New York DJ

Fans of indie pop, alt-country, singer-songwriters, or all three have probably heard the music of M. Ward, a singer-songwriter who for about a decade has been releasing albums of moody, otherworldly-sounding, yet often warm folk and pop that stitches together vintage sounds – from genres, like folk or bluegrass, to actual old sounds, like vocal effects that make it seem his voice is emanating from a 1930s radio. A couple years ago, Ward began a side project called She & Him with the increasingly popular actress Zooey Deschanel (known for her supporting roles in Elf, Yes Man, and as a lead in an underrated indie film featuring some great music called All the Real Girls).

Last year the pair released their debut album, Volume One, a well-crafted collection of songs that blends retro styles like vintage country twang, ’60s girl group harmonizing, and a touch of classic torch song jazz into an enchanting mix. But the real surprise here is Deschanel, who sings lead vocals and wrote most of the songs. Her vocals, usually delivered crisply but with a sweet, slight country-ish drawl, quite beautifully convey a range of emotion throughout the album, from the exuberance of celebrating a new love to late-night, tear-in-your-beer, honky-tonk heartache. And what’s also impressive is that you can tell – not just from the strength of the songs, but also from the choice of the radio-unfriendly musical styles themselves – that Deschanel and Ward have made music they care about, and that Deschanel is not simply a pretty young face trying to pull a Jennifer Love Hewitt and cash in on her growing stardom. Though the album may not be thematically deep, and though at times it sounds too derivative of its retro influences, Volume One is of the quality and integrity that that most actors with musical side projects think they’re making but rarely do.

“I Was Made for You” is one of the songs here where Deschanel and Ward are at the their best. While on some of the more twangy tunes on the album, Deschanel leans a bit too hard on the country drawl (she was born in L.A. and went to high school in Santa Monica, so she’s no coal miner’s daughter), on “I Was Made for You” she keeps just enough of the drawl to make things warm, but also channels the breezy sweetness of the ’60s girl group sound. From the opening lyrics about taking a walk and seeing a boy pass by to the backup “ooh, uh-huh” female vocals, this song seems like it could be the prequel to innocent “teenager-in-love” girl-group classics like “My Boyfriend’s Back” or “He’s So Fine.”

Why is this tune a great first dance song? Mostly for one important reason – it manages to flawlessly create a tricky mood to pull off, but one that’s perfect for a couple’s initial foray alone onto the dancefloor for their guests and photographers. In the song, the solid foundation of lush retro production, a bouncy melody, and Deschanel’s joyful vocals all come together to convincingly capture the pure, teenager-y thrill of falling for someone, and from my experience as a DJ at weddings, few things could be better than feeling that during a first dance. Plus, like most simple pop tunes should, the song doesn’t overstay its welcome, being only two-and-a-half minutes long. The one caveat is that the song isn’t gender neutral like many first dance songs – twice in the song, Deschanel sings “I have been waitin’ for a long long time/for a boy like you” – but come on, guys, the wedding should be more about your bride anyway, right?

Have a listen…

She & Him – “I Was Made for You”

I’ve been away from the blog for almost a month – much longer than I had intended – but this was largely because for about two weeks I was on a road trip vacation with my girlfriend. I returned eager to make a collection of songs that people could use for all kinds of road trips – weekend getaways taken with a significant other, meditative solo excursions out of town, long family vacations, and so forth.

Now, this is a blog in which I usually write about how to use music and the DJ to make events such as corporate parties, weddings, and fashion shows succeed on a higher level. So DJ advice on songs for a road trip might seem a bit out of place – after all, road trips are not really considered an event, they of course don’t feature live DJs spinning from the passenger’s seat, and the music which people bring with them in their cars for a road trip is often very personal.

But then again, our company doesn’t only DJ events that are live. We also provide carefully pre-crafted mixes of songs to clients as well. For example, when we provide music mixes to a restaurant in the city, the most important element is not beat-matching and getting people to dance, but the more mellow mission of crafting a mood or moods that enhance the guests’ time eating dinner or drinking cocktails. Plus, I took a look on iTunes and found their road trip collection – though fun – felt a bit generic and one dimensional. Sure, the iTunes collection might give some people a smile on their trip to blast “I Can’t Drive 55” by Sammy Hagar or “Life is a Highway” by…by…uh, that one guy who sung it, but there are so many other moods that music can put you in touch with on a road trip than just rockin’ out. Road trips can offer moments for pleasant reflections, for melancholy musings, for innocent joy, for quiet sadness, and a lot more kinds of feelings.

And really, a road trip is a sort of event to those embarking on it. It almost always arouses some sort of passionate feeling, usually it involves some degree of planning, and ever since cassette decks and Certron C-60 tapes came out in the early '70s, mixes of music have been almost as important as the gas money.

So I’ve assembled a mix of songs that hopefully you aren’t too familiar with, and that cover a range of emotions and that go with a variety of moments, from driving through the lights of a big city late at night to cruising along an empty rural highway under clear blue skies and bright sunshine. There’s mellow acoustic guitar instrumentals, folk, indie rock, electronica, classic rock, roots reggae, vintage country, vintage rock, synthpop, alt-country, blues, and more. From some of the songs' subject matter – cars, highways, welcome escapes, anticipated reunions – you'll be able to tell they're related to the theme, but other songs were chosen simply because they just have a certain feel – be it propulsive, sweet, lush, moody, dreamy, austere – that goes well with different kinds of road trip moments.

I'm sure there's a lot of great music out there that I don't know about that you really adore on your road trips. I encourage you to comment below with any suggestions you think would be good for people to know more about for a road trip mix, whatever the mood of the song, and if I get enough I'll make another mix incorporating those suggestions. Just please don’t include the obvious stuff that we've all seen in too many Hollywood movies or car commercials, like Foghat’s “Slow Ride” or Billy Ocean’s “Get Outta My Dreams, Get into My Car.” We all know about those songs too much, and unfortunately we can’t forget them.

Go here to check out the mix.

Well, the New Year is almost here and along with midnight kisses, champagne, and Auld Lang Syne often comes the tradition of watching the ball drop in Times Square. So with New York City in many people's mind's tonight, we thought this a perfect time to bring you a mix of great New York City songs for your events to not just feature at year-end events, but throughout the whole year.

Often at events located in or near the city, no matter what time of the year, we find that playing a few songs that reference New York in some way add an extra sentimental touch, both for those who live here or nearby, and those who have come to the event from out of the state or out of the country. The great thing about the city is that there's been so many songs in so many styles written about it, so therefore we've chosen songs are from a wide range of genres – jazz, soul, rock, folk, indie pop, reggae, hip-hop, merengue, and more. The songs are also from a wide variety of moods, some quiet, some loud, some in between, so you'll find many songs here to everything from a small dinner gathering to a huge corporate party. Many of these songs even helped define these genres they come from. Some of these are classics you've heard many times but still love and would want to hear many more times, some are newer and likely completely unfamiliar, some are only songs you want to hear when drunk, but all feature the city as a central part of the tune and capture an essence of the Big Apple in their own memorable way.

Here is the list of the songs included in the mix (arranged in a consecutive order, generally, of rising party-ability):

1. Take the "A" Train – Duke Ellington
2. Let Me Off Uptown – Mel Tormé
3. The Brooklyn Bridge – Mel Tormé
4. Manhattan – Ella Fitzgerald
5. Autumn In New York – Frank Sinatra
6. Spanish Harlem – Ben E. King
7. Brooklyn and Jamaica – Morgan Heritage
8. Take the L Train (To Brooklyn) Brooklyn Funk Essentials
9. Breakfast In NYC – Oppenheimer
10. Walk on the Wild Side – Lou Reed
11. Going Home – Luna
12. NYC – Interpol
13. Coney Island – Death Cab for Cutie
14. Wintering in Brooklyn – The Last Town Chorus
15. The Only Living Boy in New York – Simon & Garfunkel
16. The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy) Simon & Garfunkel
17. The City – Joe Purdy
18. Fairytale of New York – The Pogues feat. Kirsty MacColl
19. Angel of Harlem – U2
20. New York, New York – Ryan Adams
21. Broadway – Goo Goo Dolls
22. New York City – They Might Be Giants
23. Rockaway Beach – The Ramones
24. Rockin' the Bronx – Black 47
25. Brooklyn – Mos Def
26. South Bronx – KRS-One & Boogie Down Productions
27. New York New York – Grandmaster Flash, Melle Mel & The Furious Five
28. No Sleep 'til Brooklyn – Beastie Boys
29. Brooklyn's Finest (feat. The Notorious B.I.G.) – Jay-Z
30. Big Pimpin' (feat. UGK) – Jay-Z
31. Across 110th Street – Bobby Womack
32. Native New Yorker – Odyssey
33. Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do) – Christopher Cross
34. New York Soul – Ray Barretto
35. Funky Broadway – Wilson Pickett
36. 110th St. & 5th Ave. – Tito Puente
37. Un Dia en New York Los Hermanos Rosario
38. Fiesta en el Bronx – Frank River
39. NYC Beat – Armand Van Helden
40. New York City Boy – Pet Shop Boys
41. I Love New York – Madonna
42. I Love NYC – Andrew W.K. 
43. New York State of Mind – Billy Joel 
44. Theme from New York, New York – Frank Sinatra

So, as Frank Sinatra sings in his famous rendition of "New York, New York," let those little town dreams melt away and go listen to the mix here.

Recently, on iTunes, we completed our iMix collection of indie wedding songs. As I have explained in posts describing the previous 7 entries in the collection, the tunes in these last 3 mixes cover a range of "wedding moods," with some songs appropriate for first dances, some for atmosphere during dinner or cocktail hour, and some you could use for a less traditional take on ceremony processional and/or recessional music. (Go here to see my posts on the previous mixes in the collection.) What unites all the songs we’ve picked in this whole collection of about 200 songs is simply that they’re all great to help craft a soundtrack for a wedding that features eclectic and unusual pop and rock which often explores romance from a less mainstream, more fresh point-of-view.

Some standouts on mix 8 include the breezy ramshackle sound of "Scythian Empires" by Andrew Bird; "I Love How You Love Me," Camera Obscura’s lovely minimalist version of an oldies pop song made popular by Bobby Vinton and the Paris Sisters; and a pair of classic alternative tunes from the ’80s that influenced today’s indie rock, "Just Like Honey" by the Jesus and Mary Chain, and "A Strange Kind of Love" by former Bauhaus lead singer Peter Murphy. Go here for mix 8.

Much of Mix 9 nods back to some of the influencers of today’s indie rock and pop, such as The Blue Nile’s "Saturday Night," an orchestral pop song so sweeping and cinematic you’ll see visions of black and white movie lovers in your head; the tender lullaby feel of The Innocence Mission’s "Happy, The End"; and the romantic jazz club feel of Fairground Attraction’s "Allelujah," which glides along so gently and elegantly on the silky vocals of Eddi Reader (the song is featured on the band’s excellent but relatively obscure album The First of a Million Kisses, cover pictured). Go here for mix 9.

Finally, mix 10 largely retuns to the acoustic feel of our first mix in the collection. Included on this last mix is a stripped-down, acoustic guitar cover of Peter Gabriel’s "In Your Eyes" by Matt Ketteman and Cameron Mizell, which conjures a Mark Kozolek/Red House Painters-like haunting prettiness from the instantly-recognizable melody; the clean, soaring vocals and shimmering acoustic guitar on Alison Krauss’s "Simple Love," and ex-Velocity Girl singer Sarah Shannon’s sweet, loungey tune "Along the Way." Go here for mix 10.