1. Arliss Nancy - The Crease
Buy: Simple Machines (2012)
Submitted By: Captainsdead
Comments: great rock record, nothing more, nothing less.
2. The Producers - I Love Lucy
The Producers/You Make The Heat (2000, CD Reissue of the band’s first two albums)
Submitted By: BoogieStudio22
Comments: I make no apologies for my love of all things ‘power pop.’ The Producers put out a couple of albums in the early 80s and seemed to fly under the radar of most people, which is too bad because these guys crafted some great songs.
3. Neil Young and Crazy Horse - Travel On
Americana (2012)
Submitted By: @mikeorren
Comments: This song IS summer in America. Drive fast on a long highway and put it on repeat.
4. Amy Cook - I Wanna Be Your Marianne
Buy: Let the Light In (2010)
Submitted By: Hoosier Buddy
Comments: The most summer-soaked tune from an album produced by Alejandro Escovedo. A tasty confection: swirl cupcake in which relaxed rhythm guitar mixes with strangled cat lead tones, topped with Amy’s buttercream vocal track. You can never eat just one.
5. The Woolly Bushmen - Gotta Go Out West
The Woolly Bushmen (2012)
Submitted By: Autopsy IV (ninebullets.net)
Comments: Retro rock and roll from a group of kids from Orlando. I caught them live at Tropical Heatwave this year and they were a complete and total blast. Album came out last week and is available on Bandcamp.
6. The Wind-Up Birds - There Won't Always Be an England
The Land (2012)
Submitted By: April @ Now This Sound Is Brave
Comments: This song cemented my love for this fantastic band out of Leeds, England. Even though it's specifically about rabid nationalism in the UK, it's an almost effortless exercise to translate it to the jingoistic patriotism that has been promoted in the U.S. over the past decade. The feeling of mounting frustration and anger in this song is a thing of beauty.
7. The Brian Jonestown Massacre - Wasting Away
Buy: Strung Out in Heaven (1998)
Submitted By: Ryan (Verbow @ altcountrytab.ca)
Comments: Can anyone take the essential elements of 60's music (garage, pop, psychedelia, country rock) and blend them as seamlessly as Antone Newcombe? I think not. Great, mellow track from these freaky weirdos. Love the harmonica.
8. Counting Crows - You Ain't Going Nowhere
Underwater Sunshine (Or What We Did On Our Summer Vacation) (2012)
Submitted By: @philnorman
Comments: Get your mind off winter time. You ain't going nowhere.
9. Alvin Youngblood Hart - Joe Friday
Big Mama's Door (1996)
Submitted By: Adam Sheets
10. Hurray For The Riff Raff - Little Black Star
Look Out Mama (2012)
Submitted By: TheOtherBrit
Comments: Saw these gals & guy out of Louisiana in Waverly a couple months ago and they blew me away.
11. The Doc Marshalls - Here They Come
Look Out Compadres (2012)
Submitted By: toomuchcountry
Comments: I've been playing this track repeatedly after first hearing it during one of Bill Frater's Freight Train Boogie podcasts (a great source of new Americana music). In this month we celebrate our independence and are reminded of the costs paid to defend it, many of the lyrics from this song resonated with me.
12. We Run - Like
We Run EP (2012)
Submitted By: @popa2unes
13. Little Wings - Fall Skull
Black Grass (2011)
Submitted By: Lord Summerisle
Comments: I didn't hear this album until early 2012 but it has swiftly become my favourite album of 2011. Brilliant stuff, a touch of Will Oldham, a dash of Bill Callahan and some sweet electronics burbling in the background. Perfect.
14. Lyle Lovett - Give Back My Heart
Pontiac (1988)
Submitted By: Rockstar Aimz
Comments: In spring, 1993, I was in college in Chicago at a coffee shop listening to these two other students jam away on their acoustic guitars, really killing it. They were playing some song that I didn’t know, but it stuck in my head all of these years because it was so good. Thanks to the miracle of satellite radio, I finally figure out nearly two decades later on my commute to work that they were covering this Lyle Lovett song, only adding a few curse words and massive blues guitar riffs.
15. The District Attorneys - Worry About Your Health
Slowburner (2012)
Submitted by: Corey Flegel (This Is American Music)
Comments: this was the song that reminded me to send in a submission...so, it then became my submission.
16. Willie Nile - Hard Times In America
Live From the Streets of New York (2008)
Submitted By: Truersound
Comments: Now that the 4th is over, back to reality.
17. Alex Turner - Piledriver Waltz
Submarine EP (2011)
Submitted By: Simon
Comments: I treated myself to a few pieces of vinyl on Record Store Day amongst them a Caitlin Rose 7” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJWiUOIpUS8) featuring a pair of tracks from Arctic Monkeys album Suck It and See and have been ‘spinning’ both regularly over the last month, Piledriver Waltz has got stuck in my head and become a new favourite, I stumbled across another version of the track that appeared on Alex Turner’s film soundtrack for Submarine and thought I’d throw this into this months mix. http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/v6cg
18. Zodiac Mindwarp & the Love Reaction - Prime Mover
Tattooed Beat Messiah (1988)
Submitted By: Gorrck
19. Muddy Waters - Unk In Funk
Unk In Funk (1974)
Submitted By: Bowood
Comments: Muddy Waters just letting us know that funk wasn't born until he entered the world, presumably 7am on Sunday July 7th, with seven doctors in attendance. Today is July 7, the mojo is still strong.
20. Bruce Springsteen - Racing in the Street
Darkness on the Edge of Town (1978)
Submitted By: tincanman2010
Comments: The bit about the girl sitting on her Daddy's porch, all her pretty dreams torn is one of the saddest moments in song I know. Bruce's band doesn't get enough credit for the way they play this. And it's not a car song; it just sounds at first like one.
21. Japandroids - Continuous Thunder
Celebration Rock (2012)
Submitted By: Trailer
22. The Specials - Too Hot
Buy: The Specials (1979, reissued 2002)
Submitted By: annieTUFF
Comments: It's full blown summer now, and the crazy heat always makes me think of summers as a teenager, and punk. Driving around in my first car (death trap of a car that I scrimped and saved to buy after working my first fast food job) no AC, windows down, sweating like crazy, and cranking music as loud as I could thru my little battery powered tape player that I brought with me (because the stereo in the car kept blowing out the fuses for the lights...see? death trap). So, in honor of all the record breaking heat and summer tunes and memories I'm picking The Specials. And yeah, I know, it's not punk, it's ska, but c'mon it's toooooo hot.
