The weather last week was terrible. It was overcast and dreary
and pretty much the very manifestation of the word
“meh” (which has snuck up and replaced
“blah” as the ennui-induced expression of choice among
the college crowd).
But you just knew all along that it was going to clear up by the
weekend, because the JazzReggae Festival was coming, and it’s
not officially summer in Westwood until JazzReggae hits. And clear
up it did ““ I had to miss out this year, but just being
around campus, I could feel the good vibes spilling out from the
masses who had gathered for the music and the UV rays. And I
probably saved a few bucks ““ sure, it’s free for
students, but I always feel like I have to pick something up from
the vendors, like last year when I somehow ended up buying a pair
of earrings. Yeah, I don’t know.
But the point is, the weather is doing SoCal proud again;
Memorial Day weekend has come and gone, and summer has truly kicked
off. Now’s the time to start thinking about that mix
you’ll be putting on constant rotation for the next few
months.
More so than other mixes, the summer mix is almost exclusively
for the car and definitely not for indoor use. You need one packed
with summer jams to provide the soundtrack to everything from
cruising up the 101 to running errands at the market. Once finals
wrap up, you don’t want to be wasting precious time putting
it together. Best to take care of that now ““ heck, it’s
only ninth week.
And although any good mix has to have its own personal flair, I
do have a few suggestions.
First thing’s first: Some things are just unavoidable when
discussing music in terms of summer, so I’m just going to say
this and get it over with. The Beach Boys. OK, moving on.
Next, I really don’t think you should be allowed to make a
summer mix without “Since I Left You” by The Avalanches
as the lead-off track. It can be done, but it’s certainly not
recommended. I mean, once June rolls through, it becomes impossible
for me to argue against it being anything other than the greatest
song ever. Other tunes you should consider:
“I Wouldn’t Change a Thing,” by Coke Escovedo.
A percussionist for Santana covers a Robert Bristol song on an
uneven sophomore solo LP. You might ask what exactly about this
song is so great ““ that is, until you blast it in the middle
of the day, windows down. If you happen to be on one of the three
streets in Southern California without palm trees, I swear
they’ll start magically appearing before your eyes and
swaying to that oh-so-sweet groove.
“Diggin’ On You,” by TLC. Really, just
perfect.
Fountains of Wayne. It ain’t summer without lots of power
chords. I like these guys way more than I should; the summer after
my first year of college, my Fountains of Wayne mix was pretty much
the only thing I listened to. They have four songs, in my opinion,
that are all equally summer-jam awesome: “Radiation
Vibe,” “Leave the Biker,” “Red Dragon
Tattoo” and “Denise.”
“Gold Soundz,” by Pavement. If you can’t go a
few months without indie, I’d forego the obvious choice of
“Summer Babe” for this one. Wilco’s
“Nothingsevergonnastandinmyway (again)” is also
fantastic.
And I can’t really talk about summer without some hip-hop.
First, Jay-Z, who’s been gracing us with summer jams since
’96. He’s retired and still can’t stay away;
he’s so used to churning them out, he just had to poke his
head out and release “Dear Summer.” He has the
untouchable “Big Pimpin'” and “Izzo”
under his belt, but my personal favorite is “I Just Wanna
Love U.”
And of course, just about anything Dr. Dre has produced deserves
to be mentioned. I’d go with “Let Me Ride,”
“Ain’t No Fun,” or possibly
“Xxplosive.”
But before you go rushing off to start throwing your summer
’05 mix together, you need some ’05 songs in there,
too.
There are the big hits like “One Thing” and
“Hate It or Love It,” but don’t forget about some
overlooked gems like Beck’s “Girl” (or
“Earthquake Weather”), the Russian Futurists’
“Still Life” and Spoon’s “Sister
Jack.”
There ““ you’re on your way to another jam-packed
summer for the history books. Oh, and one more time … Beach
Boys.
E-mail Lee at alee@media.ucla.edu.