Wedding Mixtape Epilogue- "Together Forever..."

This is the finale for Sumi's Wedding Mixtape, it's been a fun way to listen to songs sort of about weddings, marriage and love. Sumi and Hums' wedding was awesome! No church for the service (which was good!) and the reception was at the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre which felt more comfortable than some tricked-out hotel ballroom. They were able to add their own personal touch to the wedding with handmade decorations and both the desserts and wedding cake (see photo) were baked by the bride. This has to be the coolest wedding cake ever!

GO SAILOR- Together Forever In Love (The bonus song): A fitting end to the compilation, I first heard this song as the closing song from the film, But I'm A Cheerleader and I thought this was such a great song to end a happy ending love story (you have to see this movie to know what I'm talking about). I recommend if you download all these songs and burn them to a disc, put this one as the closer.

As promised here's the link for the complete file for all the songs from the Wedding Mixtape. Just as a note, there is about 99 minutes of music in the file, so if you want all the songs it'll take 2 discs or feel free to pick and choose to keep it to one disc. Let me know what you think and what song is your favourite?

Wedding Mixtape Part 8- "Wedding Day"

Todays' the big day, the Wedding Day! Congrats Sumi and Hum, hope everything turns out great!
THE REPLACEMENTS- You're Getting Married (solo home demo)
BUM- Wedding Day (live in Spain)
HOTEL LIGHTS- Wedding Day
ANGELA DESVEAUX- Wedding Song

Tomorrow I'll post the link for the complete Wedding Mixtape... Stay tuned!

(P.S.- The wedding was on the 22nd and I started to write this before the wedding, but with helping with setup and getting ready, I had to finish this post today (Sunday).

Wedding Mixtape Part 7- "This Time Tomorrow..."

The reason I posted this photo is I was thinking about the ultimate band I would have play at my wedding (too late!). This is a photo of the members of the Young Fresh Fellows and the Replacements who toured together circa 1987, indulging in some drunken fun. The Replacement's Paul Westerberg was such a fan of the band, he had the Fellows play at his wedding! I can't think of a better choice. The wedding I'm attending will probably be devoid of both the drunkenness and a band. I would love to have my band play a wedding or a wedding social, because it's always a good excuse to play cheesy covers, I think it would be a lot of fun...maybe next time.

Today's post includes my top three bands (YFF, Mats, Kinks), not necessarily their best songs, but great memories.

KINKS- This Time Tomorrow: I realized how great a song this was when I heard it in the film, The Darjeeling Limited. This underrated classic was the Kink's in their prime.
YOUNG FRESH FELLOWS- Still There's Hope: At my wedding this was the 3rd song played during the dance (I chose the first group of songs). The first song was Closer by Jonathan Richman, followed by My Baby, She's Alright by Scruffy The Cat. Sorry, no Joey Gregorish.
REPLACEMENTS- Nobody: Notice how much Westerberg I've included, even I'm surprised. Still one more tomorrow.
MODEL ROCKETS- Honeymoon Home: More powerpop from Seattle...love this song!
B'EHL- So Much More: Local favs add some sweet sounds. This band later morphed into Paper Moon.

Wedding Mixtape Part 6- "I Knew the Bride..."

Today's songs are mainly about the bride. With a good range of music from the powerpop of Rockpile, the new wave punk stylings of Joe Jackson, the edgy postpunk noise of Husker Du to the girly sounds of cuddle-core pioneers, Vancouver's Cub...Discuss!

ROCKPILE- I Knew the Bride (When She Used To Rock'n'Roll) (live 10-24-78 NYC): The record cover pictured is from Nick Lowe's proper release of the song. This is a live version with his band Rockpile many years before the NL version. This song was a popular wedding reception tune in the 80's enticing young brides to crazily jump around frantically. Nick wrote the song originally for Dave Edmond's, Get It album.
CUB- Green Eyes The colour of the bride's eyes and beautiful ones I might add. This song is probably some guy's eyes, but use your imagination.
HUSKER DU- Green Eyes (live 11-17-87 NYC) The sonic power of the Twin Cities Husker Du! I aways thought Grant Hart's songs were more melodic and less harsh than Bob Mould's. How that would change years later.
JOE JACKSON- Happy Loving Couples (live 1979 Hollywood) On JJ's, Look Sharp album he had a sarcastic streak against love, "Is She Really Going Out With Him?", "Fools In Love", as well as H.L.Cs.

Pleased To Meet Me...Again!

If I ranked my favourite Replacements records, I'd have to place PTMM very closely behind Tim And Let It Be. This was the so-called transition record for the Mats, jumping to the majors with they're most polished and produced record to date as their record company hoped for a "hit". This was also their only album recording as a trio after dumping Bob Stinson and replacing him later with Slim Dunlop (from 87 and on). Many of the original studio demos still had Bob, but the finished product was Paul, Tommy, Chris and the legendary Jim Dickinson as producer.

With this deluxe release, PTMM features lots of bonus material that almost equals the original album tracks. I have a double disc of studio demos, outtakes, rough mixes and alternative tracks that include most of the bonus songs, but I've never heard Kick It In and included is yet another version of Can't Hardly Wait. The Replacement's could have easily have put out a decent double album, but commercially it might not have been a good move as double albums tend to include a lot of filler (there are exceptions, of course) and don't traditionally sell well. If you're a fan you'll have this album on vinyl, cassette, CD and mp3 already, so add these bonus tracks to your existing collection and judge for yourself...

THE REPLACEMENTS
PLEASE TO MEET ME Bonus Material
12. Birthday Gal (Demo)*
13. Valentine (Demo) *
14. Bundle Up (Demo) *
15. Photo (Demo)*
16. Election Day
17. Alex Chilton (Alternate Version) *
18. Kick It In (Demo) *
19. Route 66
20. Tossin' 'N' Turnin'
21. Can't Hardly Wait (Alternate Version) *
22. Cool Water
* previously unreleased

Wedding Mixtape Part 5

These songs aren't necessarily about weddings or marriage, but more in the "proclaiming your love" song category. The three bands featured today when they first formed were categorized in the "No depression" alt-country Americana genre, the Jayhawks from Minneapolis, the Old 97's from Texas and Wilco originally from Chicago. All three bands have survived with their innovation and creativity that has influenced many a young band.

Note: The photo is of the original Hollywood Townhall, the title of the Jayhawks' album of the same name. The Township of Hollywood is located 25 miles west of Minneapolis. The "Townhall" building was a one room school built in 1906. Thought you should know...it kind of looks like a church.

JAYHAWKS- I'd Run Away (live 5-26-95 Switzerland)
OLD 97's- Designs On You (live 7-4-04 Chicago)
WILCO- I'm The Man Who Loves You (YHF demo)

Wedding Mixtape Part 4- "Closer To Fine"

Less than a week to go, so I guess I'm halfway finished or is that halfway started? Canadian content with some contributions by Montreal's Stars and Angela Desveaux and Seattle's Sicko covering the Indigo Girls!

STARS- My Favourite Book: Probably my favourite Stars' song and I know S loves this song and Amy Millan. A beautiful song!
ANGELA DESVEAUX- Sure Enough: I featured this song in a past post, but it's so good I had to share it again. If this was my wedding this would be one of the first songs I'd play for the dance.
SICKO- Closer To Fine: This was the Indigo Girls' biggest radio hit, Sicko never had any hits, but this version kicks ass! If you love short, fast power punk songs, check out Sicko.

Wedding Mixtape Part 3 "Whatever Makes You Happy"

For part three, all three song titles are pretty much self explanatory...Happy! I know what you're thinking, weddings and marriage don't always equate happiness, but whatever makes you happy is good enough for most people. Today, we go from the late 70's punk sounds of the Buzzcocks to the moody Paul Westerberg, to the sweet sounds of Liz Phair circa, Whitechocolatespaceegg. I guarantee these songs will leave a smile on your face.

BUZZCOCKS- Everybodys Happy Nowadays
PAUL WESTERBERG- Whatever Makes You Happy
LIZ PHAIR- Whatever Makes You Happy

Wedding Mixtape Part 2

Since I missed posting yesterday, I'm offering four songs today for the Wedding mixtape. Any song suggestions would be appreciated, even though I have a fairly long preliminary list of songs I'm considering. Tomorrow's theme: Happy!

JULIANA'S PONY (Juliana Hatfield)- Let's Get Married: From Juliana's alter-ego side project, a gritty, loud uncharacteristically Juliana song.
LEMONHEADS- It's About Time (live): Evan Dando wrote this song about and in "the style of.." Juliana Hatfield. Nevertheless, they never married.
YOUNG FRESH FELLOWS- For The Love Of A Girl
SMITHEREENS- A Girl Like You (live): This song was commissioned by director Cameron Crowe for that classic scene in the movie, Say Anything when Lloyd (John Cusack) holds up the boombox (see photo). It was rejected in favour of Peter Gabriel's, "In Your Eyes".

Sumi's Wedding Mixtape (part 1)

In less than two weeks my friend Sumi is tying the knot, so to speak, and in tribute I've assembled ( a work in progress...) a collection of my favourite wedding or at least wedding related songs for your listening enjoyment. I'm hoping to squeeze in as many songs as possible before the end of next week, so I hope to average about 2 songs or so a day. Some will be happy, others will be cynical, many will be obviously about marriage, lots about the bride, but none will be about divorce or break-ups, they will all be in good spirit and a lot of fun!

If you miss any of the downloads and don't want to scroll back, I'll post a link at the end of two weeks for the file with all the songs. It'll be a nice collection to burn and throw into the CD player on an anniversary or when you want reminisce about your happy married life...Enjoy!

PAUL WESTERBERG- Who You Gonna Marry? From Westerberg's 49:00 album which was one long continuous track. Though many of the songs are partial or fragments of ideas, Who You Gonna Marry? is the lead-off track and a complete song.
RHETT MILLER- Question (live, 10-11-00, NYC) Rhett (lead singer/guitarist from the Old 97's) had many requests (and has obliged many) to sing this song at weddings. You have to ask the question before you can get your answer...hopefully yes!

(I know Sumi will have a much cooler cake than what is pictured above. The cake from my wedding is not unlike the picture, except the music notes were hockey sticks and on top of the cake was a chocolate goalie stick and guitar.)

11:59

I'm looking forward to having a listen to the new Postmark's album that was released today. I don't recall ever buying a LP or CD on it's actual release date, but now you don't have to even leave your home when you can buy and download it from sites such as iTunes. Their latest disc is an all-covers collection, By-The-Numbers, that is unique in many ways such as the titles consecutively climb from one to eleven and the group's they cover are over the map in genre and style. This collection of songs were originally released every month of 2008 as a free download exclusive to Emusic. This will make a very interesting listen...stay tuned for a more in the upcoming days.

To tide you over until then, I'm posting a video for the song 11:59, a Blondie cover from the new album. Postmark Christopher Moll said this about the video: "Influenced by the flicker of a late night TV announcing the end of the world, "11:59" is the visual depiction of the frantic energy of information overload. We wanted it to have the feeling of a visual crescendo ... the sight of being bombarded by a thousand messages all at once (and all harping on the same thing which seems to be a common occurrence nowadays.) And when it's all over...the light goes out. FIN"

Song Of The Day- Super Tuesday!

THE SHAZAM- Super Tuesday (live at the Casbah, Oct. 19, 2003)- I dedicate this song to John McCain on his "Road to Nowhere". A great timely song as Obama will make history tonight...trust me!

THE REPLACEMENTS- Election Day (outtake from Pleased To Meet Me) According to Tommy Stinson, "That was the first song we did when we got to Memphis to make that record. It was election day, which meant there was no booze being sold anywhere. And we were thirsty." Well said Tommy!...Go vote (you Americans!)

Heard About Your Band...

When bands reissue albums that were already available on CD, it always makes be skeptical. Sometimes the sound is remastered, sometimes it's a bonus track or two, nevertheless it always seems like the record label has already exhausted the other avenues of cash grabs such as greatest hits, unplugged and live albums. One exception is the series of Rhino deluxe reissues of the Replacement's final 4 albums (last year it was their first 4) that featured rare previously unreleased tracks along with the original song list. Even a hardcore Replacements fan like myself who thought he had every demo and unreleased song is surprised to find some unheard gems. The excellent sound quality sure beats the multiple generation tape hiss on a lot of my rare tracks that I have collected from bootlegs and traded shows.

The first time I listened to the Mats (The Replacements) was back in the mid 80's, probably 1986, after the release of Tim. A friend gave me a mix tape and the only bands I remember were Green On Red, The Beasts Of Bourbon and The Replacements. I think the Replacements tracks were I'll Buy, Kiss Me On The Bus and Waitress In The Sky. To me this music was groundbreaking, the album, Tim was amazing and the Replacements changed my life. When I visited Minneapolis later that year, I bought the back catalog, Let It Be, Hootanany, Stink and Sorry I Forgot To Take Out The Trash. This interest in Replacement's style of music led to the discovery (for myself) of bands such as Husker Du, Soul Asylum, Scruffy the Cat, Camper Van, Young Fresh Fellows etc...basically anything U.S. college radio.

If you're like me, you already have Tim on vinyl, cassette, CD and mp3 formats, so you don't really need another version of the same thing, but these these reissues are almost worth it alone if only for the bonus tracks. For your downloading pleasure, just add these tracks to your existing Tim music files and you'll have your very own deluxe version.

TIM Bonus Material
12. Can't Hardly Wait (Acoustic - Alex Chilton Sessions Outtake) *
13. Nowhere Is My Home (Alex Chilton Sessions Outtake) - One of my favourite all-time Replacements tracks. I can't understand how this song wasn't on the original album.
14. Can't Hardly Wait (Electric - Alex Chilton Sessions Outtake) *- This version is so much better than the version that appeared on Pleased To Meet Me. Much closer to how they played this live pre-87.
15. Kiss Me On The Bus (Tom Erdelyi Demo) *- Great rockin' version, I prefer it, but the album version had an unique groove to it that sets it apart from the regular Mats sound.
16. Waitress In The Sky (Outtake - Alternate Version) *
17. Here Comes A Regular (Outtake - Alternate Version) *
(*previously unreleased.)