70’s punk and power pop wedding, Bottom of the Hill, San Francisco, CA.
"Jamie was the DJ at my wedding and I cannot recommend him enough. I should mention that the music at my wedding was the the most important element to my husband and I; Jamie did not disappoint. He has a very extensive knowledge of all types of music and was able to curate a playlist for our very specific request - 1970’s Power Pop. Not only was he able to create a playlist we really loved, but he was super excited about it and made the process very easy. There was never a moment that we had to worry about what was playing. If you want a DJ that will put a lot of thought and energy into your big day, Jamie is the way to go!" - Tiffany Ishihara
An Epic, Fully Custom, Power Pop and Punk Wedding at the Bottom of the Hill
It’s hard to say which is the most punk rock wedding we’ve done because there are a lot of contenders, but this one stands as the project I’m most proud of.
Tiffany and Josh are legit punks. They like all the underground 70’s stuff, but they also like a lot of the new Burger Records garage rock. When we first started, Josh mentioned that he had recently gotten into classic power pop from the 70’s and wondered if I’d be willing to do a history of power pop type thing. I’m pretty well versed in punk and new wave, but I hadn’t really taken a deep dive into some of the more obscure cuts, let alone fully digested the way all the influences played together.
So Tiffany and Josh became our first truly custom clients and I set about learning the history of power pop for them.
A Brief History of Power Pop
If you don’t know about power pop, you probably just haven’t stopped to think about it lately. It’s basically a million things you would recognize across the ages, but from a more punk perspective. Power pop has its roots in the 60’s with artists like The Beatles and The Beach Boys, but also girl groups like The Ronnettes, The Shangrilas and The Exciters. It’s also got a heaping dose of British Invasion influences like The Who, The Kinks and The Byrds.
In the 70’s, there was proto-punk like Iggy and the Stooges or the MC5 and also proto-new wave like Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers. In New York, you had The Ramones, Blondie and The New York Dolls. But there was also a more melodic thing going on more along the lines of Big Star, Cheap Trick, Badfinger, the Raspberries, and The Flaming Groovies that took their influences from British invasion.
Take that all and put it in a blender and you’ve got power pop.
A lot of 90’s bands riff on the idea as well like Nirvana, Weezer and Teenage Fanclub. Also a boatload of 2000’s bands. The Strokes are very power pop.
In any case, we ran the table on power pop artists and their influences and did an entire evening of very melodic, but very punk stuff. Some highlights off the top of my head include Kristy Macoll “They Don’t Know About Us”, Spitballs “Way Over There” and The Records “Starry Eyes.”
A Melodic Guitar Ceremony
For the ceremony, I think we did some ones more like Badfinger “Baby Blue” and Big Star “September Girls." For the cocktail we punked it up with some more rockin’ stuff like the Flamin Groovies “Shake Some Action”, The Romantics “What I Like About You” and the Buzzcoks “Ever Fallen in Love”.
A Punk and Girl Groups Dinner
We wove in a lot of the 60’s rock and girl groups stuff during the dinner, kind of tying the threads together from the Beach Boys to girl groups to the Ramones. For the dancing we did more recognizable new wave ones like Blondie “Hanging on the Telephone” and The Cars “Just What I Needed”. I think we did Tom Petty and Stevie Nicks “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around”.
A Modern Punk Closer
We closed with some faster punk ones, peppered with 90’s, 00’s and Burger Records type ones. I honestly think we might have done Jay Reatard “Ain’t Gonna Save Me” into Nobunny “I am a Girlfriend” . We definitely did the Strokes.
This whole thing was just one continuous cavalcade of rock and roll hits, so it’s a little bit of a blur, but it was great and everyone loved it. The aunts and uncles and also the kids.
Big Ups & Shout Outs
Special shout out to Tiffany and Josh for having this great idea and inviting me to be a part of it. Josh also performed a power pop song he wrote on guitar before the first dance, so that was a really tough act to follow!
Special shout out to Bottom of the Hill. A historic rock and roll venue and perhaps the best place we ever could’ve done this idea. Just being there on stage was really an honor. They do weddings, and it’s cheap! Call them.
Ceremony Songs
Processional:
Mahaka Sons of Ni'ihau "Mehameha/White Sandy Beach"
Recessional:
Father Daughter Dance:
Nancy Sinatra "It's for My Dad”
Mother Son Dance:
Carole King “You’ve Got a Friend”
Requests:
Moon Martin “A Bad Case of Lovin’ You”
Paul Collins Beat “That’s What Life Is All About”
The Ramones “I Want You Around”
The Toms “Let’s Be Friends Again”
Twinkle “Now I Have You”
The Zombies “Care of Cell 44”
Van Duren “Chemical Fire”
Wreckless Eric “Whole Wide World”
20/20 “She’s an Obsession”
Yachts “I Couldn’t Get Along Without You”
Alice Cooper “Be My Lover”
The Riptides “Tomorrows Tears”
Any Trouble “Romance”
Foreigner “Double Vision”
10 cc “People in Love”
Mott the Hoople “All the Young Dudes”
Johnny Thunder “You Can’t Put Your Arms Around a Memory”
Elvis Costello “Pump It Up”
The Romantics “What I Like About You”
Eddie Money “Take Me Home Tonight”
The Knack “My Sharona”
The Cars “Just What I Needed”
Cheap Trick “I Want You to Want Me”
The Ramones “California Sun”
Jamie’s Favorites:
Big Star “I’m In Love With a Girl”
The Beatles “She Said, She Said”
The Kinks “Waterloo Sunset”
Kristy MacColl “They Don’t Know About Us”
Joe Jackson “Is She Really Going Out With Him”
Greg Kihn “Any Other Woman”
Jackson Browne “Somebody’s Baby”
Television “Marquee Moon”
The Spitballs “Way Over There”
Badfinger “Baby Blue”
Dwight Twilley Band “I’m On Fire”
Fotomaker “Where Have You Been All My Life”
Grin “White Lies”
The Cars “Bye Bye Love”
Soft Boys “I Want to Destroy You”
Tom Petty “Listen to Her Heart”
Blondie “Picture This”
The Nerves “Workin’ Too Hard”
The Tourists “I Only Want to Be With You”
Brinsley Schwartz “What’s So Funny About Peace Love and Understanding”
Cheap Trick “Come On, Come On”
Nick Lowe “Cruel to Be Kind”
Elvis Costello “Watching the Detectives”
The Ramones “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend”
The Undertones “Teenage Kicks”
Flamin Groovies “Shake Some Action”
The Chills “Pink Frost”
The Who “I Can See for Miles”
The Kinks “You Really Got Me”
Beach Boys “Wendy”
Blondie “I’m Always Touched By Your Presence Dear”
The Jam “That’s Entertainment”
The Kinks “Victoria”
The Nerves “Hanging On the Telephone”
The Records “Starry Eyes”
The Jam “So Sad About Us”
Elvis Costello “Radio, Radio”
The Only Ones “Another Girl, Another Planet”
The Beat “Rock and Roll Girl”
The Ramones “Judy is a Punk”
Venue: Bottom of the Hill / Planner: Kendall Woodruff / DJ: Ceremony DJs
