As soon as you finish reading this post we highly advise you to go outside and make some friends. Whether you’re barbecuing, having a few cold ones or, as one of the blogs below points out, icing one of your bros, we hope you have a chilled out and safe Memorial Day.

1. Ten Thousand Islands mix
This compilation from the indie Miami label features Flying Lotus, Caribou, Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti, jj, Jacuzzi Boys and 10K’s own Plains.
Download mix via Ten Thousand Islands

2. If your backyard BBQ demands a little hip-hop, soul, reggae or just some noise rock, check out Scissor Kick’s mix featuring Guilty Simpson, Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings, El Fata, Nas & Damien Marley, Bonobo and HEALTH.
Download mix via Scissor Kick

3. And if you simply cannot be bothered to follow links and right-click to download these mixes, hit up Slacker Radio or Pandora. There’s a debate about which is better, but try them both for yourself, and let us know if there are better services out there.

College students, rock stars, artists, yipsters and ne’er do wells are expected, if not encouraged, to consistently indulge in a bit of the wacky tobacky. However, most cogent beings would bridle at the thought of dentists, surgeons or cab drivers sucking down bong hits before sashaying off to the office.

So what about cooks, who have, rather controversially, been dubbed the new rock stars of the 21^st century? Is it kewl for them to sneak a puff or two between creating rafts for consommé and cranking out puff pastries?

According to Anthony Bourdain, getting stoned in the kitchen is par for the course(s), and the entire comfort/slow food “trend” that we’re currently witnessing may be a direct result of toking toques.

“There has been an entire strata of restaurants created by chefs to feed other chefs,” Mr. Bourdain told the New York Times. “These are restaurants created specially for the tastes of the slightly stoned, slightly drunk chef after work.”

According to Bourdain and others, haute stoneries (and stoners) include all David Chang vehicles; all Frank Falcinelli and Frank Castronovo outlets; all Ken Friedman joints (especially the Rusty Knot); Roberta’s; Animal and hot dog vending trucks (with an emphasis on “mutant” creations like deep-fried cheese steak hot dogs).

Where would be without brilliant contributions like the Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main St. (which, most likely would never have emerged without some of mother’s helpers)? Perhaps Momofuku’s Milk Bar also needed a lil something to whip up that cinnamon-bun cereal milk soft-serve with chocolate fudge.

The campy new video for “Holiday” further proves life is pretty good for Vampire Weekend. The crew run around in 18th century-style wigs (powder optional), chill at the pool and hit up the drive-thru. And should you think the song title is unoriginal, the band told NME they were well aware: “But then we realised that it’s quite a nice idea to be participating in this grand pop tradition, alongside Madonna, Weezer and Dizzee Rascal.”

Vampire Weekend also contribute to the latest Twilight soundtrack with “Jonathan Low,” written while recording their last album, Contra. Out June 8. “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse” soundtrack also includes cuts from The Dead Weather, Fanfarlo, Sia, Florence and the Machine as well as a collaboration between Beck and Bat for Lashes.

The band loads up the van for a tour later this summer, but will be on hand this weekend for Sasquatch outside of Seattle and next weekend to hang out with The Roots at their annual Philly Picnic.

Good music, good food, good booze–Bacchus was onto something.

As the “recession” refuses to recede from our lives, not to mention constant terrorist hi-jinks and more wars than I can count (never mind the ideological/religious/sociopolitical details thereof), it’s getting harder and harder to knuckle down and tromp through life, watching yet another boring day tick off of the calendar. It all seems so pointless!

And it seems–for once–that my own sophomoric existential crisis appears to be in lockstep with a larger cultural shift: We’re moving away from “doing what’s expected of us” back to “doing what feels good” (though this ain’t the ’60s–hopefully we learned a few lessons from that rugged, patchouli-soaked ordeal).

So then, how is interest in high-quality fun manifesting itself in the culture at large?

Now we’ve got Viewtopia–an interactive reality TV/dining/musical experiment involving Justin.tv, Blip.fm, Whole Foods, SXSW, Wente Vineyards, kick ass indie bands (like The Antlers) and the resident oenophiliacs at In Vino.

The concept is to marry the three great reasons for celebrating life–food, music, drinks–in an interactive format so that even if you weren’t at Viewtopia’s inaugural session at In Vino last month, you could can eat and drink along interactively thanks to the glories of the world wide web. So stay tuned or join in.

No sober, sane record exec would propose a Limp Bizkit/Neil Diamond collaboration, but that’s exactly what happened when Fred and Neil struck up a Twitter friendship. Amanda Palmer crowd-sourced $19,000 from her Twitter followers, as opposed to $0 from releasing an album with a major label. And, finally (strangely, hilariously) Twitter makes it possible for Ice-T to tell Aimee Mann to “eat a hot bowl of dicks!”

We all know the benefits of Twitter for musicians–imperative for promotion, marketing, branding–but it’s also a reflection of how we’ll be interacting–and reacting–in the future. Sure, nothing beats hanging out with someone in person, but such instant access to information and immediate virtual exchanges now have real-life implications. (Can you believe we made it this far without mentioning Justin Bieber?)

UI has watched social networking rise in popularity among our interviewees over the years, but Twitter is hands-down the favorite. Why? Results, baby. Simple, tangible results. Amanda Palmer, Wolfmother, Mayer Hawthorne, Nicole Atkins and Visqueen will tell you so.

1. Got a Girl Crush mix
You need a soundtrack for daydreaming about your summer crush, and no matter who they are, this mix, largely led by female musicians, will get you off to the right start.
Download mixtape via Got a Girl Crush

2. Phosphorescent – “The Mermaid”
Sometimes it’s easier to gloss over the bad things about relationships, throw in some naked mermaids and you’ve got yourself a situation that ain’t so bad after all.
Download track via Pitchfork

3. Tame Impala – “Solitude is Bliss”
A trippy, fearless exploration of throwing caution to the wind. The Beatles comparisons are inevitable, but at least these guys aren’t trying too hard.
Download track via Aquarium Drunkard

4. Drake – “All Night Long”
Who would have thought hip-hop would get to the point where rappers are lobbing marriage proposals instead of insults?
Download track via The FADER

5. Wolf Parade – “What Did My Lover Say? (Always Had to Go This Way)”
What’s this? Actual rock chords? We’ll take it.
Download track via Aerial Noise

6. Band of Horses – “Laredo”
From their new album, Infinite Arms, this is the sound of uncertainty with a pleasant backdrop.
Download track via KEXP

7. Los Rakas – “Abrazame” (Uproot Andy remix)
Remember that summer crush we talked about? If you step foot on a dance floor in the next few months, this will probably be playing at the end of the night.
Download track via XLR8R

8. Holy Ghost! – “Say My Name”
Catchy bass line, funky synths, moody lyrics. A DFA release for sure.
Download track via Brooklyn Vegan

9. Turk Disco – “Balagan”
If the sight of tourists having the time of their lives in your city makes you long jealously for a foreign vacation, this will hold you over until you save enough dough.
Download track via Palms Out Sounds

10. Sam Amidon – “Cabin in the Corner”
This is as traditional Americana as it gets. Amidon offers nothing new–he sings mostly covers–but news fans are won over by the simplicity.
Download track via Large Hearted Boy

Quite a few solo artists rode in on the chillwave last summer, with hazy, lazy songs perfect for well, chillin’ out (at the beach, if possible). In the vein of Neon Indian, Memory Tapes and friend Washed Out, Toro Y Moi–Chazwick Bundick–stepped up with blissful singles that garnered blog love leading up to his first full-length.

The Columbia, S.C. native released his debut Causers of This (Carpark) earlier this year to critical appreciation: NME called him a “glo-fi pioneer” while Pitchfork said he showed “skill far beyond most of his peers.” But the musician didn’t pop up out of nowhere.

Toro Y Moi has long been a side project for Bundick, who previously fronted indie band The Heist and the Accomplice. And to further distinguish himself from the pack (and what was possibly just a passing trend), Bundick promises another Toro Y Moi release later this year, offering ample material to prove his talent is a permanent fixture.

Toro Y Moi is on tour with Caribou in the U.S. through June, then jets off to Europe for a run of shows, including dates with Phoenix and YACHT. We caught up with Bundick, who told us about touring, funny iPhone apps and the Chatroulette craze.

05/24 – San Francisco, CA – The Independent*
05/26 – Portland, OR – Hawthorne Theater*
05/27 – Seattle, WA – Neumo’s*
05/28 – Victoria, BC – Sugar*
05/29 – Vancouver, BC – The Rickshaw Theatre*
05/31 – Calgary, AB – The Republik*
06/01 – Edmonton, AB – The Starlite Room*
06/02 – Saskatoon, SK – Amigos*
06/03 – Winnipeg, MB – Royal Albert Arms*
06/04 – Minneapolis, MN – 7th Street Entry*
06/05 – Chicago, IL – Empty Bottle
06/06 – Lawrence, KS – The Granada Theatre*
06/07 – St. Louis, MO – Firebird*
06/08 – Louisville, KY – Zanzabar*
06/09 – Cleveland, OH – Grog Shop*
06/10 – Knoxville, TN – Pilot Light
06/11 – Columbia, SC – New Brookland Tavern
07/01 – Brooklyn, NY – Glasslands Gallery
08/10 – Des Moines, IA – 7 Flags Event Center ^
08/13 – Council Bluffs, IA – Harrah’s ^

* = w/ Caribou
^ = w/ Phoenix