Driving Music

Dear Abby-

In response to the cool jams post that you wrote a few days back, I have decided to compile a list of my favorite summer jams of the moment, particularly "Cool Summer Jams Driving Music". miss you. these are just randomly picked jams and there are lotz more to come (most that you haven't heard, because the ones below you probably already know. oopz)

LOVE,

SAS

Since I've been back in Jersey for the past 2 weeks, i've been swimming in a sea of mix cd's i've made since my ipod doesn't work in the car i'm using here. Like a true lazy person, none of these CDs are titled and out of the 6 i made, i never can tell which one is which. I just put in the disc and hope for the best. Each CD is obviously filled to the brim with Jams that Are Cool but there is always that guaranteed song on there that ignites a O_o face. Like a Faith Evans song that I randomly threw in or a vintage R.Kelly slow jam. What joke is that supposed to be? A joke with myself? Am I supposed to chuckle at the irony of "Bump & Grind" coming on after a Pavement song with myself? The answer to that is yes because I am without my little sidekick this summer. That sidekick, being Abby obvz.

One thing that rules about New Jersey, driving and listening to music (yes, all at the same time. a threesome, if you will) is the drive that we have dubbed "The route" (dude, that's what we call it right? i'm being all Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants official about it but im 98% sure that's what we've named it). This so-called "Route" is a beautiful drive that begins in Red Bank on West Front Street, all the way through Fair Haven, Rumson, over the bridge, through Navesink River road and down to 35 in Middletown. Make sense? Get it now? U Gun Find us Now?

Anyway- no route trip is complete without a great soundtrack, amiright? This is something that I believe firmly in. This belief is that driving music is essential to life! Driving is a way for me to clear my head, and so is music so WHAM, the two of them colliding is just necessary. I will pass this philosophy along to my future children along with "always wear mascara, never trust men who speed/have racer-type cars, beware of girls with bad eyebrows because they are usually tramps, kiss a french guy at least twice in your life & don't wear two sports-bras to make it look like you're flat chested when you're 12 like i did".

Sadly, Abby is not with me during these drives to scream with, dance, yell and ask "DUDE HOW GOOD IS THIS SONG RIGHT NOW WHY DOES IT HAVE TO BE SO GOOD?". So, I will give a little list of my favorite songs of the moment and a little blurb about why I believe that these Jams Rank High on the Chart of the Cool.

Alright, let me apologize in advance for how shitty and weird Youtube videos can be. The selection for songs/music videos are always awful and limited. A pure example of this? The video above. You'd think some bozo would make a fan video for good Otis Redding songs but no. I need to resort to a video that is a ..recording..of.a..video..game?

This song rules and reminds me of driving to Vermont with Abby last summer. We had just left Boston after a whirlwind of crazy (think the Kelly Bensimon breakdown island episode of Real Housewives of NYC. that's all i'm saying) and we set out on the road to Burlington, VT. I had never been to Vermont and the trip there was gorgeous. The beautiful green mountains that were as tall as can be, with an Otis Redding soundtrack. I love singing this song and I know every word.

You know how music effects your mood and how you tend to feel in that very moment? Well, today I was driving around, kind of sulking and let's face it: crying. Yes, crying! Isn't that such a sad girl thing to write about on a blog? What a wuss! But really. It was kind of a happy, mostly frustrated cry. Life is weirdy but also awesome sometimes (another Abby/Sarah mantra).

Anywho, i was just doin' ma thang, letting my emotions loose and I think the fact that 'crying' kind of music like "Impossible Germany" by Wilco was playing made it more dramatic than it should have been. Then this Peaches gem came on and UM, how do you fucking cry or sulk when this song comes on? The answer is: you just don't. You turn into a crazy person and instantly start smiling and dancing inside your body/or even outside your body and feelin the beat. This beat is something that will Be Felt Whether You Want to Feel It Or Not. You can't feel sorry for yourself when Peaches comes on. She kicks you in the face while throwing you onto the caboose of her Strong Bitch Train and I'd have it no other way.

I've been a huge Deerhunter fan for the past year but never really gave Atlas Sound a listen. This song is heartbreakingly great and romantic although it's talking about dying. Eesh, dying. Bradford Cox would. Good thing i'm a morbid bitch, cause i'm into it. I'm really trying to write this without talking about how spooky looking he is. Oh, there I go. I guess I couldn't accomplish trying not to bring it up. Dude, it's hard! I know he can't help it. I'm not hating on it. (just google image him, arite?) I'm in full support of it because it adds to the whole mystical and mysterious attitude that Deerhunter/Atlas Sound puts out. If he was dressed up to the nines lookin' like Zac Efron, I doubt I'd listen.

Imagine if one day I didn't like Wilco? That's kind of a nightmare of mine. I love Mermaid Avenue (one of the albums by Billy Bragg & Wilco) but this song in particular just kills me. It's so beautiful and dreamy. Doesn't it make you want to put some sort of a heart-print sundress on and run around nature with some beardy hot person that thinks you're so cool? I think that scenario is a dream that Abby and I both share and fills our heads on the daily. That along with salty foods, obese babies and beautiful old floral-y thingz.


This will most likely bring the LOLs, but really dude this song kind of rules! Say Anything makes me want to put on checkered vans, a studded belt, eyeliner and make out with boys in cars! It just reminds me of YOUTH! Youth that was only a mere 4 years ago but feels like forever. Don't even try to tell me this song doesn't rule. okay you can try to tell me, and i will most likely laugh and agree with you but c'mon bro. feel it. the beat? a little? kissing boys in cars? ......vans? its fine.
Abby, Florence +The Machine will always remind me of you & Ireland. It took me awhile to get aboard the F+TM train but now that I am safely buckled in & in my seat, i am so ready for it. And although I texted you this just a few days ago, I will repeat myself: it is the best music to put your soul into while singing, pointing your finger all over the place in a sassy Mariah Carey esque way. So much ATTITUDE in it yet it is still so precious and fairy-like.

It will also forever remind me of that guy in Ireland who was an angel but a little "out of the loop" who would ask "Is this Florence + The Machine?" when it was, in reality, a Donna Summer song or something playing on the radio. He just wanted to ride that train also and hopefully he has caught up with it like I have. I'll save him a seat, just in case. I know he'll get here soon enough.

I'm going to be that guy and go ahead and state that the beginning of this song is perhaps my favorite beginning to a song.ever. Maybe it's because of my new southern home, but I am so into good ol' boy southern rock. Give me a denim jacket, some sharp bootz, a cig behind my ear and a twang any day. I don't really know what that means but Y'ALL this song makes me want to slam a beer bottle onto someone's face and ride in the back of a pick up truck.

THE BEAT. simply. it's different than the Tilly & The Wall that we loved so much in high school, i know. But it's kind of one of those jams that make you want to hold a drank in ya hand and shake your hair around and dance. And by dance, I don't mean a crab-dance (me) or a scat/crazy finger dance (abby). I mean a foot stompin, non-chalant, cool girl dance that i'm not quite sure we know/will ever know.

Y'all ever heard of Johnny Cash? He's laik this new obscure musician that just signed onto the same record label as the Arcade Fire! I think he's duet-ing with one of them gals from Camp Rock or ICarly on Disney Channel! Demi Lovato maybe? Or I think it's actually a cover of a Taking Back Sunday song. That's it. It's the cover. Anyway, get into it. It's kind of new. People probably don't know about it yet.