Songs for Running

[gsdgsd]

I started running early this year, after a good 45 years of avoiding it. I've been a sporadic gym-goer for years, but my gym takes some getting to, and that's harder to fit in with work/kids/etc. While running - well, there are roads right outside! Convenient!

One thing I learned pretty quickly: while at the gym I can listen to whatever I want - jazz, ambient, podcasts, blessed silence - when I'm running I need the soundtrack to be a bit peppier. So the lengthy playlist I've constructed is largely punk/metal/rap. A disconcerting amount of it sounds like a Thrasher Skate Rock comp circa 1987.

Since it's Spotify, some stuff that would normally make it ("Run Runaway," for instance) is left off. I know there are ways to load a song onto your phone and then have Spotify pick it up, but christ, I'm already running, how much effort do you want from me?

(note: this list intended to complement the previous list of 25 songs I like, viewtopic.php?f=2&t=10036. Most of those are on this playlist. I probably won't list them again, unless I feel like it.

[gsdgsd]

"The One That Got Away" by Obliterations

When I was a little straight edge kid, there was this band -- Yuckmouth -- that were kind of hilariously horrible. They were kinda melodic hardcore with funk elements, and they just didn't have the chops to pull it off. In retrospect, kudos to them for trying to do something that was a little different from all the standard chanty/mosh stuff I liked back then, but a quick listen (really quick: I didn't get 20 seconds into through the song I found) proves that my 17-year-old dislike has held up.

(aside: Yuckmouth played some shows with at least one of Zack de la Rocha's pre-RATM bands, which probably didn't seem too weird then -- they were in the same city and scene, after all -- but feels pretty strange now)

25 years on, Yuckmouth's singer is/was (they don't seem to be too active) in a band that combines the best elements of early Black Flag + Poison Idea, and while it's hard to keep up that momentum over a full album, some of the songs are absolute rippers. And: GOOD TO RUN TO.

[gsdgsd]

"Cheap Beer" by FIDLAR

A lot of these bands are well-served by having only one song on the list. There's zero reason to ever listen to more than one song by FIDLAR -- as I found when I bought their full album -- but this song is pretty great.

The beer that the "posh" couple are sharing at the start of the video is one of my very favorites!

[gsdgsd]

"Do it Now" by Mos Def (feat. Busta Rhymes)

Funny thing about Busta Rhymes: when he does a guest spot on someone else's song, it absolutely rips. And then you listen to his solo stuff and ... eh. This is a guest spot!

[gsdgsd]

"Lonely is the Night" by Billy Squier

Probably shoulda been on my 25 favorites list, but a lot of songs shoulda been on that list. I've got the studio version on my playlist, not this extended live version.

Billy Squier, man! Kinda cheesy but I love the first couple albums.

[gsdgsd]

"Wound" by Godflesh

I used to listen to this song to get me pumped up for football. Not PLAYING it, you understand. Just watching it. Seems weird but it got results: I never failed to watch football.

[gsdgsd]

"Planet of Sound" by Pixies

Pretty far from my favorite Pixies song, but it's skippy and punchy, so it works.

[gsdgsd]

"1000 More Fools" by Bad Religion

There are a few songs on this list that were picked pretty much at random -- anything off of the album could have worked. And unlike the Fidlar song, I can listen to the whole album and get energized.

"Suffer" came out in 1988, part of one of the all-time great punk runs (after "Suffer," BR came out with "No Control" in 1989 and "Against the Grain" in 1990). I haven't listened to anything they've done since the late '90s, but that three-album run has been a constant in my life since high school. "Suffer" especially. To illustrate -- I haven't driven down North Oracle Road in Tucson for 20-some years. But I can still remember -- if I started the "Suffer" tape when I left my parents' house, it would hit the "rapacity/tenacity/capacity for more" line in "How Much is Enough?" exactly as I passed the turnoff for Catalina Shadows. I can't remember most of my high school classmates, but I remember that.

"1000 More Fools" is probably my favorite song off of "Suffer," but I could have picked any of the 15 songs and it would've been great.

[The Happiness Engine]

Bad Religion continued to release great albums after Against the Grain. I do recommend just surfing some youtubes.

[Flack]

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.

[gsdgsd]

Bad Religion continued to release great albums after Against the Grain. I do recommend just surfing some youtubes.

I had "Generator" and "Recipe for Hate" at some point, and maybe "Stranger Than Fiction" -- I just never got into them quite that much again. I think it was a matter of those other three albums kind of being where I came in the door, and becoming my gold standard.

[gsdgsd]

"Hollowed Out" by Guilty Faces

Like "Suffer," I could've picked any track off this album and it would be a winner. Unlike "Suffer," I didn't hear this until I was about 40 (hipper friend turned me on to it). It's good to know I can still get hit by newer punk/hardcore stuff and love it.

Guilty Faces came out of nowhere (well, Connecticut), recorded one single and one absolute ripper of an album in the late '00s, then (far as I can tell) vanished again. But in that brief period, oh man. Great album and (in keeping with the theme of this thread) I always feel myself get a bit of a burst when this song comes on.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

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!

[gsdgsd]

"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.

[Jizaboz]

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.

[gsdgsd]

"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.

[gsdgsd]

"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."

[gsdgsd]

"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.

[Tdarcos]

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

[gsdgsd]

"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.