WARNING MASSIVE WALLS OF TEXT PAST THIS POINT

So I've been doing some travelling since I moved, mostly to see all the friends and family I can before I move very far away from them all again. I figured since I'm travelling I might as well hit you all with some roadtrip songs. Now I say roadtrip, but I really mean travelling songs. Anyway all of these songs come with an attached story about where I was in my life at the time and why that song is significant to me.

This first song I heard in some kids movie when I was real little in the context of the protagonists driving through the desert on some half baked scheme, which I assume must have been ripped (consciously or not) from Easy Rider. Since then this song has become absolutely synonymous with the concept of a roadtrip for me.

"Born to Be Wild" - Steppenwolf

Roadtripping isn't always long distance, sometimes there isn't even an endpoint in mind, it's just about getting out; driving around because you can. When I was in high school my friends and I used to just drive and listen to music, because when we were driving it meant our parents weren't in control, we were in charge. To this day, my car still represents freedom in my eyes. This song in particular is memorable, I remember driving in the middle of nowhere with some of my friends screaming this song at the top of our lungs. Made me feel alive, man.

"All These Things That I've Done" - The Killers

After high school, I lost my car, but gained freedom in another form: college! School gave me all the independence I needed for a while. Even when I got my car back my second year, it was really only used, in a roadtrip capacity, to visit my girlfriend at the time (who lived about 5 hours away from me in another state). But that relationship ended in a not so great way. I was working in a research lab my second year summer and we had set aside the last week of the summer for me to come visit her, then a couple weeks before that she just dumped me. I can't say I blame her, I was not a particularly great dude at that point my life and we weren't a great match. On top of all that, I didn't have a lot of respect for her as a person and that wasn't good for either of us. That said, the breakup kind of devastated me (I think it was more of a blow to my ego than anything else; "You can't break up with me, I'm supposed to break up with you"). So after trying to figure out what I was going to do with that week of planned vacation I had set aside for myself, I settled on roadtripping through the South. I may or may not have recently read An Abundance of Katherines which may or may not have been a significant influencing factor in that decision. It ended up being a really strange experience. Often times lonely, because I did it by myself. This song is the only song I really remember from that trip. I just remember driving through the Tennessee rain and feeling all the emotions build up and eventually just release all at once listening to this song. It was kind of an intense experience. Probably why I still remember it. This aside, it was a pretty fun trip once I got to seeing my friends in Georgia.

"Midnight: Carroll Street" - Into It. Over It.

My third year of college some of my friends and I made the impromptu decision to drive 7 hours to go see Of Montreal in another state. The concert was really amazing despite the one dude who was grinding on his girlfriend that kept bumping into me. On the way back we decided to go hiking at some spot in the other state, despite it being the middle of winter and the mountains being covered in snow and ice. So we hiked for a few hours, smoked some weed and came back to drive home. This song played loudly in my memory as we drove through the mountains on the way home. Very much a fond memory for me.

"Ragged Wood" - Fleet Foxes

This was barely a road trip. I went to school kind of nestled in the mountains. There was lots of hiking around and there is one particular hike that's very close to school, pretty short and almost straight vertical, but it gives you this amazing view of the entire valley around it. As such, it's kind of tradition at my school for everyone to do a sunrise hike on this mountain before graduating. A group of kids I was doing research with made it a goal for everyone to go do the hike at some point as a kind of bonding experience. I filmed the whole thing for ~recruitment~ purposes and then set the video to this song. I thought it was pretty fitting.

"She Lit a Fire" - Lord Huron

I'm pretty sure I've posted this song before, but it still belongs here. Back in 2014 Brand New and Modest Mouse announced a huge show at Forrest Hills Stadium in Queens. At the time it was a huge deal, because neither band had done much in the way of shows in the last several years. I convinced a friend of mine to go and we megabus'd up to NY and went to the concert and explored the city some. It was a really fucking great time and an amazing show. And because of my experience recording the hike back home I decided that I was going to film this whole experience too. I came home, stitched together some of the city experience and some of the concert footage and backed it with this song.

"Logan to Government Center" - Brand New

In the winter of 2014, I got the opportunity to go to Israel and seized it firmly with both hands and a camera. That's right, I filmed this trip too. Israel was this kind of surrealistically beautiful place that I got to see with my own two eyes so of course I was filming and taking pictures pretty much the whole time. When I was editing the material together, I had trouble determining what I wanted the backing music to be. Because there was so much footage, I eventually went with three songs (which was like 45 seconds too long, but I digress). This song was dedicated to all the beautiful things that I got to see in Israel. Something about this song just oozes an ancient, natural beauty, much like Israel. Even the music video for this song focuses on natural beauty, albeit the coast and wilderness of Oregon.

"Towers" - Bon Iver (the actual song doesn't start until about the 1:31 mark)

Okay, we're past the "me filming things and setting them to music" phase of my life. Honestly, this song is just a generally amazing roadtrip song, but this one is particularly relevant for me from when I went to the Shaky Knees music festival in 2015. I had to educate my girlfriend at the time about all the amazing music we were about to see and this was one of those songs. Unfortunately, the music festival was kind of shitty just because of a poor venue choice (it's much better now that they hold in the Olympic Centennial Park).

"At the Beach" - The Avett Brothers

One of my favorite reasons for roadtripping is food. I LOVE food. I will travel for good food. I will travel frequently for good food. I got in the habit of travelling to this BBQ place that was a good distance away from me (45 min driving each way) every 2-3 weeks for a few months. I would always listen to this album when we were going to this BBQ place. So this song and BBQ have become intertwined in my head. That said, it's just a good roadtrip song.

"Heretic" - Lady Lamb

I've never listened to this song on a roadtrip (at least not consciously). This is my flying song. For whatever reason any time I'm on a plane, this album calls to me. In particular this song. Something about it helps me sleep on those long flights. My most recent memory of this I recall from when I was travelling for grad school interviews. Something about this song made me take a moment to think about the massive shift in my life that was beginning. I haven't been a kid for a long while. I've been supporting myself for a similar length of time. But now I'm taking a much larger step toward the goals I've set for myself. And it's exciting and terrifying all at the same time, even though none of it is related to the song at all. It's just the vibe I get from it.

"Brothers on a Hotel Bed" - Death Cab for Cutie

bonus live version with Lauren Mayberry from Chvrches on vocals