Citronella Serenades - The On Warmer Music 2013 Summer Mix

Photo By bandoodie

In my ongoing education called “life”, last summer taught me a few lessons about that season we call summer. Having been raised mostly in the centrally aired rooms of suburbia, I appreciated summer’s heart with the unspoken assumption that, when it became overbearing, I could always retire to a nicely chilled environment to lounge and slumber in comfort. My first full summer without the convenience of AC was an unusually chilly one, which fed my hubris about my body’s ability to deal with prolonged heat. Then came summer 2012 which, like the machinations of fate in a Greek tragedy, brought me abruptly back in contact with my own fallibility.

Days were spent baking next to box fans that circulated furnace-ready air in a pitiful attempt to provide an illusion of coolness. Nights were spent trying to sleep whilst sweating through my sheets. It's hard to describe just how dispiriting to wake up from a night of unrestful slumber to find oneself already soaked in a sweat that you know will be your constant companion all day, save for a few mercifully cool showers. Also, it's hard to over-emphasize just how satisfying it is to step into one of a few cool showers on a sweltering summer day.

This year I finally broke down and accepted an excess window unit from a friend, but I've determined to only use it on truly uncomfortable nights. There's something satisfying about getting to know the heat and sun. About living with a raised body temperature for a few months. Around this time of year I often feel like a solar camel, soaking in heat now so I can draw on that feeling in six months when I'm stamping my feet at a cold bus stop and cursing myself for forgetting my gloves.

So here we are again, Chicago, sweaty-but-happy and overwhelmed by street fests and cookouts. May this celebration of summer society keep you warm until next year!

Bootleg: Wilco Live In Grant Park, July 4, 2001

Fourth of July is a holiday that sparks mixed emotions from many of the liberal arts-educated set that I run with. On the one hand there's something about the knee-jerk, Lee Greenwood-style that makes you wanna grab every red, white and blue bandanna'd person you see by the scruff of the neck and force them to read Howard Zinn. On the other hand, most people I know, no matter how discouraged they might be with "America" as it's force-fed us also recognize that they're inescapably American. Whether it's the "fuck you" independent spirit, the burning desire to be the best or the fact that we've found more new places to put cheese on a pizza than God itself, there's something impossible not to indentify with about our country. Plus, everyone loves getting a day off work to light explosives and play with fire while all day long.


It's these contradictory feelings, I believe, that always lead me to turn to Wilco at some point on every Fourth of July. They're quintessentially American but in the oddball, restless, lefty kinda way with one foot planted squarely in tradition and the other trying to kick dirt over that tradition and mess it up. Particularly I like to play, their fourth album and career masterpiece Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, a record that it was said "conjures a classic rock radio station on Fourth of July weekend". Not only does the music tackle feelings about place and conflicted loyalties ("Ashes Of American Flags" anyone?) but it the way it's bathed in layers of shimmery, staticy noise practically screams "American summer".

Concert Preview: Ultra Violet Petting Zoo

Tom Schraeder is, by all accounts, a busy dude. Besides being the driving force force behind the band Tom Schraeder and His Ego, he's made films,  and even hosted his own prom. But it's hard to find a better use of his time than helping to curate the Ultra Violet Petting Zoo for this, his second year in a row. Co-hosted last year by the wonderful people at Chicago Mixtape and this year by Do312.com, Ultra Violet Petting Zoo is party of the Boys and Girls Club Carnival which is the main fundraising event of the year for the Boys and Girls Club in Chicago. It all goes down this Sunday, July 1st at 2501 W. Irving Park Road (which is Irving, just west of Western for those who can't count) from 2 to 10pm.


Don't kid yourselves people, between the Republican House, the largest state budget deficit in the country and a mayor more likely to send tax dollars to development corporations than public schools or social programs, our city's youth are in dire, dire need for programs like those provided by the Boys and Girls Club. I don't exaggerate when I say that it's hard to find a better way to spend a dollar than by investing it in a child's development.


So what can you do? For five dollars, less than the cost of a (good) beer (plus tip, cheapskate) you can come out, experience twelve great local bands, food, drinks and, of course, rides to ensure that those substances don't stay in your stomach for long. Considering the estimated 400% return rate on investments in the Boys and Girls Clubs, that's like giving $20 to charity yet still having $15 left for beer! There's no Hold Steady or Dinosaur Jr. to distract you so come rock some Chicago tunes and help make your city a better place. Below, I've got a little bit of what you can expect to hear on Sunday.

On Warmer Music's Summer 2012 Mix

Now the thing about summer mixes is that no matter what you chose, you're guaranteed to have more good songs that you had to leave off than you could include. For someone like me, this can be vastly frustrating unless you can make yourself see it as ultimately liberating - no matter what you're gonna have to skip things so you might as well just pick what you like. It's an incredibly rich vein from which to mine pop culture as youth, America, writers and nostalgia all tend to trade strongly in summer images. Everyone loves either reliving their past glories or just reveling in the warm bounties of their present situation.

Within this mix you will hear: an "r" rolled for over five seconds, complaints about work, an ode to insects, more horns that you might expect, a great Irish song called "Dancing In The Moonlight" NOT by Van Morrison, a mind-blowing unreleased Mountain Goats song, Wilco get raunchy(ish) and probably some people expressing fondness for increased amounts of sunshine. Enjoy!

"Nightswimming" - R.E.M.

I always feel conflicted towards the end of summer. No matter how hot or long, I'm always loathe to say goodbye to another year's worth of warmth. Even though autumn holds the promise of color and cool, we all know that we're still inevitably a little closer to the dark and cold. R.E.M. captured this feeling perfectly in Automatic For The People's penultimate track, "Nightswimming." Pitchfork recently crowned it the 73rd best song of the 90's (obviously) and it's no wonder, as it shows the band at their money-down best.

I Love Beach Music

The other night I was speeding down the Dan Ryan, feeling great. The sweetly moist post rain breeze disheveled my hair as I threw my head back, grinned at my girlfriend and yelled joyously "I feel like I'm in South Carolina!"


Perhaps I should explain.

Six Song Six-Pack - Summery Songs From Summer Albums

As I might have mentioned before, summer in Chicago is a brief and glorious thing and I love it all the more for that. Unlike in the sunbelt, Chicagoans never put harsh winter too far out of our minds and thus treasure our summers all them more. We find ways to move every possible activity we can out-of-doors and pack all the sun we can into about three-and-a-half months. When you combine that "make hay while the sun shines" attitude with increased sunlight,  it's no wonder that summer days can still seem almost endless with possibility.


With that in mind, this six-pack isn't just a summer mix, it's an ode to whole albums that celebrate the season. In a month it'll be Labor Day, so for God's sake people, we've gotta spin this stuff while we can!

Album Review: Sky Full of Holes - Fountains of Wayne

Fountains of Wayne aren't cool. They're not sexy, they're not edgy, lord knows they're not hip. Their love of pop isn't drenched in enough feedback or ironic distance to appeal to the arty crowd and their love of pop isn't synthesized enough to get them onto Top 40. But for people who love classic pop songcraft in whatever form it takes this group is a treasure. They made their biggest splash aping the Cars but they're just as at home with Rick Nelson. Songwriters Adam Schlesinger and Chris Collinwood just need a hook and they're off. 

When The Month Changes Numbers It's Time To Go

Life goes faster as you get older, it's a fact. I'm not too young to realize that if I'm already starting to feel this way, aging will not be as much like becoming a fine wine as I've been led me too believe. So besides saying "Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit" as soon as I wake up (as a friend's grandmother once taught me long ago), I also try to mark the turning of calendar pages with a song that helps me put the loss of another 30 days into perspective.

Tonight's entry is from Leslie Feist, a singer probably know best for her irresistable, but sadly over-exposed 2007 single "1, 2, 3, 4", but this song is from a half-decade earlier, before she joined Broken Social Scene or released her own debut album.

Concert Preview - Milwaukee Ave. Arts Festival, July 29th-31st

Chicago may be erm... less than temperate for much of the year, but during the summer it's glorious, with a bevy of amazing $5 suggested donation street festivals. Festivals in more fully gentrified neighborhoods such as Lakview, Roscoe Village and especially Wicker Park traditionally grab the most attention with big-name national indie acts. This year's Milwaukee Avenue Arts Festival (run by I Am Logan Square, NOT a professional festival promoter) is taking a different route. Besides having a stronger local art and family focus, MAAF also booked a strong lineup with some of the local scene's best bands. (Even more importantly, they ditched the Linenkugels and Bud and let Revolution Brewing handle the brews!)