Pump up the summertime jams

Summer’s in full swing—one long mashup of beaches and barbecues, sticky heat and cool Delta breezes, long drives to nowhere and other lazy, crazy ways to wile away the year’s longest days. None of it, of course, is complete without a soundtrack playing the perfect summer jams. Crank up the stereo: We asked five area music types—bands, solo artists and deejays—to give us their summery sonic musts.

Terra Lopez of Sister Crayon

1. “Ruin”—Cat Power: I drove around L.A. with a friend, and we listened and danced to this on repeat all night.

2. “Why Like This”—Teebs: I’m obsessed with this song.

3. “You’re the Kind of Girl”—Lee Fields & the Expressions: Soul music at its best.

4. “Do the Astral Plane”—Flying Lotus: Feel-good jam.

5. “Daredevil”—Fiona Apple: A triumphant song on heavy rotation in my car.

6. “Lazuli”—Beach House. Carefree summer nights are this.

7.. “Old & Gray”—Maps & Atlases: All of their music makes me happy, but this song kills it.

8. “Award Tour”—A Tribe Called Quest: Classic, a must for any summer mixtape.

9. “Golden Rule”—Charles Bradley: Instantly makes you want to dance.

10. “A Window”—The Radio Dept.: Will always remind me of summer nighttime drives to nowhere.

DJ Larry Rodriguez

1. “Nem Vem Que Não Tem”—Wilson Simonal: Sexy, celebratory and life affirming.

2. “Soon as I Get Home Tonight”—Blah Blah Blah: The Chicago-based brothers have obviously been sipping from the poppy gourd of Morrissey—and it never tasted so good.

3. “Sun Goddess”—Ramsey Lewis (featuring Earth, Wind & Fire): This tune has healing properties. It saved me from a bad psilocybin trip at Stinson beach 23 years ago, [when] all I had to do was play it in my head.

4. “2000 Blacks Got to Be Free”—Fela Kuti and Roy Ayers: This jam emanates good vibes and sunshine all the way to the very end.

5. “Na Mangueira”—Zuco 103: This strange and quirky samba never fails to confound dance-floor goers with its cartoonlike characteristics.

6. “Que Pasa/Me No Pop I”—Coati Mundi.

7. “Chewing Gum Delirum”—Free Pop Electronic Concept.

8. “Home Again!”—Menahan Street Band.

9. “Hot Fun in the Summertime”—Sly & the Family Stone.

10. “Out on the Rolling Sea”—Joseph Spence & the Pinder Family.

CAVE Women

1. “Lazuli”—Beach House: Gives a feeling of optimism and peace that perfectly complements a summer bike ride or barbeque.

2. “Secrets Make Sounds”—French Cassettes: The song’s catchy melodies and organic movement give you no choice but to dance.

3. “Section Eight”—Kapowski: Delves into the rich sounds of jazz, pop and electronic music, creating a sound that won't escape your ear.

4. “Colin”—Peter Broderick: Will cover your body with chills and fills your eyes with tears. This song forces you to appreciate how beautiful summer and life is!

5. “All My Heart”—Alto: The interweaving of the strings and voices complements each other so well.

6. “Her Morning Elegance”—Oren Lavie: This lighthearted song captivates immediately, allowing you to sit back and enjoy the sweet subtleties of the voice, strings and drums.

7. “Either-not”—The Suite Unraveling: Brings back memories of summer metal festivals. The song’s rhythmic complexity and melodic simplicity is incredible!

8. “Weightless”—Becca Stevens: This music is so incredible—beautiful voices, meter changes and daring instrumentations continue to challenge the ear, no matter how many times one listens to it.

9. “Ritual Union”—Little Dragon: The song’s layering and subtle shifts of sounds are so beautiful.

10. “Days Like This”—Josh Mease: A brilliant songwriter, everything about this track is exactly as it should be. The instrumentation and his voice blend so well together and make you feel good.

Century Got Bars

1. “I Get Around”—2Pac: Takes me back to seventh-grade summer—the year right before 2Pac died.

2. “Hay”—Crucial Conflict: Back home in Detroit this was a huge hit. Never bothered trying to learn the words to the verses, but just looked forward to screaming “HAAAAAAAAYYYYYYY!” Dope!

3. “Dilemma”—Nelly, featuring Kelly Rowland: A favorite summertime songs, mostly because the video came out around the summer of my 10th-grade year.

4. “First of the Month”— Bone Thugs-N-Harmony: I remember trying desperately to learn the words while chillin’ on my best friend’s porch that summer.

5. “Luv 2 Luv U”—Timbaland & Magoo: Always makes me think of summer, because I rapped Magoo’s part in a talent show at a summer festival one year while my friend did Timbaland.

6. “21 Gotta Get You Home”—Foxy Brown, featuring Blackstreet: Ultimate summertime song to ride out to—the flow was sick.

7. “Loungin”—LL Cool J, featuring Total: Loved this beat! Total was so dope back then, and it just made you wanna party. Me and my friends all crammed up in my Nissan singing, “Whooooo do you love, arrrreeeee you for sure?”

8. “Regulate”—Warren G, featuring Nate Dogg: Classic summertime song. Threw this on whenever [we] just wanted to feel like a straight up G!

9. “Summertime”—DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince: Can’t really remember a summer without hearing it, because its been playing since I was, like, 9.

10. “Big Pimpin’”—Jay-Z: Not the biggest Jay-Z fan … but summer of 2000 was when I was getting ready to move to Washington, D.C., to attend Howard University, and I had this one on repeat.

Adrian Bourgeois

1. “The Other Side of Summer”—Elvis Costello: Elvis at his acerbic best, writing about everything that’s wrong with the carefree season we all know and love.

2.”Ride the Wild Surf”—Jan and Dean: One of my all-time favorite productions with Hal Blaine’s insanely brilliant drumming and soaring strings that give me chills every time.

3. “Girls in Their Summer Clothes”—Bruce Springsteen: Beyond his penchant for hymns for the working man, the Boss proves here that he can write a perfect pop song.

4. “The Fourth of July”—Justin Farren: A perfect encapsulation of dreams, doubts and love that may or may not have ever been, in the image of a firework, burning brilliantly and then vanishing a moment later.

5 “All Summer Long”—The Beach Boys: I could have made the entire list Beach Boys songs, but this the perfect send-off to summer, both literally and metaphorically, with the group prophetically warning, “Won't be long till summertime is through,” and then Brian Wilson alone answering defiantly, “Not for us now!”

6. “Deckchairs and Cigarettes”—The Thrills: I hate cigarettes, but not many songs convey the restlessness of lazy summer days like this one does.

7. “One Summer Night”—The Danleers: Doo wop at its best, the memory of the happiest of nights sung so sadly.

8. “Where’s Summer B?”—Ben Folds Five: Presumably, Summer is a person in this song, one who needs to return so everything can be right again.

9. “Wild Honey”—U2: First summer love stays with you a lifetime, as well as the question of whether it’s stayed just as strongly with the one you loved and lost.

10. “Summer’s Cauldron”—XTC: What a masterful tribute to summer they pulled out with ridiculously psychedelic lyrics as, “Insect bomber Buddhist droning / Copper chord of August’s organ.”