Here Comes the Summer!

Salon.com has been holding their big summer sountrack contest for the past month or so, in which readers were invited to submit their own "mix CD" of summer songs in the hopes of winning valuable prizes and the admiration of music geeks everywhere. The only catch: all the songs had to be free, legal and readily available for download as MP3s. Naturally, being the "mix CD" obsessive that I am (as the myriad of friends and not-so-friends alike who have had freshly-burned CDs forced upon them can attest), I just had to enter!

I have to admit that the "only freely available MP3s" stipulation was a pretty big obstacle, but I hope I rose to the challenge well enough. (Sharp-eyed readers will have noticed the dramatic rise in links to MP3 sites in the past week or two as I scoured the internet for the best songs that sounded vaguely summer-like). In the end, I completed two playlists before the contest deadline yesterday afternoon, both of which I reprint in their entirety for your education and entertainment. Hope you like them! (And I'll let you know if I win anything...)

WHEAT FIELDS AND OPEN SKIES

1. "All the Same to You" - Laura Cantrell
2. "Flame" - the Mary Janes
3. "Naive Melody (This Must Be the Place)" - the Mysteries of Life
4. "pH Factor (Live)" - the dB's
5. "Nothing You Can Do" - the Gentle Readers
6. "Thick Walls Down" - Caitlin Cary
7. "Reflecting Light" - Sam Phillips
8. "That's Alright" - NRBQ (the site says the song is "Start It Over", but it's wrong!)
9. "Formerly Hail Centurion" - the Minus 5
10. "Accordion Song (Ken's Polka II)" - the Old 97's
11. "My Boyfriend is in Killdozer" - Skizz P. Cyzyk
12. "Baby, You're the One" - Amy Allison
13. "Pleasant Valley Sunday" - Marykate O'Neil
14. "So Much Sky" - Julia Macklin
15. "Beautiful Day" - Katell Keineg

THE SUMMER OF OUR DISCONTENT

1. "I Hate Getting Up in the Morning" - The Squirrels
2. "Mundane Dream" - Marykate O'Neil
3. "Honeymoon" - the Muffs
4. "Slow Motion" - Hedi Gluck
5. "Little Mouse" - Jack Morgan (BSc)
6. "My Friend Ringo" - the Whirligigs
7. "I Know I'm Not Wrong" - the Mysteries of Life
8. "Change the World All Around" - Right to Left
9. "I'm Not Bitter" - the Young Fresh Fellows
10. "Black and White (Live)" - the dB's