I have spent too many hours lamenting my lack of foresight… had I only begun this project ten years ago, summer 1996, when "Tonight Tonight" by the Smashing Pumpkins, "Angry Johnny" by Poe, "Stupid Girl" by Garbage, and "Burdon in my Hands" by Soundgarden seduced me away from the average pop station and the alternative station became my favorite. Had I maintained my persistence and creativity, I could have had mix tapes from the brilliant summer of '97 with "Talk Show Host" by Radiohead and "Motorcycle Driveby" by Third Eye Blind… skip forward to the new millenium, 2003 would give me Ben Kweller, 2004 The Beta Band and Modest Mouse, last year… sigh. I blew it. I should have documented everything that I felt when I heard these songs for the first time. Coming into my senior year of college, the year right before I am supposed to be a real person, this indulgent nostalgia is incomplete. This is my last opportunity to document it, I suppose: the freedom of youth that provides a sense of adventure, and the responsibility of the brink of adulthood that provides exciting empowerment. These are the songs… this last summer before life becomes real, these are what I should remember:

1. Akron Family: "I'll Be On The Water" – Off their 2005 self-titled release, this song is precious in its sparkling simplicity. It bobs atop a peaceful sea, providing a listener with an elated calm… one that comes about as the sun paints the ocean peach as it settles into it for the night. The 76 degree water this summer came about because this song exists.

2. Band of Horses: "The First Song" – This sweeping, grand wash of guitar work cushions earnest, pleading yet peaceful vocals. The chord progressions swirl around, providing an aural oasis in the major scale. The indulgent pace of the song provides a perfect blanket on a breezy night on the beach as the bonfire fizzles.

3. Devendra Banhart: "Santa Maria de la Feira" – Be it Spanish, Brazillian, or born of Los Angeles herself, this infectious love song shuffled its way through the month of June as though it were reposnsible for the sunshine itself. One cannot sing along without smiling in spite of themselves, regardless of weather or not they know Spanish.  

4. Big Star: "The Ballad of El Goodo" – fans of Evan Dando (Lemonheads) or Empire Records know this song from different context, but when grabbed by the horns in its original form, it is a hell of a ballad, applicable to generations past and future. The 1970's have a special place in my heart regardless, but it is always poignant to mirror the sentiments of someone 30 in the past. "There ain't no one going to turn me 'round," they chant hopefully, and as a child struggling to hold on to childhood, I can't help but relate. Also, you notice that the odds they're up against change from "unbelievable" to just "strong" as they sing together and grow. I love this song. 

5. Destroyer: "Priest's Knees" – A song created with a vocal intro that absolutely pinpoints everything it is to be a Los Angelino, or as Dan calls himself, "a west coast maximalist, exploring the blues, ignoring the news." This new life, with all its seriousness and war and drama and bureaucracy, is still playful to DB as he casts it aside for the sake of a piano arpeggio. It is this playfulness of the song that makes it so applicable. 

6. Neko Case: "Maybe Sparrow" – A tragic song about the affects of not heeding wise advice… and the passion that it evokes in those who warn you. This song ate me alive. 

7.Built to Spill: "Liar" – If the Northwestern sound found its revivial in 2006, it was completely embodied in this track off the latest BTS album. The momentum is circular, as in REM's "Near Wild Heaven" (1992? I know it is off 'Out of Time'), yet still provides enough thrust to cyclone forward, sucking up your attention as it glides over your ears. Like a few of the other tracks off this album, "Liar" jogs through life with headphones on, indulging in its glittery self. 

8. Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks: "Ramp of Death" – This is a coming-of-age song about something painful and impossible that was completely worthwhile. If ever there was a description of the makeshift love that we attempt on our way into adulthood, it parallels this song. Perhaps it is my penchant for short-lived yet completely engulfing love affairs, but I can't help but understand the tone of his voice when he requests quietly, "Get back and stop avoiding me, or start avoiding me."

9. Thom Yorke: "Black Swan" – There is something to be said for a song that can sleekly weave the work 'Fuck' into its chorus and still sound refined and sexy. I hope one day I can swear like so, with the same silky elegance of this song.

10. Think About Life: "The Blue Sun" – Ignore the overt reference to pollution or the band's egregious name. The concept of washing one's clothes in their own blood is a testament to the narcissism that comes with growing up. The first line of the song challenged, "Who cares if you're in denile?" The TVOTR-esque texture of the song makes it glimmer with optimism… an optimism I need.

I am fully aware that a mere, like, 3 of these songs were actually released during the summer of 2006, but it doesn't matter. These are the moments, the newspaper clippings that will make up the scrapbook of this summer in my heart. I hope your summer was as musical as mine, as passionate and hard faught and exhausting and responsible and free and difficult and perfect… and I hope this isn't my last chance to capture the void between school years in a collage of pop culture.  

-C. Gubala