When I think of summer and the hot weather that we’ve been sometimes enjoying, I often conjure this majestic image in my head:

Treated. It’s the Tornado at Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom. You can probably see this thing from space. It’s huge. I’ve made one pilgrimage across town this summer to do bidding with the mighty Tornado, and plan to go five more times (as per the season pass). Not that any of this matters to you, of course. You probably just want the jams. Fair enough. Here is a summerish mix that, despite my admiration for Brian Wilson, does not feature any Beach Boys songs. That’s just too obvious, ya know:

As a buddy of mine once said “keep it crunk, but keep it positive.”

MP3 :::
Darker My Love – Summer is Here
Shop Assistants – Almost Made It
Sun City Girls – Radar 1941
The Jesus and Mary Chain – On the Wall (the better Barbed Wire Kisses version)
Atlas Sound – On Guard
City Center – Gladest
Amen Dunes – In Caroline
Friends – Summer Sunday Blues
Seals & Crofts – Summer Breeze
The Clean – Beatnik

More and more artists are paying homage to Thoreau lately and recording their music in the midst of a hermetic retreat. And while most return with nothing more than a bruised ego and a full beard, every now and then they stumble back with something personal and articulate enough to rattle the ears of unsuspecting strangers. Damon McMahon, working under the name Amen Dunes, made a similar pilgrimage in 2006 to the Catskill Mountains to record what would become his debut album DIA. Both insular and cavernous, this debut LP is an uninhibited trek through McMahon’s psychedelic mind-scapes.

The album opens with the raw, dirt-in-the-fingernails garage rock of “Amen Dunes,” a successful throwback to 60’s style surf and distortion. Through his spidery reinterpretations of classic rock that has a tendency to take some noise detours, Amen Dunes fits somewhere within the vintage-minded acts like Crystal Stilts, and the clamorous sermons of Pumice and the New Zealand scene. But in the end, McMahon seems most at home cooking up spaced out lo-fi folk with just the right amount of static kindling. “By the Bridal,” is a drunk and driving ballad that plays a little bit like a cannibal-fruit-era Modest Mouse, but it’s a driving ballad that’s been thoroughly sunburned and then dunked in a bucket of reverb. Other highlights from DIA include “White Lace”, which effortlessly transitions from a folk song into a mountain of tape layers and effects, and the closing hymn “Breaker”, that pairs a muffled organ to a naked wailing vocal piece.

DIA is available now through Locust Music, and is highly recommended.

MP3 :::
Amen Dunes – By the Bridal
Amen Dunes – Amen Dunes