Special Sauce: August 2025

The newest iteration of my rotating playlist of 15 songs - a little saucy, a little spicy, and always lovingly curated

Howdy, and welcome to Good And Good For You, a newsletter about music and other stuff. I don’t know if you know this about me…but…..I have a rotating playlist called Special Sauce. The parameters: it must be fifteen songs at any given time—no more, no less; it’s always best played in order; it’s roughly based on what I’m digging at the moment. I got the idea from my friend Pete, who has his own 20-song version of this called Cafe Pete (hi, Pete). Give Special Sauce a follow on Spotify if you think you can handle the flavor!

This is about sauce (Special Sauce), but it’s also about drinks.

As someone who feels ambivalent about both soda and most flavored coffee drinks, I’ve never really felt the compulsion of the “little treat” beverage. That is, until recently.

When you are broke, like I have been this summer, a drink is the perfect indulgence. Portable, cheap, satisfying. Refreshing or bracing, or, in the case of some, both. Perhaps even restorative and healing (that one tweet that’s like Blue Gatorade is a sacred medicine in white people culture or whatever, lol).

I’ve been working on savoring the little things, because sometimes that’s all we’ve got. For me, recently, that’s mostly been drinks and songs. Each of these tracks has given me cause to sip and savor, to meditate on its place in a sequence, to let it wash over my thirsty heart in the absence of other, larger miracles.

So… Without further ado… This is………

SPECIAL SAUCE AUGUST 2025: THE LITTLE TREAT EDITION

Here is the link to the playlist!

1. “(There’s Gotta Be) More To Life,” Stacie Orrico

2003-2005 is my favorite era of pop. The emotional urgency, the electric guitars, the powerhouse girl vocals. It’s also when I was in middle school and got my own radio for the first time. COINCIDENCE??????

I drank an Arizona Green Tea from the 7-11 after a hot downtown delivery shift - it’s still just $1!

2. “It’s A Long Way To The Top,” Lucinda Williams

I heard this on our local college radio station, KUTX, with the AC blasting chilly air at me after a sweaty catering delivery in 100 degrees. And the grit felt just right.

I drank a regular Arizona Sweet Tea after a swim. I was so thirsty and that can was so cold

3. “No Front Teeth (feat. Aldous Harding),” Perfume Genius

This new album from art-pop master Mike Hadreas puts his gorgeous melodies over fun, crunchy stuff like pedal steel and crashing cymbals. I would die for Mike Hadreas, a hilarious treasure of a human being and, yes, I believe a genius.

I drank too much water from my Nalgene after discovering a water bottle fill station at Shipe Pool. It was my first time there, and the last day it was open for the season, and I chugged until my stomach was full.

4. “You Found Me (From the Netflix Series “Too Much”),” Waxahatchee & Kevin Morby

I drank a Lone Star at Barbs and I held it in the air while the whole club, myself most of all, sang along to “Like a Prayer”

5. “Life Signs,” Water From Your Eyes

When I first heard this song, I had been listening a lot of Fugazi, and when the manic drums and bassline came in, for a second I thought, Oh, this is that Fugazi song I put on Special Sauce.

I drank sink water from my battered plastic bottle, left in the freezer for a couple hours. Slushy shards hit my nose for the first few sips.

6. “SUGAR RUSH,” Tiberius b

This was a Hayley Williams rec. I described Tiberius b as, and I stand by this, a Björkchild.

I drank a Layback Lime & Salt non-alcoholic beer in the pool at my house when I didn’t want alcohol to dull the edge of the book I was reading (Gilead by Marilynne Robinson)

7. “It’s Amazing To Be Young,” Fontaines D.C.

I’ll tell you what’s amazing, Fontaines D.C.: listening to this song with the windows down at dusk when the magic hour hits! (I am not young)

I drank another Layback Lime and Salt on the winding way up into the hills of Lost Creek. It’s thrilling to drink a (non-alcoholic) beer behind the wheel

8. “Repeater,” Fugazi

The other day I was feeling so angry at the world and the people in charge of it, and then I remembered that I can listen to some actual furious DC post-hardcore about that. I love when that happens.

I drank a really good drip coffee given to me in a paper to-go cup for free by some cafe employees when I picked up my catering delivery

9. “Sonic Bloom,” Tripping Daisy

Another KUTX gem! I Shazam’d this when I was listening to the radio in my car one day. I thought it was Pavement and was like, what’s this Pavement song I like more than normal?

I drank this wine that was not actually a wine but some sort of cider, but not technically a cider either, and I can’t really give you any further substantial information about it because Strangelove’s 8/9 menu isn’t anywhere to be found online, but it tasted like I always imagined when the Redwall author would describe the delectable-sounding contents the critters’ flagons

10. “Float (feat. Jim Adkins),” Jay Som

Do you ever hear a song and think I wish I could clone this song 1000 times and just only listen to all of those songs? That’s how I feel about this song. The tense guitars, warm harmonies, and punchy drums are THE Katie-likey recipe.

I drank a mid-morning Guinness with my siblings at the sports bar, chased with a shot of Jameson that my favorite bartender insisted on pouring me (he’s in love with me, I’m sure of it)

11. “Off Rez,” Ribbon Skirt

Ribbon Skirt put out one of my favorite albums of 2025 a few months ago—thudding bass, talky/punky femme vocals, and crunchy drums—and this track in particular keeps getting stuck in my head.

I drank my daily Folgers in a blue mug at my house on my front porch (we have front porch furniture now)

12. “Killing Me Softly With His Song,” Fugees

According to Spotify (sorry for still using Spotify I promise I’m working on it), this is the song I have put on the most playlists.

I drank Pecan-flavored drip coffee from my 7-11 that I took with me to the park in my neighborhood where I went and sat in the heat for five days straight, waiting for some part of the experience to heal me (I don’t think it *didn’t*)

13. “The Well,” Smog

“I could NOT work,” says Bill Callahan. And I felt that.

I drank a Blue Gatorade Zero in the heat of the day. My sugar-free savior. Hydrator of my body and soul. I’d have undoubtedly died without it.

14. “Dollar Store (feat. Waxahatchee),” Ben Kweller

My friend and I were leaving the movie theater and we had our windows rolled down in the velvet night and he queued this after “Nettles” by Ethel Cain and I took the long way home up back streets because I didn’t want the feeling to end.

I drank a couple glasses of Ercole Bianco Monferrato wine while I caught up on the final two Gilded Age episodes of the season and felt happy by myself for the first time in a long time

15. “The Field (feat. The Durutti Column, Tariq Al-Sabir, Caroline Polachek, Daniel Caesar),” Blood Orange

It would be impossible to pick a favorite Last Special Sauce Song of all time, but this one’s gotta be up there. It’s sunset in a song, drifting over those unmistakeable Durutti Column guitar parts, smelling like faint barbecue embers and pecan leaves green-baked by the blaze of the day.

I drank hibiscus iced tea: not too sweet, not too plain, smooth, light, and, of course, it’s that irresistible crimson color. I made some more and I drank it again. A small luxury I am learning to exalt. The blood of summer salvation, poured out for me and you.