Road Trippin' With The Trib

By Scott Smith in Miscellaneous on Oct 6, 2005 5:01PM

Ah, road trips.

Fluorescent lights and prefab office furniture are no good for anybody and our favorite cure for office blahs is a few hours on the road. With Columbus Day approaching, now’s the time when we start thinking about getting out of the office for a long weekend. Summer road trips are where it’s at for some people but it’s hard to commune with the road with the windows rolled up and the A/C blasting; the cool fall temperatures mean you can rock it Route 66 style. High gas prices be damned!

The Chicago Tribune must be feeling it too because they published a piece today about three quickie, scenic drives you can take: one in Garfield Park, one near the Fox River and another if you feel like rockin’ the suburb of Oak Brook. They include some nice stops along the way, too.

The Trib also drops some (hella expensive) prices on the perfect road trip vehicle: a convertible. Chicagoist questions the Grace Kelly allusion though. What’s next? A Stevie Ray Vaughn reference in an article about interesting helicopter rides?

And what’s a road trip without music? The Trib’s jazz and classical critics chime in with their picks for good driving music and they’re…well, lame. Copland and Sinatra might work for the straight-out-of-an-Infiniti-car-commercial drives the Trib recommends but to us, road trips mean serious time on the interstates and two-lane highways of these United States. And that means rock.

Tribune rock critic Greg Kot says road trip music “should work like sonic caffeine.” His picks fit that bill. But if you’ve got a particular destination in mind, your road trip mix should get you in the mood for that city right from the first song. So we compiled a list of seven-hours-or-less destinations and the recommended first song for each.

Memphis: Memphis In The Meantime by John Hiatt
Detroit: Kick Out The Jams by the MC5
Minneapolis: Can’t Hardly Wait by the Replacements
St. Louis: S.T.L. by the St. Lunatics
Liquor store at midnight: What’s Made Milwaukee Famous by Jerry Lee Lewis

Of course, we could be wrong. And we’re sure you’ll let us know if we are.