Despite a great voice and some TV soundtrack exposure (Grey’s Anatomy) Gran Bel Fisher hasn’t been heard from since his 2006 debut album. Hope it’s not his last–it would be one more casualty of music talent to music business. Here’s the title track which, as his website describes it, “opens with Gran Bel playing a single piano note suddenly transformed into a complex piano fugue before exploding into a full-throttle rock groove with his gorgeous, soaring baritone”.
A wedding wouldn’t be a wedding without a kiss at the end of the ceremony, some food, and some fun. But I’m willing to bet guests wouldn’t be too upset if more brides skipped these wedding traditions at nuptials.
Separating the Bride’s Side From the Groom’s at the Wedding Ceremony
The bride’s family and friends sit on the left, the groom’s on the right…unless you’re Jewish, and then it’s the opposite. And at my and Paul’s interfaith wedding ceremony, there was mass confusion (OK, not really, but there were some perplexed guests). Ushers would’ve helped, but you know what would’ve been even better: if we had a big sign that said, “Sit where you like!” In fact, I wish every bride and groom allowed guests to sit wherever they like (save the first row for the couple’s VIPs).
Making a Grand Entrance into the Wedding Reception
We had our MC introduce all 19 members of our wedding party — six bridesmaids, five groomsmen, a flower girl, a junior bridesmaid, two sets of parents, and me and Paul. As much fun as I had choosing songs for everyone to walk out to, I highly doubt our guests actually cared to watch the whole six-minute ordeal. I’ve been to weddings where the bride and groom themselves weren’t even formally introduced on the mic, and I didn’t pick up on that fact for quite some time.
Having a First Dance as Bride and Groom
I just went to a wedding where the newlyweds passed on this tradition. I didn’t even notice until a few days later when I was trying to remember what song they had chosen for their first dance. So while some guests like to watch this, no one would be devastated if you forgo doing one. Parent dances, on the other hand, might be missed (especially by the parents).
Tossing the Garter
At the weddings I’ve been to, guys seem to like catching the garter. But I’d say that’s more of a result of guys enjoying competition rather than wedding traditions. I’ve been to weddings where the garter wasn’t thrown (my own included), and I’ve never heard a dude say, “Damn, I was hoping to catch the garter!”
Tossing the Bouquet
I confess: When I wasn’t yet engaged, I was looking forward to attempting to catch the bouquet at my friend’s wedding…except the bride never threw hers. I was probably the sole person in attendance who gave a hoot, and I cared only because I had caught the bouquet as a flower girl at my cousin’s wedding, just to have it ripped away by the maid of honor (it’s on videotape!). I tossed the bouquet at my wedding, but I don’t think anyone would’ve minded if I hadn’t.
Giving Out Wedding Favors
Paul and I bought 150 boxes of truffles…and there were probably about 20 left on tables at the end of the wedding reception. Brides and grooms often treat their guests to multi-course meals and good music, so those boxes of chocolates, picture frames, or personalized coasters (Engagement Chick spent HOURS making 300 of those!) are utterly unnecessary.
Tight band, great lead vocals, nice harmonies, good pop instincts. Music with both a strong backbone and sneaky subtle shadings (woodwinds? yes, please!). This album contains at least half a dozen songs that are worthy of your iPod. It reminds me a little of Tom Petty before he forgot what he was about.
Don’t miss: “Let It In”
Listen to: “No Arrows”
Listen to: “Without a Map”
Listen to: “Streets of Heaven (Promises, Promises)”
We’ve all been there: you’ve made up your mind to finally tell a girl how you feel about her…then just when that climactic moment arrives, well…her response isn’t quite what you expect. (It happens beginning at about 2:20 of the video.)
Dogs Die In Hot Cars: “I Love You ‘Cause I Have To” (2004)
Yup, that’s their name. And do they have kind of a Dexy’s Midnight Runners vibe or is it just me? The band released only a single album, Please Describe Yourself, before evaporating. But it’s one worth looking up.
From their sadly out-of print Ring album. Worth hearing if you never have, ’cause you might just be one more person who’ll fall in love with this song, and I’d hate to deprive you of the chance.
From Guardian Music‘s blog:
I wouldn’t call it a guilty pleasure – music is either pleasurable or it’s not – but the Connells’ sole European hit isn’t exactly one that wins admiring glances when you mention it in polite company. It is, after all, nothing more than an inoffensive ballad from an inoffensive guitar band who wear inoffensive shirts. It has inoffensive lyrics and an inoffensive melody and inoffensive acoustic guitars. It’s exactly the kind of music that is described, witheringly, by pop snobs as “music for people who don’t like music”.
Maybe I don’t like music, then, because ’74-’75 kills me every time I hear it.
What I hear is a pretty masterful piece of mass market soft-pop songwriting. So vague as to be universal, but with that single piece of specificity in the title – presumably, as the video suggests, a high school year of particularly vivid memory – to anchor it, to make it feel real. Not that the lyrics actually seem to mean very much: our singer is a bit sad; he’s got nothing to say, things aren’t easy. Yada yada yada.
Its the chorus – yes, that clever piece of specificity – that I find so devastating: “I was the one who let you know/ I was your sorry ever after/ ’74-’75/ Giving me more and I’ll defy/ ‘Cause you’re really only after/ ’74-’75.”
For who hasn’t, years later, dreamed of someone from their distant past, but been unable to comprehend that the object of their dreams is someone else now – we’re really only after ’74-’75. And who hasn’t, years later, wondered how different life might have been if … if I’d actually tried to kiss her at that party; if I hadn’t decided her friend was better looking, ignoring the fact that someone in front of me adored me; if all the wrong decisions had been right; if all the opportunities had been taken and not missed. Maybe it’s not reason that sets us apart from the animals; maybe it’s regret.
And – the most universal sensation of all – who hasn’t been the one spurned in the charge of teenage love? Who hasn’t been the sorry ever after, the one declaring oneself to a blank reaction?
These are the kind of regrets one treats oneself to. You can’t wallow in them every day – dreaming about your schooldays once you’re past 18 makes you look a bit mad – but once in a while, when no one’s around, it’s fun to open the old doors and wander some of the dustier corridors of memory. To see the Marias and Julias and Rosies and wonder what would have happened if you had only had the nerve.
Every Moment Has A Song 