Not Constantinople)
Major Tom	(Not to Come)
Mama Told Me	(Oh, What A Night)
Money	(Pretty Young Thing)
Morning Train	(Put a Ring On It)
Movin' Out	(Sandy)
Norwegian Wood	(Say So Much)
P.Y.T .	(Shoop Shoop)
Peace, Love and Understanding	(Sittin' On)
Red Shoes	(So Far Away)
Rocket Man	(Take a Look at Me Now)
Rockville	(That's What I Want)
Rosalita	(The Angels Wanna Wear My)
Sad Songs	(The Final Acclaim)
Satisfaction	(The Piña Colada Song)
Searchin' So Long	(The Right Stuff)
Separate Ways	(The Way I Love You)
Single Ladies	(This Bird Has Flown)
So. Central Rain	(Till It's Gone)
St. Elmo’s Fire	(Time of Your Life)
Starting Over	(to Everything There Is a Season)
Sweet Dreams	(War Is Over)
Teddy Bear	(We All Shine On)
That's the Way	(What’s So Funny ‘Bout)
The Dock Of The Bay	(When He Walked Me Home)
The Reaper	(When I Fall in Love it Will Be Forever)
The Shoop Shoop Song	(When I’m Gone)
The Time of My LIfe	(White Man)
This Must Be the Place	(Who Loves Me)
Tonight's the Night	(Will You Be Mine)
Turn! Turn! Turn!	(Worlds Apart)
Wham Rap!	(You Gotta)...(To Party!)
You Got It	(You Make Me Feel Like)
You're in My Heart	(Your Love Has Lifted Me)

131 Spring Forward

1. "Got To Give It Up, Part 1" Marvin Gaye: From the campfire scene in Paul.
2. "Fun, Fun, Fun" Pharrell; From the movie Despicable Me.
3. "Old Days" Chicago
4. "Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five" Paul McCartney & Wings: Special version from the film One Hand Clapping, the first half showcases Paul's soulful solo vocal and piano, which then is spliced into the full final arrangement.
5. "Lasso" Phoenix
6. "Velcro Fly" ZZ Top has the same drum part as the "Lasso".
7. "F.M." Steely Dan
8. "Seven Chinese Brothers" R.E.M.
9. "I'm A Loser" The Beatles
10. "Victoria" I just saw The Old 97's play "Victoria" at a free show at SXSW.
11. "It's Bad You Know" R.L. Burnside
12. "Freeway" Aimee Mann
13. "Morning Moon" I am not saying I am going to become a superfan, but when I heard this song on the radio, I thought to myself "this is terrific! where has The Tragically Hip been all my life?"
14. "Dreams" Fleetwood Mac
15. "All Over The World" Electric Light Orchestra: the closing credits song from Paul, previously in the movie Xanadu.
16. "Loving You Is Easy" Sarah McLachlan: a pleasingly ordinary 4/4 chugging piano riff from Ms McLachlan.
17. "All My Nights I've Been Waiting [Liz Lemon's Theme] Tina Fey & Christopher Cross: what started as a gentle Christopher Cross joke on 30 Rock crossed over to reality when Mr Cross recorded an actual song based on the joke. When Worlds Collide!
18. "See The Lights" Simple Minds
19. "Breathe (2AM)" I learned Anna Nalick's name after holding my Android phone up to the radio and activating the SoundHound app.
20. "Good Is Good" Cool George Harrison-y guitar riff. From Sheryl Crow's Lance Armstrong period. Isn't it retroactively embarrassing to dedicate an LP to him?

130 Warm Spell

1. "Silly Love Songs" GLEE Cast Version: I won't apologize for loving this supremely uncool song.
2. "Plane" Jason Mraz
3. "I Still Have That Other Girl" Elvis Costello & Burt Bachrach
4. "Find My Way" The Gabe Dixon Band: the opening credits song from the Sandra Bullock movie The Proposal.
5. "Gimme Shelter" The Rolling Stones
6. "Rolling In The Deep" Adele: This whole mix revolves around the awesome song. It totally gives me chills. "Gimme Shelter" is as close as I could come to equaling the drama and goosebumps it evokes.
7. "Dead American Writers" Tired Pony
8. "Learning To Fly" Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
9. "Settled Down Like Rain" The Jayhawks
10. "Ring of Fire" Johnny Cash
11. "Home" Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes
12. "She Runs Away" Duncan Sheik: I have this on an promo only alternative music sampler from 1997.
13. "Rain In The Summertime" The Alarm
14. "3,000 Miles" (remix) Ellis Paul [from Sweet Mistakes]
15. "Windows Are Rolled Down" The first time I heard this new Amos Lee song, I was instantly reminded of "3,000 Miles."
16. "Run Through The Fields" Does anyone else remember Nuclear Valdez? I have this on a promo only alternative music sampler from 1990.
17. "Hi Hi Hi" Paul McCartney & Wings
18. "Jungle Love" Steve Miller Band
19. "Battlestar Galactica Theme" Jonathan Coulton feat/John Hodgman: Who knew there were words to the Battlestar Galactica theme song?
20. "Valerie" Mark Ronson feat/Amy Winehouse

129 Twenty Eleven

1. "I Got More Than A Feeling" A clever mashup of Boston vs. Black Eyed Peas, from Mad Mix Mustang. Found on Best of Bootie 2009
2. "Fuck You" Cee Lo Green
3. "Garbage Truck" Sex Bob-Omb
4. "Down By The Water" The opening drums-and-harmonica of this new Decemberists song reminds me of a song... or maybe many many songs?
5. "Settled Down Like Rain" The Jayhawks
6. "Rocks Off" The Old 97'S cover the Rolling Stones (and R.E.M. too!) on their 2010 Mimeograph EP.
7. "Up Around The Bend" Creedence Clearwater Revival
8. "Bossa Nova Baby" This Elvis Presley song was featured during a montage in the movie No Strings Attached.
9. "California Gurls" (feat. Snoop Dogg) Katy Perry
10. "Rush" I chose this Big Audio Dynamite II song because it pokes fun at stuffy English aristocracy in the same way the following track does...
11. "You're A Good Man Albert Brown (Curse You Red Barrel)" The Dukes Of Stratosphear was a 1960s-psychedelic pop side project of XTC. This song has a rustic English beer-barrel pub atmosphere mixed in.
12. "Effington" Ben Folds Presents : University A Cappella! includes many terrific university groups. This particular track is Ben multi-tracked over and over (with some help from his kids!)
13. "It Won't Be Long" The Beatles: has some of the same antic energy as "Effington."
14. "Ain't Good Enough For You" Bruce Springsteen writes these inconsequential freewheeling party rockers all the time, but they usually don't make it onto the album. This one is no different. Bruce recorded it during the Darkness On The Edge of Town sessions. Obviously it doesn't fit with that album's atmosphere, so he sat on it, until the 2010 release of The Promise.
15. "Stop Playing With My Heart" A fascinating "concept" album, with a authentic 1980s vibe, from Ryan Adams & The Cardinals.
16. "I'll Be Alright Without You" Journey
17. "Caravan" Van Morrison
18. "Boys Don't Cry" I heard this Grant-Lee Phillips cover of the Cure song on his all-covers CD nineteeneighties, and years later on an episode of How I Met Your Mother.
19. "Stay Gold" Stevie Wonder recorded this treacly ballad in the early 1980s for the movie Rumble Fish. I thought Emily was pulling my leg when she told me this story... until I found it on iTunes!
20. "Stand Together" The Beastie Boys

Christmas Mix 2010

If you never noticed how melancholy many Christmas songs are, you'll notice it here...

1. "Valley Winter Song" Fountains of Wayne, a bittersweet wintertime travelling song.
   
2. "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" U2's soundcheck recording, from the first A Very Special Christmas charity album, is my favorite version of this sad Christmas song.
   
3. "Baby It's Cold Outside" Ray Charles & Betty Carter, or, as my wife calls it, the almost date-rape song? No means no, Ray!
   
4. "Christmas Wrapping" The Waitresses' charming New Wave white-girl rap. Why hasn't there been a romantic comedy movie based on this song?
   
5. "Sleigh Ride" Ella Fitzgerald, a terrific Christmas record.
   
6. "Have Yourself Christmas Trouble" Mr Fab & The RIAA rearrange all the words of Bing Crosby's "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" to tell a bleaker story: "Hang yourself up upon the highest bough", "Faithful friends who are dear to us, will be far away"...
7. "Do They Know It's Christmas?" Band Aid was the ideal post New Wave supergroup for me, 12 years old, going on 13, for Christmas 1984.
   
8. "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" Judy Garland sings it with the original, super melancholy lyrics.
   
9. "I'll Be Home For Christmas" Aimee Mann, another hopeful Christmas song.
   
10. "Winter Wonderland" Ray Charles' version, as heard in When Harry Met Sally...
    
11. "White Christmas" Clyde McPhatter & The Drifters, maybe my favorite recording of this song.
    
12. "Evil Santa" Bill Murray & Gilda Radner, from the National Lampoon Radio Hour.
    
13. "Santa Claus is Coming To Town"[live] One of my all-time favorite Bruce Springsteen performances. Electric!
    
14. "Christmas Song" [live] Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds
    
15. "Let It Snow" Vaughn Monroe, as heard at the end of Die Hard.
    
16. "Auld Lang Syne" [live] Guy Lombardo
    
17. "Skating" Vince Guaraldi Trio

(I assembled this mix in 2010 but never posted it to the blog until 2011. That's why it's backdated to 12/25/2010.)

128 Teenage Dream

1. "Holiday" Vampire Weekend
2. "No One's Gonna Love You" Band Of Horses: I bought this song after Cee Lo Green covered it on this new album.
3. "Sweet Thing" Van Morrison
4. "Teenage Dream" Glee Cast Version: No one's going to believe me when I say I have no patience for the TV show, but I love The Warblers cover songs. This one gives me chills.
5. "Satisfied" Cee Lo Green: Anyone who wears their love of Prince so proudly has my support.
6. "I Would Die 4 U" Prince & The Revolution
7. "Blue Jean" David Bowie: I used to try to minimize the number of songs which reappeared on mixes over and over again. Over the years this habit became calcified to the point where mixes were loaded with: new songs + old songs which I didn't love. I am trying to loosen up and include some "golden oldies" where appropriate!
8. "The Suburbs" Arcade Fire: I like this song, even if the rhythm section is super-cliche'd, and it's a little too long.
9. "You Are The Best Thing" Ray LaMontagne: great fun, even if he's super derivative.
10. "The Difference" The Wallflowers
11. "The Word" The Beatles
12. "Way Down Now" World Party
13. "Ruthless People" Mick Jagger: The edit of this song which opens the eponymous movie is much shorter and better. This one drags on for 4m30s.
14. "I Belong To The Band" Mavis Staples
15. "Crazy About You" Whiskeytown
16. "No More No More" Aerosmith: Does anyone remember when Aerosmith was an active rock and roll band which didn't record ballads for movies? Me neither.
17. "It's Only Wednesday" Crash Kings: I think I heard this song in the movie Zombieland?
18. "Valerie" The Zutons: what the heck is a Zuton?

"Recycled" Cover Songs: Yankee Swap 2010

The theme of the Yankee Swap this year was "Recycled Christmas" so I assembled (with editing help from Emily) an all-covers mix:

1. "I Saw Her Standing There" The Smithereens recorded their own song-by-song remake of Meet The Beatles, called Meet The Smithereens.
2. "Don’t Bring Me Down" (Live) The New Pornographers covering the ELO classic, Live from Soho.
3. "Hackensack" (Live) Katy Perry unplugged, covering Fountains of Wayne. Who knew she had such good taste?
4. "Every Little Thing (He) Does Is Magic" From Shawn Colvin's all-covers album Cover Girl
5. "Burning Down the House" A terrific remake of The Talking Heads from Bonnie Raitt's live Road Tested album. Perhaps the most radical remake of the mix.
6. "It's My Life" It's great to hear a remake of a New Wave one-hit wonder, especially so well done by No Doubt.
7. "Any Major Dude Will Tell You" Wilco covers Steely Dan for the Me, Myself, and Irene movie soundtrack.
8. "This Charming Man" Death Cab For Cutie increases the tempo on this Smiths classic. From their CD You Can Play These Songs With Chords.
9. "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing Baby" An Ashford & Simpson oldie from Michael McDonald's Motown album.
10. "Everyday Is A Winding Road" Who knew Prince was a Sheryl Crow fan?
11. "Train In Vain (Stand By Me)" Annie Lennox covers The Clash on her all-covers CD Medusa.
12. "Teenage Dream" This a capella cover of Katy Perry might be the most exciting performance I've ever heard on the TV show Glee. 
13. "People Get Ready" In the a capella theme, The Housemartins cover Curtis Mayfield's song on their album London 0 Hull 4 (that might be a soccer reference?)
14. "High & Dry" British wunderkind jazz pianist Jamie Cullum covers Radiohead on this album Twentysomething.
15. "Mrs. Robinson" The Lemonheads' cover of Simon & Garfunkel was a late addition to their album It's A Shame About Ray... after it was a surprise hit as a standalone single.
16. "Whole Lotta Love" Carlos Santana's manager must have noticed there's two types of albums which aging icons sell well-- covers albums and collaborations. Why not put them together for Guitar Heaven: The Greatest Guitar Classics Of All Time? Chris Cornell was born to sing Led Zeppelin.
17. "...Baby One More Time" I think Fountains Of Wayne covered Britney Spears ironically. From their odd-and-ends collection Out-Of-State Plates.
18. "I Will Survive" I know for certain that Cake covered this Gloria Gaynor disco classic ironically. From their CD Fashion Nugget.
19. "In Between Days" Ben Folds covers the awesome Cure song on his EP Speed Graphic.
20. "Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word" Ray Charles & Elton John duet on Ray's album Genius Loves Company.
21. "More Than This" The Charlie Hunger Quartet are joined by Norah Jones on the Roxy Music song, on their CD Songs from the Analog Playground.
22. "Green Onions" Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers cover the Booker T & The MG's instrumental -- best known as the song they play during pitching changes at baseball games -- on their Live Anthology box set.

127 The Whiskey River

The first four tracks on this mix all clumped together. I started with "Horchata", from Vampire Weekend's second album Contra. (FYI, a horchata is a traditional beverage, made of ground almonds, sesame seeds, rice, barley, or tigernuts.) With "Horchata" as the germ, I built three other songs with fun and exotic instrumentation around it: the pseudo-reggae of "Last Night", the steel drums of the least-cool Rod Stewart song ever, and the accordion of "Gumboots", from Paul Simon's Graceland (aka "You don't feel you could love me/But I feel you could")

1. "Last Night" Traveling Wilburys
2. "Horchata" Vampire Weekend
3. "Love Touch" Rod Stewart
4. "Gumboots" Paul Simon
5. "Peace Train" 10,000 Maniacs; I just saw Yusuf, aka Cat Stevens, at Jon Stewart's Rally to Restore Sanity.
6. "An Innocent Man" Billy Joel
7. "Sentimental Heart" She & Him
8. "Ruby Tuesday" The Rolling Stones
9. "Summer" Buffalo Tom
10. "We Are Sex Bob-Omb" from Sex Bob-Omb dovetails nicely into...
11. "Yer Blues" The Beatles
12. "Rollin' and Tumblin'" Muddy Waters inspired the title of this mix:

If the river was whiskey, and I was a divin' duck
I would dive to the bottom, never would I come up

13. "Damn Good" David Lee Roth: Have you ever completely forgotten a song? Forgotten a song so completely that you don't even remember knowing it in the first place? I recently bought David Lee Roth's solo CD Skyscraper for $1. David Lee Roth's solo career took off when I was a teenage Van Halen fan, so me and my friends had a lot of loyalty to Diamond Dave. I wanted the CD for the hit single "Living In Paradise", but for the heck of it I listened to the whole disc one day. That's when I rediscovered "Damn Good", an acoustic ballad (with nice guitar work from Steve Vai.) It's NOT a "damn good" song, BUT the point is, I had not heard the song in 22 years! It was weird dusting the cobwebs off this teenage memory.
14. "Put Me On Top" Aimee Mann
15. "Bang Bang Bang" Tracy Chapman
16. "Smoke On The Water" Deep Purple
17. "Hunger Strike" Temple of the Dog
18. "I Hate Myself For Loving You" Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, the original version, before it was appropriated for Monday Night Football.
19. "I Love Your Smile" Shanice I think I added this song because I saw someone on TV named Shanice?
20. "Shadowboxer" Fiona Apple

126: Summerbeast

1. "Run" Vampire Weekend
2. "Driver 8" The Old '97s. A slightly harder-rocking, slightly less subtle version of one of my favorite R.E.M. songs.
3. "Whisper to a Scream (Birds Fly)" Icicle Works. Rediscovered on a VH1 1980s video showcase.
4. "Jealous Again" The Black Crowes. A live, in-studio, acoustic performance, from the new Crowes album.
5. "Never" Heart. So richly imbued with Eighties-ness, it's hard to mix this track among other less exuberantly artifical songs...
6. "TiK ToK" ...until Ke$ha came along.
7. "Wash Your Face In My Sink" The Dream Warriors. Was this Canadian hip-hop duo a one-hit wonder, or was this song popular only among me and my friends at WERS in 1991?
8. "The Distance" Cake. Before I met my wife, I only new Cake as the 1990s alt rock band which covered "I Will Survive". I mostly hate disco, and this Gloria Gaynor song is one of my least-favorite hits in a genre I hate already. To sum up: Cake's cover is a boring, overlong, overly ironic remake of a song I hated in the first place. It turns out my wife has, like, four Cake CDs, and in the intervening years, I have found a bunch of their songs I actually like, including "The Distance", one of my new ringtones.
9. "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" I don't listen to Jimi Hendrix enough. I gotta start putting him on more mix CDs. Mostly this song makes me think of a) hippies, and b) that scene it's in in Almost Famous, when the band trades in their bus for the jet plane.
10. "Free Fallin" [live], from the comprehensive new Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers Live Anthology. Great sing-along from the audience.
11. "One True Love" Semisonic is another one-hit 1990s alt-rock band, whom I have gotten to know better. Around the turn of the century I really got into their almost-hit "Chemistry", and later, the drummer wrote a memoir which could have been titled "What It's Like To Be A One Hit Wonder."If you want to dig deeper into 1990s nostalgia, check it out. Jen Trynin also wrote a book about her year in the spotlight, which could have been called "I Would Have Been Alanis Morrisette (If It Weren't For Alanis Morrisette.)"
12. "Via Chicago" Wilco. We went to Wilco's music and arts festival in North Adams this summer. This track is from Wilco's album Summerteeth.
13. "Stratford-On-Guy" Liz Phair. I have the complete Rolling Stone magazine, cover-to-cover, on DVD (1967-2007.) Around the time I was assembling this mix I re-read Liz' 1994 Rolling Stone cover story.
14. "Do You Love Me" Ridiculously catchy new Guster song, with pleasant Wall of Sound production.
15. "Can't Do A Thing (To Stop Me)" Chris Isaak. Apparently there's a cable channel called FUSE, which aired a special Fifty Sexiest Music Videos Ever. My wife and I were not surprised to find the "Wicked Game" video at Number One, which inspired including this Isaak song.
16. "Hackensack" [live, acoustic] The fact that Katy Perry has heard Fountains of Wayne, and recorded a nice cover song, has raised my opinion of her. It's still unfortunate that she married Russell Brand.
17. "Ugly Truth Rock" Matthew Sweet
18. "1901" Phoenix. It's like Duran Duran and Joy Division had a love child in France with Bryan Ferry as the midwife.
19. "Pictures of Matchstick Men" Camper Van Beethoven
20. "It Ain't The Cold War Harry" Grant-Lee Phillips

124: The Hank Scorpio Dictionary of Soul

1. "These Days" R.E.M. Live at the Olympia. Have you ever continued to follow your favorite band long after their creative peak, then looked back in regret, wishing you hadn't bought their last four albums? I used to be a big fan of R.E.M. I have all their CDs up through Reveal (2001). Not long after that, I looked back at the previous decade, and wished I had given up the R.E.M. habit after Automatic for the People in 1992. If anyone is interested in buying used copies of Monster (1994), New Adventures in Hi-Fi (1996), Up (1998), and Reveal, let me know...
2. Soap on a Rope" Chickenfoot. A unabashedly retro hard rock supergroup: Joe Satriani, Sammy Hagar, Michael Anthony, and Chad Smith. I got this single for free on Amazon.
3. "I Hate My Generation" Cracker
4. "Camera One" Josh Joplin Group sounds remarkably like R.E.M.
5. "(If You're Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To" Weezer. I have never been a particular fan of Weezer, but this song is a lot of fun.
6. "Big Yellow Taxi" by Joni Mitchell has very similar guitar rhythm to the Weezer song, above.
7. "Carol Brown" by Flight of the Conchords turns "50 Ways To Leave Your Lover" back on the guy. I love Jemaine talking back to his ex-girlfriend backing chorus.
8. "Already Gone" might be my favorite Eagles song.
9. "I Can't Go For That (No Can Do)" (Extended Club Mix) Hall & Oates. I am a collector of 12-inch dance remixes, specifically remixes of 1980s rock and pop songs (non-disco.) I have never heard of a group re-releasing their remixes as part of catalog reissues, but I found some Hall & Oates remixes re-released on Amazon.
10. "Mississippi" Sheryl Crow. Thanks to RDM for including this song on a mix CD he gave me. Bob Dylan's original version is one of the first songs my son heard on our iPod the day after he was born.
11. "I'm Looking Through You" The Beatles. I have liked singing to my son since Day One (literally.) I sang this song to him on Day One. I don't know how I chose this song, but there you go.
12. "Rock Me On The Water" Jackson Browne
13. "In Your Room" The Bangles. In November 2009, I saw one of my favorite musicians, Matthew Sweet, live onstage in Arlington MA (!!) as part of his "Under The Covers" side project with ex-Bangle Susannah Hoffs. One of the final performances of the night was an acoustic version of "In Your Room". NOTE: Susannah and I share a birthday!
14. "Planet Claire" The B-52's. I saw a cheer group dance to this song in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in 2009.
15. "Poker Face" Lady Gaga
16. "We Don't Need Another Hero (Thunderdome)" Tina Turner. I also used to sing the chorus of this song to my newborn son. Who knows why.
17. "Free Will" Rush
18. "Maggie May" Susannah Hoffs & Matthew Sweet
19. "Singalong Junk" Paul McCartney. Another singalong to my son.

LEFT: Me and my son, 2009.
RIGHT: Paul and Mary McCartney, 1970.

123 No Man Can Say

This mix is not particularly inspired- it's overloaded with random songs pulled from CDs and LPs I had recently bought at yard sales.

1. "Mais Que Nada" Sergio Mendes & Brasil 66 • One of those instrumentals I have heard a thousand times and never knew the name. I heard it in the movie Joe Versus The Volcano, so I was able to find the title in the end credits and VOILA here we are. Also known as Music From A Baseball Pitching Change.
2. "Too Many Dicks [On the Dancefloor]" Flight of the Conchords • I am glad to hear that FOTC is not going to continue for a third season on HBO. I loved season 1, but season 2 was nowhere near as good. This song was a highlight!
3. "White Lines [Don't Do It]" Duran Duran feat. Grandmaster Flash • Craig Ferguson once lip-synched this song (with a puppet chorus) as the cold open of The Late Late Show, I shit you not.
4. "We'll Be Together" • Sting
5. "I DoWanna Know" REO Speedwagon • I had not heard this song in 20 years when I found the LP at Antiques USA in Arundel, ME, for $2. Not exactly a rock 'n' roll classic, I had seen the video for it as a teenager, on Boston's UHF video channel V-66. For some strange reason, this completely ordinary rock song's catchy chorus stuck with me into the 21st century. Listening to it again for the first time in two decades was like watching a video of a long lost dream. Very trippy.
6. "Sonny Feeling" • Wilco
7. "Bittersweet" • Hoodoo Gurus
8. "Baby You're A Rich Man" [mono mix, 2009 remaster] • The Beatles
9. "Sugar Magnolia" Matthew Sweet & Susannah Hoffs • A Grateful Dead cover from their second disc of classic rock cover songs, Under The Covers Vol 2. I went to see the dynamic duo play an acoustic set, with my friends George and Mandy, in November.
10. "Las Vegas Turnaround (The Stewardess Song)" Hall & Oates • From Hall & Oates early seventies era.
11. "It Hasn't Happened Yet" John Hiatt • From John Hiatt's pre-fame era.
12. "Slowly [oh so slowly]" • Conor Oberst & The Mystic Valley Band
13. "Rock'n Me '76 Slow" Steve Miller Band • An outtake from the Fly Like An Eagle sessions, it's a slow acoustic version of the rock classic.
14. "Across The River" • Bruce Hornsby & The Range
15. "Don't Change" • INXS

16. "Girl Of 100 Lists" The Go-Gos • I was inspired to include this song after reading a 1983 Rolling Stone cover story about the Go-Gos.
17. "Time Stand Still" The Hooters • Only after I bought this song on iTunes did I realize why it sounded so good- it's a unintentional remake of their own song "Satellite". Oh well.
18. "Rollin' And Tumblin'" Canned Heat • I first heard this blues standard covered on Eric Clapton Unplugged.
19. "Hey Ya" Booker T. • The organist/leader of Booker T. & The MG's covers the Outkast song on the organ!