The perfect summer mix CD is one that you can blast in your car with the windows rolled down, without fear of a bittersweet piano ballad or a pretentious ambient noise interlude creeping in. The songs should all have the sort of energy to them that makes you want to drive 80 in a 30 zone, while still relishing the moments when you’re stopped at a red light, showing the guy in the adjacent lane just how much you’re rocking out. The songs should sound like sunshine, which is not to say that they should be about sunshine – there’s always the first Polyphonic Spree album for that. You should love the songs so completely, that you would volunteer to give your friends rides anywhere they want to go, just for an excuse to hear the CD again.

So perhaps trading in my set of car keys for an unlimited metrocard has rendered the summer mix CD irrelevant. But I think my summer still deserves a soundtrack, even if I’m limited to listening to it under headphones while I stand on a dark and humid subway platform, waiting for a crowded rush hour train. So here it is, in all its glory: the group of songs that will hopefully define my summer in one way or another. The music snob in me has tried to be diplomatic and acknowledge the occasional major label mainstream success, while still not overlooking a couple lesser known indie-punk outfits. Again, it’s all for the sake of maximum awesomeness.

01. Lifetime – Northbound Breakdown
To me, this song embodies all things summer. It’s incredibly fast, energetic, catchy, and totally singable, all in under two minutes.

02. Zebrahead – Someday
Zebrahead has always been the closest thing to hip-hop that I will willingly listen to. This song feels like a pool party, and it has such a bouncy vibe that it could convince the worst dancer in the room to shake their booty.

03. Alkaline Trio – Stupid Kid
This is one of those songs that is so simple, it somehow transcends reason and achieves an inexplicable genius. And the double-time third chorus just rocks.

04. Fall Out Boy – Of All The Gin Joints In All The World
I’ll be the first to admit that Fall Out Boy are (as a general rule) a lame band. But this song is downright infectious.

05. Saves The Day – Shoulder To The Wheel
It turns out driving and listening to songs on the radio are recurring lyrical themes in this mix. This song is great, and it reminds me of my freshman year of college. Anyone else? No? Just me? OK then.

06. The Lawrence Arms – Like A Record Player
There’s so much energy packed into this song’s two minutes, I could listen to it on repeat all day. When the tambourine kicks in on the second verse, it will have you jumping up and down, whether you’re in the privacy of your own home or applying for a boat loan at the bank.

07. Strung Out – Deville
Another really fast song that involves a car breaking down. The half-time bridge truly makes me long for a mosh pit, which is especially noteworthy, because mosh pits generally terrify me.

08. Green Day – Bab’s Uvula Who?
Green Day are at their best when they’re careening through two-minute songs armed with nothing but the same three chords and completely unintelligible lyrics. The guitar completely drowns out the vocals in this song, and it’s awesome.

09. New Found Glory – All About Her
New Found Glory are another band that’s so easy to hate, but tracks like this one are so catchy, their forays into nasal power-ballad territory are almost forgivable. After the first minute, you’ll be playing air guitar and air drumming at the same time.

10. The Ataris – San Dimas High School Football Rules
Songs with lyrics like “I just want you to know I have a major crush on you” can either be (a) amazing, or (b) amazingly terrible. Luckily this one is of the first category. Drums, guitar, bass, they’re all playing their hearts out, and it shows.

11. Less Than Jake – Sugar In Your Gas Tank
It’s only right that a summer mix should have at least one ska song, and this is the best one I know. At their finest, Less Than Jake are much more about attitude and energy than precision, and this song is no exception.

12. Homegrown – Tomorrow
Before they went on “indefinite hiatus,” Homegrown’s sunny Orange County disposition permeated so many great songs. This is but one of them.

13. Blink 182 – Dumpweed
After he ditched ska but before he embraced hip-hop, Travis Barker was an incredible drummer. And before Tom Delonge discovered delay pedals and started writing 6-minute songs about outer space, he wrote this gem, featuring what is pretty much the definitive pop/punk chorus.

14. Taking Back Sunday – You Know How I Do
Though arguably too “emo” for a summer compilation, Taking Back Sunday’s first album contained so much energy, the off-key warbling was more than made up for by sheer conviction.

15. Fenix Tx – Song For Everyone
One last song about driving. This one is deceptively simple in its perfect construction, and feels truly epic when it finally builds to the outro at the three-minute mark. The only downside is that when it finishes, and your morning commute is over, you’ll feel less like going to work and more like embarking on a grand adventure. But in the end you still have to go to work. Sorry, I’m still working on that.