Summer BeachBy Connor Hughes

Nothing like crafting your summer playlist halfway through summer! My personal belated playlist is straight from me to you.

The first course is a heavy serving of garage/guitar rock from greats such as Japandroids and Jay Reatard. Also present here is a song by one of the best new bands I’ve heard in a long time, Cayucas. Cleansing the palate with the psychedelic leaning rock of King Tuff. The brain pounder that is Dan Deacon’s “Lots” moves us into the second plate which is a mix of Wild Noting dream pop sounds and Golden Age Hits from Buddy Holly and Gerry and the Pacemakers.

This second plate also features a very Pixies-esque “Headspins” from Splashh, as well as wonderful songs about wasted days from JEFF the Brotherhood and Neon Indian. Following Portugal. The Man’s “Creep in a T-Shirt,” Dirty Gold brings us back to calmer sound with Dirty Gold and Tennis’s “It All Feels the Same”. My personal highlight of this list is “It All Feels Right,” Washed Out’s new song from his forthcoming album Paracosm. What more appropriate title for these summer months than one that refers to a feeling of having everything in place?

The Final entrée speeds up with “Lit Up” from The National, and gets a disco vibe from LCD Soundsystem and Disclosure. “Beach Comber” is probably a little misplaced in this segment, but with the line about “walking on a Pensacola beach” I couldn’t pass it up. Bath’s dark little ditty “No Eyes” is a bleak electro-pop song about “bedroom buddies,” and to top off this long list is WU LYF’s “We Bros.” Anthemic and powerful, feel free to chant along with your bros as the song builds, crashes, builds again and then brings the house down.

Grooveshark Playlist*

*Grooveshark did not have the chosen Splashh song, “Headspins.”

Track Listing:

The Boys Are Leaving Town – Japandroids

Stolen Flowers – Japanther

Year’s Not Long – Male Bonding

Fading All Away – Jay Reatard

My Gaps Feels Weird – Superchunk

Eraser – No Age

High School Lover – Cayucas

Keep on Movin’ – King Tuff

Lots – Dan Deacon

The Body in Rainfall – Wild Nothing

Round the Moon – Summer Camp

Not Fade Away – Buddy Holly

How Do You Do It – Gerry and the Pacemakers

Headspins – Splashh

Sixpack – JEFF the Brotherhood

Terminally Chill – Neon Indian

Creep in a T-Shirt – Portugal. The Man

California Sunrise – Dirty Gold

It All Feels the Same – Tennis

It All Feels Right – Washed Out

Lit Up – The National

Beach Comber – Real Estate

Time to Get Away – LCD Soundsystem

When a Fire Starts to Burn – Disclosure

No Eyes – Baths

We Bros – WU LYF