So I finally posted my summer mix. Unlike most people, the music I listen to doesn’t really change throughout the year. (Or maybe it does and I just don’t notice.) I think my mix is a little weird, but these are the first songs that popped into my mind when thinking about my favorite summer memories. With summer there's always trips to the beach, freedom from responsibility (except that I have a job now), and it's always way too damn hot.

01. wada kouji - fire!! : this is the opening to the fourth season of digimon – digimon frontier. it's a pretty nerdy first track, but this song gives me fond summer memories because I spent a lot of time on a digimon forum back when I was watching this show as it aired. plus the title is coincidentally appropriate for this mix.

02. they might be giants - the sun is a mass of incandescent gas : i think anyone who knows about TMBG has heard or has this song, but I associate it with summer cause it reminds me of the SC heat.

03. the aquabats – pool party : when I was younger, we had a pool in our backyard. I remember good times playing water sports and Slip ‘n Sliding with my friends and neighbors. except for the time someone accidentally shat in the pool. that wasn’t cool.

04. lemon demon – stick stickly : of course, when I was a kid I watched a lot of cartoons (and played my sega genesis) when there was no school. let the nerdy stylings of lemon demon remind you about a googly-eyed nickelodeon mascot.

05. janne da arc - shining ray : another appropriate song title and another song I enjoy during the summer months.

06. the pillows - ride on shooting star : fooly cooly first aired on cartoon network in summer of 2003 and I've been hooked on the show and music ever since.

07. sum 41 - fat lip : i'm not a huge fan of sum 41, but I remember blasting this song a lot on my walkman at the beach when I was a punk kid. i can also relate to the lyrics.

08. the beatles – lovely rita : if you don’t know, this track is on the album sgt. pepper’s lonely hears club band, which I like to listen to on the hotter days while looking at the ladies in their skimpy seasonal clothing.

09. spamalot - always look on the bright side of life : the first play I saw on broadway was spamalot in summer 2007 with __darkmatter and his family. good times. :)

10. porno graffiti – swallowtail butterfly : this is the band that sang the first opening for full metal alchemist. (their name of course makes me giggle.) this song of theirs makes me picture tropical flowers and attractive spanish women. give it a listen and you’ll see what I mean. if not, well, then maybe it's just me.

11. save ferris – under 21 : the energy of ska reminds me of the heat of the sun when you’re close to the beach. last summer I listened to a lot of reel big fish, catch 22, and save ferris. i picked this song because it’s sort of how I feel at the moment where I’m counting down the months til my 21st birthday (which will be epic).

Ah yes. Summer is fast approaching. Unlike most students, I’m still in school, writing final papers and freaking out. Still can’t pass up an opportunity to make a mix though! My mixes usually max out around 70 minutes with 20+ tracks, but that’s a little much for something someone pops into a car stereo or listens to off-handedly. Also, less tracks means less time writing why I love them. It was still difficult as hell to narrow it down to 14 tracks.

My summers usually consist of hanging out with friends and partying, but this summer is different. I’ve spent so much time away from the west coast that summer signals a time of returning to my real home. These tracks just feel so nice and easy-going. A lot of them are relatively short, too, like little bursts of sunshine.


1. The Avalanches – Since I Left You: I got the Avalanches’ debut recently and it’s wonderful. This song is the first track on the album, and it just feels so breezy and calm like a nice day at the beach.

2. Digitalism – Pogo: This was a song that me and my friends shared at parties. We’ play it and we’d bliss out to how fantastic it was. I love this song.

3. Santigold – Lights Out: I love how poppy this song is. It’s about going out and having a good time, which is what I do a lot of summer nights.

4. Matt & Kim – Daylight: Matt & Kim are so enthusiastic, and this song is just so uplifting. I smile whenever it comes on.

5. Jamie Lidell – Another Day:
6. Kanye West – Homecoming:
Here we come to the Lollapalooza section of the mix. I went to Lolla last year and it was phenomenal. Jamie Lidell was one of the best acts I saw there, playing soul-infused electronic music, and Kanye West was the headliner on the last night, playing to his hometown of Chi-city.

7. Daft Punk – Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger (Alive 2007 Radio Edit): Daft Punk live was the best concert I’ve ever been to. I was psyched for this concert in March, and it took place in July. So worth the wait.

8. Cut Copy – Time Stands Still: Welcome to side 2! I love Cut Copy tons, and this song reminds me of one night when me and one of my friends danced to this song alone while everyone else was around a dinner table taking shots. Such a good night.

9. Stardust – Music Sounds Better with You: A song about good feelings. A must on any summer mixtape.

10. Cake -Shadow Stabbing: There was one summer when I was around 15 where I would play this song nonstop. It rocks.

11. The Beach Boys – Wouldn’t it Be Nice: No summer mix is complete without a song by the Beach Boys.

12. Green Day – Maria: My summer camp counselor in 5th grade would put on International Superhits every morning to wake us up. This was the first track, and I haven’t been able to find this song on any other album.

13. Weezer – Holiday: One of the best Weezer songs ever about road trips, which I hope to go on this break.

14. Dromoland – 10 Weeks: My friend made this song at the end of the 2007 school year for a video project, and I haven’t gotten sick of it yet. It’s a really catchy electronic song that I’ve probably pushed more than I should have, but it’s so good! Also, summers usually last 10 weeks, so this is fitting as a closer.

I’ve uploaded all the individual tracks as well as the whole mix onto Mediafire. You can pick and choose which track to download here. The mix surprisingly works as something to play all the way through though, so give that a go too.

While the always awesome Ashurbanipal may be reminded of the good times and of being free and sans commitments during the summer, I am not so! Summer, for me, has meant for the past few years that I have to go home and go on a hunt for crappy local jobs that don't ever pertain to what I want to do in life. But will this mixtape be depressing? Hells no. When I inevitably find that crappy job, I have to drive to it. And I can't drive without music blaring right at me. To sing along with or just to rock out to at stoplights. So here! Have a mixtape that is essentially the Best Of my driving playlists over the past few years.



01 Jack Off Jill - Nazi Halo
A STAPLE OF ANY PLAYLIST I MAKE, Jack Off Jill's Clear Hearts Grey Flowers album is one of my top five. This comes from 2006, which was a hugely vindictive year for me. JOJ is pretty much perfect for that kind of mood. Be warned, as though it were some kind of surprise, that there's some nasty language on this track.

02 Coheed & Cambria - A Favor House Atlantic
COHEED & CAMBRIA IS ONE OF THOSE BANDS that I've only very recently gotten into, and In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3 even more so. Still, there's something about singing "Good eye, sniper / Now I'll shoot, you run" in the middle of a BJ's parking lot that makes this song a lot of fun.

03 Voxtrot - Brother in Conflict
SERENDIPITY IS THE NAME OF THE GAME with Voxtrot. I heard "Every Day" off their self-titled first album in a mini-mall as I was waiting to get my hair cut. On a whim, I checked out the rest of the album; the track I'm giving you here starts off with the line "I wanna drown you in a pool of blood", which really should convince you right now that you need it.

04 Shinedown - Devour
I MIGHT BE CHEATING WITH THIS ONE, since I wasn't looking for a crappy local job when I first put this song on my driving playlist in the summer of '08. In fact, I used this song for an entirely different purpose before it showed up on my stereo. But you know what, damn the torpedoes. It's here now. Deal with it.

05 .38 Special - Rockin' Into the Night
THIS SONG GOES WAY BACK TO 2003 when I first found out about .38 Special. Though it's a recent addition to my driving songs, I couldn't tell you why. It is all about cruisin' down the motorway, doin' 80, finding a motel, and, ahem, "rocking" into the night, as it were. It's pretty perfect.

06 Alice Cooper - Poison
IN 2006, I WAS A PRETTY BIG NERD. Not much has changed since then, honestly, but this song managed to fit perfectly with the relationship that one of the characters I was writing had. That was an awkward sentence, eh? But listen. This will be a good song.

07 Men Women & Children - Messy
THE BAMBOOZLE MUSIC FESTIVAL IN NORTH JERSEY is a great place to be at the start of the summer. This year, the headliners were No Doubt and Fall Out Boy, but the first time I went, we had My Chemical Romance and Linkin Park. And I was not interested in the slightest. Men Women & Children were one of that Saturday afternoon's offerings, and they're just this band, you know? Peppy and bouncy and fun.

08 3OH!3 - Don't Trust Me
MY BIGGEST PROBLEM WITH 3OH!3 is that "Don't Trust Me" is pretty much their only good song. Yes, I know it's totally subjective, but this song actually has a melody and shit. Everything else is kind of just screaming over hip-hop beats. Plus, it has some of the best lyrics ever. "Tell your boyfriend / If he says he's got beef / That I'm a vegetarian and I ain't fuckin' scared of him". C'mon. C'mon.

09 Blue Öyster Cult - After Dark
SUPERNATURAL MAY NOT BE THE BEST SHOW ON TV, but it does have the best soundtrack. When a friend of mine convinced me that Fire of Unknown Origin matched the story of Supernatural, I checked it out further. The bass is strong in every song on the album, but something about "After Dark" just seems right for driving.

10 Kim Sozzi - Alone (Heart cover)
YES, YES, I KNOW that Heart should probably never be covered. But as we all should know by now, I am a remix/cover whore, and also I love dance music. Kim Sozzi may not be Anne Wilson, but that doesn't make this song any worse, per se. Besides, oontz oontz oontz is a lot better for driving.

11 Sturm Und Drang - Sinner
FINALLY, TO ROUND OUT THE PLAYLIST, here is a song by Finnish rockers Sturm Und Drang. Wouldn't be a post from me without some gay wizard metal, would it? This is one of their newer tracks, and I'm especially pumped to see them live in August because it means I get to sing along with this and about twenty other songs just like it. I mean, I do it in the car already, so why not?

You can pick up each song individually on sendspace, or download the whole thing right here [65mb, 42 minutes]. Don't forget to support the industry and check these artists and bands out legally or I'll break your kneecaps.

Greetings, music fans. We're getting the band back together, and we're doing it in the whitest, most suburban way I can think of: with a mixtape. Not one of those sappy "please come back to me I didn't know how good I had it" ones. We're gonna celebrate the best time of the year: summer!

The music I listen to changes with the seasons. The more downtempo, indie stuff is definitely reminiscent of winters where the snow wouldn't end and I would spend weeks on end in the library studying and writing papers. But summer? Summer is when I get to be outside and, most importantly, be happy and (mostly) free of committments. All the songs here remind me of summer in one way or another: either they just have a summery feel to them or they remind me of a specific person or memory.

01. arashi - step and go : Reminds me both of my study abroad in Tokyo last summer and my friend and me who spazzed over Arashi, and of driving my friend home after a night of drinking after finals singing this at the top of our lungs.
02. news - smile maker : It just feels all happy and summery
03. wonder girls - tell me : This is another "last summer" ones. Every time I hear it I think of going out to samgyeopsal with my Korean classmates and everyone at the tables singing and doing the dance to this ♥
04. snsd - into the new world : A lot of my songs have to do with driving or something, I think. This is one of those songs that makes you feel like you can conquer the world
05. the go! team - grip like a vice : Oh look, something not Asian! I listened to this the first time I went exploring around Shinjuku by myself and it reminds me of crowded trains
06. yuna ito - moon rabbit : Every time I hear this song, I remember walking around Yamashita park in Yokohama, seeing this amazing red moon, and trying to find the rabbit through my camera lens.
07. m-flo - love me after 12am : Really, there's nothing to compare to the feeling that Tokyo at night gives me. It's like every humid molecule of the air is infused with life and the lights just seep into your very being.
08. royksopp - happy up here : This is another one that just feels happy and summery.
09. bt - flaming june : I hear this and it just feels like a warm, early June afternoon with the wind in my hair and the sun warming my soul ♥ (I like sunshine I am photosynthetic)
10. utada hikaru - deep river : I laid on a tarp under an overpass in Tokyo, eyes closed, arms outstreched, waiting for fireworks to start and just felt connected to everything and everyone. It was pretty deep.

Apparently we have a community here! Who knew? (It's me, I'm the guy who knew.) As regular viewers of my journal should know, I am a gigantic fag for Rock Band and anything Harmonix has ever done. Rock Band 2 is coming out in a matter of days and it has one of the most solid track lists of any video game in recent history. However, the bonus tracks are where it really shines, and it's for that reason I bring you Sinners Stick Together by Cambridge locals The Sterns. Track two, "Supreme Girl", is featured on Rock Band 2 and is about former White House Counsel Harriet Miers, as sung about from the point of view of George W. Bush.

The rest of the album is similarly done, with catchy, poppy songs about subjects such as getting drunk all day and terrible parenting. It incorporates Hammond organs, keyboards, and saxophones along with strong bass lines and guitar hooks to create one of the most solid albums I've heard in a long time. It's hard to pick just one genre for them, so I'll settle for power pop until something better comes along. If you like music, you'll probably like this CD.



01) Sinners Stick Together
02) Supreme Girl
03) This Side of the Screen
04) Buffer Zone
05) Rosemary Cross
06) About the Author
07) Papa, You're in Your Prime
08) Undergrad
09) All Saints
10) Twenty-Three Hours
11) Virginia Radio

Year: 2006
Genre: Power Pop
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