So it seriously feels like the hottest summer ever. I was playing volleyball last night in 98 degree weather and it almost felt cool. So to deal with the heat and to help make the hot summer nights on the volleyball courts more enjoyable, I made a pretty jammin’ summer mixtape. And as you will soon find out, I have been really into pop music this summer, partly because it goes well with the season, but mostly because I love to dance. So I thought I would share my summer mixtape with you all in hopes that it might enrich your summer barbecue or beach volleyball parties. Hope you enjoy.
It’s been another great week for music. Plenty of new releases worth checking.
This week I’m adding a new aspect to the reaping. While I would love to be able to give you a rating for each album listed, that just wouldn’t be possible, because I rarely have time to listen to all of the albums I will post. But what I am going to do instead is highlight one of the albums in red to signify my most loved ♥ release of the week.
Lead singer Ryan O’Neil and bassist Dan Perdue of Sleeping At Last have started a new blog that I think is worth checking out. So far it has just been some ramblings on their time on tour and random bits of whatever that they find interesting.
Paste Magazine has teamed up with the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival to bring us a free music sampler with songs from several artists that will be performing at this year’s festival, including She & Him, Dr. Dog, Blitzen Trapper and many more. Click here to download your free sampler: 2010 Paste Magazine Bonnaroo Sampler.
So after listening to Brady’s Autumn Shuffle last week, I was inspired to create a seasonal playlist of my own. I didn’t put quite as much thought into my list as Brady, rather I simply chose to create a list of songs and albums that I feel both musically and lyrically fit the mood of the season. Let me know if you have any songs or albums that you really fall for this time of year. I hope that this playlist makes your ears bleed til winter comes.
matt pond PA
I really love this group a lot and in fact I find that almost their entire catalog fits that autumnal season very well, especially Several Arrows Later. But instead of choosing a track from that album I thought I would kill two birds with one stone and include this excellent cover of another band that fits the fall season very well, Neutral Milk Hotel.
matt pond PA – In An Aeroplane Over the Sea (Neutral Milk Hotel)
Iron & Wine
Here is a guy I am sure you are all familiar with by now. Someone who like Nick Drake also got his first big exposure through the “Garden State” soundtrack. Well I find his contemplative lo-fi folk music to be great company on a sunny fall afternoon. One of my favorite things to do is to go for a drive in the fall while the leaves are in transition and this song I chose for you here is one of my favorite companions along the way.
Iron & Wine – The Trapeze Swinger
M83′s Saturdays = Youth
Saturdays was an album that I heard last year and it went in one ear and out the other without making much of an impact. But this fall it has penetrated down to my very core and has become one of my favorite records. And I attribute a lot of that to the season in which it was heard, both physically and in my personal life.
M83 – Graveyard Girl
Explosions in the Sky’s The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place
One of the best experimental quartets around. They were the first instrumental band that I was able to really get into and I find myself consistently going back to this album each fall. You might recognize them from their work for the soundtrack to “Friday Night Lights,” the television show.
Explosions In the Sky – Your Hand In Mine
The Radio Dept.
Here is another group that I would say has an autumn feel to their entire catalog. Something about their music just takes me back. It just puts me in this very retrospective mood. It’s not uncommon for music from my past to take me back to the time when it first captured me. But I just discovered this band about a year ago. I don’t know how they do it.
The Radio Dept. – Pulling Our Weight
Here are a few more tracks to help round out the playlist.
