The weather has been really nice in Los Angeles for the past week or so. It has provided me with numerous opportunities to take my new car out for drives across the city, up the coast highway, over the hills and through the valleys. And since my car does not have a tape deck (which means no adapter for my satellite radio) I’ve been forced to either tune into talk radio (what, I should listen to FM radio? In LA? Ha!) or revisit my CD collection. Since no one in their right mind wants to cruise around town blasting talk radio, I’ve been scouring my collection for some of the best warm weather tunes I own; the types of shit I can roll down my windows and enjoy on a perfect Californian afternoon.
Don’t worry, the rest of the country is going to catch up to us soon. Spring will turn to summer, and in no time you’ll be cranking the volume up in your own cars, tearing down highways and along coastlines, enjoying the warm weather and feeling alive. Here, let me help you out by recommending some albums I’ve been enjoying over the past week or two.
This list will mostly be populated by rock and pop music, as I have a difficult time listening to night ocean drones and druggy soundscapes when it’s 85 degrees outside and I’m going to the beach. It just doesn’t work. Sorry, experimental music fans, this list is definitely not for you.
10. Hum – You’d Prefer An Astronaut – In the history of alternative rock, I’m pretty sure it doesn’t get much better than the one-two-three punch of “Why I Like The Robins,” “I’d Like Your Hair Long” and “I Hate It Too”. Those three songs make this album, and when you’re cruising around with your windows down and that trio hits…it’s like living in that episode of Futurama where Fry drinks 100 cups of coffee and the entire universe slows down around him. Everything else slips away and it’s just you and those tunes.
09. Ennio Morricone – The Good The Bad And The Ugly [OST] – If only for “The Ecstasy Of Gold” and “The Trio (Main Title),” which I have a penchant for playing on repeat over, and over, and over. If I’m really feeling good, I’ll try to sing the operatic vocals on “The Ecstasy Of Gold.” I can’t hit all the high notes, but it’s still pretty impressive to hear me try.
08. Beulah – The Coast Is Never Clear – I learned about this album in the middle of winter when I was living in Vermont. In spite of that connection — and the sometimes morbid lyrical content — I have always considered it to be one of the best warm weather records in my collection.
07. Calexico – Feast Of Wire – Late July Arizona heat, random monsoon rains, late desert drives, Calexico is the soundtrack to all these things and more. As one of the later releases in the band’s oeuvre it focuses less on atmosphere and more on pop sensibilities. Still, it’s one of my favorite road trip albums…and spring/summer are the seasons for road trips, right?
06. Big Star – #1 Record – I’ve been listening to “Third” a lot since picking up the test pressing edition on Record Store Day, but when it comes to being outside and soaking up the sun you can find no wrong in “#1 Record”.
05. The American Analog Set – Know By Heart – Maybe it’s because I first heard this album in the summer of 2001, but I always see this as a warm weather record. It has three outstanding tracks (“Punk As Fuck”, “The Only One”, “Aaron And Maria”) and a handful of other great cuts. Maybe it’s the brushed drums? The vibraphone? Whatever it is, this one screams sitting outside in a lawnchair with a case of beers wasting away the hours. [Listen to “The Only One”]
04. Polvo – Celebrate The New Dark Age – Again, this is another one I associate with warm weather because the first time I heard it was at a barbecue at Ian’s house, maybe one July 4th when I was in high school. And what did we do at the barbecue? We played whiffle ball, drank Rolling Rocks and ate meat. Yeah, feel free to recreate the scene if you want. It’s kind of perfect.
03. The Danielson Famile – Fetch The Compass Kids – It’s really hard for me to turn people onto the Danielson Famile because I play their records and my friends all think I’m joking. They say I can’t possibly like this music, or if I like it it’s because Daniel Smith sounds weird and I want to be “different” for liking it. This album is so fucking catchy, though. From “We Don’t Say Shut Up” right on through the rest of the twelve tracks there’s a real cathartic energy to it that fits in well with being outdoors and being active and having fun. [Listen to “Good News For The Pus Pickers”]
02. Teenbeaters – My World My Sky – There’s never a bad time to listen to the gritty, dirty, sex-and-drug snarl of the Teenbeaters. I recall working at a recording studio in Hoboken (ironically enough I assisted a session or two that summer for the guy who produced this album) and I would listen to it every morning during my commute. Some varying degree of hungover, flying down I-280, taking the Holland Tunnel approach only to veer off at the last minute to snake my way through Hoboken. And I’d be pumping out “Concrete Jungle Love” or “Two Hits” and preparing myself for another arduous day of work. Mowing the lawn. Cleaning the Neve console (again?), hard unpaid summer gigs require hard, unflinching rock music.
01. Chavez – Ride The Fader – I’ve been listening to this one a lot over the course of the last month (another top ten list is coming soon, and this will also be #1 on it), and just a couple days ago I was driving west on the I-10 towards the beach and I was blasting this and feeling great. The songs are mostly short, loud and beautiful. I just keep going back to it and listening through again, and again, and again. It’s a perfect album in any season, but when it’s warm out it’s so much better. [Listen to “Unreal Is Here”]
