My mate's a wedding DJ, and he's been given an indie setlist for this weekend. Which one is the best/ most weddingy?

Best and "most weddingy" are not the same thing at all. I mean, for an indie wedding, what could be more appropriate than Such Great Heights?

i like some of these songs, but would not want to hear any of them at a wedding, ever

Worst wedding ever.

Anyway, either Here Comes Your Man, Last Nite, or De La Soul.

Vote for "most weddingy", I reckon that'll be more fun.

I refuse to vote for the Postal Service. I feel like my hand would drop off.

In fairness, I'd rather hear pixies or de la soul at a wedding than Satisfaction or Scissor Sisters.

Bright Eyes - The Calendar Hung Itself

And all the wedding guests followed suit.

some of these are great songs but the worst wedding choices ever

TV On The Radio - Crying
Deerhunter - Nothing Ever Happened

i voted mgmt

:o

i mean like, assuming this is for dancing, "electric feel" is by default in the top 3 at least

fucking MIA is the only one i can actually imagine being played at a wedding

"Aw, honey. That's our wedding song!"

"Awwww. I remember it like it was yesterday: Stillness Is The Move."

Casiotone For The Painfully Alone - Nashville Parthenon

Oh man, to be a fly on the wall when this one is played.

like, what are people supposed to do when "slow hands" comes on - wtf

Anyone who'd play of Montreal at a wedding deserves to get divorced in about 6 months.

I mean, I love them, but still. Just... no.

Might vote Pendulum for the lolz. Or maybe The Vines.

"paper planes" is totally in "gold digger"/"hey ya" territory for me - probably won't be able to stomach it until 2012 at earliest - also it's hard to dance to, weird tempo - also people make all sorts of horrible gestures during the chorus

yeah wtf an of montreal song, ESPECIALLY one from that album

you might as well play 'the past is a grotesque animal' and hand them the divorce papers there and then

yes i see you wildly exaggeratedly ringing up a cash register - i'm "going to the bathroom" now

Much as I love the records, this will be a terrible wedding. First rule of wedding DJing: most recent record must be no newer than 20 years old. Otherwise no one of the bride/groom's parents' generation will dance.

Haha Jordan I got together with my girlfriend as a result of dancing to Paper Planes. It sort of works although it's like the least appropriate "our song" ever.

Seriously though could you imagine dancing at your wedding and gazing into the eyes of the one you love and then hearing dude from the Vines and his abysmal braying Cartman voice?

Haha Jordan I got together with my girlfriend as a result of dancing to Paper Planes. It sort of works although it's like the least appropriate "our song" ever.

lollll my gf and i have decided that 'our song' is Song 2 as she is 2 years and 2 days older than me ^_^

"Anyway, either Here Comes Your Man, Last Nite, or De La Soul."

Have played all three of those at weddings so yes. Beck, Modern Lovers, MGMT, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Vampire Weekend would all work as well - possibly Arcade Fire too. Biggest wtf - Dirty Projectors??

I always tend to start with an hour of Beatles, Stones, Kinks, Motown, etc, after which time the oldsters want to sit down anyway so you can move on to other stuff for the middle section and return to stone-cold classics for the final stretch.

fuck most wedding songs as much as most of this stuff tho

Ithappens nah - wedding discos are planned on the basis that everyone, even the older guests, will dance at first and then drop off as the night progresses, so the old stuff comes first. By the end the only people dancing are the really drunk people, the kids, and the couple, so you can totally get away with playing, say, Put A Donk On It in the final hour.

Ithappens nah - wedding discos are planned on the basis that everyone, even the older guests, will dance at first and then drop off as the night progresses, so the old stuff comes first. By the end the only people dancing are the really drunk people, the kids, and the couple, so you can totally get away with playing, say, Put A Donk On It in the final hour.

― Space Battle Rothko (Matt DC), Friday, November 20, 2009 6:57 AM (32 seconds ago) Bookmark

i had typed out this post pretty much exactly - matt otm

and that is the best part of a wedding, i'd imagine? watching your drunk aunt dancing to "turn my swag on" three hours deep into the wedding

Really all you need is:

1x Beatles compilation
1x Elvis/rock and roll compilation
1x big Motown box set
1x 70s disco compilation
1x big 80s hits compilation
A couple of CDs of recent anthems for when everyone is completely fucked
'How Many Licks' by Lil Kim

Wedding DJing Made Easy by Matt DC

i wanna know if NotEnough knows which of these is the first dance songs

dancing to "poker face" at a wedding a couple of months ago was the key event in my caving to lady gaga :(

happily anna-marie followed it up w/some miss kittin

'How Many Licks' by Lil Kim

:D

Actually the big 'straight in at the top end of the wedding disco pantheon with a bullet' track of the 00s is surely 'Rehab'?

"paper planes" is totally in "gold digger"/"hey ya" territory for me

Haha. Gold Digger should be the wedding song. It will position the couple for a great marriage.

uh "crazy in love"

xp

I actually heard the band do 'Last Nite' at a wedding and it wasn't too out-of-place. Obviously hardly anyone danced.

Seriously, though, just ditch this list, play the usual stuff, and finish with 'Come On Eileen'

i've heard "gold digger" played at a wedding too!! i'd actually erased it from my setlist due to inappropriateness but anna-marie (again) played it later anyway

"touch the sky" is prob most appropriate kanye but some of the olds might backlash because of the sample

I'm sure you can get away with integrating some new and/or hip stuff into a wedding playlist, but that type of stuff shouldn't be all of it. And some of these choices are . . . ?!?

"some"

last friend's wedding i went to, 'Uptown Top Ranking' was the first song to get me dancing. Stones 'Satisfaction' got the oldies up (briefly).

I actually think You Got Yr Cherry Bomb would work well, in a proper context.

there needs to be an opposite poll of which of these is the least weddingly - wtf @ cursive

not heard about 20 of these

I am totally nostalgic for my indie disco youth but still could not make it past the Bright Eyes song, worst wedding song ever

hooray, let us soundtrack our wedding with outbursts about now you have left me I'm going to hope you feel guilty about what a whiney self-destructive fuckup I am

I don't think this is ALL the songs he can play. He assures me he ignores the setlists he's given sometimes anyway cos people just won't dance, like anytime he's given a setlist full of hard house and techno.

ask him if any of these are the song for their first dance

Just wondering - how old are the couple? Devil's Haircut would work at a wedding of people my age and of varying levels of indieness, but I'm guessing from most of the picks being from the past 5-10 years that they're a lot younger.

(woolly bully)

woolly bully

woolly bully..

woolly bully.

http://www.shawcontractgroup.com/Content/LiteraturePDFs/Images/Brochures%20Images/L7mini.gif

You've just made that record up, haven't you?

can you add to the setlist?

She's My Best Friend - Either the VU original or even better the Wedding Present cover.

tho 'Bonkers' might be an interesting acid test...

we played 'bonkers' at our wedding. the floor was packed with under-12s.

the mgmt song to play at a wedding is Kids.

wtf at "Devil's Haircut"?

Challops here, guys - maybe the best songs to play at a wedding are the ones that mean the most to the couple involved? (Although, to be fair, if this was their main priority I'm not sure why they would hire a wedding DJ instead of getting their mates to do it.)

Or the fucking Vines, for god's sake.

emil.y I'd say that what means most to the couple involved is usually that everyone gets sweaty and has fun, which often means exactly NOT the songs that "mean" a lot to them in other contexts.

they'll have plenty of time for bright eyes & the dirty projectors & other songs that mean something to them in their hotel room during their honeymoon, i'd think

Yeah, but there are hardly any songs on there that aren't danceable to at least some extent - I know a large section of my friends would get down and dance hard to Dirty Projectors and Le Tigre and Of Montreal etc. The ones that aren't particularly dancey you could always save for the erection section, right? I mean, a lot of the songs are shit, but it's their wedding.

well, presumably these songs are ones that their friends will appreciate too...

wedding playlists are a tricky art. you have to please five-year-olds, grannies, ageing punks, indie teens, sniffy wire-readers, superannuated ravers and david gray fans alike.

boggling at this list

voted Pixies but can see De La Soul and Yeah Yeah Yeahs (assuming no one pays attention to the lyrics)

Would love to see the reaction to "Miss Murder"

bright eyes would be EVEN WORSE on a honeymoon than at a wedding :o

first dance has to be something that "means" something to the couple, fuck everyone else! then you can get into the populism afterwards.

Challops here, guys - maybe the best songs to play at a wedding are the ones that mean the most to the couple involved?

Yeah, as a control-freak music nut even I have to emphatically say NO to this; the best songs to play at a reception are songs your relatives will dance to. I really really really REALLY wanted to do a breakbeat reception but imagining my grandmothers-in-law attempting to dance to "Charly" and the resulting hospital stays/wedding annulment that would follow made me mainstream my choices.

(having said that, if you know your guests would go for a batshit playlist like this then play on; I just don't know anyone who wants their wedding day to be remembered by the image of Aunt Kathy trying to dance to Jay Reatard)

Couldn't agree more - if the choice is good time vs tasteful time, always go with good time. You can use that rule in the rest of your life, too.

if anyone cares, this was ours. a fair bit of it was based on requests from guests, and most of it was played in shuffle mode (no DJ).

(there was no first 'dance', as such, btw. me & the wife first hit the floor together during SC3 - so I guess that's 'our song' now.)

Justin Timberlake - Like I Love You
Dizzee Rascal - Bonkers
Shakira - Whenever, Wherever
Pink - So What
Britney Spears - Toxic
Lady GaGa - Poker Face
Katy Perry - I Kissed a Girl
Jamelia - Superstar
MGMT - Time To Pretend
The Tamperer feat. Maya - Feel It
Bjork - Big Time Sensuality
Kelis - Milkshake
Girls Aloud - Something Kinda Ooooh
Johnny Cash - Ring Of Fire
Sam & Dave - Hold On I'm Comin'
The Smiths - This Charming Man
Sparks/FNM - This town ain't big enough for the both of us
Martha Reeves - Dancing In The Street
Missy Elliot - Get yr Freak On
Neneh Cherry - Buffalo Stance
Talking Heads - Once in a Lifetime
Four Tops - Reach Out. I'll Be There
Black Flag - TV Party
Jimi Hendrix - Voodoo Chile
Kool & The Gang - Jungle Boogie
Jackie Wilson - Your Love Keeps Lifting Me Higher
Ike and Tina Turner - Nutbush city limits
Senser - Eject
The Ramones - Blitzkrieg Bop
Mr. Bungle - Ars Moriendi
Faith No More - Midlife Crisis
Del Shannon - Runaway
Depeche Mode - Personal Jesus
Jane's Addiction - Been Caught Stealing
Sly & the Family Stone - I Want to Take You Higher
Secret Chiefs 3 - Engagement Of The Sword: Horsemen Of The Invisible
Billy Bragg - Accident waiting to happen
The Damned - Love Song
Therapy? - Screamager
Queens Of The Stone Age - No One Knows
Pulp - Babies
The Flaming Lips - The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song
Marnie Stern - Transformer
The Jackson 5 - I Want You Back
The Osmonds - Crazy Horses
OutKast - Hey Ya
Stevie Wonder - Superstition
The Knack - My Sharona
The Stone Roses - I am the resurrection
The Proclaimers - I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)
Kate Bush - Wuthering Heights
Journey - Don't Stop Believing

this is a wedding that i would attend

Great list. Only regret from my wedding day is spending too much time outside chatting to the same people, and not enough time near the band. They were excellent, but after the first couple of tunes I've no idea what they played. Doesn't really matter though.

it finished on 'Don't Stop Believing'? is your Shuffle MAGIC?

I wish, but no. the last 10 or so songs were programmed.

Permalink

Actually the big 'straight in at the top end of the wedding disco pantheon with a bullet' track of the 00s is surely 'Rehab'?

― Space Battle Rothko (Matt DC), Friday, 20 November 2009 13:07 (5 hours ago) Permalink

"paper planes" is totally in "gold digger"/"hey ya" territory for me

Haha. Gold Digger should be the wedding song. It will position the couple for a great marriage.

― Daniel, Esq., Friday, 20 November 2009 13:08 (5 hours ago) Permalink

uh "crazy in love"

I played "Crazy in Love" at more weddings this decade than any other song; I don't know if I've DJ'd a single wedding in 5-6 years where it didn't get played at least once. Runner-up to this is: "Hey Ya!" Others that come close: "Hot in Herre," "Without Me," "One More Time," and "Yeah!" Rihanna's "Don't Stop the Music" and BEP's "I Gotta Feeling" would be up there if they were released earlier in the decade.

In regards to the poll, I've certainly played "Here Comes Your Man" at a few weddings, and for very particular crowds (i.e., old punk geezers in my demographic who stayed and got drunk after everyone else cleared the place), "Roadrunner," but I think that happened all of two times.

wot no cardiacs, m the g? :(

spousal veto.

divorce asap

lol j/k - they are an acquired taste and i do not expect everyone to like them - many excellent people do not

m the g, that is a great wedding setlist.

I think mine was wall-to-wall macarena, achy breaky heart and the electric slide.

I had no control over our dj. guests were happy, tho. AND MARRIAGE LASTED.

i like how cardiacs did not make it but the utter fucking mentalist awesome insanity that is a certain latin-titled song midway thru yr setlist did, m the g

I said "kids" instead of electric feel because...unless electric feel was like, their first makeout song, or they HATE HATE HATE "kids", it's good to play something that you know will work really well AND most likely be something they will like.

xp

hardly unexpected that - my wife is another rabid pattonite of long standing. hence our marriage. our guests got off easy - it could well have been something off of irony is a dead scene. I'm working on her, cardiacs-wise. it's a war of attrition. she's been known to hum along to 'fiery gun hand' in the car.

but thanks daniel and others... it was fun, which was what it was all about. though I was really shocked by how few people knew 'don't stop believing'. I love it unashamedly, which has obviously distorted my perceptions of how well-known it is. essentially, there was a hardcore of us (and the bar staff) going nuts for it, and everyone else shrugging their shoulders, having never heard it before. totally misjudged that one.

I was at m the g's wedding and it was as top-notch as that track list suggests...

Here's proof that the Ramones 'Blitzkrieg Bop' is perfect wedding fodder:

http://krakow.zenfolio.com/img/v4/p6281446-2.jpg

if i get married i would rather have a live jazz band than a dj

noted

many thanks to krakow for the documentary evidence there...

had owned but not listened properly to this DEP/Patton EP...it's ace!

also completely, sincerely irrelevant to this thread, sorry folks

We had an old-time New England square dance band and caller play at our wedding.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Freak Scene would be straight wedding gold imo

Actually, the lead singer of The Smithereens recently went on a "house tour," where he'd play someone's house for a reasonable fee. I thought that would be cool for a party or wedding. The Smithereens were a criminally under-rated 80s band.

the lead singer of The Smithereens

I bet he plays tea parties for free. That dude is a hardcore far right nutjob.

Best song: Roadrunner
Best song for a wedding: Paper Planes

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Bright Eyes - The Calendar Hung Itself 1

worst wedding ever