Baby Teardrops Makes MAGNET A Mix Tape

“I demanded a band, and Gerry and Megan came down the pipe direct from God and the Devil,” says Matthew Dunehoo of his Baby Teardrops bandmates. Indeed, the NYC trio seems fated to be together, since all three felt the need to abandon other projects in order to cultivate a grunge-tinged yet somehow blissful brand of rock, which you can hear on X Is For Love (out now via Yessian Music). Dunehoo made this week’s mix tape, adding, “I’m so honored you have asked me to make a mix for MAGNET! I think I’m going to have to go straight up with most valuable songs, thus far in my life, assuming I can find videos for everything. So, here they are, 10 of ‘em, in no particular order. Well, maybe some particular order.”

“Smooth Sailing Ahead” (download):
https://magnetmagazine.com/audio/SmoothSailingAhead.mp3

Nick Normal And The Nickmatics “The Letter N”
Sesame Street is responsible in part for fostering a love for music in me, with so many real, thoughtful and groovy tunes. This track was always one of my favorites and has been stuck in my head for years. Video

The Carpenters “Close to You”
My mom used to sing it to me before bed, going way back (to seventh grade). Video

The Oak Ridge Boys “Elvira”
Because I couldn’t find a video on YouTube for Acetone’s “Germs.” Acetone’s self-titled record is one of the best albums ever, and “Germs” is the best track on it. So, the Oak Ridgers will have to suffice from my roots as a boy hick. Ooom-bapa-mow-mow is still excellent to say, and so is “My heart’s on fire-a, for Elvira.” Rock on. Video

Def Leppard “Pour Some Sugar On Me”
This was the moment that I realized the glory of rock ‘n’ roll. One week we were all in car as a family on the way to Sunday-morning mass, mocking the unintelligible, nay, goofy refrain. The next week, I’m in my basement and my best friend with cable brought over a VHS tape of Headbangers Ball, and there were these men, who looked somewhat like women, but the women loved them in droves. And the lights and the guitars and that simple, unforgettable kick drum. And I was sold. Video

Dave Brubeck “Take Five”
My dad and I were jazz fans, and Kansas City was a jazz town. There used to be a great Saturday-morning jazz show on the NPR affiliate out of the University of Kansas hosted by Dick Wright, a singer and jazz historian. Listening to this album always reminds me of crisp autumn days with my dad, in the car with the radio on either on the way to a soccer game or the comic-book store. Video

Alice in Chains “Man In The Box”
When I was in ninth grade, I couldn’t decide whether I wanted to be Layne Staley or Jerry Cantrell. I wasn’t allowed to have Doc Martens, so I made due with my dinky Eastlands. And my folks, who never gave me much shit for what I wore, were mostly only perplexed when I tried to wear four flannel shirts to school at once, draped willy-nilly, with a poor excuse for a “goatee.” When I started driving on my own, I used to blast this cut on the 10-minute ride to school and sing the only one or two harmonies they ever omitted. My high-school band, TIN MAN, covered this. I had a newspaper clipping on my wall begging the question: “Is Lawrence (Kan.) the next Seattle?” Not to be. Video

Sunny Day Real Estate “Seven”
Later in high school, I would return to Seattle for the origins of my last obsessive favorite band. SDRE blew me away. Thankfully there was a great “commercial” radio station out of Lawrence, Kan., that reached Kansas City when I was in high school. It was staffed mostly by graduates from the university’s venerated low-power, student-run station, where I would wind up immersing myself a short time later. Sunny Day was just about done for, the first time, by the time I discovered them, and I was not old enough to see them with Shiner and Shudder To Think in ’94 at the Bottleneck. But I felt every one of the songs on Diary incredibly deeply, could see them all and wished to know these guys. I embraced the term “emo” as it was used in relation to Sunny Day Real Estate, and they were instrumental in bringing together the friends who I’d form my first touring band Proudentall with. Video

Brian Eno “St. Elmo’s Fire”
Eno became my musical God during my freshman year of college. The Frippertronics on this tune burnt holes in my heart. Eno created these dream worlds, still edgy on this album, a bit jagged, songs like “Sombre Reptiles” that were familiar but eerie as if they were created on Earth, but another green world, somewhere else. And he wasn’t afraid to sing with the voice he had and harmonize the crap out of it, too. I adore “Another Green World.” People freak on this song, too. I love it when a song hits like this. Video

Stephane Grappelli “Someone To Watch Over Me”
Really, anything from Grappelli works for me. His record with Yo-Yo Ma playing mostly Cole Porter? Absolutely indispensable. I can listen to him anytime and feel better. And Gershwin’s “Someone To Watch Over Me” is always a favorite. Video

Nirvana “Smells Like Teen Spirit”
I have to do this because Nirvana was a game changer. I think it was seriously from Metallica to Nirvana, and it was with Nevermind, on the big radio station, just like how everybody else my age at that time where I was got it. I thought the guitar sounded like the blue of the swimming pool on the cover. Again, it was covered right alongside the Stone Temple Pilots and the Soundgardens and the Pearl Jams and the Alices. When Kurt died, I remember sitting by my radio and listening to a special broadcast out of Seattle. We were lucky to have Nirvana to break through to pop music. Hearing this song (which I try not to regularly, as it’s somewhat sacred, you know), I can’t just “put it on.” Makes me remember when I bought it, where and how I felt about the discovery. Video