Traffic Jams.

I know I complain about traffic a lot. But that’s only because I spend hours of my week sitting in traffic, often stressing about if I will ever even make my final destination. This week was particularly stressful as I was trying to make important meetings (one of which I showed up on the completely wrong day), and still trying to get to class before all the good seats are taken (a.k.a the one’s which is an appropriate distance from the professor). While some people feel that mellow music calms them while navigating traffic, it just irritates me more listen to artists in their calm demeanor while I am doing everything I can not to have a nervous breakdown. So instead I created my own play list that helps me survive LA traffic. 

1. Twin Shadow- When We’re Dancing. I talk about Twin Shadow a lot because George Lewis is the best, his voice soothes me and his beats are just synthesized enough to keep my energy levels stable. Another cool fact, Chris Taylor of Grizzly Bear produced his debut album.

2. Peter Wolf Crier- Hard As Nails. Duo Peter Pisano (private school teacher turned song writer) and Brian Moen pretty much developed their album over-night as Pisano felt a surge of creativity which he later shared with Moen and together they created their album in Moen’s home. This song I love as Pisano’s vocals are smooth but don’t get lost in the strong instrumentals of this song.

3. The Radio Dept.- Heaven’s On Fire. I loves these Swedes. This is a catchy little tune that always brightens up my traffic days when I hear it on my ipod. 

4. Big Boi- Shutterbug. Sometimes when I’m driving in traffic I don’t want to use my brain, I just want to bop my head to the beat. For times like these, I put on Shutterbug and it never fails to make me smile.

5. Local Natives- Wide Eyes. At work, they play this song all the time. Sometimes, even if it’s one of my favorite songs, I get resentful towards songs that are played at work. I just can’t ever listen to them the same- but this is not the case for Wide Eyes because I love this song too much to allow any type of resentment to set in. That’s true love.

That concludes my traffic jams. Maybe they will help you get through a long day as much as they help me.