Wedding Soundtrack

Wedding season is in full swing, I have attended three already. Several of my friends in the planning stages have asked my recommendations on controlling the DJ, my favorite songs, and how to keep a good vibe going on all night. I am pretty sure I gave them an overwhelming amount of songs and artists to play. So in the spirit of all things white, disgruntled relatives, abusing fashion and disregarding the dress code, open bar, forgetting to eat, expensive cake, and thoughtful speeches - here is the soundtrack to fit the big day (hopefully).

Top Songs

Shout – any version

Jump for my Love – The Pointer Sisters

I Want to Dance with Somebody – Whitney Houston

You Never Can Tell – Chuck Berry

Crazy In Love – Beyonce

Pokerface, Bad Romance – Lady Gaga

Smooth – Santana

Get Off My Cloud, Beast of Burden or anything from Exile on Main Street – Rolling Stones

Don’t Stop Believing – Journey

Respect – Aretha Franklin

Mess Around – Ray Charles

Ring of Fire, Folsom Prison Blues – Johnny Cash

Love Shack – B-52s

Marvin Gaye – all of it

Al Green – Let’s Stay Together or anything he does

Ain’t Too Proud To Beg (Sam Cooke?)

Piano Man, Only the Good Die Young, Uptown, Still Rock n’ Roll – Billy Joel

Hard to Handle – The Black Crowes

Once In a Lifetime, This Must Be The Place (Naïve Melody) – Talking Heads

Right To Be Wrong, Fell In Love w/ A Boy – Joss Stone

In The Morning – Junior Boys

Foundations – Kate Nash

Shame – Lilly Allen

Somewhere Only We Know – Keane

Dance Songs

Rehab, Tears Dry On Their Own – Amy Winehouse

Paranoia in B Major, I and Love and You – Avett Brothers

11^th Dimension – Julian Casablancas

Hard To Explain – The Strokes

Empire State Of Mind – Jay-Z

Like A Prayer – Madonna

Walk of Life – Dire Straits

Old Kind of Rock n’ Roll – Joe Cocker?

Caravan – Van Morrison

Bonified Lovin’ – Chromeo

Paris – Friendly Fires

Calling Baton Rouge – Garth Brooks

Silver City – Ghostland Observatory

Crazy – Gnarls Barkley

Play Your Part – Girl Talk – explicit lyrics

Yr Mangle Heart – Gossip

Sunlight – Harlem Shakes

The Passenger – Iggy Pop

Silver Lining – Rilo Kiley

Lyrics Born /U2 Mash up

Valhalla – K-os

D.A.N.C.E – Justice

Gold Digger/Stronger/The Good Life – Kanye West

Let It Rock – Kevin Rudolf

Mr. Brightside/Read My Mind/All The Things I’ve Done/Can’t Stay/Sam’s Town – The Killers

Fight for your Right to Party – Beastie Boys

Are You Gonna Go My Way – Lennie Kravitz

Can’t Stop – Red Hot Chili Peppers

Light My Fire – Doors

Something to Talk About – Bonnie Raitt

Shama Lama Ding Dong

Daft Punk is Playing At My House – LCD Soundsystem

Rich Girl – Hall & Oates

Rebel, Rebel – David Bowie

Animal – Miike Snow

Marcy – Duffy

Real Love – Mary J. Blige

1,2,3,4 – Feist

Dog Days Are Over – Florence & The Machine

Miscellaneous – cocktail or reception

Kings of Leon – Only By The Night, Because of the Times

All Van Morrison

Frank Sinatra

Coldplay – Viva La Vida or X&Y

Jackson Brown – greatest hits

Cat Power – The Greatest

Demond Dekker - reggae

Cocktail/Gearing Up Songs – friendly background music with some jump and fun to it

(songs, artist)

Little Wing – Jimi Hendrix

Trouble, Long Time Gone – Dixie Chicks

Move By Yourself – Donovan Frankenreiter

Son of a Preacher Man – Dusty Springfield

Mykonos – Fleet Foxes

‘Till I hear it from you – Gin Blossoms

There She Goes – So I Married An Axe Murderer soundtrack

See The World – Gomez

Sweet Child O Mine – Guns n’ Roses

2 Point for Honesty - Guster

All My Friends – LCD Soundsystem

Melissa, Ramblin’ Man – Allman Brothers

Rebellion (Lies), Arcade Fire

Do You Realize?, Flaming Lips

Virtual Insanity - Jamiroquai

Naïve Melody (This Must Be The Place), Talking Heads

Goodnight & Go – Imogen Heap

Flake – Jack Johnson

Dr. Feelgood, Multiply – Jamie Lidell

Last Goodbye – Jeff Buckley

Golden – Jill Scott

Life’s Been Good – Joe Walsh

Crawling Up a Hill – John Mayall

My Stupid Mouth – John Mayer

Daniel, Bat For Lashes

Wouldn’t It Be Nice, Beach Boys

Devil’s Haircut or New Pollution or Que Onda Guero, Beck

My Night With a Prostitute in Marseilles or Scenic World, Beirut

White Collar Boy, Belle & Sebastian

Tiny Dance, Elton John

Landed or One Angry Dwarf…, Ben Folds

Songbird or Wish You Well, Bernard Fanning

Bittersweet, Bog Head Todd

Wicked Messenger, The Black Keys

This Modern Love, Bloc Party

That’s The Way It IS, Bruce Hornsby

Lay Lady Lay, Queen Jane Approximately, I Want You or Going to Acapulco Bon Dylan

God Bless The Child – Eva Cassidy

Love Me, Leave Me – Nina Simone

Love Is Everywhere , Bob Schneider

Skinny Love , Bon Iver

You’re So Vain , Carly Simon

Case Of You, Carrie , Joni Mitchell

If I Had A Boat , Lyle Lovett

Hospital Beds, Audience Of One , Cold War Kids

Holiday In Spain , Counting Crows

Cannonball, Damien Rice

Grey Street, Dave Matthews Band

Trouble, Ray LaMontagne

Falling Slowly – Swell Season or The Frames

Young Americans, Golden Years, David Bowie

Be Mine, Babylon , Please Forgive Me– David Gray

Marching Band of Manhattan, Death Cab for Cutie

Smoke on the Water, Deep Purple

Bamboleo, Gypsy Kings

Friday I’m In Love, Love Song, The Cure

Keep It Loose, Keep It Tight – Amos Lee

True Colors, Treehouse Song – Ane Brun

No One – Alicia Keys

Glass, Concrete & Stone – David Byrne

Walking After Midnight – Patsy Cline

Just The Two Of Us, Lovely Day – Bill Withers

Somebody to Love – Queen

Obstacle 1 - Interpol

Cocktail Album – where most of the songs on it are good

Infinite Arms - Band Of Horses

Eric Clapton – grtst hits

Live Album – Ben Harper

Betty LaVette – anything she does, a more funky Lena Horne

Blonde On Blonder or Blood On The Tracks – Bob Dylan

The Last Waltz – The Band, disc 4

The Temptations – greatest hits

Sam Cooke– greatest hits

Stevie Wonder– greatest hits

Dave Matthews Band – Crash or Live with Tim Reynolds

Radiohead – In Rainbows or The Bends

Mumford & Sons

Gabriel y Rodrigo

Manu Chao

She & Him

Dark Was The Night – indie collection album

Annie Lennox - Diva

Fitz & The Tantrums

Puppini Sisters

Ella Fitzgerald

Edith Piaf

Buena Vista Social Club

Louis Armstrong greatest hits

Billy Holiday

Adele – 19

Aimee Mann – Magnolia soundtrack

Slow Songs

Boulder to Birmingham – Emmylou Harris

Do Right Woman, Do Right Man – Aretha Franklin

Landslide – Dixie Chicks

Coat of Many Colors – Dolly Parton

If It’s The Beaches – Avett Brothers

God Only Knows – Beach Boys

The Luckiest – Ben Folds

Rome & Juliet – Dire Straits

I Could Hold You – Ray LaMontagne

Midnight Train to Georgia – Gladys Knight

A Song For You – Gram Parsons

Daughters – John Mayer

Collide – Howie Day

End of the night

Forever Young – Bob Dylan/The Band

A Challenging Assignment

I was recently tasked with a fun little assignment by my cousins. There was wine involved so maybe no one took it that seriously but I sure as hell did. You can't ask a music nerd their top 10 albums of the past decade AND the top albums of the past year and expect them to blow it off. It immediately went on my list of things to do, I made a mental list of friends I would need to consult and most importantly, time to think it over. It took me over a week and now that it has been sent to all parties involved, I will share it.

I will state a caveat: these are MY top albums. I picked each one because of the value I have placed on them - in my memories and in sheer volume of listening hours. Also, I didn't want to narrow it to a specific number nor did I want to rank them - my rules.

So while I ponder how to spend the +$200 that Lala is giving me to spend in iTunes (because of the amount of money I spent on web albums) - enjoy!

Top Albums of the past 10 years

Ryan Adams - Love Is Hell

Radiohead - In Rainbows

Kings of Leon - Only By The Night & Because Of The Times

Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (came out in 2009)

Coldplay - A Rush of Blood to the Head

The Strokes - Room On Fire

The Veils - Sun Gangs

White Stripes - Get Behind My Satan

Kanye West - The College Dropout

Dave Matthews Band - Crash

Florence & The Machine - Lungs (came out in 2009)

Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago

Lady Gaga - The Fame

Romeo & Juliet Soundtrack - Baz Luhrman directed

Jay-Z - The Black Album

My Morning Jacket - Okonokos (Live Album)

The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots

The National - Boxer

Maroon 5 - Songs About Jane (I was an early adopter of them)

Counting Crows - This Desert Life (barely made it in there but it has memories tied to it)

Last Year Loved Albums

Florence & The Machine (see above)

Phoenix (see above)

Passion Pit - Manners

Beach House - Teen Dream

Local Natives - Gorilla Manor

Mumford & Sons - Sigh No More

LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz!

Julian Casablancas - Phrazes For the Young

Miike Snow - Miike Snow

The Antlers - Hospice

The XX - XX

Avett Brothers - I And Love And You

Alberta Cross - Broken Side Of Time (the album from 2008 is great too)

The Black Keys - Brothers

A last minute addition would be Surfer Blood - Astro Coast. What validated this was my membership with the UK's Rough Trade album of the month and it just arrived. Last month was Free Energy - Stuck On Nothing, very solid as well.

U2 & How to Snag a Better Seat

I keep a short list of bands I have yet to see and would be willing to pay their high price, do you?

- Red Hot Chili Peppers – I want to be part of their energy

- Rolling Stones – Even though Charlie Watts is the only one left that can hold it together

- U2 - I am Irish after all

- Madonna - To feel bad about my body

- Lady Gaga – Still pissed she rescheduled her NYC show for a weekend I was out of town

- R.E.M. – Not even a big fan but have heard of the magnetism Michael Stipe can yield

- Justin Timberlake - We all have our guilty pleasures

It was because of this list that I was pretty excited when the opportunity to see U2 with a group of friends came up. So I can now cross U2 off my list and you know what? It was an experience I now recommend to anyone, particularly if you like U2 and/or if you attend enough sports events or concerts where you can take the sheer volume of people you will see the concert with. There are downsides – it is an elitist environment with the VIP packages, the limos lined up, the stadium prices, the box seats, $9 dollar beer night hence the long line, etc. Also, as a person that is a tenured concert goer this was clearly a crowd that was not well versed on the rules of concerts. You get a very different crowd attending then a 300 person venue where the concert starts at 10pm on a Wednesday, etc.

That said, the upsides were immense - they rocked out for 2 hours and 15 minutes, they have such a catalogue to choose from and did a great job of combining the new with the old, the unknown songs with the overplayed (even though it was still fun to sing them word for word). Plus their sound, voices, and stage presence is varsity all the way. They passed the crucial 10,000 hour practice point about 20 years ago so you can imagine how comfortable they are on stage.**

My favorite part of the night was when I pulled a grand caper with my friend Captain Fabulous (actual nickname). We snuck out of our section 404 seats on a mission to get as close as we could to the stage and stay there. We brilliantly made it to section 138, had plenty of room and watched the entire concert from our elitist seats. Here is how we did it and here is how you can too, I have proven this many times over the years:

- When you go to a stadium/arena show there are so many seats that go to season ticket holders, corporations, etc. and so many of them go unused even if the concert is sold out.

- Wait until after the opening act and then go down to the area you are shooting for and wait until just before the headlining act comes on. It is good to get a beer, food and go to the bathroom, it may be your last opportunity.

- Wait until 30 seconds into the first song that the headliner plays, you want to get caught up in the rush of people getting to their seats. Weekend concerts can throw a wrench in the plan because some people hang out in the parking lot until the headliner starts and then rush in after 2-3 songs.

- Power walk and get behind a group of more than two so they will crowd the ticket checker and this is key - quickly, looking straight ahead/stage, power walk to the side and down away from the group and ticket checker. Keep walking but start slowing down after you are in the clear and look for openings of more than 2 that you can get into.

- Only do this with two people, it gets tricky with more. Getting to the floor level is more difficult because they often make you get bracelets and the checkers are more strict. We tried to get to the floor for U2, played dumb about bracelets, acted like we were headed back to get them and spotted an opening of +6 seats two rows above general admission. We were above the floor crowd and had direct eyesight to the front of the stage. No one came to claim the seats and we were super nice to the people around us, acting like we belonged there. It was perfection and we giggled about it all night.

This isn't rocket scientist and don't try to do it every time but have the guts to give it a try when it is a band you really want to get close and experience, be part of the vibe.

**The 10,000 hours of practice is referencing a well-known theory that in addition to ability you must have dedication and a solid work ethic; citing that every top professional, regardless of their field, will not reach their peak before practicing for 10,000 hours. Malcolm Gladwell references this theory in his newest book Outliers. He uses The Beatles and how they obtained their crucial practice hours, check it out!