Switch On Summer

Ah, 2008! One of the wonders of living in this year of the iPod age is music’s ubiquity. You can have just about any song you could ever want to hear at your fingertips all the time. With that in mind, here are some suitable picks for various purposes and destinations under the bright skies and in the warm breezes.

“Summer Sun”—Chris Stamey

The title says it all. This overlooked powerpop gem from the 1970s brings it from the opening—where it sounds like Stamey is opening up and sipping a pull-top can of Orange Crush—to the very end. It’s kinda like a fucked-up Beach Boys number with off-kilter harmonies and that very subtle sense of doom under-pinned between the twinkling xylophone and hand claps. If it sounds a little like Big Star, there’s an easy explanation: Fractured Southern gothic genius Alex Chilton produced it. Play it wherever and wherever as long as the rays are beating down.

“Hot Dog”—Led Zeppelin

Do I even have to explain this one? Led Zeppelin’s music always seems to sound the best in the summer, doesn’t it? This joyous, somewhat silly honky-tonk jamstravaganza is the perfect soundtrack for biting into your favorite dog, whether it’s at Taffy’s, Louie’s, Ted’s, or something you charred to a blackened perfection on your own backyard grill. As Plant explains why he’ll never go to Texas anymore, just make sure you do the right thing: Always put Weber’s mustard on it. This is Buffalo, people!

“Rapid City, South Dakota”—Kinky Friedman

One-time candidate for governor of the Lone Star State and forever a “Texas Jewboy,” Friedman wrote and sang this stellar deserter’s anthem. The protagonist is filled with regret but has enough brim-tipping panache to hit the road. It takes place in a Black Hills but it could easily be Anywhere, USA. Turn it on if you decide to split Buffalo. Leaving a goodbye note is always the proper thing to do.

“Lookin’ Boy”—Hot Stylz w/ Yung Joc

Just when you though the era of the novelty hit was over you get a madcap summer classic like “Lookin’ Boy.” This crunk’d up, completely silly, and almost stream-of-consciousness collage of pop culture phrases and put-downs could be the jam of 2008. Lace up the Air Jordans, hit the basketball court, and show off the moves…if ya got ’em. If you don’t, that’s okay. It would be just as good a soundtrack for chasing the Mr. Softee truck.

“Handlebars”—Flobots

Who said that 2008 could only have one great novelty hit? This one treads the same waters of “Lookin’ Boy,” but in the parlance of white-boy hip-hop/rockers a la Beck and Cake. By the end of the summer, everybody is bound to hate this song by Denver, Colorado’s Flobots; I’ve got a feeling that it will be inescapable in the coming months. Until then, feel free to cruise on your 10-speed with this on the headphones: hands sans handlebars, natch.

“Sea Lion Woman”—Feist

Leslie Feist’s 2007’s handclaps and choir reworking of Nina Simone’s take of the traditional blues number “See-line Woman” is an abstract soul masterpiece. Cue it up as you cheer on the resident greeters at the Buffalo Zoo’s Sea Lion Cove. Don’t let the song title confuse you: Dallas, Pocus, and Smokey at the Zoo are all males.

“Billy Preston”—Miles Davis

One of Miles’ funkiest moments is a titled homage to one of the funkiest dudes ever. The session players here include some of the most unsung musicians who ever played with Davis, like guitarist Reggie Lucas and Cedric Lawson on electric paino. Some call it jazz fusion, but this is funk to me. Originally included as a part of 1974’s Get Up With It and more recently with the complete On the Corner box set, get it spinning and have a bottle of your favorite whatever in front of the campfire for an engrossing, spaced-out blast of cosmic soul.

“Summer Heat”—John Cale

Call it the perfect “morning after” complement to Miles’ “Billy Preston.” “Summer Heat” is droney, unintentionally proto-punk from the modern master. It’s nothing more than Cale bashing away at a series of power chords on a lone, heavily distorted electric guitar. Note: Buffalo-based media maker/UB professor/musician/weirdo Tony Conrad made this recording of Cale 1965!

“When You’re Young”—The Jam

Summer is about eternal youth, right? No song celebrates with grit quite like The Jam’s mod-rock standard here, which manages to tout both anti-corporate sentiment and the enamored buzz of idle immaturity. Weller sings, “Used to fall in with everyone/Every guitar and every bass drum/Life is a drink and you get drunk/When you’re young” Head over to Allen Street, stroll into the Old Pink, pull on EVR’s coat, and convince him to play this around three o’clock in the morning.

“People of The Sky”—Sloan

Sloan is another of those bands that seemingly sounds best in the warm weather. It’s just something about the guitar interplay and the straight-up head-bobbing rhythms of their perfectly crafted brand of pop rock. Best place to listen to it? Hopefully they’ll play it live to kick the summer off at their Canal Concert at Gateway Park in North Tonawanda on Saturday, June 21. Bonus points for the fact that it contains the line, “Two winters and summers passed over like a sound.”

“Let The Rhythm Hit ’Em”—Eric B. And Rakim

Here’s the ideal hip-hop classic for pushing the bass on your car stereo to the absolute limit. Just imagine banging this at full blast while rushing down Delaware Avenue, the moon roof all the way open. If they people crossing the street a block up can’t hear it, you’re doing something wrong.

“Summer Side of Life”—Gordon Lightfoot

The great Canadian bard’s paean to love lost is so bittersweet and autumnal there is only day to play it—on September 21, the day before the equinox that signals the end of the season that we crave through all those cold months. Slather on the sun block and eat that fried dough while you can. It’s over too quickly.