a guest series, courtesy of a very friendly lawyer
HERE COMES THE SUMMER
Happy day-after Birthday to JC, happy Juneteenth today in the States, and happy summer to everyone, which starts this weekend! 50 song bonanza because…
Here Comes The Summer – Undertones.
Feargal Sharkey and I share a summer birthday (August 13).
The band’s only single on Drag City Records, before moving to Matador.
If you haven’t yet read strangeways‘ masterpiece Sundays ICA stop what you’re doing and take care of that.
That Summer Feeling – Jonathan Richman.
From Jonathan Sings! (1983), which the NY Times called an album of “unironic, clear-sighted innocence.”
Summertime Clothes – Animal Collective.
From Merriweather Post Pavilion, the name of an outdoor concert venue in Maryland. It’s not a live recording but Avey Tare and Geologist saw shows there when they were kids.
Indian Summer – Beat Happening.
Calvin Johnson sings like a dial tone, but the song is a classic. Covered by the likes of R.E.M., Luna, Mac DeMarco and Ben Gibbard.
Summer Here Kids – Grandaddy. Third single from the debut album Under the Western Freeway.
The Other Side of Summer – Elvis Costello.
The only good song on Declan’s first really bad album.
Featuring Gene Holder of the db’s on bass.
Sometimes it’s hard to distinguish between Cindy and Kate but the lead on this track is pure Cindy.
Title track from the debut album by a band known as San Diego’s own Jesus & Mary Chain.
Constructive Summer – The Hold Steady.
For my money, no one is making better Springsteen records than this outfit.
Featuring melodica by producer Todd Rundgren.
Lonely Summer Nights – Stray Cats.
The band had the look and the sound and the tattoos and almost single-handedly revived rockabilly. Brian Setzer is a guitar legend but he could have sung for anyone and this tune proves it.
Celebrated Summer – Hüsker Dü.
Kind of weird to hear an acoustic 12-string on a Huskers record but it comes in at about at the 1:40 mark.
Here Comes The Summer – Fiery Furnaces.
Where did this band go? Hoping the Friedberger siblings sort out whatever’s going on and release some new music.
Someone Somewhere in Summertime – Simple Minds.
The Glaswegians were still making good records in the early 80’s. Then they sacked bassist Derek Forbes and I couldn’t be bothered since then.
Long Hot Summer – Style Council.
I was trying to replicate the bass sound on this track until I figured out it was Mick Talbot playing a synth.
A Summer Wasting – Belle & Sebastian.
Harrison‘s pick for this set.
Jane‘s pick for this set. Featuring A$AP Rocky.
Song for the Summer – Stereophonics.
Couldn’t tell you anything about this band except they’re Welsh, have been around 30 years, and the bandleader got some press for calling Thom Yorke a twat.
Summer Dress – Red House Painters.
From the slow core group’s 1995 release, Ocean Beach.
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is a genius film from 2010 starring everybody: Michael Cera, Kieran Culkin, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Aubrey Plaza, Brie Larson, Chris Evans et al. The soundtrack is great, too, and includes this Beck tune in the expanded edition.
Title track from arguably the best album by the Chicago institution.
From 2001’s Reveal, the second without original drummer Bill Berry.
It’s Summertime – Flaming Lips.
From Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, which band leader Wayne Coyne is adapting into a graphic novel to be released later this year.
The band is named after a sleepy beach town in California’s central coast, but was formed right here in sunny Santa Monica!
And here’s another Santa Monica band. Mike and Randy are the guitarist and drummer in Petty Theft, a local Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers cover band fronted by my friends Julia and Danny.
In which Elizabeth Fraser sings in understandable English for a change.
Summer Town – Blitzen Trapper.
From the Portland, Oregon champs’ third excellent album, Wild Mountain Nation.
Summer Wind – Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet.
The surf instrumentalists have some of my favorite song titles, e.g. ‘Having an Average Weekend,’ ‘Our Weapons Are Useless’, and ‘Honey, You’re Wasting Ammo.’
Celebrated as a stoner rock band. I knew the bassist, Brad, when he was a kid still living at home with his parents. He went on to found Creepy Fingers, a boutique guitar pedal company.
From 2017’s Mental Illness, which the goddess described as her “saddest” record.
Who were this band? Did they play any instruments? Did they write their own tunes? Always supposed they were a manufactured act but was never interested enough to find out. (JC’s note to Jonny…..check here!!!)
Suddenly Last Summer – Motels.
One of the biggest hits stateside for Martha Davis and crew, with a title borrowed from a one-act play by Tennessee Williams.
Feel Good Hit of the Summer – Queens of the Stone Age.
Jane was about 13 and barely 5 feet tall when I took her and her friend to Coachella 2013. They wandered into QOTSA‘s mosh pit and I broke a toe getting them out of there.
Indian Summer – Manic Street Preachers.
Fourth single from the Welsh stalwarts’ eighth studio LP, Send Away the Tigers.
Where’s Summer B.? – Ben Folds Five.
Summer Burke was a friend of the band and drew their piano logo. The song is about her returning to Chapel Hill after a long absence.
Lead track from PY’s sixth studio LP, Arranging Time. It was released as a single that didn’t chart, but was featured in American TV shows The Royals and Shameless.
Summertime Is In Our Hands – Michael Franti & Spearhead.
Franti claims not to have worn shoes since 2000.
Summertime is Coming – Paul Banks.
Dude called himself Julian Plenti on his first solo album, but it’s obviously Interpol‘s frontman.
Summer Skin – Death Cab for Cutie.
You never hear anything about ace bassist Nick Harmer, but he’s been right there with Ben Gibbard from the very beginning of Death Cab and appears on all their albums.
Colin Meloy has some pretty lyrics: “And summer arrives/With a length of lights/And summer blows away/And quietly, it gets swallowed by a wave/It gets swallowed by a wave.”
Moody little number by the Danish duo, from 2011’s Raven in the Grave.
Lou Reed is co-credited as a writer on this track, presumably because the sax and twin bass parts are loosely based on ‘Walk on the Wild Side.’
Summer Fun – Tijuana Panthers.
The Panthers are a surf band from Long Beach, California and have released 6 albums since 2010. This is from the debut, titled Max Baker.
Summertime Thing – Chuck Prophet.
It’s the Paisley Underground legend with the ubiquitous pedal steel player Greg Liesz in tow.
Summertime Rolls – Jane’s Addiction.
I met Stephen Perkins a couple of months ago and was surprised that the dude was so tiny. But, damn, what a drummer!
From Wild Loneliness (2022), recorded during COVID lockdown and featuring guest appearances by the likes of Norman Blake, Sharon Van Etten, Mike Mills, and Tracyane Campbell of Camera Obscura.
Every Band Has A Shonen Knife Who Loves Them is a compilation of American bands covering Shonen Knife songs. Released on white and pink vinyl in 1989 and long out of print, the collection included some indie heavy hitters: Sonic Youth, Redd Kross, L7 and the Three O’Clock, to name a few. The Reverb Motherfuckers, whom my band Chronic Citizens shared a rehearsal space in the East Village, also turned up to cover ‘Elephant Pao Pao’ from SK’s debut album, Burning Farm. I don’t know the first thing about Freaks, but I love their version of this track, which first appeared on 1986’s Pretty Little Baka Guy.
Jonny
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 