I started writing Meet the Lidwells! A Rock n’ Roll Family Memoir during the summer of 2017, and like any other book project I’ve worked on, I created a mixtape for it. Surprisingly, for a novel that leans super heavily on music, there’s only one volume! Still, it’s not as if I could create a mix containing music that, y’know, doesn’t actually exist in real life.
Most of these songs are from the early 90s, which is when most of the book takes place, and are inspirations for songs written by the Lidwells in the book. I did choose to add a few then-recent songs as well just to balance it out, but for the most part these were all songs that I loved and listened to during my college and post-college years in Boston.
Some side notes:
–The prevalence of EMF hints at the poppiness of the early Lidwells releases, as they were more of an alternapop band at the start of the novel.
–A number of songs (and scenes) were actually pilfered from a trunked novel of mine called Two Thousand that I’d worked on in the 90s. The La’s track “Looking Glass” in particular was originally supposed to be part of the climax of that story but used instead as the “Listening” scene with Thomas talking about when they performed that song live. The remix of that Real People song (sadly not available online right now, it’s a banger) was also once part of that novel as a denouement scene.
–I added Belly and Veruca Salt to hint at what Amy and Hannah’s songs would sound like.
–The Stone Roses’ “I Am the Resurrection” is mentioned in the book as one of the main influences on The Lidwells’ first hit “Grapevine” with its stomping beat.
[SHAMELESS PLUG: The ebook is available at Smashwords for $2.99!]
SIDE A:
1. EMF, “Children”
2. REM, “Pop Song ’89”
3. The Real People, “Window Pane”
4. Belly, “Gepetto”
5. EMF, “Girl of an Age”
6. The Cure, “Friday I’m in Love”
7. The House of Love, “You Don’t Understand”
8. My Bloody Valentine, “Soon”
9. 9 Ways to Sunday, “Come Tell Me Now* *
10. Belly, “Now They’ll Sleep”
11. Matthew Sweet, “Time Capsule”
SIDE B:
1. Veruca Salt, “Seether”
2. The Black Keys, “Gold On the Ceiling”
3. Guster, “Barrel of a Gun”
4. Fenech-Soler, “Kaleidoscope”
5. Belly, “Super-Connected”
6. Matthew Sweet, “Girlfriend”
7. The La’s, “Looking Glass”
8. The Stone Roses, “I Am the Resurrection”
9. The Real People, “Window Pane [12″ Extended Remix]” *
* — Not available on Spotify
Walk In Silence 