Iron Clad Lou by Hum

It follows 1:30 of pensive noodling--by which time your Toyota Camry should be up to its top speed of 105 mph, given a flat road with a slight downward incline and slightly below-average tire pressure--with 4:20 of lo-fi wall-of-sound pre-emo. (Be prepared for the false stop at 3:44--use this time to check your rearview mirror for the unfortunate presence of the po-po.) Your check engine light will illuminate ten seconds before the end of the song. Ignore it.

...But The Pants Stay On by A Minor Forest

Because your road trip is happening completely in a late 90s post-rock math-rock genre-names-are-stupid no-you're-stupid plane of existence, like Missouri between St. Louis and Kansas City. Because stop-starts are your favorite kind of starts. Because it's slow and pounding and relentless and you know better than to fill your road trip mix tape with a featureless landscape of uptempo pop. Because when the song finally kicks in you can close your eyes and pretend you don't care if your car runs off the road and maybe take out a busload of unhappy record reviewers who write record reviews that read like this one does.

Black by Okkervil River

Because it's only the most fun song in the world, and fuck you if you think otherwise.