A List Of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago

BOOM BOOM MANCINI POW: It's been a while since we've looked into the whole Song of the Summer question, and now we've received a request from Genevieve to help play disc jockey for an upcoming event:

It's an outdoor, public-invited multiple-hour event at an elementary school, including a race, so I'm looking for fun, upbeat music with lyrics that are fine for a large spectrum of kids (there are always toddlers and preschoolers at the event, and it's aimed at kids).

It's in memory of a young classmate whose favorite song was by Green Day and who liked U2, so we want interesting pop/rock, not pap and not "kid's music" ( I know there's plenty of good kids' music out there - we used to own a big stack of Dan Zanes et al. -but that's not what they played last year and not really what's wanted). During the race we'll play particularly energetic music. Some Latin-influenced music would be a plus (I've got Ozomatli's "Can't Stop" and am looking to see which of their songs in Spanish would be good). And we definitely don't want sad songs.

I've got a decent list of songs to start with but I really need more current stuff and more ideas in general. My knowledge of current music is not so good, so I've been combing other lists I've seen, and I've found some good songs by bands I didn't know (Arcade Fire's "No Cars Go," Those Dancing Days' "Run Run"). I've looked at the prior years' "songs of the summer" lists, and think I'll include "Sweet Escape" and "Umbrella," but definitely not "Cape Code Kwassa Kwassa," for example. I've looked at other lists of songs that inspire, songs to run to, etc. Winnowing out the ones that aren't kid-friendly and aren't upbeat has been the biggest challenge there. Help from the immensely talented and musically knowledgeable ThingThrowers would be so much appreciated.