Singer/songwriter Stevie B. Wolf is working up to the release of his new EP, Alone+Alive (which features the bombastic “Nothing But A Name”), with a specially curated MAGNET mix tape. Alone+Alive won’t be out until November 6, but Wolf has provided eight song recommendations to help kill the time. Check it out below.
In true Stevie form, I’m making this playlist the night before it’s due. Because I’m bad at planning, and I’m always very self-conscious when it comes to any sort of verbal or typed expression, I tend to procrastinate. But fear not, this playlist is going to be sick. I just finished watching Almost Famous for what must be the 203rd time, so let’s make something that screams with growing up, love of music and broken dreams.
Fun. “I Wanna Be The One”
OK, I know when you think “rock,” fun. doesn’t come up. But I’m a huge fun. fan. Like, insanely huge. And not, like some of you, since The Format. To hell with The Format. I picked up Aim And Ignite back in 2009, and it’s never failed me. It’s been there for me when I was sick of British food in Oxford, when I heard myself say “I love you” over the phone for the first time and when I decided to dye my hair silver (so, like, three days ago). While this entire album is stunning sapphire smile sex, this track never gets any credit. But as a songwriter, I definitely want to be the one to put it in a song. So let’s kick off this playlist with an overly optimistic love song. Video
Butch Walker “Afraid Of Ghosts”
There aren’t many artists who can produce Katy Perry, Bowling For Soup and Taylor Swift, and then put out their own music that still has character. This song has a beautiful lilting honesty that few songwriters know how to serve up. Butch will break you down and build you back up. Video
Simon & Garfunkel “America”
If you don’t love this song, we’re not friends. For some reason, Simon & Garfunkel will always mean isolation to me. I don’t know why, but I just can’t listen to them with friends around me—I need to go hide away in my own space and listen to them in my own stark, beautifully lonely world. So let’s all pack our bags and crawl into our hearts and desperately search for America. Video
Big Star “Feel”
And now that we’ve realized that the American dream is sedated, if not dead, we crawl out of our hideaways and rock the hell out to one of the best bands in history that never got rich or famous. I’ll be honest, I have no idea what this song is about, because I’m too busy rocking the fuck out. Video
Tobias Jesso Jr. “Hollywood”
I desperately want to have musical sex with Tobias Jesso Jr. Come on T, let’s put on some ‘70s jams and slip into something a little more comfortable (maybe a slow blues?), before doing the wacky sort of stuff that most people only hear about in hushed tones over too many glasses of wine. And then we’ll record it and put it on Spotify and get paid absolutely no money for it. But until that happens, I guess I’ll just have to listen to how bummed Tobias was in L.A. Video
Elton John “Mona Lisas And Mad Hatters”
If I ever write lyrics like those in this song, please shoot me, because it will mean I’ve achieved a state of pure nirvana. Bernie Taupin paints a fabulous portrait of the insanity of New York society, the heartless juxtaposition of the uber wealthy alongside the homeless. Apparently, Taupin hated NYC when he visited, and his lyrics critique everything about this “trash can dream” of a city. And goddamn if this song isn’t fun to sing along to. Video
Billy Idol “Mony Mony”
Okay, time to kick it up. The day after Billy Idol covered Tommy James And The Shondells, he climbed to the top of the Empire State Building and shot laser beams with his eyes at Richard Nixon, who had then become an evil lizard creature with wings who was terrorizing the city. In the end, the two reconciled over tea and biscotti, and New York was saved yet again from the brink of destruction. Or at least, that could have happened. I don’t know; I wasn’t alive. Anyway, here’s Billy Idol rocking in a black leotard. Mony mony, indeed. This is the live version, which features the best moment in filmed music history at 2:25. Video
Elton John “Tiny Dancer”
I’m getting sleepy now, and I can only have my heart broken and then put back together so many times. So let’s wrap up this playlist with one of the most beautiful love songs ever, a tune that you and your non-existent kids and your grandma and your mechanic and your mom’s childhood boyfriend’s drug dealer and your president and your crush can all get together and sing. This song makes me feel feelings that can neither be described as joy nor sorrow. It’s a song that’s in me, always with me, dancing in my hand. Now let’s all go lay down in sheets of linen. Video
