keep art alive; art by joshua
petker
The summer song. you know the kind, it sticks to your skin like humidity, like melted ice cream dripping down your fingers, like a lip-gloss kiss. The summer song is typically catchy, pop-music candy; low on lyrical significance, but high on addictive melodies. The chorus is key. Repetition and sing-a-long ease are the necessary ingredients, and a comfortable dose of simplicity.
The song needs to have cross-over potential, not just between musical genres, but generations, too. It needs to have the hip-factor, the mainstream appeal, and some other something that pushes the song to the top of the charts, and on the tip of everyone’s tongue. Oh, and it helps if the song appears on a summer movie soundtrack. The almost unavoidable fate of the summer song is of course the curse of the one-hit wonder; though it will have plenty of company, both in the inevitable VH-1 special, and in karaoke bar playlists all around the world. Even after the song’s radio play dissipates, it will stil have musical longevity.
But, while the song is hot and new, and ruling in it’s summer reign, the song is definitely on fire.
Steal My Sunshine is one of those summer songs. Let loose in the summer of 1998; the pop-punk band from Toronto, Len, lit the radio up and had everyone singing along. The song was featured in the movie Go, one of my personal favorite summer films. The quirky dialogue, and almost non-sensical lyrics, made this summer song more likeable, and near-impossible to forget.
I mean, what exactly is impaired tribal lunar speak, anyway?
Steal My Sunshine :: Len
I love this song, although the band themselves left something to be desired in terms of their professionalism. Probably why they faded out. They were at a festival in ’99 and I was waiting for them to go on. They had a 25-min set, side stage. 15 min turnarounds between bands. In any case, we got halfway through their actual set time and they were still messing with equipment absently and hadn’t even explained their troubles. The crowd got upset, as crowds do, and the male singer flipped us off.
They ended up never playing at all. I’m betting the tossed water bottles in response to his gesture had a role to play in that.
Still a great song. Drinking In L.A. and You Get What You Give are among other old fun summer songs for me, although the list is always growing.
Drinking in L.A. is one of my favorites, too – love love love the song, and the film it was in (Playing by Heart).
LEN have a new song coming out! It’s called “It’s My Neighbourhood”.