Road Trip

Music is an essential element to any good road trip. Music can enhance your time in the car unlike any other pastime. Mood, location, time of day, weather, and a host of other factors can (and should) determine your personal soundtrack. There is nothing worse than the wrong song at the wrong time. But there is something enjoyable, exciting, and even enriching about listening to the right song on the open highway.

The D Man recently hit the road for San Diego. Seaworld. Legoland. The works. Enjoy my music log on what proved to be a fantastic time. As you will see, The D Man was on his game and hit all the right buttons.

• Monday. Started in the early morning with Beach House's exquisite, hazy Teen Dream. Absolutely perfect. While leaving the Wasatch Front, the late winter clouds hung low, and the Baltimore duo's music extended the clouds right into the car.
• During the bleak winterscapes of central Utah, The D Man went with The xx. The atmospherics could have been sexier except for Mrs. D Man curled up in her velour sweats reading Louisa May Alcott's Little Women. (Note: she cried for the first time at page 57. Yep. Page 57).
• Next: Alligator from The National. High point: "All the Wine" and "Abel" over the snow-riddled summit of Beaver pass.
• After emerging from the Virgin river gorge, The D Man slipped in Rules from The Whitest Boy Alive. No better album for the vast desert on a clear, forward-looking day. Awesome.
• Coming down into Las Vegas, Kanye West's Graduation was on track five.
• Tuesday. While trying to find some breakfast on the streets just off The Strip, we listened to The Very Best. Brilliant selection. The D Man wondered whether anyone would notice. Nope.
• Setting out for California, we listened to Nashville from Josh Rouse. The D Man really loves this album, especially in the springtime. Needed to get those open-hearted vibes going.
• Across Death Valley, had to go with something big, anthemic. Kings of Leon did the trick. Pulled into Barstow while listening to this song.
• Played the Beach Boys as we headed down into the coastal valleys of California. A tradition of sorts, dating back to road trips as a kid. Is there a better soundtrack for the coming surf and sun?
• We hit San Diego at night, which obviously required something smooth, urban, breezy. Ne-Yo. Check. Year of the Gentlemen. Check.
• Wednesday. Animal Collective.
• Thursday. The D Man pulled out a special treat while driving on the Pacific Coast Highway to Legoland. The Outfield. Greatest Hits. A triumph that I will never forget. Awesome drive, awesome day.
• Beach House. Again. Displaying serious versatility, the duo's music transformed into an ethereal accompaniment for the setting sun.
• Friday. We listened to Camera Obscura while driving through the palm-tree lined streets of Coronado. Who knew a Scottish band could be so pitch-perfect on an island?
• Saturday. The return trip is always difficult when it comes to your music selection. That sense of anticipation and excitement is gone. Road trippers need strong songs to carry them home, songs that can retain the trip's excitement or at the very least ruminate on the good times past.
• California rain on a Saturday morning: Begone Dull Care from the Junior Boys. The D Man wondered at this stage whether he is one of the best road trip DJ's of all time. Seriously.
• Enjoyed my first listen to Spoon's Transference.
• Two Suns from Bat for Lashes carried us up and over the cloud-shrouded El Cajon pass. This song was brilliant as we made the ascent.
• In the desert again, we needed something sprawling, open, and somehow American. Wilco's Summerteeth fit the bill. Maybe The D Man's favorite album from Chicago's finest band.
• Eventually slowed things down with Sun Kil Moon's Tiny Cities, one of The D Man's favorite driving albums of all time. More rain. More thinking. The rest of the car was asleep or reading (Little Women is apparently pretty long), so The D Man contemplated big things. Shot to the moon / Read a paperback and I wanna come home / Soon.
• Getting closer to Vegas again, The D Man loosened things up with Passion Pit. The kids woke up and liked what they heard. On the other side of Vegas, we continued the happy pop vibes with Vampire Weekend's Contra and The Very Best (again).
• Hit more rain and snow just before our stop in Cedar City. Beach House. A third time.
• Sunday. The D Man eased things into his final day of driving with The Kings of Convenience. Probably have listened to Declaration of Dependence more than any other album the past few months.
• Neko Case. Ryan Adams. Maxwell. Home.