Labor Day weekend traditionally marks the end of summer, and many Americans are hitting the roads for one last blast of warm-weather fun. So you’ll probably hit traffic. Of course, any good road trip requires great music, so we in the office took it upon ourselves to whip up an ideal mix for your escape this weekend, by each contributing two or three songs to build one epic list. At least, that was the original plan. Then we all realized each of us had way too many suggestions to limit it to three apiece. So, we each chose ten songs. We’ve provided iTunes links for the songs whenever possible (it’ll send you to the whole album, but the specific song you want will be highlighted). If the song’s not in Apple’s music vault, we’ve put up links to either another site where you can download it or, if nothing else, linked to a way to listen online.

Matt Tuccillo:
Rollins Band, “Starve”
The Pixies, “Space (I Believe In)
LCD Soundsystem, “Dance Yrself Clean”
Lynyrd Skynyrd, “Free Bird (Live)”
The Misfits, “Bullet”
The Pharcyde, “Passin’ Me By”
Sonic’s Rendezvous band, “City Slang”
Oblivians, “Bad Man”
Mazzy Star, “Fade Into You”
Metallica, “Orion”
Hidden bonus track: Siouxsie and the Banshees, “Cities In Dust”

Mike Spinelli
The Chesterfield Kings, “Running Through My Nightmares”
The Soft Boys, “I Wanna Destroy You” (7digital)
Flamin’ Groovies, “Shake Some Action”
Cro-Mags, “Hard Times”
The Plimsouls, “A Million Miles Away”
Superchunk, “Martinis On The Roof”
The Hold Steady, “Stuck Between Stations”
Van Halen, “Mean Street”
The Smiths, “How Soon Is Now”
Berlin, “The Metro”

Alex Bernstein
Focus, “Hocus Pocus”
Dire Straits, “Telegraph Road”
Jay-Z, “American Dreamin’” (iLike)
Kashmir, “Travelogue” (YouTube)
Crystal Castles, “Courtship Dating”
Bonobo, “Nothing Owed”
Mos Def, “Brooklyn”
The Roots, “No Great Pretender”
The Black Keys, “Strange Times”
Devin the Dude, “Stray”

Michael Crenshaw
Motley Crüe, “Home Sweet Home”
Ozzy Osbourne, “Perry Mason”
Pantera, “Cemetary Gates”
Metallica, “Ride the Lightning”
The Offspring, “Bad Habit”
Notorious B.I.G, “Gimme the Loot”
Wu-Tang Clan, “Wu-Tang Clan Ain’t Nuthin’ ta F’ Wit”
Nas, “The Message”
Dr. Dre, “Nuthin’ but a ‘G’ Thang”
Outcast, “Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik”

Jack Chinelli
XTC, “Senses Working Overtime”
Slayer, “Criminally Insane”
The Bloody Beetroots, “Ezekiel Eats Red Hoodie” (YouTube)
AFX, “XMD 5a” (YouTube)
Circle Jerks, “All Wound Up”
Bad Brains, “I Against I”
Karl Marx, “Venus Beat” (Karl Marx Beats)
Tómas R. Einarsson, “Bros (Zulueta) (Jack Schidt Remix)” (Bad Taste Records)
Cannibal Ox, “Real Earth”
Social Distortion, “I Want What I Want”

Tony Harmer
Arcade Fire, “Wasted Hours”
David Bowie, “Always Crashing in the Same Car”
Dire Straits, “Sultans of Swing”
AFX, “XMD 5a” (YouTube)*
Wild Nothing, “Chinatown”
Can, “Vitamin C”
Joy Division, “Ceremony”
Grizzly Bear, “Alligator”
Outkast, “Benz or Beamer” (YouTube)
Guns N’ Roses, “So Fine”

Will Sabel Courtney
Bruce Springsteen, “Born to Run”
Derek and the Dominos, “Layla”
Ramin Djawadi, “Driving with the Top Down”
George Thorogood and the Destroyers, “Gear Jammer”
Velvet Revolver, “Slither”
The Gaslight Anthem, “Meet Me by the River’s Edge”
Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, “Here’s To the Meantime”
Green Day, “Longview”
John Mellencamp, “Ghost Towns Along the Highway”
Foo Fighters, “Summer’s End”

Thoughts? Rants? Raves? Let us know what you’d choose. Also, be sure to check out our Tumblr account, Facebook page and Twitter feed for special East Coast bonus tracks.

*We did have a no duplicate rule, but Tony was just so passionate about including this song in his list we made an exception.