Summer is at full throttle. Long, warm days. Barbecues with family and friends. Kicking back on weekends that end way too soon. Hanging out on the porch on a sultry summer night gazing at a brilliant full moon. And of course music. What would summer be without music?

Almost everyone has at least one song that in some special way defines summer time for them. It could be an obvious summer song - I don't know, like "Summer In The City" by The Lovin Spoonful - or a more obscure, personal song that connects to fond and precious memories.

The music blog I Guess I'm Floating described one of three criteria for a "perfect summer jam" as a way to "look back with a proud, fuzzy nostalgia of memories that have been elegantly reduced to a warm translucent haze of images and sounds that you can't...quite...put your finger on." Indeed.

For this summer mix, the focus is on new and upcoming 2009 indie songs, featuring mostly well-known indie and alternative bands including The Dodos, Foreign Born, Why?, Starlight Mints, Fun, Deastro, Passion Pit, Pains of Being Pure At Heart, Throw Me The Statue and Akron/Family.

Included in this mix is the new single from the band Fun, the new moniker of ex-Format (personally, I was bummed they broke up) frontman Nate Ruess who teamed up with band members from Anathallo, Steel Train and former Jellyfish keyboardist Joseph Manning, Jr. to record the album Aim and Ignite, slated for release in October. Enjoy.

"Fables" - The Dodos from Time To Die (2009)

"Vacationing People" - Foreign Born from Person To Person (2009)

"This Blackest Purse" - Why? from Eskimo Snow (2009)

"Paralyzed" - Starlight Mints from Change Remains (2009)

"Be Calm" - Fun from Aim and Ignite (Aug. 2009)

"Parallelogram" - Deastro from Moondagger (2009)

"Moth's Wings" - Passion Pit from Manners (2009)

"Everything With You" - Pains of Being Pure At Heart from s/t debut (2009)

"Mirrored and Reversed" - White Demin from Fits (2009)

"Sun Will Shine" - Akron/Family from Set 'Em Wild, Set 'Em Free (2009)

"Hi Fi Goon" - Throw Me The Statue from Creaturesque (2009)

"I Found The Bend" - Kid Bombardos from I Round The Bend EP (2009)

"Always The Same" - The Legends from Over and Over (2009)

"Cloud Hustle" - Blind Man's Colour from Season Dreaming (2009)

For more songs not necessarily released this year, but all about summer, check out a summer mix IRC published last year (all songs still work) with songs from Beck, The Hold Steady, Queens of the Stone Age, Blonde Redhead, Pavement, Phoenix, Kings of Convenience, Grandaddy, The Kinks, Jens Lekman, The Flaming Lips and more.

Labels: 2009 Indie Songs, Indie Summer Mix Playlist, MP3s