Music of Summer

   Summer is a time for sprinklers in front yards. Dog walks in the late evening as the sun is setting. Children running to and fro. Bonfires that reach up to the night's sky. Green trees and gardens. Endless bike rides winding throughout the city. Summer is for sitting out on the rocks and listening to waves lap the shore as the stars wink in the sky. Shorts and t-shirts, water gun fights. A thousand books to read about adventures and romance and everything in between. Night kite flying, which I fully intend to do. Dancing in the street to the music in our heads and the bands playing at the street corner bars. Its a time for block parties and volley ball. Temperatures so hot the whole world feels like a sauna. Friends, long talks about nothing in particular. Road trips to the end of the world. Swimming 'til your lungs give out just to see how far you can go. Thunder storms that shake the sky as well as the foundations of building. Bubbles blown into gusts of wind. Rolled eyes at silly puns and climbing trees.

Summer is about all of these things and more, and so the music of summer should invoke these things as well. That I believe for sure. Here are some songs to get your summer started right. We'll start out with the effervescent shine put out by Kishi Bashi with his song Bright Whites. Its a song that might be about a breakup, but that doesn't stop it from making you want to get up and dance. Then we have Givers playing a wonderful zydeco cover of Paul Simon's That Was Your Mother off his Graceland album. From there we have Surfer Blood with a surf, rock, noise infused song to get to through to the other side. Finally there's The Lumineers with Ho Hey, a bit of folk rock full of stomps and claps. You might recognize the last one from the new Bing commercial.


Kishi Bashi
Bright Whites



Givers
That Was Your Mother (Paul Simon Cover)




Surfer Blood
Swim



The Lumineers
Ho Hey

Meantime

   This week it seems as if the Indian summer has hit, that fleeting second wave of high temperatures and beautiful skies. Who knows how long it will be here, a few days? A few weeks? Go enjoy some warmth while you can. Go take a bike ride, go take a walk, go lay in the sun and take a nap. Because it will probably be cold tomorrow, or the day after that.  To quote a song I'm about to post, "don't get stuck in the meantime, no such thing as the meantime". Take advantage of the good times, or make your own, do just sit there waiting for something to happen.

Now enjoy some sunny, sunny music from a song that is sure to be stuck in your head for awhile.

Givers
Meantime

Its the Summer Once again

Its the summer, once again. Here I am, there y'all are across the sea. I finished another year of school and I'm not dead yet. No, not yet. A lot of things happened during that school year: made some new friends, walked around town, saw my first opera(which I ended up sleeping through parts of...I was very tired..), ate way too much late night food, got no closer to figuring out what I want to do with my life, danced a lot.

Now its time to write way too much, time to take bike rides all around, time to stop caring about anything and just let go. Time to have some fun. Time to kick a soccer ball around, to run and run and run until you collapse on the ground panting. Its the summertime again, and although it has never been my favourite season, I'm gonna try to take advantage of it.

Starting with some summery music:

Givers
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