I set out to make this playlist as a bit of a joke. Last week I saw something like a billion posts about the Summer Mix coming from a bunch of different music sites. “I could easily do one of those,” I indignantly said to myself. Cocksure and determined I opened up Spotify ready to go. Then I realized I haven’t put together a real playlist in years and have no idea what the hell I’m doing.

I do come from the mix tape generation, except we did them on these things called “cassette tapes.” Nowadays only the coolest of the cool release music in this archaic form, this ensuring that only a handful of people will ever hear it. With the flick of your wrists you can accomplish in a few minutes what used to take hours. And what should a Summer Mix sound like? The beach? Bonfires? All the other cliche scenes we see in teenage summer flicks?

After mulling it over, I thought about what summer meant to me and what I’d like to hear. Mostly I thought about driving. Being 16 in your first car, the freedom of taking off down the open road with no final destination in mind. No worries, no future-just you, your car, and your friends. So hopefully this mix reflects all aspects of what might happen during a summer like that. I kept it mostly tunes from 2013, with a few exceptions.

If you’re ever curious as to what I’m listening to at any given time, you can follow me on Spotify and find out. If you don’t care, I’ll just tell you that it’s usually a toss-up between The Gin Blossoms Greatest Hits and Pinkerton.

And of course for those that don’t have Spotify or can’t get it because it isn’t available in your country, here’s a tracklist so you can follow along at home.

1. Jessica-The Allman Brothers Band 2. Heatwave-The All-About 3. Do It Again-Camera Obscura 4. Scavengers-The Hush Sound 5. Varsity-Smith Westerns 6. Reoccurring Kind-Poison Control Center 7. Purple Yellow Red And Blue-Portugal. The Man. 8. Q.U.E.E.N.-Janelle Monae 9. Fantasy-Ms Mr 10. Partie Traumatic-Black Kids 11. Blurred Lines-Robin Thicke 12. Gold-Sir Sly 13. Tumbleweed-The Great American Canyon Band 14. Let’s Watch The Lights-Fort Frances 15. Kids Get Away-Jamaican Queens 16. Love Is Blindness-Jack White 17. Heartattack And Vine-Pony Boy 18. Somehow, Somewhere, Someway-Kenny Wayne Shepherd 19. We Could Die Like This-The Wonder Years 20. Area 52-The Yeah Yeah Yeahs 21. Cut It Out-Kitten 22. One Piece At A Time-Wolfgang Jay 23. Flying Mountain-Golden Bloom 24. A Love Forgotten-H.D. Harmsen 25. Amazing Grace-Vintage Blue 26. Hermitage Hotstep-The Howlin’ Brothers 27. Twin Cities-Hungry Kids Of Hungary 28. No Destruction-Foxygen 29. One Summer Last Fall-Jets To Brazil 30. Push Thru-Talib Kweli 31. Started From The Bottom-Drake 32. After Hours-We Are Scientists 33. Brief Thoughts On Death-Dastardly 34. We Are Gonna Be Friends-Conor Oberst & First Aid Kit 35. Wildcat-Ratatat