Auto-tune Mr. Rogers…wait, what?

PBS Digital Studios is starting to post a lot of really cool web shows on youtube like National Film Society, Off Book, and Ideas Channel.  All great stuff.  Well recently they put up an awesome auto-tune remix of Mr. Rogers on an “Icons Remixed” playlist (hopefully meaning we have more genius to come).  It sounds crazy, I know, but the more I listen to it, the more addicted I become.  It’s like it’s implanted itself in my mind.  Luckily the message is a good one.  Give it a few tries before you decide wether you love it or hate it.

*Summer* Song of the Day (Man On Fire {Little Daylight Remix})

This song is great as-is, no remix required, but I love this remix so much I needed to include it on the *summer* playlist.  Epic.

 

Enjoy the Little Daylight Remix of Man On Fire, by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros.

*Summer* Song of the Day (I Love to Dance)

Enjoy I Love to Dance by Langhorne Slim

*Summer* Song of the Day (Megna’s)

The first time I listened to this song (a month ago) I thought of my time in Guatemala for some reason.  There, vendors of fruits and vegetables would kind of set up a small table on any corner in town, or they would be walking through the street with a cart on wheels ringing a little bell to let you know they were coming, and they would even take the opportunity to hop on the bus to see if anyone forgot to buy something for their journey.  The vendors would sing out what produce they had and how much it cost for a kilo, a bunch, for five…

photo credit: Solson Scherman

What I remember hearing the most was melon melon!  Or maaangoooo…tres por diez!

Here in Costa Rica at the Heredia or San Rafael farmer’s market the vendors call out to you as you walk by them, ¿Que desea mi amor?  ¿En que le puedo servir?  Precio especial para ti mi reina – ¡mil colones el kilo!

Listening to this song makes me think of produce vendors in Central America.  I love it.

{thanks for passing it along to me Katie Creyts!}

I hope you enjoy Megna’s by Tim O’Brien

*Summer* Song of the Day (Hazeltons)

Summer mixes can’t be all upbeat, jump around in your car, crazy times.  Sometimes you need to slip in a few low key songs for nights around the campfire, or on the back porch sipping on an ice-cold kambucha and having a heart to heart with your best friend while you relish in the perfect cool breeze cooling you off after a suffocatingly hot day.  This song is for those nights.

Enjoy Hazeltons by Justin Vernon (Bon Iver)

*Summer* Song of the Day (Knee Deep)

Yeaaaaaaaaa the beach!  I’m about to leave the land of amazing beaches, heading for the land-locked Inland Northwest.  How sad.  This song will just have to bring me back to the glorious, glorious sandy beaches of Costa Rica while I’m driving through semi-arid Spokane, far from the ocean (and even farther from any kind of ocean beach that you could comfortably swim in).

Playa Blanca at Punta Leona, Pacific Coast, Costa Rica. Thunder storm about to roll in.

So in the end, I don’t know if this song is the perfect summer song, or pure torture for those of us that live so far from the ocean.  In any case, it’s catchy and  upbeat, and therefore a perfect addition to any summer playlist.  And I suppose it’s better to have been to beaches and loved them, than never to have seen a beach at all.

(…get it?)

Enjoy Knee Deep by the Zac Brown Band (ft. Jimmy Buffett – perpetual beach bum).

*Summer* Song of the Day (Words – Live)

If you don’t put this song on your summer playlist, you are a crazy fool.  Finding this song was another one of those happy accidents of life.  I just stumbled upon it while meandering through youtube.

Theophilus London v. Givers

This is a live version of the Givers‘ song “Words” while they were playing a set in Brooklyn with La Blogotheque (or at least that’s what it says on the youtube description).  Theophilus London, a hip-hop artist out of Brooklyn as well, crashed in and helped out a little bit, making a glorious new mash-up for us to enjoy.  So enjoy it already!

p.s. maybe the best part of this video is watching all the really cool kids dancing in the background.  I have my favorites.  (Green v-neck at 1:43; cardigan/button-up shirt at 3:48…etc).  Also try to ignore the main singer’s grouper face.  It’s not his fault.

A Quote

 “Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life.” – Jack Kerouac

*Summer*Song of the Day (That’s What’s Up)

This is the second track on Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros‘ new album, Here.

The album is sooooooo goood!  It’s a perfect one for this summer, which is obviously why I’m including it in the *Summer* Song of the Day list.  Just imagine going down I-90 just past Ritzville, Washington on your way to Seattle, with rolling golden fields on either side of you, your windows down, left arm getting sunburned (if you’re driving), singing this at the top of your lungs.  Perfect, isn’t it?

Enjoy – That’s What’s Up by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros.

*Summer* Song of the Day (Something Good Can Work)

Since, you know, summer is almost here, that means road trips are in their final planning stages, dots are being drawn on maps, and the perfect outfit for taking pictures on your pit-stop to see the world’s largest baked potato is being painstakingly chosen.

That’s why I’ve chosen to do a summer road-trip soundtracks series of Song of the Day for the next week or so.

And even if you’re stuck at work this summer, and the road trip isn’t happening for you, hopefully these songs can at least get you to and from work without wanting to run that  a-hole-summer-school-university-student-driving-a-“souped-up”-red-hyundai-blasting-Kenny-Chesney-out-the-window who cut you off on I-90, off the side of the road.  Hypothetically speaking.  That’s never happened to me while driving to work on I-90.

So here’s the first song of the *Summer* Song of the Day series, Something Good Can Work by Two Door Cinema Club