The summer I bought The Breeders' Last Splash on cassette at the mall was the summer I dyed my hair with Kool-Aid, and woke up with ants on my pillow. It was the summer I lost my grandfather, though my mother swears that was him making our lights flicker every once in a while. It was the summer I split my lip open on a sprinkler head, after a trip down a Slip N Slide went awry. It was the summer before my sophomore year in high school, and I wanted to be Kim Deal.
I can remember all these little moments because of that album. I listened to it over and over, until the tape was literally worn out. "Saints" spells it out: "Summer is ready when you are." And while "Cannonball" was its big hit, and the song I associate with that summer, the whole album is near-perfect. I went back to it a few weeks ago, after not listening to it for a few years, and no matter how hard I tried to fight it, I still knew every word to every song. I could smell that Coppertone smell I associate with Florida summers, and taste the blood in my mouth.
More than any other season, summer has an elemental tie to memory and song, and with that in mind, a few of our DC9 writers shared their summer favorite tracks. Feel free to leave yours in the comments.
