A Music Post (filler)

It's been a month since the last entry, so I feel like I should write something. But nothing's happened. Jamie's parents agreed to the trip, which was the main thing. And we haven't really done anything in the way of planning since then. So I don't have anything to report. Something to write about? Uh, road trips...road trips...road trips...music? Why not? I guess I'll do a bit about my driving cds and when to listen to them.

The Mountain Goats - The Sunset Tree. This is great for driving around half-deserted roads on cool, heavy nights. You only occasionally find another pair of headlights, giving you enough time to wonder about all of them individually, where they are going and why they are driving down this half-deserted road at 2 am. And they are wondering about you. And you are wondering if your parents noticed you leaving, and if there are cops around to notice you speeding. It's not for the nights where it's still so hot out you're going to need to run the air in your car - it's the ones that are still cool and damp, when it's easy to forget that the sun will rise and all of those people in all of those houses will wake up and make coffee and go to work, because now they are dreaming. Those nights.

Sundowner - Four One Five Two. This is for mornings on highways with all of the 9-5 stragglers. It's only 9 am and it's hot as hell and so humid you can't breathe, and you're surrounded by truck drivers and basically half asleep. Trying to navigate and calculate exactly how far you can drive towards your exit before you have to join the line of cars already sitting there. If you have enough time just to get at the back, or if you left too late. You feel that kind of nostalgia as you stream past exits that makes you look at the clouds instead of the road.

The Hold Steady - Boys and Girls in America. This is music for obnoxiously passing people on the right because they're going too slow and you need to speed, damnit. This can add a tinge of epic to almost anything (driving to take the SATs, whoo!), but works best if you're already doing something exciting. This is for getting lost somewhere down 206 and pulling some dangerous traffic violations, shouting with the windows down.

The Gaslight Anthem - Senor and the Queen. This is for Jersey, on the parkway at night, going down the shore. There's a straight shot of red taillights in front of you, a constant stream of white lights from the other side. There are only four songs on this, but they're a damn good set of four.

These are all summer songs, because summer and because it's May and I'm getting ahead of myself. And a lot of music I like works with humidity, and I do more epic driving music driving when it's warm out because there isn't any of that school shit and because...