What Salon's DJs are spinning this summer

Hello, it’s Hanh Nguyen, Executive Editor for Culture and Food at Salon.com. I’m jumping in to collab with Melanie on this special edition of The Swell to get you in the mood for summer.

Subscribers can join the conversation — click the speech bubble icon to leave a comment or click the heart to like this post.

As a former Houstonian, I'm returning to the Lone Star State this week with Senior Critic Melanie McFarland to participate in Austin's ATX Television Festival (May 28-31) as moderators and panelists.

ATX originally kicked off in 2012 and featured the Emmy-winning series "Friday Night Lights,” set in Dillon, Texas. Whether it was Blue Bell ice cream or small town high school football, the series didn’t mess with Texas culture – it got it right. The show’s soundtrack even featured two songs by Austin-based bands: "First Breath After Coma" by Explosions in the Sky and "I Turn My Camera On" by Spoon:

Thursday, May 28

Friday, May 29

Saturday, May 30

Sunday, May 31

Follow Melanie and me on Instagram to see our dispatches from Austin. And if you're attending in person, please come by and say hi!

“Hey, listen up to your local DJ
You better hear what he's got to say
There's not a problem that I can't fix
'Cause I can do it in the mix" - Indeep, “Last Night a DJ Saved My Life”

When I started The Swell newsletter last December, I wanted the bonus culture recommendation to start with Salon's staff before incorporating other experts, journalists and industry luminaries as guests. Part of this was to introduce the wide range of great writers and minds working behind the scenes in this small newsroom. In doing so, I had a blast discovering the scope of each person's tastes and background – and even learned that we have a number of DJs on staff.

Having worked closely with Melanie McFarland on the Culture desk for many years, I already knew that she had a punk DJ background, and this came into play when I visited her in Seattle last summer. I attended an indie punk showcase at her neighborhood bar and also a music history exhibit, “Nirvana: Taking Punk to the Masses,” at the Museum of Pop Culture.

I had only met National Affairs Staff Reporter Russell Payne briefly while I was in New York and have found his reporting essential in understanding the state of American politics today, especially when it comes to the electorate. When I was working with Russell for a recommendation in the Bob Ross issue of The Swell, however, I suspected there was another side of him after reading his thoughts on the "post-Tame Impala mid-2010s psychedelic indie boom." Ah, this is a true music critic. Here's our exchange:

Last but certainly not least, "Standing Room Only" host and Senior Writer Amanda Marcotte has made no secret about her love for music and concerts (hello, the theme of her newsletter and show!). In particular, the "Encore" section of her show reveals a hand-picked spin from her partner's Latchkey Records store in Philadelphia.

And thus, the Salon DJ Collective was born. I tasked each of them to craft an individual curated playlist for whatever occasion or mood they wanted to evoke for the summer. As someone who has hyper-specific playlists to regulate my moods, I appreciate that whether you want to party, chill outside or brandish your middle finger to the world, the Salon DJ Collective has you covered.

Check out the inspiration for each of their playlists, in their own words:

In the Pacific Northwest, summertime street parties are rare and special tributes to a sun that hides for half the year. Our most famous is the Capitol Hill Block Party. But for me, a beloved friend’s annual end-of-summer event is the place to be. Her pig roast is also part salmon bake and part old-school cookout, a beautiful gathering of nations grooving to an eclectic vibe I’ve tried to replicate here. 

To me, a good block party playlist marinates in nostalgia and spicy dancefloor bangers, guiding and riding the day’s energy like a Cameo song: It moves back (back) and forth (and forth) through the decades. Up top are mellow selections made for sipping soda or soju. Then the thumps pick up to tease those rumps to start shakin’. I was raised on a steady diet of house, R&B and hip-hop, so that means lots of dance tracks shuffled with throwbacks, and I’ve included one that, by law, must be played at every large outdoor gathering in Seattle. This list leaves plenty room for drink breaks and requests before winding down to some near-universal pleasures. If people happily complain about waking up the next day with sore feet, then it was a good day.

Summer’s always been a time for bittersweet music for me. It’s a time when lots of people move, whether they’re going to school or starting a new job. Some of my most memorable listening experiences have been during late-night walks back from work (this is back in my line cook days) or just lying back in a grassy field and enjoying the moment when the weather is warm and all your friends are still in town. 

This playlist is mostly a mix of jazzy downtempo electronica like Jerry Paper’s “Grey Area” or the Mild High Club’s “Windowpane,” the latter of which has one of my favorite intros of all time. With that being said, I tossed in a few indie bops, like Radio Free Alice’s “Look What You’ve Done” and Drugdealer’s “Madison,” which capture the sort of instant nostalgia that I associate with the endings and new starts of late summer. The song I’ve had on repeat recently from this playlist is Jockstrap’s “Concrete Over Water.”

My suggestion — throw on your best headphones and find a shady tree to lean back against and chill out.

Warmer weather means I get a chance at DJing outdoor events like our annual south Philly food festival or Pride. It’s a great time, and not just because Philadelphians are devout day drinkers. You’re at the decks for hours, so it’s a real chance to play a variety of genres: hip-hop, house, pop, even rock.

One thing I can’t play is family unfriendly tunes. A few curse words here and there, sure. This is Philly, after all. But we are living in a golden era for filthy lyrics in pop music. Playing some of these songs in public is rude and perhaps illegal indecency. It’s a real shame, how many hilarious and danceable tracks sit unplayed in my Serato library, because I can’t be educating the Pokémon set about what “W.A.P.” means. Or introduce them to anything Peaches or cupcakKe sing about.

But you, dear reader, have full First Amendment rights to enjoy these songs in your headphones, the privacy of your own home, or if you’re more of a night owl than I, in dark clubs that don’t admit minors. So here’s a selection of my favorite songs that will make you blush, but also make you laugh and dance. 

What songs do you associate with the summer? Let us know in the comments or by email at [email protected] and [email protected].

Spring Sale! Support Salon's bold journalism. Become a member for just $49.

A bonus recommendation from Jonnie “Dumbfoundead” Park — rapper, podcaster, writer on “Beef,” costar of “Nemesis” and author of the memoir “SPIT: A Life in Battles”:

A movie that one of my friends who was also in the writers’ room for "Beef" Season 2 made — it's his directorial debut, called “Lurker.” He’s a half-Korean, half-white director named Alex Russell. He wrote and directed the film, and (“Beef” creator) Lee Sung Jin actually executive produced it. It's a great film about the parasocial relationship [between] an artist and someone in his entourage. It’s very “Talented Mr. Ripley” meets the music scene. I would love more people to watch it. I think he just had such a good understanding about the music world.

There's a scene where there's two guys in this artist's entourage who are subtly kind of fighting each other to be in his good graces. And I think the sense of belonging that we all have and finding what we can actually contribute to the culture is this real feeling that a lot of us feel . . .What can I actually contribute? And how do I feel important?

I think that's very relatable to everybody. It's like, how am I relevant to this culture?
That's a part of my journey too, feeling like I'm enough, and not, like, “Where do I belong in this culture?”

“Lurker” is streaming on HBO Max.