These are all songs that either currently play or have gotten a lot of play in my car in the past year. Rarely do I ever just go out for a drive, so these are all played while commuting. You once told me that driving with someone is one of the most intimate things one could do. I think you're absolutely right about that. These songs only ever play while I'm driving alone. Is there anything more intimate?
For future reference, my car's name is Debra. Yes, like the Beck song.
1. Japanther - The Boss
Before the sun comes up on winter mornings, when my car feels particularly frigid if it's ever left outside all night, I play this to warm up. It buzzes like a space heater and sings in tongue in cheek mantras. You play it to start something.
2. Stereolab - John Cage Bubblegum
I put this on whenever I leave somewhere truly feeling cool. The kind of cool where you just have to put in sunglasses, where your button-up just has to be unbuttoned a little bit. For when you feel like the man: the eclectically hilarious, quick-witted, and potentially good-looking man.
3. Destroyer - The Very Modern Dance
This song reminds me of heavy rain and discussions about Naruto in the garden centre. I listened to this record a lot over the summer. It's probably my favourite Destroyer record. Every song felt like Dan Bejar giving me cryptic advice about what to do with my life, but I have no idea what he's telling me to do here. Something about moonlight over Michelle tonight.
4. Gang of Four - Natural's Not In It
This song is the thesis statement of Entertainment! It's punchy, polemic, cunning, and danceable. It's like if Guy Debord was the songwriter for Warsaw. Every line is worth tagging over a billboard. If you're ever pissed off about the state of the world, and are commuting to go get reading done, play this.
5. Pissed Jeans - Dream Smotherer
Whenever something frustrating and shitty happened at Home Depot, I left work blasting this in Debra half-kidding.
6. Deerhunter - No One's Sleeping
This record is named after an essay by Jean Baudrillard, which I've read but I retain nothing from. It had something to do with the end of meaning in late capitalism or whatever the fuck. Whatever. This is less of a car song and more of a bike song. It soundtracked many treks through the heart of Red Deer in the last days of quarantine, when it was warm in the springtime and invitingly overcast. For when the world becomes something to pry into.
7. Ween - Chocolate Town
Natalie showed me this indirectly. Quebec is one of her favourite Ween albums, not mentioning everything else they have ever put out. I never bothered to finish that album until I found it on her Last.fm. For drives and strolls through libraries where you're truly over the mistakes you've made in the past.
8. Elvis Costello - Radio Radio
Elvis Costello went on SNL in 1977 and was supposed to play "Less Than Zero" (the namesake of the one Bret Easton Ellis book), which was his big hit at the time. That song in itself is super bitter and political, but none of the Americans were going to get all the references to the British Union of Fascists set to pretty relaxed guitars. It was ultimately the safe bet. That wasn't enough for 70s Costello, who was kind of a poster boy for the Angry Young Man, so he turned it up a notch. Just as his band started playing "Less Than Zero," he shouted "Stop! Stop! I'm sorry, ladies and gentlemen, but there's no reason to do this song here." He then started playing "Radio Radio," which is very explicitly against mass media. This wasn't sanctioned by the show, prompting Lorne Michaels to flip Costello off for his entire set, followed by a ban from ever performing on his show until the late 90s. Badass.
9. The Strokes - Hard To Explain
In your early 20s, when teenage passion begins to wear out on the adult landscape, The Strokes rule. This song reminds me of waking up on the floors you've slept for the night, uncertain hugs, and city lights. I dare you to refrain from humming along or screaming to the chorus.
10. Dinosaur Jr. - In A Jar
I play this whenever I'm wondering if a woman is interested in me. Because of this, there's one particular part I always sing to myself. See if you can guess which one.
11. The Vaccines - Norgaard
I loved this song in junior high school. It's high-fidelity pop perfection akin to bubblegum, sunshine, and sexual innuendos. I have worn my voice out screaming this entire song despite the fact it should be too perky for that kind of energy, which is why it is what it is to me.
12. Teenage Fanclub - Sparky's Dream
Get drunk to this song in a basement while you DM your friend about writing a screenplay. Do not do this while driving.
13. Iggy Pop - Lust For Life
If I feel eager to live after something cool has happened to me, I blast this with the windows down. I play this song as a war cry.
14. The Fall - Totally Wired
This is my theme song. If you listen to the lyrics, read up on The Fall, wrap your head around the oeuvre, and are caffeinated, this becomes self-evident.
15. Electrelane - The Partisan
This is a Sonic Youth-y cover of a song of the French Resistance in World War 2. It's done by some British riot grrrls who Gaby already introduced you to. It kicks ass and is beautiful like single motherhood. This part always makes me choke up, which is embarassing while driving:
I have changed my name so often
I have lost my wife and children
But I have many friends
And some of them are with me
16. Robert Pollard - The Big Make-Over
This is from one of Dennis Cooper's favourite albums. It sounds as defeated as the end of a little league ball game, when the sky looks especially yellow through chain link fences. Put this on if city streets are your forum for aimlessness and doubt.
17. Killing Joke - Eighties
You already know the connection between this song and Nirvana's "Come As You Are." Everyone has been 13 years old. Anyway, yeah. This song. That riff. Oh my God. It's the shiny, gothic elation of PVC fetishism put to the rock club dance floor. To me, it's weirdly zeitgeist-y despite it being a song about the 1980s literally called "Eighties." Kamikaze 'til we get there.
18. Twin Peaks - Fade Away
This is one of the standout tracks from one of the first records Ashley demanded I listen to. It's catchier than shit, smells like Mountain Dew, and feels like film photography. It's about getting drunk, being sad, and skateboarding. Obviously this is right up my alley. I can't believe I thought this band would be lame. They're muscular bush party rock for the acid-tripped and the tender alike. Some of their songs are like pogoing in a honeycomb.
19. Sonic Youth - Teenage Riot
This song should not be exposed to too much sunlight. Only play early in the morning or late in the evening while anxiously driving to or from somewhere. But you already know this.
20. Bruce Springsteen - The Promised Land
I know you think this song is mid, but I don't care. I love it. It's the kind of song I'd sing while walking a great distance to keep morale high. It's sentimental enough to be sung as a lullaby, but life-affirming enough to get out of bed by. I play it whenever I leave somewhere humbled. I would name a novel after this song.
21. Willie Nelson - On The Road Again
All my summer road trips started and ended with this song. It became a standard on Debra's Bluetooth after Damek got his buddy's band to play it as we left that dive bar I always talk shit about. Like all true endings, it also begins something.
I could go on for another hundred songs, but for brevity's sake, I thought I'd ought to give you only the hits. Hope you enjoy at least some of them. Happy travels!
