-preparing mixtapes for pool/beach days
-'' basketball, baseball or volleyball at the park
-painting fences, general fix up house projects
-riding down route 9 to go to the galleria mall on your way to see Independence Day
ok ok i'll get to it eh. Songs have a way of getting into your head and setting the stage for memories. Some songs are totally summer songs for me just because thats when I listened to them. Sometimes its because i listened to them a ton, others are just associated with a particular event. On occasion, some songs just feel like summer and are categorized as such w/o a memory.
Some of my earliest summer songs stem back to the Poughkeepsie days (i can't remember, did we come back every summer from France? anyways, i'm placing these at about 1987-1992ish) Need You Tonight: so this song is a great example of the power of a sweet riff. I bet this was from my oldest bro Nate, though I think the whole fam liked it.
Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm Moving into the nineties, this song was more of an influence of my other bro Matt. I remember having this one on many a mixtapes. I thought it was profound when i was little (testament to the power of a melody) Now that i've had a few years on me, i still think its fantastic...but more from the hilarious lyrics and its association with Dumb and Dumber.
Lump and Peaches Now these songs have an admittedly more summer feel to them then the previous ones. These are just pure fun and always bring a smile :) see?
The Air Conditioned Nightmare speaking of smiles, dear reader...you must experience this song. This came out the summer we moved back from Tokyo. It has a strong association with cleaning out our Poughkeepsie home (specifically the basement dehumidifier for some reason) Also reminds me of baseball with the boys at the IBM country club, with ensuing big Gulps on the way home. The album was THE summer album so i best be linking a few more classics: "Golem II The Bionic Vapor Boy" and my personal favorite (title at least) "None of Them Knew They Were Robots" While crazy (seriously, they are nuts), these songs are genius and I think that Album (California) is rock solid summer music. They are from Mike Patton, the guy behind a far more famous band, Faith No More. They had some sweet summer Jams. The music video was a huge deal for defining summers back in the 90's. Epic was one such summer defining video. I remember always looking forward to Grandmas house in Vermont for the Lake and for cable...she had MTV and Nickelodeon! Needless to say this song, Ren and Stimpy...cough cough Beavis and Butthead were very much good summer times. Also, while i'm on the subject "We Care A Lot" also is very summerish. And another Summer Grandma's house song was the Offsprings finest song "Come Out and Play"
Now its middle School time, Fastball had The Way. I'll skip Spice Girls, Will Smith, sister Morissette and Eminem and head straight to The Wallflowers brilliant summer capturing device: "One Headlight" and "Heroes". So as most American kids, I wanted Godzilla to be as fantastic as Independence Day and rock me with special effects and mayhem. Unfortunately it did not, but the soundtrack did. I happen to like this version better then sir David Bowie's original.
Fastforward to now, the rest of these entries for your summer consideration fall under the category of chill. If you want a summer album for 2011, go back to Ivy's Apartment Life. Its from the mind of Fountains of Wayne writer (also a fantastic summer band) and is very mellow due to the swooning chic French frontwomen. (that last link isn't the official, its from Avatar but the songs there... ) I'm excited as there is a new album coming out soon and the first single already promises a ton more summer chillin.
Admittedly i'm leaving out some true gems, a beach boys greatest hits will always fit the bill, along with a Billy Joel Greatest hits. My personal favorite greatest hits for the summer would have to be The Cars... but thats me :)
So i'm tired and am gonna call the post good cause i'm lazy (its summer afterall)
Regards,
-James Elvin Harrington
