Night Driving and Listening to Music

Driving at night and listening to music alone and loud is the only thing I miss about having a car.

Last time I was able to do that was maybe 3 years ago or so. BoC's A Beautiful Place in the Country is perfect for driving at night.

For night driving, Sigur Ros is excellent music.

For daytime driving, "Doolittle" is tough to beat.

Yeah, I love doing this. My band used to practice in Oak Park, and so frequently I'd be driving back to Chicago at 11 PM on highways (290 to Lake Shore Drive) and I'd roll the windows down and just kind of luxuriate in whatever I was playing.

yeah this is where a lot of my favorite albums have really "clicked" for me, especially by artists who make music that has heavier emphasis on mood/atmosphere to manipulate emotion (talk talk, m. ward, radiohead, tom waits, low, nick cave, shearwater all come to mind)

i don't really have an explanation for it though beyond what you've said

DID YOU KNOW? Talk Talk's "Spirit of Eden" was actually written to be listened to while driving through deserted sections of downtown Los Angeles late at night.

most recent memory of this *really* working for me was big city driving at night (especially in unfamiliar cities) with M83's Before the Dawn Heals Us soundtracking a few of those drives. really great stuff in that setting, haven't played the album much at all since then.

Kinda obscure, but an ILK record really, really freaked me out once doing this on no sleep

xpost: just like on the album cover, incidentally

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61S161DW2XL._AA240_.jpg

i am completely with you. for me it's kraftwerk's "man machine." when I give that album to people I tell them, "listen to this in your car at night. it makes you feel like you are in blade runner."

rob

-right on with that sonic poop - haven't listened to em at night as much, but i do love the newer records. this is a whole other thread, but fuck, their new records are (imo) better than the old ones...and i love the old ones!

It Was Written sounds awesome while driving at night.

I do not recommend this to anyone but driving at night and listening to your favorite music with a few drinks in the system is amazing. More than a few is a disaster.

I'm going to sound like the world's biggest walking (driving) cliché, but I once played Nebraska on a loop driving alone through a pretty continuous and often torrential rainstorm through Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

(Ironically, my return trip took me through the actual Nebraska but I was heartily sick of it by then.)

Best song I know about driving at night and listening to music is the Vulgar Boatmen's Wide Awake

Well ... I'm driving in a black on black in black Porsche 924.
Tempting fate for a little bit more.

HEX wins

The Clientele, Burial, Cocteau Twins, and M83 are very good for urban night driving.

Something about the darkness and being completely enveloped by sound at the same time

I love listening to music in headphones outdoors at night for roughly the same reason.

Daniel OTM with Burial.

Best driving music experience I ever had was during the day. Me and a fried were driving an old couple's Chevy from New Hampshire to Florida. We were going up into the mountains of West Virgina just after lunch one day, and he popped in a cassette of Micheal Nyman he'd picked up for a buck the day we left. This huge storm came up, and the music was dark, and it poured so hard we had to pull over, and the minimalist triads kept pumping away. When we got driving again, the weather broke, and we were high up, looking down on green valleys spotted with cows and shacks. With the strings sawing away, rainbows broke out and we passed a line of yellow school buses that matched a key change- dozens of buses rolling past a coal-black blasted cliff was the peak. But the whole 30 minute side was amazing. And the music never sounded so good again.

Holy shit bendy, that's such a great story.

I threw on Roadrunner as soon as I saw this thread. Nothing beats driving at night with this song as your guide.

^^^"Roadrunner" FTFW

I'm getting ready for a boring roadtrip and need something to keep me awake. I had a driving tape from years back that started with Roadrunner, then went into Stooges - "Down On My Street," VU - "Rock and Roll," "L.A. Woman," something from Remain in Light. I need to try to find it and see what else was on it for ideas.

Rather than music to keep me awake, I actually prefer driving music that creates a drone. Kraftwerk obv tops at this, but I've had great driving experiences (in the snow!) with the B-side of "Low" and also, oddly enough, with Nico's "Desertshore." Janitor of Lunacy in the snow ruled!

I think that any record that you like sounds good driving at night.

I think that any record that you like sounds good better driving at night.

ugh certain songs in particular. i wish i drove!

Chromatics, obv.

Gas is too expensive now to just go out and drive around all night like I used to. :(

i'm currently buying a car just to do exactly that!

'Driving at night and listening to music alone and loud is the only thing I miss about having a car.'

absolutely.

that, and not having to walk home with loads of groceries.
up a steep hill.
sometimes in the rain.

Gas is too expensive now to just go out and drive around all night like I used to. :(

-- Johnny Fever, Wednesday, June 4, 2008 10:52 AM (4 hours ago)

Goddamnit. Indeed. i used to drive around aimlessly late at night at least 4-5 times a week. Now it's a guilty pleasure to drive farther than i need to for groceries or liquor, blasting Amnesiac or High Places, or whatever.

http://www.fastnbulbous.com/roadtrip-f.jpg
http://www.fastnbulbous.com/roadtrip-b.jpg

The weekend I started working on my mix, the mother of a colleague at work passed away. A musician who played piano and organ at various south side Catholic churches, she was born to musicians who were accompanists at the Roseland movie theater. Oh, and she also had seventeen (17!) children. The Tribune obituary said,"Sometimes, the stress got to her, and Mrs. Ward would leave after her husband returned home from work." "She never told us where she went," said her son Tom. "She'd just drive."

No freakin’ doubt! I could imagine her barrelling down the highway with the radio cranked up, road raging, flippin' the bird at slower drivers, just blowing off steam. As a good Catholic church singer and mother, perhaps not. Who knows, however, as she never let her family witness this personal time. As a music lover, there's little doubt that the radio would have been a part of her driving time. Music and driving are essentially linked in the American cultural fabric, much more so than places like Europe, where everything isn't so dang far away. I just hope she had some decent tunes to drive to.

Today's radio is a hit and miss affair, mostly miss, and stuffed up the wazoo with commercials, unless you have XM. My road trips are infrequent, rarely more than a couple a year. With gas prices the way they are, and environmental concerns, driving for fun is no longer an option for mere entertainment. However sometimes you have to get from here to there, and you need a soundtrack. For my last trip to a June wedding in Iowa, I put together a seven volume mix. It's hard to make just one perfect CD for a roadtrip, and with over ten hours round trip, you need more. I did remember a mix tape I made when I got my first car after college being nearly perfect. I actually found it! On listening to it again, it was far from perfect. I called it "Roadrunner & Other Drivin' Tunes," but forgot to include "Roadrunner"! It also had songs from bands like Bone Club that didn't age well, and Hendrix's overly long, sluggish blues jam, "Voodoo Chile." There's some classic rock songs by The Doors, Deep Purple and AC/DC, that are classic driving tunes, but you can hear those on the radio.

I tried to boil down 7 volumes to one, but I couldn't do it. So I ended up with a double CD mix. The first is songs about driving and travelling. Disc 2 is songs that simply sound good while driving. My preference is for sprawling epics with dramatic crescendoes, or sometimes just rhythmically hypnotic ones that chug along. Be careful with those selections if you are getting sleepy. Hopefully this arrives in time for one of your summer road trips. If not, they should work just as well for train rides or running. Please don't wear headphones if you bike. There's a few songs about death in the mix, but I don't want anyone dying while listening to it! This mix is made specifically for driving or crappy boombox speakers. Meaning, I matched the levels of the quiet songs to the most compressed, loud mixes such as The Who and The Stooges. So the dynamics should be pretty consistent, and work well in a car with road and wind noise. A good alternative for biking is a backpack with built in speakers. Here's an updated version of my Osiris G-Bag - http://www.danscomp.com/730017.php#

http://www.fastnbulbous.com/roadtrip-b2.jpg

Possibilities for Vol. 3
Dick Dale & His Del-Tones – Hot Rod Racer 63
The Who – Leaving Here 65
The Rolling Stones – Route 66
Them – Mystic Eyes 65
Small Faces – Runaway 65
The Animals – See See Rider 66
Willie Mitchell – That Driving Beat 67
The Velvet Underground – All Tomorrows Parties 67
The Velvet Underground – Heroin 67
The Velvet Underground – European Son 67
Jimi Hendrix – Crosstown Traffic 68
Van Morrison – Madam George 68
The Velvet Underground – Sister Ray 68
Rolling Stones – Midnight Rambler 69
Rolling Stones – Gimme Shelter 69
Can – Mother Sky 69
Alice Cooper – Black Juju 70
Alice Cooper – Under My Wheels 70
Velvet Underground – Rock ‘n’ Roll 70
The Stooges – Dirt 70
The Doors – L.A. Woman 71
The Doors – Riders On The Storm 71
Deep Purple – Speed King 71
The Temptations – Papa Was A Rolling Stone 72
Modern Lovers – Old World 72
Neu! – Hallogallo 72
Can – Spoon 72
Patti Smith – Gloria 75
Patti Smith – Land 75
Bruce Springsteen – Backstreets 75
Bruce Springsteen – Born To Run 75
Curtis Mayfield – Junkie Chase 72
Kraftwerk – Autobahn 74
Queen – It’s Late 77
The Buzzcocks – Moving Away From The Pulsebeat 77
Christopher Cross – Ride Like The Wind 79
Stiff Little Fingers – Johnny Was 79
AC/DC – Highway To Hell 79
X – The World’s A Mess It’s In My Kiss 80
The Feelies – The Boy With Perpetual Nervousness 80
The Feelies – Moscow Nights 80
The Feelies – Loveless Love 80
Talking Heads – Listening Wind 80
X – The Hungry Wolf 82
The Bongos – In The Congo 82
Stan Ridgeway – Drive, She Said 85
The Ramones – Chasing The Night 84
The Woodentops – Get It On 86
The Jesus & Mary Chain – Who Do You Love 86
Eleventh Dream Day – Tenth Leaving Train 88
L7 – Til The Wheels Fall Off 90
Swervedriver – Son Of Mustang Ford 91
Swervedriver – Last Train To Satansville 93
The Breeders – Drivin’ On 93
Spoon – 30 Gallon Tank 98
Queens Of The Stone Age – Regular John 98
Eels – Woman Driving, Man Sleeping 01
Eleni Mandell – Don’t Lose My Trail 02
Black Heart Procession – A Sign On The Road 02
Queens Of The Stone Age – You Thin I Aint Worth A Dollar 02
Queens Of The Stone Age – God Is In The Radio 02
Sonic Youth – Rain On Tin 02
Sleater-Kinney – Let’s Call It Love 05

Arvo Pärt's De Profundis FTW