As the last few days of the surf season are being crossed off the calendar, I’m finding myself holding tightly to what I might possibly classify as one of my top 5 most adventurous and pure summers ever. I’ve hung out with a lot of great people, I’ve visited a lot of incredible places, and I’ve spent a lot of time relaxing on the beach or on a longboard and discovering great music to keep me company through it all.

So I know I’ve already released a summer mixtape at the beginning of the season, but I realized that it was based mainly on music from last summer, and didn’t adequately represent any of the new memories I made this year. I also realized that all the music I found this year didn’t fit into just one category of summer music, there was music for hot days on the road to the beach, and music for chill nights by the pool. So I’ve compiled two companion playlists; one for Summer Days where you’re driving down the ocean road looking for a place to park your car so that you can jump out and hit the surf, and one for Summer Nights where you’re winding down by the pool with only your closest friends after a long adventurous day, talking about music, girls, life, and love. Once I divided the mixtape into two specific categories, the inspiration flowed and they both ended up developing into two really solid jam lists.
I’m about to head to Raleigh this weekend to see Bon Iver, and then Folly Beach for what is possibly my last big beach trip of the year, and I’m looking forward to setting the mood with these two sets of memory-inducing songs. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do, and I hope they provide the soundtrack to what’s left of your summer. Get out there and make the most of it.

Summer Days [Download]
Floating Vibes — Surfer Blood
Today is the Day — Yo La Tengo
Dannyboy — Youngblood Hawke
Young Blood — The Naked and Famous
Pumped Up Kicks — Foster the People
Either Way — The Generationals
Go Outside — Cults
Out of the Blue — Julian Casablancas
Big Wave — Jenny and Johnny
Cold War — The Morning Benders
Cheekbone Hollows — The Child Ballads
Everyday — Vetiver

Summer Nights [Download]
In the Summertime — The Rural Alberta Advantage
Wash Away [Reprise] — Joe Purdy
The Drying of the Lawns — The Tallest Man on Earth
And If My Heart Should Somehow Stop — James Vincent McMorrow
Santa Monica Dream — Angus & Julia Stone
Song for You — Alexi Murdoch
In the Stream — S. Carey
The Great Escape — Patrick Watson
Pacifists Anthem — Sunparlour Players
Accidental Babies — Damien Rice
Cliffs Along the Sea — Bryan John Appleby
Holocene — Bon Iver

It’s official, summertime is here, and that means new mixtape. Sort of. You may notice that a few of these are new jams, but many of them are kind of old or maybe even cliché… in fact, there’s even two songs by the same artist. Here’s why: As I started thinking about what summer means to me… I realized that summer is all about memories. Every summer… I think about the one before, and all the times I had and all the people that I surrounded myself with. And that’s more important than compiling an impressive list of songs that no one’s ever heard before.
So this playlist is dedicated to last summer. It’s dedicated to friends, to new love, to the shows we saw, to warm nights driving with the windows down, to laying on the hood watching the stars move across the sky, the bonfires in the back yard, late night phone calls, the lake water, the sparklers, and the watermelon. To nostalgia, and to another summer full of adventure.

Download Link

01. Swim – Surfer Blood
02. I Would Do Anything For You – Foster the People
03. Let Your Love Grow Tall – Passion Pit
04. 1901 – Phoenix
05. I Can See Your Tracks – Laura Veirs
06. The Curse – Josh Ritter
07. Furr – Blitzen Trapper
08. Summer Skin – Death Cab For Cutie
09. New Slang – The Shins
10. To Be Alone With You – Sufjan Stevens
11. Green Eyes – Joe Purdy
12. Strangers – The Kinks
13. Tiny Vessels – Death Cab For Cutie

So you’ve spent the last few weeks enjoying the Pumpkin Spice Latte III mixtape and the fall weather… now you can own a real live copy of that mixtape you love so much!

I made a limited run of 10 copies, 6 of which I’ve already given away to a few of my closest friends, so that currently leaves 4 extra copies that I’ll be selling in the Hipster Collective store for $12. Each copy is hand-made, numbered and manufactured with love in my very own home office, and comes with a pre-release download link to the PSL3 B-Sides, full of a bunch of great tracks that didn’t quite make it, but are still great for the fall season.

Go on over to the Hipster Collective store and get yours now!
(I know, 4 copies isn’t a lot, but I plan on printing more depending on the demand.)

Download audio file (pumpkinspicelatte3.mp3)

The long-awaited Pumpkin Spice Latte Mixtape III is finally here, and let me tell you, it’s a real good one. It’s fully of tasty jams and tunes to accompany the crisp air and pumpkin flavored drinks you’re about to experience. I don’t know where you live, but around Charlotte, we’re starting to see the first signs of Fall, and since today is officially the first day of Fall, there couldn’t be a better time to put on some Autumn-flavored jams. Here, check out the track list!

Night Beds / Night Beds
Australia / The Shins
The Underdog / Spoon
What I’m Looking For / Brendan Benson
Two Shocks / Brakes
Fader / Temper Trap
Midnight Coward / Stars
Always Love / Nada Surf
Weighty Ghost / Wintersleep
I Can / Minnutes
Energy / Apples in Stereo

Jerk It Out / Caesars
Yeah Yeah Yeah / The Minders
Tournament of Hearts / The Weakerthans
Fall Hard / Shout Out Louds
She’s Gone / The Hidden Cameras
I Feel It All / Feist
So It Goes / The Broken West
How Good It Can Be / The 88
Tearing Up the Oxygen / Maritime
What’s In It For? / Avi Buffalo
Strangers / The Kinks

There you have it. A bunch of  really catchy tunes, some new, some old, some really old, but all very good and sure to brighten your already stellar Autumn afternoon. You can listen to it here, or you can download it below. The cool thing about this one is that although it’s a single file, it has chapters embedded in it, so if you’re listening to it on an iPhone or an iPad, you can hit the next track button and it will know where to skip to. Cool, right?

Download m4a from Mediafire

Download mp3 (right click, save-as)

And keep your eye out for a mixtape related special soon…

I’m going to have to put all the mixtapes back up in posts one at a time like this, but I will get to all of them eventually. I went with this one first because I’ve been enjoying it all summer, in fact it’s one of my favorite mixtapes I’ve ever made… and if you got a chance to download it, hopefully you’ve enjoyed it too. If you didn’t get a chance to download it, here’s your chance!

Download audio file (startofsomethinggood.mp3)

Tracklist:
Something Good Can Work / Two Door Cinema Club
Let’s Go Surfing / The Drums
Hummingbird / Born Ruffians
Little Secrets / Passion Pit
This Too Shall Pass / OK Go
Nature of the Experiment / Tokyo Police Club
The Start of Something / Raised by Wolves
Nothing to Worry About / Peter Bjorn & John
Girlfriend / Phoenix
Cousins / Vampire Weekend
Zero / Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Stillness is the Move / Dirty Projectors
Lazy Eye / The Silversun Pickups

Just a little update: since I made this mixtapes earlier this summer, I saw Passion Pit and Phoenix in concert (consecutively) and I definitely recommend you check either of them out whenever they visit a town near you. Phoenix was hands. down. the best show I’ve ever been to. They played 1901 for the encore and invited everyone on stage for a dance party. We had front row seats, and were up immediately jumping around with Thomas Mars and the gang.
I was never a huge fan of Passion Pit, but after their show, I’m definitely a fan. Lots of clapping and dancing.

Click Here to Download