96: Highway To Heck

The Cover: I had recently bought the AC/DC album with its legendary cover photo, so I did some half-assed photoshopping to put the heads of my wife and a friend of ours on the cover. It was much more fun designing the CD/96 logo!

1. TEARS FOR FEARS Everybody Wants to Rule The World (My wife mentioned she used to sing this song in her college a capella group.)
2. ERIC CLAPTON Hello Old Friend
3. PEARL JAM Alone (A favorite b-side of mine, Pearl Jam played this song when I saw them at the Orpheum in Boston on the Versus tour.)
4. PETE YORN Come Back Home
5. WILCO & BILLY BRAGG California Stars
6. STEELY DAN Black Friday
7. PAUL McCARTNEY & WINGS Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five
8. THE CARS Don't Cha Stop
9. UTOPIA Love In Action (I had recently listened to both The Cars debut album and The Best Of Todd Rundgren, and I noticed a similarity in the choruses of these two songs.)
10. SUZANNE VEGA Caramel
11. SMITHEREENS w/SUZANNE VEGA In A Lonely Place
12. R.E.M. w/KATE PIERSON Me In Honey (a pair of women duet-ing on other records.)
13. THE ENGLISH BEAT Save It For Later
14. NICK LOWE (I Love The Sound Of) Breaking Glass
15. JEFF LYNNE Don't Let Go (We heard the original version of this song on the PA at Krispy Kreme in Everett, after the party where Mandy's photo was taken for the cover.)
16. JET Are You Gonna Be My Girl (Yes, another iTunes commercial song!)
17. THE CURE Close To Me (I think this is on here because the bass line reminds me of the Jet song.)
18. OUTKAST Hey Ya!
19. THE ROLLING STONES Undercover Of The Night (I always had a soft spot for this excessively Eighties sounding track from the Stones. I included it here because David Chase used this song as a closing credits track on the Sopranos.)
20. AC/DC Highway To Hell

95: Fireworks Factory!

The Cover: A photo taken at our New Year's party 2004. I think the camera thought the flash was on but it wasn't!

The title "Fireworks Factory" comes from the episode of The Simpsons "Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie": During an I&S short, there's a delay in the plot where Milhouse whines "When are they going to get to the fireworks factory?!"

1. Elvis Presley "A Little Less Conversation" 1:42
(Davis/Strange) Live A Little, Love A Little Soundtrack 1968
2. Stevie Wonder "Sir Duke" 3:45
(Wonder) Songs In The Key Of Life 1976
3. Nikka Costa "Everybody Got Their Something" 4:20
(Costa/Stanley) Everybody Got Their Something 2001
4. Weezer "Island In The Sun" 3:20
(Rivers Cuomo) Weezer 2001
5. Nick Lowe "American Squirm" 2:31
(Lowe) from the Radar single 1984
6. Freedy Johnston "Bad Reputation" 4:10
(Johnston) This Perfect World 1994
7. The Minus Five "Retrieval Of You" 3:51
from Down With Wilco 2003
8. Michael Penn "Lucky One" 3:58
(Penn) MP4(Days Since A Lost Time Accident) 2000
9. Fountains Of Wayne "Stacy's Mom" 3:17
(Collingwood/Schlesinger) Welcome Interstate Managers 2003
10. Rolling Stones "Shattered" 3:47
(Jagger/Richards) Some Girls 1978
11. R.E.M. "Can't Get There From Here" 4:10
(Berry/Buck/Mills/Stipe) Fables Of The Reconstruction 1985
12. The Statler Brothers "Flowers On The Wall" 2:23
(Lew DeWitt) Flowers On The Wall 1966
13. Apollo Sunshine "The Egg" 3:18
(Apollo Sunshine) Katonah 2003
14. New Pornographers "Letter From An Occupant" 3:46
(New Pornographers) Mass Romantic 2000
15. Ben Folds Five "Julianne" 2:30
(Ben Folds) Ben Folds Five 1995
16. Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band "You Done My Brain In" 1:40
(Neil Innes) Keynsham 1969
17. The White Stripes "Seven Nation Army" 3:51
(Jack White) Elephant 2003
18. Red Hot Chili Peppers "Universally Speaking" 4:19
(Flea/Frusciante/Kiedis/Smith) By The Way 2002
19. Bruce Springsteen "Tougher Than The Rest" (live) 4:02
(Springsteen)
20. Pete Yorn "Crystal Village" 3:46
(Yorn) Day I Forgot 2003
21. Sheryl Crow "If It Makes You Happy" 5:23
(Crow/Trott) Sheryl Crow 1996
22. The Beatles "Flying" 2:16
(Harrison/Lennon/McCartney/Starr) Magical Mystery Tour 1967

93 and 94: Whitfield Roommates

I composed, burned, and packaged these two mixes at the same time.

The Cover: I used a photo of my girlfriend and her two roommates for the cover, because they looked vaguely like a lo-fi indie rock trio. I gave the two mixes titles from random quotes of the week which I have totally forgotten.

Mix 93: Critical Darlings of Your Choice

1. Supercollider | Fountains of Wayne
2. Planet Telex | Radiohead
3. Sweet Emotion | Aerosmith
4. School Of Rock | From the School of Rock movie soundtrack.
5. Sink The Pink | This AC/DC song is here because the guitar riff on the SoR song sounds so similar.
6. In The Street | Big Star
7. The Banana Splits Song | From a CD collection of covers of Saturday morning children's cartoons.
8. Set You Free | The Black Keys
9. So Whatcha Want | Beastie Boys
10. I'm An Adult Now | An old college buddy of mine claims to have been childhood penpals with Moe Berg, the lead singer of The Pursuit of Happiness.
11. Gentlemen | When I was interning at WFNX in 1993-94, I met Afghan Whigs lead singer Greg Dulli.
12. Love Comes And Goes | Sweetwater
13. I'll Wait | Van Halen
14. God Put a Smile Upon Your Face | Coldplay
15. Guns Of Brixton | The Clash
16. Burning Down The House | The Talking Heads Live at the Pantages Theatre, Hollywood December 1983
17. Thorns | The Thorns
18. Photograph | Def Leppard

Mix 94: Wild, Unexpected, and Altogether Memorable

The same cover photo, just cropped slightly differently.

1. Good Vibrations | The Beach Boys
2. Running Out Of Time | Joan Osbourne
3. Mississippi | Sheryl Crow
4. Gotta Serve Somebody | This Bob Dylan song, from his "re-born Christian" phase, had been recently featured on the closing credits of The Sopranos.
5. Go West | Liz Phair
6. Two of Us | The Beatles
7. Red-Eyed and Blue | Wilco
8. Maria's Beautiful Mess | Ellis Paul
9. Angeles | Elliot Smith
10. Please Forgive Me | David Gray
11. A Sort of Homecoming | U2
12. Clocks | Coldplay
13. Still Be Around | Uncle Tupelo
14. I Started A Joke | The Wallflowers covering the Bee Gees on the Zoolander soundtrack.
15. I Can't Go For That (No Can Do) | Hall & Oates
16. Valley Winter Song | Fountains of Wayne
17. Sara | Fleetwood Mac
18. Tangerine | Led Zeppelin

Covered Road

My all-time favorite artist fits any occasion: The Beatles. The challenge is to find Beatles songs which haven't been played to death. One of the ways I make their music fresh is with cover versions. I collect covers of Beatles songs. Whenever I go yard sale-ing, and I find a carton of LPs, I scan track lists for Beatles titles.

1. "A Hard Day's Night" John Bayliss (in the style of Bach)
2. "I Call Your Name" The Mamas & Papas
3. "Two of Us" Aimee Mann & Michael Penn
4. "I Will" Tony Furtado & Alison Krauss
5. "The Ballad of John & Yoko" The Persuasions
6. "The Miser/Taxman" The Deighton Family
7. "Here Comes The Sun" Nina Simone
8. "I'll Be On My Way" Johnny Society
9. "Don't Let Me Down" Paul Weller
10. "Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except Me & My Monkey" Kristen Hersh
11. "Why Don't We Do It In The Road?" Lydia Lunch
12. "Tomorrow Never Knows" Five O'Clock Shadow
13. "Happiness Is A Warm Gun" World Party
14. "Girl" Tiny Tim with Brave Combo
15. "All I've Got To Do" Toxic Audio
16. "We Can Work It Out" Stevie Wonder
17. "Day Tripper" [live] Otis Redding with the Mar-Keys and Booker T. & The MGs
18. "I've Got A Feeling" [live] Pearl Jam
19. "With a Little Help From My Friends" [live] Joe Cocker
20. "Being for The Benefit of Mr. Kite" Les Miserables Brass Band

92: Missing Summer

I based the cover photo on one of my favorite photos of the E Street Band, circa 1980, on Central Park South. I Photoshopped Max Weinberg out of the group and inserted a photo of myself in a tuxedo between Clarence Clemons and Roy Bittan.

I named the CD "Missing Summer" because it was recorded in the fall of 2003, near the end of a six-month period where my future wife and I were on a break.

1/You Wreck Me TOM PETTY
2/Couldn't I Just Tell You TODD RUNDGREN
3/Any Major Dude Will Tell You - A fun cover of the Steely Dan song by WILCO.
4/Barrytown STEELY DAN
5/The Night Is Still Young - One of those new songs added to a greatest hits collection because a>the label can push it as a single to radio to promote the album, and b> it's an incentive for true fans to re-buy music they already own. In this case, it's one of two songs added to one of the best-selling greatest hits collections ever, from BILLY JOEL.
6/It's Different For Girls(Live in London 9/02) JOE JACKSON BAND
7/Into Your Arms THE LEMONHEADS
8/Red Dragon Tattoo FOUNTAINS OF WAYNE
9/Heart & Soul HUEY LEWIS & THE NEWS
10/Workin' On The Highway BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN (Live at Giants Stadium 8/19/85)
11/Maybellene CHUCK BERRY
12/Run Through The Jungle CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL
13/I Feel You DEPECHE MODE
14/Going To California LED ZEPPELIN
15/Can't Find My Way Home BLIND FAITH
16/Try Not To Breathe R.E.M.
17/Beercan BECK
18/Losing Lisa BEN FOLDS
19/Where Do They Make Balloons? THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS (sung by DANNY WEINKAUF)
20/H.W.C. LIZ PHAIR