A semi-daily chronicle of my life as a musician, a family man, and a citizen of Oregon.

Aug 7, 2009

Wedding Playlist

One of the details I could really get excited about during Wedding planning was the playlist for the reception.  We didn't hire a DJ - I wanted each song to be selected by hand and for the order to be carefully planned exactly to my specifications.  For the reception itself I rented a PA system and hooked up a laptop to the console.  My brother Dan ran the PA during the event and did an awesome job - we didn't have even one squeal and the music sounded great for the whole time.

As with all things, the reality of the "dancing" part of the reception wasn't quite what I envisioned.  My friends are a little more reserved and didn't all participate to the extent I thought they would.  For the first few songs it was pretty much Jen and I plus a lot of kids.  Also, the playlist is kind of long and we didn't quite get through the whole thing.  Overall, I'm really proud of this playlist and its importance to us and our relationship.

Here's the playlist:

Song # Song Title Artist Purpose
1 Sweet Darlin' She & Him Perfect first song - fun and makes me feel like I do w/ Jen.
2 Say Hey (I Love You) Michael Franti & Spearhead Fun new song that's about love and great to dance to.
3 La La Love You The Pixies Jen's request - a favorite love song
4 In Case We Die Architecture in Helsinki Fun up-tempo dance song
5 Lloyd I'm Ready to Be Heartbroken Camera Obscura Nostalgic dance song
6 U-Mass The Pixies Get it rockin'
7 My Doorbell The White Stripes Keep it rockin'
8 I Feel It All Feist Easy to dance to, slowing things down
9 Love and Some Verses Iron & Wine Slow dance and extremely romantic
10 Sweetie Josh Rouse Jen and I used to listen to this song all the time.  Has the lyric "We'll sleep on rooftops/We'll ride on Bicycles/Honey, we'll get married/Don't you want to sweetie?"  Seems perfect for us.
11 Oregon Girl Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin I always tell Jen this is my song about her
12 Never Had Nobody Like You M. Ward Love song from M. Ward
13 Idioteque Radiohead At least one Radiohead song
14 Expectations Belle & Sebastian For a year I had this as the wake-up music on my alarm.  We used to wake up to it every day.
15 Sweet Sweetheart Killer Say Hi To Your Mom Fun dance song
16 1020 AM Spoon When we were very first together Jen and I used to stay up late listening to this song.
17 I'm the Man Who Loves You Wilco A song from me to Jen.
18 O' Valencia The Decemberists A favorite of the kids'
19 Absolutely Cuckoo The Magnetic Tapes Funny song - give people a break from dancing
20 LTWTMS The Trouble with Sweeney Groovy 70's sounding rock song
21 Mr. Tough Yo La Tengo Fun silly song to dance to
22 Simple X Andrew Bird This song makes me want to move every time I hear it.
23 Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye AMFM Slow-dance song, cover of a Leonard Cohen song.
24 No One's Gonna Love You Band Of Horses Slow song, one of Jen's favorites
25 1234 Feist Pick things up a bit
26 Letter to Memphis The Pixies Rocking Pixies song, very romantic
27 Big Time Sensuality Bjork Sexy dance song
28 All My Friends LCD Soundsystem Up-tempo dance song for all my friends at the wedding
29 Chinese Translation M. Ward A little buddhist wisdom from one of my favorite artists
30 She's Losing It Belle & Sebastian Another favorite of Jen and mine from the past
31 The Navajo Know The Pixies One of my favorite Pixies songs
32 Eyes on the Prize M. Ward Great romantic love song for Jen.
33 Here Comes Your Man The Pixies Jen's song for me (her "Oregon Girl")