Bonus Summer Playlist: Dirty Projectors’ Dave Longstreth Makes You a Mix Tape

In this week’s magazine, we asked five New York artists to make us playlists for New York–specific summer activities. Today, we’ve got one more from Brooklyn’s Dirty Projectors. Front man Dave Longstreth made us a mix to listen to whilst relaxing in a park. Hear it, after the jump.

1. Jackie Wilson, “Lonely Teardrops”
“I’ve been looking for ecstatic voices, and Jackie’s got it. Once, while driving the family minivan on a summer vacation, my dad got a speeding ticket listening to this song. It made him drive too fast. Is there anything more summery than driving too fast?”

2. Lucky Dragons, “Morning Ritual”
“The only thing I can compare them to is Mozart: deep lightness, aloof warmth, gentle humor. There’s a lot of movement in his music — it’s total tipsy-on-white-wine-at-a-summer-rooftop-party music. And Luke [Fishbeck, the producer behind Lucky Dragons] goes to more parties than anyone I know — besides me.”

3. Van Halen, “Eruption”
“The true boys of summer. My uncle saw them at a house party in Pasadena, summer of ’76. He said they blew his mind. Eddie’s guitar on ‘Eruption’ expanded the lexicon — a summery thing to do, I think.”

4. Stevie Ray Vaughan, “Crossfire”
“Your dad, 1987, drinking a beer in a bathing suit, listening to ‘Crossfire.’”

5. Radiohead, “Weird Fishes/Arpeggi”
6. John Mayer, “Waiting on the World to Change”
“I noticed how similar these albums [Radiohead’s In Rainbows and John Mayer’s Continuum] were during a bout of insomnia in Portugal. It’s something about the late Bush years — these songs are for the last Bush summer. The titles of the albums make me think of an axis or spectrum. Maybe they’re about possibility. And the lyrics! Radiohead’s lexicon is all about bureaucrats telling you you can’t succeed. And really, Mayer says the same thing, but with more ambiguity — and it’s better.”

7. Black Dice, “Endless Happiness”
“I don’t know why the generation of New York bands that included Black Dice, Gang Gang Dance, Excepter, and Animal Collective didn’t get the Seattle ’91 treatment. Maybe it’s weird, but I mean, to me, ‘Endless Happiness’ is great barbecuing music.”

8. David Byrne, “Glass, Concrete, and Stone”
“A great artist for any season, really, but we recorded some tracks together recently and I’ve been digging deep into his catalog. A really impressive musician. Makes me want to change my name to David.” —Mike Powell

Earlier: RZA, Kim Gordon, and Albert Hammond Jr. Make You a Summer Playlist

Earlier: RZA, Kim Gordon, and Albert Hammond Jr. Make You a Summer Playlist

Master Playlists [NYM]