Spilling Our Ice Cubes On The Lawn: The Fuel/Friends Summer 2011 Mix

This morning, my car sits packed to its dear 2001 Sentra gills. I am heading off into the southwestern climes of the United States, across six states with my seven year-old, a stack of good music and audiobooks, and a hankering for the open road. We’ll hit Mesa Verde, see family in Phoenix, sun in San Diego, attend a Dodgers-Padres game (so I can teach him to properly boo LA), camp along the north rim of the Grand Canyon, and stay in various KOA cabins along the way. We plan on s’mores and stargazing, and maybe finding a swimming hole or two.

While I check out of here for that time, I’m leaving you all with my 2011 Summer Mix, which we will be rocking in the car (as long as the speakers hold). Consider this my out-of-office autoresponder. Now go outside and play.

SPILLING OUR ICE CUBES ON THE LAWN
The Fuel/Friends Summer 2011 Mix

Someone Else Can Make A Work Of Art – First Rate People
The first rule of summer is that of measured procrastination. Someone else can make a work of art; we’ll have our toes in the pool (“down to the water / where the water is cold”).

Constructive Summer – The Hold Steady
“Me and my friends are like the drums on ‘Lust for Life’ / we pound it out on floor toms, our psalms are singalong songs….” – Some of the best opening lines of any album, ever, I’ve been waiting a few years to use this on a summer mix; I wanted it to get far removed enough from its original release (on the fabulous Stay Positive) so that the urgency and heat of young summers blazed through fresh. I love everything about this song. We’re gonna build something this summer.

Perfect Games – The Broken West
I took the title of the mix from this fantastic little forgotten gem of a song from the (I just learned now-defunct) Broken West, a great power-pop band that was signed to Merge Records. This was on 2008′s Now or Heaven, and it’s about kickin’ around, placing bets on the evening. I’ll bet on a summer evening anytime.

Rio – Hey Marseilles
There are always Brazilian boys to discover. Every line in this song makes it a perfect summer song: Drink til the morning becomes yesterday. Think of the shorelines you have yet to see / where the days left to breathe are not gone, are still long… Can’t wait to see Matt Bishop (hopefully) perform this at Doe Bay, under the August pines.

Singing The Devil’s Tune – Nick Jaina
This one gives off an anachronistic Elvis Perkins-y vibe, and starts with a lament about feet burned from dancing on your roof in the summer’s heat. It’s also the first of our hearty “la la la laaaa”s on this mix, because summer is for singing along (thanks Sean).

When They Fight, They Fight – The Generationals
I was surprised to find that this is a duo of guys from New Orleans, and not a doo-wop girl group with bouffants and pastel taffeta. In this instance, that is a very good thing.

Vocal Chords – Dale Earnhardt Jr Jr
Starting here like the Beach Boys and quickly toe-tapping their way into Paul Simon territory, this entire album is a glimmering summertime delight.

I Need A Dollar (Blogotheque version) – Aloe Blacc
…because most of us could use an extra dollar or two in the summertime. Aloe Blacc strips this song back to its spiritual traditional roots in a Paris cafe for his Blogotheque session, and it becomes a timeless acapella lament of the boss man and the price of artistry. And all he needs are foot-stomps, snaps, and some water-glass percussion.

Blackout – Pickwick
A bunch of white kids from Seattle reinvent themselves as makers of music infused with retro-60s soul, after falling for Sam Cooke (a noble path). 100% terrific as an accompaniment to watching the ripples of heat rise off the sidewalk.

Summer Home – Typhoon
Portland’s multi-membered Typhoon has been a magnificent constant for me since the Springtime. This one sings about childhood memories and how those halcyon summers always are especially cemented in our seasonal psyche.

My Body – Young The Giant
And then this one starts like an ignition turning over and I am excited for all the roadtrips we are collectively taking in these hot months, tires humming on the softening black asphalt.

Wonder Why – Vetiver
Alongside the Dale Earnhardt Jr Jr album, the new Vetiver album is my other summer soundtrack. This San Francisco outfit is on Sub Pop Records, and the album landed in my mailbox in May, just as the apple blossoms were getting their act together. The whole album sounds real nice with the windows down, and I can’t stop listening.

Cold Feet – Lost Lander
This Portland band was featured on the PDX Pop Now! compilation, and sounds wildly Celtic to me, a voice ululating about a million tiny flashlights over a gently growing sonic gleam. It’s addictive. (oh — Kickstart them!)

Demons (live on Daytrotter) – AgesandAges
Even though I know this happened in a rad studio in Rock Island, Illinois, I think it sounds just like it could have been around a campfire somewhere on a coast, embers floating off into the salty air, hands clapping in time.

North of Town – Bryan John Appleby
Another stunner from BJA’s debut EP, this one has a jubilant streak in it that made it one of the highlights of his live show, as we all clapped and “la la laaaa”d together with a wish to run off to the north of town. Also, since we last spoke, BJA reached his Kickstarter goal! Yeehaw.

The Least I Can Do – David Wax Museum
I saw David Wax Museum a few months ago in Denver and this was one of the most stunning songs they did, about hearts opening up like flowers and not being able to unbloom. And that is such a good thing.

Let’s Go Down – Family Of The Year
I first wrote about this song back in January with teeth chattering, just envisioning campfires on the beach, and now it’s here. “First we take our shoes off, then we take our socks off, it doesn’t even matter – there are rocks that we can jump off…” My anthem these days.

Slipping Through The Sensors – Fruit Bats
I love the permeating, fresh-green laziness all through this whole damn song. I’ve thought of this as the quintessential summer song for a few years now.

Peaceful Mind – Ryan Tanner
This song by some Salt Lake City friends slides into the mix laden with a simple warm grace, like a benediction. I could listen to this one over and over and gain a new measure of peace each time. It also features Paul Jacobsen on banjo and backing vocals – you guys really really liked his cover of Kathleen Edwards that I posted once. This is a summer twilight song to me, fireflies flickering.

Where’d All The Time Go? – Dr Dog
Because before we know it, this summer will be past us.

ZIP: SPILLING OUR ICE CUBES ON THE LAWN SUMMER 2011

[cover art image by the wonderful Ryan Hollingsworth; original image from Shenandoah Davis]

let’s go down in the water and wash off this dirty week

I know it is icy, brutal, make-you-weep freezing in so many of the places where people are reading from, so this feels like a bit of collectivist escapism between us.

But: I heard this song for the first time tonight and I want so badly for it to be July and to be driving down Highway 17 in California with this on repeat, and the windows down. And can someone also please bring a guitar so we can try to work out the chords around the campfire? This is pure, undistilled summer joy and just made my night.

Let’s Go Down – Family Of The Year

Family Of The Year is from Los Angeles (so they do summery things all the time), by way of Wales (so they appreciate all the summery things). Their album Songbook is available for whatever price you want to pay them for it. I wonder if they would take payment in s’mores.

Summer Plunge 2010 with Fuel/Friends

This year marks the most fun I’ve had yet putting together twenty songs to soundtrack your summer. The mix came together organically and joyfully while I did summery things, and the contentment I feel lately in these weeks is embedded in the picks. I declared on January 1 (when I did the Polar Bear Plunge) that 2010 was going to be a flippin’ fantastic year, full of new experiences — and it certainly is living up to the promise.

Enjoy these as I have, play them at the BBQs to come, and burn them on CD for your next trip to the beach. Bring enough firewood; don’t forget the sunscreen and the fuzzy blankets. Summer is here.

FUEL/FRIENDS SUMMER PLUNGE 2010

Bullet – Scarlett Johansson & Steel Train
I adore the two drastically different versions of this song so much that I am declaring them the anthems of my summer, and bookending this year’s mix with them. Starting this mix with ScarJo? Yeah, I’m as shocked as you are. This is actually a cover of the original (see track 19) from an album of all-female covers (Tegan & Sara, Amanda Palmer). When Scarlett croons over that immense, filthy-crunchy beat that she fell in love on the back seat of your car, can you blame her?

Bang Pop – Free Energy
Another song I want to listen to all summer: 100% pure bottled fun from these Philadelphia chaps — like Mentos in a bottle of Coke.

The Diamond Church Street Choir – The Gaslight Anthem
Snapping on the street corner because it’s too hot to go inside? A song that’s all at once immediate and urgent, as well as timeless, from these Jersey boys’ third album. “While I’m just waiting on the light to change / and the steam heat pours from the bodies on the floor.”

Heard It On The Radio – The Bird and The Bee
The lone original on an album of shiny Hall & Oates covers, it’s the standout tune for me, since I could never abide Hall & Oates anything. It perfectly encapsulates those summer crushes soundtracked to that one song on the radio all through August.

Heart To Tell – The Love Language
This North Carolina band (on Merge Records, one of my favorites) has a poppy, effusive, beat-driven sound that fits perfectly in these months. They kind of reminded me of Voxtrot, before Voxtrot stopped trotting.

Kiola Beach – HOT SPA
I know nothing about this band except they made a wonderful video with this song and old home movie footage of beach trips and vintage surfing. That’s enough for me to have a permanently fabulous vision in my mind for this song. They’re Australian, unsigned, and I read about them here.

The Drying Of The Lawns – The Tallest Man On Earth
On last year’s summer mix, Kristian Matsson sang to us about bluebirds flying away, and this year it’s the drying of summer lawns, and waves, rivers, and mirages. I’ve spent the interim twelve months falling completely in love with him, because of songs like this.

Fairweather – Houses
The cover art picture above was taken by my friend Kinsey, the luminous woman in the Denver band Houses. As I was clicking through a few of her quintessentially-summer pictures online, showing a bunch of folks up at Echo Lake lounging on huge boulders in the sun, this song of theirs (from their Summer EP last year) came on randomly. And it was perfect: let’s leave this town behind, let’s go for a drive.

Lost In My Mind – The Head and The Heart
What’s summer if not a little time out of mind? This song shimmers and grows slowly, to the crescendo where the bass drum starts softly thumping, and it sings about the stars all coming out at night. It’s almost like that Fanfarlo track I loved last year, that helped me actually see the way the sky illuminates at twilight, one tiny pinprick of light at a time. I’ve been massively loving The Head and The Heart since I posted that song last week (their full-length album is just out this week). They also remind me delightfully of the Local Natives, if you love them as I do.

I Will Be The Sun – Old Canes
Windchimes and hard-driving clattery percussion that you can dance around to, and this one sails right into the summer mix. The whole Feral Harmonic album sounds this joyous, and I love it. Great for roadtrips and gratuitous steering-wheel drumming.

Black and Milds – Cataldo
My criteria for summer is often a rubric of what songs might sound good sung around a bonfire, if I had exceptionally talented friends who played the banjo as well as they drank. We’ve also got plenty of handclaps here, in this song about missing someone (which surely we all do on occasion, even in the summer). Thanks Katie!

Hard Sun – Indio
The original version of the sweeping epic song from Canadian Gordon Peterson in 1989. Featuring Joni Mitchell on background vocals and an assortment of exotic African-sounding instruments, it just feels radiant.

Flaming Arrow – Jupiter One
NYC’s Jupiter One is a duo with folksy roots and Seventies AM radio leanings. This song is all lemondrops and summer street strolls, over lyrics about burning buildings. What an odd, totally successful juxtaposition.

Unattainable – Little Joy
Man, this entire album is the perfect summer accompaniment — that slightly kitschy, clattery sound from Strokes drummer Fabrizio Moretti and vocalist Binki Shapiro, along with Brazilian musician Rodrigo Amarante. I had a hard time picking just one track off this album for the mix.

Mirando – Ratatat
The video for this Brooklyn duo’s 2008 song consist of clips from Predator in reverse, so this song feels a bit like humid jungle warfare to me, in some exotic land. But, you know — humid jungle warfare you can dance to.

In The Summertime (acoustic) – Rural Alberta Advantage
I discovered this in the cold of November, and have been waiting for the sun to come and warm things up enough to enjoy it the way I think it was meant to be heard. A bittersweet, piercing, perfect little song, recorded off-the-cuff backstage at the Bottom Of The Hill in San Francisco.

Sunny Sunday Mill Valley Groove Day – The Sir Douglas Quintet
My friend Nick from London said I had to put this on the mix, and when he recommends, I listen. I’d never heard this before but it feels like something captured on a warm afternoon in the studio when the recorder was accidentally kept running. “When there’s nothing left to say, and all the clouds have faded away / And my mind wanders out there across the bay…”

Saturday Night (Pinkhearts session) – Ryan Adams
My friend Brian from San Francisco said I had to put this on the mix, and when he recommends, I listen. There’s something in the aimlessness and lazy midnight humidity of this song that sounds like a perfect summer night when you were a teenager. Also, the saxophone makes it sound for all the world like a cast-off demo from the Rolling Stones.

Bullet – Steel Train
Indie kids doing their best, brilliant shot at Springsteen. As soon as I burn this mix onto a CD, I am hitting the road with the windows open because holy heck how good will this song sound on a summer night with the car windows down?? It’s so good that I had to use this song twice on the mix. My new favorite summer song of 2010. [huge thanks to Brian in Portland!!]

Pursuit of Happiness (Kid CuDi cover) – Lissie
Finally, this one – I love Lissie, and I love how she had to take a shot of tequila before she covers hip-hop artist Kid CuDi’s collaboration with MGMT and Ratatat: “2am, summer night / Hands on the wheel — uh, uh, fuck that….” Ending on a perfect, if dangerous, note.

ZIP: FUEL/FRIENDS SUMMER PLUNGE 2010

Go forth and enjoy.

[cover image by Kinsey Hamilton, design by Todd Roeth]

Late Nights and Longboards: Fuel/Friends Summer 2009 mix

Before you head off on the long 4th of July weekend of merriment and BBQs (mostly for my US readers, but heck, it’s a good idea wherever you live), I have finally completed my annual summer mix for 2009: “Late Nights and Longboards“! I don’t surf, I just pretend I’m one of those girls in the picture up there – with the especially foxy swimsuits.

These are twenty tunes that will be soundtracking my summer, the porch swings and lemonade (okay, Fat Tire), the volleyball and sunburns, the roadtrips with the windows down because my air conditioner is broken. Maybe even the mosquito bites and seemingly inevitable summer broken hearts.

LATE NIGHTS AND LONGBOARDS
Fuel/Friends Summer 2009 Mix
Storia Di Un Corazon – Jovanotti & Jarabe de Palo
Spanish and Italian and salsa dancing and sweat. Move your hips.
Song Away – Hockey
I’m still addicted, and this still sounds fantastic driving fast.
Kissing Like It’s Love – The Voyces
Marvelous marvelous! “You smell like every summer should, my favorite time of year, like Coppertone and firewood — how am I supposed to steer?”
I Was A Fool – Roman Candle
I can feel the summer twilight heat emanating off this slow charmer. “Out in the evening past the bridge and below, frogs and cicadas left and right growling low… “
Folding Chair – Regina Spektor
Feet buried in the sand, and the sea is just a wetter version of the skies.
We’re All Stuck Out In The Desert – Johnathan Rice
Miami vacations, desert journeys, salt and sand in this (damn catchy) tune from Jenny Lewis’s boyfriend.
How Can I Love You If You Won’t Lie Down? – Silver Jews
All shiny and chimey with a faint banjo, electric guitar, and lyrics like “fast cars, fine ass, these things will pass and it won’t get more profound.” No, no it won’t.
Bowl of Oranges – Bright Eyes
Citrus seems summery, but really this is just my personal anthem of the summer and a favorite Bright Eyes song. What we’re all looking for.
Harold T Wilkins – Fanfarlo
Wow, this song still explodes into a billion technicolor sparks every time I hear it.
Sleep All Summer – Crooked Fingers
The original is different than that fabulous cover floating around, but just as bittersweet once you get used to it.
California (All The Way) – Luna
I can see the sun glinting hard off the Los Angeles car windshields, blinding me, when I listen to the guitar melody here.
July 4, 2004 – Jason Anderson
It’s not a summer mix ’til someone starts handclapping.
Fireworks – The Whitest Boy Alive
Half of the Kings of Convenience secured his place on this mix with the first second of this perfect song. Not lying.
My Radio (AM Mix) – Stars
“Hot sun on skin, that crimson dress too thin.”
Where Do My Bluebird Fly – The Tallest Man On Earth
You know how endless quiet afternoons can pass in August, laying on your back looking at clouds? This is that song – “You’re just a riddle in the sky…”
Wasted & Ready – Ben Kweller
Yes.
Sweet Summer Night on Hammer Hill – Jens Lekman
Even though Jens has the swine flu, I still hope he can find a day like this one this summer, all flirty brass and shout-out-loud clapping down on the corner.
The Village Green Preservation Society – The Kinks
Personally, my summers always require the Kinks to be present and contributing.
Play Until The Streetlights Come On – Rabbit Is A Sphere
From their new free EP, this interlude makes me think of running home barefoot on warm asphalt.
We’ll See The Sun – Houses
This song has two sublime moments in it that make my insides expand – when the drums come in at the two-minute-mark, and when the Wurlitzer explodes like fireworks at 3:27. Give it time to build and you’ll be rewarded. We will see the sun.

ZIP: LATE NIGHTS AND LONGBOARDS

It all fits on one CD. Let’s go!

Welcome, summer

Ten tunes for this first day of summer 2008:

Girls In Their Summer Clothes (winter mix) – Bruce Springsteen
California (Phantom Planet cover) – Mates of State
Constructive Summer (live at Non-Comm) – Hold Steady
It’s Your Thing – Isley Brothers (this cut from Out of Sight)
Electric Music and the Summer People – Beck
Sunshine (Jonathan Edwards cover) – Paul Westerberg
Summersong – The Decemberists
Burned (Buffalo Springfield cover) – Wilco
Summer In The City – Regina Spektor
Nightswimming – R.E.M.

Check out the corresponding selections at Some Velvet Blog and The Late Greats as well — and choose your own summer adventure.

Summer Mix 2007 :: All I want is an umbrella in my drink

This morning was the Colorado Springs annual street breakfast, which sounds dodgy but means eating good food (“too early for flapjacks?”) while sitting on hay bales in the middle of the street downtown. No joke, I actually get up early for this. On this same day last year (always the day before summer officially begins) I posted up my Tanline summer mix, which kept me going all through the hot months. I’ve been working on this year’s mix pretty much since the chills of winter set in (and hung around) as a bit of wishful thinking and longing for these warm days.

Today’s high is supposed to be 89. I am so ready.

FUEL/FRIENDS SUMMER MIX 2007
“ALL I WANT IS AN UMBRELLA IN MY DRINK”

Ordinary – The Alternate Routes
A sublime opening note to start the summer: “I’ve been wasting my days good and reckless and true . . .”
Rock ‘N Me – Steve Miller Band
I think their Greatest Hits (74-78) could be one of the finest summer albums ever.
Flight of The Conchords theme song
Addictive.
Kokomo – Adam Green & Ben Kweller
The ironic deadpan intonation, but still having fun, makes this a great cover of the Beach Boys classic. I will go to any of these places listed with Ben and Adam.
Hardcore Days & Softcore Nights – Aqueduct
What I wish for each of you. Plus, this beat makes me want to die of happiness.
Assholes – The Damnwells
Man alive, I love this song lately. Dezen’s velvety rasp perfectly anchors the steel guitar and makes it all flow together in a wonderful, warm, defiant anthem of youth. Also dig the backing vocals: “Don’t catch it! No, don’t catch it!“
Ice Cream Man – Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers
Who doesn’t love the ice cream man? I need a missile pop; preferably barefoot.
Wild Honey – U2
My favorite U2 song on a hot summer day, from those bright opening notes. I’ll swing through the trees with you, Bono.
He’s On The Beach (b-side) – Lemonheads
A fantastic b-side from the Big Gay Heart single, he’s in Australia and he’s on the beach, and there’s sunshine everywhere. Or so they tell me.
(I Love The Sound Of) Breaking Glass – Nick Lowe
I first heard this sitting on a picnic blanket drinking PBR in Wash Park and I instantly liked this shimmery, dramatic ’80s tune, which sounds so lighthearted even though it’s about smashing out windows and submission.
If She Wants Me – Belle & Sebastian
This song feels like the way everything sloooows down on a really hot day, all billowy and hazy, with really, really fey harmonies
Beverly Hills – Weezer
Then stomp things back up with Weezer at their Queen-est. Driving around in a crappy car, fashion sense a little whack – sounds like every summer when I was a teenager.
99% – Mooney Suzuki
Kind of a grand ’70s rock sound to these guys with “ooo ooo oo”s and “naaa na na naaa”s galore.
I Love The Summer Days – Marbles
The other Schneider from Austin, this is Robert Schneider from Apples in Stereo with a song that sounds like Herman’s Hermits meets Cotton Mather. I was surprised to find out this was modern.
Seven Days In The Sun – Feeder
Worth it for that opening drum break which would be fantastic on the steering wheel; plus the song’s about vacations in Mallorca and other summery affairs.
Firecracker (Music in High Places – Jamaica version) – Ryan Adams
Ryan spends a few days down in Jamaica jammin’ with locals, Toots, and various Maytals and the result is a movie filled with these spontaneous street-jam sessions. Lyrics to epitomize summer (“everybody wants to go on forever, I just want to burn up hard and bright“).
The Joker – Steve Miller Band
A quarter if you can tell me what a pompatus is. I LOVE everything about singing along with this song (including vocalizing that guitar catcall after the love your peaches/shake your tree/lovey dovey lyric).
Dance Tonight – Paul McCartney
Summery, stompy, simple and lovely.
Throw Your Arms Around Me (b-side version) – Neil Finn
Pearl Jam’s covered this Hunters & Collectors song in concert and called it a “song that felt like summer.” I agree wholeheartedly, especially this live version by Neil Finn.
In The Aeroplane Over The Sea – Neutral Milk Hotel
I missed this album until recently somehow, and now I absolutely want to lay on my back listening to this and watch the clouds go past. Perfect.

ZIP: ALL I WANT IS AN UMBRELLA IN MY DRINK MIX

Happy summering, y’all.

Sounds like summer

It’s the first day of summer, the longest day of the year. My lovely city started the day off right with the annual Street Breakfast. Pancakes, eggs, little boxes of milk and juice — all prepared & served by soldiers (so do I call it grub? or chow? or something like that). They close off the streets for the hardy souls who get downtown between 6am and 8:30am (guess which end of the spectrum I was closer to? Anyone who knows me will heartily echo “8:30! You got there AFTER 8:30!”). There was live music with a band whose lead singer looked like Bo Bice (a bit unfortunately). It was an excellent way to welcome the summer and enjoy the community spirit.

Here is a little playlist I have been assembling for the last month or so as the weather steadily turns warmer and minds turn to lighter things. This is a blend of old and new; let me tell you why. Summer is not just about you, right here & now in 2006, my friend. Somehow with the advent of June, it’s every summer you’ve ever lived before, and those from before you were born. It’s about drive-ins and clam bakes, love-ins and hip shakes. It’s about being eight years old and bored out of your mind all summer long, seeing how fast you can ride your bike, and laying on your back looking at clouds for hours. It’s about the summer before freshman year when you’d spend hours at the pool hoping to see your summer crush. And it’s about whatever fabulous things you will do this year, standing by the grill with friends, laying on the sand nursing a Corona, or dancing your arse off at some humid outdoor concert.

So this is an aptly broad soundtrack of songs that remind me of a bunch of different summers. From the kitschy appeal of Lily Allen to the sunkissed goodness of The Zombies, there’s something here for all the faces of summer. If you have the computer space, can I urge you to download the whole mix and listen to it front-to-back several times? It’s not supposed to be a pick-and-choose endeavor; there’s a flow here, people! A mix tape from me to you, so TRUST ME.

01. “LDN” – Lily Allen
(walkin’ round London, narrating – an extremely likeable female version of Mike Skinner)
02. “Good Day” – Luce
(just feel good listening to this, so positive & pleasant)
03. “Pleasant Valley Sunday” – The Monkees
(retro goodness recreating a sunny weekend morning – “the local rock group down the street is tryin’ hard to learn their song . . .”)
04. “The Compromise” – The Format
(this is a FABULOUS song, from their new CD Dog Problems)
05. “Brandy (You’re A Fine Girl)” – Looking Glass
(I remember singing this with my brother in the summer, listening to the radio)
06. “July! July!” – The Decemberists
(something about crooked French Canadians, but it fits so well)
07. “A Summer Song” – Chad & Jeremy
(could a song SOUND any more like summer?)
08. “Island In The Sun (live)” – Weezer
(where I wish I was, with a riff that distinctly reminds me of Summer 2001)
09. “Summertime” – Josh Rouse
(“I remember cigarettes, tube socks, sunburns, and long blonde hair“)
10. “All I’m Thinkin’ About” – Bruce Springsteen
(a summer driving song, on a long, winding road)
11. “Plan Of The Man” – The Ms
(hard to believe these Chicago fellows are modern, what with all the wooo wooo wooos)
12. “Harmour Love” – Syreeta
(the infectiously poppy opening/closing song from the movie Junebug)
13. “California Pt. 2” – Mason Jennings
(“Where the next nearest neighbor lives miles away, I’ll never have to mow the lawn. Right on.”)
14. “I Get High” – Fastball
(yes, it’s Fastball, but forget “The Way” and listen to this soulful Beatles-esque piano ballad)
15. “Long, Sweet Summer Night” – The Thorns
(Matthew Sweet, Pete Droge, Shawn Mullins – supergroup, superb song)
16. “I Wanna Hold Your Hand“ (Beatles cover) - Al Green
(Unh. “Shut up Al Green.” Teenage nostalgia never sounded so funky)
17. “I Need Direction” – Teenage Fanclub
(it’s like including a Beach Boys song without including one. Perfect)
18. “Paper Scratcher” – Blind Melon
(a completely underrated gem off their self-titled debut album, LOVE the harmonies)
19. “When U Love Somebody” – Fruit Bats
(another modern band that sounds so fantastically retro, this time with handclaps)
20. “Summertime” (demo) – The Zombies
(it is NOT summer without The Zombies. It’s just not. This is the classic Gershwin tune.)
21. “This Time Of Year” – Better Than Ezra
(for a newer song, this feels pretty dang nostalgic to me. “There’s a feelin’ in the air, just like a Friday afternoon . . .”)
22. “Sleepwalk” – Santo & Johnny
(no better way to end a summer night than with this tune, an open window, and a breeze)

NOW WE’RE TALKIN: DOWNLOAD THE WHOLE MIX AS A ZIP
The way I burn it, it fits on one CD for portable goodness.

Let the summering begin!