Yes, summer is fading fast. But that doesn’t mean the vibe has to fade with it.

The D.C. area’s hip-hop and R&B scenes tend to heat up in the warmer months. This year, they haven’t disappointed. And while not all summer-ready songs interpret “summer” the same way, a general rule is that they don’t make us work too hard.

The songs in Bandwidth’s seasonal rotation have leaned toward the languid — from the syrupy and entracing to the classic, soul-steeped stuff — and they’re all fine for head-nodding, solo walking or bleary-eyed partying.

So a few Bandwidth contributors put their heads together to come up with a playlist of the most summer-ready songs out of the D.C. region this year. We limited it to tracks released in 2015, but not necessarily the summer; and we focused on hip-hop and R&B, but we weren’t draconian about style (you could argue Kali Uchis’ “Rush,” for example, is more pop than hip-hop or R&B).

For those of you who haven’t been paying attention to local talent, here is your chance to catch up. For those of you who have, see if your summer playlists match up with ours. And as usual, let us know what we missed in the comments or on Twitter.

Check out Bandwidth’s other recent playlists, including our favorite D.C. songs of 2015 so far.

Warning: Explicit lyrics.

Image by Flickr user Simon Thomas used under a Creative Commons license.

Original post:

This summer’s edition of the Fort Reno concert series is not getting called off. After another round of uncertainty, organizer Amanda MacKaye announced Friday that the popular D.C. series — now in its 47th year — successfully fundraised the money it needs to pay for U.S. Park Police security at the shows. The first concert will take place Monday, July 6, with Sara Curtin, EastWestHwy and The Fuss.

MacKaye hasn’t made the 2015 schedule public yet, but she has posted a list of 20 bands confirmed for the slate. So in what is now a Bandwidth tradition, I made this playlist to help rock ‘n’ roll picnickers decide which Fort Reno shows to hit this year.

One problem, though: Not every band on the list has music on Soundcloud, my preferred playlist tool. Is your band booked for Fort Reno but absent from this playlist? Post a song on Soundcloud and email me a link at bandwidth@wamu.org.

Photo by Flickr user Isaac Wedin used under a Creative Commons license.

That’s what I asked Bandwidth’s contributors to help me do last month. Our writers sent me their picks for their favorite D.C. music of 2015 thus far, and the result was this extremely awesome playlist (stream it below).

One limitation, though: I had to pick songs that have been uploaded to Soundcloud. As it turns out, not everybody puts their music on the service. A lot of rock and punk bands, in particular, use Bandcamp, and some artists — for reasons my under-30 brain is still struggling to understand — don’t even put their songs on the Internet for free.

So this playlist still isn’t as exhaustive as I wanted it to be, but it’s still pretty freaking great. Give it a listen on your computer or chosen mobile device, and be sure to chide us in the comments, on Twitter or via email for missing your favorite D.C. music of the year. (Seriously! Send me your nominations — we want to hear it all.)

For more coverage of D.C. music, follow Bandwidth’s Track Work series.

Warning: Explicit lyrics.

Image, clockwise from top left: April + VISTA, Kali Uchis, Young Rapids (partial image), Ras Nebyu, Prinze George (partial image), Visto.

Some of this year’s most unforgettable local songs didn’t come from comfortable experiences. They sounded fed up, and particularly urgent in a year marked by growing inequity at home and multiple slayings by police in places that didn’t feel far away.

In one of the year’s rawest rock songs, Thaylobleu cranked up its guitars to tell a personal story of police harassment. Chain and the Gang and Jack On Fire assailed gentrification with wit and hyperbole. Punk band Priests declared everything right wing. Two remarkable hip-hop works channeled frustration and fatalism among young black Americans: Diamond District’s Oddisee cried, “What’s a black supposed to do — sell some crack and entertain?”, while Virginia MC GoldLink rapped about all the glorious things he imagines happening to him — when he dies.

Not that peace and love felt impossible in 2014: In a touching song released two years after his death, Chuck Brown sang of a “beautiful life” enriched by the warmth of community. Promising newcomer Kali Uchis made us kick back with a soulful number steeped in giddy infatuation. Experimentation thrived in D.C. music: Young artists built on the region’s strong punk pedigree and expanded its boundaries. Mary Timony’s band Ex Hex embraced a classic sound and made one of the country’s best rock ‘n’ roll records. Local bands with shorter but distinctive resumes — like Laughing Man, Two Inch Astronaut and Deleted Scenes — sounded better and more creative than ever before. A Sound of Thunder and Gloom reminded us that the D.C. area is still a reliable producer of top-notch metal.

As expected, Bandwidth contributors faced hard choices while making this list of the year’s best local songs, and not only because it’s our first one. Up until deadline, we were still hearing new D.C. songs we wanted to include. But in a place where mounting wealth has created a challenging environment for art, that’s not a problem, really. It’s a testament to a music scene that perseveres despite long odds. —Ally Schweitzer

Warning: Many of these songs contain explicit lyrics.

So unless you’re the kind of Fort Reno fan who goes to every show just to hang out and buy ice cream from the truck, this playlist—of every single band playing Fort Reno this summer—should help you decide when to pack your picnic and head for that Tenleytown green.

Our playlist includes show dates, but here’s the series’ entire 2014 schedule in case you need to brush up. Tonight brings performances from local ska group Captivators and Harrisonburg punk band Malatese.

Having trouble loading the playlist on your iPhone? Try the Whyd app.

Photo by Flickr user Rudi Riet used under a Creative Commons license.