Conor’s Top Picks for WRRV’s Labor Day Throwback Block Party

I'm very excited to be partying it up with you for my first Labor Day weekend here on WRRV! The best part is that I'll be rocking with you Saturday through Tuesday this weekend! I'll be on:

• Saturday: 2pm - 7pm
• Sunday: 10am - 2pm
• Monday: 7pm - 12am
• Tuesday: 7pm - 12am

I got plenty of throwback fun facts for you, taking you back to videos, concerts, and award shows of the past that helped define alternative music.

Another thing that is great about our Throwback Weekend is that this is all the music I grew up with. Sure, I may have been born in 1997, and may not have been around when certain songs came out, but they were big hits by the time I was old enough to recognize good music. One of my favorite programs was the "Best of" series on VH1, and watching "Best of the 90s" was my favorite. Though I only got three years in the decade, I still feel a kinship to much of the culture and music. I may technically be Gen Z, but I feel like I relate way more to Milennial culture.

As we were spitballing which songs to include this weekend, we shared a lot of similar artists and tracks. What I've compiled below are tracks that I recommended independently. Now, I know my choices are probably on the lighter side compared to what some of the other DJ's have recommended. Consider it a palette cleanser as we go through the weekend.

"Mr. Jones" by Counting Crows

"We all wanna be big big stars, yeah but, we got different reasons for that." "Mr. Jones" always felt oddly deep to me as a kid. As someone who grew up wanting to be a musician, much of the song hit home with many of my hopes and dreams. "When I stare at the television I want to see me staring right back at me." Besides being an absolute banger, it gave little Conor a lot of inspiration. I have a blast performing this song live whenever I decide to throw it in my set.

"Hey Jealousy" by Gin Blossoms

This has always been a favorite of mine. I love the up tempo nature of this song, but after one particular break up, I found lines like "'Cause all I really want is to be with you / Feeling like I matter too / If I hadn't blown the whole thing years ago / I might be here with you" hit even harder. It's funny, even when you get older, older songs can find new meaning for you. This song was a lot of fun when I was a kid, but it helped get me through tough times when I got older.

"Change Your Mind" by Sister Hazel

How many of you remember the movie Bedazzled with Brendan Fraser and Elizabeth Hurley? It's okay, most people I talk to don't remember it either. This was one of those movies I found on TV a few times, and really enjoyed it, especially Sister Hazel's "Change Your Mind!" Now, I could've suggested "All For You," one of Sister Hazel's more popular tracks (and to be honest, that's most likely what you'll hear), but I feel like "Change Your Mind" never got as much love as it should. "Change Your Mind" was one of those songs that I rediscovered during the pandemic, and it helped get me out of a real funk. "If you want to be somebody else / If you're tired of fighting battles with yourself / If you wanna be somebody else / Change your mind."

"Only Want to Be With You" by Hootie & The Blowfish

Okay, this one I kind of adopted. I didn't realize that we used to play Hootie & The Blowfish on WRRV. I thought that would've been way too light, but when someone mentioned Hootie, I was like "Absolutely!" You can never go wrong with Hootie in my mind. I'm actually seeing Darius Rucker at Bethel Woods Saturday night, so this is a perfect inclusion for me.

"Runaway Train" by Soul Asylum

This is one of those songs I've heard all my life, but had no idea who did it until my mid-teens. I felt like I'd hear it at restaurants, stores, the mall, on the radio, but I could never figure out who played the song. It was always a treat whenever it came on. It was kind of like that feeling of seeing a rainbow after a storm. These days, Shazam makes it so easy to figure that out, but in the early 2000s, that's not the case. For some reason I thought it could've been a Tom Petty song. Nope, it's our good friends Soul Asylum.