Friday Music Day

FMD — Road Trip

17 Comments

So the kids and I are driving out to Glacier National Park a week from Sunday. It's a 17 plus hour drive there and then back so I need to think about what songs I want for the drive. The family rule is that the driver gets to pick the songs so I will be subjected to the whims of a 24 and 26 year old as well. What do I pick when it's my turn to drive? I've always thought R.E.M. was good road trip music and also good guitar trippy stuff like Built to Spill or Ride is always fun. When I drove to Memphis last year I did the whole 11 CD Stax set, which literally brought me to the City limits of Memphis. I listened to Minneapolis-based musicians on the way home. I could just put the needle on my Guided By Voices collection, I bet I easily have 35 hours of their music :o)

So what songs/artists/genre's do you like on a road trip? What's the purpose? Keep you awake, fit the setting, something you haven't heard before?

Also drop 'em if you got 'em.

17 thoughts on “FMD — Road Trip”

  1. I think it was in the Old Basement, but I distinctly remember Rhu_Ru advocating for ELO’s Out of the Blue as one of the great road music albums. He’s spot-on with that recommendation. The songs are dense without being overwhelming, the energy of the music keeps you fresh, and it’s a double LP, for goodness’ sake.

    Beyond that album, what I go for is pretty dependent on whether I’m sharing the car or not, and what time of day. I’ll probably try to sprinkle in some music related to the destination if it’s a special trip to a specific place, but otherwise I like tunes with enough groove to help the miles go down and enough complexity to my mind stay limber. I’ve made a playlist called 110 Feet Per Second that I use to capture good road music. It’s loaded with Gram Parsons, the Flying Burrito Brothers, Tom Russell, CCR, Neil Young, and plenty of old Country & Western trucker tunes. I’ve also had success with blues artists like Freddie King, J.B. Hutto, and Roy Buchanan for obvious groove reasons. When I was driving in stateside convoys, I’d spin a lot of System of a Down, Queens of the Stone Age, Cake, and lots of punk rock. Humvees are loud.

    1. Thanks CH some good suggestions. I definitely think I'll pick up some QOTSA, Mastadon, etc.

  2. Every single family roadtrip growing up started with the entirety of Born to Run.

  3. I like the Meat Puppets for drives west of the Missouri River/Kansas City.
    Live in Montana fits your destination.

  4. 1. Annie “Heartbeats” Anniemal
    2. The Orb “A Huge Evergrowing Pulsating Brain That Rules from the Centre of the Ultraworld (Orbital 9am Radio Mix)”* A Huge Evergrowing Pulsating Brain That Rules from the Centre of the Ultraworld (compactdisco)
    3. Matthew Dear “Street Song” Beams (expanded)
    4. Peter Gabriel “Red Rain” So
    5. Aaron Dilloway “Switch 15” Switches

    6. Eric Copeland “Stud Music” Jesus Freak
    7. The Shins “They'll Soon Discover” The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie
    8. Björk “Declare Independence (Live in Paris, June 25th 2008)” Voltaic
    9. Sukima Switch “Golden Time Lover”* Golden Time Lover
    T. Erykah Badu “On & On” Live

    *Notes:
    2. A/K/A "Loving You" due to the extensive sample from Minnie Riperton. This mix was by the Orb, and not by Orbital, as suggested by the mix title. The Orb called a lot of their early mixes and remixes "Orbital Mix" or similar, stopping around 1991 when Orbital's debut album made them more than a one-hit moniker-wonder (with "Chime").

    9. Opening Song from season 3 of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

  5. 01. "Don't Sleep Alone" – Black Diet – Find Your Tambourine
    02. "Kettering" – The Antlers – Hospice
    03. "The Breeze" – Dr. Dog – Fate
    04. "I'll Never Cry For Another Boy" – The Majestic Arrows – Eccentric Soul, Vol. 2: The Bandit Label
    05. "Miranda" – Angel Olsen – Half Way Home
    06. "Tonya Hardning (In Eb Major)" – Sufjan Stevens – Tonya Harding
    a. "DRM-BOSSA-NOVA" – Casio – SK-1
    07. "Girl Blue" – Stevie Wonder – Music Of My Mind
    08. "Leave It All Up To Me" – Screaming Females – Ugly
    09. "Untitled 2" – Tomberlin – At Weddings
    10. "Waiting For The Moon" – Jean Grae & Quelle Chris – Everything's Fine

  6. 1. Let It Go, Let It Flow--Dave Mason
    2. Empty Garden--Elton John
    3. Don't Go Breakin' My Heart--Elton John and Kiki Dee
    4. You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine--Lou Rawls
    5. It's a Miracle--Barry Manilow
    6. I Made It Through the Rain--Barry Manilow
    7. Marrakesh Express--Crosby, Stills, and Nash
    8. Fire and Rain--James Taylor
    9. Shine On, Harvest Moon--Leon Redbone
    10. Close to You--The Carpenters

  8. i wasn't originally going to do this, but i stayed up way too late working on it, so might as well share: here's a rough cut of the summer mix (d/lable; you don't need to listen through drive). i still plan on doing an official release (and trying to break it up the songs), but here's the first draft just in case you've been tearing out your hair waiting for the release date.

    it's... kind of weird. thankfully, that's your fault.

        1. Yup, that's entirely on me. I even posted the original request for submissions (eep!)

          I look forward to listening all the same (possibly more so?)!

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