nickelsteak

A heat wave is a hell of a thing. It’s humid, sticky, slow, and uncomfortable. There are those breaks where you end up inside somewhere with AC and it’s the greatest thing you’ve ever felt since the first time you had sex. But you end up back outside at some point. At first it feels nice to be that warm, like under a blanket fresh out of the dryer. Pretty soon you start to sweat and you end up looking and feeling like you’d just been dipped in honey all over again.

The other familiar feeling is the kind associated with heat exhaustion. Like when you and a friend spend the hottest day of the summer at your High School Football field with no one around and smoke an entire pack of cigarettes in 2 hours with the sun beating down on you and then on the way home you decide the best thing for you to do is just lay down on some shaded concrete and have a bit of a rest. That’s pretty common, right?

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TRACK LISTING
Main Title from Predator – Alan Silvestri
Welcome to the Jungle – Guns and Roses
When The Lights Go Out – The Black Keys
Ghosts 21 – Nine Inch Nails
Ring Of Fire – Wall of Voodoo
Bhangra Bros – Firewater
Some Like it Hot – The Power Station
Cold Sweat (live) – James Brown
Burning Down the House (Live) – Talking Heads
Gimme Some Salt – Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Bird Without a Feather – R.L. Burnside
Instinct Blues – The White Stripes
I Come From The Water – The Toadies
Pepper – The Butthole Surfers
Feel Good Hit of The Summer – Queens of the Stone Age
Mess Around – Ray Charles
Rastaman-Dita – Molotov
After Dark – Tito and Tarantula
To All the Girls – The Beastie Boys
It Began In Afrika – The Chemical Brothers
L’estasi dell’oro – Ennio Morricone
Crockett’s Theme – FPU

SONG NOTES
Main Title from Predator – Alan Silvestri
When I was little, we found a man. He looked like – like, butchered. The old women in the village crossed themselves… and whispered crazy things, strange things. “El Diablo cazador de hombres.” Only in the hottest years this happens. And this year, it grows hot. We begin finding our men. We found them sometimes without their skins… and sometimes much, much worse. “El cazador trofeo de los hombres” means the demon who makes trophies of men.

Welcome to the Jungle – Guns and Roses
I remember seeing Axl get off that bus at the beginning of the video when I was about 9 years old. Changed my life. Something about the video has ingrained in me that L.A. is not only hot but a steaming hell hole. I know a lot of people feel this way. Most of them are from New England. People from out there think the weather is just perfect all the time. Remember, Predator went to LA after his romp in the jungle. Something to think about

When The Lights Go Out – The Black Keys
If you haven’t seen Black Snake Moan then you’re missing not only a great movie that uses southern blues music as a backdrop but also a lot of nude scenes with Christina Ricci. I’m just sayin. Everybody is sweating in that movie, whether they’re playing an acoustic guitar in a stuffy, dank bar, or having drunken sex with Christina Ricci.

Ghosts 21 – Nine Inch Nails
Could be the very warm analog sounding bass line but this is a summer song.

Ring Of Fire – Wall of Voodoo
The repeating synth that travels throughout the song is the kind of thing that makes me think of a warbling horizon while looking down an endless rolling highway in the dessert. Doesn’t hurt that these guys did another worthy “Heat Wave” song in Mexican Radio, either. Mexico is wicked hot.

Bhangra Bros – Firewater
New Yorker travels to India and records local musicians for a while. Comes back and brings the heat with him. It’s hot in India right? I think it is. I feel hot.

Cold Sweat (live) – James Brown
Who’s sweatier than the hardest working man in show business? Have you ever seen a picture of James Brown where he’s NOT in some full polyester suit sweating his ass off and just absolutely killing it? He’s got that long heat dome he calls hair holding it all in. Add to the fact that the live version of this song is almost twice as fast as the original and is a Ramones-esque 1:14 and you know that James Brown is bringing the heat.

Burning Down the House (Live) – Talking Heads
Talk about Psycho Killer all you want, Burning Down the House blows the barn doors off it when you add like 5 more musicians and step up the tempo. I’m flushed.

Gimme Some Salt – Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
I spent a summer working in downtown Boston and did a lot of walking to and from the hot as hell subway and riding the commuter rail. This reminds me of that time. I include it for selfish reasons.

Bird Without a Feather – R.L. Burnside
R.L. is stuck in time somewhere around 1928. He’s as old school chitlin circuit blues as they come. Unheard of when this was recorded in the late ‘60s and stayed that way until the mid ‘90s. While it’s NOT true that he shot his baby, as he sings, it IS true that he shot and killed a guy over a dice game once. I feel like the heat in Mississippi would do that to me too.

Instinct Blues – The White Stripes
More heat. Sweaty tank top and musty bandana kind of heat. But it’s all about having sex like the animals do. Outside in a swamp.

I Come From The Water – The Toadies, Pepper – The Butthole Surfers
I would be remiss if I didn’t include a couple songs from one of the hottest fucking places on earth, Texas. I Come From The Water tries to cool me off with its lyrics but burns up my insides. Pepper has that noise at the beginning. The one that makes you have heat dementia.

Feel Good Hit of The Summer – Queens of the Stone Age
I have very ingrained memories of driving through the dessert from Phoenix to L.A. and this got a lot of play. It’s so fucking hot out there.

Mess Around – Ray Charles
Remember that scene in Planes, Trains and Automobiles where Steve Martin was sleeping in the car and John Candy was driving and listening to this? He accidentally throws his cigarette in the back seat and at one point gets too hot and in trying to get his coat off it gets stuck on the seat adjustment knobs. God, just looking at John Candy in that scene makes me hot and uncomfortable.

Rastaman-Dita – Molotov
These guys are Mexican so they can handle the heat. That’s why they’re so happy.

After Dark – Tito and Tarantula
There’s not a scene in the first half of From Dusk till Dawn where I don’t feel the searing sun on my neck. It all culminates by the end where that bar, The Titty Twister, looks like it’s probably the muggiest place on earth while the band is playing this song. Only Salma Hayek stays dry.

It Began In Afrika – The Chemical Brothers
I was at a club in Montreal for my birthday on a hot August night seeing some DJ and he dropped this track somewhere around 4am. It wasn’t out yet. No one had heard it. We were all completely soaked already, everyone with a bottle of water in their hand. It was fairly memorable considering our state.

Crockett’s Theme – FPU
The original by Jan Hammer from the Miami Vice soundtrack is ace. However, this remake from 10 years ago just intensifies it a bit and gives it some punch without losing the feeling.

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Devon will make you a cocktail with celery bitters. He spins records somewhere north of Boston.