Artist	Song
Gigolo Aunts	They Dont Know
Peter Bruntnell	By the Time My Head Gets to Phoenix
Mike Ruekberg	Years
Andrew Cash	These Days
The Pooh Sticks	Sweet Baby James
APB	Something to Believe In
The Love Generation	Let the Good Times In
28th Day	25 Pills
The Candy Skins	Everybody Loves You
Translator	No Time Like Now
Sparkler	Grand Arrival
Jack Frost	Little Song
The Woodentops	Good Thing
The Loud Family	You Can't Put Your Arms Around A Memory
Even As We Speak	Falling Down The Stairs
Matt Keating	Lonely Blue
The Hit Parade	On the Road to Beaconsfield
The Lilac Time	Return To Yesterday
Sparkler	I'll Keep You Warm
The Hummingbirds	Sister Goldenhair
The Eels	Skywriting
Reckless Sleepers	If We Never Meet Again
Ned Rifle	Trust (End Theme)

Comment:

It's already time for another SOTT (Son of Tape Tree) mix swap. This one should have around 30 participants. Happy jangly melodies coupled with often bittersweet lyrics. Songs for falling in love and for falling apart. The closing track inspired me to design the cover using imagery from Hal Hartley's film "Trust". This may be a one-time thing, but for fun, I created a downloadable "sampler" of this mix.

Happy Sampler MP3 (8:44, 4,099MB)


1 Gigolo Aunts : They Don't Know (1994)
A great way to start things off. I pulled this wonderfully catchy tune from Vol. 10 of the UK Volume CD/Magazine series. I don't believe it was ever released on an album. It's a fine rendition of the song which was originally written and recorded by Kirsty MacColl and was a minor hit for Tracey Ullman in the 80s.

2 Peter Bruntnell : By the Time My Head Gets to Phoenix (2000)
Of all the pop tunes that have been written about cryogenic suspension, I bet you this one is the catchiest. At times Peter Bruntnell sounds quite a bit like Jay Farrar (Son Volt), but on this track, I'd say there is also a nod towards Teenage Fanclub.

3 Mike Ruekberg : Years (2002)
This great tune kicks off the film "Dummy", a sweet little comedy starring Adrien Brody, Illeana Douglas, and Milla Jovovich. Unfortunately mastering incompetence resulted in the extreme loudening of the signal on the soundtrack CD, diminishing overall the dynamic range. The track still sounds good, but I suspect it could have sounded better if the "mastering engineer" would have used some common sense.

4 Andrew Cash : These Days (1989)
From Andrew Cash's second album of pop americana. I used a track from his first album on SOTT16. After a third solo album, Andrew joined forces with his brother Peter (of the Skydiggers) and together they have released four albums. I believe those are a bit more in the country realm but I really haven't heard them. I need to give them a listen at some point.

5 The Pooh Sticks : Sweet Baby James (1991)
No...it's not a cover of the James Taylor song, but is a partial cover of The Four Seasons "Who Loves You".

6 APB : Something to Believe In (1985)
Quirky band from Scotland. I pulled this off of vinyl which I haven't played in a really long time. This has always been a memorable toe-tapper for me, but wow, was it mastered bright!! I adjusted the EQ a bit to fit better with the rest of the mix, but it's still a shade brighter than the others. I left it that way as part of its character.

7 The Love Generation : Let the Good Times In (1969)
Poster children for the "sunshine pop" movement. Here's a lyric excerpt:
"Let's find a dream that's built for two...yeah!
And then hop on a rainbow that's waiting for you"
Love Generation effectively became the songwriting team for the Partridge Family series. Initially they were going to sing all of the music as well. This song was featured in the pilot when Danny is trying to get the family "signed". After that, they discovered that David Cassidy could actually sing and so Love Generation was relegated to songwriting and backing tracks. There is a good interview at http://www.cmongethappy.com/interviews/tb/

Track notes continue at http://theacf.com/sott/happy.html 

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