What day is tomorrow? (All mp3 links have been removed)

I feel compelled to contribute a collection of songs that on any other day would not be nauseating. Of course I will add my superfluous commentary. I'll try to upload (by tomorrow) a mix of bitter songs that best celebrate the imaginary holiday that is Valentine's Day.

The following songs are in the order I would want them to be heard...Of course, you can just pick and choose what you want and listen to them in any order. Clicking on a link will let you listen to the song and/or download it if it sounds good to you.

(1) Small Factory - "Valentine": this song was covered by Lois Maffeo a long time ago (if anyone still remembers her). I liked Small Factory. They're very much 90s indie rock.

(2) The Suburbs - "Love Is the Law": covered by the PeeChees (yeah I used to like them). I found this record in the very cluttered upstairs of Record Surplus in Los Angeles. Nothing says love like sax in an 80s song.

(3) Orange Juice - "I Can't Help Myself": get off the "Rip It Up" bandwagon and dig this nugget. Edwyn Collins is getting as soulful as he can here. You can't fault a song with sax and a line that goes "Just like the Four Tops - I can't help myself!" This song makes me feel, like, retarded in love.

(4)The Vibrations - "Love In Them There Hills": from my vinyl of the Mr. Cee curated "Lost Soul". Mr. Cee was Big Daddy Kane's producer (I think - I remember in "Ain't No Half Steppin'" Big Daddy Kane said "Mr. Cee step to me..."). Anyway, this was the Vibrations biggest hit. It's more funky than soulful. Bongos and horns - a winning combination.

(5) ESG - "You Make No Sense": ESG doing what they do best - repetitively playing a tune made for break beat junkies. I go back and forth with ESG. Sometimes I can't get enough of these ladies - other times, I think you hear one of their songs - you've heard them all. Except for "UFO" which just seems like an anomaly in their catalogue.

(6) Queen - "Need Your Loving Tonight": this song just rocks. I remember seeing Carrie Brownstein DJing a couple of years ago and she dropped this tune. I had to give her props. All the hipsters were lost since this was before the whole "cheesey rock is cool" revival.

(7) The Raspberries - "I Wanna Be With You": oh yeah. Eric Carmen at his best. The title says it all. The hair on the back of my neck stands up when this song comes on. Makes me want to crack open a bottle of Boone's Strawberry Hill and get down with you.

(8) Kicking Giant - "Fuck the Rules": and do it nasty. Just kidding. Anyway, this is a very personal tune for me. You know how some songs are always about the particular person you first heard it with? This is one of them. Talked to Tae a couple of years and he said he was moving back to N.Y. to do graphic design work. Hope it all worked out for him but I sure do miss Kicking Giant. Kicking Giant's one true album as 'Kicking Giant' on K Records is still in my list of top ten records of all time. [02/15: Replaced WMA file - now a MP3 file.]

(9) Gun Club - "She's Like Heroin to Me": you know you're really in love when this is the hyperbole you choose to express your undying devotion. This is a must for a wedding song.

(10) My Bloody Valentine - "Love Machine": sorry for the bad audio quality of this one. Couldn't really find any better. If this was rereleased this wouldn't be a problem. This MBV is definitely not the MBV that Sofia Coppola (the idiot who makes stupid derivative insipid movies) loves.

(11) Nu Forest (The Pastels & Jarvis Cocker) - "I Picked a Flower": have you ever found a rose in another man's garden? Well, Jarvis has. I remember when I first heard this collaboration I nearly fell out of my chair. Neither the Pastels nor Jarvis could go wrong in my book. It's techno funky and tongue in cheek.

(12) Japan - "Fall In Love With Me": David Sylvain's still using a glam rockish inflection in his baritone in this one. This is a great cruising song for me for some reason.

(13) Spacemen 3 - "I Love You": could I have picked a less obvious one? Sure, but Kember's songs have always been more interesting to me than Mr. Spiritualized's. Kember's stuff on the Recurring album was definitely more satisfying than Pierce's.

(14) Suicide - "Cheree (Remix)": always a great hypnotic love song. I put this one up only because I put "Keep Your Dreams" on every mix tape/CD I make for people.

(15) David Bowie - "What In the World": I've been really getting back into the "Low" album. The other song on this album that may have been appropriate for Valentines was "Be My Wife" - but that song sucks. Yet again, Bowie sings about a girl with grey eyes in this tune. I think her name is Trent Reznor. By the way, I only obsess over girls with green eyes like that crazy guy in Big Trouble In Little China.

(16) Klaus Nomi - "Just One Look": gawd damn, this song just makes me smile. Not as challenging like other Nomi tunes, this song is obviously a cover of the Doris Troy/Hollies hit.

(17) Jellyfish - "Baby's Coming Back": OK this was a big pre-grunge hit in high school. I went out and bought this tape and hid it in my collection from all my punk rawk friends. I listened to this album on the way to the school bus stop. And when I got on the bus, you know I was rocking Econochrist, Avail or something. Because that was the cool thing to do. I was a total douche.

(18) Beulah - "If We Could Land a Man On the Moon, Surely I Can Win Your Heart": this song is more about writing a pop tune rather than love for a significant other. But you gotta admit it's a great title. I slept on Beulah for a long time believing they were too syrupy for me. Y'know too kitschy - wearing their Beatles/Beach Boys influences on their sleeves (see also: Jellyfish). But see douche comment above.

(19) The Beach Boys - "I Can Hear Music": three reasons why this song rules (1) great Ronettes cover, (2) Brian Wilson production is spot on and (3) no lead vocal from Mike "I look like the biggest asshole in the world" Love.

(20) Nu People - "I'd Be Nowhere Without You": thank you DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist for spreading this tune around. Aside from being a break beat gold mine, it's a great tune when listened to in its entirety. [02/15: Replaced WMA file - now a MP3 file.]

(21) Electric Light Orchestra - "The Lights Go Down": this song always reminds of that song from the movie Streets of Fire - 'I can dream about you - I can dream about you if I can't have you tonight...' Jeff Lynne's vocals sound sort of like the guy who sang that song.

(22) Bob Dylan - "Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window (Glockenspiel Version)": this is the accidentally released single version (pre-Highway 61 Revisited) NOT the rerecorded alternate final version on the Biograph collection. Whomever this song is about, it ain't about that tool Joan Baez.

(23) The Gaylettes - "Silent River Runs Deep": I am of the firm opinion that people whom haven't had the chance to ever listen to the Gaylettes are depriving themselves of a uniquely soulful event. Seriously.

(24) Arthur Russell - "A Little Lost": soon this song will be 'rediscovered' by whoever the people are who put together the music for The OC or Grey's Anatomy. This is Arthur at his Kermit the Frog-like tenor best. No hip remixes - no unimaginative new disco beat added to it. We get to really hear Arthur's passion and unique cello playing. Stunning. I cried the first time I heard this song. Such longing...

(25) Kaleidoscope (UK) - "Dear Nellie Goodrich": psychedelic and baroque. Insert Zombies/Left Banke/David Axelrod producing the Electric Prunes/etc. reference here. It's such a soothing song.

(26) The Wailers - "It's You Alone": one of the Pacific Northwest's garage rock bands doing a BALLAD! Sure, the Wailers rock - and all of us native San Josers have got to give them props for their song "San Hozay" - but this is a great slow jam. It's got drama and a quivering vocal that seems like it's about to crack from all the white boy soul being belted out. [02/15: Replaced WMA file - now a MP3 file.]

(27) Comet Gain - "Turnpike": another one of my favorites from the 90s. "You've got those French film eyes" is some kind of cheese that I wish I wrote.

(28) Francoise Hardy - "This Little Heart": the English version of "Ce Petit Coeur". One of my mom's favorite songs as a teenager. Anything 'girl' (i.e., girl groups, yeh-yeh girls) I've ever liked in my life is a direct result of my mom's teenage musical obsession with girl vocalists of the 60s. Like I've mentioned many times before to anyone who would listen, I would sing Skeeter Davis' "I Can't Stay Mad At You" with her when I was a little kid. One of the best things I've ever had the opportunity to do in my life was to make her a mixtape/CD of all the girl musicians she used to listen to as a kid. [02/15: Replaced WMA file - now a MP3 file.]

(29) Eddie Floyd - "I'll Take Her": Stax is on fire! Whatever happened to Eddie after The Blues Brothers? [02/15: Replaced WMA file - now a MP3 file.]

(30) Alton Ellis - "Baby I Love You": the king of rocksteady! Enough said.

(31) Daniel Johnston - "Tell Me Now": crazy love - this is it right here. Run for your life Laurie. Daniel's songs are always perfect for a guitar and a campfire.

(32) The Saturns - "Somebody's In Love": I think this Sun Ra produced doo-wop number was covered by Yo La Tengo. It would make sense since they've got a knack for picking great covers.

(33) Lou Reed - "Wait": Lou does a song about the pleasures of abstinence - stop the presses! How unrock and roll is that? One of the very few live recordings I like.

(34) The Ramones - "Baby I Love You": another Ronettes cover in this selection. And it's even got that bushy haired killer Phil Spector producing too! This may be blasphemy but this version is even better than the original. My mom gives this cover a thumbs up!

(35) Cub - "Through My Hoop": yeah it's Cub - so what? Too twee? Cuddlecore? This another song with special significance for me. And the line in the song that sounds like "An uncertain something has begun..." was the inspiration for the name of my radio show long ago.

(36) The Velvet Underground - "I Found a Reason": just a beautiful song. Dedicated to M.K.

*Bonus track
Apache - "Gangsta Bitch": cause I'm from San Jose, I've always had a thing for the hairbears and vatas. But those ladies don't roll like the ones in N.Y. - y'know with "Carhartt and leather (motherfuck the weather)". "I wanna gangsta boogie with my gangsta bitch". True.

I hope you all make love to this.