Tim Kasher from The Good Life and Cursive
1. Violent Femmes S/T
The last time I listened to this, I finished a twelve pack on a southeast Florida beach.
2. Go-Go's Beauty and the Beat
The singles are great, sure, but what people don't realize is the whole album is good. I like the "deep cuts" best.
3. Guns 'N Roses Appetite for Destruction

F yeah, dude.
4. Beastie Boys Paul's Boutique
I could've chosen Check Your Head or Licensed to Ill, both great summer records, but isn't Paul's Boutique

the "cool" one?
5. Pixies: Come on Pilgrim/Surfer Rosa

These songs remind me of grabbing warm beers from under my bed, sneaking the car, and picking up girls to go drink in the park on humid nights.

John Roderick from The Long Winters
1. My Bloody Valentine Loveless
This record is great for long drives during the day, and is the perfect backdrop to all the smoking factory-scapes that ring American cities, particularly the Meadowlands in New Jersey and the area between Philadelphia and Wilmington, Delaware.

2. ZZ Top Eliminator
The pinnacle of eighties production, this is still the ultimate thing to
blast while you're cruising down the main street of any Southern town.
The combination of "electronica," country-boogie and MTV nostalgia-rock make this a classic.
3. Elliot Smith Either/Or
When melancholy overtakes you on an unlit stretch of interstate, and everyone else is fast asleep, this album will make all those bad decisions and failed romances you're obsessing over seem like they were part of a greater good. If anyone else wakes up I usually turn it off, because it's like reading old letters aloud.
4. Built to Spill Perfect From Now On

This goes in the headphones for the day off in New York City. Walking uptown engulfed in the swarm of busy people, you need this album to elevate your spirit with its lyrical humility and soaring guitar. New York sometimes needs an antidote, and Built To Spill sky-writes the colors of Boise, Idaho, over self-important Manhattan.
5. Judas Priest Unleashed in the East
They cover Fleetwood Mac and Joan Baez and own them both. This is ideal to crank when some girl invites herself along for a ride to the next town, and it's a great mind-cleanser after mealy-mouthed, panty-waisted indie-rock. British Heavy Metal never outdid this crowning achievement.

John Vanderslice

1. Punch Drunk Love soundtrack
Jon Brion's brilliant score for P.T. Anderson's masterpiece. This record will make you want to: (1) fall in love, (2) vacation in Hawaii, or (3) smash up a restaurant washroom. Or all three.
2. The Shins Chutes Too Narrow
A sad and complicated record about love, lust and being in a working rock band. Perfect for summer touring.
3. Kanye West The College Dropout
Roll down the tinted windows of your Suburban and sing: "Drug dealing just to get by, stack your money till it gets sky high!"

4. XTC Drums and Wires
A post-punk tour-de force about anxiety and the overwhelming expectations of love and life. This record will be forever tied to the person who gave it to me, an exceptionally smart girl who schooled me in art rock, D.C. punk and desire (right before she broke my heart). Find the superior first pressing, the one without "Making Plans for Nigel" or the bonus tracks.
5. Destroyer Streethawk: A Seduction
If you don't own any Destroyer records, please go out and buy this year's Your Blues. You'll either feel love and gratitude

or wonder if my cough syrup intake is out of control.

Cyann & Ben
1. Grandaddy Under The Western Freeway (Ben)
It's just ideal for a summer sleep under the sun.
2: The Beach Boys Pet Sounds (Loïc)

No comment necessary.
3. Pink Floyd More (Cyann)
Sun, desert landscapes, and experimental atmospheres.
4. Tortoise: TNT (Charlie)
The aerial drumming and sunny melodies make this the perfect soundtrack for summer afternoons.
5. Belle and Sebastian If You're Feeling Sinister (All)

Our number one for the summertime tours! The perfect album to listen to in the van, while driving through the French countryside. Beautiful and refreshing.

Nick Aaron Dewitt from Pretty Girls Make Graves
1. The Tom Tom Club S/T
Tropical-flavored New York City nonsense, mixed with new wave, hip-hop, reggae and adolescent imagination. Recorded at Compass Point in the Bahamas. Good vibes.

2. The Magnetic Fields
My greatest-hits playlist has songs from Get Lost, 69 Love Songs, Holiday, The Wayward Bus, etc.
3. Tones on Tail
My greatest-hits playlist has songs from Performance, Shakes, Twist, and Rain, Lions, Go! I sleepwalk listening to these songs. They're perfect for Saturday night preparation or for winding down.
4. Fela Kuti Coffin For Head of State

Twenty minutes of solid sunshine grooviness about how no one will help him carry his mother's coffin.
5. Hot Women
This is a compilation of music from the 20s and 30s by women from the hotter regions of the world. Very soulful and eclectic, makes me dance.

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Jim James from My Morning Jacket

1. Bob Marley Legend
Whenever I hear this record, I can just smell the sunshine.
2. Led Zeppelin Physical Graffitti
A true masterpiece. Disc One works wonders for long sunny drives around town or down the coast. When the sun starts setting, throw on Disc Two and "In the Light" will take you into the perfect evening.
3. Dr. Dog Toothbrush
A technicolor soundtrack.
4. Beach Boys Pet Sounds

The first time I heard this was one summer night in the park, coming home from a girlfriend's house. It always reminds me of being young and excited about life.
5. Motley Crue Dr. Feelgood
Flat-out balls rock. Perfect for destroying a hotel room or getting in a fist fight outside the local McDonalds.

Travis Morrison, formerly of the Dismemberment Plan

1. REM Murmur
Sounds like the glow of humidity over I-81 at sunset.
2. The Specials
Such good party music.
3. Buddy Holly Greatest Hits
Laid back, sly, smart. Sounds like he's got one eyelid down, but only to reserve energy for tonight.
4. Philly Soul box set
The harmonic density intoxicates and refreshes, like a cold pitcher of

Pimms.
5. Grateful Dead American Beauty and Bob Dylan Blonde on Blonde
They just always feel right. Both are somewhat mysterious records, and summer is pretty mysterious. The organ on "Visions of Johanna" reminds me of crickets and frogs.

Chris Newmeyer

1. Shrimp Boat Cavale
Equal parts lazy and frantic, strange and familiar. Jazzy time signatures, languorous horns, off-hand vocal delivery that's absolutely precise. If by the end of "What Do You Think Of Love" you aren't relaxed and in
another place, well then, in the words of Poe, you are "dead to the world, to heaven, and to hope!"
2. Emmylou Harris Wrecking Ball
This is the album for waking up hours before everybody else at the beach
house, doing the dishes from the night before, reading part of the paper and part of that book you brought along but would normally never touch, taking a shower outside and maybe going for a little walk, and then being ready to take a nap right when everybody else is just getting their asses out of bed to the smell of the coffee you made.
3. Swervedriver Ejector Seat Reservation (original version)

Driving from Philadelphia to New York City with the members of Swervedriver in my car, we started listening to their album on the Jersey Turnpike at 3 AM. Once we got to Manhattan, we decided to just keep driving all the way uptown, through Central Park. We hit Times Square right as the song "It's All Happening Now" swelled.
4. The Cure Wish
It's hard to believe that "Doing The Unstuck," "High" and "Friday I'm In Love" are by the same Robert Smith who kept you in your bedroom alone weekend after weekend in high school listening to "The Funeral Party" and "All Cats Are Grey." But don't worry! Then there's "From The Edge Of The Deep Green Sea," "Trust," and "To Wish Impossible Things" to remind you that he is (and you are!) still a moody son of a bitch.
5. Built To Spill There's Nothing Wrong With Love
A song called "Big Dipper" is followed by a song called "Car." For 12 years I owned a 1983 Chevy Monte Carlo with the T-Top. I miss that fucking car.

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We Buffistas are just waaaay too helpful.

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Excellent, thanks, Tommyrot!

I was wrong about Vanderslice. Don't know whose list I like more, but, what the hey, here's my early summer listening list off the top of my head:

• Calexico, Hot Rail, which shimmers like the first glimpse of a far-off West Texas city in the desert heat.
• Spacemen 3, Taking Drugs To Make Music To Take Drugs To, which, by coincidence, I'm listening to right now, though I'm completely drug-free. Excellent back porch psychedelia.
• The Kinks, The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society, on which nostalgia never sounded better.
• The Beach Boys, Pet Sounds, which, like all summers, starts in youthful hope and ends in heartbroken cynicism. Well, like all my youthful summers, at least.
• Wilco, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, which evokes feelings that I'm still not sure how to address. Gimme a cold cerveza and a stoic sundown.

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Jim James from My Morning Jacket

Just noticed this. Jimmy James was the station owner on Newsradio (he was named after the Beastie Boys song.) So to celebrate two of my great loves, music and Newsradio, here's

The Newsradio Summer Listening Guide (song, artist, episode -- in episode order):

1) Led Zeppelin II, "Led Zeppelin II" Episode: #2.21 - 28 April 1996, co-starring Jordan Baker (a.k.a. Sheila Rosenberg, Willow's mommy) as Ruth: Mr. James: I have made an addition to my list of potential wife candidates:
Dave: Oh really, what's her name?
Mr. James: Ruth. You know, from the Bible.
Dave: Which one was she?
Mr. James: The one named Ruth.
2) "Life's Been Good", Joe Walsh,"President" Episode: #3.1 - 18 September 1996. Mr. James' theme song for his Presidential campaign.
3) "Daydream", The Lovin' Spoonful, "Daydream" Episode: #3.7 - 13 November 1996
4) "Hot for Teacher", Van Halen, "Kids" Episode: #3.16 - 12 February 1997 ("In the immortal words of Van Halen-before that dumbass Sammy Hagar came along and ruined everything-'I'm hot for teacher.'" Phil Hartman was the voice of Waldo in the "Hot for Teacher" video. Speaking of which... My school wasn't like that. My post-school life hasn't been like that. And I'm nervous and my socks are too loose.)
5) "Makin' Whoopee", Songs for Swingin' Lovers, Frank Sinatra, "Stupid Holiday Charity Talent Show" Episode: #4.8 - 16 December 1997. Sinatra doesn't sing it on the show, but I like his version. Bill accompanies Beth and gives her some... um, helpful advice:
Bill: Sing it PRETTY. Like me.
Beth: My mother always told me I had a pretty voice.
Bill: Well my mother dressed me up like a girl until I was nine. They make mistakes.

Honorable Mention:
1) "Wild Thing", Tone Loc "Friends" Episode: #2.6 - 14 November 1995/"Xmas Story" Episode: #2.10 - 19 December 1995 (Tone Loc and Toby Huss, who played Sinatra in the old MTV spots, guest star as security guards in both episodes.)
2) In Through the Out Door, Led Zeppelin "In Through the Out Door" Episode: #2.13 - 4 February 1996. Picked because it's a fine album, plus an appearance by Milos the janitor.
3) Zoso, Led Zeppelin, "Zoso" Episode: #2.15 - 25 February 1996. Also known as Zep IV; their best. This is the ep where Beth designs and markets hats a la Donald from Fat Albert.
4) It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, Public Enemy,"Rap" Episode: #3.12 - 8 January 1997. Not actually played on the show but the guest star is Chuck D.
5) "Slow Ride", Foghat, "Sleeping" Episode: #3.21 - 7 May 1997. The song Bill plays for Jimmy to pull him out of his coma. Also a reminder of my AOR childhood.
6) "St. Elmo's Fire", Another Green World, Brian Eno, "The Public Domain" Episode: #4.3 - 29 October 1997. A conceptual choice so's I could pick one of my favorite episodes: Guest appearance by Paul Gleason, who was the principal in "The Breakfast Club", which starred Emilio Estevez, Ally Sheedy & Judd Nelson, all who were in "St. Elmo's Fire". This is one of the Andrea the Efficiency Expert episodes (played by Lauren Graham), which is my favorite run of episodes. Bill spends the episode a la Mark Russell, playing the piano and singing political satires. Andrea hires Steve (Gleason) to "help" Dave. Dave desperately tries to get Bill to behave, fearing that all their jobs are on the line. Bill says, "Let me talk to him." Against his better instincts Dave lets Bill do it, at which point Bill punches Steve in the nose. "THAT was your plan?!" "I'm sorry. I panicked." Steve, now terrified of Bill, kowtows to him until he can make his escape. I'm very fond of slapstick comedy, especially people getting whacked in the head.

ETA: The criteria were: a) like the music b) like the episode c) local interest (e.g., the Jordan Baker Buffy connection) could figure into the calculus.

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I'm not sure if summer listening is exactly a theme to this post, but I've been on a recent re-issue kick for two groups/artists.

First off, the recent Japan reissues, of which I got Quiet Life, Gentlemen Take Polaroids, and Tin Drum, which reminded me how awsome Japan could be (also got the most recent Sylvian, which I haven't spent enough time with to have an opinion). There's a lot of Roxy in this music, but there's a whole lot of other wonderful grace notes as well.

The other re-issues are the first four Eno albums with songs/lyrics (Discreet Music doesn't really count in this) and I'm listening to Here Come the Warm Jets as we speak. DAMN! What a wonderful album. I'm going to work my through to my favorite (also the first Eno album I bought) Before and After Science.

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I'm not much for Japan, but early Eno is almost beyond compare.

Nice Newsradio list, Joe. I'm in awe at the intersections of your encyclopedic knowledge.

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The other re-issues are the first four Eno albums with songs/lyrics (Discreet Music doesn't really count in this) and I'm listening to Here Come the Warm Jets as we speak. DAMN! What a wonderful album. I'm going to work my through to my favorite (also the first Eno album I bought) Before and After Science.

Cool! I've been looking for early Eno CDs, with no luck. I think Before and After Science was my first Eno album too. That is, if I don't count My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (the Eno/Byrne album).

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Y'know, I don't think it's fair of me to discount Japan so easily. I've only heard a few tracks, none of which I found particularly gripping, but it may have had to do with a number of factors, including the mostly awful mix they were on (which, fwiw, was a technopop mix from years back that seemed designed to highlight the worst of each artist; I've since come around to appreciation for some of the other artists on that mix).

Edit - I overexplain just because.

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Do folks who love early solo Eno also like the first two Roxy Music albums? (Eno was in Roxy for those two albums.) 'Cuz they are good and stuff.

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