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Summertime Downloads

Lauren

In preparation for this summer’s Mixmania!, I’ve been compiling songs that scream summertime to yours truly. I envisioned my playlist as what would make me sing out loud without shame at a stoplight with the windows down. Summertime usually means that three major genres are represented in my CD player: reggae, rockabilly, and synth-pop dance music. Also cue David Bowie and the B52s.

As a charitable service, I thought it might be appreciated if I offered a preview. After all, no one can complain about free music, even if you hate it.

Notorious B.I.G. and Bone Thugs – Notorious Thugs
I genuinely hated rap until one long summer sitting out on a friend’s front lawn watching he and his buddies get drunk on PBR while whooping at people walking through campus. They forced me to listen to all sorts of hip hop, primarily hip hop from the mid- to late-90s, until I finally got it. After many years of resistance, I finally decided that, okay, I’m down as long as it isn’t too commerical.

I offered this song up for download before with some commentary on hip hop, gender, and sexism (this song has very little in comparison with the others in that post), and got this comment from Oshunluv:

How do I feel about them??? hip-hop classics! Bone-Thugs and Biggie was an Oakland classic Back in the day!

You heard it from her: classic. Unfortunately I can’t let myself listen to Bone Thugs out loud in public — they remain relegated to my headphones during walks to and from campus.

Dawn Penn – You Don’t Love Me
This slinky reggae classic gets my hips a-movin’ and head a-bobbin’. Nuff said.

The Dirtbombs – Underdog
This Detroit band is headed by Mick Collins, formerly of The Gories, and features his trademark growling, soulful voice. Detroit has been notable in the last few years for a fusion of garage rock, Motown soul, and punk rock with bands like White Stripes and the Von Bondies. The Dirtbombs are, in my opinion, a far superior choice if that’s a sound you like.

Of Montreal – The Party’s Crashing Us
And now for the synth-pop. This band is cute, but not too cute. Sweet but not saccharine. Of Montreal is thankfully missing the Angst Factor and they make my butt awkwardly move around in the driver’s seat.

Firewater – Mr. Cardiac
A slinky, sultry, cynical song with a female guest singer that furthers my delusion that somewhere deep inside of me is a singing voice fit for the public.

Reverend Horton Heat – Loco Gringos Like a Party (link fixed!)
I maintain that the Rev. is one of the greatest bands for driving long trips down sunny highways with your windows down. This song comes from Lucky 7, my favorite album since Holy Roller, a best-of compilation that unfortunately does not include the classic song “Nurture My Pig.”

Right click, save as, rename.

NOTE: I was looking at my stats to see how many people have downloaded songs and realized that the number 47 comes up every time I upload songs to the site. Forty-seven downloads or less. Is this the same forty-seven people downloading songs every time?

11 thoughts on Summertime Downloads

  1. The Dirtbombs completely rule–I saw them twice at SXSW one year. The Reverend, of course, is the man. You need to move to Austin, Lauren, since we live and breathe the psychobilly here. When I do the radio show from Urbana-Champaign on the 19th, I’m going to play a song from a more obscure Austin psychobilly band called the Flametrick Subs that you might like.

  3. See, I was raised on late eighties/early-mid nineties hip-hop, rap, and R&B. I think that if you listen to the right hip-hop and rap, you’ll learn to love it. I suggest early OutKast (Aquemni), A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, and of course The Roots. For more recent hip-hop (and when I say recent I mean late nineties), look at Common’s Like Water for Chocolate, anything Mos Def, Talib Kweli’s Quality, Dilated Peoples, and of course Nas. In fact listening to Nas’s the Lost Tapes is an amazing experience. His most recent album American way is pretty tight as well.

    Oh and the blasting the music in public- once you find the right song, that comes pretty quickly.

  4. Sydney, I LOVE hip-hop now, but it took me a long time to grow into it. I was a rock n’ roll snob forever and resisted on principle alone. Now I’m a hip-hop snob, too. 😉 Early Outkast is one of my favorites, along with Tribe and Nas. Something about Bone Thugs appeals to me against my better instincts. I think it’s because my first real boyfriend was obsessed with them — nostalgia gets me every time.

    Amanda, The Flametrick Subs are awesome. Thanks for the link!

  5. hahaha- i’m glad that you’ve found the love! I am such a hip-hop snob its not even funny. If i’m at a club and they play hip-hop that I find crude, i just walk off. I think i’ve pissed off my friends a lot becasue of that…

    But I understand sticking to your guns. For years I refused to listen to anything but old mixtapes I had made from hip-hop songs that played on the radio. Finally, a friend of mine exposed me to Liz Phair, Fiona Apple, K’s Choice and Cibo Matto and slowly but steadily I developed a liking for other kinds of music.

  6. Glad you like ’em. Their old bassist used to hang out at my house all the time, moony-eyed for my roommate, though he’d never admit it. He’s not with them anymore, though.

  7. Fuck yeah, Loco Gringos Like a Party! I’ve had that song stuck in my head basically since April, when I saw the Rev. play in Seattle.

  8. Lauren, I sometimes usually grab your tunes when they’re posted, because I like having a nutso collection of eclectic-mania music.

    That said, I’d always heard people say the answer to everything was 42. But wouldn’t it be in some deep, stupid way, really hilarious if they were off by exactly five? Sheesh, talk about egg on the face!

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