Songs for Running

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Expand view Topic review: Songs for Running

Re: Songs for Running

by gsdgsd » Tue Dec 11, 2018 5:54 am

"Same Kooks" by The Hold Steady

I loved the first two Hold Steady albums, but at some point what they were doing and what I wanted to hear kind of diverged. It happens, people grow apart and so forth. This album was where it started to go haywire but this one's an absolute ripper. When I'm running and it hits the slower organ portion, and then kicks back in - WELL. That's the kind of thing you need.

Re: Songs for Running

by gsdgsd » Sun Dec 09, 2018 4:58 am

"Listen to You" by Los Olvidados
"Question Authority" by Drunk Injuns

Basically the same band -- Drunk Injuns is Los Olvidados with some Thrasher Magazine dude singing -- and two of the shining lights of mid-'80s skate punk. They cast a strangely small shadow for bands that were so tight and catchy -- both bands' albums were out of print forever (through the entire '90s, I think), and for the most part they weren't in any other big bands (one of the guys was in the Dwarves for a while, and that's about it).

Anyway. Good rule of thumb: if a band's good to skate to, it's good to run to.



Re: Songs for Running

by Jizaboz » Fri Dec 07, 2018 11:36 am

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote: Thu Dec 06, 2018 10:09 pm
So the first time I heard a The Offspring song I was in a car with I think former JCers Da King and IM HUGE. Self-Esteem came on the radio and we all looked at each other because we thought the opening melody was a direct rip-off of Smells Like Teen Spirit. OR. ... Or only I thought that. I dunno. It sounds a little like it, but nobody has ever said shit about it (and The Offspring have had dozens of legitimately great songs over the years, I should have had a few of them on my list if I didn't.)
The reason it sounds like a rip-off of the Smells Like Teen Spirit opening riff is because it's exactly the same riff but backwards!



We'll hear this riff til the end of the world as we know it..

Re: Songs for Running

by Flack » Fri Dec 07, 2018 10:28 am

By far, my favorite Offspring story was when they announced they were going to name their new album Chinese Democracy, after Guns N' Roses had delayed the release of (the real) Chinese Democracy for almost a decade. "Axl ripped off my braids, so I ripped off his album title," Offspring singer Dexter Holland said in a press release (released on April Fool's Day). The Offspring were never serious about naming their album Chinese Democracy, but it was enough to get Axl's panties in a wad regardless.

The Offspring, along with Green Day, brought punk back in a big way -- not in the underground, hardcore way it had been before, but in a top-40, "edgy but safe" way. I remember visiting my in-laws in 1994 or 1995 and hearing my five-year-old niece walking around saying "gotta keep 'em separated!" 500,000 times.

Re: Songs for Running

by Ice Cream Jonsey » Thu Dec 06, 2018 10:09 pm

gsdgsd wrote: Sun Nov 18, 2018 5:55 am In 1991 or 1992, I interviewed the Offspring in some kid's suburban Phoenix back yard. It was for the (never published) second issue of a hardcore zine I briefly did, and they were affable stoner types. I don't remember much of what we talked about, but they were smarter and friendlier than my dopey boilerplate questions ("what do you think about straight edge?") presumably deserved. There was no hint that by 1995 they'd have the most inescapable song around (sign in the University of Arizona Student Union: "Remember, paper and plastics don't mix, so KEEP 'EM SEPARATED!") and they'd be playing stadiums. Weird world.
Lookit Greg dropping this nugget in the middle of the thread! Holy shit!

So the first time I heard a The Offspring song I was in a car with I think former JCers Da King and IM HUGE. Self-Esteem came on the radio and we all looked at each other because we thought the opening melody was a direct rip-off of Smells Like Teen Spirit. OR. ... Or only I thought that. I dunno. It sounds a little like it, but nobody has ever said shit about it (and The Offspring have had dozens of legitimately great songs over the years, I should have had a few of them on my list if I didn't.)

Re: Songs for Running

by gsdgsd » Thu Dec 06, 2018 3:54 am

I actually had the greatest hits comp at one point - but for the most part I'll be damned if I can think of VF songs that aren't from the first album. I'm sure I've heard them, they just don't stick the way Blister/Kiss Off/Add it Up do. The second album, Hallowed Ground, is supposed to be pretty good too.

Re: Songs for Running

by Flack » Wed Dec 05, 2018 9:27 am

Great pick! (It was #20 on my top 100 list.)

There's something about the Violent Femmes that... well, like you said, it wasn't just that people listened to the Violent Femmes, it was that certain groups of people listened to the Violent Femmes. Like, the guy I got a copy of the cassette from got it from the only girl in our school who wore more eyeliner than Robert Smith, and had the same haircut to boot. The B-side of the cassette had a copy of Minor Threat's In Step taped on it. They were two albums I was not cool enough to be listening to.

Like you, I've never even dipped a toe into the band's later work, which is substantial (I think they have 9 or 10 studio albums, plus several other greatest hits and live releases). I think I've downloaded most of them, setting them aside for that "someday" that never seems to come.

Re: Songs for Running

by gsdgsd » Wed Dec 05, 2018 8:39 am

"Add it Up" by Violent Femmes

In high school, there were a handful of bands -- Joy Division, Pixies, Bauhaus, Killing Joke, the Damned -- that I wrote off because they seemed to be the province of the drama club girls, and therefore I knew they were lame without having heard them. Never mind that I was constantly trying/failing to get with those drama girls, never mind that one of those drama girls was the person who got me into the Misfits, I KNEW THEY WERE LAME. Imagine my surprise years later to find out that they weren't lame.

Violent Femmes were top of that list. Who needed to listen to a band called the Violent Femmes when you could listen to Youth of Today? If I could, I'd go back in time and try to steer young gsdgsd onto a better path, and by the way while I'm here in 1990 I should tell you that your metabolism isn't going to be a 17-year-old's forever, but I wouldn't have listened back then anyway.

I've never really listened to VF beyond the first album, but there are some pretty choice cuts. This is probably the skippiest. It came on while I was running this week (ON TOPIC) and I thought "fuck, what a great record this is."

Re: Songs for Running

by gsdgsd » Sun Nov 25, 2018 4:35 pm

"We're Coming Back" by Cock Sparrer

I'd completely forgotten about this song until I heard it played in a hipster coffee/wine shop last year. "Holy shit," I said, "Cock Sparrer!"

"Uh?" said my wife.

Great song for running. Upbeat with a hint of attitude.

The coffee shop was sold a couple months back. They couldn't get their liquor license back, and a few weeks ago the place burned down in mysterious circumstances. There's a moral in here somewhere.

Re: Songs for Running

by gsdgsd » Sun Nov 25, 2018 4:48 am

"Death Row" by Freddie Gibbs (feat. 03 Greedo)

From one of the best albums of this year. The steady, upbeat pace combined with the jittery feel make it perfect for running in strange neighborhoods at 4:30 in the morning.

Re: Songs for Running

by gsdgsd » Sat Nov 24, 2018 3:09 pm

I've barely moved off the couch since Thursday, so it's not like I'm going to be running the Boston Marathon anytime soon. But I'll start again tomorrow! And this list, too.

Re: Songs for Running

by Ice Cream Jonsey » Sat Nov 24, 2018 2:34 pm

I wanted to say that I was inspired to walk to work every day since you started your list, but I got my motorcycle running. Sort of. Look, I will move my body again, Greg. I am damn proud of you for just doing it and not making excuses like me.

Re: Songs for Running

by gsdgsd » Tue Nov 20, 2018 5:23 pm

"Your Airstream Future" by Jesuseater

One of my favorite late '80s hardcore singers teamed up with a bunch of randoms for a couple albums 15 years ago. Most of it was pretty standard metallic hardcore, but this song tears it up from beginning to end. When they hit the "WE ARE THE GODS" chorus I want to punch the world.

Re: Songs for Running

by Tdarcos » Mon Nov 19, 2018 4:12 pm

I can't believe you didn't think of this one; the cadence is perfect for running and it's all in the title:
Jackson Browne, Runnin' on Empty

Re: Songs for Running

by gsdgsd » Sun Nov 18, 2018 5:55 am

"Jennifer Lost the War" by the Offspring

In 1991 or 1992, I interviewed the Offspring in some kid's suburban Phoenix back yard. It was for the (never published) second issue of a hardcore zine I briefly did, and they were affable stoner types. I don't remember much of what we talked about, but they were smarter and friendlier than my dopey boilerplate questions ("what do you think about straight edge?") presumably deserved. There was no hint that by 1995 they'd have the most inescapable song around (sign in the University of Arizona Student Union: "Remember, paper and plastics don't mix, so KEEP 'EM SEPARATED!") and they'd be playing stadiums. Weird world.

Anyway, this is a good song.

Re: Songs for Running

by gsdgsd » Thu Nov 15, 2018 1:13 pm

"Rise Above" by Black Flag
"American Waste" by Black Flag

Just about everything Flag did up through side one of "My War" would be good for exercise. (Or, alternately, the "Wasted Again" comp album.) "Rise Above" is my favorite song on my favorite BF album, so it gets on.

I talked about "American Waste" in my top 25 list and don't really have anything to add, beyond "it still rules."


Re: Songs for Running

by gsdgsd » Wed Nov 14, 2018 5:45 am

"Your Parents' Cocaine" by the Coup
"100 Little Curses" by Street Sweeper Social Club

One of the side benefits of watching "Sorry to Bother You" this summer was the reminder that Boots Riley/the Coup existed. I don't think I'd listened to them since the '90s, and probably hadn't thought of them at all since they got in lots of PR trouble because of the first cover for the "Party Music" album. They're pretty good, though! "Steal This Album" is fantastic, and they've got some solid material on the other records. (I wasn't aware of SSSC period until a bored look at Riley's Wikipedia page, but their sole album is very much my thing.)

"Your Parents' Cocaine" is, I'm pretty sure, the only song on my running list with kazoo in it.


Re: Songs for Running

by Jizaboz » Tue Nov 13, 2018 12:46 pm

Flack wrote: Mon Nov 12, 2018 4:38 pm Wow, that's crazy. I need to go back and listen to some of their earlier work. I didn't even discover Bad Religion until 21st Century Digital Boy, and I really didn't discover that song until probably three years after it was released.
And that's actually a remake of the same song they originally did on an older album!

All my skateboarding friends were into Bad Religion.. I think I started with Generator then bought everything before it.

Re: Songs for Running

by gsdgsd » Tue Nov 13, 2018 11:09 am

"Bored to Death" by Government Issue

My first real exposure to punk beyond the Dead Kennedys, Black Flag, and Circle Jerks came when a skater kid in my sophomore German class made me a mixtape. I only remember a few of the bands now -- NoMeansNo, Token Entry, Sperm Birds, Government Issue. This song really struck a chord with 15-year-old me. "I'm bored," I'd think, nodding, "to DEATH."

Down the line, G.I. became a pretty interesting band. Their albums in the back half of the '80s were ahead of their time in the melodic hardcore world, a lot smarter and more challenging than much of what was going on at the time. But their earlier straightforward stuff is still pretty fun -- especially this song.

Re: Songs for Running

by Ice Cream Jonsey » Mon Nov 12, 2018 8:19 pm

You have inspired me to walk to work tomorrow. It is just under one and a half miles. It is just under one and a half degrees too, but that's fine. Baby steps. Soon I will be running to these songs as well!

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