WARMER MIXTAPES #1587 | by Jocelyn Arndt and Chris Arndt of Jocelyn & Chris Arndt
SIDE A | by Jocelyn Arndt
1. Daryl Hall & John Oates | You Make My Dreams
My apologies to the friends and family members who've had to endure me playing this song on repeat a zillion times - I really can't help it. It's just one of those tunes that makes me smile, no matter what. To be honest, a lot of Hall & Oates Music does that for me; they're one of my favorite musical artists ever. Such amazing songwriting. This song is the sonic equivalent of a ray of Sunshine and a glass of freshly squeezed lemonade on a beautiful, breezy Summer afternoon.
2. KT Tunstall | Miniature Disasters
I've loved KT Tunstall since I was a little girl, and she's one of my greatest inspirations as a vocalist. This song is off of her first album, Eye To The Telescope. I remember going to Walmart as an Elementary-schooler and buying this album with the money I'd earned doing chores. It was the first album I ever bought myself. The whole record is worth a listen if you haven't already heard it, but Miniature Disasters is one of my favorite songs from it.
3. Hozier | Jackie And Wilson
Ah, Hozier. The golden-throated angel of modern-day Blues-Rock patrons. What a voice this guy has. I fell in Love with it as soon as I heard Take Me To Church on the radio for the first time, and I immediately went to listen to the whole album. That's how I found this song. It's sweet in the Bluesiest way possible, and I love it.
4. G. Love & Special Sauce | Cold Beverage
Cold Beverage is a rocking song. I challenge anyone listening it to deny that. It's just a fact. G. Love is also a sick harmonica player, which just makes the whole thing cooler. And on top of that, he's the nicest guy ever. How do I know this? Because he played on our album Edges! We needed an awesome Blues-harp player to jam out on one of our original songs, Hot, and we immediately thought of G. Love. Our producer reached out to see if he'd be interested in helping us out, and lo and behold, fast-forward a couple of weeks and we were sitting with him in a studio in Boston, listening to him absolutely kill it on our Music. Thanks, G.
5. Spice Girls | Wannabe
So this song popped in my head while making this list, and I'm not ashamed. I'm writing it down. There's a reason Wannabe was such a mega-hit: it's unstoppably infectious. You actually can't turn it off once you hear it; you have to listen to it until the end. And you also have to sing along. That's a fact, proven by Science. Or at least it should be. YOU WANNA, YOU WANNA, YOU WANNA, YOU WANNA.
6. Train | Calling All Angels
Dear Train from the early 2000s: please come back! I miss you. Sincerely, me. For real though, it's not that I don't like the Music Train is writing now. I don't want to imply that, because I do like it. I generally like everything Train has ever done. I just REALLY like their older stuff. This song is an excellent example of some of that material. It's beautiful. More than once, I've listened to this and gotten a little teary-eyed. Maybe that's because it's absolutely amazing, and maybe it's because I'm a mess, but I'd like to think it's a combination of both.
7. Jamie Cullum | Get Your Way
Jamie Cullum is probably the coolest person alive. Have you ever seen videos of him performing? He just oozes this relaxed, playful confidence. That comes across in his songwriting as well. This song is a great example of both his lyrical wit and his insane piano skills. And it's just really cool.
8. Janis Joplin | Summertime (Billie Holiday Cover)
All hail The Queen. This song is an outstanding demonstration of Janis's amazing, electric, unparalleled vocal talent. You can just feel exactly what she wants you to when she's singing. I think I can speak broadly enough to say that our collective dream as musicians and performers is for our audience to pick up on the emotions we're embedding within our writing, singing, and playing. Our goal is to make listeners FEEL something real, something we communicate through our Music. Janis does this without even having to try. That's why she'll forever be Rock-N-Roll royalty.
9. Nirvana | All Apologies
Like Janis, Kurt Cobain is another one of those naturally emotive performers. His voice captured the audience of millions, and it still does to this day. Plus, Nirvana's songwriting really helped pave the way for an entirely new kind of Music. He's an icon. And this song rocks.
10. Whitney Houston | I Will Always Love You (Dolly Parton Cover) (The Bodyguard Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
You didn't think I'd make a top-ten list and not include Whitney, did you? This is the song I sing in the shower when I don't think anybody else is listening. I love it. I will always love it. Whitney Houston had this way of singing that was so powerful and yet also so effortless... It's just inspiring to listen to. No one can sing this song the way she did. Not then, not now, not ever.
SIDE B | by Chris Arndt
1. Styx | Mr. Roboto
There are some songs you listen to because they are the most beautiful thing you could ever imagine, and listening to them is akin to a philosophical awakening, and they’re perfect, and they’re everything you’d ever want in a song, and everything else positive you could think of happens when those songs grace your ears. Mr. Roboto is not one of those songs. That’s not to say it’s not awesome—it is completely awesome, or it wouldn’t have made the list. But I’ve never met anyone who tears up when they think of their experiences listening to Mr. Roboto. Rather, Mr. Roboto is the kind of song that everyone aggressively whispers Secret! Secret! I’ve got a secret! along with when it comes on shuffle, like, 20 TIMES throughout the course of your cross-country tour. It’s impossible to listen to this song and be sad, because the song is just such a display of ’80’s extravagance and Insanity and Craziness and all other things Styx.
2. Ludwig van Beethoven | Moonlight Sonata (Performed by Tomasz Trzciński)
This one is a bit of a departure from Styx, but it definitely deserves a spot on my top-10 list. It’s hard to deny that Beethoven seriously had his crap together when it came to making dope Music. The Moonlight Sonata has always stood out as exceptionally beautiful to me. That’s about as lame as saying my favorite food is pizza, but honestly, who doesn’t love pizza?
3. Pink Floyd | Comfortably Numb
Ask me what my favorite band is, I will pretty much always say Pink Floyd. Ask me what my favorite Pink Floyd song is, and you’ll get a different answer every 3 minutes. They’re SOOOOO GOOOOOOOD. Since I started writing this, I think my favorite Pink Floyd song has actually become Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Part 2). But I’ll stick with Comfortably Numb for the sake of consistency. David Gilmore is my professional hero, and the guitar solo in Comfortably Numb is about as good as it gets. It’s so beautiful and perfect and amazing, and I’ve legit just put this song on repeat for multiple hours before. That’s no joke.
4. Scott Joplin | The Entertainer
Man, do I love me a good Rag! It’s literally impossible for me to not be happy when I hear this song. Jocelyn and I were basically raised on a Scott Joplin’s Greatest Hits album, so this song brings me back to some of my earliest memories. Combine that with it’s placement in The Sting (the greatest con movie ever, if you haven’t seen it I highly highly recommend that you do) and the fact that it was the second song we ever performed live (in barbershop quartet uniforms, no less), and this song really just holds a special place in my heart.
5. Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band | Blue On Black
Talk about sultry guitar. This guy knows how to wield a musical ax. The riff is intoxicating, and his lead is out-of-this-world. This song has had a huge role in my development as a lead guitarist. I used to plug the rhythm part into my looper pedal and just jam for hours and hours on end, until someone in my family would yell at me for having my amp too loud.
6. Phil Collins | In The Air Tonight
My greatest regret in Life will always be that one time this song was playing in the background and I did not play air drums along with the fill. It has only happened once. I have since vowed never to let it happen again.
7. Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers | Moanin’
I don’t think I could really make a Top 10 song list without including at least one Jazz classic. It kind of gets overlooked in our Blues-Rock focus, but Jazz was an integral part of our Musical upbringing. Miles Davis’ Kind Of Blue, Coltrane’s Soultrane, Django Reinhardt’s Djangology, and countless other amazing Jazz albums were household favorites, particularly toward the evening and during dinner. But for some reason, The Messengers' rendition of Moanin’ has always stood out to me. The riff always gets stuck in my head. Actually, it’s in there right now.
8. Eric Clapton | Wonderful Tonight
I’m a guitarist. How could I not include a song by Clapton? Wonderful Tonight is such a perfect example of beautiful, melodic, meaningful lead guitar, it’s insane. I’m amazed every time I hear it. I constantly scour The Web in search of new guitar solos to learn from and listen to, so the list of my favorite guitar solos changes on a regular basis, but Wonderful Tonight is one of the few constants. I have nothing bad to say about this song. Cool story alert: the keyboardist and organ player on our album, Danny Louis (who currently tours and plays with Warren Haynes in Gov’t Mule), has played with Clapton before. I’m literally one level of Separation from Clapton. Yeah. I know. It’s cool.
9. Paul McCartney | Maybe I’m Amazed
McCartney was once quoted as saying that Maybe I’m Amazed would be “the song he would like to be remembered for”. Considering his Musical resume, that statement carries a crapload of weight. That said, I get why he said it. Obviously, McCartney has done amazing things for Music—he’s one of the most prolific songwriters in Rock 'n' Roll, and he WAS IN THE BEATLES. If that’s not doing something in Music, I don’t know what is. He’s also done some pretty terrible things (Simply Having A Wonderful Christmastime, anyone?). But, of all the things he’s done, Maybe I’m Amazed stands out. The song is just so beautiful and heartfelt I almost fall in Love with Linda McCartney myself every time I listen to it.
10. The Band | The Weight
I’m supposed to like Classic Rock Music, right? How could I possibly justify not including this song? Every time I hear it, this warm feeling just sort of blossoms out of my chest and I smile and everything is going really well and Life is great. It’s not particularly complex, and there’s no crazy guitar solo or anything like that, but it doesn’t really need any of that stuff. The Weight is just a great song. Every time I listen to it, I really feel like I’m just relaxing and taking a load off. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist).
Oh, man. As a singer can I just say that picking ten favorite songs is like REALLY hard. I'm struggling with this a little bit (and by a little bit I mean a ton), just because I love so much Music that it's difficult to pick a favorites list, even on a day-to-day basis. My favorite Music generally changes a lot by the day, or even by the hour, because I get into certain moods and they really effect what kind of tunes I feel like listening to. So this list is for now; these are my top ten songs for this exact moment in Time.
Alright, deep breath. Here goes.
(In no particular order, because I think my little musician brain would explode from guilt if I had to do that. Have mercy.)
Alright, deep breath. Here goes.
(In no particular order, because I think my little musician brain would explode from guilt if I had to do that. Have mercy.)
1. Daryl Hall & John Oates | You Make My Dreams
My apologies to the friends and family members who've had to endure me playing this song on repeat a zillion times - I really can't help it. It's just one of those tunes that makes me smile, no matter what. To be honest, a lot of Hall & Oates Music does that for me; they're one of my favorite musical artists ever. Such amazing songwriting. This song is the sonic equivalent of a ray of Sunshine and a glass of freshly squeezed lemonade on a beautiful, breezy Summer afternoon.
2. KT Tunstall | Miniature Disasters
I've loved KT Tunstall since I was a little girl, and she's one of my greatest inspirations as a vocalist. This song is off of her first album, Eye To The Telescope. I remember going to Walmart as an Elementary-schooler and buying this album with the money I'd earned doing chores. It was the first album I ever bought myself. The whole record is worth a listen if you haven't already heard it, but Miniature Disasters is one of my favorite songs from it.
3. Hozier | Jackie And Wilson
Ah, Hozier. The golden-throated angel of modern-day Blues-Rock patrons. What a voice this guy has. I fell in Love with it as soon as I heard Take Me To Church on the radio for the first time, and I immediately went to listen to the whole album. That's how I found this song. It's sweet in the Bluesiest way possible, and I love it.
4. G. Love & Special Sauce | Cold Beverage
Cold Beverage is a rocking song. I challenge anyone listening it to deny that. It's just a fact. G. Love is also a sick harmonica player, which just makes the whole thing cooler. And on top of that, he's the nicest guy ever. How do I know this? Because he played on our album Edges! We needed an awesome Blues-harp player to jam out on one of our original songs, Hot, and we immediately thought of G. Love. Our producer reached out to see if he'd be interested in helping us out, and lo and behold, fast-forward a couple of weeks and we were sitting with him in a studio in Boston, listening to him absolutely kill it on our Music. Thanks, G.
5. Spice Girls | Wannabe
So this song popped in my head while making this list, and I'm not ashamed. I'm writing it down. There's a reason Wannabe was such a mega-hit: it's unstoppably infectious. You actually can't turn it off once you hear it; you have to listen to it until the end. And you also have to sing along. That's a fact, proven by Science. Or at least it should be. YOU WANNA, YOU WANNA, YOU WANNA, YOU WANNA.
6. Train | Calling All Angels
Dear Train from the early 2000s: please come back! I miss you. Sincerely, me. For real though, it's not that I don't like the Music Train is writing now. I don't want to imply that, because I do like it. I generally like everything Train has ever done. I just REALLY like their older stuff. This song is an excellent example of some of that material. It's beautiful. More than once, I've listened to this and gotten a little teary-eyed. Maybe that's because it's absolutely amazing, and maybe it's because I'm a mess, but I'd like to think it's a combination of both.
7. Jamie Cullum | Get Your Way
Jamie Cullum is probably the coolest person alive. Have you ever seen videos of him performing? He just oozes this relaxed, playful confidence. That comes across in his songwriting as well. This song is a great example of both his lyrical wit and his insane piano skills. And it's just really cool.
8. Janis Joplin | Summertime (Billie Holiday Cover)
All hail The Queen. This song is an outstanding demonstration of Janis's amazing, electric, unparalleled vocal talent. You can just feel exactly what she wants you to when she's singing. I think I can speak broadly enough to say that our collective dream as musicians and performers is for our audience to pick up on the emotions we're embedding within our writing, singing, and playing. Our goal is to make listeners FEEL something real, something we communicate through our Music. Janis does this without even having to try. That's why she'll forever be Rock-N-Roll royalty.
9. Nirvana | All Apologies
Like Janis, Kurt Cobain is another one of those naturally emotive performers. His voice captured the audience of millions, and it still does to this day. Plus, Nirvana's songwriting really helped pave the way for an entirely new kind of Music. He's an icon. And this song rocks.
10. Whitney Houston | I Will Always Love You (Dolly Parton Cover) (The Bodyguard Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
You didn't think I'd make a top-ten list and not include Whitney, did you? This is the song I sing in the shower when I don't think anybody else is listening. I love it. I will always love it. Whitney Houston had this way of singing that was so powerful and yet also so effortless... It's just inspiring to listen to. No one can sing this song the way she did. Not then, not now, not ever.
Chris here! My turn now. Let me first reiterate that picking a list of 10 favorite songs is SO GOSH DARN DIFFICULT I just don’t know what to do with myself. Also, Jocelyn picked like, 5 of the songs that were going to go on my list, so I’m pretty much at a loss. But there’s a lot of dope-ass Music out there, so I guess I might be able to come up with another list of 10.
Here goes:
Here goes:
1. Styx | Mr. Roboto
There are some songs you listen to because they are the most beautiful thing you could ever imagine, and listening to them is akin to a philosophical awakening, and they’re perfect, and they’re everything you’d ever want in a song, and everything else positive you could think of happens when those songs grace your ears. Mr. Roboto is not one of those songs. That’s not to say it’s not awesome—it is completely awesome, or it wouldn’t have made the list. But I’ve never met anyone who tears up when they think of their experiences listening to Mr. Roboto. Rather, Mr. Roboto is the kind of song that everyone aggressively whispers Secret! Secret! I’ve got a secret! along with when it comes on shuffle, like, 20 TIMES throughout the course of your cross-country tour. It’s impossible to listen to this song and be sad, because the song is just such a display of ’80’s extravagance and Insanity and Craziness and all other things Styx.
2. Ludwig van Beethoven | Moonlight Sonata (Performed by Tomasz Trzciński)
This one is a bit of a departure from Styx, but it definitely deserves a spot on my top-10 list. It’s hard to deny that Beethoven seriously had his crap together when it came to making dope Music. The Moonlight Sonata has always stood out as exceptionally beautiful to me. That’s about as lame as saying my favorite food is pizza, but honestly, who doesn’t love pizza?
3. Pink Floyd | Comfortably Numb
Ask me what my favorite band is, I will pretty much always say Pink Floyd. Ask me what my favorite Pink Floyd song is, and you’ll get a different answer every 3 minutes. They’re SOOOOO GOOOOOOOD. Since I started writing this, I think my favorite Pink Floyd song has actually become Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Part 2). But I’ll stick with Comfortably Numb for the sake of consistency. David Gilmore is my professional hero, and the guitar solo in Comfortably Numb is about as good as it gets. It’s so beautiful and perfect and amazing, and I’ve legit just put this song on repeat for multiple hours before. That’s no joke.
4. Scott Joplin | The Entertainer
Man, do I love me a good Rag! It’s literally impossible for me to not be happy when I hear this song. Jocelyn and I were basically raised on a Scott Joplin’s Greatest Hits album, so this song brings me back to some of my earliest memories. Combine that with it’s placement in The Sting (the greatest con movie ever, if you haven’t seen it I highly highly recommend that you do) and the fact that it was the second song we ever performed live (in barbershop quartet uniforms, no less), and this song really just holds a special place in my heart.
5. Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band | Blue On Black
Talk about sultry guitar. This guy knows how to wield a musical ax. The riff is intoxicating, and his lead is out-of-this-world. This song has had a huge role in my development as a lead guitarist. I used to plug the rhythm part into my looper pedal and just jam for hours and hours on end, until someone in my family would yell at me for having my amp too loud.
6. Phil Collins | In The Air Tonight
My greatest regret in Life will always be that one time this song was playing in the background and I did not play air drums along with the fill. It has only happened once. I have since vowed never to let it happen again.
7. Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers | Moanin’
I don’t think I could really make a Top 10 song list without including at least one Jazz classic. It kind of gets overlooked in our Blues-Rock focus, but Jazz was an integral part of our Musical upbringing. Miles Davis’ Kind Of Blue, Coltrane’s Soultrane, Django Reinhardt’s Djangology, and countless other amazing Jazz albums were household favorites, particularly toward the evening and during dinner. But for some reason, The Messengers' rendition of Moanin’ has always stood out to me. The riff always gets stuck in my head. Actually, it’s in there right now.
8. Eric Clapton | Wonderful Tonight
I’m a guitarist. How could I not include a song by Clapton? Wonderful Tonight is such a perfect example of beautiful, melodic, meaningful lead guitar, it’s insane. I’m amazed every time I hear it. I constantly scour The Web in search of new guitar solos to learn from and listen to, so the list of my favorite guitar solos changes on a regular basis, but Wonderful Tonight is one of the few constants. I have nothing bad to say about this song. Cool story alert: the keyboardist and organ player on our album, Danny Louis (who currently tours and plays with Warren Haynes in Gov’t Mule), has played with Clapton before. I’m literally one level of Separation from Clapton. Yeah. I know. It’s cool.
9. Paul McCartney | Maybe I’m Amazed
McCartney was once quoted as saying that Maybe I’m Amazed would be “the song he would like to be remembered for”. Considering his Musical resume, that statement carries a crapload of weight. That said, I get why he said it. Obviously, McCartney has done amazing things for Music—he’s one of the most prolific songwriters in Rock 'n' Roll, and he WAS IN THE BEATLES. If that’s not doing something in Music, I don’t know what is. He’s also done some pretty terrible things (Simply Having A Wonderful Christmastime, anyone?). But, of all the things he’s done, Maybe I’m Amazed stands out. The song is just so beautiful and heartfelt I almost fall in Love with Linda McCartney myself every time I listen to it.
10. The Band | The Weight
I’m supposed to like Classic Rock Music, right? How could I possibly justify not including this song? Every time I hear it, this warm feeling just sort of blossoms out of my chest and I smile and everything is going really well and Life is great. It’s not particularly complex, and there’s no crazy guitar solo or anything like that, but it doesn’t really need any of that stuff. The Weight is just a great song. Every time I listen to it, I really feel like I’m just relaxing and taking a load off. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist).
