June!

If you'll allow a bit of self-indulgence here, I'm feeling frisky because it's finally June, my namesake month. The weather clears, the summer starts, my birthday is coming up soon. Here are some songs I love simply for some gratuitous June namedropping:

Bright Eyes - June on the West Coast
...on the outskirts of Olympia, where the forest and the water become one..."
It's true! I am June, and I am on the west coast, and the forests and the water here in Oly really do become one:

Get this on 1998's Letting Off the Happiness.

Pedro the Lion - June 18, 1976
I was not born on this date, but how cool would it be if I was? This is David Bazan's piece about a girl born on the date of Gerald Ford's cabinet meeting announcing the evacuation of Americans from Lebanon. So maybe it's not a party song, but it's a great tune nonetheless. Buy it on the Progress EP.

The Like - June Gloom
This was my nickname for a long time after seeing The Like live, opening for Tori Amos. The song is great but the nickname is so... depressing? Get this on Are You Thinking What I'm Thinking?

Sufjan Stevens - Jupiter Bad June
It's probably redundant to mention I creamed myself five times over the first time I heard The Soof croon out my name in a languishing, baroque-esque way. The Osso String quartet is highlighted here, with a gorgeous string arrangement carrying us out. This is a live song debuted at the MusicNow Festival in Cincinnati earlier this spring.

Polyesthereogen - June June June June
This songs was actually written for and about me! The a capella intro slows down after the first verse for some synthesized 3/4 time with lovely harmonization.

Pinetop Seven - June
What else is there to say? You can get this song on their 2005 album The Night's Bloom.